JAC Online

Five Life Shaping Books
by Major Stephen Court

This is a reprint from the JAC issue when THE WAR COLLEGE started, September 2003, so some ranks are obsolete.

JAC recently asked a number of people to describe five books that most helped shape their life. (beside the Bible of course!)

Major Janet Munn

1. Beyond the Curse by Aida Besancon Spencer. This book is a biblical study of all the controversial passages in Scripture that have been used to keep women out of leadership and ministry in the Church. The author does a clear, powerful and convincing study of the original languages, cultures and contexts and applies interprets the author’s intent with that understanding. It is a book that set me free.

2. Intercessory Prayer by Dutch Sheets Dutch Sheets analyzes the role of the believer in partnering in prayer, according to the Word of God, to accomplish God’s will on the earth. This book has been a firestarter in my own heart, to pray aggressively, believing God absolutely desires to answer, and in fact has chosen to limit Himself, in partnership with the Body of Christ. This teaching is an anointed anti-dote to the "whatever is going to happen will happen" mindset -- that is a lie from the devil.

3. Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer A revolutionary look at Christian community and the non-negotiable of close interaction and relationships with fellow believers. Bonhoeffer’s spiritual authority and authenticity shout through this book. It left me greatly challenged in my individualistic tendencies.

4. The Writings of Catherine Booth The co-founder is as relevant and sharp today as ever. Her forceful communication and argument are inspiring, convincing, compelling, challenging. No wonder she has been a world changer. I re-visit her writings on Female Ministry consistently.

5. Healing by Francis MacNutt Francis MacNutt is a former Roman Catholic priest who realized quickly after his ordination, that the needs that confronted him, far exceeded his power to help. The Spirit of God enrolled him in the School of Healing, by direct tutoring from the Spirit, and with continual practical experience. His stories of great need, personal desperation and the power of God manifest, have been ongoing sources of encouragement for me to persevere in the healing ministry.

Colonel Dennis Phillips
The five books that have most of all shaped my life are: Genesis
I Samuel
Job
John
II Timothy
But, I think the assignment was, "other than the Bible", and from there I was challenged to restrict it to five, yet, here they are, and I present them in the chronological order in which they appeared in and impacted my life:

1. QUIET TALKS ON PRAYER (S. D. Gordon) This book was already old and dog-eared when it was handed to me during the year I was preparing to enter training (1959). S. D. Gordon introduced this young officer-to-be to the wonder of prayer, and his writings prompted me to take the first steps in a life-long pilgrimage (which I am still on) in pursuit of a holy prayer-relationship with God. Remember, I was getting ready for cadetship, that necessary step to becoming an officer, and it was one of those times in my life when I was particularly sensitive to spiritual things. So, my 20-year-old mind took it quite seriously and literally when I read, "For if a man is to pray right, he must first be right in his motives and life." During that time, I drew up my first "Ten Most Wanted" list of souls to be saved, most of them my own family, and although it took 33 years for one of my brothers to come to Christ, every one of those ten people came to the Lord, and I attribute my quantum leap of faith in prayer to the detailed instruction given in this text.

2. CELEBRATION OF DISCIPLINE (Richard Foster) In 1980, while serving as territorial youth secretary, I was invited to lead the Asbury College Salvation Army Student Fellowship Retreat and was advised by the Student Fellowship President, Kenneth Luyk (now training principal in the USA Southern Territory) that the theme of the retreat would be based on this book. Reading it changed my life. Through all the years of my youth and early officership, I heard senior officers speak of the impact Brengle’s books had had on them, and I longed for such a spiritual literary experience. It came with the reading of Celebration of Discipline. The first time, it took me a year to read its 200 pages because I was driven to process each chapter (sometimes one paragraph at a time) into my life. As with a great novel, my full attention was piqued upon reading the first page: "We must not be led to believe that the Disciplines are only for spiritual giants and hence beyond our reach, or only for contemplatives who devote all their time to prayer and medication. Far from it. God intends the Disciplines of the spiritual life to be for ordinary human beings: people who have jobs, who care for children, who wash dishes and mow lawns. In fact, the Disciplines are best exercised in the midst of our relationships with our husband or wife, our brothers and sisters, our friends and neighbors." "Wow", I said to myself. "This book is for me". And although each chapter is overwhelmingly rich and worthy of mention, I take time (space) here to draw attention only to Chapter 11, "The Discipline of Worship". Dr. Foster’s recommendations for one to prepare for worship have made Sunday mornings rich and precious for this itinerant who has worshipped everywhere from Pasadena Tabernacle to the distant mountains of Haiti. Meaningful worship has little to do with how good the preacher is or how large the congregation may be. It’s all about one’s preparation to meet with God and be changed by the very essence of His presence.

3. LEAP OVER A WALL (Eugene H. Peterson) If the most creative novelists of the 20th/21st Centuries were brought together, they could not come close to conceiving a plot as wild, imaginative, daring, adventuresome, sexy, emotional and dramatic as the story of David, and Eugene Peterson masterfully draws out all of the above in Leap Over a Wall. I have referred often to Chapter Two in which Mr. Peterson vividly re-tells the story of David’s selection to be king. He was the least of the 8 brothers. (Maybe I identified too strongly here in that I, too, was "the least of 8 children" - 6 of whom were brothers, but I relished the picture of David having been virtually forgotten and overlooked by everyone except God.) The House of David, yes the one Jesus was prophesied to rule over, is to be honored and held in holy regard; yet, we find in King David many of the same life-situations we also face, though centuries apart. Though chosen by God and set apart for Kingly responsibilities, David demonstrated an ordinariness that emboldens us "ordinarians" to realize a stumble does not have to mean a fall, and even a fall does not have to mean one is down forever. We learn from David that it isn’t what we do for God, but what God does for us. God’s providence prevails.

4. WHAT’S SO AMAZING ABOUT GRACE (Philip Yancey) God’s timing is perfect, and He placed this book in my hands at the very time in my life when I needed it the most. Without naming the time or the place, let it suffice to say I needed to learn how to forgive. And while Philip Yancey "covers the waterfront" on the subject of Grace, it was the chapters on forgiveness that I read and re-read (and am still reading) that delivered liberation to my conflicted soul. Yes, I had been hurt - terribly so - by people who should have known better. And my human response was to somehow get even, but there is nothing in the life of Jesus or the entire New Testament to justify such behavior. But how does one forgive when one is not even asked for forgiveness. How does one forgive when justice has been swept aside and innuendo and fact-less slander prevail? Ah, that was when, like having a spiritual massage, I read, "Forgiveness is achingly difficult, and long after you’ve forgiven, the wound lives on." (Note: I’ve never had a massage, but I understand that while a massage can make one feel good eventually, there is a lot of pain in the process.) "Forgiveness is an unnatural act", says Yancey for the sinful and carnal nature within us seeks recompense and revenge. But Jesus spent more time in the brief "Lord’s Prayer" on the subject of forgiveness than anything else. "Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us." How about this for a translation, "Lord, I want you to forgive me the same way I have forgiven others". Okay, I understand the dynamics, but how does one become a forgiving person? Well, you have to read the other chapters to get your arms around God’s grace, which, as we’ve often said, is sufficient.

5. PRAYER, FINDING THE HEART’S TRUE HOME (Richard Foster) This book came to me just before we moved to the Caribbean Territory in 1998. Again, God’s timing was perfect, for one discovers a whole new relationship with God while serving on the mission field. While serving in the USA, prayer was certainly good, helpful and inspirational, but on the mission field, prayer becomes one’s lifeline, an absolute necessity to cope and survive. At one point, Dr. Foster explains the "Selah" so often seen in the Psalms. It is meant as a signal for a meditative interlude. Well, reading this book required many "Selah’s", for one must not just read through it. One must pause and ponder every point and each paragraph. I promise, this book will take you to places of prayer you have never imagined. In fact, just writing about it here, I am encouraged to pick it up yet once again and return home to the heart of God.

Commissioner Wesley Harris

The hardest part of responding to the JAC editor’s request is in making a choice of only five books which have meant much to me and seeing so many other volumes on my shelves reproaching me on account of their being overlooked!

From no fewer than fifty books on preaching from which I have at least learnt how much more I need to learn, I would select Heralds of God by J. S. Stewart. The chapter headings indicate the substance of a book which had a profound impact on me as a young officer. They are, ‘The preacher’s world’, ‘The Preacher’s theme‘, ‘The Preacher’s study‘, ‘The Preacher’s technique’ and ‘The Preacher’s inner life’. More than twenty years after obtaining the book I felt a strong urge to write and tell its author how much it had meant to me. In response he sent a handwritten letter to say how my note had cheered him in his retirement. I treasure that letter from one of the greatest preachers of the 20th century.

Another book which has long had an honoured place on the shelves which have accompanied me around the world is The House of my Pilgrimage by my boyhood hero and my encourager when I was a corps officer, General Albert Orsborn. He was an orator in the grand style now somewhat out of fashion but many of my generation were blessed and inspired by his preaching as well as by the enduring legacy of his songs. I particularly enjoyed the book’s earlier chapters telling of early struggles, song writing and contacts with some of the early leaders of the Army.

I have long made a practice of pencilling my own indices at the back of my books and transposing the entries into a filing system for ready reference. Among the books thus marked would be a few by Stephen Covey and John C. Maxwell including the latter’s Developing the leaders around you. His emphasis on multiplying leaders and not just attracting followers is something to be noted.

Philip Yancey is a currently popular author described by Professor J. I. Packer as ‘a journalist, a gadfly and a prophet rolled into one’. His, What’s so amazing about grace can certainly provoke new thoughts about old truths and I for one need books that can do that.

I get the impression that some Salvationists think that all good books come from outside the Army. That is not true although with our Movement unfortunately producing fewer books than at other times in our history the perception is understandable. However, some good books by Army writers are still coming off the presses. The huge circulation of volumes by Henry Gariepy has been very encouraging. Then I would mention, Who are these Salvationists by Shaw Clifton, which carries the weight of true scholarship without being an unduly heavy read. It should be required study for those who imagine that any change in the Army would be for the best. This book has some sign posts we would do well to consult.

Captain Danielle Strickland

Obviously this is a hard question to answer. I have included five books (besides the Bible) that have deeply impacted my life. For all of them there are ten others that have helped shape me. I love to read and perhaps above all other influences reading remains the way that I acquire knowledge that changes me. I love that God created words.

Chasing the Dragon: the life story of Jackie Pullinger. I read this book as a new Christian and it inspired me to go the distance with God. It also created a hunger to see the hand of God at work in supernatural ways in my ministry. This booked shaped me into a person sold out to mission, wanting to work for and among the poor, and it gave me a thirst for God’s supernatural power.

No Future Without Forgiveness: by Bishop Tutu. This book both amazed and inspired me. It helped me to understand the power of forgiveness not just on a personal level, but also on a national one. It gave me a glimpse into the work that God is doing on an international level in our world - during my lifetime. It also helped me to see light at the end of the tunnel in a world that will be cleaning up the debris of racial hatred and civil wars for years to come. This book continues to challenge and shape my thoughts on the future of our world.

Pope John Paul II: the biography, by Tad Szulc. The story of Pope John Paul’s life rocked my world, not to mention my prejudices. As the strong story of faith and surrender to God unfolded I was challenged to live a life that would be as committed and sold-out to the gospel. I was convicted of a deep prejudice towards Catholicism that I didn’t even know existed. This book was instrumental in changing my mind and exposing the places in my heart that needed to be free. This also helped me appreciate the deep faith of Catholicism and her place in the world - and our place along with her. I found my love for the bride deepen and widen to embrace rather than exclude my Catholic brothers and sisters.

Intercessory Prayer, by Dutch Sheets. Before this book I was very unclear about Intercession. I was often quite perplexed about what people were doing when they prayed fervently (including wailing and travail). I struggled within the Word to get a grasp of what intercessory prayer meant and how I could enter the party. This book changed that. It gave me a practical and Biblical explanation of Intercessory Prayer, the importance of it and the form of it and the freedom of it all. It inspired me to not only pray but also to equip, mobilize, and unleash the prayer warriors that I knew. This has impacted my heart and hanged my ministry for the better.

Life Together, by Bonhoeffer. The classic on community. This book (along with others by Tom Sine who I would say is the contemporary classic on community) has shaped my life in major ways. Bonhoeffer challenged by core belief that my ’devotions’ had to be done in isolation from anyone else... now I understand that my time with God can be both individual and communal. I now spend my morning devotions reading and praying with my family as a unit of one together before God. Both Bonhoeffer and Tom Sine have challenged me to live the Gospel out in rough, and poor neighbourhoods, to live the opposite of the world, to challenge the statusquo.

Bonhoeffer did it by his words but also his life (going back into the fire of Nazism) and Tom Sine by his practical examples in his books (The Mustard Seed Conspiracy, and Mustard Seed versus McWorld). Both have brought me to a place today where I live in an inner city, in order to live out the Gospel and see His Kingdom come.

(then) Commissioner Shaw Clifton

Selecting only five books was quite a problem.
I list my representative choices in publication date order.

The first is a collection of Anglican prayers, The Priest’s Prayer Book compiled in 1921 by R.F. Littledale and J. Edward Vaux. It was published by Longmans, Green and Co., London. I picked it up second hand in Bromley, England in March 1992 since when it has been a source of real blessing to me, for I make much use in my private devotional life of the prayers of others. The section on “Private Prayers for Bishops” was especially meaningful during my five years as a Divisional Commander, and since. Another section, “Notes on the Practice of Holiness”, remains timeless with its simple, direct insights. This volume is a delight to handle, with its smooth calf leather binding and gold leaf pages. It also gives off that heady aroma so beloved of second hand book store junkies.

The second is Extracts From General Booth’s Journal 1921-22, published by Salvationist Publishing and Supplies Ltd., London, in 1925. Reading these daily journal entries by Bramwell Booth has brought me into contact with a holy mind, a Journal of Aggressive Christianity, Issue 26, August - September 2003 10 thoughtful, intelligent, visionary Army leader, and a deeply principled, passionate man of God. The book came into my possession when Lt. Colonel Ethne Flintoff, then the Social Secretary in Pakistan but now leading the work in Bangladesh, gave it to me as a Christmas gift in Lahore in 1998. It is one of my most treasured books. It is revisited often.

Number three is a collection of First World War poetry by the great G.A. Studdert Kennedy entitled The Unutterable Beauty (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1927). In these pages I find pathos, anguish of heart and soul, earthy eloquence and sometimes unbearable poignancy. It came into my hands in Worthing, England in 1986 and forms part of a small, but prized, collection of war poetry volumes on my shelves.

Book four may seem to some a surprising choice. It is the Army’s Handbook of Doctrine published in 1940 by International Headquarters, London. Though written five years before my birth, it resonates with me still. It was when reading Chapter X on “Entire Sanctification” that I was led into the blessing of a clean heart. This happened some years ago on an early morning commuter train going from Romford, Essex into London’s Liverpool Street Station. I felt as though cocooned from my fellow passengers, and when they alighted I could hardly get to my feet in the empty train, such was the Lord’s silent, invisible but unmistakable embrace. At the time I was serving at IHQ as the Legal and Parliamentary Adviser. This 1940 edition of the Handbook represents Army literature at it best, written when we still knew how to write for a verdict in the heart, even in our teaching and instructional material.

Finally, the fifth volume is Jim Garrison’s From Hiroshima to Harrisberg – The Unholy Alliance (SCM Press Ltd., London, 1980). It opened my eyes as never before to the folly and waste of war. All that human energy, creativity, genius and funding poured into weapons of mass destruction in America, and eventually elsewhere, with millions still without food, shelter, clothing, eduction or housing. Something is wrong deep in the human soul. Garrison’s account of the coming of these weapons engendered in me a deep hatred of war, not such as to make me a pacifist outright but sufficient to take me to the very brink of that courageous outlook.

“We lay all carnal weapons down to take the shining sword.” How heartily, but thoughtlessly, we sometimes sing Catherine Baird’s anti-war anthem (SA Song Book1986, Song 705).

Captain Stephen Court
One of the joys of being the editor is that I can make up neat features like this one. Another of the joys is being able to succumb to the temptation to jump into the fray with my own two cents’ worth! After reading the submissions, I couldn’t resist. I’ve read a bunch of the books included by these greathearts commended above. But I am happy to say that I’ve got a fresh list!

While I’ve benefited by 20th century writers (such as Ravi Zacharias, Commissioner Ed Read, Peter Wagner, Jack Deere, Major Chick Yuill, and Charles Colson), I’ve chosen books by my heroes.

In 1777, John Wesley wrote an apologetic of his doctrine of holiness called A PLAIN ACCOUNT OF CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. He took the high road in the extremely charged debate of the day, allowing John Fletcher to scale the polemical heights in his CHECKS TO ANTINOMIANISM. His simple ‘question and answer’ format was imitated by General William Booth in Booth’s potent little 1903 book, THE DOCTRINES OF THE SALVATION ARMY (subtitled, “Prepared for the use of Cadets in Training For Officership”). Wesley patiently answered every critic’s question, every skeptic’s doubt, and every cynic’s disparagement with historically documented explanation of this Biblical doctrine. Now, A PLAIN ACCOUNT stands in for Fletcher’s CHECKS, and for Samuel Logan Brengle’s practical guides, especially HELPS TO HOLINESS (a book I carried along with my Bible on a bicycle to our neighbourhood park, where I sat, determined not to leave until I experienced the holiness described therein). A PLAIN ACCOUNT is precious not only as a defence but as a promise of what is possible.

The year after Wesley was promoted to Glory was born a man who would walk in his huge shoes. Across the ocean, Charles Finney stoked the fires of revival through the eastern United States. His preaching was so hardcore and so manifestly accompanied by the power of God that multitudes were transformed and cities were turned upside down. His LECTURES ON REVIVALS OF RELIGION (1835) is an account of the preaching that changed a nation. The sister volume is the stubbornly named, AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY THE REVEREND CHARLES G. FINNEY, 1792- 1875 (1876). Together they tell a divine story that rips the placid satisfaction right out of you.

It wasn’t two years after Finney was promoted to Glory that Catherine and William Booth made a name change that has changed the world. While John Wesley was the grandfather of The Salvation Army and Finney was dubbed ‘the Presbyterian Salvationist’ by the Booths themselves, my next choice, PAPERS ON AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY, was by the Army Mother herself (I’m hesitant to use that term, as she was the General and the Founder, too, but she is the only one who was the Mother). I could have chosen any of a few books by Booth. They are merely collections of her preaching. They are merely fire on paper! Flames flick from her words off the page to practically lick your clothes. Each sermon oozes spiritual authority. Almost every paragraph shouts out to you with the urgency of the war.

This hero makes no concessions, no compromises, and no political ‘correctitudes’. She put (and continues to put) a holy fear in me of the kind that doesn’t cause cowering and retreat but impels total exertion to spread the dread. This helped shaped my life- I named a cyber journal after it (JAC) and an annual conference (ACC- Aggressive Christianity Councils).

Catherine Booth was promoted to Glory in 1890. Not coincidently, Commissioner George Scott Railton was excommunicated from the halls of primitive salvationist Journal of Aggressive Christianity, Issue 26, August - September 2003 12 power in the same year (was it coincidental that this was the year of the death of primitive salvationism?). While not famous as an author, GSR battled as effectively with the pen as he did with the Bible. Backing up every page of HEATHEN ENGLAND was a life of unleashed resolve that GSR modeled for the world. My buddy called me this winter from training college to get suggestions for references. I recommended HEATHEN ENGLAND and TWENTY-ONE YEARS’ SALVATION ARMY. He emailed a week later noting that my name was the last one written in the CFOT borrowing cards (And I’ve been an officer for ten years!). And that is tragic, because the book is literally revolutionary, recounting, as it does, contemporary history of the primitive salvationist war. The stuff he was writing was happening outside his window. The heroics that lace these pages are enough to gouge a hole in your casual, comfortable Christianity and leave in its place a wrenching hunger for the guts to live and fight for death and glory as our 19th century comrades did, and for the God of Railton to show up again today.

Raliton outlived William Booth by a year. Booth has yet to get his due as an author. He wrote some unknown classics such as SERGEANT-MAJOR DO-YOUR-BEST, SEVEN SPIRITS: Or, What I Tell My Officers, HOW TO PREACH, PURITY OF HEART, all less famous than IN DARKEST ENGLAND AND THE WAY OUT. But my last choice is VISIONS. It is a collection of visions Booth had, the most renowned being ‘Who Cares?’ Not only is VISIONS eloquent, it persuasively depicts the divine.

Booth doesn’t settle with capturing your imagination- he grips it with a stranglehold. The undercurrent is that Booth is all about the prophetic. He hears from God and conveys the message to us. Most of us have neglected this reality in our salvationism (Catherine prophesied that this movement shall inaugurate the great final conquest of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ). We can more easily marginalize modern classics by Rick Joyner like FINAL QUEST and THE CALL. But Joyner lines up right behind Booth’s VISIONS for prophetic impact. And while I love the visions and the writing, I embrace the Army’s experience and calling with the prophetic.