Book review: Tom Rush on Understanding Your Motivation for Ministry

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Tom Rush, Georgia Baptist pastor and evangelist, has written a book on the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

I am ashamed to admit it, but I didn’t know much about the Holy Spirit until I had been a pastor for almost ten years. I don’t recall a course in college or seminary about the doctrine of pneumatology (Holy Spirit). I had been in church all my life, but I don’t know that I remember hearing a sermon about the gifts of the Spirit.

In 1972 I went to a conference at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis during the early days of Dr. Adrian Rogers’ ministry there. The emphasis of the conference was on the Holy Spirit. It was an experience that literally changed my life and ministry.

Since those days I have come to understand and believe the words of Zechariah 4:6: “This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.’”

No Christian and certainly no pastor should seek to live his life or render service to the King of kings without the power of the indwelling Spirit of God.

Tom Rush, Georgia Baptist pastor and evangelist, has written a book on the gifts of the Holy Spirit that is practical, profitable, and powerful. The author devotes significant attention and space to each gift and explains and illustrates each gift with biblical understanding and truth.

Rush beautifully explains the ministry and motivational gifts in detail, but does not hesitate to address the manifestation gifts as well. You will find his approach to these manifestation gifts to be both biblical and balanced.

For example, the author’s ability to forthrightly address the gift of tongues is heartening and his caution about having a personal prayer language is clearly addressed with clarity and spiritual insight.

Also, in his chapter on “The Gift of Mercy” Rush outlines the characteristics of the gift, then highlights the misunderstandings and misuses of the gift, pointing out how biblical characters illustrate the gift. Rush finally describes how Jesus demonstrated the gift of mercy.

Rush’s command of his subject is extraordinary and his ability to communicate it in a compelling manner should win the favor of each reader.

Best of all, Rush emphasizes that when everyone is faithfully and effectively utilizing his or her gift in the church there is harmony, because all the gifts fit together like a beautiful mosaic in the stained glass window of a grand European cathedral and all the gifts function to make the church an efficient model of ministry.

Your Reasonable Service: Understanding Your Motivational for Ministry is a 300-page publication of Westbow Press. Go here to secure your copy of this excellent book.

Adrian Rogers, book review, gifts, Holy Spirit, Tom Rush