Tonight as we were cleaning up, one of my boys picked up a replica long rifle, aimed it and called out, “Hey, Daddy, I’m a Covenanter!” He was taking aim at the dragoons. We are currently reading a book about the Covenanters and their courageous adherence to the faith in the midst of persecution (typically carried out by the dragoons). I plan to review the book once we are finished, but you know you are getting somewhere when your children’s play is guided by the reading you do with them. When the stories you give them shape the characters they assume and the things they do, this is a good sign for the shaping of their character and the implications for what they will do in the future.

Therefore, even though the scene was brief (we were in the midst of cleaning!), I was greatly encouraged when my son made that statement, “Hey, Daddy, I’m a Covenanter!” Externally I just went along with the game, but internally my heart swelled with encouragement. I found myself thinking, “May it be so, Son. May you live faithfully in covenant with God, and as those Covenanters of old may you be unrelenting in your loyalty to King Jesus and His Kirk.”

The stories we give them can shape their lives. Do not abdicate the privilege of being the primary source of their stories. Seize that place, and then give them wonderful stories to capture their imaginations (and thus their hearts), molding their consciences, and exercising discernment and courage vicariously in preparation for the future.

William of Orange, The Silent Prince, by W. G. Van de Hulst
(trans. From Dutch; Inheritance Publications, 1992, 1996, 2000), pb., 142 pp.

We finished this book about 5 weeks ago, but I have been waiting to be able to write a good review. Time never comes though, so I will make my best attempt.

This was a fascinating book. It was not as great a read for my boys as Piet Prins or A. Van der Jagt which we read recently. My boys are always more drawn in by books that view the account from the perspective of a boy or young man who meets the historical figure or is involved in the events. This was more of a straight biography. Also since this was originally written in Dutch for a Dutch audience there seem to be some assumptions made about general knowledge of locations and people. Trying to explain these (or figure them out for myself!) bogged down the reading. However, the story itself was fascinating. At times the power of the story shone forth for my boys and at other times it took some effort on my part to help them see it.

I would recommend parents read this book to their children somewhere along the way simply because of the great history involved which is so little mentioned. I consider myself a bit of a history enthusiast, but I was totally unaware of this story of the Netherlands fight for their independence and their incredible leader.

William of Nassau is presented as a great example of perseverance and self-sacrificial leadership. His love for the people of the Netherlands compels him to defend their cause though it cost him position, prestige and fortune. And the fight was not one that progressed easily or quickly to success. Their path was cluttered by failures, disappointments, and difficulties. Yet, in the midst of them William persevered. Much is made of this point. Indeed the motto of his family was “I will persevere.” This theme alone makes the book worthwhile reading.

William also provides a very compelling model for leadership in general- a good thing for young boys in particular to see. While the book may embellish the praise of William in places, the little research I have done bears out this picture of William as a leader. He refused to be intimidated, could not be bought, and even endured the misunderstanding of his people as he sought to negotiate his way between extreme responses on either side. Reading this book has made me interested to read more about this man myself. The book does claim to know the mind of William in places and as I said engages in hagiography at places, as is often common in books on national heroes. This book is analogous in many ways to books written in the US about George Washington. Even if they overplay his character and nobility in places, there was true strength of character there and displaying that is helpful.

Here is another selection from the same Blackwood piece. His critique is probably not new to most. What I found interesting is that he was saying this 50 years ago. Furthermore, the eccentric methods he describes have often found their way into our regular meetings today. We desperately need to be reminded that God does not need a “show” to reach people. The Bible is clear that God is pleased to save people through the clear preaching of His word (e.g. 1 Cor 1:18-2:5). However, many today will think your church insufficient if you do not use the latest technology and have all the latest trappings. Technology in itself is not wrong but the question is, “What are we relying on?”

“I might enumerate still other reasons why the revivalism of other days alienated many persons whom we longed to reach. They would not have objected to innocent horseplay among boys in a barn, but the critics of revivals saw no connection between the stunts that often preceded a “soul-winning” sermon and the spirit of the message itself. When the man in the pulpit wishes the one in the pew to fall down on his knees and give himself into the hands of God, as young Isaiah did in the Temple, all the steps that lead up to a decision ought to be in harmony with the holiness of the occasion. This does not mean that any part of an evangelistic service ought to resemble an old-time funeral, full of grief and despair. Neither does it mean that a man ordained of God to pray and preach ought to compete with a vaudeville show of the coarser sort…. Let all things be done decently and in order….

Other objections have to do with the prominence of human factors. New Testament evangelism stressed the presence of the Living Christ, with His pierced hands, and the power of the Holy Spirit. The human agents relied chiefly on prayer, preaching, and personal work. They did not strive for the glory of the workers, many of whom we do not know by name. In America at times the stress of revivalism has fallen on men, money, and machinery. Such activities properly call for expenditure of money on no Lilliputian scale.” (292)

I recently stumbled across an essay by Andrew Blackwood entitled “Evangelism and Preaching.” It was in an older book edited by Carl F. H. Henry, Contemporary Evangelical Thought (1957). I had only seen Blackwood’s name in passing and simply knew he was a popular author in the area of pastoral ministry from that time period. I thumbed through the essay, however, and was struck by what I found! Blackwood in one section addressed weaknesses in American approaches to revival meetings. He raised several criticisms. One was the failure of serious discipleship and nurture arising from an inordinate attention to gathering crowds and building the program. He then addressed the issue of whether these “conversions” truly resulted in disciples. It was striking to me to read something written 50 years ago making the very same points that many of us are trying to make today.

“Whatever the reason, many church members today give no visible evidences of having been born again. In New Jersey a church bulletin recently compared the statistics of the home congregation with those of fifty years before. With a resident church membership practically twice as large as half a century ago, attendance at morning worship averages less than half the attendance fifty years ago; attendance at the church school has fallen off still more; there is at present no evening service, and no mid-week meeting, whereas such gatherings were formerly well attended, as such things went in that older time. Meanwhile, what has taken place? Year after year, the congregation has welcomed many new members, including boys and girls of proper age. Few of these boys and girls have formed the habit of attending their own church. And yet this congregation has helped to swell the official statistics that lead Protestants to boast that the number of our church members has kept increasing by leaps and bounds!” (294)

“With the work of evangelism, hand in hand, ought to go the most careful Christian nurture, especially by the pastor. Why else did the Apostle keep writing “letters to young churches?” Guided by the Holy Spirit, Paul knew that the didache ought to follow the kerygma. In the Jersey congregation, as among the Ohio churches, a study of the facts would show that the falling off in church attendance, and in other visible signs of invisible grace, came during a period when the local minister felt too busy to do pastoral work, either by home visitation of by counseling at the church. Since 1925, when I ceased to serve as a full-time pastor, I have ministered as a pulpit supply in all sorts of churches…. Again and again I have come home with the conviction that our noblest laymen wish the dominie [pastor] would quit doing many other things not wrong in themselves, and begin to take loving care of the home flock, especially the weaker sheep and the little lambs.” (295-296)

This is a good reminder that the way to advance the kingdom is by the faithful day to day work of teaching, preaching, shepherding and overseeing souls. The quick fixes rarely ever ‘fix.’

Earlier I posted on some of C. S. Lewis’s comments on children’s literature. Here is another quote from the same book (On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature). I resonate with this quote.

“By confining your child to blameless stories of child life in which nothing at all alarming ever happened, you would fail to banish the terrors, and would succeed in banishing all that can ennoble them or make them endurable. For in the fairy tales, side by side with the terrible figures, we find the immemorial comforters and protectors, the radiant ones; and the terrible figures are not merely terrible, but sublime. It would be nice if no little boy in bed, hearing or thinking he hears, a sound, were ever at all frightened. But if he is going to be frightened, I think it better that he should think of giants and dragons than merely of burglars. And I think St. George, or any bright champion in armour, is a better comfort than the idea of police.”
– “On Three Ways of Writing for Children”