A different Neil Cole than I’ve read before. Primal Fire:
Reigniting the Church with the Five Gifts of Jesus (Tyndale Momentum, 2014)
addresses five important gifts that are mentioned in Ephesians, and in many
cases seem to have been forgotten or ignored. Cole makes a strong case that the
gifts are important to the church today, and should be sought out, and allowed
and encouraged to develop.
He goes on to say that the Teacher and the Shepherd are
often confused and used interchangeably, but that is far from the original
intent. The other gifts that he mentions are the Apostle, the Prophet and the
Evangelist. Together he calls his
grouping the APEST gift.
As he discusses the gifts, he refers frequently to a group
of men that work with him on a regular basis, men who each have one of these
gifts, and he uses this group to show how these gifts are meant to work
together, how those who have these gifts are meant to work together for the
good of Christ’s Church.
I have read some of Cole’s other books and was expecting
something along the same lines as Search and
Rescue or Organic Church.
Initially I was disappointed, but the more I read, the more the book made sense.
As a Pastor, (Shepherd) it becomes clear that the job of “equipping
the saints” involves much more than
looking for someone who has a gift of caring, hospitality or administration.
Food for thought.
Read the first chapter here: http://files.tyndale.com/thpdata/FirstChapters/978-1-4143-8550-1.pdf
or follow Neil’s blog: http://cole-slaw.blogspot.com/
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange
for a review. I was not required to write a positive review. 4.5/5
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