Book Review of Alignment Check by Kailin Huang
I was in a season of convalescing (after a life-threatening reaction to infection and a neck operation). While I rejoiced at God’s goodness and merciful deliverance, I was struggling with new found physical weakness and uncertainty. “Can I still continue with my demanding work? What am I then to do with my life that has been preserved?”
And the most frequently asked question, “What is my kingdom assignment?”
I am so delighted that with the publication of Alignment Check, that question is answered … with more questions to spur us in the right direction.
The first four chapters tune us in to the heartbeat of Archippus Awakening – why there is an urgent need for saints to be awakened to fulfil their kingdom assignment. (I highly recommend reading the companion volume, Say To Archippus, for a better understanding!)
Over the next forty bite-sized chapters, Henson guides us how to “Focus on the Aligning. Let God do the Assigning.”
Alignment Check 101: The process does not start with me, but with Christ the King whom I am aligning with. What a loving rebuke!
Alignment Check is an easy book to read, but not an easy one to process and live out, because it challenges the man-made norms of “religion” we are so inclined to settle into. (No wonder the author recommends reading a chapter a week!)
In a conversational yet graciously provocative way, the author dispels much “Christian-ese” and many half-truths I had grown accustomed to, encouraging us to live for the King, who is full of grace and truth. Here are some examples that stood out for me:
It convinces us of where we start, “For the love of Christ compels us…” (p37). It rebukes, “We are not nearly as interested in the will of God as we are about the will of God for me” (p55). It exhorts us to “Boast in Weakness” (Chapter 32) for “He excels in our weakness.”
But the greater lesson in this book is hearing and seeing how an awakened, aligned, assigned saint lives! Every chapter is lit with Henson‘s remarkable personal story of faith (and coming back to faith), that includes leaving his ministry positions to move on his kingdom assignment of Archippus Awakening. This is a living testimony we can “look to as an example of one moving purposefully and faithfully on assignment” as Apostle Paul is (Chapter 13: Observe Others on Assignment).
I can already foresee that this will be one book I will return to whenever I need a wake-up call or “spiritual chiropractic” to realign. And all the merrier, when surrounded by a community of like-minded saints, Archippuses who, now awakened and aligned, can spur one another on to fulfil their kingdom assignments!
To order SAY TO ARCHIPPUS and ALIGNMENT CHECK,
email archippusawakening@gmail.com.
Kailin boasts in her two neck scars, which are marks of God’s goodness and mercy in preserving her life. Her spiritual birthday (3 August) is the same as Archippus Awakening’s. Since her exodus (another story!), she’s been drawing together people and their plans at Picture People Plan.