Book review: Growing as an "Enthusiast!"

Nov. 7, 2018

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I’ve known Bob Whitesel for some 22 years—well, known him of a sort because he and I have never met or broken bread together or attended the same conference. When I first became aware of Bob, he was contributing to a magazine put out by “The Church Doctor” Kent Hunter, and I loved reading his stuff on church health and church growth.

I like the guy for his enthusiasm and energy, so why wouldn’t he author a small book called Enthusiast!: Finding a Faith that Fills (Wesleyan Publishing House, 2018)? Bob also contributes to BiblicalLeadership.com and is the founding and former professor of missional leadership at Wesley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University.

No surprise then that Whitesel is “a lifelong student of the leadership of John and Charles Wesley,” according to the back cover of the 254-page book. He writes: “Twenty-six percent of the Protestant church around the globe can be traced back to these [two] ‘enthusiasts.’ What could God do in the next century if we reclaimed their methods?”

“A couple definitions first: Enthusiasm combines the Greek words en (meaning within or in) and theos (God), it reminds us we must be filled with God’s Holy Spirit.” And he tells us that enthusiasm can be unreasonable if it means blind devotion or passion.

The book has 30 chapters that are brief and powerful devotions, a sampling includes Embracing God’s Plan for Your Life; Becoming an Enthusiast; Enthusiastically Sharing Good News; Growing as an Enthusiast; How-To Lessons for Enthusiasts; and Passing Enthusiasm to the Next Generation.

Let me pick out a couple chapters that spoke to me. I have always loved the word “backsliding;” it seems so archaic and like the 80s—the 1880s, that is. It is chapter 14, “Backsliding and the Remedy for It.” What church doesn’t have a few pews of backsliders who aren’t very faithful, but no one dares to sit in “their” pews when they are absent from services?

Speaking of evangelists, Whitesel writes, “When preachers returned after an absence of many weeks, they often found a large number of those who had been converted had lapsed back into their old lives. John and Charles concluded this was due to the lack of a follow-up strategy to their open-air preaching.”

The remedy? “John had seen firsthand the power of small groups. After his own experience in a Moravian community in Germany, he established small groups called ‘choirs’ which, Bob says, were divided by age, sex and marital status. 

Following that section for each chapter is an application that can be used to encourage group discussions.

The book is cleverly done, extremely helpful and easy to carry. There is an appendix for preachers and group leaders that gives practical study guides for how group participants can be enthusiasts for God.

Just writing about Bob’s new book has raised my excitement and has generated a new-found enthusiasm for the Word and for sharing the gospel with others.

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