Why Sunday School?

 The Sunday School Teacher 4

Why do we have Sunday School? Why does it exist? Why is it a thing? If we cannot answer those questions, it goes a long way in explaining why so many churches are dropping it. Alternatively, we could ignore the questions and just holler more loudly that every church should have one. I find both of those approaches far from satisfactory. If you will allow me, I would like to give you answers to those questions that have helped me over the years.

           My favorite subject as a child in school was history. Decades later, it is still my favorite academic subject. History teaches us how to avoid mistakes that show up in each generation. In addition, by revealing how and why something began, we can trace the DNA and identify the underlying concepts that drive it in the modern day.

Robert Raikes' statue, Victorian Embankment
Gardens, London, England

Robert Raikes (1735-1811) was an 18th-century newspaper publisher. As a religiously minded humanitarian, Raikes' attention was drawn to the disastrous state of English prisons. After a tangle with a particularly unruly gang of boys on the rough side of Gloucester one Sunday afternoon in 1780, he came to think that crime was better prevented than prosecuted, and the best criminal reformation was to avoid producing criminals in the first place. This led directly to his desire to work with the boys running the streets in his city.

A life of learning led him to educate them as a means of improving their lives immediately and permanently. Yet many of those boys held full-time jobs Monday through Saturday. Ergo, Sunday was the best option. As a religious man, he instinctively understood that the Bible was the best textbook, as it best tells boys how to live. In some cases, he even had to teach them to read first before he could teach them the Bible. And teach them the Bible, he did. In his own words, "The children were to come after ten in the morning, and stay till twelve; they were then to go home and return at one; and after reading a lesson, they were to be conducted to Church. After Church, they were to be employed in repeating the catechism till after five, and then dismissed, with an injunction to go home without making a noise."

In this, Raikes found his pastor, Thomas Stock, a great encouragement and help. Together, they enlisted lay people as teachers for the rapidly growing group. After several years perfecting the program, he began to publicize Sunday School as a concept in his newspapers, and point to it as a potential solution for what had become an England-wide issue. Amongst other people, it caught John Wesley's attention. Latching on to it, he declaimed, "There must be a Sunday School wherever there is a Methodist society." By 1784, organized Sunday Schools enrolled 225,000 English children. Twenty years after Raikes' death in 1811, a statue to his memory was erected in London and financed by the gifts of 1.25 million British Sunday School students.

It was not long before the cousins across the pond noticed. William Elliott launched the first American Sunday School in 1785 in Oak Grove, Virginia. It spread rapidly up and down the Eastern seaboard. In each town, as a newly started Sunday School drew children from all kinds of churches, those churches, in turn, began their own Sunday School departments. By the early 1800s, the American Sunday School Union spearheaded a massive push to organize Sunday Schools all over the Mississippi watershed. They sent out eighty missionaries, involved such luminaries as Daniel Webster and Francis Scott Key, and circulated a million books in small libraries. To give one particular example, a little girl named Mary, attending a Sunday School in Illinois, wanted to get a star for bringing a visitor. She persuaded her father, Stephen Paxson, to attend. He came to Christ and was fired with a passion to establish Sunday Schools. Before the tale of his life was told, he had traveled 100,000 miles all over the Midwest, started 1,300 Sunday Schools, and was directly responsible for seeing 83,000 converts come to Christ. Between 1824 and 1874, 61,229 Sunday Schools were launched in the United States. Those Sunday Schools were being staffed by over 400,000 teachers and contained a cumulative attendance of 2.6 million children.

Sunday School Parade, Dubuque, Iowa
c 1900

As the 19th century drew to a close, American Sunday Schools were stronger than ever. The International Sunday School lesson was born, and entire curricula were circulated replete with homework assignments and grading systems. Enormous Sunday School conventions were held yearly. Sunday School parades marched down Main Street in many a town. Conservative estimates in 1884 reported 9 million children enrolled out of an entire United States population of 22 million under the age of fifteen. That is not quite one out of every two children in the country.

What happened? Because there certainly are not one out of every two American children attending Sunday School now. The short answer is liberalism happened. Just as it killed seminaries and through them, their denominations, it also killed Sunday Schools. As Methodists and Presbyterians and Congregationalists and Lutherans lost their theological moorings, their Sunday Schools died or turned from teaching the Word of God to an embrace of the social gospel and community activism. The great historic Protestant denominations withered just as Catholic immigration exploded. By the mid-20th century, fewer and fewer American children were being taught the Word of God.

Independent Baptists are not theologically perfect, but our movement is marked by a fervency for souls long missing in other religious expressions. Following World War II, Sunday School as a local church ministry experienced a resurgence, led by the giant independent Baptist megachurches of the era. Popularized by Elmer Towns, long associated with Jerry Falwell, men such as Lee Roberson, Jack Hyles, and John Rawlings organized massive churches primarily around the Sunday School. In the process, they elevated it again, rekindling a love for boys and girls in the hearts of churches all across the country.

As this is penned in 2025, the Sunday School is proving remarkably hard to kill. The contemporary church movement has largely abandoned it, but it has its own deep problems. Small groups as a concept are having a hot minute. I will discuss that in the following chapter. On the other hand, there are still hundreds of thousands of Sunday School classes meeting each Sunday morning all over the country. Indeed, the world, if you factor in growing independent Baptist missionary movements in Asia, Africa, and Central America.

We come back then to the question at the heart of this chapter. Why Sunday School? Well, it was founded to offer hopeless boys and girls the only trustworthy source of hope there is – a life built on Jesus Christ and the Word of God. The obvious follow-up question is, are there still hopeless boys and girls, children growing up without an understanding of the Gospel, without any biblical foundation?

To ask the question is to answer it. The need in our day is just as staggering as it was in Robert Raikes' England. In our generation, very few parents teach their children the Word of God. For most parents, it has never occurred to them to do so. They are unsaved themselves. If they are saved, they are often carnal and have little to no appetite to read and apply God's Word to their own life, let alone to their children. Other parents, a bit more spiritually mature, instinctively understand the need to teach their children, but do not know how to do so. Though they have a direct biblical responsibility to do it themselves (Ephesians 6.4), the only way they practically fulfil that instruction is to bring their children to church. Ergo, if those children are not taught the Bible at church, they will not be taught it.

Additionally, in our generation, very few schools teach children the Word of God. In previous centuries, even public schools did so, and I could furnish whole swathes of evidence that they did so. But as American culture was hijacked by paganism via materialism in the 1950s and rock music in the 1960s, the Bible as a textbook was shoved out of the public school system. In 1962, in Engel v. Vitale, the Supreme Court kicked prayer out of schools. In 1963, in Abington Township School District v. Schempp, the Supreme Court ruled that public reading of the Bible in schools was unconstitutional. In 1992, in Lee v. Weisman, the court prohibited clergy-led prayer at high school commencements. Lee v. Weisman, in turn, was the basis for Santa Fe ISD v. Doe in 2000, in which the Supreme Court extended the ban all the way to school-sanctioned student-led prayer at high school football games. If you want to learn about Jesus Christ from the Bible, you are not going to do it in an American public school. It is true that in some school districts, moments of silence are held daily. It is also true that in some school districts, classes about the Bible as literature are offered as electives. But in the main, if American public school children are not taught the Bible in church, they will not be taught it.

Why Sunday School, beloved? Because boys and girls by the millions need to hear about Jesus, need to be taught the Word of God. And it is as true now as it has ever been.

Huzzah for the Traditional Sunday School

The Sunday School Teacher 3

    In any honest examination of the modern Sunday School, one of the first things we notice is that the traditional Sunday School as a concept seems to be dying a slow death. Increasingly, churches of all types and sizes have shifted from the long-followed schedule – Sunday School followed by a morning worship service, chased later in the day by an evening worship service – to a more contemporary type of weekend with the same service being repeated multiple times. In this latter style, Sunday School got left on the chopping block. At the same time, such churches realized they needed a smaller teaching venue. Cue the massive rise of small groups.

I make no secret of the fact that I prefer the traditional Sunday School model over the more recently popular small group model. I intend to make just that argument in this chapter. It does not then follow that I am against the small group model. I am most definitely not. I have spent thousands of hours teaching in such settings, and I intend to continue to do so. And they have been highly beneficial hours.

I believe in the power of personal investment, in the power of time spent one-on-one or in slightly larger groups. For example, just last week I awarded a New Testament to a young man in our church whom I had trained how to witness. We completed that training together, sitting across a table, one hour a week for eight weeks. I have trained nearly a hundred soul winners over these years in the same manner. Our church practices discipleship in a similar manner. New Christians are paired with mature Christians and undertake a set of eight small-group Bible studies over a two-month period. I have done hundreds of these myself. Members are only added to our church after a meeting with me in a small group setting. Additionally, I have spent an enormous amount of time mentoring younger preachers in a similar setting, one-on-one at a table working through a book or concept or doctrine or practice essential to the Christian ministry. Indeed, I hope some will use this book in a similar manner, a mature teacher coming alongside an inexperienced one, helping them to grow into all they can be for the cause of Christ.

The small group model has some genuine strengths. It often increases participation and thus thought and personal ownership of thought between the learner and the teacher. Small groups help people to become involved and feel valued. They often do a better job of building relationships between students than the traditional Sunday School model does. Church plants can emerge from small groups. And when they are done right, a properly led small group can eliminate many, if not most, of the weaknesses inherent in the model.

If I am so obviously for it, how then can I be against it? I am not against it so much as I am against small groups replacing the model traditionally used in Sunday School – a teacher standing up before a class and taking them through a planned course of study. When you replace the traditional model entirely with small groups, you leave good stuff on the table. Some things are taught better in the conventional model. In fact, I would argue that most things are taught better.

Consider the broader educational implications for society. In modern American culture, a child progresses from Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade over a thirteen-year span. He then often undertakes advanced studies at a college, university, or technical school for some years afterward as well. I may be mistaken in the following sentence, but I cannot think of a single example where all that education is conducted via a small group model. Are the secular equivalents of small groups used in schools, from kindergarten to a doctoral program? Yes. Are they used exclusively? Not on your life. In point of fact, the traditional model of a teacher delivering a lecture in a classroom is still found much more often than not. Why? Because there are some things that are taught more effectively via the traditional model.

I am not asking you to eliminate small groups. I am not on a crusade against the concept. I am asking you to realize the superiority of the traditional model in many instances, and to use small groups as a supplement to such classes rather than a replacement of them.

Having explained my point, let me now attempt to make it. To do so, I want to look at the negative risks one runs in a church context by shifting to small groups exclusively, and from this, highlight the unique strengths inherent in the traditional Sunday School model.

Small groups, by definition, cultivate commentary from everyone. While I believe a good Sunday School class includes much interaction, these two concepts are not the same. The former essentially places the opinion of the carnal Christian on par with the experienced perspective of the spiritual Christian. If a simple person (in the Proverbs sense of the term) comes to a passage of Scripture with a neutral mind, and thus hears two competing viewpoints in the discussion, he is left to choose for himself which one sounds good. This is problematic at best, and something you would find only rarely, if ever, in the traditional Sunday School model.

Put another way round, expressions of pooled ignorance are weaker than a carefully studied lesson in every context. I do not deny that small groups can be led well by carefully studied men or women, but the weakness inherent in a discussion format is that the thoughtful, prepared voice is put on par with all the voices around them. Leading a student to grasp a biblical truth always involves thought, but it does not always require discussion. Yet small groups only sometimes have the former, yet always have the latter.

The Bible is an authoritative book. It needs to be taught graciously but also with a sense of authority, an authority not inherent in the teacher but rather inherent in the Book because it is God's Word. If my chosen manner of transferring truth does not convey that authority, I am incorrect in how I handle the Word and in the inferences I leave in the mind of the listener. On the authority scale, the biblical emphasis begins with preaching, flows on to teaching, and finally descends to conversation and discussion. It is easiest to form the student's concept of doctrine and practice in the weakest of those three categories, easiest precisely because our culture has become so enamored of equalizing everyone's voice and pulling down anything that smacks of authority. But easier seldom means better.

In addition to the philosophical weaknesses inherent in the small group structure, any honest observer must also acknowledge the practical risk that any church faces in fostering small groups – a potential church split. The traditional Sunday School class model almost never splits a church; the small group model does so often, it has become cliché. In some sense, this is related to the authority concept discussed in the previous paragraph. The institution Christ founded to perpetuate His teaching in His absence was the church. Attempts to transfer scriptural truth on the edge of a church model and largely lacking church supervision are not wrong, per se; they are just wrong-headed. And if that sentence is too strong for you, roll it back in your mind and at least have the intellectual honesty to admit the risks run in a small group scenario.

"Sure, there are risks in the small group setup. I'll admit that. But there are just as many risks in the traditional Sunday School model."

I disagree. I do not disagree that Sunday School classes can and have often been poorly led, with the spiritual results negligible at best. In point of fact, this book exists in order to help combat that. But in the main, even a badly done Sunday School class still contains more potential for good and less risk of bad than the equivalently led small group. A poorly conducted Sunday School class is still held at church during a church service and is led by someone who carries the authority of the church and the Word of God. Attendance is taken, an unspoken practice which emphasizes the importance of the occasion.

Jack Williams, shortly before his graduation to
Glory earlier this year.

I can still remember each Sunday School teacher I had as a child. Mary Lou Tyree. Alice Reeves. Jack Williams. Joe Wetzl. Rick Bartel. Each one stood before me with an open Bible and taught a prepared lesson. Their intellectual, spiritual, and emotional capacities were different. Their ability to connect with me varied. Decades have passed since then, and the specific things they taught me have mostly faded from my memory. But their elevation of God's Word still rings in my heart, and their shining example of a love for God and His people still touches me all these years later.

I am not opposed to biblical discussions, nor to small groups gathering around a table to converse and learn about the things of the Lord. But few are the lives transformed by a discussion, while many are the lives changed by a teacher.

The traditional Sunday School model is still best.

The Primacy of Teaching

The Sunday School Teacher 2 

One of the wonderful things about the the human race is its altruism, its built-in drive to do something to help somebody else. Even unsaved people have it. It manifests itself differently based on culture, aptitude, opportunity, health, and other factors. Sometimes, it produces volunteerism that is only marginally useful – for example, a chap who donates his time to help park cars at a local festival. But in other cases, it results in a monumental contribution – volunteer firefighters come to mind here. It is my considered belief perhaps the greatest example of this just might be Sunday School teachers. What could be more important?

          The primacy of teaching is rooted in biblical example and instruction. For the first, Jesus Himself immediately comes to mind. Early in Jesus' ministry, Nicodemus approached Him and, while seeking advice, expressed a clear understanding that Jesus was a teacher. Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God. (John 3.2) Yes, Jesus taught the multitudes, but He also mentored individuals extensively. How else did He transform a ragtag group of twelve Jewish commoners into men who would turn the world upside down? (Acts 17.6) He taught in the synagogues and on the streets. He taught in personal conversation and private interactions. He taught in sermons and parables. He taught each time He answered a question. He taught with words and works. He was everlastingly at it, ceaselessly offering the most helpful instruction in the most helpful way.

          Not only was Jesus a teacher, but the second greatest figure in the New Testament, Paul, was also a teacher. Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. (I Timothy 2.7) It comes through quite often in his writing. He layers arguments like bakers layer cake, one balanced precisely on the other, raising us to truly tremendous heights. Clear, convincing writing comes only from careful thinking, distilled most often through numerous teaching repetitions. Paul knew how to make an argument, how to move a man from obstacle to skeptical to convert. He reasoned the man from one thought to the next, connecting them like steps in a staircase. Paul was a master teacher.

          In addition to both of these, Moses, the greatest figure in the Old Testament, was a teacher. And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them. (Exodus 24.12) His case is particularly interesting. He neither expected nor planned to be a teacher. He wanted to rule. It is quite obvious what he had prepared himself for and what he believed he was best suited to do. Yet along the way, by giving Moses the Law, God brought to him the responsibility and ministry of teaching. Whether you think you are suited to it or not, once you have custody of the Word of God, you have a responsibility to teach it to others.

          In point of fact, parents are a classic example of this very thing. When couples date, they rarely contemplate parenting at all, let alone factor in just how large a part of their life it will become. Yet to be a parent is, by definition, to be a teacher. Everything the child learns for the first few years of his life comes via his parents. Even when other teachers enter his life, his parents remain and will remain so for as long as they live. Even after his parents die, their teaching will continue to guide him, especially if they did it right.

          Parents teach their children how to talk, how to walk, and how to dress themselves. Parents teach their children letters and numbers. Parents teach their children manners and character. Parents teach their children how to care for themselves and how to befriend others. Parents teach their children about money and politics. Parents teach their children how to throw a baseball and catch a football. Parents teach their children consciously and unconsciously. Above all, parents are to teach their children the Word of God. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (Deuteronomy 6.6-7)

          As if the family responsibilities were not enough, the other institution God started, the church, also places a priority on teaching. It is specifically included in the three New Testament lists of spiritual gifts. (Romans 12.6-7, I Corinthians 12.28, Ephesians 4.11) The implications of that clearly identify teaching as an absolute necessity, just as much in the church as in the home. In fact, teaching is included twice in the church’s mission statement: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. (Matthew 28.19-20)

          There is not a single spiritual grace, doctrinal concept, or practical outworking of our faith that does not have to be taught. If we are instructed to do it we are instructed to teach someone else how to do it. Nor is anyone exempt from this. Naturally some will be better at it than others but if the Great Commission is for all Christians – and it is – then teaching is for all Christians.

          If God's people fail to understand this and apply it, Christianity will become extinct in one generation. Put another way round, the only reason we have Christianity in our generation is that every generation prior to ours, for the past two millennia, have lived up to their responsibility to teach their converts. Beloved, we dare not drop the ball in our generation or Christianity will die with us.

          Clarence Benson, in his 1940s-era book on Sunday School, summed it up this way: "Christ Himself was a great teacher. Sixty out of the ninety times He was addressed He was called 'Teacher.' In the 'Great Commission,' His last charge to the disciples, our Lord twice commands them to teach. In laying down the qualifications for the pastor, Paul stipulates that he should be 'apt to teach' (I Tim. 3:2). The apostles went everywhere teaching and preaching, and preaching and teaching. The early church was a teaching church."

          Teaching is not the only good thing we are called to do, but we are most certainly called to do it. Failure here will lead to failure everywhere in a matter of years. In a non-doctrinal context, it is a fundamental of the family and of the faith both.

          It is a wondrously good thing you do, Teacher. It is a marvelously wise thing to seek to grow in your ability to teach. May God long bless you in the doing of it.

The Sunday School Teacher: Introduction

 Note: The past two books I have published began as blog series and later were edited/expanded and published as books. In the case of this series, I am planning to do so upfront. In other words, what you will read on my blog over the balance of the next year is a serialized book. As I complete sections, I will post them on this blog. Eventually, it will be published as a book. 

The Sunday School Teacher 1, Introduction

I must confess something right here at the outset. I was tempted to title this book "Making Sunday School Great Again." I have not, primarily because this is not a book about organizing, promoting, or building a great Sunday School. I do not know how to write that book, and others in previous generations have already written it better than I could. Yet, in a sense, I am still tempted by that title, for in helping you to become a better teacher, the result will absolutely be a great Sunday School. Class. As Lee Roberson said, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” Your Sunday School class will rise or fall on you.

          …which is why you picked up this book, is it not? Perhaps I should say why this book was handed to you. Perhaps you have a desire to become a better Sunday School teacher, or perhaps someone else has that desire for you. I am grateful either way. God is honored when we seek to improve our usefulness for Him. While nothing will increase your ability to teach like actively teaching, it is also true that your teaching skills can be sharpened by studying a book like this. Like your students, you will encounter information you had not previously known, take ownership of that information, and then change your life. In the process, you may well help the lost to be saved and the saved to be edified. And if that happens, I am amply repaid for my labors.

          Having established that my desire is to perfect you for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4.12) and that your desire is to be perfected, let us turn now to how this book intends to do that.

On these pages, you will find three sections. First, there is the spiritual aspect of teaching Sunday School. While some teaching disciplines cross schools, teaching the Bible to people is definitively a spiritual process. In this section, we will examine the history and necessity of Sunday School, the primacy of teaching, the superiority of the traditional Sunday School over the trend of small groups, seek to answer whether you have the gift of teaching, expound on the qualifications necessary to teach, emphasize the spiritual purposes of Sunday School, explain how to be a spiritually powerful teacher, look at Christ as our example in teaching, and close with a discussion of the Sunday School teacher’s best aide, the Holy Spirit.

Second, we will examine the philosophy behind teaching as a craft. Drawing primarily from other men's work here, I will seek to show you how the teacher, the learner, the language, the lesson, the teaching process, the learning process, and the review all intersect to produce excellent teaching. We will close this section with a discussion of the proper mental approach a teacher needs, how to become a long-term teacher, the appropriate approach for an assistant teacher, whether team teaching is valid, and the benefits that fill a Sunday School teacher’s life.

Third, we will turn to the practical. How do you choose what to teach? How do you write a lesson plan? How do you emphasize specific applications? How do you build a relationship with your students? How do you create a class spirit? How do you get your students involved? How do you grow your class? How do you maintain control? How can you successfully tailor your teaching to little children, young children, older children, young teenagers, older teenagers, single adults, young married couples, mature Christians, a men's class, a women's class, etc.? How do you get the students to study at home during the week? How do you build a culture of Bible memorization? How should illustrations be used in your teaching? What about record keeping? Prayerfully, you will find help to deal with subjects such as these and more.

My overall intent is to keep each chapter or section of a chapter relatively short. I want you to be able to read this in quick snatches of time here and there throughout the week. I want it to provoke thought, yes, but more so to move you to action. I want you to consciously try something new each week or month over the next year. I want you to grow as you internalize what you read and gradually begin to put it into practice. I want your capacity and ability as a teacher to expand. I want you to be more useful to the Lord and more edifying to your students.

Finally, a brief word about sources. A number of good books are available that touch on different aspects of Sunday School, including teaching. I gathered several of them. As I read, I culled them for helpful ideas and applications, many of which have found their way into this work. I will list them for you below. In bold are the ones I found more helpful than not. 

 

-Spiritual Power in Your Teaching, Roy B. Zuck, Moody Press, 1963, 188 pages

-The Seven Laws of Teaching, John Milton Gregory, Baker Books, 2003, 128 pages

-The Sunday School In Action, Clarence H. Benson, The Bible Institute Colportage Association, 1941, 327 pages

-The Successful Sunday School and Teachers Guidebook, Elmer Towns, Creation House, 1980, 400 pages

-What Every Sunday School Teacher Should Know, Elmer L. Towns, Gospel Light, 2001, 180 pages

-Youth and the Church, Roy G. Irving and Roy B. Zuck, Moody Press, 1972, 442 pages

-Mentoring and Modeling, Dr. John Goetsch and Dr. Mark Rasmussen, Striving Together Publications, 2002, 199 pages

-101 Tips For Teaching, Mark Rasmussen, Striving Together Publications, 2007, 205 pages

-Building A Standard Sunday School, Arthur Flake, The Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1934, 171 pages

-World's Largest Junior Church, Dr. Jim Vineyard, self-published, 1981, 133 pages

-Teachers That Teach, Amos R. Wells, The Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1924, 138 pages

-Biblical Youth Work, Jim Krohn, self-published, 2005, 355 pages

-May I Suggest; For Parents and Leaders of Teens, Thomas J. Vogel, Bird Publishing Company, 2000, 224 pages

-Teaching Sunday School Teachers to Teach, Dr. Jeff Owens, Owens Publications, 2012, 223 pages             

 

You can be an outstanding Sunday School teacher. Together, let us turn the page and learn how.       

Introducing The Christ Conference

      For several years now, I have had a growing burden to develop a preaching conference with a singular focus on Jesus. We have conferences uncounted in the independent Baptist orbit, and I am not against them. Conferences on prayer, on church growth, on missions, on separation, on preaching, on leadership, on addictions ministries, on bus ministries, on marriage, et al. We have conferences for pastors, for teenagers, for single adults, for ladies, for men, for missionaries, and for colleges. I repeat, I am not against them. I have been to more of them than I can count and I have always found a blessing. I am not saying our conference will be somehow better or superior to any of those. But as I grow older I find an ever-increasing burden to center the emphasis of whatever ministry I have around Jesus Christ. So as spring turns to summer here along the banks of the Mississippi River, the Bible Baptist Church of Dubuque, Iowa, plans to try to do exactly that.

     When is it? The Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of Memorial Day week, May 27, 28, and 29. We will run two preachers each morning and two more each evening, twelve sermons in total. The only instruction each preacher has been given is to bring us a message about Jesus. Who is preaching? Nobody well known, really, but we are good with that. Joel Bible. Chris Birkholz. Tom Brennan. Paul Crow. Donald Link. Cole Mahle. Ed Mast. A. J. Potter. Ben Sinclair. Keeton Wainscott. How much does it cost? Nothing. We're working at providing accommodations. At the least, we should be able to point you in the direction of a discounted rate at a decent hotel. We'll tell you as soon as we can. As a church, we are new at this so be patient with us. We plan to provide lunch each day of the conference since good fellowship is an essential part of the edification of such things. 

     The Christ Conference. Ten men. Twelve sermons. Every message about Jesus.

     We invite you to join us.   

They ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. Acts 5:42

My 2025 Travel Schedule

      My primary ministry responsibility is the pastorate of Bible Baptist Church in Dubuque, Iowa. For years, I resisted almost all invitations to speak elsewhere. But a couple of years ago, the Lord led me to change my mind about that for a variety of reasons. I now open up a limited number of slots each year to teach and preach other places. All my available slots for 2025 are filled. I am sharing that schedule with you because meeting my readers is one of my chief joys when I travel. If I am in your area, and you are able to attend a service where I speak, I would be delighted if you would come up afterward and introduce yourself. 

February 7-9, Marriage Matters, Hunt Valley Baptist Church, Cockeysville, Maryland

February 14, Valentine's Banquet, Gospel Light Baptist Church, Marion, Iowa

March 3, Super Conference, Northside Baptist Church, Davenport, Iowa
March 24-28, Ambassador Baptist College, Bible Conference, Lattimore, North Carolina

April 15-16, Baptist College of Ministry, Menomenee Falls, Wisconsin
June 30-July 4, Commonground Baptist Camp, Butler, Pennsylvania

November 2, Calvary Baptist Church, Beaufort, South Carolina

From My Mailbag...

      From time to time, I receive questions of one sort or another. They work their way to the bottom of my to do list. In fact, today's question has been sitting in my inbox for nine months. As you can see, I'm trying to discourage you from sending me questions. <grin> At any rate, in between blog series I like to answer one or two, especially if I think they might benefit a wider audience. 

    Here is today's question: "Could you please send me maybe 4-5 tips you have for organizing your time and ideas with writing and reading when you have a moment? I’d really value your input. A while ago you challenged me to write (maybe you do with everyone I don’t know??) but I’ve taken it to heart."

    I do plead guilty to being a writing evangelist. If you have ever spent time around me, and expressed above average intelligence, I have probably urged you to write. Of course, that is relatively easy for me to do. I don't have your schedule, priorities, commitments, or challenges. Then again, you don't have mine either. So what I have learned in relation to writing and ideas and schedule that might be helpful here?

    First, I have found it helpful to commit to blogging regularly. Weekly, in my case. My first year writing I blogged daily. That was a mistake. <grin> But a worse mistake is to tell yourself you will write when you have time, or to sit down when you feel the urge. Like with the question that produced this blog, such an attitude will drive writing to the bottom of your to do list. I know men who are at least as good of a writer as I am, if not better, who blog a half dozen times a year about some random thing or other that strikes their fancy. Not only will they never develop momentum in a readership, they will not develop any momentum in writing either. Like soul winning or prayer or a date with your wife, if you put it on your schedule and you are a person of character it will get done. So commit to writing something at least weekly.

    Second, I have found it helpful to write in a series. A book is a series, at least the kind I write. I also blog in series. 

    This has several advantages. You can explore a subject in depth, and I think there is staying power in that kind of study and teaching and writing. Then, too, it protects you from over-reacting to the current zeitgeist, the news of the day, and writing throw away pieces that have little use in months or years to come. It will also help you gather a readership. People who like the subject you are discussing will bring in other people who like it, and your readership will grow. Most of all, though, this allows you to plan ahead what you are going to write. Which is my next point, actually.

    Third, I have found it helpful to plan ahead of time what I am going to write for the next year or so. This developed first in my preaching, and I found it to be so beneficial I brought it to my writing as well. This allows you to research/study/outline something well ahead of actually writing it. Why does that matter? Because you will write better what you have thought about longer. Additionally, if you are in the ministry there are some seasons of your calendar that are busier than others. In the slower ones, you can do your immediate writing for that week, and some prep for future weeks. In the busier ones, since your prep is already done, you can limit yourself to just the writing. And everything I am saying here applies to book writing as well. 

    Fourth, I have found it helpful to take one particular time each year to do nothing but plan ahead, to put everything else on pause while you meditate and pray on the directions the Lord would have you go as you seek to edify His people. What does He want you to emphasize next? What do the people you influence need most in the near term future? How does this fit into your responsibility to preach/teach/write the whole counsel of God? When your life draws to its close, what will you wish you had used your influence to accomplish? Answer those questions, and the questions that spring from them, formulate your plan, work your plan, and don't get sidetracked. 

    For me, I have found my prayer retreat to be a good week to accomplish this each year. In case you needed another reason to go on a prayer retreat. <grin> 

    Lastly, I have found it helpful to repackage things I have previously studied and taught. I may take something I taught in Sunday School ten years ago, deepen it and widen it, and turn it into a Bible Institute class. Perhaps a series I did on Wednesday nights some years ago could be repurposed/retailored for a Sunday School class or a blog series. Etc. If your audience in this particular venue has little to no realistic chance of having heard that from you before, and it would benefit them, give it to them. A well produces good water for many years to all who draw from it. You dug a good well back yonder; it is ok to draw from it again. 

    I am not sure about everything, but I am sure about two things. I do not have all the answers. It is right to ask questions designed to pull wisdom out of people. So good on you for asking, just don't think my answers are the only good ones. 

    I hope something here may provoke a thought that might help you. And keep writing. Well, if you are of above average intelligence that is. <grin> 

A Free Class Offered

      Each year, I offer at least one free class via Zoom. This year, it is a class on fundamentalism. "Fundamental" is the middle initial in IFB, independent fundamental Baptist. Yet at this point in our history it is the least understood, in my view. And it matters. Some essential questions this class is designed to ask and answer:

- What is fundamentalism? When did it start? Why did it begin? How did it develop?

- What is the doctrinal foundation of fundamentalism?

- What is the historical development of fundamentalism?

- What are the historical and modern objections to fundamentalism? What is our response to those objections?

- How does misunderstanding or misapplying this in our day happen? When it happens, what is the result? 

- concepts we will discuss include ecclesiastical separation, apostasy, holiness, and ecclesiology

- historical figues and movements we will trace include Donatism, Augustine, the Roman Catholic Church, the Protestant Reformation, the Anabaptists, the Puritans, the Downgrade Controversy, modernism, New Evangelicalism, Billy Graham, and the Emerging Church 

     There is no charge for the course. A 71 page syllabus will be provided. The cost is underwritten by my Patreon subscribers. We will meet each Tuesday night for two hours beginning February 4. This is one of my shorter classes so I expect to be done in about five weeks. If you have questions or would like to register, simply respond via email. Cut off date for registration is Monday, February 3.  

My Top Ten Books of 2024

     I archive my books on Goodreads. I also review each book I read. In 2024, I read 50 books totaling 20,571 pages, an average of 430 pages per book. The shortest book I read at 92 pages was C. I. Scofield's book on the Holy Spirit. The longest book I read at 1500 pages was the John R. Rice Reference Bible. Today's post contains my top ten books for the year. For those who are interested, I also maintain a recommended reading list here; it contains hundreds of recommendations spread across a couple of dozen categories.

     Enjoy.

The Treasurey of David, Volume 1, Parts One and Two, C. H. Spurgeon - As a long-time pastor, I have often sampled from these volumes in preparation for one sermon or another. But in preparing to teach an extended series from the psalms (one Sunday School lesson on each psalm) I decided to read them in their entirety, beginning to end. I have found them as rich in reality as they are in reputation. The staggering amount of content, good content, is matched only by Spurgeon's peerless ability as a wordsmith. It isn't often that I read a book/commentary on the Bible and think to myself, "Well, there isn't anything else left to say." This is one of those rare cases where I feel that way.

In the edition I have the print is tiny and the pages thin. It makes for laborious reading yet I have found myself more than amply repaid. I am quite sure that to whatever extent you read them - sampled here and there or read as I am doing straight through - you will come to the same conclusion I have.

Elon Musk, Walter Isaacson - Isaacson has done it again. He has shown us a man, and in showing us the man has shown how/why that man has changed society, and why it matters that he has changed society. Well written, as always. Mostly kept himself out of it, except for the occasional left-leaning criticism. Strikes me as fair i.e. even-handed. He praises Musk in some places; in others, he takes him to task, not personally, but historically, so to speak. The only fault I can really find in this as biography is that it was written too soon. The tale of Musk's life is not yet told. Mid-life biographies are always sketchy things.

Isaacson does an outstanding job tracing the arc of Musk's life from gritty South Africa in a broken family to Canadian immigrant to dot com millionaire to risk taking space pioneer. It is a marvelous tale, and an insightful one. You come away with a sense that you understand what makes Musk tick. It contextualizes the Musk you see in interviews and on Twitter. I know I'll never look at the guy the same again.

As for Musk. Wow. I've read biographies of all of the robber barons of the 19th century, trains, oil, banking, etc. I've read biographies of the movers and shakers of the internet era, Brin, Zuckerburg, Bezos, Thiele, etc. Musk is more impressive than any of them save Rockefeller. And he matters more than Rockefeller. I told my wife, "If Musk lived 2000 years ago, he would be on the back of an elephant leading an army conquering Rome." He risks everything. Constantly. It has produced big wins and big losses both, but more of the former b/c it is generally intelligent risk.

Musk the person/man is much less impressive. Foul mouthed. Serial adultery/practical polygamy. As horrible to work for or more than Steve Jobs. OTOH, I can't see him falling into a second juvenile childhood like Bezos is doing. He will press hard to the end, I think.

Back to the book... I think we need to read books like this b/c we need to understand the forces shaping our society. You must understand that to know where we are going next. With Musk, I feel terrified encouragement. What he has done for the cause of free speech alone is enormously important in the medium term. Much less so, with electric cars. Much more so, with space. And who knows what he will do next?

My compliments to Isaacson. He has done society a great favor to peel the mask back and show us the man.

When Pride Still Mattered, A Life of Vincent Lombardi, David Maraniss - This is my first Maraniss book, and my first bio of Lombardi. Together, they became an interesting discovery. Maraniss writes clearly here, following a mostly chronological order, but resisting the impulse to turn this into a dissection of football/football games. It isn't. Oh, he discusses both and in some detail, but this is absolutely a biography rather than a sporting history.

As a biography then this work stands or falls. And stand it does. Maraniss shows us Lombardi's neighborhood/family milieu, his education, and the influence of his church. He spends substantial time on his college career at Fordham, weaves in his marriage, and then relays his early struggles to find his footing. Then we see his coaching career, high school, West Point assistant, NFL assistant, the legendary years in Green Bay, and finally the sudden sunset in DC. Throughout, Lombardi's family plays an integral role in the book as it would have in his life.

Good biographies are measured on two things, in my mind. First, do they hold my interest? Second, do they give me a flavor of the age and a sense that I really know the man? Maraniss does both well here.

Sports biographies are not my usual forte. Glad I stepped out of my comfort zone for this one.

The Frontiersman, Allan Eckart - What a delightful discovery this book was. I've read thousands of history books. Eckert wrote history in such a way that it seems a series of connected short stories ala Louis L'Amour. And he did a staggeringly good job of it. This particular work traces the settlement of Kentucky and Ohio, and the Indian wars in which they were birthed. Eckert does this via a focus on two individuals primarily, Simon Kenton on the American side, and Tecumsah on the Indian side. In the process we see religion, warfare, technology, torture, economics, geo-politics, geography, massacre, and nature. Most of all, we see the human interest side of it all. What a generation that was, a generation of struggle and loss and triumph.

I finished it this morning. As I sit here, the superlatives that come to mind are many. I will resist the urge to spill them across the page. I read fifty books, give or take, in a typical year. Suffice it to say, it is the best book I have read so far this year. Simply superb.

Nuclear War: A Scenario, Annie Jacobsen - As an author, Annie Jacobsen was a delightful surprise. As a book, Nuclear War: A Scenario was terrifying. I've read more books than I can count, and while I have read sadder books and deeper books and more important books, I have never read a book that scared me more than this one. In my life.

Jacobsen, who has clearly done her homework, writes a bit like the early Tom Clancy back when he was good. There are lots of acronyms, albeit explained. There is tension, then mesmerizing tension, then horrifying tension, then terror, and each of these are carefully attached to what comes before. Intellectual honesty compels me to mention that she stretches her scenario nearly to the breaking point in order in order to write it. The Soviets are really going to launch all out war even though they know the Americans know it was North Korea that struck them? Really? China is just going to throw in at the last minute because several hundred thousand of her people died on the border? Neither of those are believable to me. But all else was eminently believable, and I do not doubt her analysis of the results at all. Additionally, I think this is precisely the type of profound thought exercise national leaders should engage in, and I dearly hope they will read this book.

It is a good thing I am a Christian. That grounds me and contextualizes such fears with the sovereignty of God and the great arc of redemption in Christ. But if it were not for that, this book would give me an untreatable ulcer for the rest of my life.

What a book. Wow.

The Other Side of Calvinism, Laurence Vance - I came to this work at the tail end of a several year personal study of Calvinism. In the course of that, I read works both pro/con for intellectual integrity's sake, though I freely confess I am certainly not a Calvinist. I saved it for last because, frankly, it is massive. Took me most of a year to plow through. I'm glad I did.

Vance opens the work with an almost 200 page history of the primary players (Augustine, Calvin, Armenius) and the arc of the development of Calvinism as a doctrine. The next 400 pages are spent on a deconstruction of Calvinistic doctrine. The final 200 pages are appendices, bibliographies, footnotes, and indexes. And may I say in relation to this latter section, I don't think I have ever read a more scrupulously detailed and cited doctrinal work in my life. There are thousands of footnotes. It is one of the clear strengths of the work.

I have given it here a five star rating. The writing itself does not deserve that. Vance repeats himself in places, and in others allows his personal animosity/snark too much reign. He also functions as if more arguments for his position are better even if they aren't better. Though grammatically correct, the book could have used a strong editor. Having said that, the work still deserves a five star rating for several reasons. First, the sheer volume of work that went into it. Second, his approach includes hundreds of quotations from respected Calvinist writers to establish the truth of his claims regarding their positions. This helped me immensely, being largely ignorant of those writings for the most part. Third, he fearlessly tackles both the large and small, the forest and the trees. He discusses the overarching failures of the structure, and the apologies offered for it, but he also delves into the individual passages and words in great detail.

I have no doubt that Calvinists have a negative view of the work. That does not concern me. What does concern me, what drove me in fact, was my search to find a detailed, heavily cited defense of an anti-Calvinist position. Well, I can stop looking and so can you. This is definitely it.

Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space, Adam Higginbotham - Adam has done it again. This is as good as his book on Chernobyl, at least. Though the scope is smaller (a tragedy vs a civilization threatening event) the approach is similar. He traces the biography of the individuals involved, how the technologies evolved, and how the culture of political and performance pressure produced man-made errors. His blow-by-blow narration of the event itself kept me on the edge of my seat even though I already knew the result. Finally, he discusses the follow-up investigations, and how the truth came to light. 

For me, this book has moved Adam up into the rarified air of the must read historian. Writing an outstanding book once is remarkable. Doing it again is awesome. My compliments, Mr. Higginbotham.

The Wide, Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact, and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook, Hampton Sides - Hampton Sides has done it again, a balanced historical account written in an absolutely compelling fashion. If Sides is not on your must-read list as a modern historian I don't know who is. 

In this work, we find the dramatic account of the last voyage and death of the great British seaman and explorer, James Cook. Sides gives us some context, but largely confines the story to exactly that. We see the ships, the men, the officers, the food, the medical issues, the map issues, all of it. We travel with Cook into the Pacific, partake of the baleful delights of Tahiti, bump into the Hawaiian islands, and taste the useless Arctic quest for the Northwest Passage. Finally, we are back to Hawaii for the gripping account of Cook's reception as a god and murder thirty days later. Lessons abound, in morals and economics and religion and leadership and hubris. 

If you haven't read Sides, start. Anywhere, but this work is as good any. And keep reading. He makes history come alive. 

1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus, Charles Mann - I picked up this book with some trepidation. I do not have much use for revisionist history, especially of the left-leaning woke variety. And much of what gets written about this era of American history recently is precisely that. To my surprise and gratification, this wasn't. Rather, it was a thought-provoking and absolutely balanced view of a wide variety of aspects of this era of history. 

Mann does a staggeringly good job of bringing up the original historical take, tracing that historical take along its development, and then applying modern information to that take. It isn't revisionist near as much as it is corrective - of left-leaning revisionism. Whether the discussion is disease or archaeology or economics or politics or weapons or transportation or communication or ethnology or demographics, Mann does an excellent job of showing us the Americas prior to Columbus. The picture that emerges is much more complex than our childhood textbooks showed us, and yet humble at the same time. 

Good book, and earned a rare five stars from me.

This Is Marriage

 

Marriage is the knitting of two souls into one blanket that keeps out the chill of life.

Marriage is the exchanging of loneliness for the richness of companionship.

Marriage is independence becoming dependent.

Marriage is having two carry the burden meant for one.

Marriage is multiplying your joy while dividing your sorrow.

Marriage is not the absence of disagreement but the presence of compromise.

Marriage is trust given and trust returned.

Marriage is the pooling of resources and the evaporation of selfishness.

Marriage is God’s plan for a wonderful life.

Marriage is the best of both worlds.

Marriage is a foretaste of glory divine.

Marriage is hard work.

Marriage is having someone to read the map while you drive.

Marriage is the poetry of two entwined lives melding into one.

Marriage is the combination of strength and beauty.

Marriage is apologizing, not because you are wrong, but because you hurt the love of your life.

Marriage is trading McDonald’s for a delicious meal.

Marriage is the multiplying of love with the addition of wrinkles.

Marriage is the creating of two smiles where there had been none.

Marriage is the acceptance of responsibility and the abdication of foolishness.

Marriage is always having someone to button the back of your dress.

Marriage is always having someone to pick the lint off your suit.

Marriage is coming home to a kiss instead of an empty house.

Marriage is having someone care how you feel, what you think, and where you are.

Marriage is finally being allowed to use mistletoe for its intended purpose.

Marriage is two nuts becoming a single tree.

Marriage is the joining of souls in twin bodies.

Marriage is the discovery and exploration of the fascinating world that is the other gender.

Marriage is the union of similar differences.

Marriage is the bringing of Heaven to Earth.

Marriage is not an experiment, but a commitment.

Marriage is sometimes leading and sometimes following, but always loving.

Marriage is the utter revocation of others and the utter acceptance of one.

Marriage is the anchor around which successful lives navigate.

Marriage is the lifelong opportunity of living for someone else.

Marriage is giving yourself away unconditionally.

Marriage is not the spice of life but rather the main course.

Marriage is not the ignoring of flaws but the acceptance of the flawed one.

Marriage is the greatest test of character in the world.

Marriage is fun.

Marriage is sadly becoming old-fashioned.

Marriage is Christianity in work clothes.

Marriage is the completion of two incomplete people.

Marriage is privilege accompanied by responsibility.

Marriage is not fifty fifty but hundred hundred.

Marriage is rewarding.

Marriage is the most important earthly decision of our lives.

Marriage is for better for worse, in sickness and in health, til death do you part.

Marriage is learning to enjoy shopping because of who you are with.

Marriage is learning to enjoy football because of who you are with.

Marriage is being convinced you got the best of the catch.

Marriage is doing all you can to be the best of the catch.

Marriage is the proper balance of needs and wants, namely you want to give them whatever they need.

Marriage is two walking together because they are agreed.

Marriage is growing old along with me; the best is yet to be.

Marriage is the weave that keeps the fabric of our society from unraveling.

Marriage is having someone to pat you on the back instead of breaking your arm doing it yourself.

Marriage is adding a rose to the thorns of life.

Marriage is an obligation of delight.

Marriage is the cornerstone upon which civilization rests.

Marriage is a good life's work.

Marriage is the other half of yourself.

Marriage is forever.

-by Tom Brennan

Christmas, 1999