Book Review: Gospel-Centered Teaching

I have heard Jonah described as a hero, read lessons that called us to be “brave like David”, and heard mothers lamenting the rebellion of their children calmed with the counsel that “if you train them up in the Lord, then they will not turn from him.” For years I cringed as I taught children’s ministry and fought against the moralistic preaching and teaching that is so common in this modern application of the church.

So when I received the book by Trevin Wax, Gospel-Centered Teaching: Showing Christ in All of Scripture I was hopeful and expectant. I was looking for a tool that I can hand to people looking to teach the Scripture. I was hoping that he would punch the moralistic deism out of many of my Baptist brothers and sisters. I was not disappointed.

This book hits the teaching of the message right on the head. He takes on the “moralistic therapeutic deism” that so many teachers and preachers use to move their people along in their faith and he tactfully replaces these methods with sound, solid, and majestic proclamation of the person of Jesus Christ.

Every teacher of the Bible should read this book for the way to share the message of the Gospel in the context of preaching and teaching. Although, to be fair, Wax applies his presentation to teaching small groups or classes it could also be applied more broadly to any proclamation about the Bible.

Wax orders his book on three questions that every teacher should be asking about the passage that they are presenting:

1. How does this topic/passage fit into the big story of Scripture?

2. What is distinctly Christian about the way that I am addressing the topic/passage?

3. How does this truth equip God’s church to live on mission?

Wax leads the teacher through each of these questions and prepares the teacher well for taking solid biblical and Christ-centered lessons into the lives of their group members.

With all of this said, there are a couple of things that really bothered me about this book.

One, it is tiny. It is not even half a book. I read this in less than 2 hours (with interruptions). I do not have issue with being concise but the price of this book is $12! Are you kidding? This should have been a PDF given out to people for free. The current state of Christian thought is troubling. Why would you sell something that is not even a book for such a price? Sad.

Second, and more importantly, Wax points out at the onset of his book that “method does not matter.” (p. 7) Method absolutely matters. Jesus’ teachings were not done this way. He did not hold groups or lessons to get the message of the Gospel across. The message was put in context of a method. He took his disciples with him. He reached into broken lives and his disciples watched. They were confused but that confusion was addressed with the message (again) then another encounter. Message, method, message….. Concept and context combined for making actual disciples, not Bible students. Wax ends his book calling the teacher to “trust that an awe-inspiring vision of His majesty will set your people’s feet on the right course.” (p. 101) Then Jesus wasted his time. Yes, trust the awe-inspiring vision but take that into the context of mission…together. Tell them and then show them.

That is Gospel-Centered teaching...and it may have resulted in an actual $12 book.