Friday, November 14, 2014

Review: Invitation to Philippians:Building A Great Church Through Humility by:D. Sunukjian

Invitation to Philippians
About the Book:
This six-volume series by veteran preacher and teacher of preachers provides a model of preaching using a combination of solid scholarly study, fidelity to the meaning and intent of the biblical author, oral clarity, contemporary relevance, humor, and creativity. “Pastors who plan on preaching through any of these biblical books,” says Sunukjian, “could be drawn to these sermons as models or as stimulating prompters for their own messages.”
Titles include the following:
  • Invitation to Philippians: Building a Great Church through Humility (124 pages; $14.99)
  • Invitation to James: Persevering through Trials to Win the Crown (134 pages; $14.99)
  • Invitation to the Life of Jacob: Winning through Losing (168 pages; $14.99)
  • Invitation to Galatians (forthcoming)
  • Invitation to Joshua (forthcoming)
  • Invitation to Mark (forthcoming)
About the Author:
Donald R. Sunukjian holds a Ph.D. from UCLA in Speech Communication and a Th.D. in Bible Exposition from Dallas Theological Seminary, where he taught preaching for more than ten years. He is now Professor of Christian Ministry and Leadership at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, where he has taught preachers since 1996. He has also served as senior pastor for fourteen years.

My Review:
 Upon getting Invitation to Philippians:Building A Great Church Through Humility, my main motivation was to somehow help my husband a soon to be licensed minister. We know that God has called our family into pastoral ministry, and as such we are always wondering how we will handle certain situations within the church. Our biggest concern is that we will break from the humility we so long prayed to have and prayed to keep within ourselves and our family.

 I felt that the book was a more or less instruction on how the minister is to handle certain situations within the church. I do not feel that it was in any way something to teach you how to be a christian. As ministers we have certain social as well as moral obligations & decisions that have to made on a daily basis. And as shepherds of a flock specifically we have to take all angles into consideration in order to remain that shepherd to the flock. I know for my husband, he would be devastated if a decision he had made went terribly wrong and caused someone to leave his congregation.

 As ministers we are under a microscope and I feel that this author hit the nail on the head. We are always aware if others are watching every move we make. And likewise we need to make sure we are glorifying Him in all we do as they watch us. Sometimes it's hard to stay on task with God's plan, we will find that we will have to constantly remind ourselves that we are to glorify Him first. 

 The author uses Philippians as a back drop to show how Paul addressed different situations in the Philippian church. This was a church that was always at the ready for Paul. They helped fund his missionary work, and in turn they were his biggest cheerleaders, but as time went on and he became aware of some of the troubles they were having---he chose to address them on as a way to hold them accountable as well as to keep them humble. Actually, I liked the small sermon series that the author has presented here and I look forward to reading the rest in the series.

If you are interested in learning more, you can at this link.

**Disclosure** This book was sent to me free of charge for my honest review from Cross Focused Reviews.

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