The amazing awakening of the congregation of Brooklyn Tabernacle. Pastor Cymbala displays the history of what God did in changing the mindset of a tiny, fledgling congregation in Brooklyn from man-focus to God-focus. This book is full of short snippets of the history and ministry of the Brooklyn Tab--a chronicle of God’s working in the city. Starting at the beginning of Cymbala’s ministry, the book opens with stories of failure and heartache. A 20 person discouraged church almost made Jim Cymbala quit, but through the difficulty and pressures, God broke Pastor Cymbala and used him to turn the congregations attention off themselves and onto the All-sufficient. Jim Cymbala rightly attributes what is going on at the church to what goes on in their Tuesday night prayer meetings. Story after story of changed lives fill these pages. The gospel is lifted high as it shown changing the hardest of stories into the best. Amazing stories of specific answered prayers are all over this book. Amazing. Only God. The book’s main focus is a call to prayer. A call back to our knees. A call back to dependence. This book is a story of what happened when one church did just that.

I love the city…New York City, that is. I love the people; I love the excitement. I love the hugeness of it all. I just love the city. So, anything that burdens me that way is a great use of my time. I discovered this book along with 10 other great hardbacks at a garage sale. All of them just 50 cents each. Nice. I’m all about that. But, needless to say, I wasn’t expecting much. I had seen it on the shelf at Christian bookstores before, and I just passed it off as some charismatic book. Looked like that to me…Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire? Come on.

I was wrong. Wow. I can’t remember the last time I cried reading a book. I cried 4 times during this book. The stories in this book broke me. Amazing stories of prayer answered. Amazing accounts of God’s working because of prayer. Wow. God started a work in me through the stories and scriptures in this book that hasn’t left me. I am not a man of prayer. I am not broken. I spend my time “planning” (worrying) when I should be on my knees. I needed this.

Pastor Cymbala’s point is simple. God’s house is to be a house of prayer. The church was founded with a group of men praying. The Holy Spirit was poured out when people prayed. And, he says the church has been diverted from God’s best. We are too focused on non-essentials. Too excited about being in “the game” of the Christian life--I mean, “Yehaw, our church is growing…people are transferring their letter here,” and we are forgetting to look at the scoreboard that is telling us we are way behind. “We are like the church at Laodicea. In fact, we have so institutionalized Laodiceanism that we think lukewarm is normal.” (p. 91) It is time for a shaking. He decried the lures of novelty, marketing, and doctrine without power. Good stuff. Real good stuff, this shakes you up, and I loved it.

Obviously, I did not line up with everything in here. They were more charismatic and emotional than I would be. The implications were there, and they spoke louder than I would agree with at times. Also, he seemed to place more value on prayer than on preaching. Where I stand, they go hand in hand. Not one to the devaluing of another. Preaching must be bathed in prayer, but we can never preach too much in our churches. Those two things upset me, but at the heart, I saw His message as, “Get on your knees, be broken before your God. Humbly beg Him for the working!” (The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much!) This book is powerful. Not because of its style of writing or exciting commentary. It is powerful, because it is the story of God answering prayer. It is worth the price of the book, just to read and rejoice with God’s people. It is worth the price of the book to be shaken back to a spirit of brokenness. It is worth the price of the book to be driven to your knees. Ooh. So good.

What does it say about our churches today that God birthed the church in a prayer meeting, and prayer meetings today are almost extinct?