As predicted, I'm now reading Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan with Danae Yankoski. This is the third of Francis Chan's books that I've read (I've read Crazy Love twice and earlier this year I read Erasing Hell - both books were thought provoking and resetting). I think the title of this book says it all, so let's jump right into what I want to discuss today. In this post, I'll tackle what stood out to me in the introduction and in chapter 1.
[Note: I never get to chapter 1 in this post. Sorry to disappoint.]
In some books the introduction is pretty lame. Not much is really hit on in the introudction, just a restatement and/or expansion of the title and subtitle. Sometimes writers don't even do that. Instead, we get hit. Hit hard.
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.
- Introudction, pp. 15-16
Some of us have been pointing this out for years, and many of us have been waking up to this more recently. This is still a tough point to toss out right off the bat when you're still trying to sell the reader on the book. But, then, I doubt Chan was planning on making an easy sell. As the great theologian Gandalf Greyham once said, "Nothing is ever easy."
The problem is, even those of us who think we are standing against consumerism in the worship, have actually been selling our own particular brand of Church. This is not Chan's point, this is mine. We have all been way to concerned with whom we are selling our church and our brand of worship. We're left God completely out of the picture. This alone woul make a great book and a worthwhile study with an action plan to get back on track.
Chan goes on to write this "...is directly connected to the dissatisfaction most of us feel with and in the church. We understand something very important is missing. The feeling is so strong that some have run away from the church and God's Word completely." (Introduction, p. 16).
I think he has already made a stronger case as to why men (and women) don't go to church than the author of the last book I read made.
He further states that that something is actually a Someone, namely, the Holy Spirit.
Recently, thanks to a Pew Research study, a lot of conversation has opened up about the supppsed death of the church/death of the church in America. Maybe more of us should have paid attention in 2009 when Chan wrote this book. He said, "The light of the American church is flickering and nearly extinguished, having largely sold out to the kingdoms and values of this world." (Introduction, p. 17).
Thankfully, God promised not to break bruised reeds or quench smoking flaxes. The vine maybe about to be pruned, but rest assured, the vine isn't dead. It's going to flourish again. Probably in a far different way than we can conceive.
In my experience, a lot of churches that once flourished greatly many years ago are still stuck in the past. They are always talking about what happened all those years ago, but no one is willing to do anything to see a return to those great days (if they ever really happened at all anyhow). Chan gives us a solution for that mindset: "...by keeping in step with the Spirit , we might regularly fellowship over what He's doing, rather than what He did months or years ago."
Part of our problem, according to Chan, is that many believers live out God's Word in their daily lives the same way we hear the Word of God taught and preached. We live eisigetically as opposed to exegetically. We pursue whatever lifestyle we desire, then hunt down the Scripture to fit it so that we can show everyone we're doing it all right.
That's just scary.
That's just 100% corect.
He says we've done the same thing to the Holy Spirit that we've done to the Holy Sciptures. We've cut and pasted whatever verses we want regarding Him and allowed that form our understanding to the oft-forgotten member of the Triunity.
Well, I wanted to get into chapter 1 as well, but the introduction was hard hitting enough, and gave me plenty to think about. I don't know about you, but so far, I have seen too much of this in my own life. So, what can I do? What can you do? What can we believers do? Well, we can start by repenting. And we have a lot to repent of.
I'll attempt to discuss chapter 1 tomorrow.
Thanks for reading.
Darth Baptist
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