Book Summaries

Posted on

Planting a Church Without Losing Your Soul: Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Tim Morey 

  • Spiritual competencies are as important, if not more, as other competencies.
  • You as the pastor are not meant to hold all of the church problems. If you try to do what only God can do, you will live anxious and exhausted. Be the Pastor and let God be God.
  • When Elijah was discouraged, God spoke to him about the physical: food, water, and sleep. The physical is connected to the spiritual.
  • Overeating and unhealthy eating is common for those in ministry, but it is not good.
  • Don’t wait until you break. Let God and others help you with your emotional needs.
  • Many church planters started a church, hoping for the story of someone else, but God might want to write your story differently.
  • God doesn’t always meet us in the way we want or expect, but He does always meet us how we need.
  • The number one problem of pastors is isolation.
  • The main thing you will give your congregation is the person you become – Dallas Willard 
  • Church planters become professionals at “winging it.” The problem is you cannot “wing” your spiritual life.
  • The church’s strengths and weaknesses mirror the pastors strengths and weaknesses.
  • Suffering contains the seeds for success.
  • Church planters often have a mixture of confidence and self-doubt. Humility is needed.
  • Suffering keeps me humble and aware of the things I do not know.
  • We fear suffering, but we should probably fear more the absence of suffering.
  • It seems in 2 Corinthians 12 that Paul’s greatest asset was his greatest weakness – and that very likely could be the case with each of us.
  • Are you able to embrace the difficulties as a gift from God? 
  • Without suffering, how could we develop empathy – helping people in an understanding way.
  • Power without love is reckless and abusive. Love without power is sentimental and anemic.
  • According to a survey at Duke University, 43% of US churches run less than 50 people. Another 24% are between 50-100 people. 21% are between 100–200 people. 10% are between 250-1000 people. And 2% are 1000 or more.
  • A study from Harvard Institute for religion says the median size of a church in the US is 80 people. Only half of 1% of churches in the US are mega churches (2,000 plus people). 
  • We should focus more on making big Christians instead of trying to make big churches.
  • We must move from being superheroes to equippers.
  • If you as the pastor are doing the bulk of ministry, you are doing it wrong. Ephesians 4 teaches that the pastor is to equip others, not just do all the work.
  • Teaching others to do what you do means you don’t get to be the hero. 
  • Before we deal with difficult people, we must face the issues with the man in the mirror.
  • If you lose your family, you lose your ministry as well.
  • Do you want your kids to grow up loving church or hating church? Do you want your spouse to be thankful they married someone in the ministry, or regret it?
  • To succeed in church and fail in your family is to fail.
  • As a church planter, you will likely not have as much money as the people in your church, but you do have more power over your schedule than others do. You can use this to your strength to make sure you have time for your family.
  • Most church planters feel like they can’t get away, but a healthy church needs their pastor to be absent so they can learn to take care of areas. Your family and your church need you to get away.
Posted on

Perspectives on Missions Book Review by Jeff Bush

by Dr. Don Sisk

  • There are many enemies. If you do not believe it, consider this: there are more than 5 million fundamental Baptist Christians in America today. But these 5 million Christians have fewer than 5000 foreign missionaries., Which means it takes 1000 fundamental Baptist to go to get one missionary on the field. Last year, less than $75 million was given through all fundamental Baptist mission agencies for worldwide evangelization. This represent approximately $15 per fundamental Baptist per year for foreign missions. This is enough to convince anyone that to the average person, missions is not considered obligatory, but optional. Many show a token interest in worldwide evangelization, but only a few our whole heartedly involved. — page 21
  • When He directs people, He has a purpose for them. God prepares the fields before He directs the workers. — page 23
  • The Moravians had such a missionary zeal that 1 out of every 92 members of their congregations were serving God on a foreign mission field. It was not long before the Moravians in foreign countries, outnumbered the Moravians in Germany by 3 to 1. I do not know that there has ever been a more intensified effort on any group to get the gospel out around the world than this group. — page 25-26
  • I believe the missionary should plan his furlough around his work, instead of planning his work around his furlough. — page 39
  • In June (1990), BIMI will be 30 years old. I try to check our pulse regularly. I have a phobia of being a part of something that has lost its purpose. I have a fear of having a name that we live, but are dead (Revelation 3:1). A wise man once said, “Many Christian institutions are dead, but we can’t bury them because they are too heavily endowed.” — page 63
  • As I check our pulse, I must say: “Praise God, we’re alive! Let’s not go to sleep on the job. Let’s not rest on our past and become useless for the present and lose our opportunities for the future.” 
  • I have some visions for our 30th anniversary year:
        1. A gain of 30 missionary couples per year for the next 10 years. (Since every mission loses missionaries each year by death, retirement, etc., we must have at least 60 new missionaries each year.) This would give us 1200 active missionaries by the year 2000.
        2. Thirty new supporting churches for the home office each year. (Administrative cost increase each year. We must have help from churches to keep down the cost for the missionaries.)
        3. Thirty new fields opened in the next 10 years. (There are more opportunities now than at any time in the history of BIMI.)
        4. Thirty new churches established by our missionaries each year for the next 10 years.
  • We are alive! Will you allow us to help you? As your church thinks about missions, would you let us suggest some missionaries? Could we help you in your missionary conference? As you consider the mission field, would you consider BIMI as your mission? Pastor, would you recommend to your church BIMI for monthly support? — page 63-64
  • Someone has well said, “God accepts us as we are, but He loves us too much to leave us as we are.” — page 67
  • How sad, but throughout Christian history, some have come to believe “If I said it, you should believe it.” No man should assume that, and none of us should give any man that kind of allegiance. Any man can make a mistake, and any man can be replaced. We are instruments. God changes instruments, but God does not change. He buries his workmen, but his work goes on. — page 78-79
  • The cry of a Mexican pastor, Brother Enoch, continues to ring in my ear as I remember hearing him say, “There is enough of the Bread of Life to feed the whole world. There’s enough of the Light of the World to enlighten every person who lives on the face of the earth. There’s enough of the Water of Life to quench the thirst of every thirsty soul in the whole world. But the great majority of the people of the world know nothing about the Bread of Life. They know nothing about the Light of the World. They know nothing about the Water of Life.” — page 138
  • Perhaps there are 200 Bible-believing, Gospel-preaching churches in this (Mexico City) city. There’s about 1 Christian worker for every 300,000 people. In contrast, there is about 1 for every 150 people in Chattanooga, Greenville, Dallas, Jacksonville, and Memphis. On we could go naming cities in America, where the Gospel has been preached. — page 139
  • I have a dream… that pastors from all over America can come here to the World Missions Center and, in modular courses, be trained in worldwide evangelization by pastors and mission personnel, who have experienced firsthand what missions is all about. — page 148
  • God never commands the impossible, and He has commanded us, “Go, ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). — page 148
  • We (BIMI) are not a fellowship, we are not a denomination, we have no authority over any church anywhere. It is not our job to keep everybody straight or even to determine who is right and who is wrong. It is our task to serve. To that purpose, we want to get in totally dictate ourselves. — page 152
  • Available! The laborers are in the Bible-believing, fundamental Baptist churches in our country. There are at least fifteen thousand fundamental Baptist churches in North America. However, there are fewer than ten thousand fundamental Baptist missionaries. Thousands of churches have never sent one missionary to the mission field. Thank God for good sending churches. However, this is not a task for a few, but for all. Every church should be sending forth missionaries. — page 170
  • I often say to people, “It is always too early to quit.” The great difference between winners and losers is not that winners never fail – they do. There will always be failures in any endeavor. The difference between winners and losers is that winners never quit. — page 174
  • Approximately 80% of the independent Baptist churches in America do not have a missions conference. That is, they do not have a time during the year that is set apart for the emphasis of worldwide evangelization. I am aware of the fact that we need not to emphasize world evangelization every Sunday; however, churches that are being used by God to make an impact in world missions set aside some time every year for missions is the main emphasis. — page 184
  • The problem is not with the harvest; the problem is a lack of laborers. After making that great statement, Jesus commanded his disciples, “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest” (verse 38). What if you and I would go before God daily, and pray to Him that He would send forth laborers into this great harvest field? — page 185
  • Someone has well said, “We should not pray unless we are willing to be the answer to God’s prayer.” — page 186
  • It was not until God allowed the persecution of the church to come that the fulfillment of Acts 1:8 began to be unveiled. — page 220
  • It would be impossible for anyone to read the Bible, and not realize that God is interested in the whole world. — page 229
Posted on

People Can’t Drive You Crazy If You Don’t Give Them The Keys : Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Mike Bechtle 

  • Drama free doesn’t mean ridding of the drama, or the people that create it, rather the affect it has in you.
  • When it comes to drama, you have three choices: 
    1. Get the crazy person to change. 
    2. Live with the craziness. You can learn to accept it. 
    3. Get the crazy person out of your life. You can leave the situation.
  • Your relationship with God will help your relationship with others. 
  • When you determine to grow in spiritual maturity you’ll be able to better deal with drama and craziness.
  • We all have drama in our lives, but some people are controlled by it.
  • Our emotions are based on assumptions. The problem with assumptions is that we are basing solely on the facts that we have. 
  • Proverbs 18:17 teaches that our arguments make sense until we hear the other side.
  • False hopes destroy a relationship. While you’re expecting the other person to change, they likely are hoping for the same thing.
  • 5 truths about relationships:
          1. People with the most drama are the ones we spend the most time with (friends, family, coworkers, etc.). 
          2. Relationships take work.
          3. Relationships take time.
          4. The past doesn’t have to dictate the future.
          5. You don’t have to be the victim. 
  • When people are angry, they do not make logical decisions. 
  • The key to surviving crazy people is determining what we can and cannot control. We can control ourselves, but not others.
  • If each of us try to see how the other person sees, we’re laying the foundation for a good relationship.
  • If we want to best know how to use our car, we read the instruction manual. If we want to best know how to deal with other people, we read the instructions from the One who made people.
  • The key to managing our emotions is learning to manage our thoughts. 
  • Feelings come and go but love remains, and we are commanded to love. 
  • Realize that people are not accountable to you.
  • Reactive people focus on the problems while responsive people focus on the positive.
Posted on

Peeking Through the 10/40 Window Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Johnny J. Esposito

  • Many of the countries in this window (10/40) are either officially closed or informally opposed to Christian ministry within their borders. Citizens have limited knowledge of the Gospel, minimal access to Bibles, and Christian materials, and extremely restricted opportunities to respond to and follow the Christian faith. 
  • Of course, the people who are lost in the 10/40 Window are not “more lost” than your neighbor or family member who does not know Christ. But, they are unreached in the sense that they have not had an opportunity to hear the Gospel. “The issue is not their lostness, but their access to the Gospel.” People can be unevangelized without being unreached. There are people in the United States who have not heard the Gospel by their choice. Most people living in the 10/40 Window could not learn about Jesus even if they wanted to! These are unreached people who do not have access to the Gospel!
  • One-third of the planet’s population, over two billion people, has never heard the gospel. And of that number, over 50,000 die daily, separated from God forever. As has been said, one definition of a missionary is someone who never gets used to the sound of pagan footsteps on their way to a Christless eternity. The sounds of those footsteps echo in their minds and haunt their waking dreams. One should not go driven by the need alone, but God often uses the need as a starting place to awaken us to Hs call. — The Missionary Call by David Sills
  • Jesus has not given us a commission to consider; He has given us a command to obey. That command involves sacrifice on all our parts. If we have this much access to the Gospel in our culture, and there is this much absence of the Gospel in other cultures, then surely God is leading many more of us (maybe the majority of us) to go to those cultures. If God calls us to stay in this culture, then surely He is leading us to live simply and give sacrificially so that as many people as possible can go. — Counter Culture by David Platt
  • The United States, with its 600,000 congregations or groups, is blessed with 1.5 million full-time Christian workers, or one full-time religious leader for every 182 people in the nation. What a difference this is from the rest of the world, where more than 2 billion people are still unreached with the Gospel. The unreached or “hidden peoples” have only one missionary working for every 78,000 people and there are still 1,240 distinct cultural groups in the world world without a single church among them to preach the Gospel. These are the masses for whom Christ wept and died. — Revolution in World Missions by K.P. Yohannan
  • It has been said that in India alone there are 500,000 villages without a Gospel witness. None! Not one. In China, Southeast Asia, and the many islands in the great Pacific we are unsure how many there are. In the country of Cambodia, where my wife and I are presently serving, it is said there are nearly 14,000 villages without a Gospel witness. A statement has been made that it would take a million workers to finish the task at hand in the 10/40 Window.
  • If the church in America isn’t giving and our church members aren’t going, the task will remain undone!
  • God has always used people to get His work done. Therefore, if this area (10/40 Window) of the world will be reached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it is going to be because men and women choose to leave the comforts and conveniences of home to deliver the message of Christ’s love.
  • There’s only one thing worse than being lost, and that is being lost and having no one trying to find you. – David Platt
  • Today, more than a billion people in the world live and die in desperate poverty. They attempt to survive on less than a dollar per day. Close to two billion others live on less than $2.00 per day. In other words, almost half of the world lives on less than two dollars per day. That is nearly half of the world struggling to find food, water, and shelter with the same amount of money that I spend on fries for lunch. — Radical by David Platt.
  • We are told that the average Cristian gives only 1.8 percent of his income to the church and the cause of Christ. Study after study has revealed that the richer we are the smaller the percentage of our income we give to the church, the mission of the church and to the poor.
  • Did you know?
          • If your income is $25,000 per year, you are wealthier than approximately 90 percent of the world’s population!
          • If you make $50,000 per year, you are wealthier than 99 percent of the world!
  • Does this shock you? Remember, of the 7 billion people on earth, almost half of them live on less than two dollars a day. If you don’t feel rich, it’s because you are comparing yourself to people who have more than you do – those living above even the 99th percentile of global wealth.
Posted on

Out of The Cave Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Chris Hodges 

  • 1 out of 9 people in the US are on some form of anxiety medication. 1 out of 5 people have used it in the past. 
  • Depression has surpassed other diseases in our world such as cancer, etc.
  • Many things we tell someone that is depressed it’s not helpful – quit thinking about it, try harder, at least your problems are not as big as others, read your Bible more, etc. We should learn to listen and sympathize.
  • We need to stop talking about chemical imbalances and start talking about imbalances in our lifestyle. What we eat, how little we sleep, always on the run, not going outside, etc.
  • If we are burning the candle at both ends, we might not be as bright as we think we are. – Rick Warren
  • Motions are the precursors for emotions. When you feel …, you will… 
  • When someone throws up, the problem is a result of something happening in their body. And in the same manner, depression is not the problem, but a result of something that is happening within them.
  • An overwhelmed schedule produces an overwhelmed soul. Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. 
  • The comparison culture eats us alive. Proverbs 14:30
  • Experts agree that we’ve never been so connected yet so lonely at the same time.
  • The same social media that connects us also controls us, condemns us, manipulates us, and deceives us. 
  • Your social media very likely needs to be regulated and reduced. It is the number one reason for comparison and envy in the lives of most people.
  • If you want to come out of your cave, you have to stop comparing because God made you incomparable.
  • We cannot change our lives until we change the way we think.
  • The first problem was not sin but isolation. It was not good for Adam to be alone. We were not designed to be self-sufficient. 
  • In Exodus 17, Aaron and Hur held up the arms of Moses. Moses was used of God to open the Red Sea, but he needed help to keep his hands up. Who is helping you keep your hands lifted high?
  • Joy is an attitude that trusts God despite the circumstances. 
  • Instead of asking why to God, we should learn to ask what He wants to teach us through this situation.
  • Fight with light. The devil is dead set against you, but the good news is that the devil and demons are subject unto our God.
  • Prayer is both communion with God and confrontation against the devil.
  • If we want to win over depression, we must let God fill us. 
  • Perhaps our physical needs (rest and nutritious food) is more important then we think. God confronted Elijah‘s physical needs before his spiritual needs.
  • The opposite of depression is not happiness rather meaning and purpose in life.
  • Whether you like it or not, your ministry is strengthen by times you have been through. Your hard times can be either a prison of misery or schooling to help you learn.
Posted on

Organic Church Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Neil Cole 

  • We expect people to come to church, when the Great Commission commands us to go to them. 
  • God did not expect for us to go to Him, He came to us. 
  • Since we are the light of the world, we should not be running from darkness but running towards darkness to lighten it up. 
  • The key to starting churches that reproduce spontaneously is taking Jesus to the lost people.
  • We should not be interested in starting a regional church, rather making Jesus available to a whole region.
  • Lower the bar to how church is done and raise the bar to what it means to be a disciple of Christ. 
  • The gospel says go, but we seem to stay. The gospel says take the good news to the lost, but we wait for the lost to come to us.
  • Someone said that we shape our buildings, and then our buildings shape us. A church building should not confine God’s work.
  • Church worship is much more than what we do weekly for one hour. The only time God mentions church and worship together was about a lifestyle of serving him 24 hours a day.
  • The kingdom of God is to be decentralized, but God’s people constantly try to centralize it. God wants his people to fill the Earth with His glory.
  • Apostles specifically means sent ones. 
  • The church in Jerusalem was told to go, but they stayed. God had to bring persecution on the church in order for the gospel to be spread.
  • Southern Baptist have said that only 4% of churches in America will produce a daughter church. 
  • We cannot compete with the world’s show. Wherever the next best show is, that’s where people run. 
  • The key to a healthy church is not more attendance, more money, nicer buildings, or better activities. 
  • Healthy disciples make a healthy church, and reproducing disciples make a reproducing church. 
  • Accountability, confidentiality, caring for needs of each other, flexibility, communication, direction, and leadership is better done in smaller groups/churches.
  • One reason churches are not growing today is because they have left out the outreach chromosome.
  • We are tempted to focus on models that work when we should be focused on the Master. 
  • The Ethiopian eunuch was one of the best evangelists we know. After being saved, he only had the Holy Spirit and the Scripture, but he went back to his people and shared the gospel. 
  • As Christians, we should repent of: 
      1. Underestimating what God can do through new believers
      2. Overestimating what we think our value is in the growth of new believers.
Posted on

No Shortcuts to Success Book Review by Jeff Bush

by Matt Rhodes 

  • Short term missionaries cannot expect long-term success. There’s a need for those willing to give their lives to go long-term. 
  • Despite good intentions, amateur missionaries (those with a lack of preparation) do more harm than good.  
  • It is unwise to make numbers your benchmark for success. 
  • Big numbers do not define success. We should focus more on what is faithful to Scripture instead of what works. 
  • Choose healthy over huge. 
  • We must be more concerned with planting healthy churches over insisting they multiply at a specific speed. 
  • We cannot afford to overlook Scriptural steps just because we are in a hurry with a multiplication process. 
  • We must prepare our lives, never forgetting we are ambassadors.
  • A missionary must have a deep understanding of the Bible in order to teach it to others.
  • Many may feel that preparation in Bible school or language learning is a setback, but preparation is most definitely needed. 
  • Missionaries must realize without learning to communicate (learning the language and teaching the Bible accurately), the mission cannot be accomplished.
  • Missionaries spend too much time discussing non-essential and non-fundamental issues.
  • A missionary should work at earning the right in the eyes of the people so they want to listen. Correct character, loving people and cultivating relationships are all ways to cause others to want to listen to you. 
  • A missionary should not be an outsider to the culture he is working in rather a newcomer.
  • We must be careful thinking a few discipleship lessons can take the place of “teaching them to observe all things Christ has commanded us.” They need a church teaching the Gospel truth. 
  • Be patient. It will take time for a core of believers to grow. Jesus took over three years with His disciples. 
  • We must be careful about pushing people to go to the mission field. Firstly, God has gifted people in different areas and not everyone should go to the mission field. Secondly, the mission field does not need people that are not equipped, hard workers, or not happy to be there.
  • While going to the darkest parts of the world may seem admirable, they might not be helpful. Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 10:23 when they are persecuted in one town, go to the next.  Paul seemed to follow the same pattern (Acts 14:29–30; 16:39-40; 17:9; 20:1).
  • Prayer does not take the place of work, it lightens the path. The Lord builds the house, but you must understand He is going to use your labor to build the house.
  • Prayer works because God is great, not because we are. 
  • We do not need great faith, we need faith in a great God.
  • Faithful and fruitful missionaries do not need a spectacular or eye-catching ministry. As William Carey said, “I can plod. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this I owe everything.” 
Posted on

No More Excuses Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Tony Evans 

  • When hard times come in life, you have a choice to make: either stay down or get back up; either make excuses, or accept where you’re at and start moving forward.
  • Your past may influence you, but it does not have to control you.
  • Joseph‘s family did not accept him, and even sold him into slavery, but the Bible says, “But the LORD was with Joseph.” Never forget that God is with you.
  • You might be rejected by your family, but you are accepted by the Lord.
  • God is sovereign, and He can take negative circumstances and turn out positive results.
  • God can take your mess and make a miracle.
  • Integrity is your trustworthiness; it is your character.
  • If we are going to be men of integrity, it boils down to our walk with God.
  • Integrity has to do with who you are in the inside no matter what is happening on the outside.
  • You may feel like you’ve lost your integrity, but you can get it back. 
    1. Moses lost his integrity when he killed an Egyptian, but God gave it back to him in the burning bush.
    2. David lost his integrity with Bathsheba, but he asked God to forgive him and got it back. 
  • Iron sharpens iron. You need a friend that will help and sharpen you.
  • Learn to ask yourself what does God thinks, not what do others think.
  • You can’t change what you messed up yesterday, but you could change how you live today.
  • You cannot please everyone, but you can determine to please the right person, which is God.