When God Comes to Church: A Biblical Model for Revival Today

Like an Acts 4 prayer meeting, Ortland "shakes the walls" of modern-day churchianity with a biblical assault on "we overfed, self-absorbed, navel-gazing, thumb-sucking American Christians." The author speaks from (and, in part, to) the conservative Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) known for its reformed doctrinal purity. He masterfully challenges Christian brothers and sisters to reconsider their "uninterrupted blur of busy activities" done in the name of God who "has no intention of oiling our religious treadmill." He boldly asks: "So where are the pastors, elders, deacons, and laypeople who...can see when other events on the church calendar should be canceled so that the face of God himself may be specially sought?" Ortland's observations are numerous and incisive, and carry a refreshing wallop: "Talk of God's manifest presence makes some Christians nervous.... They feel comfortable with doctrinal cognition. And doctrinal understanding is essential! We die without it. But still, some people break out in a rash at the thought of God's immediacy as a felt experience." As an elder in a PCA church (not Ortland's), I heartily recommend this book as a breath of "Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire" long needed in the mainstream of conservative, traditional Christianity.