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Transformed: Challenging myths about the power-filled life
The transformation of our souls is a journey that begins with a surrendered will. Yielding to the transforming power of God is not a destination we reach, but a daily "yes" to the journey - this is how our mind is renewed. It is in this place that He defines us, refines us, and reminds us what we are here for. Our destiny - being loved and created by God - always precedes our calling. Calling can change throughout the years but God's love for us will never change. When we understand this and it transforms our identity, then we understand the Gospel. That is when we are transformed and that is how we walk in power.
224 pages, Paperback
Published April 21, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 3, 2017
“The word ‘transformation’ here means metamorphosis. It literally means to be change from the inside out.”
In this book Christy Wimber takes us through a journey of looking at what the Christians life ought to look like if living it fully in God’s plans. It discusses how God wants to transform every part of our lives, both the good and the bad. It is a call to arms for the church to better serve the people within the church and the people in the world who are desperate for God whether they know it or not.
Transformed is not an easy book to read. It is not, for example, the sort of book you read a chapter at a time before drifting off to sleep kind of piece. Rather it is a challenging book that dares you personally in many areas of your life. It is a book to read with an open spirit, ready to learn, grow and change.
Wimber is willing to tackle topics that are far from easy, often shied away from because of their difficulty and yet are pressing issues facing the church and the world today.
Mental illness is one of the greatest issues that the church faces today in our modern world. So many people are suffering and the church is failing to be a safe place for the hurting to come and ask for healing and support.
“But mental illness is not popular; with mental illness we find shame and stigma.”
“Suffering, especially those who suffer with chronic illnesses, is not a popular topic within charismatic circles. Often we don’t mind you having the condition, but if you're still suffering after we have prayed for you, then where is your faith lacking?”
Confronting words, and yet all too real an issue.
Another serious topic that Wimber talks about is the place of women in head leadership of the church. It has the potential to rip the church as an entity and as a group of people who meet every week apart because believers on either side of the divide are passionate about their point of view. She is careful to walk the line and speak with respect for those who firmly believe women should not be in leadership and testifies to her calling and place in leadership as a pastor.
“Whether or not you and your church leadership believe in women in head leadership, you need to be aware of the culture around you. The younger generations have no problem with who’s leading, whether male or female. …..because the younger generations do not care much about our church structures, but they do want to serve and to change the world.”
Wimber teaches that our whole lives are to be an act of worship and not just the funky music we play once a week before the sermon is preached. Everything we do and say is to be an act of worship.
“Worship is more than a musical expression; it is an indicator of what your life is all about.”
She teaches that there is a battle over our lives when it comes to worship, as satan himself was the worship leader who wanted all the worship for himself.
“The battle with worship in your own life is over who will get your attention, your affections and the glory from your life.”
This is a really terrific read. It is balanced and it never ever forgets its primary goal is for us to worship God more fully with our lives. It challenges and teaches us, it encourages and warns.
Impossible to walk away without being changed, it is well worth the time and commitment to reading this book.
“The world doesn’t care about our spiritual gifts – what it seeks is hope.”
May 20, 2017
After reading Transformed: Challenging Myths About the Power-Filled Life, I feel a bit ambivalent about it. As a pastor who has grown up in the charismatic/Pentecostal tradition, I know firsthand the weak spots of our tradition. Too often, the obstacles that our practices create for faith remain overlooked and ignored. I was hoping Christy Wimber would draw attention and provide insight into these struggles. While she strongly addressed issues such as valuing talent over character, the type of communication in the book demonstrates another missing element in the discipleship structures of many Pentecostal/charismatic churches–intellectual development.
Wimber seems like the kind of person I would love to have coffee with; heck, I’d probably even love going to her church! She seems to exude much wisdom and have a naturally mothering/mentoring presence. This book, however, has many typos, an ambiguous outline, and does not cite necessary sources. Her points–many of which are good!–get lost in lengthy chapters that feel like either many transcripted sermons mashed together or a rambling blog post. This book would have benefited from a strong editor and more time invested into making the writing clear and focused. Thus, I imagine that I would have enjoyed this book when I was a teen without any theological education who had not read much yet. Hence, the source of my ambivalence: at a younger stage in life I may have enjoyed this book, but now it wasn’t really worth my time.
I give this book 3 out of 5 stars because I think it may be helpful for others. Overall, I believe in Wimber as a follower of Christ and respect her leadership. I admire her commitment to the Church and fostering maturity within believers. May God continue to move powerfully within her ministry to transform His people into the image of Christ.
*Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Kregel Blog Tours in exchange for my honest review.
Wimber seems like the kind of person I would love to have coffee with; heck, I’d probably even love going to her church! She seems to exude much wisdom and have a naturally mothering/mentoring presence. This book, however, has many typos, an ambiguous outline, and does not cite necessary sources. Her points–many of which are good!–get lost in lengthy chapters that feel like either many transcripted sermons mashed together or a rambling blog post. This book would have benefited from a strong editor and more time invested into making the writing clear and focused. Thus, I imagine that I would have enjoyed this book when I was a teen without any theological education who had not read much yet. Hence, the source of my ambivalence: at a younger stage in life I may have enjoyed this book, but now it wasn’t really worth my time.
I give this book 3 out of 5 stars because I think it may be helpful for others. Overall, I believe in Wimber as a follower of Christ and respect her leadership. I admire her commitment to the Church and fostering maturity within believers. May God continue to move powerfully within her ministry to transform His people into the image of Christ.
*Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Kregel Blog Tours in exchange for my honest review.
May 15, 2017
I was attracted to this book because of the subtitle: Challenging myths about the power-filled life. I've read lots of books about the charismatic movement and the spirit filled life. Most of them seemed unrealistic, all about victory and success.
Wimber's book is honest and realistic. Finally, someone in the movement is willing to write about the tough times and the sacrifice, sweat and suffering required for spiritual maturity. I really like her honesty. “It's alright to admit that life is sometimes hard.” (23) We can admit that sometimes the path God is leading us on does not make sense.
Wimber is a pastor and I like what she writes about worship. It's not right to accommodate today's culture, she says. “We cannot influence something which we ourselves conform to.” (79) I like her emphasis on paying attention to what God values, not what we like.
Wimber is also honest about sickness, suffering and healing. I really like how she admits that we don't really understand it all. She writes about grace and about her dismay in that a healthy fear of the Lord is often absent.
I highly recommend this book to those who have been put off by the overly enthusiastic books about the spirit-filled life. You'll find here an honest look at the charismatic life. I really identified with what Wimber has written and was encouraged too.
Food for thought: “A healthy fear of the Lord empowers grace and saves the soul.” (185)
Here's more food for thought: “There are lots of ministries which work but were never God's idea.” (192)
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.
Wimber's book is honest and realistic. Finally, someone in the movement is willing to write about the tough times and the sacrifice, sweat and suffering required for spiritual maturity. I really like her honesty. “It's alright to admit that life is sometimes hard.” (23) We can admit that sometimes the path God is leading us on does not make sense.
Wimber is a pastor and I like what she writes about worship. It's not right to accommodate today's culture, she says. “We cannot influence something which we ourselves conform to.” (79) I like her emphasis on paying attention to what God values, not what we like.
Wimber is also honest about sickness, suffering and healing. I really like how she admits that we don't really understand it all. She writes about grace and about her dismay in that a healthy fear of the Lord is often absent.
I highly recommend this book to those who have been put off by the overly enthusiastic books about the spirit-filled life. You'll find here an honest look at the charismatic life. I really identified with what Wimber has written and was encouraged too.
Food for thought: “A healthy fear of the Lord empowers grace and saves the soul.” (185)
Here's more food for thought: “There are lots of ministries which work but were never God's idea.” (192)
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.
April 5, 2017
[Note: This book was provided free of charge by Kregel Book Tours. All thoughts and opinions are my own.]
Reading about the power of the Holy Spirit from people who appear to come from a Charismatic or Evangelical background is by no means something new or unfamiliar to me [1]. This book was not what I expected it to be, though. I expected this book to be a fairly triumphalist discussion of the Holy Spirit and the transformative role it has within believers. That would have been an obvious direction to go, but this book was more questioning and that made it far more enjoyable of a read, I must admit. Instead of being an arrogant post about spiritual power for believers, the author pointed to ways that churches need to become transformed by the spirit to be more compassionate to brethren struggling with mental illness and better accepting and encouraging of gifts given to women. This is a message I can get behind, and so despite the fact that I initially looked at this book with a certain sense of caution, this was a book that I greatly enjoyed and appreciated, and one where I felt that I saw beneath the mask of the writer and saw her wrestling with her own humanity and that of other believers in a gracious way.
The roughly two hundred pages of this book are divided into nine chapters that deal with the sort of struggles that believers have to wrestle with individually and as a group. The author opens by discussing themes of sacrifice and suffering, and examines what Jesus we said yes to--was this a commitment that was well thought out or a vow made at a period of an emotional high without determination. After that the author examines the issue of mercy, the fact that worship is not merely an activity for a few hours on the weekend but rather continual, that transformation is a journey and not a destination, that our minds need to be renewed, what sort of identity we have as believers, what grace looks like to contemporary believers, and how we find the will of God in our lives. Throughout the book was a whole, the author is real about her own struggles and her desire to follow God with gifts that she perceives in the face of societal and institutional difficulties. This is a book that feels real and authentic and likely will win a lot of goodwill for readers in light of that.
To be sure, not everyone will feel as fondly about this book as I do. Readers, for example, that abhor the thought of women in positions of leadership and speaking will find much to criticize about the author's public role. Readers that are looking for an account that is more cheerful and optimistic will likely found this book a bit on the grim and depressing side. Not all believers, after all, want to focus on believers and their struggles with mental health and patterns of societal and generational failure. Some people just want cheers of encouragement and visions of happiness, and this book offers a far more realistic tone than some people will appreciate. Of course, the author comes from a perspective of having wrestled with a lot of grief in her own life, and even coming to terms with the fact that Christian leaders are imperfect human beings and can neither be put on a pedestal or condemned for their human failings. God is gracious to all of us, even people in positions of leadership and authority who manage to screw it up, and that is something many of us need to be reminded of.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2013...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
Reading about the power of the Holy Spirit from people who appear to come from a Charismatic or Evangelical background is by no means something new or unfamiliar to me [1]. This book was not what I expected it to be, though. I expected this book to be a fairly triumphalist discussion of the Holy Spirit and the transformative role it has within believers. That would have been an obvious direction to go, but this book was more questioning and that made it far more enjoyable of a read, I must admit. Instead of being an arrogant post about spiritual power for believers, the author pointed to ways that churches need to become transformed by the spirit to be more compassionate to brethren struggling with mental illness and better accepting and encouraging of gifts given to women. This is a message I can get behind, and so despite the fact that I initially looked at this book with a certain sense of caution, this was a book that I greatly enjoyed and appreciated, and one where I felt that I saw beneath the mask of the writer and saw her wrestling with her own humanity and that of other believers in a gracious way.
The roughly two hundred pages of this book are divided into nine chapters that deal with the sort of struggles that believers have to wrestle with individually and as a group. The author opens by discussing themes of sacrifice and suffering, and examines what Jesus we said yes to--was this a commitment that was well thought out or a vow made at a period of an emotional high without determination. After that the author examines the issue of mercy, the fact that worship is not merely an activity for a few hours on the weekend but rather continual, that transformation is a journey and not a destination, that our minds need to be renewed, what sort of identity we have as believers, what grace looks like to contemporary believers, and how we find the will of God in our lives. Throughout the book was a whole, the author is real about her own struggles and her desire to follow God with gifts that she perceives in the face of societal and institutional difficulties. This is a book that feels real and authentic and likely will win a lot of goodwill for readers in light of that.
To be sure, not everyone will feel as fondly about this book as I do. Readers, for example, that abhor the thought of women in positions of leadership and speaking will find much to criticize about the author's public role. Readers that are looking for an account that is more cheerful and optimistic will likely found this book a bit on the grim and depressing side. Not all believers, after all, want to focus on believers and their struggles with mental health and patterns of societal and generational failure. Some people just want cheers of encouragement and visions of happiness, and this book offers a far more realistic tone than some people will appreciate. Of course, the author comes from a perspective of having wrestled with a lot of grief in her own life, and even coming to terms with the fact that Christian leaders are imperfect human beings and can neither be put on a pedestal or condemned for their human failings. God is gracious to all of us, even people in positions of leadership and authority who manage to screw it up, and that is something many of us need to be reminded of.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2013...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...
April 10, 2017
Transformed
Challenging Myths About The Power-Filled Life
by Christy Wimber
Lion Hudson IP Limited
Monarch Books
Christian , Religion & Spirituality
Pub Date 21 Apr 2017
I am voluntarily reviewing a copy of Transformed through the publisher and Netgalley:
This book reminds us that just because someone has fame does not mean they have a picture perfect life. Wealth and fame do not necessarily mean they are without problems.
This book also reminds us the danger of putting to much focus on the outward.
We are reminded too that we will face seasons in our life and we need to get through those seasons. This book also reminds us too that we all have a call to minister to us.
We are reminded too that God will reveal things to us.
This book points out that being Transformed is a journey not a destination. The author reminds us too that faithfulness is not possible without Grace.
I give Transformed five out of five stars.
Happy Reading...
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews