Forgotten God in Seven Sentences

I recommend Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit, by Francis Chan. Chan wagers, “I bet you’d agree that a group of talented, charismatic leaders can draw a crowd. Find the right creative team, musicians, and speakers, and you can grow any church. It doesn’t even have to be a Christian church. ...My point is that a growing and energetic gathering is not necessarily evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work” (p. 141).

I suspect Pastor Chan would agree when I say I am interested in seeing a church that defies explanation, a church where God’s presence and power are obvious, a church where resources that look like a brown-bag lunch are used of God to feed 5,000.

Here is my executive book summary in seven sentences. (Granted they are not all simple sentences - but what do you expect for a book report that is only seven sentences long!)

1. Those who see the Spirit through Jesus’ eyes understand that the indwelling Spirit’s ministry is more advantageous to God’s people than if Jesus had personally remained present on earth after His resurrection.
2. The desire to be led by the Spirit is diminished when we fear what men think, or what the Spirit may ask of us, more than we fear disappointing Him.
3. The Holy Spirit is not a second or third class member of the trinity - He is a distinct person who is no less deity than the Father or the Son.
4. Some desire to be led by the Spirit for the wrong reasons - the right motive is a surpassing desire to be more like Jesus.
5. Our lives can become so comfortable, or so distracted, that we fail to enjoy the intimacy with God that is produced by the Spirit.
6. The ministry of the Holy Spirit does not eliminate the need for us to do our part and work at our salvation.
7. When we build churches in the strength of the Spirit, not merely by our own efforts, we experience church that defies explanation.

I appreciate the overall message of the book. Evangelical, Bible teaching pastors (like me) need to listen to what the author is saying. But the book reads like a transcribed sermon series that makes seven key points, and leaves out a lot of biblical truth that could help make this book more "practice-able."

Here are two suggestions. It would have been helpful to have a chapter that discusses two lists: Observable characteristics of the Spirit’s presence / observable characteristics of His absence. This chapter could help us to self-diagnose the nature and extent of our "tragic neglect." Another chapter could build off statement six and answer these questions, “What, specifically, is my role? What should I do or think that affects the degree to which the Spirit works in and through me and my church?”

Bottom line: This is a good primer that makes a great case for a book that goes beyond it. Francis Chan is telling us things we need to know. But we need to know more if we are going to "reverse our tragic neglect of the Holy Spirit."

Comments

[Shelley]

Sounds like a good premise for a book club to me...

[Angela Ralston]

Hi, I’ve noticed that you’ve blogged about Forgotten God, by Francis Chan. As you may know, we have just released a Forgotten God DVD Study Resource. Because of your wonderful blog post about the book, I’d like to offer you a free copy of the DVD to review. Please email me your address, and I’d be happy to send it. Thanks!