This is a mixture of theology, prophetic rebuke and exhortation, of personal testimony and assessment of the condition and needs of the church of today in the Western world. It is a call back to a life that is rooted in the finished work of the Lord Jesus and the rest of soul that should result as the bedrock of all ministerial service. The author is relentlessly knocking away at the sheer madness of church busyness and the hyperactivity along with the ‘messiah’ complexes which so prevent truly wholesome ministry being present in the assemblies of God’s people. She herself is a theologian and author who undertakes many speaking engagements under the banner of “Christians Equipped for Ministry’. The many personal allusions contained in the book reveal that she is no stranger to pain and much trial. Out of it all she writes with authority and an absence of rancorous spirit. Instead she prophetically calls the ministers of God back to an authentic life in the Spirit of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. The book is subtitled ‘A Sabbath way of life for those who serve God, the Church and the World’. Here is her main thrust, to abide in the Sabbath way of life pictured so clearly in the way God regulated the lives of His first testament people the Jews and from which they so fell away with all the dreadful consequences that defection brought. The book encourages a keeping of a seventh day or first day of rest for all, along with the ceasing from works that implies. She develops these things of ceasing in a number of ways that challenge much Christian service is conducted. Not all will be able to run with her in everything she says, but any open hearted minister or leader reading this book will witness to the truth of much she is saying and hopefully will adjust his or her life accordingly. The intent of the book is to cultivate holy lives from which the grace of the Lord might flowing. She calls us back to the ancient rhythms of true ceasing and the entering in to His rest that are the ground of a spiritual life and ministry abiding in the refreshments that come from God. She mines a number of sources that many of a charismatic persuasion would be unfamiliar, this is no bad thing either, encouraging a more full orbed appreciation of the treasures of catholic disciplines with which the church is blessed. All combine to give us a much appreciated book.
