A review of a book you will never read (Unless you're in Ireland)

I just finished reading a book that was given to me by its author while I was in Northern Ireland back in June. The book, Ireland's Lost Heritage, was written by David Carnduff who is a Bible scholar and an engaging conversationalist. I remember fondly the afternoon visit we shared over tea and biscuits in the church he is planting in a workout center in Northern Ireland. The book is not easy reading, but it was fascinating for me on a couple of levels. First is the telling of the story of the evangelization of Ireland, viewed from a Pentecostal perspective, tracing its history back to the 5th century. It is always encouraging to read of the challenges and successes of our pioneer evangelists.

The second thing is that concerns that we have today are not new concerns. On page 104 of the book in the chapter on George Jeffreys, founder of the Elim churches it says of him, "Evangelism was always close to the heart of Jeffreys. He had no time for such "holy huddles" and whereas some of the early Pentecostals saw the blessing of the "glory meetings" as Heavenward-looking and end in itself, Jeffreys saw it as inward looking and failing to reach the lost." That dilemna is still in evidence today. Many evaluate the condition of a church on how the Spirit moves during the services when they should be looking to how the Spirit moves in the lives of the members as they live life between the services.

In the early days of Modernism, there was a temptation to make the gospel presentation logical to the hearer and neglect the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit. Today as we minister to the post-modern hearer we are tempted to make the gospel as intellectual as possible because we fear that our Pentecostal experience will be viewed as something for the uneducated. Or we orchestrate a "pep rally" atmosphere where feel-good emotions promise a good life. Carnduff addresses this well when he says, "Yet arguably, if you preach on an intellectual level you will reach on an intellectual level. If you preach on an emotional level you will reach on an emotional level. But only if you preach on a spiritual level will you reach on a spiritual level and this is the only level on which a truly life-changing result can be effected."

I am not a scholar, so I really appreciate the discipline involved in research and writing that results in books such as this which keep us connected to our past, for the past of the Irish believer is the same as that of any Christ believer around the world. We all trace our roots to a common beginning.