“Another book on the Holy Spirit? You have got to be kidding me!” Those were the initial thoughts that crept into my mind when I first saw the subtitle of Francis Chan’s new book Forgotten God. It is subtitled “Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit.” But then again, after reading Francis’ other book, Crazy Love, blogging about it here and then offering a small group study of it (read about it here) , I was not about to write this new book off as just a dusty old rehash of “Holy Spirit talk.” Man, am I glad I didn’t! I will have to confess something right up front: I was stoked because of the author…so much so that I had trouble putting this book down. I took it everywhere with me just in case I had little snippets of time to read and highlight it. Oftentimes authors writing about the Holy Spirit take one of two approaches: they sensationalize everything and make it overly emotional, almost confrontational. You know…if you don’t have this or do this then there must be something wrong with your spirituality. The other approach is one that brings yawns to people like me who just want something practical, something that translates into preaching and teaching and the everyday life of people I pastor. Unequivocally, Francis did not disappoint! He laid down the gauntlet on the very first page of his introduction: “the benchmark of success in church services has become more about attendance than the movement of the Holy Spirit. The ‘entertainment’ model of church was largely adopted in the 1980s and ’90s, and while it alleviated some of our boredom for a couple of hours a week, it filled our churches with self-focused consumers rather than self-sacrificing servants attuned to the Holy Spirit.” (p.15-16) From there on it is sometimes hard-hitting, sometimes convicting, sometimes wooing, but always Francis-biblical and easy to understand. He takes one chapter he calls Theology of the Holy Spirit 101 to give a brief description of the Holy Spirit but it is informative not dry. In my opinion he reached his zenith in the last chapter: The Supernatural Church. WOW! I believe if you only read this chapter it alone would “fire you up.” (It would also encourage you to read the rest of it as well). 🙂 One more thing: after each chapter he included a two or three page biography of someone he knew living out what he had just taught. That was good to read.
So…if you read Crazy Love you will want to read this book because you are familiar with Francis’ writing. If you read this book, you will want to go back and read Crazy Love. If you are looking for a deep theological book about the Holy Spirit or a book that tells you how to get this or that gift, then look elsewhere. However, if you are looking for a practical, easy-to-read and understand book that will challenge you to the core, then read Forgotten God. You will be glad you did.
Bill,
Reading your BLOG for the last 9 months I remember you writing about Crazy Love that you did in your small group and how much you all enjoyed it. Our small group decided to do the Crazy Love study along with the videos, we started last week and it was amazing after 1 night all of us in the group were reminded of how BIG GOD is and what he created is just perfect in every way. We didn’t want to go home we all wanted more of the book. If Chan’s new book is anything like CL I’m sure it is good. Gary
Gary: thanks for the good thoughts on the CL study. I do believe you will find FG as good as or better than CL. IMHO. Thanks for stopping by.