EMQ » October–December 2018 » Volume 54 Issue 4
[memberonly folder=”Members, EMQ2YearFolder, EMQ1YearFolder”]The Fellowship of the Suffering: How Hardship Shapes Us for Ministry and Mission
By Paul Borthwick and Dave Ripper
InterVarsity Press,
Downers Grove, IL, 2018
228 pages
ISBN: 978-0830845309
USD $16.00
Reviewed by Ryan Klejment-Lavin, Director, Footstool Missions Center, Seoul, South Korea.
Suffering is an inescapable part of the human experience. While uncomfortable and unwanted, suffering provides an opportunity for deep personal growth and connection with others. As Christians, how can we live as fully and faithfully as possible despite the reality that we, and the world, will experience suffering? This book wrestles with that question and offers some keen insights.
Paul Borthwick and Dave Ripper start the text by walking us through their own journeys of suffering. Part 1 of the book is made up of interviews of both Borthwick and Ripper. In this section, the reader is welcomed into the pain, struggle, and despair that they have each felt individually. Their honesty and humility set the stage for the premise of the book; namely, that we can experience fellowship in suffering.
The main portion of the book is dedicated to what kind of fellowship can be found in suffering. Part 2 focuses on how the believer can experience fellowship with Christ in the midst of sufferings, while part 3 focuses on how to experience fellowship with others. Both sections offer practical suggestions as to how to cultivate a fellowship of the suffering. The book closes with a call for believers to be people of mission who are willing to suffer.
This is not a book that tries to answer the problem of evil or to defend a theodicy. Borthwick and Ripper do not disclose their own views of theodicy, rather stressing the importance of belief in a God who is both sovereign and intimate. There are no quippy steps to overcome suffering offered here; this is a book that humbly approaches the reality of suffering and posits how that suffering can be used by God. The suggestions made by Borthwick and Ripper are strengthened by a remarkable number of testimonies and stories of those who have suffered, as well as through Scripture and theologically sound exegesis.
The Fellowship of the Suffering is both an excellent resource for Christians who minister to those who are suffering as well as a source of encouragement for those who are experiencing suffering.
For Further Reading
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. New York, NY: Collier Books, 1963.
Lewis, C. S. The Problem of Pain. New York, NY: Macmillan, 1944.
Nouwen, Henri. The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society. New York, NY: Image Books, 1972.
