This review formed part of the literature review for my dissertation, "Does God use people?"

http://carterclan.me.uk/dissertation

Kendall (2008) aims to reach church leaders who have sinned and been exposed. He writes to encourage them to return to God, that they may be restored but warns that the road is hard and dependent on true repentance. It has secondary audiences of church leaders and others, who are warned of the severity of the consequences of sinning. Underpinning this analysis is a particular concept of God’s judgement at the end of time, and in particular the reward of faithful servants and passing over of unfaithful servants.

In this book there are a few occurrences of a description of those who are used by God as vessels. Just under a third of the parallels used by Kendall focus on the ministry and service aspects of being used by God. The remaining parallels describe these people as being called or chosen. The examples of more different Biblical characters are presented in this book than in any of the other works in the sample. There is no evidence presented that the Bible describes God using any of them.

In considering the underlying theological themes there is a familiar pattern beginning to emerge. The idea of God’s Sovereignty, expressed in the control and shaping of people and circumstances is clear, as is a very strong emphasis on surrender to God.

The shaping and sanctification elements of this understanding are seen in the presentation of the argument that a Godly character is imperative for resisting temptation. Kendall describes the development of this character as God building the house of our lives. He then develops this idea using Psalm 127:1 “unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain.” From this he asserts that we have responsibility in the task of shaping our characters, under the direction of God. “He builds it, yes, but he uses builders. Us!”(p.46)

In a discussion of sexual purity, and the acceptability of sexual love in the appropriate contexts, we find this statement “… eros love … is what God uses to make a man and woman fall in love and want to get married.”(p.82) Whilst this does not state that God uses people, I feel that it reveals a conception of God’s sovereignty that includes a strong element of control. This feeling strengthens later in the same chapter when Kendall discusses Joseph’s rejection of Potiphar’s wife “He did not know that all that was going on in his life was the consequence of an Architect’s carefully drawn plan.” (p.85) This understanding of the God’s sovereignty is most clearly summarised in the author’s assertion that “The sovereignty of God refers to his right and power to do what he please with whomever he chooses.” (p.71)

The only proper response to this Sovereign is to surrender fully. In a lengthy exposition of the fall and restoration of Simon Peter as an exemplar, Kendall relates a situation from his own experience where he had to preach at a time that he was very aware of his own sinfulness “God was able to take over and he did … I have tried ever since not to depend on my spiritual sense of preparation, unless by that one means a feeling of absolute powerlessness and emptiness of self.” (p.200)

There is evidence that there is ambivalence about “use” language when persons are involved. In a discussion of the dangers of wealth Kendall writes “People don’t need too much encouragement to use God to try to get what they want.” (p.77) and “It is trying to ‘use’ God – he is but a stepping stone to wealth.” (p.77) Again there is no discussion of why it is inappropriate for people to use God, when it is acceptable for God to use people, however the employment of quote marks around use in the second example suggests subliminal acknowledgment that this is ambivalent language.

The frequency of “God uses” language, and the relative lack of parallels in this work seem to suggest that it would be difficult to recast it all without this language. This impression is reinforced by the strength of the theology of Sovereignty that is expressed using this language.