The King Is in Residence: A Review

Charles Bradford, a beloved church leader, shares his vision for the church in this new book The King Is in Residence.

Here’s what he writes in part:

I am black and American and have to remind myself that God is the God of all flesh. “God so loved the world”. I was born and raised in a Seventh-day Adventist pastor’s home. Social scientists would have called us “black puritans.”  Our neighbors called us “those people who keep Saturday for Sunday and they don’t eat pork and don’t go to the movies.” Admittedly, we were somewhat Pharisaical, paying tithe on garden herbs and in some instances neglecting the weightier matters of law and grace. This is an observant criticism, not an indictment. I love these people, my family and my church. In fact I have had a lifelong romance with the Seventh-day Adventist movement-its folklore, idiosyncrasies, jargon, speech patterns, and all. Right or wrong, my church. I am a “company man.” And though my early childhood was in a sheltered situation, we were not hermetically sealed. Some things about my church have been perplexing, but I was never shaken. Was it some seed planted in family worship or Sabbath School? The main issue was solved; God’s church, His family, is a work in progress, “enfeebled and defective though it may be.”

Charles Bradford quotes Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I

 with them.” He brings out that the local church groups of two or three or more is where
Jesus is more palpably experienced than in any other setting. He says it is time to think of church as community the place where Jesus is in residence.

I was blessed by reading this book and encourage you to read it too. As a start, you can click here to read the first chapter on line.