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The War Cry | July 21, 2012
The Healthy Community:
Moving Your Church
Beyond Tunnel Vision
Churches in America are dying.
It's a sad reality, but statistics
show that some 3,000 churches
close their doors permanently
every year. What does it take
for a church today to remain
healthy? How can pastors lead
their churches into the future as
strong, thriving communities?
In The Healthy Community,
pastor and author Dennis Bickers draws on his
twenty years of experience to help church leaders
learn how to diagnose the problems that may exist
in their own church and understand what it looks
like when a church is lacking healthy essentials such
as a doctrinal statement, grace, a mission, pastoral
leadership, and discipled believers.
This book is an important first step for pastors
who want to lead their churches towards health
and avoid becoming another statistic.
Man With A Mission
Man With A Mission, the biog-
raphy of Israel Gaither, former
National Commander of The
Salvation Army in the USA,
portrays what God can do
through a life totally dedicat-
ed to Him. During Commis-
sioner Gaither's remarkable
career as a Salvation Army
officer, which included inter-
national appointments, he
surmounted formidable obstacles to make a differ-
ence in our world. His story is one of courage and
grace in a contentious world of subtle racism. He
redefined and raised the bar for leadership of
African Americans in the ranks of The Salvation
Army. What Jackie Robinson did for baseball,
Israel Gaither did for The Salvation Army.
The carefully researched story by Colonel Henry
Gariepy is complemented with 70 photos from
Commissioner Gaither's earliest days up to the
present. The volume also offers rich insights on
the structure and global mission of the Army.
Essence
RESOURCES
TO ORDER call Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City at
800�877�0700 or visit: www.bhillkc.com/. Retail price $15.99
Ephesians' admonition not to
sin while you are angry as-
sumes that Christians will, in
fact, get angry. Some have ar-
gued that we can get to a
place of spiritual development
where we do not get angry
anymore. I believe that the
more mature a Christian is in
faith, the less he or she will
become angry. Mature Chris-
tians should be able to see
things in perspective and be
better equipped to love even
those who act wrongfully to-
ward them. But the easy-go-
ing personality of some has
sometimes been confused
with genuine spirituality. We
are not virtuous for the good
things we do that come easy
to us, but for the good things
we do that are difficult.
Our feelings, strictly speak-
ing, are neither good or evil.
Anger in itself is not sin. To be
sure, the attitudes we have
leading up to anger can involve
sin. It is a little like running a
race. If you have been training
for the race all along, you will
not get sore from the race. But
if you try to run the race with-
out any prior training, you
probably will not finish, and
even if you do, you may regret
it in pain afterwards.
In the same way, if we have
been walking in the Spirit, ex-
ercising love toward one an-
other, if we have lived thinking
of others and not only about
ourselves, then when the crisis
comes, we will weather the
TO ORDER call your nearest Salvation Army Supplies and
Purchasing department: Des Plaines, IL 800�937�8896;
West Nyack, NY 888�488�4882; Atlanta, GA 800�786�7372;
Long Beach, CA 800�937�8896.
BOOK NOTES
The Way
Through Anger
challenge better than if we
have not. If we have been prac-
ticing the mind of Christ that
sacrifices our rights for the
benefit of others, then we will
not get as angry when we are
slighted or passed over. So
while anger itself is not neces-
sarily a sin, it can point to areas
of sin in our lives.
Even those who believe it is
wrong to get angry would dis-
tinguish selfish anger from
anger about injustice done to
others. Did not Jesus Himself
become angry at the leaders
of Israel for taking advantage
of the people (see Mark 11: 12-
19)? It is one thing to become
angry on your own behalf and
another to do so on behalf of
others. The instruction in Eph-
esians 4:26 is simple and pro-
found, as it quotes Psalm 4:4:
"In your anger do not sin." It
then puts a time limit on
anger: "Do not let the sun go
down while you are still an-
gry." This is not an absolute
statement; it is a proverbial
command. Do everything in
your power to reconcile or
vent your feelings in some
way before the day is over.
For those who have been
abused or or are working
through a terminal illness, it
will probably not be possible
to work through your anger in
a day. We should not take the
process of healing from great
wrongs or impossible situa-
tions lightly. We cannot go
around them; we have to go
through them, and that can
take time.
But we can take the next
step, even when we are not as
yet able to lift our heads to
look where we are going. We
can act lovingly toward those
with whom we are angry, and
our feelings will eventually soft-
en if we do not feed our anger.
Kenneth Schenck
Paul, Prisoner of Hope
Wesleyan Publishing House, �2012
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