Cheryl Catford,  Following Fire: How the Spirit Leads us to Fight Injustice (Springvale: UNOH, 2008) ISBN 9780977507030 Paperback, x, 337 pages

Reviewed by Darren Cronshaw

Coordinator of Leadership Training, Baptist Union of Victoria

Pastor, Auburn Baptist Church

I am fascinated by how different people and traditions interpret how God works in our lives and in the world. Richard Foster ¢â‚¬â„¢s  Streams of Living Water was significant to help me understand the contributions of different traditions or movements in church history and in the life of Jesus  ¢â‚¬“ the prayer-filled contemplative life, the holiness movement, the yearning of the charismatic tradition for God ¢â‚¬â„¢s Spirit to work among us, the evangelical tradition ¢â‚¬â„¢s interest in proclaiming the good news, the compassion of the social justice tradition and the incarnational stream of celebrating spirituality in everyday life. Foster helpfully encourages Christians of different streams to learn from the contributions of others.

Two of the traditions or streams that have blossomed at different times and places are the charismatic and justice streams, but they have not always coexisted. Cheryl Catford as editor and the thirty other contributors of  Following Fire celebrate the synergy that can and should exist when  ¢â‚¬Ëœthe Spirit leads us to fight injustice ¢â‚¬â„¢. They contend that the role of the Spirit is not just about worship and personal devotion, but transformation of all our lives  ¢â‚¬“ individual and corporate, church and society, local and global.

Their challenge is that we have to ask how does worship and our experience of the Holy Spirit relate to a needy world? Christians in the West may well celebrate an intimate experience of God in worship and everyday life, but how is the Spirit working to release those in bondage (as in Luke 4) and to bridge divisions between cultural groups (as in Acts 2)? 30,000 children die each day from poverty (one child every three seconds). A billion people, or one in six in the world, do not have access to clean water, and as Mike Davis describes, are  ¢â‚¬Ëœliving in shit ¢â‚¬â„¢. There are homeless people in our neighbourhoods and whole people groups an airplane ride away who face injustices greater than we can hardly imagine. What is the Spirit wanting to stir in the people of God to address these issues and be good news to the poor? How can our churches be hubs for missional transformation of our neighbourhoods not just worship centres to deliver in-house services to the faithful?

Following Fire offers practical inspiration in three sections of articles is divided into three sections:  ¢â‚¬Å“understanding the fire ¢â‚¬  and examining the nature of the Holy Spirit in Scripture working against poverty,  ¢â‚¬Å“tracing the fire ¢â‚¬  through history, and  ¢â‚¬Å“the fire at work ¢â‚¬  with more than a dozen contemporary examples.

The articles are from two to sixteen pages long, so are concise and practical.

My favourites include Ash Barker ¢â‚¬â„¢s description biblical engagement with Zacchaeus ¢â‚¬â„¢ triple conversion to the good news to the poor (a conversion to Jesus, to the poor and to community), and his unpacking of Jesus ¢â‚¬â„¢ liberating message.

Dave Andrews describes the influence of the Spirit at Pentecost in affirming all that was good, confronting all that was evil and accessing the vitality and sensitivity to struggle for the world ¢â‚¬â„¢s salvation. He prompted me to ask what would change in our churches if we took a fresh deep breath of the Spirit? What  ¢â‚¬Ëœwild and wonderful ride ¢â‚¬â„¢ would that take us on?

Michael Frost offers a missional perspective of the Holy Spirit. He celebrates how the Spirit moves the church beyond its walls to engage culture and creation, to humbly engage in dialogue and to courageously advocate for justice. His conclusion is:  ¢â‚¬ËœMission is an activity of the triune God and to emphasise the agency of the Spirit is to reclaim that Trinitarian reality and to bid farewell to those ecclesiocentric and Christocentric perceptions that diminished not only creation, culture and the poor, but also diminished the Trinity. ¢â‚¬â„¢

Deborah Storie unpacks the Lord ¢â‚¬â„¢s Prayer and its invitation to imagine the world as God would dream it to be.

Historical articles span perspectives on the Celtic movement and Anabaptism, and Alan Nichols ask what went wrong in  ¢â‚¬Å“Christian ¢â‚¬  Rwanda, a nation that experienced widespread revival but forgot the gospel ¢â‚¬â„¢s social dimensions and allowed such dreadful genocide?

From contemporary experience, Bart Campolo admits realising that preaching radical discipleship does not work. Forming radical disciples takes apprenticeship in the ways of Jesus, exposing people to living and working in poor neighbourhoods and coaching them to dream about changing the world. His prophetic challenge for youth and young adult ministry is:  ¢â‚¬ËœThe job of the church is not just to get our young people through high school and college safe and sound, but to make them into radical disciples of Jesus Christ, ready, willing, and able to transform this world into the kingdom of God. We will not lose them because we ask too much. We will lose them if we keep asking too little. ¢â‚¬â„¢

Phil Baker appeals for the church to move  ¢â‚¬Å“Beyond goose-bump theology ¢â‚¬  and passionately engage in generosity among the poor and marginalised. He suggests active discipleship best captures the interest of God-followers and non-believers alike.

Jim Reiher narrates his experience of the Holy Spirit and politics, arguing for active engagement without expecting to take over the land and being aware of the dilemmas of power and compromise in the political sphere.

Claire Dawson explores the Spirit ¢â‚¬â„¢s role in advocacy for justice and care or Creation, a timely topic when climate change is one of the biggest issues facing the world and exacerbating poverty. She challenges us to explore new ways of production and consumption:  ¢â‚¬ËœWe need to re-imagine what life would be like if we were to live in ways which were particularly mindful of creation. We need to tend and to mend the garden that we have been given. … And we need to learn from other cultures, particularly indigenous peoples, about more sustainable ways of relating to nature. ¢â‚¬â„¢

There are also chapters by international speakers  Tony Campollo, Mick Duncan, Richard Rohr, Shane Claiborne, Jackie Pullinger and Philip Yancey; and local Melbourne writers including Nicole Conner, Siu Fung Wu, Tim Costello and Jeff Hammond, all appealing to be open to the Spirit ¢â‚¬â„¢s interest in courageously confronting injustice.

Two areas that I would have liked to read about are Australian indigenous issues and peacemaking. Reconciliation in Australia between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples is arguable the biggest justice issue Australia faces. And in a world of war and terror, where Western nations seem preoccupied with ensuring security by continuing to grow the military war machine, we desperately need to celebrate alternative approaches and reclaim the peacemaking influence of the Spirit.

We need fresh imagination-grabbing appeals to  ¢â‚¬Ëœmake goodness fashionable ¢â‚¬â„¢ for the issues of our day as Wilberforce did for his. Cheryl Catford and the contributors she and UNOH invited together have pointed in some welcome and inspiring directions for celebrating the merging of charismatic and social justice streams. This is a practical volume that will be of interest to social justice activists, charismatic leaders, students and teachers of mission and pneumatology, and anyone interested in discerning what the Spirit is saying about global issues of justice.

Darren Cronshaw