I have read many biographies of great men and women from Church History. It greatly encourages my faith to learn about God’s faithfulness to pastors suffering with great physical difficulties like Charles Spurgeon or to read about God’s protection over missionaries like John Paton working on an island filled with cannibals! I have also read books on Church History, which teach about the broad movements of the Lord’s working during the last 2,000 years.
  But I have never read a biography diving into the life of one singular church. A Light on the Hill was refreshingly unique. No single person stands out as the hero in this story, but the book tells the stories of dozens of faithful saints who served the Lord during ordinary or extraordinary times.
  The author, Caleb Morell, is an assistant pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, so he is recounting the history of the church he loves and serves. With an incredible depth of research, the book feels comprehensive without being bogged down or clunky. Caleb uses quotes from meeting minutes 100 years old to help give a sense of how people dealt with a range of issues the church has dealt with during the last 150 years.
  One of the most helpful aspects of the book is how Caleb weaves the recounting of how things were with clear biblical teaching on how things ought to be. At the same time, he captures the tension that so often exists when big decisions need to be made or difficult problems need to be solved. This book made me more grateful for the history of the local church (the same Billy Sunday who’s tent revival in Livingston played a part in WCC’s founding was connected to Capitol Hill Baptist Church as well!). It also fueled in me a desire to see our church take the baton from 90 years of our history and carry the ministry faithfully through the next season of church life!
  May this book bless you, inspire you, and encourage you as you participate in the local church!

  We live in a world with a historical snobbery—that is, our society looks with disdain or superiority on previous generations (especially from hundreds or thousands of years ago). The Christian faith, on the other hand, is deeply and irreversibly rooted in history. The truths we hold most precious and foundational today are the same truths that were laid down for us 2,000 years ago in the teachings of Christ and His Apostles. Far from abandoning the Bible as “outdated” or “irrelevant”, we believe God’s Word is true across all times and for all people.
  There is a trend in some segments of the church that hold an anti-credal belief ‘system’. The phrase “no creed but the Bible” or “no doctrine, just Jesus” have been thrown around, and on the surface they seem to hold to the Reformation principal of Sola Scriptura, or Scripture alone. While we do believe that it is Scripture alone that is the rule for faith and practice for every believer, that doesn’t mean that creeds or confessions are not helpful or useful for the church. Trueman does a masterful job of showing how Scripture is filled with creedal statements and that the Apostle Paul in particular expected Timothy and other church leaders to maintain and pass on right doctrine and oppose false doctrine.
  With this in mind, the author surveys the creeds and assorted confessions from church history, emphasizing that these doctrinal statements have great usefulness to modern believers, especially in light of a rapidly shifting and devolving culture like ours. I personally found the book to be a thought provoking check against my own tendency to independence, and as a result of reading this book, I’ve taken time to read through the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith (which I hold to myself), enjoying the rich theology so succinctly stated and Biblically rooted. I’d love to hear from you if you read this work and look forward to hearing your thoughts on the book!

FROM THE DUST JACKET COVER:
How the Creeds and Confessions of the Past Can Protect the Church Today

  This book is a must-read for the modern family, most of all husbands and fathers (or those who aspire to be such). In a culture dominated by a critical-theory worldview, the belief that men are natural oppressors and that masculinity is toxic is having far-reaching repercussions. Refusing to submit to God’s creation design, the world sees male-headship not as a gift but as a cage and so it has been intentionally and unintentionally undermining that principle throughout human history.
  God has called men to lead their families based off of the model of our Lord Jesus Christ. Humility, sacrifice, service, and love are key characteristics for husbands and fathers to display and cultivate in the home, as well as strength, honor, chivalry, and bravery. In The Toxic War on Masculinity, Nancy Pearcey masterfully combines historical survey and statistical analysis to show how the American family has been in a dangerous decline ever since the 1750s, yet she presents practical principles to encourage and strengthen the home (and husbands/fathers in particular).
  I heartily recommend this book to every man that wants to be a faithful leader of their family, and I look forward to bringing up my son with these principles in mind! It’s an engaging and fascinating book, and you’ll have a hard time putting it down. Happy reading!

First on my list of books to recommend to you is fittingly a book on the topic of first importance! Theology used to be called “the Queen of the Sciences” because far above biology, physics, or astronomy (sorry Mike!) in importance is the study of God Himself.

ENDORSEMENTS

‘This book is both profound in its theology, lucid in its exposition, and deeply pastoral and practical in its tone and intention. Anyone wanting to dive into the doctrine of God who wants to see how classical theism connects to everyday Christian life – and what is therefore practically at stake when such theology is abandoned – should read this book.’ — CARL TRUEMAN

BOOK DESCRIPTION

The problem identified by the prophet Hosea in his day is still with us today — ‘There is no…knowledge of God in the land’ (Hos. 4:1). We were made to know God. We were saved to know God. Jesus said, ‘This is eternal life that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent’ (John 17:3).

Our chief end and purpose is to know God and thereby to honour and enjoy him. These pages explore God’s identity. The God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is also Creator, Governor, and Redeemer. This one true God is infinitely and unchangingly holy, just, good, and loving. This work is offered with the hope that it might promote the true knowledge of the true God. As Matthew Henry said, ‘To know the perfections of the divine nature, the unsearchable riches of divine grace, to be led into the mystery of our redemption and reconciliation by Christ, this is food; such knowledge as this is a feast to the soul.’

‘It has been said by someone that “the proper study of mankind is man”. I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father… I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.’
— C. H. Spurgeon

I have always loved reading books. As a little boy, my mom instilled that love by reading books to my siblings and I. As a child, I began reading great theological works such as The Chronicles of Narnia and the Hank the Cowdog series. My love for reading continues on, but my preference for the past 10 years or so has mainly been for books on Christian living, pastoral ministry, and Bible exposition. It is a joy of mine to recommend books that have been personally helpful to me, and so I am starting this blog to provide suggestions to the saints at WCC in hopes that the books I mention will be helpful to you as well! Happy reading, and may God bless you!