Still available new after being first published in 1989 this is a really good and sensible treatment of this most vital of subjects. It is succinct, plain and is intended to equip the believer to discern truth. The author was an evangelist from an American Pentecostal background who then took over the pastorate of his father’s church in Portland Oregon. He was a man of much experience in both the evangelistic and pastoral ministry. This book is needed even more than when first published and pastors and leaders, in fact every believer would do well to read it. We do live in days when ‘winds of doctrine’ are blowing and various spiritual emphases pop up with bewildering regularity, (though none of them are really new’) often causing much confusion as some people follow almost blindly, what appears to be some trail leading to a spiritual eldorado. Alas many proponents of these doctrines and those who have accepted them often give the impression that unless all are on this particular bandwagon they are missing what ‘God is doing in our day.” On the other hand, the Lord is at work, there has been, and continues to be, fresh activity of His Spirit but it is essential that we know how to maintain balance in the midst of the often strident calls to follow this or that teaching and ministry. There is good counsel in these pages as they seek to answer questions such as, what are the signs that a doctrinal teaching is out of balance, how can Christians ascertain the validity of what are sometimes claimed to be ‘new teachings’ that are entering the church, how can we stay in the mainstream of what God is doing with out become hyper critical and why do some Christian leaders end up in failure bringing reproach to the Name of Christ? This author is not exhaustive in looking at these matters, but he does handle the gravaman of each issue, Biblically and clearly. Pastors and flocks will benefit from reading this as they seek to plot a straight course in their desire to have a healthy church flowing in the will and purpose of God.
