Sun Stand Still: What Happens When You Dare to Ask God for the Impossible Book

Pastor Steven Furtick is regularly criticized for his lax use of Scripture, his shaky theology, and his over-eager charm, but there is no denying he is gifted and talented. While I'm somewhat in the Reformed camp who has claimed doctrinal war against guys like Furtick, I personally love his ministry. I appreciate what he does. I download podcasts from Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, Timothy Keller, James MacDonald, and anyone else you'd call conservative, but my odd blip on the iPod is Steven Furtick. I don't always agree with what he says, but that shouldn't count him out. When he says the truth, it lands hard.

Furtick has three main objectives: to understand the size of our God we pray to, to seek a vision the size of that God, and to persevere amidst unanswered prayers. These goals culminate into his favorite phrase, audacious faith. He bases all this off a passage from Joshua that may or may not demonstrate proper exegesis, but is certainly catchy. It's a real zinger to say Sun Stand Still.

The last point, about fighting even when prayers seem to fail, is the most nuanced part of the book. It's also his best sermon in the series. That single chapter touches so close to the daily reality of many people. Finally Furtick stops making God sound like a genie. When you strip away all the inspirational cheerleading of Furtick's preaching and writing, you get a sense that he sincerely understands the depth of our struggles. I wish that last point had taken up more of the book. It's almost as if Furtick sat down in the pulpit, turned off his iPad, and got really real. Our faith cannot be in goals, he implies, because our faith can only be fully found in God Himself, who is good beyond our understanding. It spoke so well that it eclipsed (pun intended) nearly everything else.

If it sounds like I'm being hard on Furtick, I'm not trying to be. I did enjoy his book. It did achieve some of its goal: to increase my faith in God's generous goodness. Furtick is a hyperbolic, astronomical goalsetter who may turn you off or may fire you up. Here's a thought to some of the critics: if we actually did try living as bold as Furtick suggests, would that be a bad thing? I hardly think so.