A Book Review on
Anagkazo
Written by
Dag Heward-Mills
In partial fulfillment of the requirements in School of Leaders 2
Anagkazo
Compelling Power!
Confidence. Courage. Compelling power. How confident are you as an agent of change? Have you proven yourself about your bravery? If yes, then are you bold enough to compel for our Lord Jesus Christ?
People today are usually very CONFIDENT in other aspects or areas of life. Sometimes, we tend to be more confident in promoting things that bring people no good than spreading the good news. I can’t believe that for centuries people have chosen self-destruction over the promise of salvation. We opt to settle for less and temporary when we’re (somewhat) aware that there’s best and permanent.
In the first chapter of this book, i.e. What is Anagkazo?, Dag Heward-Mills explicitly discussed the things that usually happen in the world today, all based on his own experience. I, too, have experienced the same. Worse, have done some of it.
Alcohol. Who’s going to agree with me if I say “Alcohol is beneficial”? Who likes to watch advertisements about alcohol and related stuff, featuring (of course) the most prominent people in different countries? Who admires those stars as they promote one or some of the biggest tools for self-destruction? If you say yes to all of these (or even in just one) questions, then you need to evaluate yourself. I won’t consider “for the sake of socialization” and “to forget problems” as beneficial. They could never outweigh the damage alcohol has ever done in its existence. As Mills enumerated, alcohol has broken more homes, destroyed more marriages, caused more car accidents and started more wars and fights than anything else in this world. Yet, people forcibly advertise it. It’s so sad to think that people tend to be more confident and more forceful in promoting things such as that than evangelism.
Muslims. I admit, like Mills, I am also amazed to see Muslims fighting for their faith to the point of ignoring death. That’s how devoted they are to their Allah. And sometimes, though it’s not right, it’s very tempting to get jealous over them in winning people for their faith. That’s why it is no longer surprising to see their religion spread like butter in a hot pan. If we, Christians branded as agents of change and people who promised to be with Christ in winning souls, are as devoted as them in fighting for our faith and fulfilling our purpose, I think we could bring Durian Hotel back to operation for our daily Youth Reload and Sunday service.
The Kissing Students. Ouch! The title’s a big slap on my face. How much more the five short paragraphs under it. Even if going back to yesterday’s not right, I have to admit I have done such brazenness several times in my past. I can imagine the mouth of the book talking to me and its fingers pointing towards my direction. I WAS INDEED SHAMELESS. I was shameless in indulging myself to worldly pleasures. I was shameless for the wrong reason. And for that, I have no right to entertain shame in preaching the Gospel!
Furthermore, people tend to enjoyably discuss perversion and malpractices. With great confidence, they can speak of these things in front of so many listeners ignoring the fact (in which they’re aware of) that what they’re doing’s not right. Yet, we Christians are so quiet when it comes to speaking God’s Word? What are we waiting for? Where did we place our confidence? When are we going to practice Anaideia (i.e. shamelessness)? Perhaps, we need to be COURAGEOUS.
The second chapter of the book talks about the ways to practice Anagkazo, which simply means “to compel”. In this chapter, Mills explained how important Anagkazo is as revelation. He said there that Anagkazo is important because a certain type of evangelism is not going to work in this day and age. This means, we have to go out and drive people closer to God, not to stick into the traditional way of inviting people to church and bore them with with the “not-so-fun” games. Second, Anagkazo is important because many of the people that need the Gospel are not in places where they can receive bourgeoisie invitation cards. It still talks about coming up a new strategy in winning people. He said there that sitting in church and inviting people has long been unworkable strategy for evangelism and he is, of course, right about that. Why? Because, in the first place, who’s lost? Is it really the job of the lost to find their way back? Or it should be of those who are aware that they’ve been missing? Come on.. Let’s think of that! Thirdly, without Anagkazo, many churches will die a natural death or will be going to be empty. Lastly, with Anagkazo, one will be able to overcome excuses.
Written in this chapter, also, are the 10 practical steps of Anagkazo. These are the following steps:
1. An Anagkazo Man Prepares a Great Supper
Ø Preparing now for the bigger things tomorrow. Take every opportunity and believe that something great will be happen to you someday. Now, is the time to prepare. You do not know when will God grant your heart’s desires. Do not wait for that something to happen. Chances are, because you’re not prepared, you’ll not be able to handle those things or you will be tired of waiting.
2. A Person who practices Anagkazo does not keep to himself but influences and affects many people
Ø Be visible. A true Christian should be seen even in every little thing s/he does. Influence others! Affect others, positively! Bring changes to their lives and with that, you will attract trackers of the wrong trail.
3. Anyone practicing Anagkazo is not prepared to cancel his service
Ø This step talks about being persistent in sharing the Word no matter what situation you’re going through, not to be discouraged even in the midst of adversities.
4. An Anagkazo Person is not prepared to have an empty meeting
Ø Instead of keeping yourself busy of feeling so low because of the low attendance of your cell group, do something to increase the number! Evangelize! J
5. He is not overcome by people’s excuses
Ø I want to borrow his lines, “Any good minister, who wants to reach people, must not be overwhelmed by people’s excuses. He must learn to overcome people’s excuses.” How about that? Haha. M-A-R-V-E-L-L-O-U-S.
6. Know that many excuses are empty
Ø I just love how he responded to the excuses of the successful business man, “You are a successful businessman. Everything you want to do, you do. You travel. You get up early on weekdays. You even have time to visit your girlfriend who lives a few hundred kilometres away. How come you have no time for God? If you really want to do something you can do it.” Hah! What more can I say? He’s indeed an Anagkazo person!
7. He knows that many excuses are lies
8. He makes a way and does not give an excuse
Ø It’s learning to make a way where there’s no way.
9. He goes out of his normal circles of life
Ø Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. Specifically, changing our old lifestyle or forgetting our old way of living. Choosing the right people to mingle with and trying new adventures in serving the Lord.
10. The Anagkazo man is not satisfied as long as there is still room
Ø There’s always room for improvement. There’s still a big room for souls. As long as there are existing people who do not believe in Christ then we must not be satisfied. We should aim for greater things. We must not be contented with just finding a twelve but multitudes.. and multitudes from them.. until everyone has received Jesus Christ!
The last chapter of the book is Practicing Anaideia and Biazo. This chapter talks about how to get rid of fear and shame, strategies on how to preach the gospel and how to be confident no matter what situation may come along the way as you preach. This chapter is more of a summary of the book. The author has presented his ideas in a very understandable and influential way. Thus, as a conclusion, it is really important to practice the three main ideas discussed in this book, the Anagkazo, Anaiadeia and Biazo. So how am I going to apply these three? Hmmm. Here are some ways I’ve thought on how to apply them:
1. Start getting rid of shame and fear when doing the evangelism. I used to think it’s hard even if I’ve done it several times already. Now, I have to take that feeling away, be confident and be not afraid to show everyone that I love doing what I do. After all, being confident in preaching the Word of God, as long as there’s anointing of course, is not a shameful act.
2. Stop cancelling opencells. I have this attitude of cancelling our opencell every time I have something to do, acads-related. Yes, I understand that sometimes, it is really hard to balance things but I should start learning to practice balancing now. What I need is time management. So, maybe, starting next sem, when I have something to do in school, I should start doing them as early as possible so that I won’t be cramming again which, eventually, leads to imbalance work or things undone (this includes cancellations of meetings).
3. To come up with strategies that will attract more people to come closer to God.
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