Swept Away

I spend quite a bit of time reading and every so often I come across a book that really resonates in me. Swept Away By His Presence, by Ron Auch is one of those books. Some books are good because they challenge your thinking. Some books are good because they are anointed works of God that move you. Others are good because they are convicting. This book is all three.

God has really been dealing with me a lot lately about deepening my prayer life and my intimacy with Him. In fact God gave me the Thanksgiving dinner as an illustrative picture of a ministers life. If that is the case, prayer would be the turkey (ministry of the Word included of course). Creativity, innovation, etc. would be the cranberry sauce and green beans. Obviously, you can't have Thanksgiving without the turkey. But sadly how often is having a dynamic prayer life an after thought in the life of many ministers and believers? Like the author of this book states, "do you have a prayer life - or a prayer in your life?"

The reading of this book will definitely help increase your prayer life. The first half is filled with great teaching from scripture on why prayer is so extremely vital in the life of a believer and the life of the church and what a lack of prayer has produced. That may sound wrote, but honestly the only thing worse than church folks Bible IQ is their prayer habits. That's why there's a disheartening lack of power in the church today - prayer is the stake in the heart of that powerlessness. The second half outlines some effective ways to get your church praying. If you are looking for a good blueprint for what that looks like - Auch provides one.

On a note for pastors if you, like I, are tired of being told how you can 'creatively innovate' your way to church growth and desperately desire to see a genuine move of God in your church - Auch rings the bell times ten.

While a great read for anyone, I find this especially encouraging as a church planter. The author is an Assembly of God church planter/pastor in Wisconsin whose church, aptly named "Prayer House", was recently declared by the Wisconsin District to be the most successful church plant they've ever had. After reading this book that is no surprise as this man knows how to pray and knows how to teach others to do so.