Church - A. W. Tozer

This book, Church, by A. W.Tozer is a collection of his insights on the topic. He deals with, The Organization of the church, the character of the church, communion of the church, witness of the church…etc. 

There isn't a lot of, how shall I put it? Detailed information.   It may have interest for some people, but I didn't find it very intriguing.  I guess it just seemed like more of a devotional type of work.  It didn't seem particularly expository in any given part.

And I had trouble with several things,

He made statements that kind of confused me, like:

"…would you reach out your hand by faith and pull the Holy Spirit in unto you?  It would make a great and wonderful difference in your life. I've seen it happen and there's no reason why it can't happen for you if you fully obey."

So…faith is not a gift from God/The Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit waits for me to produce faith and good works and then just enters into my life as a companion, not Someone who is working in me to incline me to do good works and to believe?

"Living under the circumstances you do and living on the high level you live, you ought to have somebody in Korea, Austria or somewhere whom you are feeding - at least one person in addition to supporting your missions and your church, and paying your taxes." What if I just feed my family and help out members of my church family with the bills?  What if we don't have the money to spend for Missions overseas but each member of the church finds opportunities to evangelize those without God in their own God-given sphere of influence?

And then, speaking of Jonathan Edwards, he "wasn't a faultless man.  He was a man who made mistakes made so many blunders that they actually threw him out of his church on one of occasion.  And he was in trouble.  He was not a perfect man…".  Not that Edwards was perfect and that he didn't make mistakes, it's just I don't understand why Tozer seemed to think that Edwards was legitimately kicked out of his church. If I remember correctly, Edwards had rebuked certain people for living in sin and had not allowed certain ones partake of the Lord's table because he didn't think that they were Christians.  Perhaps others would have approached the matter differently, but I don't think these were blunders on his part.

"Deacons are supposed to be young men……they were the ones who did the work around the church…You remember Ananias and Saphira when they died?  Remember who carried them out?  The deacons, the young men carried them out."  That one was just…weird. Why not old men?

There was some good stuff in the book, but overall it wasn't a book that I found particularly interesting and informative.

Many thanks to the folks at MP Newsroom for sending me a free review copy of this book.  My review did not have to be favorable.

My Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars

This book may be purchased at Amazon.com and Christianbook.com