Customer Reviews

The Elk River Story : Transforming the Spiritual Climate of a City

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This is an excellent "review" of what happens when believers pray. It should be read by all believers as an inspiration to go boldly before the throne of GOD.

After paying two personal visits to the Elk River "faith community," and reading "God Out of the Box," by Elk River banker, Chuck Ripka, I can bear personal witness to the literal accuracy of Rick Heeren's book. The personal testimonies I heard from a number of business, government, and church leaders were powerful and compelling. There was an extraordinary spiritual climate within the businesses we visited (e.g., Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealership, Ford car dealership, Beaudry Oil Co, and others). Certainly, many Elk River businesses and churches are not directly involved in this movement, and no one I spoke with on the inside of the movement would make a pretense about perfection. However, after living a combined 65 years in Minnesota, North Carolina, Illinois, North Dakota, and Washington, it is easy for me to to say that I have been to no city where (1) there was such an elevated spiritual climate, and (2) that climate so clearly reflected the general disposition of the community.

The Elk River Story is written about the Minnesota city of Elk River. This is a religious book that definitely has charismatic/pentecostal underpinnings, but it tells a story of how the community and social climate of Elk River has transformed in the last decade. The book attributes the transformation to happenings in the Christian religious community. It was fascinating to read about a town close to home, and get insights into the types of changes that have been taking place there. I would be interested in researching individual perspectives in the community that are non-religious and seeing if they noticed any change, or if this is isolated to more of a 'religious phenomenon'. If you are into prayer, fasting, revival, and the things that go along with that you would like this book. If you have never heard stories about religious transformations that happen "one individual at a time" but instead are used to envisioning Christians as Falwells and Dobsons that want to "take over the world and change it from the outside in" then this is a story that would help balance your perspective on Christians.