Considering Family Discipleship

The timing of the release of Family Discipleship: Leading Your Home Through Time, Moments, & Milestones was fortuitous. I am currently preaching a series on Cultivating a Culture of Discipleship. The final sermon, which is Sunday, is on Deuteronomy 6. The special pricing enabled us to buy copies to give away to our families with children at home.

Did we make a mistake in doing this? I mean that I had not yet read the book. It is possible we chose a very flawed book to give to our parents.

It has some minor flaws but it is a very good book over all.

It was written by Matt Chandler and Adam Griffin. Matt’s kids are largely teens, and Adam’s are younger. At times they explain how they have applied the framework they espouse.

“This book is a plea and a tool for you to embrace God’s call on you as a dad or mom to intentionally get in your kid’s life around their greatest need, their spiritual development.”

This is an honest book. These men do not claim to perfectly disciple their children. Nor do they expect you to do so either. They know there will be rich times and incredibly frustrating times as you seek to disciple your children.

This book provides a framework for understanding how that discipleship takes place within the course of life. The main chapters have questions to process the information and charts to help you apply the information to your family and circumstances. Many of them provide ideas for application. Each chapter has a page of quotes at the beginning. They include a passage of Scripture, familiar names like Charles Spurgeon and Howard Hendricks as well as some unexpected names like Theodore Roosevelt and (a great quote by) Frederick Douglass. The Ann Voskamp reference was … interesting. Sorry, I’m not a fan of Ann’s books.

The fact that the authors are Baptists does not seem to matter a great deal. The vast majority of what they say could be said by a Presbyterian, Methodist or Lutheran. The exceptions are the few times they mention baptism, and the mention of purity rings and purity ceremonies in the chapter on milestones. Purity rings & ceremonies are generally found in the purity culture of baptistic churches. I have no first hand knowledge of this but know that many felt damaged by purity culture. I don’t want to get into that, but this could turn some people off as a result.

Introduction

The framework is just that, and not a one-size fits all kind of program. Each family has unique circumstances and personalities. They want to respect this AND help you fulfill your responsibilities.

The goal is discipleship a process which we can control. We can’t control the outcome. We can’t save our children, and shouldn’t feel the weight of that burden. God doesn’t hold you responsible for their salvation, and you shouldn’t blame or demand that of yourself either.

Discipling our children will be costly at times. You may have to die to yourself and your agenda for your time. This process is important, but it is not the most important thing (IOW don’t make an idol out of it). It should not be a part of the common idolatry of children that we see. Their goal isn’t to shame you, but encourage you. They also recognize that some parents disqualify themselves from this place through abuse of their children.

The Family that Disciples

All parents who are Christians have the position of disciple maker as part of their responsibility. The family is the primary place for children being made disciples. You can only disciple them as much as you have been discipled yourself. You may need to be discipled into being able to fulfill your responsibility. Our children imitate us, and hopefully not only in negative ways.

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. 1 Corinthians 1

They also identify what family discipleship isn’t. For instance, it isn’t spiritual exploration without boundaries. It involves truth and love which means bringing them back to Scripture regularly as our authority. It isn’t using that Word to get your way. We don’t want to manipulate and spiritually abuse them. Know that your kids likely won’t be popular because they will go against the cultural tide. Nor is it an way be be admired because you’ll often make unpopular choices.

One minor issue was with a sentence in this section. “Your identity is rooted in being a child of God not a parent of your child.” Actually, my identity is both. Surely the primary one is in Christ but we have many identities that reflect the various callings Christ has put on our lives.

One way they try to take pressure off is to remind it that it generally takes place in the ordinary course of life. Kids don’t need a lesson from you that rivals the best of R.C. Sproul. They do need you to take initiative in their spiritual formation and development. Don’t wait for them to ask you to teach them the Bible. You do want to make such family time and discussions the norm in your family.

The Foundation

The authors bring us to the two greatest commandments as stated by Jesus in Matthew 22. Our priority is to help our children “know, follow, and trust him.” Ideally parents and churches are working together with this goal. Parents have the primary responsibility but “there are some things our kids feel more comfortable talking through with someone who is not their mom or dad.”

It isn’t just about doctrine, but also recounting God’s faithfulness in history (redemption) and in your life (redemption applied or testimony). Both of these have Scriptural basis.

They recognize that sin makes family life difficult more often than we want to admit. This means, in part, modeling repentance to your children. This means teaching them to resolve conflict in a godly fashion.

Since the church is the household of God, we see the family as a microcosm of church and one of the two places we are intended to learn the faith. We learn how to love God and one another.

Modeling

The chapter on modeling seems to be about getting your own house in order as a parent. The material at the end helps you see how you engage in your own discipleship, and encourages you to make necessary changes for your personal benefit, the benefit of your kids and the glory of God (ultimately).

They encourage us to be both reliable and relatable. These refer to integrity (often born in repentance) and relational connection. They need to see you worship God, trust God, obey God and thank God. They need your consistency of life. They need to see you loving your neighbor.

One of the joys I’ve had as a dad is seeing my kids helping our neighbors. I love that He is developing a heart for others in them, even if they are sometimes reluctant or inconsistent.

We aren’t just teaching them doctrine but preparing them to leave the house as fully functioning adults and, hopefully, Christians.

I reminded my daughter the other day that most mornings, if she gets up early enough, she’ll see her mother and me in the Scriptures. We are committed to being in the Word. We are committed to prayer and pray with the kids at meals regularly (beyond ‘thanks’) and bedtimes (though as they are older and go to bed at different times this is tougher). They also see the rhythm of church life modeled for them.

Time

Now they begin to unfold their framework. Discipleship takes place in time. It requires time as a regular investment. This may require eliminating something to free up time but mostly you can find some common free time in the weekly schedule. They note that most of us have a “disordered relationship with (our) itinerary.”

They want you to establish reasonable goals rather than thinking you’re going to spend 30-60 minutes each night with your kids expounding the Word and in deep prayer. It might be 15 minutes most nights. We used to read them a chapter from the Jesus Storybook Bible each night. When they started BSF with their mother, we’d help them with the take home work. So we were regularly engaging them with Scripture (they now do most of the BSF work on their own). At times we’ve worked on Catechism questions. I wish I could say we’ve done all these consistently and well, but sometimes my selfish agenda meant I begrudgingly gave them time and wasn’t as patient as I should have been.

But this is about establishing regular routines of discipleship with your kids that are age appropriate. They won’t all be home runs or appreciated. But they are to be intentional. Discipleship doesn’t just happen by accident.

There is a helpful section here on the difference between telling and teaching. Too often we settle for telling because it is easier and quicker. But we are called to teach them so they understand and can apply it.

Moments

It’s been 5 years.

In addition to the rhythms of life there are the teachable moments of life. These are often the unplanned moments when you can speak into their lives as they struggle with relationships, health or failure. There are also the positive moments when you stop to thank God for mercy. These are the times they learn about repentance, forgiveness and more.

Many moments provide opportunity to speak gospel truth into their lives, much like it says in Deuteronomy 6. Yes, they may find this annoying at times, but points them back to Jesus.

These are the moments we teach them who God is. These are the moments when we teach them godly character as well. Here we teach them to logic of grace (gospel facts ==> gospel-shaped living).

Milestones

This is the process of celebrating and commemorating the big occasions of life. It isn’t just birthdays or graduations. They are opportunities to note what God has done, and perhaps celebrate some annually (like Gotcha Days for adopted kids).

Milestones are the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. We acknowledge God is there and still sovereign. In the days of the Patriarchs and Wilderness wanderings they built altars to mark significant places and times. They aid in our memory. And our children’s. Pass on the milestones of your life so they hear of the faithfulness of God to you.

For us there have been surgeries as well as adoption ceremonies. On vacation we often have Farm Fest which has morphed into Family Fest which includes time of worship and instruction. We could do a better job of making a big deal about recitals and other events but I think that is a function of our personality.

Overall, as I noted, this is a very helpful book for parents to think through how they will disciple their kids. It is a big picture book rather than a how-to book on family worship. This is an encouragement to engage in the process of discipleship regarding your kids. The focus is on time, moments and milestones as the opportunities God provides to express your love for God and your kids so they learn to love and obey him.

If you haven’t already, embark on that great endeavor.

“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” Frederick Douglass

 

 

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Considering Making Kingdom Disciples

Sometimes you read a book that has been sitting on your shelf for years and think, “I wish I’d read this years ago.”

Making Kingdom Disciples: A New Framework by Charles Dunahoo is one of those books, at least for me.

I can’t remember how I got my copy. Someone else had read it so it was highlighted and underlined with black ink. I might be the third person to read it. I use red ink when I read a book. Now the book is quite colorful.

Dunahoo is the either retiring or now-retired coordinator for the PCA Committee for Christian Education and Publications (I can’t remember). He served on a variety of committees in the early and formative days of the PCA. He’s been a pastor and taught systematic theology and apologetics at the Atlanta School of Biblical Studies. The fruit of much of that work is displayed in this book. You can see the influence of Francis Shaeffer, Cornelius Van Til and John Frame in this volume. There is plenty of  interaction with postmodernism (as well as modernism).

This is not a nuts and bolts kind of book, as he admits. It is a framework. That framework will need to be filled out in ways appropriate to your particular context and strengths. This means the book is not about the acts of discipleship (reading plans, planning prayer and other practices we think of when we think about discipleship). His focus is on the big picture.

This book has three parts: Knowing the Word, Knowing the World and Biblical Models for Applying the Word to the World.

Knowing the Word

The first section is by far the longest at around 120 pages. Knowing the Word is the Framework for Discipleship. that Dunahoo is talking about. He calls this a kingdom model. Discipleship is about reordering a life around the realities of the kingdom of Jesus. That means not simply new practices but a new way of thinking.

“Generic definition: A disciple is someone who accepts a set of beliefs, and embraces a holistic, total, and intentional approach to life based on those beliefs.

“Kingdom definition: a kingdom disciple is someone who thinks God’s thoughts after him and applies them to all of life.”

This involves a brand new way of thinking as Paul repeatedly asserts in his epistles. We are, after all, transformed by the renewing of our minds. That means not simply new beliefs (it includes that) but new ways of viewing and thinking about everything. He differentiates between a program-based model, an individual (often parachurch) model, the small group model and his kingdom model. The kingdom model incorporates the other models but “places them in the context of God’s kingdom. It is informational, formational, and transformational!” There is content, it forms a worldview and transforms lives.

Dunahoo then dives into how we think and know. This has been complicated by neo-orthodoxy and postmodernism. He wants us to be “epistemologically self-conscious” which he defines as “being aware of what we know and how we know what we know.” This includes knowing what we don’t know. He describes the shift in authority from the premodern (revelation) to the modern (reason) and the postmodern (self & community). Since the premodern era “truth and knowledge have been divorced from the person of God.” He stresses that true knowledge comes in relationship with the God who made us and everything else. This God can reveal our biases and filters that so often color our judgments and make our thinking and conclusions distorted. Here his dependence on Schaeffer becomes clear as he develops a “checks-and-balances approach” that helps us identify our biases. One of the problems he identifies with a postmodern approach is “a knowing process wherein truth is relatively determined from moment to moment, form place to place” rather than in an observable process. Tik Tok is an example of this as many young people seem to think they can process politics and society from 30 second videos of people dancing to bad music.

From knowing, Dunahoo returns to the Kingdom and its implications for theology, mission and ministry. The kingdom is larger than the Church, encompassing the whole of creation and therefore determines how we live in all of life (not just at home or in church). Kingdom refers to the realm (creation) and his reign (providence and revealed will). This implies the limitations of the Church’s role in the world which individual Christians don’t share. The Church proclaims the good news and disciples Christians about what to believe and how to live. In the world, as part of the kingdom, Christians work for justice as well as proclaim the good news. The Church has no role in politics, but Christians certainly do as citizens of two kingdoms. We act in the name of Christ under His authority, but not in the name of the Church. Christians vote, but not the Church (nor should it bind your conscience in voting).

“… it helps the Christian know how to live as a member of Christ’s body, the church, but also how to live in the broader kingdom realm.”

From there, he gets into a Christian World-and-Life view. This builds on the previous chapters and is the logical conclusion. As the kingdom shapes our thinking & knowing we develop a Christian world-and-life view. He engages with how our world-and-life views are shaped (and re-shaped) and why it is important. There is a good caution that our world-and-life view is continually being reformed so be humble and don’t think you have it all figured out. You don’t.

The next two chapters cover the Reformed Faith and the Covenant. Discipleship, for him and other Reformed people, happens within the context of our theological heritage and the covenant by which God regulates His relationship with His people. They are essential rather than optional aspects of discipleship for a kingdom model. Discipleship is not atheological. He addresses some misconceptions of theology and then summarizes key doctrines in the Reformed heritage.

Covenant is a key aspect of Reformed Theology. Reformed Theology is covenantal theology, but covers more than covenant theology. Discipleship takes place within and should recognize certain covenantal realities. It shapes how we think of family and God’s work in and through families (you and your seed), as an example. In covenant theology grace precedes obedience. This logic of grace (as Ferguson calls it) is to be an important part of discipleship. Obedience is taught, but not as a way of meriting grace. It is a response to grace and flows out of faith expressing itself in love.

Knowing the World

The second section of Dunahoo’s book deals with the context of discipleship. Discipleship occurs in a context just as it also involves addressing how we know what we know and what we are supposed to know.

“We have to teach people to think biblically, and that requires more than simple Bible study. … We must understand God’s revelation, particularly his inscripturated Word, in our particular circumstance to know how to apply that Word and think biblically about life and reality.”

Dunahoo begins with Modernity. He views it as a threat IF it is allowed to “control our lifestyles consciously, subconsciously, or unconsciously.” It can be an opportunity IF “we understand it and its influence, and know how to use it in proper ways.” In this context he defines premodern, modernity and postmodernism as he did earlier in terms of sources of authority for knowledge and true.

Then he moves into modernity’s influence on (American) Christianity. We see it’s influence in pluralism which offers people choices and allows for change. It can make Christianity seemingly irrelevant in the marketplace of ideas. It leads to privatism which also relegates faith to the private sphere of one’s life. This seeks to limit faiths influence on the public sphere so that laws don’t reflect one’s moral views but lack a fixed reference point. He also examines individualism in which my reason (not ours) is the measure of truth. There is a lack of community since life is about me. This also leads us to relativism so there is no standard to measure cultures.

“As Francis Schaeffer often said in his lectures and writings, if there are no absolutes by which to judge society, then society itself becomes absolute.”

He also addresses, briefly, techism. We tend to think newer is better. People become a commodity even as we try to extend life (with medicine) without creating proper financial support systems for those longer lives. Tied to this is the rise of pop culture and immediacy.

The next chapter address the postmodern paradigm. Postmodernism takes pluralism to new heights, or possibly depths. Postmodernism is existentialism and nihilism in more concrete forms. Absolute truth becomes a meaningless concept since we can’t define truth. We look to ourselves to create meaning.

He briefly examines four key postmodernists: Jean Francois Lyotard, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Richard Rorty. He then examines the key terms of postmodernism: Foundationalism, Pragmatism (Utilitarianism), Relativism and Structuralism. In evaluating postmodernism he asserts that it is not a reaction to modernism but rather the collapse of modernism which couldn’t bear the weight of its beliefs. Postmodernism can’t bear its own weight either. Long term communities can’t exist when they leave God out as a reference point. Otherwise self-interest and extremism rip them apart.

Both modernism and postmodernism are present in our culture. This is a function of the generational context. Older generations still operate in a modernist mindset (generally) and younger generations are more influenced by postmodernism. Discipleship can’t ignore modernism and postmodernism, and can’t ignore the generational context either.

He explores the Traditionalist, In Betweener, Boomer, Gen X and Millennial generations. He looks at the context in which they grew and their commitments (or lack thereof).

“We need all the generations coming together to produce the kind of covenant family that will survive the pressures, dangers, and consequences of today’s often degenerate and demoralizing world.”

Dunahoo is not trying to pit one generation against the other. He does note their strengths and weaknesses, as well as their general outlooks which can complement one another. Multi-generational ministries will balance the concerns of the various generations and help them humbly offer their strengths.

Applying the Word to the World

The third section applies the Word we’ve come to know to the world in which we live. This is the crux of discipleship because theology is meant to be lived, not simply asserted and assented.

He provides three biblical models or examples of how to do this. The first is Paul in Athens (Acts 17). Paul gains a hearing by building bridges through points of contact. Our message has to have some meaning to those who listen. In many cases this means first listening to the concerns and questions of those to whom we speak. This doesn’t mean that Paul was a relativist. He had a fixed reference point. He didn’t compromise his worldview but built on common concerns to then communicate his worldview. In this Dunahoo distinguishes between actual relevance (what it means for our lives) and functional relevance (whether or not we see that relevance).

The second model is Ecclesiastes which examines various worldviews to reveal their inadequacies. He notes that many Muslims criticize Christianity because western Christians have ceased to see it as a worldview, a system of thinking and doing. The topics he relates through Ecclesiastes are life, pleasure, happiness, wisdom, work, possessions, man and eternity. These are viewed from “under the sun” or from a human perspective and “above the sun” the view from above otherwise known as a Christian worldview.

In this context Dunahoo approaches the problem of legalism. We have liberties that we can enjoy in this life. We don’t avoid pleasure, happiness, wisdom etc. but seek them in God-honoring ways. This means in their proper place so they are not what we are living for but rather enjoying them as gifts from God to be used for His glory.

The third example is a covenantal reading of Genesis 13. We have to place texts within their context of the rest of Scripture and therefore the covenants. Dunahoo is getting at the gospel logic of indicative-imperative, moving from God’s grace to gospel implications. This rescues us from trying to merit God’s favor. The successes and failures of Abram must be viewed within the context of the covenant in which God gave grace to pagan Abram.

“That is the heart of discipleship: knowing about God in a way that transforms our lives by making us more like him, loving and caring for what he love and cares for.”

He is highly dependent upon S.G. DeGraaf’s Promise and Deliverance which seems to be out of print now. The life of a disciple is fundamentally a life of faith in the promises of God. As we see in Hebrews 11 faith acts on the promises of God. Our faith is “truths fleshed out in vertical and horizontal relationships.”

As I noted, this is a book I wish I had read years ago. It is a more theological, abstract book. It does get at the presuppositions of discipleship and that is a necessary endeavor. I may try to communicate this material in a SS class or in teacher training. It will inform what I’m looking to do going forward.

Providing a framework, Dunahoo does not exhaustively examine his topics. He summarizes quite a bit, and necessarily so. In other words, this is not a book on postmodernism but summarizes the high points pertaining to kingdom discipleship. He then provides some resources to better understand postmodernism (or Reformed Theology or generational differences etc.).

One of my takeaways, for instance, came from the chapter on generations. Boomers tend to look for a “how to” in sermons. One older elder I knew used to write YBH in outlines, meaning “Yes, but how”. Busters/Xers like myself tend to look for “Why” in a sermon. Those are the two that I’m used to addressing. The one I need to add more consciously is the Millennial focus on the “so what”. Hopefully this will improve my preaching as a result, and preaching is a key component of discipleship.

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Considering The Dynamic Heart in Daily Life

Sometimes life just gets busy and books get put aside for a spell. That’s what has happened.

I began reading The Dynamic Heart in Daily Life: Connecting Christ to Human Experience by Jeremy Pierre while I was on vacation/study leave back in July. I didn’t quite finish it and resumed when I got home. Or tried anyway.

Unfortunately I had committed to Congregational Conversations on Women in the Church and Talking Politics which are reflected in my numerous posts on Aimee Byrd and Jonathan Haidt.

Jeremy Pierre teaches counseling at Southern Seminary. This is a book written for biblical counseling. While I do some counseling, I read it to improve my preaching just as much as my personal ministry. As a result, I’m looking at this with slightly different eyes than his intended audience.

This book is structured in 3 sections. My bottom line is that the first two were excellent, and I got mired in the third.

The first section is The Beauty of Human Experience: How the Heart Responds Dynamically. Pierre develops this section reflecting a redemptive historical structure. The first two chapter seem to focus on the heart as created by God, and then we have the heart corrupted and then redeemed. It end with the heart in context.

Pierre develops a biblical understanding of the heart: interaction between thinking, feeling and willing. As he notes in his diagram the functions are interrelated and overlapping. Our heart responses are complex.

We think about what we value. Our feelings reveal what we value. Our choices reveal what we value most. Our heart interacts with the world and our circumstances. All three of these functions are important and often work behind the scenes. He mentions John Frame, and it is hard not to think about this in a triperspectival fashion.

“None of the faculties, so understood, exists or acts apart from the others, each is dependent on the others, and each includes the others.”

He connects worship to our thoughts, feelings and choices. God made us to respond to Him, the world and our circumstances. Similar to Haidt, Pierre notes Antonio Damasio’s work on people with brain injuries affecting emotions. Without emotions people don’t make better decisions but none or worse decisions. Our reactions seem intuitive (like in Haidt) not with reason leading the way. He mentions Haidt on page 33. This doesn’t mean we are thoughtless. We use past experiences and think about how to interpret circumstances. We also have affective and volitional responses to situations.

Due to the corruption of sin, our “experience is fragmented, dysfunctional, incomplete.” We all experience inner conflict as sin “hijacks the dynamic heart’s beautiful design.” Pierre develops this in terms of dynamic unfaithfulness and idolatry.

But thankfully God didn’t leave us all there. In regeneration we have a “renewed” heart, or one that is redeemed. His focus is on faith: a faith that is thinking, desiring and committed. This reflects the Protestant notion of the content, asset and trust comprising faith.

“The dynamic heart is always active, response-able, and therefore responsible.”

The second section entitled The Context of Human Experience: What the Heart Dynamically Responds To. The most obvious answer is God, but also to self, to others and circumstances. This fits well with Relational Wisdom 360 (God, self, others) as well as Frame’s triperspectivalism (God, me & circumstances (people included)).

He begins with God, and worship. One of his illustrations isn’t quite accurate. The temperature of the sun does change, not just the color of our sunsets (the two have nothing to do with one another). But he does get into Van Til’s Creator-creature distinction to differentiate our experience from God’s. God knows Himself perfectly. We not only can’t comprehend God, we don’t know ourselves fully either. He then gets to the similarities: thinking, valuing & choosing.

Faith includes not only believing God exists but “expressing the raw contents of the heart to God.” We see this throughout the Psalms. When we say that God wants our hearts He not only wants our thoughts captive to Him, but emotions shared with Him and wills in submission to Him. This is being God-aware and God-engaging in our circumstances.

He then addresses issues of identity.

“The primary point of this chapter is this: The dynamic heart functions from a personal identity constructed from various sources. Caring for people involves addressing how their constructed identity compares to their given identity.”

He notes that we simultaneously operate with different identities. At the same moment I can operate as friend and pastor, husband and father. Underneath all of this should be my grace-given identity in Christ. He discusses layers of identity reflecting a person’s cultural circles, with Christ at the center. A person’s circumstances, present environment, shapes how they conceive of their role and response to others. When I return home, my role is the youngest and it is like going through a time warp. It is unconscious. I struggle with my role & responses when visiting with my wife’s family: still, after 20 years. But the others around us matter too in how we understand our identities. As noted above, counseling (and preaching) seeks to shift people to their given identities, and to re-shape constructed ones to be more in synch with our given identity. At one point I did write in the margin that our conception of our given identities (Christian, husband, father etc.) can be culturally constructed.

Pierre then shifts to others and influence, particularly the influence of others on our hearts. Our choices on who or what influences us is often unconscious. It happens beneath the surface as something draws us to a person. But they then exert influence on us. And we on them. This influence can be both positive and negative. As we grow in self-awareness we will better understand how we engage with others. He addresses various orbits of influence: culture, family of origin, current family, vocation, social circles, media and then church as an alternate community of influence.

From there he moves into our circumstances and their meaning as they interact with our dynamic hearts. He notes that “People automatically process the events occurring around them according to their established framework of belief.” This is why change requires a renewal of the mind, and frameworks not simply thoughts. Our beliefs are part of a framework, not isolated. Here he gets into control beliefs which “determine how they interpret circumstances; their control values will determine how they feel about circumstances; and their control commitments will determine what choices they make in response to circumstances.” Counseling (and preaching) should address those control beliefs, values & commitments. Often these are shaped by seismic events: a divorce, and injury or illness, sexual assault etc. That means the event needs to be addressed so its power is lessened over time.

The book ends with Counseling from a Theology of Human Experience. He compares counseling to raking, not baking. His counseling process involves reading hearts, reflecting so people can understand their hearts, relate them to Jesus, and renew so they make new responses. This is where I got bogged down. It has less content and more sample questions to get at each of these steps in the raking process. If I were reading with an eye on counseling I probably would have found it more profitable. I did find the first two sections very profitable.

Whether for preaching, counseling or personal ministry of various sorts, this is a helpful book. He has some good illustrations from counseling and history (the story of the Essex as told in The Heart of the Sea). He draws on a variety of sources that might sound odd but actually are more similar than you think. Haidt, as I’ve mentioned in other places, reminds me of Van Til whom Pierre reflects through John Frame. He’s got some helpful sources and influences which enable him to put together a book about how the heart works that enhances understanding and hopefully in the various kinds of heart work we are called to do.

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