Christian Education

Cardoza, Freddy, editor. Christian Education: A Guide to the Foundations of Ministry. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2019.

Christian education has changed quite a bit over the years, but it has also remained the same. The discipline itself has expanded to include many new ministries, and many of us witnessed the development of these ministries. Designed to serve as an introductory textbook for Christian education courses in Christian universities, this book demonstrates the hybrid nature of Christian education today. It draws from philosophy, psychology, business, religion, sociology, and other disciplines to emphasize the importance of ministering to all persons. With chapters by leading Evangelical Christian educators, the book emphasizes personal evangelism in spreading the Gospel and encourages training all believers to share their faith. Some writers developed their topic better than others who seemed to give only superficial treatment to the topic. With more topics to cover than textbooks of forty years ago, the editor's challenge in creating a volume suitable for a foundation course is understandable, but the coverage given some topics which used to garner more attention in courses of this nature is disappointing. This book should serve well as an introductory text for years to come when supplemented by additional content addressing weaker portions of the text. I received this advance review copy through NetGalley with the expectation of an honest review. Although I worked as a seminary librarian when some of the chapter authors attended my institution, I did not allow my friendship with the authors to influence my review.

Practicing Christian Education

Maddix, Mark A. and James Riley Estep, Jr. Practicing Christian Education: An Introduction for Ministry. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017.

Books designed specifically for Christian educators are not as plentiful as they once were, particularly when it comes to introductions. This introduction is really more of a theories approach than an overview as many others are. The authors correctly state Christian educators must be students of both theology and the social sciences; however, their book tends to rely more heavily on the social sciences than on theology. The authors illustrated the ignorance of today's generation in Biblical knowledge, yet their approach still relies more heavily on application of Biblical truths than on imparting the truths to them. The authors never really delved into the methodologies to be used in Christian education. It is my observation that in our attempt to make Christian education "less boring" for students, we created learning experiences more memorable for the activity than for the truth it sought to impart. While I don't advocate a return to reading a lesson and answering questions based upon it, I do believe we need to focus more on teaching the Bible and creating informed students who hide the Word of God in their hearts, particularly as we see increasing intolerance for Biblical worldviews in our society. We need to address the problem of Biblical illiteracy in the church. Opportunities for service need to exist, but we need to make sure we are equipping those who are charged with making disciples. This review is based on an advance review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley for review purposes. I should also disclose one of the authors is a friend of mine from years ago.