"The Taste of New Wine"

The Taste of New Wine by Keith Miller

A book about finding spiritual renewal, it seems to be directed more toward those who are in leadership positions in the church. It's central theme is the awakening of lay people to new purpose, a new relationship with Christ, and to their true position as ministers of the gospel, but I think Miller's purpose was to show church leaders that this is a movement that has already begun and to encourage them to get on board.

The problem is that as church members, most of us have always assumed that evangelism and witnessing are the job of the paid ministers and pastors and we have happily let them them take responsibility for that, even though it contradicts what scripture tells us about all believers being ministers of the gospel. The real job of the salaried minister or pastor is to equip the laypeople to go out and live a life of evangelism. The church I hold to has long taught the priesthood of all believers so this wasn't new teaching to me.

It was written in 1965, but truth is truth in any era so it didn't feel outdated. In my copy there were three blank pages so sections of the text were actually missing. Unfortunately that meant not knowing where he was going with certain points or not finding out the ending of  a particular story he was telling. It was hard to stay interested with those huge gaps but I finished it because it's been on my shelf for a long time and I wanted to get it done.