God's Armor Bearer 1 & 2 [Paperback]

One day I arrived at work to find this book lying on my desk. It was a gift from my secretary. However, the book wasn't the gift, the concept inside was. This was her way of telling me that we were a team and that she would always support me. That day I felt truly blessed.

PROS: This book describes a team relationship in which the team members are willing to lay down their own self interests for the leader. The author equates those working for the pastor with Old Testament armor bearers to the kings. Any leader would be humbled to be the recepient of such loyalty and faithfulness.

CONS: These ideas do contain danger. The leader must be an honorable person. Power hungry leaders could take advantage of such support. This book, written from the perspective of the support team, needs to be balanced with a similar book of godly leadership in which the leader copies Jesus and leads on his or her knees with a washbasin and a towel.

This is a great little book it will help all Christian's see their role to support their leaders. It is written by an associate pastor who discovered these truths about his role in regards to his head pastor. Yet anyone who serves in a church can learn from these short lessons. Weather you're a small group leader, an eucharistic minister, worship leader, if you serve the body of Christ in any kind of role, this book will help you serve better.

Often people take one role in serving the church and see it as a stepping tone to advancement to a 'higher' or 'better' role. That is not he case. We are to serve our leaders and serve them well. "We have got to start seeing our position as one called and instituted by God. We must be willing to stay in it for the rest of our lives, if that is what God wants." p.46
Through serving the leaders in the church we are fulfilling part of our vocational call and helping to build up the whole body of Christ.

Nance has some great insights that he shares with us: "We can see that the most important part of the Armorbearing is a ministry of prayer, watchfulness, and intercession. The Armorbearer is to prove his sincerity, loyalty, and courage in the spirit realm through prayer and intercession." p.52 and he emphatically states: "Every child of God, from leaders on down, needs to develop the character of an armorbearer. I believe that, right now in the Body of Christ, we need teaching on the development of the character of Christ. We have learned a lot about faith, prosperity and intercession, but I feel we have got to place more emphasis on character development." p.61 Noting could be closer to the truth. Much of Josemaria Escriva's writings on the Christian life have that same emphasis. His books The Way, Furrow and The Forge each have sections dedicated to character.

The role of the Armorbearer is also for the whole body, "We are God's armorbearers. We are to carry the shield for one another, joining our faith together. If we will do that we will truly become God's Great Army. We will go forth to conquer in the power of the Holy Spirit." p.63 But being an armorbearer also takes perseverance, and fortitude we are told "Discover what your course is, and then stay with it and never given up until you have reached your God ordained destination and goal." p.74.

Finally I would like to leave you with two more quotes from the book, first: "It is time for us to re-evaluate our lives, and our ministries, to make sure that we are where we need to be and doing what we need to be doing." p.79 And second: "The spirit of the armorbearer is the Spirit of Christ. This is the day we see that God's children should take up the shields of others and be willing to carry them forth into battle." p.79.

This book will definitely challenge your faith and how you live it out.