Building on Apostolic Foundations - Dudley Daniel

With Gordon Hunkin.
Published by Every Tribe Resources for New Covenant Ministries International: Bryanston, South Africa, 2001.

A few weeks ago I came across this book in the second-hand area of our local Christian bookstore. I was intrigued, as I recognised the name Dudley Daniel. He started the NCMI movement, of which our church, ChristFirst is a part! I have never actually read anything by him before though.

Daniel paints a picture of how he sees the church working, building a community wherein every believer can minister in their own giftings as 'a priesthood of all believers' (1 Peter 2:5,9). He stresses that an authentic Church community needs to be built on the Word of God and also have the freedom to flow in the Holy Spirit, when a number of churches will focus on one at the expense of the other. In pursuing this goal churches (and individuals) should be willing to adjust when God directs them into new areas without losing hold of the important things He has been doing to that point, nor forgetting the important teachings of Scripture. The Church should never be somewhere that 'celebrity Christians' self-promote or create their own empires; rather everything that everyone does in the name of Christ should point to Christ Himself.

I joined the NCMI movement simply because when I first came to ChristFirst I felt at home. I knew that the broad principles the movement was built upon where ones I believed in, but didn't feel the need to dig into its origins. However, having now read this book of Dudley Daniel's, I am reassured that the group I am a part of was founded by someone whom I found myself agreeing with on page after page.

God is good. It is all about Him, and not about us. That includes not being all about Dudley Daniel. However, I am glad he has produced this resource, and it is likely to be one I refer back to when considering structural questions in the future.

Completed 31 December 2022.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Various Picture Books

Image
As I said in my review of Peter Rabbit's Storytime Collection , I am wanting to find a way to acknowledge the books I read to Ezekiel without adding individual picture books to my reading list - I feel that would dilute it a bit much. So in this post, I've decided to look at a group of picture books all together. I've picked five picture books that I like (with a notable and noteworthy exception), and also asked Elise for five picture books she is  enjoying reading to Ezekiel. It's interesting (and helpful for this list) that our lists haven't overlapped at all this time around. So, here are ten picture books (plus one bonus 'book') that Ezekiel has been exposed to in the first 7ish months of his life: Karl's List Bunnies on the Bus - Philip Ardagh and (illustrator) Ben Mantle. Published by Walker Books Ltd: London, 2020 (2019). This is one of my favourites among our current picture books. A group of bunnies hijack a bus and hurtle through the town on th
Read more

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Image
Published by Allen & Unwin: Crows Nest, NSW, Australia, 2008. Book snobs, block your ears. *whispers* I think the movie was better. Okay, book snobs, you can unblock your ears now. *waves to get the attention of book snobs* To be honest, a huge reason why I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society at this moment in time was that I thought it would be funny to have two books with ridiculously long titles appear back-to-back in my list. For anyone who thought that there were super-deep reasons why I picked the books that I did, I hope this helps you see the error of your ways. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (which I am refusing to shorten for the rest of this review) still tells the same story as that in the movie adaptation (also called  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society ), but does so in a less gripping (though still interesting) manner. This is for a few reasons: firstly,  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book is e
Read more

Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson

Image
Published by Tom Doherty Associates Books/TOR Fantasy: New York, 2014. Book 2 in 'The Stormlight Archives' series. Preceded by ' The Way of Kings .' Followed by (spin-off) ' Edgedancer ' and (main series) ' Oathbringer. ' Well, I finally read the second Stormlight book, this one even longer than the last  at a whopping 1080 pages, and once again found myself enjoying Sanderson's world immensely. The plot does take longer than strictly necessary in places - particularly in the storyline following Shallan Davar as she journeys towards the Shattered Plains - but overall is still a page-turner. By the middle of Words of Radiance our three main characters (Kaladin, Shallan and Adolin) are finally in the same location, something that was never achieved in the first book. In keeping them apart for so long, Sanderson is able to give his readers a real understanding of what makes each character tick, and this becomes quite interesting as when these character
Read more