On the recommendation of one of my Interns, I recently picked up a copy of Francis Chan's Forgotten God. His take is that the church has essentially squelched or quenched the Holy Spirit. My take is that he's pretty much right.
On a personal conviction level, here was the most vivid passage for me:
"What if you grew up on a desert island with nothing but the Bible to read? Imagine being rescued after twenty years and then attending a typical evangelical church. Chances are you'd be shocked (for a whole lot of reasons, but that is another story). Having read the Scriptures outside the context of contemporary church culture, you would be convinced that the Holy Spirit is as essential to a believer's existence as air is to being alive...There is a big gap between what we read in Scripture about the Holy Spirit and how most believers and churches operate today." (p. 16)
Got your attention?!? To me calling out this gap is Chan's strength. And he repeats, redefines and clarifies that gap over and again. That said, as a theology text, Forgotten God is pretty light. See chapter 3 for his 7 theological points. In addition, Chan majors on our personal connection (or lack of) with the Spirit; I found myself craving a chapter on how the Spirit speaks to US, as a community. The bottom line is that Forgotten God is best suited for devotional reading, like in a quiet time setting. It could also work in a group.
1 comment:
AMEN! Let's pray the Kingdom will come on earth as it is in Heaven and then expect the Spirit to bring it!
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