BOOKS DESIGNED NOT TO WEARY THE READER

First appeared on Caldron Pool (29 Nov 2024). 

https://caldronpool.com/books-designed-not-to-weary-the-reader/ 

Caldron Pool · News, Opinion, Commentary

From plumbing to preaching, Neil McKinlay’s journey reveals how engaging writing and accessible theology can transform lives.

Books Designed Not to Weary the Reader

“Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all.” Ecclesiastes 12:12b-13

God by His grace alone converted me in a basement in Winnipeg at the tail end of 1988 while I was reading His Word. No offence intended to those lovers of ye olde KJV, but not having been brought up in a church-attending household in Scotland, I was having great difficulty understanding the King Jamesian (apparently Elizabethan!) English. Yes, God is sovereign in the salvation of His elect, but I can say (tongue-in-cheek) that I would’ve been converted sooner if I had been given a NKJV or even an NIV to read instead of the KJV!

Growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I began studying as a candidate for the ministry in the Presbyterian Church of Australia in the early 90s. It was then that I began noticing two different styles of book writing. For the sake of simplicity, let’s call them formal and informal, as in theological textbooks versus Bible sermons. As a new Christian I was having trouble understanding why anyone would write in such a dry and dusty manner, when, instead, they could just simply say what they mean. That’s when I discovered the difference between the written and the spoken word. Why didn’t everyone write as, e.g., Martyn Lloyd-Jones does in his commentaries? Old 100-watt light bulb moment! I discovered that these were written beforehand as sermons.

This newly hatched bookworm began to study books on homiletics, which, as I discovered, is just a fancy word to do with preaching. I had read in one that it is a good idea is to give out printed copies of your sermons after preaching them. I had won the Homiletics Award upon graduating from Theological College PCQ in 1996. A few years later my old theological professor told me that he wished he could write like me. This astounded me! Was he kidding? He had eleven or twelve earned doctorates under his belt. In the early 2000s, he was asked by a fellow PhD-ian what I was like as a theologian. My old professor replied, “Not bad – for a plumber.” How does that old Mac Davis song go? “Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble.” Well, maybe it’s not so hard for me. I’ll never forget that once a plumber always a plumber!  

I began to put my theory into practice, of always consciously attempting to present deep truths in an engaging way. This isn’t that much different to sermon preparation. Sure, exegeting a Bible text while consulting the Hebrew/Greek are the heart of it. However, Systematic and Biblical Theology books (among others) are perused too. The finished product being something that an average congregation could hear/read, understand and apply, yes, even plumbers like me! Now I use the same method when writing articles and books.

For example: I read my old professor’s lengthy article “Quarterly Communion at Annual Seasons” and then condensed its contents into a couple of easily readable pages. Wrote my old theological professor: “On February 17th 2002, it was my joy to preach in the North Pine Presbyterian Church in Brisbane Australia. At the end of the service the Minister, Rev. Neil MacKinlay, [sic.] gave me his own Session’s handout for his congregation at the door of his kirk. Frankly, Rev. MacKinlay’s [sic.] handout is so good, that I decided to incorporate it now at the end of this third edition of this article of mine on Quarterly Communion at Annual Seasons.” See chapter 30 of the 5th edition.

While at the same church on a Sunday evening, after the service I was approached by a visitor from Sydney. He asked my if I’d like to write for his monthly magazine for writers! I’ve been writing a short article based on the Bible every month now for over twenty years, in which I try to engage the reader who, though not necessarily a Christian, generally is also a writer. I collected thirty of these articles and self-published my first book in 2006 called The Song of Creation and Other Contemplations. My old theological professor kindly wrote its foreword. The rest, as they say, (whoever “they” are), is history.

We Christians have the message of life, eternal life in Christ Jesus. It is imperative that we get the law and the gospel out there in an understandable way. The Ethiopian Eunuch was reading  the Bible, but Philip the Evangelist asked him, “‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?’” Acts 8:30-31. I write so that even a plumber like me can understand.

Allow me to be opaque for a second: I’m an eschatological optimistic presuppositionalist! And, more simply, I believe my old professor’s car’s bumper-sticker was correct in saying “God’s Law or Chaos!” I believe that mustard seedly and leavenly more and more sinners will be converted, yes, even whole nations, before the Lord’s physical return. My two cents worth in this Great Commission includes all my books. Some of my titles include:

The Gospel: Simply yet Profound (2021) at Tulip Publishing in Australia; From Mason to Minister: Through the Lattice (2011) and Jefferson’s Tears (2018) at Nordskog Publishing Inc. in the U.S. (now closing down); Jesus for the Layman (2019) at Neetah Publishing in Scotland (published as Weemac Publishing); On the Lord’s Table (2020), On the Church (2022), Socialism: My Part in its Downfall (2020), I Believe! The Apostles’ Creed (2020); The Covenant: Simple yet Profound, Holding Fast Our Confession: Westminster Confession of Faith and its Biblical Teaching (2021) and many others self-published at Amazon. I have coauthored with Rudi Schwartz, a fellow PCA minister, The Unfaithful Bride & The Faithful Groom: Covenant Making, Breaking, & Renewal and The Kingdom: Every square inch, both also self-published at Amazon.