Resurrecting Worship is Now Available (My new book!)
🔥 A Pentecostal Liturgy for Slow Burn Revival 🔥
The church in the United States is in decline. I have a lot to say about our predicament because in 2016 I came to a church in Iowa City, IA that was about to close its doors permanently. It needed revitalization. The church is now flourishing in ways no one anticipated, and I’ve written a book about all of it.
Resurrecting Worship: A Pentecostal Liturgy for Slow Burn Revival is now available from the following retailers:
I’m really excited.
The church I took charge of was almost dead, but where some saw the proverbial handwriting on the wall, a few of us could see that the kingdom of God was present. We discerned that we didn’t need to kindle a fire. We needed only to fan into flame the dormant coals hidden under the ashes of allegedly unfruitful years. As we discovered, the Spirit was the fire, and he was the steady flow of oxygen that burst us into flame once again.
I believe that other churches (and the Church with a capital “C”) can experience what we did. The church is in decline, but the kingdom of God is going nowhere. The coals aren’t dead.
My book is a Pentecostal-style testimony: I give glory to God for the miracle he worked in and for and through us. The story is interwoven with miracles small and big, along with a good dose of theological reflection on what it means to be the church. (Spoiler alert: I think all churches should be Pentecostal, but you gotta read the book to understand what I mean by that). There’s also some incredible stories of prophetic justice, of jubilee, and of welcoming the stranger.
The true-to-life conviction of the book is that there is no amount of marketing, managerial ingenuity, digital acumen, or charismatic personality that can revitalize the church. It must be the work of God, and if we believe that, then the church’s job is to worship intentionally, elaborately, and biblically. For us, that began with baptismal commemoration, moved to eucharistic celebration, and culminated in Pentecostal expectation. This is the pattern of worship—the liturgy—that sparked our slow burn revival.
My book is proof that God is not done with small churches. The blazes of great awakenings and the Azusa Street Revival have been squelched, but the coals have not been put out. Renewal is possible, and it’s going to come when the tens of thousands of small congregations get back to the basics of worshipping in Spirit and truth. We all need a slow burn revival.
Pastors, church leaders, and lay people alike all know this, and they are who I wrote this book for.
More to come soon 🙌
🫶 If you’ve read it already, please give me a review on the retailers’ websites! 🫶
Resurrecting Worship: A Pentecostal Liturgy for Slow Burn Revival is now available from the following retailers:
