Early and Modern Church History Heroes of Faith

    There is nothing quite like The Church History ABCs (Crossway) by Stephen J. Nichols and Ned Bustard. For each alphabet, a story is told about a famous figure in church history whose name begins or ends with that letter - 26 heroes of faith from A to Z. The book is a mix of trivia, history, and vocabulary lessons, sprinkled with a dose of humor.

    My 9 year old son was at first attracted with the illustrations and started flipping through the pages. As he got to letter P (St. Patrick), he said "Oh, this is the guy in Veggie Tales!" That's about the extent of my son's knowledge in church history. I confess that I have not spent much time studying this subject either. So I only know little about these heroes of the Christian faith that have lived in early and recent church history. Certainly,a parent like me can learn from and do a lot with this book.

    The back contains a brief biography and details that help explain the sometimes odd illustrations. For example, Jonathan Edwards is drawn wearing a Native American headpiece and eating a Hershey chocolate bar. Why? And what's up also with the reference to spiders in his write-up? Answer is in the back of the book.

    The book's design and illustration is well-suited for 3 to 6 year olds. The stories and historical lessons in the write-ups are probably more suited for 7-12 year olds who are reading to learn rather than learning to read. My kids are in this age bracket so I used this book as a starting point for them to learn more about a famous figure in church history. The part about Jane Grey for instance, deserved a little more look-up beyond the book so we googled Jane Grey and learned some English history in the process. This is a unique children's book that would be a valuable addition in any home library. Supplementary activities can also be found at this website. More importantly, this book will help young hearts to know more about Jesus Christ and will spur discussions about faith.

    Until last weekend, I really did not comprehended the value of reading about church history and prominent church figures. Illumination came as I was listening to Burk Parsons during the Sunday morning devotional at the 2010 Desiring God National Conference. He shared his thoughts on this familiar passage in Hebrews :

 ¹Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ²looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.   -Hebrews 12:1-2 (ESV)

    This great cloud of witnesses, aka heroes of the faith, serve as great examples for the living. Their stories tell about their own personal race and how they finished well. Following their lead, we must also throw away besetting sin that wraps itself on us, causing us to stumble. We learn how they endured suffering and persecution by focusing on Jesus who is the author and perfecter of their faith. So for me, the value in studying their lives is that it points my eyes to Jesus Christ and the cross and keeps my eyes off my sinfulness. Thus, Hebrews 11 points us to Abel, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, and David, etc., but this great cloud of witnesses would surely also count Augustine, Hippolytus, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Patrick, John Newton and countless others among them.