On Keeping My Mouth Shut in Sunday School: Being a Very Long Alternative Sunday School Lesson to the One I Just Heard
Ebook
This book is simply a written Sunday school lesson rather than the oral variety. The primary topic is war and the relationship of a Christian to it. While someday war shall be studied no more, that day has not yet arrived. This book chronicles with specific examples how a few Christians like Rev. J. J. Taylor, Alvin York, Vernon Grounds, Franz Jagerstatter, and the author himself have approached the topic. Dietrich Bonhoeffer also makes a guest appearance, as do Tolstoy, Gandhi, and MLK. The book does not advocate a pure pacifism. The author has not solved all the problems associated with that viewpoint and does not know anyone who has. But it does argue for peacemaking, the likes of which is addressed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and by St. Paul, who urges us to wrestle with principalities and powers, i.e., ideas, and not to wrestle with flesh and blood. This the author has tried to do within these peacemaking pages and the comparative safety of his laptop and life in bucolic and pastoral Jamestown, North Carolina.
“In his brief, insightful, and highly recommended work, Jim
Lutzweiler tells the stories of forgotten evangelical prophets of
peace.”
—William Kostlevy, Director, Brethren Historical Library and
Archives
“The congenial flow of Lutzweiler’s unconventional Sunday school
lesson contrasts effectively with his poignant questioning of
church leaders and politicians who profess Christ but occasionally
neglect his teachings about love, hate, and war. It is a fulsome
challenge to insouciant conventional commentary.”
—Ray Stevens, Professor of English Literature, McDaniel
University
“Lutzweiler provides an intimate look at contemporary Southern
Baptist life in America. These sympathetic, insider reflections
will help scholars better understand the dynamics of that faith
community. It may enable readers to find parallels in other
culturally and theologically conservative religious traditions
attempting to negotiate both the larger culture and their internal
idiocies. Astonishing to many will be the discussion of a Baptist
pacifist (there is reportedly more than one). Equally interesting
will be mentions of President Jimmy Carter, Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
and a host of other iconic cultural figures. The author had
provided a service by surprising us, offering the rare commodity of
wisdom, and doing so in wonderfully enticing prose and poetry. The
volume is an important contribution to the study of religion in the
second decade of the twentieth century.”
—David Bundy, Associate Director, Manchester Wesley Research
Centre, Nazarene Theological College, Manchester, UK
“Jim Lutzweiler is every Sunday School teacher’s nightmare—witty,
probing, opinionated, unpredictable, skeptical, questioning, and
above all challenging.”
—Jonathan Addleton, former US Ambassador to Mongolia, author of
Undermining the Center
“I read this book not because I agree with everything in it, but
because I enjoy Jim Lutzweiler’s wit, sarcasm, and colorful
descriptive language. In the process I have had some of my
assumptions challenged. Pick it up and read a few pages and you
will know what I mean.”
—Erwin Lutzer, Pastor Emeritus, The Moody Church, Chicago
“As an outsider looking in, I marvel at the Christian fondness for
padded crosses. Lutzweiler will make no friends reminding his
fellow believers that Jesus was not hosting a potluck picnic but a
prize fight with figurative plasma freely flowing.”
—Steve Baughman, author of Cover-Up in the Kingdom
“My Bible student, James Lutzweiler, also used to pitch for the
Pillsbury College Comets. He was a fine pitcher, primarily not
because of his blazing fast ball that batters feared but because he
was wild with it! I see from reading this that he is still fast and
wild. We never won a lot of games but we had more fun than we were
entitled to. And what he is pitching in this book will bring you
more fun and facts than you might be entitled to. In this case the
book, instead of a ballgame, is a winner. I laughed, cried, and
occasionally screamed bloody murder!”
—Clarke Poorman, Professor of Bible and Baseball Coach, Pillsbury
Baptist Bible College
“Jim Lutzweiler has neither won the Nobel Peace Prize nor occupied
a chair of peace studies. This has not prevented him from thinking
about peace and war or in speaking his thought. He offers here
something you won’t find in these sources, and they are thoughts
that could come from no one else. They call for a hearing.”
—Wallace Alcorn, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Austin,
Minnesota
“James Lutzweiler is not only a Sunday school teacher’s nightmare
but mine as well!”
—Shelly Lutzweiler, spouse of the author, A+ mother
“Lutzweiler writes like Max Lucado but with brass knuckles! I never
had him for a Sunday school teacher but I did hear him preach a
sermon once about Baptists, builders, and brothers. This book
sounds to me more like one of his stem-winding sermons than a
boring old lesson.
—Lawrence Schram, business partner, builder, and Christian brother
of the author
“After reading this brief book, I feel a bit like I was playing
against the Bears as I did forty years ago, catching short passes
from Fran Tarkenton for critical first downs toward a touchdown.
The book isn’t long enough to be a ‘Hail Mary’ pass but it makes
those kinds of low-percentage passes unnecessary with its biblical
and progressive pitch for peacemaking. The Bears’ Dick Butkus,
All-Pro middle linebacker who dominated the field, also comes to
mind in this connection. A play calling for a short pass over the
middle brought about immediate terror to me. The imagery is not
unlike the challenges we face daily, warring against principalities
and powers that this hard-hitting author accentuates. Our
opposition confronts us with fear and the intent to diminish our
faith. Thanks be to God for his word, and for the fearless
followers of Jesus like the peacemaking Apostle Paul and Tolstoy
and Franz Jägerstätter and William Jennings Bryan, all of whom
fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith. My
prayer is for others who come to read this book to experience the
daily renewing of their minds so that their faith is readily
present in all circumstances.”
—Doug Kingsriter, former Minnesota Vikings tight end and wide
receiver
- Title: On Keeping My Mouth Shut in Sunday School: Being a Very Long Alternative Sunday School Lesson to the One I Just Heard
- Authors: James Lutzweiler, William Kostlevy
- Publisher: Resource Publications
- Print Publication Date: 2020
- Logos Release Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781725274525, 9781725274501, 9781725274518, 1725274523, 1725274507, 1725274515
- Resource ID: LLS:9781725274525
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T20:24:43Z
James Lutzweiler was the archivist (1999–2013) for Southeastern
Baptist Theological Seminary. Concurrently he operated a microfilm
business, specializing in the preservation of primary
fundamentalist and evangelical research materials including a
complete run of The Sunday School Times (1859–1967). He has
attended Sunday schools from Jimmy Carter’s class to that of Elmer
Towns, co-founder with Jerry Falwell of Liberty University, and he
has taught it from Wooddale megachurch in Eden Prairie to the
historic First Baptist Church in Greensboro, North
Carolina.