How To Read Alton Garrison's Book, A Spirit-Empowered Church

Truthfully, when I look at Christian books about the church I mentally prepare myself to read a self-help book coldly telling me what is wrong with the church today, and I thought about this as I was sitting down to read Alton Garrison’s book, A Spirit-Empowered Church. When I began to really read this book, however, my opinion quickly changed. Within these pages, I found the voice of a passionate minister sharing his heart to see the Acts 2 church reborn in the 21st century. I was instantly pulled in and enjoyed every minute of reading this book. Garrison explains the need for a Spirit-empowered church in such a way that you begin to feel your heart breaking for the current state of the Church. He shares his Acts 2 model clearly and effectively,

He tells the story of his father and then states that although his father was a good pastor, he lacked the strategy and plan to see Spirit-empowered growth in his church. Garrison makes the claim that today, pastors tend to choose two extremes: to focus so much on the Holy Spirit that they neglect implementing strategy (which is what his father did) or to focus so much on the strategy that they make no room for the Holy Spirit to move. In his book, Alton Garrison hopes to find the marriage in the church between Supernatural moves of the Spirit and Supernatural strategies in order to advance the Church. The author observed the early church in Acts 2 and felt that the church today needed to return to its roots, and he clearly shows how the church today can do

In his own power, a pastor can do nothing. A sermon that does not have the Spirit backing every word is only a motivational speech. A worship set without the Holy Spirit anointing is just a musical performance. Pastors must ensure that in their personal time, they are getting refreshed and filled with the Spirit so that they can do what the Lord has called and equipped them to do. A pastor cannot be the only one to be doing this, however. He needs to make sure that he is discipling a team to help him in Spirit-empowered ministry, and even more, that he is discipling his congregation to do Spirit-empowered ministry. Garrison strongly emphasizes in his book that the congregation of believers must be involved in ministry as well. He talks about how the spiritually appointed offices of five-fold ministry were implemented to help equip the saints for ministry. The author shares that in his first few months of pastoring, he preached messages that taught the people at his church that they were the royal priesthood. He says, “We are all priests, and priests don’t come to the temple to be blessed—they come to minister” (Garrison 48-49). To sum up, the mission of Alton Garisson’s book is to remind pastors of what the church is really supposed to look like and what it is really supposed to be doing: discipling believers and then