I recently received a copy of the book Transforming Church in Rural America by Shannon O’Dell. At first I was kind of excited to read this book, but as I read it that excitement quickly faded. There are lots of good points in the book; however there are a few things that I have issue with when reading this book. I literally had to force myself to finish the book.
The first thing I have is that there is really no talk of the Holy Spirit at all in the book. There is talk of fleeces and congregational votes but not the Holy Spirit. I believe that it is extremely important in the time we live to let the Holy Spirit shine. The Holy Spirit is missed in so many books and it is leading to people not believing it is important. We cannot suppress the Holy Spirit in our books about leading or growing a church. When the whole congregation is allowed to vote on everything, you are also looking for trouble. That is for a whole other article however.
The other major issue I have is with this book is that it generalizes many of the statements in the book. Not all of them will apply and many of them may be overstated a bit.
I would recommend the book as an ok, tough read but it might help some people. I would have liked to know more about the Holy Spirit however. The writing style is a bit hard for the normal lay reader. There is a lot of information to push through.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com http://BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
The first thing I have is that there is really no talk of the Holy Spirit at all in the book. There is talk of fleeces and congregational votes but not the Holy Spirit. I believe that it is extremely important in the time we live to let the Holy Spirit shine. The Holy Spirit is missed in so many books and it is leading to people not believing it is important. We cannot suppress the Holy Spirit in our books about leading or growing a church. When the whole congregation is allowed to vote on everything, you are also looking for trouble. That is for a whole other article however.
The other major issue I have is with this book is that it generalizes many of the statements in the book. Not all of them will apply and many of them may be overstated a bit.
I would recommend the book as an ok, tough read but it might help some people. I would have liked to know more about the Holy Spirit however. The writing style is a bit hard for the normal lay reader. There is a lot of information to push through.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com http://BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
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