Bible teacher Eddie L. Hyatt asks: What is the place of personal prophecy in the local church and our lives?

It seems that almost everyone has an amusing or thought-provoking anecdote about an encounter with personal prophecy. For example, a prophet once exhorted me that I no longer had to be concerned about my unsaved little brother. God had revealed to him, he said, that my little brother would be saved and there was no need for any concern. In private, I shared with this “prophet” that I had not been concerned about my little brother because I did not have a little brother. Obviously embarrassed, he replied, “I will have to be more careful.”

The above experience highlighted for me the potential danger of personal prophecy gone awry. An equal danger, however, is when the Church reacts to such extremes and rejects or discourages personal prophecy altogether. In 1 Thess. 5:19-20, Paul gives clear instructions in this regard. Do not quench the Spirit, he says, and Do not despise prophecies (NKJV). In vs. 21 Paul then balances the former two verses by saying, Test all things; hold fast what is good (NKJV). Paul’s approach to prophecy may be described as “openness without naiveté and discernment without judgmentalism.”

In Paul’s instruction on prophecy throughout his letters, several key guidelines emerge that are particularly relevant to personal prophecy: (1) It is given as the Spirit wills; (2) It is given for confirming and encouraging; (3) It is given as a free gift of grace; and (4) It is given to glorify Christ.

Prophecy Is Given As the Spirit Wills

Paul is very clear in 1 Cor. 12:11 that prophecy, along with other gifts discussed in this passage, are given as the Spirit wills. These are not gifts that a person carries and operates at his own will, but manifestations that come forth as the Spirit wills.

Recently my wife, Susan, and I were in our van about to back out of our driveway when the Holy Spirit interrupted us. As she was about to shift into reverse, Sue was suddenly aware of an inner compassion flowing out to our next-door neighbor who was working in her yard. We had only recently moved into this house and this neighbor, upon discovering that we were Christians, introduced herself as a backslidden preacher from Brooklyn, NY. We did not attempt to discuss our faith with her and in the succeeding days sought merely to be good neighbors.

On this day, with a sense of God’s compassion reaching out to our neighbor, Sue called her by name—“Adele!!” Upon hearing her name, Adele walked over to the side of our vehicle. Without a prior sense that it was coming, Sue broke forth with an utterance in tongues. I leaned across the seat and spoke the interpretation which was a personal word of prophecy to Adele, “My daughter, you are precious in my sight.” Adele burst into tears and then into praying in tongues. We had a mini-revival right there in our driveway. What a powerful experience it was, facilitated by a personal prophecy that came forth, not as we willed, but as the Spirit willed.

Robert Heidler, Experiencing the Spirit: Developing a Living Relationship with the Holy Spirit (Ventura, CA: Renew/Gospel Light, 1998), 259 pages.

In recent years God has been moving upon evangelical Christians who have been skeptical about contemporary expressions of the gifts of the Spirit, ushering them into charismatic experiences of their own. Robert Heidler is one of those people. In the early 1980’s he underwent a radical transformation in reference to both his understanding and experience of the Spirit. Heidler graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary with a Th.M. in New Testament Literature and Exegesis. While he was in seminary he planted a church, and upon graduation became its pastor.

Experiencing The Spirit is a mixture of testimony and teaching. In the beginning of the book, Heidler shares his story, admitting that he was not supportive of the charismatic position. He thought that charismatics were, to use his words, “way off base.” He also admits that he warned the people in his church about seeking spiritual experiences.

A number of things contributed to changing his mind about the Spirit. One was the hunger in his own soul. As he read the New Testament he was frustrated with the fact that the people in the Bible had experiences with God that were foreign to his own experience. A second thing which played upon his mind was the fact that his family had a charismatic friend who would call their home whenever one of the members of the family was sick, she would pray for the person who was ill—and they would be healed. Another thing that helped change his mind was the breakthrough that he and his wife experienced during a very trying time in their lives. The breakthrough came when another charismatic friend of theirs prayed for them and the next day the presence of God descended on their home.

The rest of the book is a study of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Heidler covers such topics as the personality of the Spirit, the indwelling of the Spirit and the transforming work of the Spirit. The final chapters are devoted to the charismatic work of the Spirit including tongues, prophecy and healing, but the book is not a heavy theological treatise. Heidler’s writing is very easy to read and he offers scriptural support for the things that he teaches. One of the significant points that he makes in the book—which might be especially helpful to those who say that we should not seek experiences with the Spirit—is that the people in the Bible did have experiences with the Spirit. While I have some minor points of difference with Heidler, overall I found the book to be very good and encouraging.

Jeremy Weber, “The Whole Word for the Whole World: Fewer than 10 percent of the world’s languages have the Old Testament. But that’s about to change” Christianity Today (Sept. 1, 2006)

I am the first to confess that I have a bias. I am a huge proponent of the Hebrew Scriptures and the myriad spiritual principles revealed in the lives and histories it tells us about. I have even been known to comment that apart from the gospels, the newer Testament is largely commentary on understanding the older.

Therefore, I was delighted to find an article in Christianity Today “The Whole Word for the Whole World” by Jeremy Weber. The article describes the recognition of the need for missionary Bibles to contain the entire Bible, not merely the New Testament. Translator Doming Lucasi is quoted as saying, “Having the New Testament without the Old is like having a sword without the handle.” I have never met Doming, but I like what he says.

The article explains how the New Testament is lacking when it comes to the creation account, and to God’s expectations in regard to sin and holiness. When you stop to consider it, how can the book of Hebrews’ “great cloud of witnesses” have any relevance if no one knows those named or the stories of their lives, faith, or their relationship to God? How can the linage of Jesus mean anything in the gospels, when that history has no significance to the readers? When Abraham’s faith is discussed in the New Testament, what is that to people who have no idea who Abraham was? When Paul tells us that we are all heirs of Abraham “according to promise,” what spiritual relevance is that without understanding the promises?

Culturally, many of the tribal peoples in the world look on matters of family history, animal sacrifices, and false gods as commonplace realities in the communities in which they live. Having translations of the Old Testament in their own languages helps them to relate to men and women whose lives were very much like their own. The article discusses a tribe in West Africa known as the Lobi. When they heard the book of Leviticus, they were able to directly relate to the sacrifices and rituals as being similar to their own. There was a connectedness to the Bible through the Old Testament that had been lacking before and resulted in becoming an “an open door to share the gospel.”

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus says that the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms speak of Him (Luke 24:44). Anyone reading that verse would naturally be curious to know about this “prequel.” It appears that international translators are getting that message.

Reviewed by Kevin M. Williams

At the time of publication, the full article by Weber was available online on Christianity Today’s website http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/009/33.96.html

John Mortensen

John Mortensen, “How Then Shall We Write? A Guide to Composing Better Music for Worship” Cutting Edge (Spring, 2006), pages 6-9.

Now in its ninth year of publication, this magazine for Vineyard church planters has a theme in the Spring 2006 issue of helping church planters get worship started and improving on what talents they already have. This article by the Associate Professor of Piano at Cedarville University and worship leader at a church plant in Springfield, Ohio brings a corrective and challenge about how to compose songs. John Mortensen urges us to get away from the music and hype of mass-produced popular culture and its tentacles in popular worship music. “Worship songs that emerge from within a community can speak most poignantly to the sorrows and joys of that community, and are its best musical expression of love for Christ and neighbor” (page 9).

At the time of publication, the full issue of the magazine was available here: http://vineyardusa.org/site/files/cutting-edge/06-Spring-Worship.pdf  [updated December 11, 2014]

A stand alone version is also avaiable onJohn Mortensen’s blog can be found at: http://www.johnmortensen.com

“Experiencing Life at the Margins: An African bishop tells North American Christians the most helpful gospel-thing they can do” Christianity Today (July 2006), pages 32-35.

In a candid interview with evangelicalism’s flagship publication, Rt. Rev. Dr. David Zac Niringiye describes the problem of North American Christianity being at the center of power and what we can do to become part of what God is doing elsewhere in the world.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/july/31.32.html

Fran Patt, “What DNA Are We (Really) Reproducing?” Mission Frontiers (July/August 2006), pages 8-10.

What do you do when major suppositions you have held are dismantled? When Fran Patt and his wife were shocked to learn that most missionaries, including ones they had worked hard to train, were unprepared for cross-cultural missions they began a serious analysis about what had gone wrong. They began examining the aspects of cultural Christianity which missionaries and even “domestic” church plants were perpetuating, a pattern that had deep problems. “Our analysis has concluded that Jesus is not the spiritual father of our Evangelical culture” (page 9). To read this article for yourself, go to this web address:

http://www.missionfrontiers.org/pdfs/28-4-what-dna.pdf

Earl Creps, “The Azusa Effect: One hundred years after Azusa, the global church looks and sounds more Pentecostal than ever—but how much longer will this label work to describe a new generation of Spirit-filled believers?” Ministry Today (May/June 2006), pages 68-70, 72, 74.

Assemblies of God seminary professor and futurist, Earl Creps, says that young Pentecostal/charismatic leaders in North America may be loyalists, post-distinctives, or post-denominationals. They share common traits and roots even while their movement is in the middle of significant challenges. Creps says the futures of all of these subcultures and more will be used of God if all submit to His vision that transcends time and culture.

The Power of the Cross: The Biblical Place of Healing and Gift-Based Ministry in Proclaiming the Gospel

How the New Testament describes the supernatural can tell us a great deal about how we should see the miraculous.

The year is 1906. A young sixteen year old girl named Henrietta Mears, living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has just had a painful accident. She somehow “jabbed a hat pin into the pupil of an eye. Her doctors could do nothing for the condition and predicted possible blindness for her.”¹ Henrietta’s family, which attends the First Baptist Church of Minneapolis, asks a close friend named Mr. Ingersoll, an elder in a local Presbyterian church, to come pray for Henrietta’s eye in accordance with James 5:14-16. In response to their prayers, God graciously heals Henrietta’s vision:

Henrietta had no doubt that the God who had made her could also heal her eye. Specialists who later examined the eye agreed there was indeed a hole in the pupil and shook their heads in amazement that she could see anything out of it. That she was, in fact, seeing could not be explained except that God had stretched forth His hand and healed her eye—even though the hole remained. Henrietta learned from this experience and from her mother to accept all Scripture at face value. For God to touch her body simply meant taking Him at His word.²

Henrietta Mears went on to be used greatly by God as Director of Christian Education and College Teacher at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, Hollywood, California. She founded Gospel Light Publications and Forest Home Christian Conference Center in the San Bernardino mountains of southern California. She influenced the ministries and lives of such great evangelical leaders as Bill Bright, who founded Campus Crusade for Christ, and Billy Graham, who called her “one of the greatest Christians I have ever known.”³ Towards the end of her life Henrietta sought all the gifts of the Spirit for her life and Christian work: “I have enjoyed spiritual gifts, … I have had the Spirit’s presence. But now I want every thing that He has for me. I want all the gifts.”⁴

When he was four years old, my own son underwent two painful and traumatic surgeries in the spring of 1991 to correct a congenital defect which he had at birth. That summer the condition had not healed as expected and the specialist who had performed the first two surgeries predicted my son would need a third surgery in the early fall. After persistent prayer by my wife and me and the elders of our church, God touched and healed our son of the condition. The specialist told us that my son’s condition had reversed itself and that this was “highly unusual” in cases like my son’s. My son never had a third surgery and continues to this day without any further need of medical attention for his former condition.

On many occasions my wife and I have also seen God give supernatural insight in prayer to accomplish His purposes. In late February, 1992, my wife was praying with a woman named Carolyn at a monthly church meeting. Carolyn did not know me or my wife well. She knew nothing of our personal lives at the time nor that we had a four year old son and a one and a half year old daughter. Carolyn also did not know that my wife was concerned that she was not spending enough quality time with our son, who at that time had a language-processing deficiency. My wife did not know that Carolyn had been unemployed for six months and had finally gotten a job that very day.

Neither my wife nor Carolyn shared these personal details with each other before they prayed together. As they prayed and asked the Lord to guide their time of prayer, Carolyn saw a picture of a backyard with two children, a boy and a girl, playing on a swing-set and in a wooden-sided sandbox (the only two items which our backyard has). Carolyn sensed God saying that “everything is alright with the children because God is watching over them.” At the same time, my wife saw a picture of the beach and the ocean which she did not understand. It just so happened that Carolyn had had the job interview that day at a Ventura beach. Carolyn shared that God had provided her with a job that day “at the beach.” My wife and Carolyn thanked the Lord for this encouraging witness of His provision and protection in both their lives (Mat. 6:8; Phil. 4:5b-7).

In late September, 1992, I took a cab from the Los Angeles International airport to nearby Santa Monica and was praying for the cab driver, a middle-aged man, and for an opportunity to share Christ with him. Three thoughts flashed through my mind as I prayed: that he was Russian, that he was Jewish, and that he had a daughter whom he dearly loved (I saw a picture in my mind of a young five year old girl with him). The first fact I could have inferred from his name, Boris. The last two facts I could not have known naturally (his last name was not typically Jewish but Russian). I shared these insights with him and found out they were all true—he was Jewish and had only one child, a daughter about five years old whom he loved very much. Then I told him about Jesus, who revealed those insights, who knew every detail of his life, and who, as Israel’s Messiah, loved him enough to die for his sins. Though he did not receive Christ as Savior at that moment, he was grateful for what I said and for my prayer for him and his family. And I was grateful that the Lord demonstrated His presence and His love for this man in a way I could not have done by myself.

Bill T. Arnold & H.G.M. Williamson, eds., Dictionary of the Old Testament: Historical Books (Downers Grove, IL & Leicester, England: InterVarsity Press, 2005), xxiii + 1060, ISBN 9780830817825.

It is exciting to see this present work in print. Many in ministry consistently reach for reference works in the IVP dictionary series to help them in their teaching preparation. This series includes New Testament Background, Jesus and the Gospels, Paul and His Letters, The Later New Testament and its Development, as well as the Bible Background Commentary volumes for both Old and New Testaments. These were later followed by an Old Testament series beginning with Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch. Each volume has proven to be of superior quality in both scholarship and ease of use. The present volume, Dictionary of the Old Testament: Historical Books covers a wide variety of topics covering the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah.

It should be noted that the IVP Dictionary series are written by American and European scholars who are not necessarily Pentecostal or charismatic. Because of this, some may find the articles somewhat disappointing.

Of general interest for Pentecostal/charismatics will be the biographical articles on such notables as “Caleb,” “David,” “Elijah,” “Elisha,” “Hezekiah,” “Joshua,” “Isaiah,” “Solomon,” “Zerubbabel” and others. While a general article on “Women” is included, specific articles on Deborah, Hanna and other notable women are conspicuously absent. Companion articles can usually be found to enhance the biographies. For example, in addition to the article on “David” there are also articles on the “Davidic Covenant” as well as “David’s Family.”

Of specific interest for Pentecostal/Charismatics will be topical entries such as “Anointing,” “Faith,” “Forgiveness,” “High Places,” “Prayer,” “Salvation and Deliverance,” “Sickness and Disease,” and the “Word of God.”

Those interested in theology will find beneficial insights in the articles on “Death and Afterlife,” “Ethics,” “Evil,” “God,” “Justice and Righteousness,” “Law,” as well as the article on “Sin.”

For those who profit from historical, geographical and cultural context studies the entries on “Agriculture and Husbandry,” “Archaeology,” “Canaanite Gods and Religion,” “Egypt,” “Geographical Extent of Israel,” “Hebrew Inscriptions,” “Israelite Society,” and “Trade and Travel” will be of assistance.

For readers who are more interested in Biblical interpretation, the articles on “Chronology,” “Deuteronomistic History,” “Genealogies,” “Hebrew Language,” “Hermeneutics,” “Inner-biblical Exegesis,” “Linguistics,” “Methods of Interpretation,” and “Oral Tradition & Written Tradition” will prove helpful.

While there is much to like in the DOTHB there is something that is critically absent; that being any kind of article or reference to God’s Spirit. There is no entry on the Spirit of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit or God’s Spirit. In the subject index there is not a single listing of any of these phrases. It seems woefully inadequate for a Bible dictionary that covers a select group of historical writings which includes “Judges,” where the Spirit is present in abundance, to not make mention of that same Spirit.

Christopher Partridge, General Editor, Introduction to World Religions, (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005), 495 pages.

Here is a great introductory overview of the major religions of the world that will be an invaluable resource for scholars, clergy, interested laity, and just about anyone seeking accessible, understandable information regarding the rich religious diversity of humanity. An update of an earlier standard, Introduction to World Religions is lavishly illustrated, well organized, and has helpful charts and graphs depicting important chronological and geographical development or liturgical practices. Sidebar quotes accompanying text discussions are often unusually poignant. A particular strength of this book is that it contains not only expert analyses but also lay testimonies about experiences of devotees. This feature helps readers move beyond the laboratory analyses of academic or intellectual observation to empatheticaly experience an insider’s view of each faith. A wide range of scholarly contributors nonetheless also skillfully relate their subjects. The editorial staff is to be especially commended for an excellent job assuring that the unevenness that can often occur with works of multiple authorships just does not happen. Accordingly, though this book is broad, it is certainly not shallow. Yet it has been kept to a manageable size and has a readable style. For computer buffs a nicely done compact disc is included that makes cruising the contents even easier.

The book begins with a brief discussion of what religion in general really is, and how its contemporary study as a genre has been influenced by the insights of the social sciences. Ancient and indigenous religions are then presented before going on to discuss Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, the religions of East Asia, and Bahá’í Faith. Each faith is respectfully allowed to speak for itself and stand on its own. A generally similar format is applied to each faith, moving from a historical overview to sacred writings, beliefs, rituals and festivals, familial and societal life, and each religion’s status and state in the modern world. Enough flexibility is built into the work, however, to allow today’s world in relation to currents and concerns of postmodernism, globalization, new religious movements, politics and terrorism, and more. A “Rapid Fact Finder” in the back of the book and a thorough index serve well to define key concepts and locate their discussion within the text body.

An important note is needed. Introduction to World Religions is not a book on theology of religions. It does an exceptional job helping us make sense of the make up of so many religions. It does not help us at all to make sense of their meaning from the perspectives of our own respective traditions. For one thing, that is obviously quite outside the purpose of the present book, which is dedicated primarily to overviewing the facts of the faiths. For another, theology of religions, or making sense of other religions in light of one’s own religion, is an extensive process well beyond its scope. A quick look at some of the major ways in which the religions relate to one another, however, would have been helpful. For readers who are devotees of a particular discipline this study is not merely an academic or intellectual exercise but impinges upon personal spirituality in possibly intense ways. An attack of ambiguity or uncertainty is perhaps an understandable and not uncommon occurrence when reading a book in which radically different world views are set side by side. What are we to think of each other, or to feel toward each other? How are we to act with one another? General editor Christopher Partridge has done some good work on theology of religions (e.g., “A Hermeneutic of Hopefulness: A Christian Personalist Response to the Inclusivism of Clark Pinnock”, pp. 184-219, in Tony Gray & Christopher Sinkinson, Reconstructing Theology: A Critical Assessment of the Theology of Clark Pinnock, Waynesboro, GA: Paternoster, 2000), as have several other contributors. Might not these resources have been mined? Interreligious relations should be addressed responsibly in a work bringing so many starkly contrasting conceptions of ultimate reality before us. Frustration about this missing factor is actually aggravated by maximally effective analyses of religion and the religions in relations with a myriad of other fields—cultural, economical, philosophical, political, technological–everything except each another. To work in a few pages or even paragraphs on theological reflections on and responses to the reality of religious pluralism seems pertinent also. Nevertheless, this work does indeed move toward mutual understanding and that too is a major first step forward.

Matthew Hyam, I Still Have More Questions than Answers: An Accidental Journey through Discipleship, Life and Leadership. (Cape Town, South Africa: Vineyard International Publishing, 2004), 164 pages.

Hyam writes reflectively as a pastor who is amazed at where God has brought him from and who is eager to go where God is leading. He recounts the beginning stages of unintentionally planting a new church and takes the reader through the stages of how this small group of friends becomes an established congregation. In doing so he is asking himself and his readers to reconsider the calling, function, and purpose of the church. He asks why do we do what we do and not what Jesus did?

Central to the thesis of this book are the questions one might ask in redesigning the daily outreach, work, and functioning of the church. He does not do this in a format that seeks to tear down any denomination or church tradition, but to challenge the daily living of the true Church—those who bear the name of Christ. Using simple business logic, Hyam thinks pragmatically about what the local church is suppose to “produce.” The product that is produced is a result of the present practices. Therefore, if you are completely satisfied with your church, then there is no reason to read this book. At the same time, he challenges the Evangelical paradigm for salvation, arguing that all too often there is a failure of discipleship. By contrast, he offers a redefinition of what he thinks discipleship should look like in the twenty-first century.

The process of rebuilding the daily reality of the healthy and functional church, according to Hyam, finds its foundation on the “great story of God.” The inward journey stands on two legs: the grace of God and the spiritual disciplines. Crucial to the life of the church is the genuine sense of community, which will be embodied in the concept of church family. Hyam champions two principle arms of outreach: the making of disciples and helping of the poor. Legs, body, and arms—with Jesus as the head—together forms an illustration of a man and an image of a healthy church (for this figure, visit Hyam’s church website: http://www.southamptonvineyard.org.uk/about/vineyardperson.html).

Hyam calls the church leader to rethink their assumptions of how church is to be done. In this he calls the church to place a renewed emphasis in the ministry to the poor, the disenfranchised, and the weak. He calls every believer into a renewed relationship with Jesus, not for the sake of doing religious acts, but to be the actualized body of Christ among those who are most needy. The challenge to care for one’s neighbor—and to ask who is my neighbor—is revived.

Bill Jackson, The Quest for the Radical Middle: A History of the Vineyard (Cape Town, South Africa: Vineyard International Publishing, 1999), 419 pages.

New movements need their stories told and Bill Jackson, pastor of Black Mountain Vineyard Church in San Diego, has told the story of the Association of Vineyard Churches. This is an “insider” perspective because Jackson has been a part of the Vineyard movement since early in its history. Jackson’s book serves as an official history in that it is published by and sanctioned by the Vineyard leadership.

The title is the main theme in Jackson’s portrayal of John Wimber and the Vineyard movement. The middle ground is the attempt to retain the biblical foundation of Evangelicalism and the openness to the Spirit of Pentecostalism. Bill Jackson’s Vineyard history documents the ebb and flow of this challenge to balance the “Word and the Spirit” (p. 39). This “quest” is a difficult one as the history of any revivalistic and renewal movement will attest.

Jackson drew upon personal contacts, letters, interviews, audio and video-tapes, specialized web-sites, religious magazine articles and a few published works. The result is a sympathetic but sufficiently objective look into Wimber’s rich and complex life and ministry and the church renewal movement that he helped to launch.

Bill “Jax” Jackson

How this book struck me as a classical Pentecostal reviewer was to see a series of parallels between Vineyard history and Pentecostal history (and in particular the Assemblies of God of which I am a member). Let me enumerate a few similarities. First, revivalistic/renewal movements fear organizational loss of fervor. Jackson cites Max Weber’s theory of the routinization of charisma of religious movements (pp. 18, 349). As Vineyard moves into a new generation of leadership “who knew not Joseph [John Wimber]” will it sustain its growth and vitality? Second, both Vineyard and Pentecostals are “Jesus” people. For Vineyard it was Wimber’s reliance upon George E. Ladd’s theology of the kingdom as a springboard for doing the works of Jesus today. For Pentecostals it was the adoption of A. B. Simpson’s four-fold gospel of Jesus as Savior, Baptizer, Healer, and Coming King. Third, the educational thrust of both Vineyard and early Pentecostals was upon the training of pastors and church leaders. Vineyard, to this reviewer’s knowledge, has not founded a liberal arts college or seminary but has developed regional training programs for its leadership. Early Pentecostals founded Bible institutes to train its gospel workers. Fourth, God uses flawed people for His glory. For the Vineyard movement it was people like Lonnie Frisbee and Paul Cain. For Pentecostals it was Charles Parham and Aimee Semple McPherson. Fifth, crises that occur early in a movement’s story help to define its subsequent history and mission. For Vineyard it was the prophetic restoration ministries in Kansas City and the unusual spiritual phenomena in Toronto that shaped their middle-ground position of spirituality. For Pentecostals it was the role of glossolalia and the nature of the Godhead.

This book is “A Handbook for Strengthening Ministry Skills,” it is a guide full of good counsel about what pastors will encounter in their careers. Pastor Tucker writes from the perspective of one who has been there and done that. My first reaction was that the book was perhaps targeted more to the new minister, but as I read on, I found myself comparing my own experiences with Tucker’s, and appreciating his insights to the challenge of being all things to all people.

Tucker writes, “Sinful humanity’s twin problems are alienation from God and estrangement from others.” As a pastor, he has spent a lifetime helping people who suffer from those two problems and want relief from them. He was successful in that endeavor, though not every time, and his words will help you be more successful.

I have worked at solving problems and helping others resolve disputes for many years. Often, fortunes accumulated over a life time were at stake. Emotions of every kind resonated through the life of the dispute. I found that in almost every case, the disputants needed to go back to the basics to understand what was really involved in the situations that they faced. Those that were able to deal with the implications of the basics were winners even when they seemingly lost what they sought.

Austin Tucker is a Southern Baptist with more than 30 years of experience. He is not Pentecostal/charismatic or from a holiness tradition in doctrine or experience, and he does close his book with his version of the Spirit-filled life. This discussion concludes with his admonition that we are to ensure we are rightly related to God the Holy Spirit. Tucker tells us that we do this by seeking a Person, not an experience, however great and blessed spiritually that experience may be. Tucker states that we are seeking God the Holy Spirit. Scripture never calls us to seek an experience in Tucker’s view, scripture calls us to seek God. We do not want divine power but to come under divine control. However, I believe we should desire God’s power when we are rightly under His control. Nonetheless, Tucker’s thoughts and perspective on a God-controlled life are worthwhile.

I enjoyed this book and recommend it.

Reviewed by H. Murray Hohns

Preview A Primer for Pastors: books.google.com/books?id=hpo1WtsL3T0C