Kim Gentes

Review of "Naturally Supernatural" by Gary Best

View more about Gary Best.

Gary Best

Over the last 25 years, I have had the opportunity to meet Gary Best only a few times. Each time, Gary has continued to live out his desire to train others, to see the kingdom of God expand and to see the love of God reach the hurting. Gary's book, "Naturally Supernatural" is written to help explain the process of praying for others and living a naturally supernatural life that exemplifies his understanding and practice of that kingdom of God teaching.

Since I first met him in 1987, Gary was the first person I knew of that used the term "Naturally Supernatural". The book title seemed appropriate when I heard it. It's a phrase that has since been used elsewhere, but none more fittingly than the no-hype, low pressure, but faith-building and love-centered approach that is unique to Gary. In this respect he the best of what he represents from his Vineyard tradition- solid biblical examination of the working of the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, and kingdom of God (i.e. continuationist) theology.

Gary Best served as the National Director for the Association of Vineyard Churches, Canada and oversaw the Pacific Rim theatre for AVC missions. He has traveled extensively, speaking in conferences throughout North America. Europe and Asia. He is married to Joy. He was the founding pastor of the Langley Vineyard Christian Fellowship, BC. Five congregations developed out of the church during their leadership. Gary and Joy now reside in New Brunswick, Canada, where they oversee the Dominion Hill retreat center near St. Andrews, NB.

Gary continues to travel and speak on "Naturally Supernatural" and other topics of ministry. I highly encourage you to contact Gary if you are interested in inviting him as a guest, speaker or conference leader. I've been to a number of events he has led and they are some of the best, most impactive events for equipping churches and their leaders.

For more info on Gary Best, his teaching and ministry, go to naturallysupernaturalthebook.wordpress.com .

Let me share a true story with you.

It was 1987. I was visiting friends in Surrey, BC, Canada. One night, they invited me to go to a church class on praying for the sick. I went. At the end, the leader announced it was 'clinic time'. He invited sick people to get prayer. Brave man, I thought. He asked each person what was wrong, and taught others to pray for them. One person had to literally whisper because his throat had swollen so much over the last few days, it was causing him to barely be able to speak. The leader stopped, like he wasn't sure what to do. He looked at the class and said "Jesus often healed from compassion. Let's see who the Lord puts His compassion in their heart for this man."

As soon as he said the word "heart", my heart took one giant beat, feeling as if it was going to explode out of my chest. I'd never experienced this before. At the same time this happened I involuntarily and immediately gasped for air. The leader turned and looked straight at me.

"Oh no," I thought. I wasn't sure what was happening to me, but I didn't think it had anything to do with the meeting and I hadn't meant to get his attention. I quickly said out loud, "Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you."

"No, that's ok. What happened?" he asked. I explained that the moment he said the word heart my own chest felt like it was going to explode. He smiled and asked me to come to the front to pray for the man. I was unsure and not filled with faith. After a few moments of following his instructions and praying for the old man with the throat problem, the man's eyes got wide and excited. He smiled, and his eyes began to tear up. He started speaking. The swelling had gone down and he was feeling completely better. I was shocked.

This was my first time meeting Gary Best. From that time forward, my life has been changed with a desire and faith see God's kingdom become present in my life. I became aware that God's love was ready to intervene, to heal and to confront the evil of this world with the power of His Spirit. This book clearly articulates the main points of Gary's thesis- that the Good News of the gospel of Jesus is really "good news"; and that we are to join in the mission of Jesus and the early disciples to see that same good news demonstrated today.

The book is well written and very easy to follow. Beginning with Gary's personal story of his reluctant introduction to the "Naturally Supernatural", the author traces through the gospel of Mark and explores the challenges of the equally confounded first century apostles who found stepping out in faith as mystifying, yet necessary, if they were going to follow Christ. The author explores a logical progression of his own building faith through trial and error as the book teaches the reader about the gifts, seeing what God sees, prayer, empowerment, reaching out and persevering.

The content and personal exploration (and humility) of the author with the topics make the book not only easy to read but enjoyable. If you are the type of person that is skeptical about "healing", I'd recommend this book to you. Not because it argues indepth about theological points and wins the day, but because it balances nicely between the concepts, the scriptural underpinnings and personal examples. More than any other book I've read, "Naturally Supernatural" clearly articulates the passionate, yet thoughtful approach that is the main-stay of the Vineyard church's kingdom of God approach to ministry. What makes the book wonderfully Christ-centered, in my opinion, is it's unrelenting focus on God's love. As Best puts it:

"Our great encouragement," I told them, "is that we can't heal anyone. If anything is to happen, the critical factor will be God's faithfulness. What we can do, however, is love and then simply reach for all that God will gift us to do."1

Gary Best never allows the gifts become the "toy" or trophy of his teaching or practice. In "Naturally Supernatural", the place of healing and all supernatural gifts are the subordinated functionaries given to spread the good news of God's love to a broken world.

After reading through this book, I realized how much of Gary's teaching had been a lifelong dedication to seeing God's good news become reality for others. What I had encountered back in 1987 was just a sample of how God has continued to use Gary over the last 25 years and, by God's grace on his continued ministry, travel and writing, the good news of Jesus has been flourishing.

If you haven't read this book, I strongly encourage you to get it and read it. Very good, and very worthwhile!

Let me end with another personal story.

I just finished reading Gary Best's "Naturally Supernatural". That night, my family decided to drive to a small chicken stop in northeast Nashville (a unique place called "Prince's Hot Chicken Shack", very spicy). While we were eating, a lady walked by our table, talking across the room to a friend about her recent battle with cancer. When we were done eating, my son Jared told me he felt like he should pray for the lady before we left. I encouraged him to go with that compassion. My other son, Jordan, joined him. They approached the lady and soon were welcomed at her table. They listened intently, and with compassion, to the lady's story of her battle with cancer. Then they prayed with compassion and asked God to heal her completely. She began to tear up and hugged Jared. Other members of the table shook his hand and embraced him as well. My sons had prayed in faith, taken a risk of showing love to a stranger, and left trusting that God's faithfulness would have to prevail for the woman to be healed. As a parent, you're never quite sure how your "words of wisdom" are being heard by your kids. But the things I'd been introduced to in 1987 have impacted my life and, later, that of my children. And what I have continued to learn, my sons had been learning too.

What encourages me about Gary's book is that it's message is something that can be a teaching tool and lens through which people can better understand the kingdom of God and its practical application of the good news of Jesus.

If you are interested in reading something that will encourage you in learning about those things, I strongly encourage you to consider this book.

Amazon Link : http://amzn.to/13XrKcn

 or 

Order from the author directly at : naturallysupernaturalthebook.wordpress.com

Also, if you are interested in more about the author, or contacting him you can do so at this link: Gary Best.

In Christ's love,
Kim Gentes

1. Best, Gary (2005-03-01). Naturally Supernatural (Kindle Locations 1290-1291). Vineyard International Publishing. Kindle Edition.

"Embracing Obscurity" is a book of challenge meant to confront the church of western society which lives squarely in a culture of self-seeking, goal-oriented, achievement-centered structures and people. For the most part, the book starts with the premise that the church hasn't escaped these cultural trappings. The approach taken with "Embracing Obscurity" is to try to deconstruct the evils of the culture, explain how unbiblical they are and pursue a higher devotion to God’s purposes than the "me"-centric ideals of our western world.

At first blush, honestly, I found the book to seem weak in its theological composition of any ideas that weren't just a "U" in the Calvinistic acronym of TULIP. Yes, we are all bad, all worms, and God is great, up on His high throne. This is how the book starts, and it doesn’t help itself in starting this way. I understand the compulsion to begin with the affront on the standard culture infiltrating church and Christian values. Shock the reader into realizing they are attaching their actions to values that aren't Christ-centered. But ultimately this approach may scare away people who might want a more substantive foundation of understanding of where to center their lives and value. The patient reader will find that the book does indeed make its final claim of human worth in the valuation as being through being God’s family and finding our eternal rewards in Him (as opposed to the temporal rewards of self-centeredness).

I say this upfront to make the point that the book starts weak but ends strong. In fact, by the fourth chapter, the author (who has notably remained completely anonymous to make a further point about their thesis) turns the ship towards reconstructing a new understanding of self, of value, and of living life within the obscurity of the world so that one might be known by the One to the glory of God.

By the end of the book, I was wanting more. It felt like the author had turned the ship towards God's goodness enfolding man's destiny, leaving us squarely with a hopeful understanding of where to pursue life. The author sparks the conversation about eternal significance and eternal rewards- and the validation that pursuing God’s offered rewards are proper and just for the Christian. This is joyous and good. The reason I say that I felt like the author ended the book too soon was that while they centered the conversation properly, they didn't really explore the obvious next step of significance based on the imago dei, a concept of human value centered in God from creational theology. I kept waiting for this to be a main point and the author seems to leave without making the point, which is where the book seemed to be leading.

Like almost all modern Christian books, it has some weaknesses in presentation that are partly due to needing to fill the needed number of pages for publication. I felt like a reading of CS Lewis' "The Weight of Glory" would have accomplished much the same adjustment of heart and mind (with a similar goal and topic) in less than 20 pages. I also am not convinced that the author remaining anonymous really accomplishes the goal the author intends, since even within the book the reader is encouraged to embrace the spotlight that God brings, but with a new perspective of giving glory to God. I originally had a printed pre-release version of the book to use for my reading, but (after forgetting the printed copy in seat back pocket of an airplane seat) I ended up purchasing a Kindle version of the book. Because of the extensive notes and support references used in this book, I found the Kindle version to be better simply because I like working through all the support material while reading through the main text. Something to consider for those of you who might be reading for school studies or such.

Those things said, this is a topic that needs to be addressed, and addressed with new words and new perspectives to our generation. For that I am grateful and this work accomplishes that goal. Given my critiques above, the book ends up being strong and worth reading.

Amazon Book Link:  http://amzn.to/WS7VwO

Review by Kim Gentes

Reading the book "Learning to Suffer Well" was something of a personal earthquake for me, not just through the reading of the book, but through the workbook style exercises and weekly meetings recommended with a trusted friend. In the combination of all three (reading, workbook exercises and meeting with a friend) the work turned up some profound truth and good application. The scriptural understanding of suffering, as a valid component within the differentiated and holistic Christian life, becomes apparent. What I had only intuited in the nuance of scripture reading before was brought to full light- Jesus, the disciples, and most heroes of the faith suffered as part of their lives, and it was part of God's will that they did so.

It became clear that my attempts to avoid suffering only weakened my growth and had not saved me any pain.  As I began to delve into the devotions and exercises, I saw Christ fully aware of suffering, yet not distant. Acknowledging the pain, but not abandoning me to it.  In my theology before taking reading this book, I realized that what I had feared was not suffering itself but the isolation of believing it was an outward sign of God's abandonment.

But the closer I delved into the reality that my past, present and future sufferings may not only be used by God, but they may be God's plan for change (at times) in my life, I began to see a God who never leaves or forsakes me. A God who is thoroughly aware of our loss, has experienced it personally (in Christ) and joins with us both during our "death" and as the change agent in our resurrection through the other side of the pain. But beyond the "knowledge" of God's presence with us through the pain of suffering, "Learning to Suffer Well" holds a very practical key to allow for change in a persons actual life.

Peter Fitch gives a progressive understanding of the qualities of the follower of Jesus who has come to grasp what true suffering is. He says it this way:

The difference is something like this: a person with perseverance knows that he or she will survive through difficulty; a person with character, already confident about perseverance, generally makes the decision to do something constructive in the midst of the trial.[1]

and

If the person with perseverance may be characterised as "hanging on", and the person with character may be seen as getting to work in the midst of the trial to help speed its conclusion, the person with hope must be seen as one who remains cheerful and at peace, praising God right through the difficulty...In this way, hope is related to faith. Instead of allowing the heart to fall into despondency at the onset of the trial, hope remembers the power and love of God and turns expectantly toward Him.[2]

What is grasped here is worth re-iterating. It is, quite simply, that we have three laudable plateaus of faith through suffering: perseverance, character and hope. Perseverance knows they will survive through the suffering; character decides to grow through the suffering; and hope remember God's power and love and turns to Him for it.

Through reading "Learning to Suffer Well", I have come to the real belief that Paul's admonition is as pertinent to suffering in my life as it is to every believer:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.(Romans 8:28)

This is an excellent book! I highly recommend it!

Amazon Book Link: http://amzn.to/JEPXL8

Review by Kim Gentes

Footnotes:

1. Peter Fitch, "Learning to Suffer Well", (Cape Town, South Africa:Vineyard International Publishing 2000), Pg 60
2. Ibid., Pg 75

What Wright does with this book is bring us more clearly into the world of the historical first century Jew who became the central character of human history, namely Jesus Christ. Instead of interpreting the Jesus from our modern or post-modern contexts, Wright takes us into the world of prophetic Messianic writings, temple symbols and worship, political and nationalistic pursuits that enraptured the Jewish culture during the time of Jesus of Nazareth.  In "The Challenge of Jesus" Wright explains Jesus as the a person primarily driven through vocation, to fulfill his calls as Israel's Messiah, the hope and son of David and ultimately the light of the world. Wright sees Jesus as fully aware of his mission to be the Messianic figure that not only fulfills the prophetic writings, but actually displaces many of the essential symbols of his Jewish heritage (Sabbath, Temple, Torah and more). In this act of becoming the king of the Jews through claim, he seeks to become the replacement for the main functions of the Jewish Temple as well, taking on himself the activity of forgiveness of sins, worship, community and celebration.  Likewise Jesus articulates in himself a replacement for the Sabbath and the Torah wherein Jesus becomes the embodied Word of God and the sabbath rest for man.

Wright attempts to communicate that Jesus certainly thought of himself as messiah and vocationally as the son of Abba, doing His will on earth, though he doesn't go so far as to say Jesus knows himself to be God omniscient under human skin.  And this is good, because it requires us to spin 180 degrees around and back up 2000 years into the question and see it from the historical perspective looking forward from the first century on, rather than backward from the 21st century looking back two millennium.  Our aspect, though strange at first, takes on much brighter inspection on the life of Jesus and the often misunderstood meanderings of the first  century church. What Wright proposes is a thoroughly eschatological viewpoint of the Christ story and of early church history- one in which the hopes of Israel are so completely fulfilled in Jesus that its abrupt and contrasting arrival is violently opposed by many of the  effected parties who would have their positions and power challenged if what Jesus said was true: the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin, the Romans, the Teachers of the Law, the revolutionary Zionists and almost any power-based organization.  But through the death and resurrection of Jesus, He becomes the vindicated Messiah and the long waited Savior of Israel.  But He does so by surprising them in doing this as both completely man and as God-in-the-flesh, dwelling among humans as the new fully human way to live.

Of minor complaint in reading this book is that Wright does a disservice in his work that puts off the reader to consider the writer perhaps less interested in the text than the reader is. He reflects, not once or twice but literally a dozen or more times on the fact that he will not take much time or space to support a theory or two in depth. Presumably he has better things to do than fill the book with back-story, recounted data and textual references, but the student and reader isn't convinced. In the end, this constant reminding that he does serves to weaken the text left intact in the manuscript. I'd even much rather he said that he deals with this all in detail in another volume. He says this occasionally, though not enough to convince the reader that they are either a novice who will get those details if they keep going or an idiot if they haven't read all the historical documents he takes us for having needed to fully explain his point. I recognize that this book is an attempt to articulate the content of "Jesus and the Victory of God" (his scholarly account of this same topic), but Wright would have kept the thing clear if he didn't try to constantly complain about having to right such a "boiled down" version - he should have made his point a couple of times then stopped.

What conclusively and profoundly is pointed out by Wright in this book is the concept of Jesus fitting well into the narrative of Jewish history- what he calls the “meta-narrative”. This particular label provides a stark rendering of how to conceive of the life of Jesus inside the great story. Not just a story for his time, but for the ancient peoples and for us today, as for those yet to come.  Jesus did not “hi-jack” the story line of humanity, interjecting a bit of God to help us get along. In Wrights “Challenge”, Jesus becomes the pivotal character, at the pivotal time, on the pivotal issues. All of which helps us understand much better how to orient ourselves to the truth about God, humanity and our particular part in it.  How we fit in is becomes a more clear rendering within of the meta-narrative. It forces us to consider starting at and with Jesus perspective and point in time rather than a selfish modern (or post-modern) rant effusing arrogantly over top of past generations, by interpreting our place and time as having more particular influence upon a clear reading of the meanings of Jesus, His life, the gospel story, the New Testament and even the entire human history.

One important sub-plot of this meta-narrative was the theme of Exodus, which reverberated through Jewish tradition. Jesus came to fulfill, in the Jewish, story the exodus out of the captivity of sin into the promises land.  This was likely the prime story recounted and in the mind of his hearers.  But since Jesus did not fulfill this with Israel as a political or military triumph, leaders and people as a whole missed the point of Jesus “revolution”. Nevertheless, Jesus acts were the true exodus, not just for Israel, but the whole world, bringing about the engagement of the Kingdom of God on earth. The King was here, and the activity of walking people out of Egypt via the exodus into their land of forgiveness of sin was here.  The fulfillment of Christ across this story was the thoroughly Jewish rendering of God’s salvation come to earth.

Amazon Book Link: http://amzn.to/HwNNeV

Review by Kim Gentes

“The Epic of Eden” is a phenomenal, easily read book from Biblical scholar and professor Sandra L. Richter. The core purpose of the book seems to be to present an understandable framework for the story of God through history, as explained and explored by the Old Testament scriptures. Richter does a masterful job of presenting her thesis in a variety of complimentary insights, examples and narratives. Her coup de grâce statement of the book appears unceremoniously at the very center of the volume and highlights her unique ability to make readable statements out of mountains of metadata:

In it’s simplicity...Eden and the New Jerusalem are the bookends of redemptive history. God's original intent is his final intent, and everything that lies between is one extraordinary rescue plan.[1]

There are examples-o-plenty of her constant stream of concise summations of many topics including heaven, redemption, patriarchy, theocracy, idols, typology, covenant and much more. But threaded consistently throughout the pages of this laudable work is an underlying effort to expose Yahweh as the ultimate cosmic God who does not hand Israel practices, covenants, and laws out of a wholly alien vacuum (from somewhere in heaven). Instead, Richter presents the God of Israel who doesn’t just deign to send forth a holy book to his subjects, but enters, instead, into communication with Abram, the patriarchs, Moses, David and others to bring His message to them not by some cryptic code but in their language, culture and understanding. From the friendship and assurances with Abram (later Abraham), to the Law given to Moses, to the covenant and promises made with David, Sandra Richter explores the idea of God being so gracious that He places His will into forms that were already present in the culture of the hearers.

One of the best examples of this concept is in Richter’s examination of Yahweh’s intent regarding the tabernacle and temple. She explores both the reality and motive of temple and tabernacle, helping us to see God’s true intent with them, made meaningful through the lens Israel’s world and culture:

And do you see how Yahweh chooses to live as his people live? Since the Israelites dwell in tents, Yahweh will too. When Israel becomes a sedentary people, Yahweh shifts his residence to a temple and becomes sedentary as well. Here we see the incarnation of the oft-repeated refrain, “I shall be there God and they shall be my people and I will dwell among them”.[2]

Through thorough study of the scriptures and  historical, archaeological and linguistic research, the author draws a picture of God and His story through the ages but remains inviting, questioning and open to the readers own thoughts by not being dogmatic about her own.  A great example of the author’s technique is her exploration of redemption itself. In at least three different ways she explores how redemption was a tribal, familial process and what its specific meaning was to the original writers and readers of the text.  Then, Richter points us to that meaning as it applies today and we find a redemption that is not the cut and dry legal transaction of our most popular interpretations handed down to us from the 20th century.

Redemption was the means by which a lost family member was restored to a place of security within the kinship circle. This was a patriarch’s responsibility, this was the safety net of Israel’s society, and this is the backdrop for the epic of Eden in which we New Testament believers find ourselves.

Can you hear the metaphor of Scripture? Yahweh is presenting himself as the patriarch of the clan who has announced his intent to redeem his lost family members.[3]

From this and other numerous examples, the author makes learning the essential Biblical story (and putting a cogent framework on it for interpretation) a personal experience. It is helpful, clear and I found it personally engaging.

But what is most surprising about this entire book comes in the form of a delightful addendum. Surprising because the author tackles two questions that are scarcely ever addressed anywhere, let alone in print. Tucked in the back of this book is a section called “Frequently Asked Questions”. While it sounds more typical of something you might find on a website blog, Richter asks and answers two firestorm questions: “What Role Does the Law of Moses Play in the Christian’s Life”, and “What About Modern Day Israel”?

Both of these questions might set off a furious debate in almost any diverse or large enough forum, but Sandra Richter has no need to debate or convince you of her premise for chapters and chapters. This is because she has already built 95% of her case in the preceding book that you have just read.  The addendum fits in so perfectly, it obviously was made as an ending extension to utilize the theory already provided by the reading. One can’t really jump into the  “Frequently Asked Questions” section and accept her answers without first having ingested the contents of the book as preparatory support for her conclusions to those dynamo questions.

The reason I so like the ending section is that she takes head on a topic almost never discussed by Christians of profile leadership without some ire being raised - politics. But she does it in a way which sticks so strictly to her thesis of the book that she never edges into any political sectarianism. She states the biblical back-story of Israel’s theocracy and how that political formulation is handled in the old testament, and explores further how Jesus and Paul have interpreted the application of government in light of the new covenant.  No political debate or posturing, yet clear scriptural wisdom and application. Surprising, refreshing and insightful.

If I had to recommend just one book to help a Christian understand and explore the framework of the scriptural Old Testament story, I would recommend The Epic of Eden. It is simply that good. Even the writing style is accessible and inviting. After reading it, one feels as though they sat down with a good friend and got an in depth talk about what the Old Testament is all about, with enough “meat” to allow for further pursuit of details but enough brevity to make sense of the grand meta-story of God’s work on earth, and his master plan of redemption for all.

Amazon Book Link: http://amzn.to/zOhJ73

Review by Kim Gentes

[1] Sandra L. Richter, “The Epic of Eden” (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic 2008), Page 132

[2] Ibid., Page 180

[3] Ibid., Page 45