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Out of the comfort zoneImpossible to reviewOUT OF THE COMFORT ZONE This book is impossible to review since it’s such a mixture, both in content and style. Chapter 1, ‘When God plays hard to get’, is an excellent and stimulating reflection on the originally-intended title of the book ‘Your God is too nice’. Chapter 2, ‘The Comfort Zone’, is totally incomprehensible, as the author loses his way by arguing at the same time for and against the same feeling of being outside the Comfort Zone. His approach to spirituality is sometimes based on Scrip-ture, but at other times on more shaky ground: ‘When we are full of the Spirit and walking in the Spirit we will not miss what God is doing when the Spirit manifests — whether through crying or laughing or falling on the floor. But when we are in the flesh we find this sort of thing disgusting and reprehensible’. Chapter 3, ‘The fear and jealousy of God’, includes a passionate and much-needed de-fence of the necessity of salvation — but the examples given are at the same time so American and so bizarre that I felt that the chapter was coming from another planet. Chapters 4 and 5, ‘The Sovereignty of God’ and ‘Why believe in the sovereignty of God?’, are courageous expositions of the doctrine, but the illustrations taken from Paul Cain and the Kansas City prophets, and the stress on Baptism of the Spirit and ‘anointing’ stick out like a sore thumb. Chapter 6, ‘The “Yuk” factor’, starts with the extraordinary affirmation: ‘I came to the conclusion years ago that God is on the lookout for what will make sophisticated people say “Yuk” when he is ready to show his glory on earth’. With that premise, or to be blunt, with that manipulation, the reader is invited to accept any weird behaviour as being the presence of God — and such examples abound in the chapter. Chapters 7 and 8,‘The sin Jesus hated most’ and ‘Twenty-six reasons you may be a Pharisee’, are classic expositions of pharisaism in the gospels. So, as I said, this book is impossible to review — stimulating in parts, frustrating, even downright manipulative. I hope this is not the future of evangelicalism. David Brown, © Evangelicals Now - June 2005 |