Times of Refreshing - (Kraeuter, Gustafson, Henry, Kauflin, Kavanaugh, Rayborn, Salte) (Book)

 Review

We live in an awesome time where worship leaders and musicians are blessed with amazing worship resources to help in our pursuit of musical excellence. There is no doubt that playing to the best of our ability before the Lord is a very necessary pursuit. But to be honest, there have been more than one Sunday mornings where I have led worship with a brain full of musical knowledge but my heart felt empty and had nothing fresh to pour out to God. In times like that it becomes clear that all the great intros and sweet chord voicings in the world are not going to make me an authentic worship leader. As worship leaders, we need resources that fill our hearts with the Word so that we can grow spiritually and be equipped to effectively lead people into His throne. The book "Times Of Refreshing" is one of those resources.

"Times Of Refreshing" is a devotional by Tom Kraeuter with heavy contributions by worship leaders and teachers like Kent Henry, Arlen Salte, Garrit Gustafson and others. The 100 devotions in this book are great for personal study or group devotion times. The thing I love best about this book is the range of topics that it covers. I can't tell you how many times I thought I had found a great book on worship only to discover that the author pretty much shared all his/her ideas in the first chapter and proceeded to rehash the ideas from every possible angle in the chapters that followed. "Time Of Refreshing" is not a small nugget of knowledge smothered in a thick, creamy coating of over-explanation. It contains 100 solid and diverse nuggets of truth. The chapters in "Times Of Refreshing" go far beyond the standard topic of "what is worship" into personal heart matters. The various topics discussed are not only applicable to our ministerial pursuits, but they also present God's Word concerning our personal and private lives (which ultimately affect our ministries).

This book is the perfect companion to all of those worship team/musician resources that we already own. "Times Of Refreshing" will fill your heart and charge your spiritual batteries, preparing you not just for Sunday morning worship leading but for your daily worship walk as well.

Review by Jeremy Dunn