Surprising Details Offered About Significant Though Faulty Firestarters
Reviewed in Canada on December 6, 2023
Rev. Dr. Ed (& Janice) Hird has offered a compilation of interesting and thrilling cameo presentations that focus on the life and leadership of twenty spiritual firestarters who lived between the 16th – 21st centuries. As an Anglican renewal leader and past president of Alpha Canada, Ed demonstrates well-researched depth and breadth in his understanding and appreciation of a variety of traditions and streams, such as key Puritan, Methodist, Baptist, Christian and Missionary Alliance, Pentecostal, and Vineyard leaders. I found a number of little-known and interesting details about the life and marriages of several of these amazing leaders. Though they had their own significant faults and struggles, God’s Firestarters were faith-filled, Spirit-led and empowered leaders who helped ignite revivals and renewal movements beyond their own limitations. If you want some fuel for your own spiritual fervor, read Ed’s treatments of such people as Susanna Wesley, William and Catherine Booth, Evan Roberts, Aimee Semple McPherson, Chuck Smith, John Wimber, J. I. Packer, and more. As you learn about these folk, perhaps you will also become one of God’s Firestarters in your own context!
I was the Rector of St. Simon's Church North Vancouver, B.C for 31 years, from 1987 to 2018. Ordained in 1980, I have also served at St. Philip's Vancouver and St. Matthew's Abbotsford. My wife Janice and I have three sons James, Mark, and Andrew. I was Past President and Chaplain for Alpha Canada. While serving as the National Chair for Anglican Renewal Ministries of Canada, I was one of three co-signers of the Montreal Declaration of Anglican Essentials
For the past 31 years, I have been privileged to write over 500 articles as a columnist on spiritual issues for local North Vancouver newspapers. In the last number of years, I have had the opportunity to speak at conferences and retreats in Honduras, Rwanda, Uganda, Washington State, BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland, and Ontario.
My book For Better, For Worse: discovering the keys to a lasting relationship, coauthored with Janice Hird, can be purchased at https://www.amazon.com/Better-Worse-Discovering-lasting-relationship/dp/0978202236/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1535555614&sr=8-1
My sequel Restoring Health: body, mind and spirit, with a foreword by Dr JI Packer, is online with Amazon.com in both paperback http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/097820221X/ref=redir_mdp_mobile and ebook form http://tiny.cc/tanhmx .
In Canada, Amazon.ca has it available in paperback http://tiny.cc/dknhmx and ebook http://tiny.cc/wmhmmx .
It is also posted on Amazon UK (paperback and ebook ), Amazon France (paperback and ebook), and Amazon Germany (paperback and ebook).
Restoring Health is also available online on Barnes and Noble in both paperback and Nook/ebook form. Nook gives a sample of the book to read online: http://tiny.cc/vj3bmx . Indigo also offers the Kobo ebook version: http://tiny.cc/kreonx . You can also obtain it through ITunes as an IBook: http://tiny.cc/1ukiox
The book 'Restoring Health: body, mind and spirit' focuses on strengthening a new generation of healthy leaders. Drawing on examples from Titus' healthy leadership in the pirate island of Crete, it shows how North Americans can embrace a holistically healthy life.
In order to obtain a signed copy in North America of the prequel book 'Battle for the Soul of Canada', Blue Sky, or God's Firestarters, please send a $25 etransfer to ed_hird@telus.net . Cheques are also acceptable.
Edhird's Blog 