Customer Reviews

Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire

5 star:		(143)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A powerful book on the real power of prayer. When I was given this title by a friend to read, I told him I'd put on my reading list of which there are >40 other books. He said "Put it at the top, I'm reading it for the 7th time"! If you want to know how Christ would have done things in the 20th century, read this book. Cymbala, relies on prayer to bring a multiracial church of just over 20 members to a church of over 6,000. He is not a seminary trained pastor with a slick message. His church does outreach as Christ did, they go where the people most in need live and work. He has great sadness for those pastors rate their value in "attendance, building and cash, the new holy trinity." This book is a great testimony as to how God wants us to be, loving, forgiving and merciful, with the people in most need of God. A tremendous book.

In reading "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire" I was struck by how God-centered the book was. It was not just a typical "how-to" on modern Christianity, but it was a timeless work that demonstrated the power of God that He sends out when we trust Him above all others and above all things. Pastor Cymbala did just that in Brooklyn. How refreshing it was to read about the Holy Spirit entering people's lives (people that most American Christians wouldn't have given a chance...) and changing them forever. Brooklyn Tabernacle became a place that God worked mightily because the whole church decided to admit to God that they had nothing else but Him, and that the power was all His. They could not trust in money, buildings, programs, famous people, websites, big staffs, high attendance, affluent neighborhoods, cutting-edge teachings, seminary training, human knowledge, big denominations, long-standing traditions, or anything else. Pastor Cymbala guides the reader toward the power of prayer in a healthy way, as well. We are not tempted to think that the mere installation of a prayer meeting will automatically force God's hand either. I loved nearly every bit of this book. Glory goes to God. I am now reading the follow-up work: "Fresh Faith".

Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire should be required reading for everyone in ministry. Within the framework of telling the story of his own ministry, Jim Cymbala illustrates the awesome power that can only be tapped when we communicate with God through prayer. This book has a lesson for all who will read it. This book will also inspire you with testimonies of what God can do in the lives of everyday people when His people pray. I heartily recommend purchasing this book.

This novel is a thought provoking book that makes one realize how far from the basics we have gotten. It makes one realize how our programs, newfangled ideas, and our contemporary worship have gotten in the way of how God would have us do His work in His kingdom. This book does not redefine prayer and God's love for us, however, it does emphasize the simplicity and importance of crying out to the Lord our God in prayer. It points out the blessings that we are missing out on because we do not call on God through prayer. It points out how God is able to work through us if we are in communion with Him in prayer. This book points out nothing new, everything is in the Bible. So many times we are trying to reinvent the wheel when the old one works as well as it did in the day of its inception. This book is truly inspirational by seeing what the power of God through prayer did for a dying church, and by seeing that God is a faithful God, and He will truly build His own church if we only follow His instructions and cry out to Him in PRAYER.

I have now read this book for the third time, as well as attended Brooklyn Tabernacle on 3 separate occasions. It is an awesome church, and it shows what GOD, not man, can do. The book is, quite simply, life changing, showing how God took an inner city dying church and transformed it into one of the biggest churches in America. Everything done at the church is based on prayer, and the Tuesday night prayer meetings have lines forming around the block to get in. Jim Cymbala talks in the book about the lives that are changed, but there is nothing there that glorifies Jim Cymbala or anyone else at all. It shows how all of our Hollywood style programs in churches are simply a sham. After you read it, you will want to get copies for everyone in your congregation!

Jim Cymbala speaks not only from the heart but best of all from experience. Experience that has proved both difficult and rewarding for the ministry he and his wife have led at the Broklyn Tabernacle.

We are transported to the early days of Cymbala's ministry and take through every major decision that has shaped the direction his ministry has taken over the years. We feel the pain and the joy of all the experiences as he shares with us from first person.

The examples that he uses take us from tears of sadness to tears of joy as many people share their testimonies with us through these pages.

A solid book on Christian doctrine, this non seminary trained pastor has much to say to the lay person as well as to the clergy and all of us should listen.

I'm reading the book right now (a friend and I will be sharing it). Very convicting so far! Many in our congregation are now buying and reading the book after watching a related video. Let me tell you the story.

Our congregation is going through a lot of growth, physically and spiritually right now. My pastor started prayer meetings on Saturday nights, and more and more peoplem are joining the group. Then he went to a Pastor's conference and his wife to a Pastors' Wives conference. My pastor's wife came home with a video "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire" and told him he needed to watch it. In the meantime, someone shipped him several copies of the video: one for him, as well as a copy for every deacon, elder, and assistant pastor in our church. They watched it at home. One elder had his home Bible study group watch it as well. The leadership unanimously decided that the church body really needed to see the video, so we watched it as a church last night. Pastor Mark wants us to get on our knees as a fellowship. We've had the book "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire" in our bookstore for awhile, but that book won't last for long once it gets around the fellowship. God brings just the right thing into our lives at the right time! I can't wait to see God really do a work through us!

WOW ! This book blows me away. Partly because I've been in a struggling church and now I'm in a REVIVAL church where I'm experiencing things described in his book.It is so right on for what God is doing with his people.I'm blessed and drawn in deeper with my walk with God. A must read for every pastor who wants the River to flow through their church and peoples. Thank-you brother Cymbala.

This is one of the most uplifting books I have read in many years. I did not believe that anywhere there were people who were zealous to find Jesus Christ. The congregation and their pastor point to a way out of the lack of spiritual power. Everywhere, but especially on the West Coast, churches have little to say that is relevant to the problems of ordinary people. But this church is alive and powerful, not because of superior preaching or even a wonderful choir. It is because they depend on Jesus Christ instead of the gimmickry that is so prevelant throughout this country which is supposed to make churches grow. It is a back-to-basics book for churches regardless of denomination. It is also an inspiring story of what happens when a man in humble submission to God, obeys his voice. Sprinkled throughout the book are stories like that of David, a vagrant who would be despised in most churches, but who found tremendous love and encouragement through Pastor Cymbala and those in his congregation. I would pray this kind of spirituality would spread to many churches. I also would pray that many of us who call ourselves Christians would spend large amounts of time in prayer not in some prefunctory manner but really getting serious about an intimite relationship with the living Christ. If this truly happens perhaps there is still some hope for this nation.

Prepare to read, and re-read this book. This is one of the elite Christian books that will inspire you to draw closer to Christ. It is easy to read, and doesn't present the next "great big thing". Fresh Wind Fresh Fire simply presents us with a snapshot of a church that truly hungered for the face of God. From crack addicts to cross-dressers, latinos to Brooklyn thugs, the Brooklyn Tabernacle prayed its way into God's favor.

This books inspires you to pray, not for results, but to draw closer to the One who loves you.