Gall in the Family
Faith of My Fathers:
Conversations with Three Generations of
Pastors About Church, Ministry, and Culture
by Chris Seay
Zondervan, 2005
(179 pages, $16.99, paperback)
reviewed by Mark Coppenger
What happens when three generations of preachers within the same family (respectively “1950s revivalist,” “Swindoll-esque,” and “emerging”) get together to talk about the ministry? What if their favored preaching styles (“evangelistic hellfire and brimstone,” “teaching-oriented exegetical,” and “Midrash-oriented narrative”) are at odds?
Well, when the resulting book’s moderator, commentator, and editor is one of the disputants, when he believes his way is the hope for the future, and when the other parties wish him the very best, the results are predictable. Chris Seay and the “emerging church” win big.
Things Turn Hot
Chris is pastor of Ecclesia in Houston, where brother Robbie helps him as “worship pastor.” Brother Brian lives in Franklin, Tennessee, where he works as a music booking agent and teaches a Bible study called IKON. Chris’s dad, Ed, is the long-time pastor of First Baptist Church, Magnolia, Texas, and Chris’s maternal grandfather, Robert Baldwin (Papa), is retired, having served Houston’s Magnum Oaks Baptist Church for 28 years. Joining them all in the later chapters is Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz.
Together, they discuss such standard pastoral issues as worship style, depression, “flirtatious female advances,” money in the church, and the need to balance family and ministry; nothing particularly new here. But when the topic turns to morality and Donald Miller joins the group, things get hot. Before they’re done, Miller slanders James Dobson, and Chris both questions his “racist” grandmother’s salvation and accuses most SBC churches of hatred of homosexuals, before he concludes, “A real life of faith is marked by love.”
Of the group, “Papa” is the weariest, confessedly the victim of “burnout.” His observations are frequently tinged with sadness, and even bitterness, whether the topic is ministerial calling (“if you can do anything else, don’t preach”), unresponsive congregants (“they didn’t want to learn; they just wanted someone to go up there and preach to them for 30 minutes”), or deacons (“I didn’t know [they] could be so mean and so troublesome”).
Still, he can have a sweet sense of humor and say some inspiring things, such as his testimony to God’s financial provision and his love for his wife. Now and then, he’ll bark at the upstart boys, but he’s mainly an enabler.
Father Ed is more upbeat, speaking warmly of his church’s using Rick Warren’s “40 Days of Purpose” and their charitable outreach to poor kids in the community. He is sometimes rueful as he looks back at his missteps and confusions, but he basically believes in what he’s doing and he champions biblical inerrancy and doctrinal integrity. Alas, he seems a bit ambushed in places as Chris throws criticisms in his face.
Brother Brian is a Mennonite at heart, indifferent to government policy, focused on the fellowship, almost eager for social marginalization and persecution as a sign of the church’s authenticity. Robbie is the most laid back of the group. Both Brian and Robbie are capable of challenging Chris’s agenda, as when the former notes the woefully narrow age span in emerging churches and the latter cites a poll favoring a traditional-marriage amendment.
Mark Coppenger is Distinguished Professor of Christian Apologetics at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (www.sbts.edu), managing editor of Kairos Journal (www.kairosjournal.org), and pastor of Evanston (Illinois) Baptist Church. He and his wife Sharon have two sons in seminary and a daughter studying political theory in graduate school.
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more on family from the online archives
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31.5—September/October 2018
Errands into the Moral Wilderness
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