Brethren, Hang Loose
Book by: Robert C. Girard
Zondervan Publishing House, 1972
Review by: David Yeubanks
July 23, 2002
The following is a reprint of my review of the book "Brethren, Hang Loose" by Robert C. Girard, as it appears on Amazon.com... Review has only be revised slightly.
(the first part of this review is partly adapted from the excerpt on the back of the book cover)
This is the story of a church that found a new face. Pastor Bob Girard (author of Brethren, Hang Loose) saw his young church slipping into the same complacent, established doldrums that plague so many congregations. He has written out of frustration with the institutional, evangelical church, its inability to give control of itself to the Holy Spirit, its preoccupation with secondary things, and its lack of spontaneity, freshness and genuine spiritual power. Girard tells the story of a dangerous, daring commitment, of abandonment to the Lordship of Christ in the life of the church he pastored and within his own life. This is truly an impacting, emotional and encouraging story touched with humor and tears.
Girard accounts how that when pastor and people reached the point of emphasizing genuine spiritual growth toward maturity, rather than 'success' in the accepted sense of the word, for them renewal began.
Girard shares the keys that can unlock renewal in the church and also explains the biggest roadblocks that prevent it from happening. Principles are given in this book which are helping one church to recapture a New Testament quality and style of life which God may once again be able to use in making the church a demonstration of the reality of the Living Jesus to a world that urgently needs to 'see' Him.
The book was published in 1972 and is currently out of print, but several copies may still be available online from used book stores. I encourage you to get a copy before they're all gone. This book is still extremely relevant today!
A notable feature point about this title is that it is written from the perspective view of a Senior Pastor who shares his sincere frustration with institutional Christianity and his discontentment to remain with the status quo, even though the status quo afforded him a well-paid staff position, prominent title, respect from may evangelical ministries and what was prominently viewed as one of the most successful churches anywhere. As Robert accounts in his book, he had a well-sized and rapidly growing church (which included a vibrant worship service with five choirs, mid-week and Sunday evening services, group Bible studies and prayer meetings, two pastors, new converts, lots of services and programs, and their Sunday school alone averaged 250 regular attendants). But Robert accounts of the rest of the story that most pastors don't like to talk about; the problems and the vast aray of needs that the institutional church fails to be able to meet. He talks about the faulty, sometimes proud, mind-sets of church leadership (himself being a leader - the very senior pastor of the church). As Robert says it in his own words:
'There were things that bothered me deeply about the established churches - not only those of my own denomination, but evangelical churches in general. And the better I came to know the church and the longer I worked with it, the more bothered I became. When I read The Acts of the Apostles and compared it with nearly all the churches I had ever known, I felt frustrated, hopeless and a little sick. That dynamic New Testament church effectively communicated Christ to its generation. Most of the church, as I knew it, wasn't even really concerned about that. It was too busy with other things. That church was characterized by love for one another that was so real, even the world knew about it. Most churches and Christians I had known (there were exceptions) knew nothing of that kind of love... Spirituality was being equated with rules and man-made standards... The whole world was living in the space age - talking about rocket trips to the planets. But the church as I knew it and its leaders were smugly, self-righteously satisfied to be seeking to reach a generation that had died before the airplane was invented. I hated these things about the church. I hated its smallness of vision, its suspicion and jealousy of the few men who succeeded in really reaching people, its fear of anything fresh and new, its bondage to cliches, its stuff-shirted spiritual pride, its power politics (which always tried to hide behind a face of piety), its endless reports of nothing happening, its press releases that glossed over its failures. I deplored its total unwillingness to change. Its unwillingness to be honest about its own failures and sins. Its utter inability to drop a method or a practice or a program that was not working to try to find a better way. I despised the red tape, the unwieldy, super-slow movement of its governmental bodies. I was convinced that if the Holy Spirit did want to do something different or dynamic - He'd lose heart trying to get through all the committees and boards that would have to approve it! And yet... while I hated and despised it all - I was a tin-plate hypocrite!...' (quote from 'Brethren, Hang Loose' Zondervan Publishing House - p.20-22)
It's almost hard to believe this is a senior pastor of a large and very 'successful' church talking here. And to think that he was daring enough to press into Christ and seek the Lord to become the Head of His church, even if it meant that everything else 'organizational' had to die. Even if it meant that he would have to remove himself from a paid-staff position of leadership and share ministry with others in the body.
The amazing part about all of this is, Girard discovered a vibrant expression of New Testament life in his fellowship once man and his ritual got out of the way and gave way to the Headship and Lordship of Jesus Christ through His Spirit.
This is a radical book but an immensely relevant and much needed book for the church today! Pastors will, no doubt, be able to identify with many of Girard's frustrations with 'the ministry' but also his passion to see Christ truly become Lord of His church and see each individual believe step out in boldness, realizing they are called as priests of the Living God, able to minister and be a blessing to the body of Christ... yes, even the weakest, seemingly most insignificant Christian folk have something beautiful to contribute.
I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend you get a copy any way you can. It's a must-own and a must-share when you're done reading it. I look forward to also reading the sequel to this book; Brethren, Hang Together.
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK
© 1995-2008 TruthForFree.com & The Prayer Shack. All rights reserved. Please do not reproduce without permission. TruthForFree.com, The Prayer Shack and design logos are trademarks owned by TruthForFree.com & The Prayer Shack, Pasco, WA. Other site graphics are either used by permission or assumed to be in the public domain. If you see an image that you think should not be here, please contact the webmaster at Nobody777@hotmail.com. Privacy Statement.