Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire - Jim Cymbala

After just finishing reading Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, I must say that I am very motivated by this book and it has inspired me, among other things, to pray more. It recounts the story of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, a tiny church that Jim Cymbala took leadership of when it was about to close. The book tells how God blessed the church and made it grow to 6000 people.

One of the impressions that most strongly remained with me after reading the book was Cymbala's emphasis on the Holy Spirit, which is one of the things I am grateful for in church leaders today. He spoke against always adhering to a schedule or a cut-and-dry routine and talked about letting the Spirit guide worship services. This is one of the things that is lacking in current services: worship. Real worship.

Another thing Cymbala emphasized was prayer. He talked about how the leadership of the Brooklyn tabernacle prayed when things happened to them and how God answered their prayer. Though the story of the Tabernacle and how God answered prayers is an amazing one, I think Cymbala tends to drift towards the belief that all prayer will be answered when we ask God for things. He uses words like 'unleashing' the power of prayer and 'harnessing' God's blessings.

While I think that the author is right; we do need to pray more, I do disagree with him that all of our prayers will be answered. It's God's plan, not ours, and he knows better than us; he won't bend over to answer a prayer he knows is not good for us in the long run. The author only implicitly says this, but I think it is an error we can quickly fall into.

Overall, though, the book is an amazing reminder to let God's spirit enter our heart and change our thinking. Too often we cling to 'accepted' patterns of doing things or our comfortable routines. This is a good book, not too long, only 185 pages, and it's fairly easy to read. I personally didn't have any trouble understanding what the author said. The clarity is one of the big bonuses of Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire. I highly recommend it.