I became a disciple of Jesus at the University of Calgary (Canada) and was baptized on my 20th birthday. I was discipled to closely read and obey Scripture. It was an exciting journey, and the process completely changed my life. Soon I was married to a godly, young lady and we pursued Jesus and following the teachings of Scripture together.
Yet, by the time we were in our mid-twenties, we were confused.
We had spent time in a church that was legalistic and then, after trying to grapple with their approach, we left for another church. We liked the second church, but it had a progressive spirit. It was too concerned, we came to see, with molding the teachings of Jesus to fit what the culture around us was saying. We were confused about our future direction and what to look for in a church.
We then found a book that unexpectedly helped us in very convincing ways. We read The Fool of God.
It was a novel that told the gripping story of Alexander Campbell. As a novel, it was an easy and interesting read. Independently, we both did not want to put the book down once we got into it. We kept reading until we finished it. The story of how Alexander Campbell engaged Scripture in such a raw, yet determined way captured our hearts and minds.
“The story of how Alexander Campbell engaged Scripture in such a raw, yet determined way captured our hearts and minds.”
We were both won over to the core value the book taught us: surrendering to Jesus’ Lordship by personally trusting and following Scripture above all else.
If Campbell could be called a “fool” (per the title of the book) for this raw commitment to make Scripture his true, final authority, then we wanted to be fools like him. We both gladly adopted his Restoration ideals about Scripture.[1] These ideals gave us direction about the kind of church we needed because we wanted to be in community with a body of believers that had the same radical commitment. We shared the book with others over the years, but we did not fully appreciate the transformative message of the book.
Then about ten years ago, I found myself facing a difficulty in the church we had planted with a group of family and friends just outside Nashville, Tennessee. We had many new people to our church, from various backgrounds, and they wanted to understand our denominational or historical roots. They were a part of a leadership class that we invited people to attend to get certified for potential ministerial or eldership roles over a two-to-three-year period. Many of the people in these classes have gone on to become paid ministers and/or join in serving as elders of the church.
“If Campbell could be called a ‘fool’ for this raw commitment to make Scripture his true, final authority, then we wanted to be fools like him.”
What I discovered was that the single most important tool in winning these future leaders over to the theological vision of our church was the book, The Fool of God. Many of the everyday disciples in our church have read it and have been won over to the core value of making Scripture the final authority, which is at the heart of the Restoration Movement vision (as well as Renew.org Network’s vision).
The Fool of God is historically accurate, describing all the relevant factual events and details, while the author made up much of the dialogue to fill in the unrecorded conversations and engage our imaginations. With the republication of this book, you too now have an opportunity to join with us in appreciating his vision. We hope it will capture your heart and mind the way it has captured so many. The movement that Alexander Campbell catalyzed now has millions of devotees in North America and beyond.
Before you read this book, let me share four practical reasons why I hope you too will adopt the values described in this book.
1. We need raw exposure to the truth of God’s Word.
When reading or listening to Scripture with hearts and minds seeking God (and the Spirit of God is present with us), there is nothing that is more convincing. God speaks directly to us. For example, we might be reading what Paul said to the Corinthians, but we soon find ourselves caught up in the realization, “God is speaking directly to me in these words.” We need personal access to Scripture to hear God’s voice, with few or no filters. Hebrews 4:12 describes it perfectly: “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints, and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” We need God’s unvarnished Word to speak to us as this verse describes. We must prize personally reading (and listening) to God’s Word in its rawness.
2. We need clarity from the Word on the way of salvation.
The gospel is at the center of God’s Word. We live in a time when too many people do not truly know the way of salvation. So many other philosophies and worldviews conflict with Scripture on the nature of sin, holiness, heaven, hell, and Jesus and his gospel. Too often, nonbiblical narratives dominate our thinking. Too many Christians are watering down the gospel, which makes it no gospel at all. They need saving faith in the real gospel. Romans 10:17 says it all: “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.” Let’s listen directly to the message of salvation from Christ’s word so we can place our faith in that true message.
“Let’s listen directly to the message of salvation from Christ’s word so we can place our faith in that true message.”
3. We need Scripture’s hope and direction daily.
The average person today is immersed in a world of secular entertainment and social media for an average of seven to eight hours a day. The hope of Jesus is largely missing from these spaces, and so is the clear direction of Scripture. An hour or two at church each week is not enough to counteract those secular influences. When we do not directly hear God’s Word regularly, we stagnate as disciples of Jesus. We lose our faithfulness or do not grow. Many studies have been completed in the last twenty years that seek to understand that which most helps Christians to experience spiritual growth. The studies uniformly point to the same conclusion: the biggest single predictor of spiritual growth is daily personal engagement with God’s Word.[2] As Psalm 1:1-3 says, “Blessed is the one … whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.”
4. We need churches formed by God’s Word—churches that read, study, listen to, and surrender to God’s Word as their final authority.
A powerful temptation for churches today is to rely on substitutes for engaging Scripture together in community. Too many people rely on creeds, denominations, institutions, and traditions. Too many church attendees find satisfaction in the personalities and inspiration of a church’s ministers/pastors. And more and more, everyone is relying on artificial intelligence and the algorithms of Google and social media for answers when they need to study, for themselves, what God’s Word teaches.
Please resist these trends. Study Scripture in your church.
“A powerful temptation for churches today is to rely on substitutes for engaging Scripture together in community.”
I encourage you to pursue the teaching of God’s Word in all sermons, group discussions, and gatherings. We should regularly ask, “What does the Bible teach?” Champion expository preaching, podcasts that cover Scripture, and in-depth small groups where everyday disciples are engaged with God’s Word together in discipling relationships. Resist reading only books about the Bible—read the Bible itself. And find a way to bring back in-depth Bible study classes for future leaders. Second Timothy 4:1-3 says,
“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”
The goal is that everyday disciples will prioritize Scripture because it is the culture of their church to prioritize Scripture. This is at the heart of our Restoration Movement value: we surrender to Jesus’ Lordship by personally trusting and following Scripture above all else.
“We surrender to Jesus’ Lordship by personally trusting and following Scripture above all else.”
I invite you to read the story of Alexander Campbell, and I pray that he will inspire you to unreservedly join us in the pursuit of this exciting vision.
Get a copy of ‘Fool of God’ HERE!
Listen to our series of Fool of God podcast episodes HERE!
[1] We at Renew.org Network believe that the Restoration vision, at its best, is simply the pursuit of upholding “the apostolic tradition” or “the teachings of the apostles,” or, stated differently, it is upholding “the Canon of scripture that created and sustains the Church.” The following resources help explain our views on the nature of following the canon as the final authority (versus traditions, etc.), and the nature of the origin of the Canon. We commend the excellent contemporary statement of the final nature of Scripture found in Anthony N.S. Lane, “Sola Scriptura? Making Sense of a Post-Reformation Slogan,” in A Pathway into The Holy Scripture, edited by Philip Satterthwaite and David Wright (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1994). For background on the creation and nature of the Canon, see Bruce M. Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), Michael J. Kruger, Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books (Crossway, 2012) and The Question of Canon: Challenging the Status Quo in the New Testament Debate (InterVarsity Press, 2020).
[2] For example, see Jeff Martin, “9 Tangible Benefits of Bible Reading for Your Church,” Lifeway, January 20, 2021, https://research.lifeway.com/2021/01/20/9-tangible-benefits-of-bible-reading-for-your-church/ (accessed October 14, 2023).
