Words'nTone

Now six years ago I finally was able to publish my my work on Philippians.  Every once in a while, I post a portion of the text Words’nTone, but this time I’d like to shamelessly promote the book as a whole.  I appreciate those who have downloaded the free chapter, and of course many thanks to those who have actually bought the book.  I originally wrote the book because a publisher asked me to—but in the end, the manuscript was released back to me (good thing, the publisher went out of business!).  Below is a synopsis of what the book, Destroying Our Private Cities, Building Our Spiritual Life,is and why I wrote it.

As a preacher and Bible College professor, I had read countless commentaries, and in this case, many commentaries on Philippians.  When I started, I was actually teaching a College Bible course on Philippians and one of the things I noticed was that there was the extremes in commentaries: On the one hand you had detailed, exegetical, very scholarly works, and on the other, lay-works that were short on exegesis and jumped right to interpretation and application.  Most lay-styled commentaries seem very short on how the author arrived at his or her interpretation.  I thought this very unfair to the lay-reader.  So when I was asked to write a commentary on Philippians, I sought to fill that gap and provide a book that helped the lay-reader see how to arrive at one’s interpetation through a careful exegesis of the book—that is, how an exegete works through a text, and in particularly allows the whole of the work (in this case Paul’s Letter to the Philippians) helps to interprete the individual paragraphs.

The Book
Every time the church adopts the surrounding culture’s values, it dies a little. Often it is brought to the brink of the grave. In every age, the church has had to wrestle for its very life. Paul’s letter to the Philippians cuts across the misplaced values of a self-centered culture.

Destroying Our Private Cities, Building Our Spiritual Life is a lay commentary, written in a homiletical and expositional style, that enables readers to hear Paul’s argument through Philippians and how the church’s flirtation with individualism has affected our faith and the life of the church. The danger of our privatized, modern faith is exposed. Both personal and church-corporate solutions to have “the mind of Christ” are given.

Destroying Our Private Cities, Building Our Spiritual Life offers the lay reader insight, and offers pastors and Bible study leaders plenty of expositional depth on Paul’s letter to the Philippians.

Why I wrote Destroying Our Private Cities
I began writing the book while teaching at a Bible college, with many of the chapters completed while pastoring a church, and finishing and editing it while I was beginning a new career field in community action.  Although the book certainly is an exegetical work through Paul’s Letter to the Philippian Church, my influences come from the three worlds of higher Christian educationchurch work, and social action.

• I wanted to write a readable commentary my mother could read without dumbing-down the content
• Our contemporary and privatized spirituality seems divorced from church-life.  It’s not so much loving the church that matters, it’s loving a church that counts
• My transition from a church-centered ministry to a human service-centered vocation gives me a new perspective on faith and church-life
• My respect, admiration, and gratefulness to those in human service vocations—they work so hard to help others, and sometimes with little to no recognition, and equally low pay

Destroying Our Private Cities, Building Our Spiritual Life
Here is a free downloadable chapter, Putting Jesus Back into Our Potential (Philippians 2:5-11).  The book can be purchased on Amazon as well as other book seller sites.

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