17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good foundation for a future biography, June 20, 2011
This review is from: John MacArthur: Servant of the Word and Flock (Hardcover)
Iain Murray is surely the most gifted Christian biographer writing today. His work on Martin Lloyd Jones stands as one of the all-time classic books in any genre, and his recent work, Heroes, has two of the most emotional biographies I have ever read.
John MacArthur is my pastor, mentor, and hero in the faith. So three years ago, when John celebrated his 40th anniversary as pastor of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, the elders asked Iain Murray if he would come and help us. We wanted to hear from Murray how exactly John fit into church history. We knew that John's time at Grace was significant, but we wanted Murray to tell us how significant it was. In other words, his assignment was to put explain the significance of MacArthur's ministry by placing into its historical context. Murray agreed, until he found out that we wanted him to do that on a Lord's Day morning, from the pulpit. He opted instead to preach, and he brought with him a 60 page mini-biography of John (Murray called it a "sketch"). This sketch is what eventually grew into the full biography released this month by Banner of Truth.
It must be noted that Murray has never written a biography of a living person before, and he was aware that he was breaking the rules. So he opted to do his research for the book without consulting or interviewing MacArthur (I assume as a way to keep the same approach to his study that served him so well on his other biographies). So in that sense, John MacArthur: Servant of the Word and Flock is an unauthorized biography. Quotes from MacArthur were all taken from his sermons, interviews previously recorded at Grace To You, and his books. So MacArthur may still be living, but Murray approached his research without regard to that fact.
If you are a fan of Murray's writing, this book does not disappoint. He brings you into the life of MacArthur in a compelling way. Murray's description of events from MacArthur's life made me feel like I was experiencing them myself. The small house, the doting mother, the almost transient lifestyle of a pastor's son, all come alive through Murray's prose.
Murray begins his work by stating the obvious: what God has done through MacArthur's ministry is surely a testimony to His sovereignty. There have been forty million sermons downloaded, millions of tapes, millions of radio broadcasts, and over 1,000 graduates from his seminary. There is a church built right outside of Hollywood that sings hymns, preaches expositional sermons, and practices church discipline. Clearly this is God's work.
But Murray hastens to add that this is also a human story, and he relates that story exceptionally well. He describes MacArthur's family, his time at Bob Jones, and his time as an itinerant speaker. We learn that MacArthur went to the South to preach to blacks during the civil rights movement and was arrested. Murray takes us with MacArthur to Asia, and describes how he met Mother Terresa, and how depressed he was afterwards. We learn how he ended up as the pastor of Grace, how the staff mutinied, and how MacArthur endured and lead the church through a period of remarkable growth.
The focus of the latter half of the book is on the growth of Grace To You. Murray describes its origins, its growth into a tape shack on campus, and how it transformed into an international ministry that made MacArthur one of the most listened to preachers in the world, and one of the most influential authors today.
There are times when I imagine myself writing a biography of John MacArthur. In these daydreams, there are two things I want people to see about him. The first is how humble he is. People who only know him from behind the pulpit have no idea how compassionate and humble he is in real life. He is a man who does not think highly of himself, and who consistently is more concerned about others than himself. Because this is so radically different than the stereotype of MacArthur, it is exceptionally difficult to portray. But Murray captures this very well. In fact, the stregth of this book is that Murray conveys a description of MacArthur that matches the man I know.
The second point I would want to convey in my imaginary biography is how much MacArthur has done for missions. I honestly cannot think of another church through history that has had the kind of international impact that Grace Church has experienced under MacArthur's leadership. They have sent over 100 missionary families around the world, have launched thriving pastoral training centers in a dozen countries, and have seminaries that are training the next generation of pastors. To name a few examples, México, South Africa, Germany, Ukraine and Russia all have seminaries that were started by graduates of the Master's Seminary, and are now perhaps the main evangelical seminaries in their respective nations. On top of this are other seminaries, Bible colleges, training centers around the world, as well as Bible translators and pastors that are all supported by Grace Church and serve under MacArthur's leadership.
It is this second point that I feel Murray's work did not adequately capture. To be sure, he does describe the growth of Grace To You. And he does make the point that by refusing to tailor his message to a culture, MacArthur has been able to preach a message that transcends culture. But my main criticism of the book is that--apart from Grace To You--it does not really attempt to portray the depth of the global impact of MacArthur's ministry.
Internationally, the affect of MacArthur's life is not seen in the fact he is on the radio. It is seen in the fact that for many people, he trained the man who trained their pastor. The global vision of MacArthur is not simply more stations in more countries, but more qualified men behind the pulpit in every corner of the world.
Overall, John MacArthur is a helpful look at the life of this significant man. In reading other reviews of this book, I noticed that people were concerned that Murray is too approving of MacArthur. Obviously, Murray chose to write this book because of his affection for him, and so it would seem natural that it would be mostly positive. Nevertheless, Murray does have an entire chapter devoted to questions about MacArthur's ministry, and Murray deals with some of the most common criticisms levied at him (ie. "he is too dogmatic when he preaches").
Murray himself has two concerns that he leaves for the reader to answer. He wonders if MacArthur's approval of instruments in church music is a capitulation to the culture, and he wonders about how his dispensationalism relates to the rest of his theology. Murray helpfully shows how MacArthur has distanced himself from the errors of Ryrie/Scofield dispensationalism, but he notes that MacArthur remains a dispensationalist--although a different kind.
Ultimately, Murray knows this is not going to be the definitive work on MacArthur's life. Instead, he says he simply wants this book to lay the ground work for a future biographer. Whoever that is should be sincerely grateful, because this is certainly a compelling look at MacArthur's life, and it serves to make the reader thankful that God has raised up men like this to build His church.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Apt Subtitle for Another Well-written and Enjoyable Biography From Murray, June 10, 2011
This review is from: John MacArthur: Servant of the Word and Flock (Hardcover)
"Servant of the Word and Flock" is an apt subtitle for Iain Murray's new biography of John MacArthur. The book leaves us convinced that no ministry is as important to MacArthur as serving his church by teaching and preaching God's word. Murray points out that the one stipulation Dr. MacArthur made when accepting the call to Grace Community Church "was that he be allowed thirty hours a week for study."
"Surely one of the greatest strengths of MacArthur's preaching ministry is his complete confidence in the text," Murray writes. MacArthur would take this as a compliment. "When I started ministry," he says, "I committed myself to expository preaching, just explaining the Bible, because I know that there was nothing I could say that was anywhere near as important as what God had to say."
Though MacArthur has served Grace Community Church for over forty years, and attendance is in the thousands, if all that he did was preach, most of us wouldn't know his name. But that's not the case; MacArthur writes more books than most Christians read. Murray gives ample attention to these as well as the controversy that sometimes follows (as in the case of The Gospel According to Jesus, which sparked the so-called Lordship Controversy). Because these books, including MacArthur's Study Bible and New Testament Commentaries, are translated in dozens of languages and shipped over the world, often at no cost to the recipient, MacArthur ministers to millions whom he has never met. That doesn't count those who listen to his sermons, free of charge, compliments of Grace to You.
Murray's book concentrates more on MacArthur's work than on the man himself. Still, we read about MacArthur's past, his childhood, and how he was shaped by his father and grandfather. We read of his humility--when the only rental car available was a Cadillac, he chose to walk the last several blocks to his appointment so as not to send the wrong message. We read about his love for others, especially his family: "The family is the one environment where your devotion, faithfulness, and consistency matter most," wrote MacArthur. Murray even dedicates an entire chapter to MacArthur's wife, Patricia, of whom MacArthur wrote: "For every grief I ever caused her, she has given me a thousand blessings in return." Murray shows that, as one of MacArthur's friends said, "His greatest sermon is his life."
While Murray's appreciation for his subject is obvious, the book is by no means an exercise in hero worship. Murray addresses MacArthur's failures and sometimes disagrees with his beliefs. One preacher from Brazil speaks for many when he wonders how MacArthur can be "soteriologically reformed and dispensational at the same time." Though Murray doesn't dwell long on his disagreement with MacArthur's views regarding the end times, he does state them, and he observes that a literal interpretation of Old Testament prophecy is inconsistent with the way the New Testament writers often interpreted Scripture.
Murray tells us twice that these 240 pages are "little more than a sketch; this is not the time, nor I the writer, to give a full portrait." While it may not end up being the most complete biography, it is hard to imagine that there will be one as well-written and interesting. We do, however, have reason to agree that "this is not the time." Though MacArthur turns 72 on the nineteenth day of this month (June 2011), he has no plans to retire:
"As the Lord permits, I hope to continue teaching God's word and shepherding His flock until the day I go to be with Him."
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Banner of Truth in exchange for an honest review.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
I felt like I was kept at arms length, August 16, 2011
This review is from: John MacArthur: Servant of the Word and Flock (Hardcover)
I have listened to John MacArthur through his Grace To You radio and internet broadcasts for years, so when I received this book from Grace To You I was intrigued to learn a little more about the man behind the preaching.
This book was not hard to read, and took me very little time to get through, but for the most part the book left me sort of empty as a response. The writing seemed a bit disjointed and disconnected from the subject. We learn very little about the man, and the author spends more time discussing certain sermons that John MacArthur has preached, or topics from Christianity that John has spent his ministry preaching on.
To me this seemed more like a contrived work, where a fan is given very limited access to the subject, and in essence, is handed a file of public records, and left to his own devices in how to contrive the story. Perhaps the most interesting part of the book for me was the account of John MacArthur's trip to Southeast Asia. Details from India are rather interesting, but I came out of that account thinking that here were some spoiled Americans who were too spoiled in their ways to reach the people of India.
If you are trying to get a deeper sense of what drives John MacArthur, and to understand his ministry at the core, I don't feel I really received that here, as everything was left very sanitized, and kept at arms length. But perhaps that was intentional from the subjects perspective.
I am left to ponder whether John MacArthur's approach to ministry is what Jesus Christ had in mind for us here on earth. Stay in one place for your entire life, and never leave a 10 square mile stretch of land from where you were born. Granted, the author is careful to emphasize how MacArthur's radio ministry has touched millions of lives throughout the world. Perhaps that tells us all we need to know about how John MacArthur is being used by Christ in this lifetime.
Unfortunately, unlike the New Testament account of the life of Jesus Christ, we don't see the blood, sweat and tears of John MacArthur's life written about here.
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