ENCOURAGEMENT:
Adrenaline for the soul
By Mark Chanski
Reformation Heritage Books. 175 pages.
£13.50
ISBN 978 1 601 786 623
en readers who are culturally British in outlook should beware of dismissing this book as inspired by American pragmatism or pop psychology. The author, sensitive to the dangers of ‘ego-stroking motivational speak’ and ‘moralistic therapeutic deism’, is driven by the conviction that it is the Bible that ‘is teeming with revelation that calls us to love one another by mutual encouragement’.
Mark Chanski’s aim is to see ‘the rank-and-file reader … constrained in soul’ to be a Barnabas-like encourager. Drawing widely from Scripture, he earths his compelling exhortations in numerous illustrations and anecdotes, and reinforces them with quotations from other authors. He is careful to distinguish between giving encouragement and giving flattery, and between receiving encouragement and becoming puffed up. He is also clear on the importance of ‘loving criticism’, ‘the healthy companion of loving encouragement’.
This book should prove to be a particularly helpful corrective to those believers whose cultural instincts hamper obedience to the biblical command to encourage their brothers and sisters; to ‘glass-half-empty’ word ministers who are quicker to identify faults than to rejoice at signs of maturity within the flock; to church members who are more inclined to look for weaknesses in a sermon than to submit to the word; to churches that have a disproportionate number of brothers and sisters who are suffering. It is hard to imagine any pastor not wanting his congregation to benefit from Chapter 10 and his staff team from Chapter 11. There is an excellent chapter on marriage and a useful one on parenting. I was often moved to reflect on how this area of my life needs to be reformed.
One could suggest improvements for a second edition. Lines are too blurred between encouraging fellow human beings in general, and Christian brothers and sisters in particular. A Spurgeon quote features three times, but Romans 15:4 and Ephesians 4:15 not at all. Statements can occasionally appear overdrawn, for example that Paul ‘gushes publicly’ about Rufus in Romans 16:13. Scripture is not always cited appropriately; for example, 1 Thessalonians 5:11 is quoted four times, but not once in relation to the two immediately preceding verses to which it is tied: indeed, the reason why the Thessalonian believers must encourage one another (v.11: ‘Therefore’) is because of the gospel (vv. 9-10). The gospel is the subject of one of the chapters, but there is scope for it to feature more centrally throughout the book.
But this book is a precious tool for addressing an area that (for many of us) needs our attention, individually and corporately. I pray that it would have a deep and wide impact for the glory of God.
