Book Review: It by Craig Groeschel

Why do some churches seem to have it and some don't have it? What is it? Craig Groeschel, the founding and senior pastor of LifeChurch.tv, explores the differences in churches and church leaders who have it. Based on his experience as the pastor of a new and fast-growing church, Groeschel doesn't mind being honest and telling you when he has had it and when he hasn't had it and what led him to those times.

That's what It is about.

I can judge how well I liked a book by how much I underlined. I usually read non-fiction books with a pen to underline it and make notes. I didn't use a lot of ink in It.

Most of my ink was used on a sidebar article within the book by Mark Driscoll. Driscoll started Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington in 1996. He said, "The key (to having it) is the preaching of the person and work of Jesus Christ from the Bible every week with passion and clarity. The issue is always, only, fully, clearly, uncompromisingly, and exclusively Jesus. If Jesus is lifted up, then a crowd will gather, that crowd will be converted, those converts will become passionate, that passion will result in creativity, and that creativity will result in a movement of God, because the Holy Spirit delights to work through his people to the glory of Jesus."

Groeschel quotes: "If your ministry has become focused on the already-convinced, I'll bet your ministry doesn't have it."

"God won't let a ministry keep it for long if they won't give it away. Keeping it to yourself is a sure way to kill it. And those ministries that don't have much of it often work hard to guard what little of it they have. What's funny about it is the more you try to hoard it, the less of it you tend to have. The more you are willing to give it away, the more of it God seems to give."

"Earlier, with nothing much to lose, we regularly took big risks. Year after year, we'd bet the farm. Now that we had something to lose, we became more cautious, guarding what we already had. Instead of saying, 'What do we have to lose? Let's go for it!' we found ourselves saying, 'With so much at stake, we'd better play it safe.' Instead of living by faith, we lived by logic."

For me, the final chapter was the best. Groeschel finally got down to what it takes to have it. It is living a Spirit-filled, Spirit-controlled life. People and churches with it have the Holy Spirit. Groeschel encourages us to pray three prayers. God stretch me. God ruin me. God heal me. This chapter was so good that I intend to copy it for our church staff.

This is where the rubber hits the road. You can read all of the leadership books, go to all of the conferences, listen to all of the latest, greatest teachers and worship leaders, but if you don't get down on your knees regularly and let God invade, fill, and control your life, you will never have it.