ESV Thinline

I’m not sure how it happened but last week someone mailed me an ESV Thinline Bible. I specifically got the Chestnut Diamond Design version. I’ve been REALLY wanting a new Bible to preach with and the ESV Thinline is EXACTLY what I wanted. The fact that I got it for free was a wonderful surprise.

To be honest I was getting tired with the thickness of my NASB and I wanted something with a sharp looking cover, and I was wanting to preach from an ESV. This is especially because I recently got an ESV Study Bible (also for free). I also was beginning to dislike the gold ‘Holy Bible’ text format on the front. Of course there is nothing wrong with gold lettering, but somehow it doesn’t really reflect my style. The ESV Thinline still has a gold trim, but hey, one step at a time!

Here is why the ESV Thinline is AWESOME:

• It’s less than 7/8″ thick! Yeah I know, super thin. It looks so sharp and feels like I’m holding a normal sized book :)
• Full-color maps in the back.
• 9.5-point type, which for me is the perfect size. See an ESV Thinline text sample here.
• Amazing fabric cover.
• It came with a case.

I’ve preached with it a couple of times now and I absolutely love it. I’m no longer holding a brick in front of the church and I have added some contemporary sophistication. It’s not going to start a revival any time soon but does mean I feel a little more comfortable.

Why not consider getting an ESV Thinline.

How Do You Make Disciples?

At eatJesus.com we have pointed out before that church culture has extremes — attenders and elitists. The tragedy is that neither may actually know Christ.

There are the attenders, we call them spooners, who never grow in their desire to know Jesus for themselves. The skill of devotion is ignored and spiritual responsibility abdicated. They rarely ever read the Bible themselves. They simply show up on Sundays and let their mouths hang open so that the preacher guy can fill them with information and mesmerize them for a while. Don’t get us wrong, we are not against effective preaching nor the gathering of Christ followers on a weekly basis — we are simply talking about disciple making here.

Then, there are the religious elite. They are serious about Bible knowledge and church function. They never miss a meeting and feel bad if they don’t memorize enough scripture and are constantly testing their abilities against those around them. Success is found in achievement and keeping up appearances is important. They are modern day pharisee’s, especially because they accuse others of being legalistic.

What can be done about this? How do you make disciples?

The church has been designed by God as the primary vehicle to produce mature believers. The saints (all Christians) are to be equipped through various giftings given to people within the Christian community (Eph 4). When we operate within the framework of what Christ is doing, he is the gift giver, then we have a structure for disciple making. What apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral and teaching Christians are you currently being equipped by? If you are not being exposed to the equipping gifts of Christ then how do you plan on growing? Or, are you ignoring what Christ has given?

Training by people with these giftings is the key. Equipping is the answer to the problem. We need less information, classrooms and events. We need more contexts for the gifts to be relationally used. Handouts and videos will not help. We need people connecting with people. Trainers with trainee’s. Real life situations rather than academic environments. We need the gifts of Christ (people w/ Eph 4 gifts) to engage the saints in training.

Church culture has prized the teacher and pastor to the extent that teaching and pastoring now dominate our leadership. We need more apostolic, prophetic and evangelistic gifts (people) to off-set the imbalance. Many of these people have left church environments and joined parachurch ministries to fulfill and use their giftings. Being removed from a new testament style disciple making context is another reason we have created the spooner and elitists extremes.

Planting churches is one of the best ways to fix this problem. Start again, and again, and again. Start over and grow these gifts, attract them in, provide an environment to let them work together. If you want to make disciples then start a new church and let the gifts that Jesus has given to the church equip the people for ministry.

ESV Study Bible Review

Looking for an ESV Study Bible review that gives you the quick facts and cuts out the fluff? A review that condenses the myriad of others? Here you go …

Strengths: ESV Study Bible Review

1. Multiple edition styles to suit your personal design and color preferences.
2. The ESV guarantee. If you find a defect get a replacement of equal or greater value.
3. Smyth sewn binding. Considered the most durable binding process. A hard Bible to break or wear out! Allows Bible to lay open, very useful for long study times. This was verified by many customers.
4. The ESV Study Bible is thicker and heavier than previous study bibles. Makes you feel like you’ve made a good investment.
5. The ink is nice and dark and the font size is very easy to read.
6. Fabulous full-color illustrations and maps unlike many grayscale study Bibles. A very impressive touch.
7. Purchasing customers receive free access to a complete online edition with the ability to write notes and perform searches — speeding up study time. However, many have commented that they don’t use this feature much.
   
   
8. Comprehensive introductions to each book.
9. Study notes are incredibly extensive and use significant portions of each page, being also printed slightly smaller than the Bible text. Overall format is similar to the NIV Study Bible.
10. The outline titles of each book (as listed in the intros) are paragraph highlighted as they appear throughout the notes allowing the reader to quickly identify a primary outline transition.
11. Secondary points in the outlines are simply highlighted behind the text as they appear in the notes. Again, this allows the reader the ability to follow the whole outline without referring back to the intro.
12. Contributors to the study notes are made up of a spectrum of trusted scholars in Evangelicalism.
13. On the most part it allows for differences in theological convictions through the careful wording of controversial topics. In many places it gives multiple views and lets you make a decision based on the Words of scripture.

Weaknesses: ESV Study Bible Review

1. Study notes mainly focus on explanation and almost never on application making this a more suited Bible for leaders. Learning to live the truth of scripture is the goal of studying the Bible. New Christians might be overloaded with information and distracted from walking out faith. This could be a downside to most study bibles.
2. The study notes in some places can be partial and light compared to other works on those passages. It must be noted that no single work can cover everything.
3. Some claim that the description of it’s doctrinal position as “classical evangelical orthodoxy, in the historic stream of the Reformation” is not totally accurate. It has been claimed that the ESV Study Bible leans more towards Calvinism. But, we’ll leave that up to you to decide. Either way, it’s a smaller and less significant point when considering the breadth of information.

Conclusion

After considering an ESV Study Bible review it is important to think about what your personal needs are in a study bible and balance that with your theological convictions.

In the end, this is truly a great resource, and anyone who makes an investment in an ESV Study Bible has made a good decision and should not be disappointed.

Buy an ESV Study Bible today