Having critiqued this book informally, both for its lender and for my own mom, this particular exercise seems to be less than creative and even more problematic. Neither previous attempt was satisfactory or adequate because this book deals with a subject (revival) that involves personal response and how does one presume to critique when one's response is being critiqued in turn and internally?

Well, I won't pretend to judge this book. I will comment as I have commented previously and probably feel it no more appropriate to do so this time than before. To start with, I recognize that this book is far more important than it is interesting. You can put it down. It is academic; it is analytical; it is meant for church leaders and for those who think of the church as more than a quaint, social institution.

Mssrs. Cook & Foster begin their task with reference to some sociological studies that deal with organizations and their goals and purposes and problems - problems in holding on to original enthusiasms and core values. In particular is a study from the Stanford Graduate School of Business (Collins & Porras, 1994) that identifies some characteristics of organizations that succeed and some of the recurrent reasons for failure. Four key findings from this study have motivated our authors and provide some truly interesting insights into human personality and organizational propensities as they relate to church life.

As I read, I could not help identifying my own organization (governmental) and applying the Collins/Porras conclusions to some current internal struggles ... and their observations are apt.

Alas, that is not what the book was written for and it became a diversion, distracting from the authors' intent for the reader, I'm sure; but - a flaw? I don't think so. If anything, it added credibility to their thesis and substance to the approach. It is real-world applicable.

Equally insightful was the identification of the liberal or leftward tendency in organizational drift, requiring conservative correction just to maintain a true heading - a fact so true and so often under-appreciated. We intuitively sense that the maturing process brings softening and accommodation to founding principles, no less so in the church and nowhere more important than there to realize it and defend against.

And, 'drift' is found by these authors, logically, to be generational, with a new movement's founding zeal becoming encased in the institutionalizing cement added by the next generation, awaiting only the hardening process of the following generation to produce an unmovable ediface indeed. Our authors identify the crux of this curve, surprisingly, at a point prior to the apex of an organization's success. Wait too long to intervene in this process (in a church, to inject the fires of revival) and entombment is virtually inevitable.

Several examples are provided from the US and Canada of churches that have either withered or thrived over the decades, based on their recognition of this process and their response, or inadequate response, to it. There are choices to be made.

Where I found the authors' line less compelling was in their treatment of 'revival' as a universal good, to be indulged at all costs. Perhaps I should postpone this point. Firstly, the tendency to lose momentum is part of both our natural and spiritual reality. It is a law of nature: things die - wear out - cool off. Revival is hardly an evil to be avoided given this universal circumstance and highlighting the excesses first would not seem to be fair comment.

This book identifies and bemoans the loss of spiritual momentum in the church and its influence on society and deals with the unique phenomenon of revival that has kept the greater church on course in spite of this 'universal law'. It is the life of the church, as an organism - the body of Christ - that differentiates it from man-made institutions, after all. It is constantly in need of the energy of revival to avoid the inevitable withering away of its mandate and meaning. More than that, though it was not particularly emphasized in this book, there is a dedicated opposition at work here. Natural law has a little help when it comes to loss of momentum in things spiritual.

On the balance sheet, however, the authors list The Toronto Blessing right in there with the Welsh revival. Having read of the one and heard of the other from a trusted pastor-friend, I don't find them comparable. Yes, they mention that excesses will come. They do not deal with them. They do not find fault with them. They do not proscribe them. They prescribe revival - with all its excesses - as preferable to no revival.

In the big picture, perhaps they are as right as rain. My personal aversion to public excess may be symptomatic of the institutional hindrance to the preservation of the true faith ... and this, of course, is the point of guilt. Almost. It is the personal response, the personal and requisite humility and dedication that the authors prescribe as cure for institutional entropy that is the precise point of guilt. Do I have it or am I willing to have it ... or am I wilfully obstructing it in the name of order and decorum, in the cause of comfort?

That becoming the focus, there is little else in review that can or need be said. The subject is far more important than its critique. The book's occasional imprecision in language is no detriment to understanding the message; the possible generational bias exhibited is no argument against the reality has been identified. Perhaps this generation has substituted technology for the Spirit - it has certainly substituted volume for content! - but these can become points for discussion. Revival is not such a point.

Thus does the book become an extended sermon for the reader, a theme requiring a response, not a thesis thrown out for debate.

That was, no doubt, our authors' intent.