Before I proceed further, I would like to say that the book was a free gift not from the author nor the publishing company, but from a blog that offered up five free copies of the book in exchange for discussion about the contents of the book.

It used to be when reading books, one would skip over the introduction. Usually, introductions were approximately three pages long where the author thanked lots of people and told about some experience he went through while writing a book….

yada yada yada…..

However, I was sent an e-mail by someone who had read this book and told me their opinion (favorable) of the book that placed this phrase in capital letters

READ THE INTRODUCTION, TRUST ME!!!

I decided to take this person’s advice and read the introduction before starting the first chapter. Wow! They were right. In fact, the introduction in this book really should not be an “introduction”. It should have been entitled “Chapter One” because the content within all eight pages of the introduction section sets the tone, mindset, and direction that the author is going to embark upon throughout the entire book.

The premise that Francis Chan is trying to communicate here is that the Holy Spirit is either forgotten or missing in most churches today. From the ‘entertainment’ mindset of the late 1980′s throughout the 1990s to the churches that are just completely 100 percent lecture, Chan reiterates that in reality, the church is not empowered to live differently from any other group of people unless the Holy Spirit is in their midst. Without the Holy Spirit, churches are just another irrelevant social organization no matter how ‘culturally relevant’ they claim to be.

One of the things that Chan addresses in this introduction is the fact that we will have to not only address, but eventually lay aside the baggage, abuses, misconceptions, extremisms, fears, and stereotypes we have when we hear the words “Holy Spirit”.

And this is the honest and heartfelt desire of me, is to get through the baggage, abuses, misconceptions, extremisms, fears, and stereotypes without denying how real and accurate they really are and learn once again to sense and receive the authentic and genuine presence of the Holy Spirit without years later wondering if this was just ‘another Christian cool thing to do’ but knowing that the presence of the Holy Spirit is real, genuine, authentic, and supernatural.

And after reading the introduction, I still believe that I am still ready.

Next post, I will be discussing chapter one of Forgotten God by Francis Chan.

Related Posts

1. Review: Forgotten God – Chapter Three
2. Review: Forgotten God – Chapter Six
3. Review: Forgotten God – Chapter Seven
4. Review: Forgotten God – Chapter Five
5. Review: Forgotten God – Chapter Two