When God Comes to Church: Experiencing the Fullness of His Presence

With so much attention given to the presentation aspect of modern worship services, is it possible that many people attending church today forget to focus on the primary purpose of actually being in God’s presence? Pastor Steve Gaines and coauthor Dean Merrill (Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire) fear this is the case and call for a return to the core point of corporate worship in When God Comes to Church.

The goal here is to "send people out the door saying not ‘What a sermon!’ or ‘What great music!’ but rather ‘What a Savior!’ . . . the only ‘Wow!’ in a church should be God."

With that in mind, Gaines and Merrill write thoroughly about what attracts God to our worship gatherings—sincere prayer, repentance, unity, etc.—and warn against the worldly hindrances to pure worship such as legalism, liberalism, and fanaticism.

Steve Gaines succeeded the late Dr. Adrian Rogers in 2005 as pastor of the Bellevue Baptist Church near Memphis, Tennessee. He holds degrees from Union University (B.S.) and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div, Ph.D.). Gaines and his wife, Donna, have four children.

Dean Merrill is author or coauthor of twenty six books including Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire and the New York Times best seller In the Presence of My Enemies. He lives with his wife in Colorado Springs, Colorado.