Also used as teaching resources, eg. you can use these in PowerPoint
Jesus’ last promise – Acts 1:8 You shall receive power (dunamis – dynamic, dynamite) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and
You shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
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Peter’s first text – Joel 2:28-32 (Acts 2:17-21) 17 I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh …
18 I will pour out My Spirit in those days …
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Old Testament Revival texts
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2 Chronicles 7:14 If My people who are called by My name
will humble themselves
and pray
and seek My face
and turn from their wicked ways,
then
I will hear from heaven
and will forgive their sin
and heal their land.
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Psalm 85:6
Will You not revive us again,
That Your people may rejoice in You?
Habakkuk 2:14
For the earth will be filled
With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
As the waters cover the sea.
Habakkuk 3:2
O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid;
O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years!
In the midst of the years make it known;
In wrath remember mercy.
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‘Revivals’ in the Old Testament 1 Jacob’s household (Genesis 35:1‑15)
Jacob returns to Bethel – idols removed – God worshipped, covenant name Israel reaffirmed 2 Asa (2 Chronicles 15:1‑15)
Prophet Azariah preaches – idols removed – temple restored, covenant reaffirmed – sacrifices
3 Joash (2 Kings 11‑12; 2 Chronicles 23‑24)
Priest Jehoiada restores boy king Joash – Queen Athaliah killed, temple restored – faithful to covenant under Jehoiada
4 Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:1‑8; 2 Chron 29‑31)
Destroyed idols (& bronze snake) – restored temple worship, saved from Sennacherib – Samaria fell
5 Josiah (2 Kings 22‑23; 2 Chronicles 34‑35)
Ruled from 8 to 39 – cleaned up temple, Torah found and read – repented – saved from destruction
6 Haggai and Zechariah with Zerubbabel (Ezra 5‑6)
Prophets challenged people – Leaders rebuilt temple – Temple rededicated – Passover restored 7 Ezra with Nehemiah (Nehemiah 9:1‑6; 12:44‑47)
Repentance and confession worship restored, reforms established 8 Jonah Prophet preached for repentance – King and people repented, city was saved from destruction
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Characteristics of Old Testament ‘Revivals’ 1 They occurred in times of moral darkness and national depression;
2 Each began in the heart of a consecrated servant of God who became the energizing power behind it;
3 Each revival rested on the Word of God, and most were the result of proclaiming God’s Word with power;
4 All resulted in a return to the worship of God;
5 Each witnessed the destruction of idols where they existed;
6 In each revival, there was a recorded separation from sin;
7 In every revival the people returned to obeying God’s laws;
8 There was a restoration of great joy and gladness;
9 Each revival was followed by a period of national prosperity.
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Characteristics of Revival in Acts 2 – Pentecost
1. Sovereignty: Acts 2:1,2 – the day of Pentecost .
God chose the time, place, people; & came suddenly.
2. Prayer: Acts 1:14; 2:1 – constantly in prayer, in one place –
They gathered together to pray and wait on God.
3. Unity: Acts 2:1 – in one accord – They met in unity with love and humility.
4. Filled: Acts 2:4 – as the Spirit gave utterance –
Filled with the Spirit, using gifts of the Spirit.
5. Preaching: Acts 2:14 – heed my words – Peter preached with anointed boldness.
6. Repentance: Acts 2:38 – repent and believe –
Large numbers were convicted and repented.
7. Evangelism: Acts 2:40-41 – three thousand –
New believers were baptised and witnessed.
8. Miracles: Acts 2:43 – many miracles and wonders –
People were filled with awe at God’s great power
9. Community: Acts 2:44-47 – close fellowship –
Evangelism and commitment to one another continued.
10. Growth: Acts 2:47 – the Lord added … daily – Daily witnessing, conversions.
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Church Growth in Acts
Acts 2:41 ‑ 3,000 added
Acts 4:4 ‑ 5,000 believed
Acts 5:14 ‑ multitudes of both men and women
Acts 6:7 ‑ disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem
Acts 8:1 ‑ persecution arose ‑ all scattered
Acts 9:31 ‑ churches were multiplied
Acts 11:21 ‑ a great number believed
Acts 11:24 ‑ a great many people were added to the Lord
Acts 12:24 ‑ the word of God grew and multiplied
Acts 16:5 ‑ the churches increased in number daily
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Hindrances to Revival
(Adapted from How to Experience Revival by Charles Finney, Ch 8)
1 PRIDE: When Christians become proud of their ‘great revival’ it will stop.
2 EXALTING SELF OVER GOD: Some, under pretence of publishing things to the praise and glory of God, have in fact published things that seemed to exalt themselves.
3 PREJUDICE: A revival is likely to stop when Christians lose the spirit of brotherly love.
4 BEING MECHANICAL: A revival will cease when Christians become mechanical in their attempt to promote it.
5 EXHAUSTION: A revival will stop when the church grows exhausted through its labour.
6 SELF RELIANCE: When Christians do not feel their dependence on the Spirit revival stops.
7 DECLINE: A revival will decline and cease unless Christians are frequently revived.
8 CONFLICT: Revival can be put down by the continued opposition of the old school combined with a bad spirit in the new school.
9 NEGLECTING MISSIONS: Another thing that hinders revival is neglecting the claims of missions. 10 NEGLECTING SABBATH: If the church wishes to promote revival it must sanctify the Sabbath.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 8,900 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 15 years to get that many views.
Jesus, Author & Finisher: Timeless Principles of Christianity
Brian Mulheran (Synergy, 2002)
Review by Outreach Magazine, Brisbane.
Brian Mulheran’s 200-page book, Jesus, Author & Finisher: Timeless Principles of Christianity, which includes a study guide, is designed to help new Christians, older Christians and pastors desiring to establish people in the faith.
Through his book, Brian hopes to further awaken people to their fullest potential in God. “Every Christian has great potential in their life to do something powerful for God,” says Brian. “They know that on the inside, but to see that come to pass, they need to really grab hold of the truths of God’s word.”
Having been a COC pastor for more than 15 years, Brian has seen thousands of people “come to the altar to have their faith authored, but many of them sadly didn’t finish the race”. “I see a lot of them struggle, trying to fix things up in their life in order for God to use them, but they end up just going round and round. This book gives them keys on how to release their potential.”
“Any ordinary person can look at the negatives of life in order not to succeed. Any ordinary person can read passages of scripture that seem to tell them what they need to do or not do in order to ‘keep themselves in God’. Any ordinary person will try to hold their life in God in order to make it to heaven. Any ordinary person can live a respectable life in God. Any ordinary person can pray enough and read their Bible enough in order to appear godly. But the Bible is full of extraordinary truths for ordinary people like you and me to allow our extraordinary God to do extraordinary things through us.”
Now working on a second book about the Holy Spirit, Brian believes many Christians are too pre-occupied with their own issues to focus on God. He says: “What could God do through a person who was not focused on whether or not they would commit any more sins but were totally preoccupied with fulfilling His call? What could God do through a person who knew they were totally righteous and could stand before God at all times? What could God do through a person who knew that He could not fail to do anything He said? What could God do through a person who knew that they had the unlimited resources of heaven at their disposal? What could God do through a person who knew that He was totally for them?”
It is Brian’s desire that, through discovering these truths, readers would look to Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith, to lay a foundation from which to fulfil the call that God has placed upon their life.
South Pacific Revivals: Community and Ecological Transformation
The cover’s the immediate attraction with this book – beautiful Pacific Island image……Nice large format size book, too.
Geoff Waugh has been fascinated with Christian revivals since he was a young man, so it’s no big surprise that he should conduct some research into these fascinating phenomena ‘down under’ in the South Pacific area, as he has travelled and worked in many of these islands over several decades. His other recent book, ‘Looking to Jesus: A Journey Into Renewal & Revival’is another book worth checking out, being essentially an auto-biography of the author.‘South Pacific Revivals’gives some very illuminating information about numerous little-known revivals in the region, as well as a number of charismatic movements, one or two of which I personally wouldn’t necessarily term ‘revivals’, but many will find to be of much interest nonetheless, because of the phenomena exhibited and the passion aroused, etc. [The 3rd edition, 2012, has a comprehensive Preface of the history of revivals in the South Pacific.] A surprising number of movements are provided – including islands and places I had never before heard of! A number of remarkable personal testimonies are included, and some black and white photos are dotted throughout the book.Some useful appendices are included, such as ‘Characteristics of Revivals from Acts 2’ and ‘Examples of Repentance and Revival’.
If you’re interested in revivals, this is a book you’re going to want to get.
By Romulo Nayacalevu, Fiji
Dr Geoff Waugh shares the message of revival clearly throgh the simplicity of the WORD and His own personal experiences, being part of God’s big revival story in the PAcific. His book is a must read for all who follow Pacific Revival and world movements of the Holy Spirit.
This report by Dr Susan Hyatt, describes her participation as a Pentecostal/charismatic women’s representative at the Colloque Femmes et Religions (Women and Religions Colloquium) in Brussels, Belgium on 11 March, 2001. The Colloquium was organized By Hervé Hasquin, Ministre-Président of the Government of the French Community of Wallonie-Brussels, Belgium. Susan is the author of In the Spirit we’re Equal.
On February 21, 2001, I received an unexpected invitation from the President of the French Community of Belgium to be a scholarly voice for American Pentecostal Women at a one-day colloquium in Brussels on Women and Religions.
Since I have no desire to travel and since I am fully occupied with ministry at home, my first inclination was to decline. But as I sought the Lord, it became clear that this was not a luxurious privilege being afforded me. It was, rather, a responsibility that he would have me assume. So I agreed to go. I still held a secret hope that I would not be able to go because I did not have a valid passport. But when the Canadian Consulate in Dallas was willing to expedite the process in record time, I was left without excuse!
Obviously, the Lord had opened wide an effectual door for me in Europe and I would go as the single voice of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity. On Friday morning, March 9, I flew from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, just a stone’s throw from home. After 11 hours in the air, I arrived in Brussels on Saturday morning in time to adjust to the 7-hour time difference and attend the reception that evening.
The site of the event
As a guest of the Belgium government, I was treated like an ambassador. They provided splendid accommodations in Le Plaza Hotel, the site of the colloquium.
Renovated in 1976, this exquisite 5-star hotel provided luxurious surroundings for the event. Its classic banquet room was the site of the Saturday evening reception. Several breakout rooms, equipped with translation booths for English, Dutch, and German, accommodated our round-table discussions on Sunday morning. That afternoon, the 900-seat theater-television studio was filled to capacity for the 5-hour televised debate.
The colloquium was the idea of M. Hervé Hasquin, Ministre-Président of the Government of the French Community of Wallonie-Brussels, Belgium. Motivation for this intercultural dialogue came, in part, in response to the United Nations’ designation of 2001 as “The Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations.” A personal representative of the Secretary-General at the UN Information Center in Brussels carried greetings to the assembly.
The precise date of the colloquium, March 11, was chosen to coincide with the UN’s “Day of the Woman” (March 8).
The site of the event was strategic. Brussels is the headquarters of NATO, the capital of Belgium, and the capital of the new United States of Europe. In this age of globalization, what happens in Brussels ultimately affects the entire world.
In calling this “grand international colloquium,” M. Hasquin provided an important platform for Europe and the world to hear about the status and concerns of women from women of the world’s major religious groups.
The participants
Forty women from 20 nations participated in the colloquium. Of these, 9 represented Christianity, 15 for Islam; and 8 for Judaism. Three were agnostics, one a Hindu, and 2 were Buddhists. Two were simply listed as “other.”
The nine Christian women came from six different nations, including France, Belgium, Rwanda, Peru, Chili, and the United States (yours truly). Several were theology or history professors. One was a social anthropologist in South America. Chantal, an executive member of the African Alliance of the YMCA from Rwanda, explained that many in her nation have left Christianity as a result of the horrendous war. Indeed, how can “Christians” justify such racial and tribal hatred?
The most alive and friendly of the Christian women was “Sister” Noëlle Hausman, Mother Superior of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary in Belgium. She had entered the convent at 15 years of age by special permission of Léon Joseph Cardinal Seunens, the outstanding Belgian leader of the Roman Catholic Charismatic Renewal. I asked Noëlle if this meant that she were Charismatic, to which she replied, “Oh, no! I am afraid!” This, of course, opened the door for me to assure her of God’s love for her!
Generally speaking, the Moslem women tended to be strong, intelligent, and aggressive. Certainly, they were very different from the veiled Islamic women we see in American supermarkets! But I noticed that whenever I would pass by Hawa from Djibouti, she would draw her headcovering more securely over her head and face.
The eight Jewish women were typically confident and conversant. Some were history of religions professors. Others were leaders of national Jewish women’s organizations and directors of Jewish cultural centres. One high profile theologian from Germany, Ruth Lapide, once travelled America with her theologian husband teaching the Jewish background of the Gospels. She now works on ethical issues with the German government and has a German television program promoting the Bible.
Of the other women, three were agnostics: a professor of History of Religions at the Free University of Brussels, a secular feminist who is the French Community’s Director of the Office of Equal Opportunities, and the third was Belgium’s Minister of State.
The lone Hindu representative was the Director of the Centre for the Study of Social Development at J. Nehru University in New Delhi. Two others were Buddhist nuns, while two did not state religious preference, one a dancer and choreographer and the other a Tajikistan-born film-maker living in France.
The program
The program was conducted in French with translation into English, Dutch, and German. Although I am quite proficient in reading and writing French, unfortunately my speaking and listening/comprehension skills leave much to be desired! Even with the voice of good translators coming through my headset, I feel I missed much of what was being said!
On Sunday morning, we were divided into four round table discussion groups facilitated by TV news anchors and professional journalists. One group discussed the history of women in the various religions. Another group discussed the place and status of women in the different religions. A third group discussed the ways that religious women express themselves in their various cultures. Of the 10 participants in this group, none were Christians.
The fourth group, the one to which I was assigned, dealt with “where are we and where are we going.” Since the emphasis was political, the ambassador and cabinet ministers were part of this group.
After a brief lunch break, we convened to the theatre for the live, televised debate. I was impressed with the ornate theatre and I was surprised by the enthusiastic crowd of 900 men and women who had gathered for the event. I detected among these Europeans a greater concern and more genuine caring for women than I have observed in America!
As the debate opened, we were challenged to consider certain “underpinning principles” in the relationship between women and religion. These 5 basic opposing elements that exist together within each religion and that are common to all world religions, include the following:
1. All religions contain myths that posit the liberation of women against patriarchal militancy.
2. All religions claim texts that propose gender equality and texts that are gender-restrictive.
3. All religions display power struggles between male superiority, on the one hand, and so-called “mystical movements” ascribing equality, on the other.
4. Fundamentalism in all religions legalistically dictates that men must dominate while feminism calls for the creation of what is new, stating that the patriarchal text of fundamentalism is not appropriate.
5. Religion is seen as an obstacle to women’s liberation, yet religion often is the place where women find liberty.
The voices of women
Although I am aware of the injustices and inequities that women around the world are suffering, simply because they are women, what the various women shared served to remind and further inform me. Here is some of what I heard.
In Djibouti, most women are still illiterate. Women do not have equal educational opportunities and poverty continues to stifle any hope of progress toward a better life. Although genital mutilation has been outlawed, the practice continues.
In Algeria, access to education and increased civic power are seen as the only means by which women can combat the persecution and suffering they are experiencing under the Islamic fundamentalist regime. The Algerians have a saying, “Paradise is under the feet of women,” to which a well-educated Algerian refugee woman responded, “Then lift your foot, please!”
In Niger, more than 9 out of 10 women cannot read. The Islamic fundamentalism of Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, through the power of oil money, is gaining increased control. Many women simply accept this, refusing to take responsibility for their personal development and settling instead for submission according to the family code of Islam. This whole situation is contributing to the suffering of women in many ways. Girls are no longer permitted education. Women are required to “adore their husbands” and are no longer allowed to be “fashionable,” but must wear veils and long dresses. The Ambassador noted that women must take personal responsibility for improving their condition. In her opinion, the future of Africa is in the hands of women. Unfortunately, many who have the education to run for government positions no longer have the economic means to do so.
Melika Bosnawi, Islamic representative from Bosnia-Herzegovina, unleashed intense anger during the TV debate regarding the horrendous war crimes against Moslem women in her land. These atrocities, of which most of us are aware, reflect badly on Christendom.
The Minister of Culture of Senegal proclaimed, “Mohammed came and brought liberty to women!” The problem, she explained, is that few women in her nation can read and thereby interpret the Islamic texts in terms that would bring the equality that Mohammed intended.
Princess Maria Theresa, a Moslem and highly educated social scientist, said, “Equality of women represents the future.”
Hinduism, explained Madhu Kishwar, teaches a principle of feminine energy, a positive creative force which produces wealth. This leads to the possibility of two different kinds of women. One is a benevolent consort who is attached to a male and the other is a strong woman who is unattached to a male. She is understood to be seeking her own interests and men are expected to bow to her. Within the family structure, mothers and mothers-in-law can become commanding, even oppressive, figures while younger women are marginalized. There is a definite preference for male children. Girls are deprived of education and life expectancy is low. Interestingly, any progress towards bettering the life of women appears to be coming from the initiatives of men.
In Judaism, women are free and can enjoy independence both economically and socially. Today Jewish woman tend to seek responsibility in the community. They are demanding a rereading of the texts that have been used force them into secondary social and religious roles. Inequity in divorce is a concern since it is producing hardship for Jewish women in some nations.
As Chili makes a transition to democracy, human rights issues are coming to the forefront, but there is no women’s movement. Roman Catholicism is the majority religion which means that women are to be subject to men and socially secondary. In 1989, the government instituted a Ministry of Women’s Affairs, but women are still second class citizens. Divorce is not allowed. “Women work but men still rule,” said the Chilean representative.
In Peru, it was noted, Christian evangelism allegedly lowered the status of women in society. Now, with the re-establishment of Peruvian culture, two things are happening: 1. Women are emerging in areas of leadership; 2. Native religions are being restored.
Summary: It can be said that women, regardless of religion or culture, continue to struggle and suffer in ways that men do not simply because they are women. Illiteracy and lack of educational opportunities remain hindrances to progress. Religious fundamentalism is seen as restrictive and sexist. Many expressed the need for equity in divorce because of the hardship that comes on women who experience this tragedy. Several women noted that women themselves must take personal responsibility for equality with men, regardless of their religious affiliation or current cultural climate.
M. Hervé Hasquin’s Observations
In closing the debate, M. Hervé Hasquin, who also serves as a History Professor, summarized what he had heard the women say by making 8 observations.
1. The history of women and religions is a history of the silencing of women. It is time to break that silence. This is possible only in the context of political democracy.
2. In history, religion has always been a way of asserting ones identity when freedoms are denied. 2. Women seek refuge in religion.
3. Women tend to be in denial regarding the restrictions placed on them by religion.
4. Religion can be liberating for women, but restrictions normally arise based in tradition and fundamentalist expressions of that religion. Every case is unique but the economic and social context remains an influence on women’s freedom.
5. When women experience advancement toward equality, men tend to feel deprived and to exhibit the need to return to those things that are certain. This gives rise to an increase in religious fundamentalism, which is perceived as a necessary defence against revolution.
6. In evaluating history we must be modest. The writing of history is a constant rewriting because the questions we ask in writing history are informed by our own context and we therefore search history on the basis of context-driven questions.
7. Ultimately, a person’s relationship to faith is a personal issue.
8. The number of women in the colloquium from different backgrounds enabled all to express themselves without imposing their position on others.
M. Hasquin’s final statement — his thesis, if you like — was that, in his informed opinion, in spite of its imperfections, the concept of separation of church and state remains fundamentally the best way to organize society.
I had carried with me a copy each of Eddie’s book (2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity), my book (In the Spirit We’re Equal), and my teaching manual (The Spirit, The Bible, and Women—A Revival Perspective). As M. Hasquin was presenting his closing remarks, I felt that I should give him these copies. He graciously and enthusiastically accepted them.
My contribution
Generally, throughout the day, the voice of the Christians seemed to me to be dull and inconsequential. One Protestant representative was almost shouted down at one point, but she rebounded with, “Just because I am a Protestant doesn’t mean I should not be able to express my mind!”
Personally, I felt no such opposition. It seems, perhaps, that most of the people present did not know what a Pentecostal/Charismatic was and therefore, at least out of curiosity, gave ear to what I said.
The assignment given me was to state briefly “where we are and where we are going” as women in Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity. We know that a uniform trend is not obvious. Many Pentecostal-Charismatic women are embracing a traditional, subordinate role. But many, like myself, are unwilling to be disobedient to the Holy Spirit by obeying the dictates of distorted Christianity. We are discovering that Jesus taught the equality of men and women in every respect, including substance and value, privilege and responsibility, function and authority. We are uncovering the truth of biblical equality and we are proclaiming it far and wide by every possible means. Nevertheless, we are not driven by such a cause; rather, we are seeking to be led by the Spirit in all that we do. Following, then, is what I shared during the colloquium.
During the round table discussion, I was free to say whatever I wanted to say, and I had a clear sense of what that needed to be.
The moderator immediately opened the door for me to make a clear statement of the Gospel by asking me to define “Pentecostalism.” In the entire event, no one else was asked to clarify their “religion.” Again, at the conclusion of the round table, the moderator reminded me to reiterate the definition of “Pentecostalism” in the TV debate. In fact, his first question to me in the debate was, “What is “Pentecostalism?”
Here, in essence, is what I said.
“A ‘Pentecostal-Charismatic’ is a believer who has a born-again experience with Jesus Christ and an ongoing, dynamic experience of the presence and power of His Holy Spirit in life.
“In the history of Christianity, there have been 2 streams: Institutional Christianity and Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity. The institutional stream. has always tended to be hierarchical and to restrict women. The Pentecostal/Charismatic stream has always tended toward egalitarian relationships and equality for women.
“Due to the 20th century global explosion of Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity, there are now 600 million Pentecostal-Charismatics worldwide. In the United States, 20% of women profess to be Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians.
“As a Pentecostal-Charismatic woman in America, I enjoy unfettered freedom and opportunity to advance the truth of biblical equality. Pentecostal/Charismatic women know in their hearts by the indwelling Holy Spirit that they are equal with men in terms of substance and value, privilege and responsibility, function and authority. However, because of cultural and religious baggage, most do not know this truth in their heads. This discrepancy between head and heart is the cause of many struggles for Pentecostal-Charismatic women. My job is to give the biblical truth that brings harmony between the head and heart.
“To this end, my husband and I teach, write, and operate a publishing company. His first major book, 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity, [I held it up for all to see] validates the existence of the Pentecostal/Charismatic stream of Christianity as opposed to the institutional stream. My book, In the Spirit We’re Equal, and course [I held them up for all to see] present an historical and biblical argument for gender equality.
“Others are also advancing this truth among Pentecostal/Charismatics. For example, the leading periodical for women in the movement in America is SpiritLed Women [I held up a copy for all to see]. You will notice a recent lead article entitled “10 Lies the Church Has Told Women” by a leading male Pentecostal/Charismatic editor and writer, Lee Grady. This is an example of an encouraging partnership that is developing among some Pentecostal/Charismatic men and women to bring about biblical equality for women.
“Also serving in various ways to advance the truth of equality throughout the Pentecostal/Charismatic Movement are 2 different organizations: Christians for Biblical Equality and the Society for Pentecostal Studies.
“In general, we are seeing 2 important advancements. Slowly we are seeing a release from gender-defined roles for women to gift-defined living. And we are seeing a greater sense of egalitarian partnership between men and women.
“We are seeing an increase in Pentecostal/Charismatic women taking leadership positions in various areas such as communication and the arts, education (including theological education), business and technology, law and government. Pentecostal/Charismatic women are also increasing their influence in dealing with domestic abuse, pastoral counselling, and medical concerns.
“The one great stronghold of inequality among Pentecostal/Charismatic believers is the home. I, for one, am working to bring the equality Jesus taught to this important area.”
The TV Debate
During the TV Debate, the moderator asked me 3 questions.
Question 1. What is a “Pentecostal/Charismatic”?
My Answer. “A Pentecostal-Charismatic is a believer who has a born-again experience with Jesus Christ and an ongoing, dynamic experience of the presence and power of His Holy Spirit in life.
“In the history of Christianity, there have been 2 streams: Institutional Christianity and Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity. The institutional stream has always tended to be hierarchical and to restrict women. The Pentecostal/Charismatic stream has always tended toward egalitarian relationships and equality for women.
“Due to the 20th century global explosion of Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity, there are now 600 million P/Cs worldwide. In the United States, 20% of women profess to be Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians.”
Question 2. What is the greatest area of struggle for Pentecostal/Charismatic women?
My Answer. “The greatest struggle for Pentecostal/Charismatic women is the process of renewing their minds in the knowledge that they are equal with men. Changing the mind is one of the greatest struggles we all encounter, and I would say that this is the crux of the struggle for both men and women in Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity, whether they realize it or not! What we think about women determines our behaviour in relation to womanhood.”
Question 3. George W. Bush, a professing Christian, has just been elected president of the United States. What is the position of Pentecostal/Charismatic women in relation to liberal and conservative, Democratic and Republican politics?
My Answer. “That is a question I do not feel I can answer adequately. I am a citizen of Heaven and a citizen of Canada who is privileged to reside in the United States. I know several Pentecostal/Charismatic women who are active at various levels in the political arena, but I am not adequately versed in that subject to be able to answer your question.”
Reflections
I have been listening to the Lord about why he had me there and what he would have me learn, say, or do as a result. Here are a few thoughts.
1. Christian women need to shake off the shackles of religion masquerading as biblical Christianity. So much of what is taught about womanhood among Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians is no different from what is taught in various other religions. For example, the idea of male authoritative rulership and female subordination, servanthood, and subjugation is a characteristic of religion. It is not a legitimate principle of biblical, Spirit-filled Christianity.
2. The favour of man over woman is typical of religion, but not of Jesus.
3. Spirit-filled women must take personal responsibility to develop their abilities, gifts, and talents, including their intellectual ability through educational opportunities. This is a responsibility, not a privilege, and must not be left to men alone.
4. Women in all religions are struggling because of doctrines that teach the primacy of the male. Marriage is, perhaps, the main stronghold of inequity. Divorce that favours men seems to be a global problem.
5. Women in all religions have gender-defined roles that provide them with social power of some sort. This social structure inevitably produces a climate of manipulation by women which produces power for a few and hopeless depression for many.
There is no reason why, in this era of Pentecostal/Charismatic outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit, that we should succumb to religion. We must realize that the Spirit of God does not come to confirm that what we believe about everything is right and that what other Christians believe is wrong. Rather, the Spirit comes to help us in our human weakness, to empower us, to comfort us. And the Spirit comes to guide us into all truth! That is to say, the Spirit comes to open our understanding and to help us change the way we think.
It is my prayer that we will allow the Spirit of God to change the way we, who profess to be “Spirit-Filled” Christians, think about womanhood. May we shed our religious thinking and think about womanhood the way Jesus wants us to think! According to the Gospels, accurately interpreted, that means thinking of women as equal with men in terms of substance and value, privilege and responsibility, function and authority.
An overlooked mission field
In my brief encounter with the French Community of Wallonie-Brussels in the new European Union, I sensed the dynamic power that always seems to accompany a new venture. The EU is in its formative years. It is looking ahead to what it can become. It is searching for the best way to order its society. This is refreshing! But are Spirit-filled Christians as aware and alert to the need and to the opportunity. Europe has had enough of the Christian religion. Now they must see Jesus!
I have often said that many Christians will go to the ends of the earth to reach the uneducated masses. This is good! But will they go next door to reach the educated feminist who is turned off by patriarchal Christian religion? I have no doubt that the EU’s French community in Belgium is genuinely concerned about women—including the feminist—and about what role religion should play in advancing the equality of women in their state and the emerging European Union. What a place for the Presence of God through people who can rub shoulders with the decision-makers!
Regardless of the teaching of some Christian prophecy teachers regarding the EU, perhaps the Church should embrace the fact that something that will influence the future is, in fact, emerging in Europe. And instead of smuggly dismissing the EU as an emerging evil empire, perhaps we should dismiss our own stagnation and take a lesson from our European friends.
Perhaps we should examine American Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity and realize that our methods need to be brought back to the standard and means of Jesus Christ. The fruit of our authority structures and spiritual formation methods reek of religion and have little scent of Heaven!
Perhaps we should be less concerned about music and entertainment, about flamboyant preachers with extra-biblical theologies. Perhaps we should be less concerned about funding TV programs and building cathedrals and networks of personal power.
I have no doubt that the Lord wants us to purge the message we teach and preach so that it comes into line with the Message of Jesus. I have no doubt that the only means the Lord would have us use is the power of the Holy Spirit. Everything else is secondary and superfluous—and often a hindrance.
I hope this report has troubled you, challenged you, and inspired you! And perhaps Mary’s words in John 2:5 can take on new significance for each of us: “Whatever He [Jesus] says to you, do it!”
If you would like to know what I am doing and become a part of it as the Spirit leads, please, let me know. And if you are reading this and are already taking action, I would be interested to know who you are and what you are doing.
Susan’s book, In the Spirit We’re Equal, is reviewed in this issue of the Renewal Journal. Her husband Eddie’s book, 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity, is reviewed in Issue 12 of the Renewal Journal. These books and other resources are available from them: www.icwhp.org – International Women’s History Project and Hall of Fame www.godswordtowomen.org – God’s Word to Women www.eddiehyatt.com – Hyatt International Ministries Mailing Address: P. O. Box 3877, Grapevine, TX 76051 USA
Book Reviews: Jesus on Leadership by Gene Wilkes In the Spirit We’re Equalby Susan Hyatt Firestorm of the Lord by Stuart Piggin Early Evangelical Revivals in Australia by Robert Evans
Mrs Jeannie Mok wrote as a pastor at International City Church, Brisbane, and the Principal of the Asian Pacific Institute, which offers accredited diploma (Australian), bachelor and masters degrees (from Manchester University) in multicultural and Pentecostal-charismatic studies and corporate cross-cultural training. This paper is based on two articles written for Alive Magazine.
Now that Australia is the most multicultural nation in the world, should churches alter their organizations to suit such a diversity of people?
Occasionally, the odd conservative politician may assert that it is the duty of migrants to become like all other Australians (whatever that may be) and not expect people to change things for them; after all, they are the ‘foreigners’ who came into this country, so shouldn’t it be a case of ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do’?
Similarly, why worry about what church model to plant or restructure – after all, these new migrants are the ‘latecomers’ and they should try to fit in or assimilate into existing structures! And unfortunately, many churches do think this way and remain the way they are.
I would like to suggest that one of the key factors determining how we organize our churches depends on what we think about other peoples and their cultures. A close look at the variety of churches in Australia will reveal that how we organise our ministry and churches has in fact resulted from several myths or assumptions about ourselves and our culture and how we view foreigners and their cultures and communities.
These key assumptions influence the essential ‘flavour’ of a church and it will be shown that very often, these are misleading, bordering on racial prejudice, and should be replaced by more appropriate biblical principles.
An assumption that has existed for centuries has been Parochialism (the only one way assumption) – the ‘my way is the only way’ belief, where there is no real recognition of any other way of living, working or doing things. British Colonial practice is a classic example of a policy aimed at making Englishmen out of the natives. Not surprisingly, the European missionaries in Africa and in Australia followed this lead and forced indigenous peoples to give up native ways and renounce traditional ‘pagan’ beliefs and practices.
In our cosmopolitan world, Parochialism should be replaced by Equifinality[1] (our way is not the only way) that suggests that there are many culturally distinct ways of reaching the same goal, or of living one’s life. In fact, there are many equivalent ways to reach a final goal.
Traditional Western Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) Churches reflect a parochial way of thinking. They tend to therefore to be mono-cultural, carrying on in ways that ignore cultural differences. Such churches could be Exclusionary, with one group dominating the others as all key decision making and administrative matters are in their hands.
In such Australian churches, if you do not speak the dominant language, you either sink or swim! Thus foreigners will always remain on the fringe since cultural differences are seen as a problem. Bible study groups, cell groups, etc., will not accommodate language differences. Often, there is a negative evaluation of culturally different people, especially if they are from non-European countries.
Another belief is Ethnocentrism (the one best way myth /our way is the best way). Such organizations recognize people’s differences but believe that their way is still the best, since all other ways are inferior versions. This has in turn led to the establishment of Ethnocentric institutions which acknowledge that there may other ways out there, but “we feel ours is really the best way”.
It is true that in such clubs and organizations, the chief purpose is to preserve special cultural and linguistic understandings and customs that have generally diminished in a cosmopolitan or multicultural setting. And undoubtedly, the flow-on benefits are important as it is not possible to express certain beliefs and feelings outside the boundaries of specific psychological/cultural/linguistic traditions.
Thus ethnocentric churches are very much like monocultural clubs where race is the primary discriminator – membership is limited to a certain ethnic community (all Chinese or all Spanish or all Greek), but inclusive of all different classes and educational levels, with a limited number of selected non-group members and outsiders. Such churches are closed ethnic enclaves but within each national group (e.g. Chinese) is contained a multiplicity of ethnicities (Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Malaysian/Singaporean Chinese, Mainland Chinese). Policies change only under pressure since traditions are highly prized. Gender could also be a discriminator in the management of the church – in favour of male leadership. For example, Chinese evangelical churches are traditionally run by male pastors; female pastors are rare, and not highly respected by older members.
Then there is the Similarity myth which asserts that “people are all alike” or “they are all like me” since we all have the same life goals, career aspirations and activities. This belief is faulty since a study of people’s values, attitudes and behaviour in 14 nations showed that whilst people felt more comfortable believing that this ‘similarity’ exists, this was not the case.[2] Apparently, people felt more comfortable believing in this similarity since ‘Differences’ were regarded as a threat. Unfortunately, there are problems associated with this belief. One gets disappointed and feels anger or surprise when people do not act as one expects them to. Furthermore, this assumption denies the individuality of people, and negates their distinct characteristics.
Thus, it must be acknowledged that people share similarities and differences. (They are not just like me since many people are culturally different from me. Most people have both cultural similarities and differences when compared to me). It is thus a good thing to assume that there are differences first when meeting a ‘foreigner’, unless similarities are proven.
The Similarity assumption is akin to the Homogeneity or the Melting Pot Myth (We are all the same since everyone is and wants to be like the majority). Homogeneity proponents state, however, that as a nation of many distinct cultures, they realize that it is impossible to get all to be the same. Thus newly arrived migrants have to be integrated with the rest of Australians and become like everyone else. And since Australia is basically ‘Waspish’, the newly-arrived must assimilate into the new ‘Home’ culture.
These two assumptions (Similarity and Homogeneity) often underlie non-discriminating and culturally aware organizations like International Churches and ‘Melting Pot’ Assimilationist Churches. These Churches recognise cultural similarities and differences but choose to attempt to minimize the diversity by imposing single one-best-way solutions on all management situations.
Most international churches believe that they are multicultural, but in reality they are not, since there is still the one dominant culture (the ‘Waspish’ normally). Competence requirements are higher for outsiders – especially fluency in the dominant language. But such churches do attempt to seek change by changing race and gender profiles. They will have a Missions group and international food festivals, etc., and allow token representation in management, and over time these could evolve into multicultural churches.
‘Melting pot’ churches operate on the belief that various cultural groups from all nations, must be treated with essential equality since “We are all Australians and we accept an Australianised form of English, and Christian moral principles and values.” The belief is that in time, all will be unified as one large heterogenous ‘stew’ as cross-cultural marriages abound. In such churches, individual ties to ethnic groups culturally rooted to other parts of the world are not so important, as these are actually regarded as potentially disruptive or distracting. There is also the mistaken belief that as all are equal, all will have an influence in the pot. Hence, this ‘multicultural stew’ method is seen as truly the best way of unifying everyone.
This all sounds most reasonable but in reality, new migrants are under pressure to conform and accept dominant cultural principles. In Australia, they have to melt into an essentially Anglo-Celtic Protestant pot to be accepted. They must shed essential aspects of their traditional cultural belief and practice if they are to fit in nicely. The ‘Melting Pot’ is in reality the melting away of non-Anglo-Saxon traditions.[3]
The fact is that Heterogeneity or Cultural Pluralism is a hallmark of our society today. (We are not all the same); there are many culturally different groups in society. It therefore makes sense that in our policy and practice, we need to consider the many equivalent or culturally distinct ways of reaching the same goals, since our way is not the only way!
One model of a Multicultural Church utilises the Equifinality or Parallel approach. These are churches that recognise cultural similarities and differences; and allow parallel approaches based on members’ cultures to be used simultaneously in each management situation. Such a church utilises a common language (through necessity), although diverse languages are still used widely for the respective ethnic groups. Senior management is committed to power-sharing practices, and incorporates leaders to represent each major ethnic group found in the church. It is usual to find that the key leaders can operate in a variety of languages, and are able to switch methods of cross-cultural communication to deal with the various ethnic groups.
Perhaps the ideal multicultural church is the Synergistic church, totally committed to the multicultural vision. This church recognizes cultural similarities and differences and uses them to create new integrative solutions to organizational problems that go beyond the individual cultures of any single group.[4]
For instance, at their combined celebrations, when the Spanish, Chinese and English-speaking congregations come together, International City Church in Brisbane, has ‘invented’ a new kind of praise and worship session with worship leaders from the three language groups leading the mixed congregation in songs incorporating all the three languages; so that all can participate in the same song! (Incidentally, this unique blend of languages has resulted in a project to produce the first real multicultural Praise and Worship CD in Australia). Such a church also recognises diversity as a valuable strength (as productive, creative and resource-rich). Initially, there may be many communication problems, but once this is overcome, huge benefits are realized.
Given the fact that Australia’s demographic profile has changed so radically recently, perhaps it is time for us to re-think our churches. Should we now work hard at evolving our churches into Multicultural and Synergistic churches? Are we inclusive and totally ‘user-friendly’ to the harvest (boat people and all) that awaits us in our own backyard? Or are we still focusing on a traditional (middle-class ‘Waspish’) clientele that is fast diminishing?
We cannot totally eradicate our cultural biases. An immediate start would be to replace the Golden Rule (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you), with the Platinum Rule (Do unto others as Jesus did unto you).
References
Samovar L.A., Porter R.E. Intercultural Communication: A Reader Wadsworth Publishing Co, USA 1997
Simons G.F., Vasquez C., Harris P.R. Transcultural Leadership: Empowering the Diverse Workforce Gulf Publishing Co Texas 1993
Weaver G.R. Culture, Communication and Conflict: Readings in Intercultural Relations Simon and Schuster USA 1994
End Notes
[1] Nancy J. Adler, Domestic Multiculturalism: Cross-Cultural Management in the Public Sector (102) in Gary R. Weaver (Ed) Culture, Communication and Conflict: Readings in Intercultural Relations Simon and Schuster Custom Publishing MA, USA (1994)
[3] R. Janzen Five Paradigms of Ethnic Relations (65) in Larry A. Samovar, Richard E. Porter Intercultural Communication Wadsworth Publishing Company USA 1997
[4] Nancy J. Adler Domestic Multiculturalism (110)
Book Reviews: Jesus on Leadership by Gene Wilkes In the Spirit We’re Equalby Susan Hyatt Firestorm of the Lord by Stuart Piggin Early Evangelical Revivals in Australia by Robert Evans
Dr Richard Riss published many books and articles on revival. Here he summarizes lessons he has learned from his research.
The word ‘revival’ is often used for situations in which God is blessing in unusual and supernatural ways. During times of revival, the results of ministry are always completely out of proportion to the resources used to accomplish them. For many of us it is very easy, especially on an unconscious level, to forget that the fruits of God’s blessing are not at all due to our own gifts and resources.
I remember a number of years ago, during the Charismatic movement of the early 1970s, that people would often say that if you went to a meeting in which the Lord was present, you could go up to the front of a gathering and just say anything and sit down, and the Lord would minister to those who were present. What they meant by this was that, when the blessing of the Lord was present, his work would be accomplished. People were brought to repentance and reconciliation, and there would be healing, not because of any formulas that were to be followed, nor because any individual human agent was important, but because God was present to deliver and heal.
The words that were spoken almost seemed incidental. Fine oratory is no better able to convey God’s healing than broken, ungrammatical English. Even words that seemed irrelevant or inappropriate could carry power if God chose to bless those words.
T. L. and Daisy Osborne
A number of years ago, I was doing some research on the lives of T. L. and Daisy Osborne. The more I learned about their ministry, the more I was impressed by the fact that there was absolutely no way, humanly speaking, that they could possibly have accomplished the things that they accomplished.
They began in Oklahoma as evangelists in 1941, pioneered a church in Portland, Oregon, went to India in 1945, and returned to America through ill health. Then in 1948 they found their way to Jamaica, where there were scores of healings and hundreds of conversions. But then, after returning to the United States for some highly successful campaigns with other major healing evangelists, they went to Puerto Rico in 1951, where there were over 18,000 conversions within twelve days, and then to Cuba, where thousands more came to Christ. From then onward, the fruitfulness of their ministry continued the same way, in a manner beyond my ability even to imagine.
As a result of studying their lives, and the lives of many others like them, I concluded that it can only be by the supernatural blessing of God that a ministry of this kind can hope to function. He is the one who opens doors, he is the one who fills stadiums, and he is the one who heals people and touches the lives of multitudes.
Demos Shakarian
More recently, I read Demos Shakarian’s book, The Happiest People on Earth, which describes in detail how the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship International came into being. And once again, the one thing about that book that really stood out for me was that the tremendous blessing that was upon that ministry really had nothing to do with the gifts, abilities, plans, and resources of the people involved in it.
It seems that God was purposefully arranging things in such a way that Demos Shakarian and the other founders of the FGBMFI would recognize beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was not through their own efforts that that ministry was brought about. During the first year of FGBMFI’s existence it was a disaster, because God had not yet begun to bless it. Even though it was God who led Demos Shakarian to start it, it was a pitiful organization during its first year. I believe that God wanted to show Demos and his associates what it would be like without his blessing, so that when his blessing actually did come, there would be no question that its incredible fruitfulness had nothing to do with their own hard work, plans, gifts, or abilities.
The first FGBMFI meeting was held on a Saturday morning of October, 1951, at Clifton’s Cafeteria in downtown Los Angeles. Oral Roberts had been engaged as the speaker. Demos Shakarian had many, many friends who were businessmen, many of whom he expected would come. He thought three or four hundred people would show up, and only eighteen actually came, even with a world-famous evangelist as an inducement. Because there were so few people, they lacked enthusiasm.
Here’s what Demos said about it:
I looked around at the men who had come, most of them old friends. Dedicated people, committed Christians, and most of them already up to their eyeballs in committees and service clubs and civic organizations. The kind of men who will volunteer when a job needs doing – the kind who won’t waste a minute on an outfit that isn’t going anywhere. . . . I stood up. I described how the conviction had grown in me that God’s Spirit in the next decade would seek new channels to move in. [Here and there I saw men looking at their watches.] No organs. No stained glass. Nothing more that men can pigeonhole as ‘religious.’ Just one man telling another about Jesus. I had never had the ability to put ideas into words, and I sat down knowing that I hadn’t gotten it across.
Oral Roberts then spoke, and he succeeded in sparking a little enthusiasm, but only enough to enable them to drag through about a year of meetings attended by just a handful of people. Thirty or forty men might attend one week, then fifteen the next. Most of the time Demos ended up buying all of the breakfasts, and there were never any donations.
By December of 1952, they were ready to close down the whole thing. One of the five directors said that he felt that the whole concept was a dud, and that their experiment had failed. Later, Demos’s wife, Rose Shakarian, told him that this director was probably right. The meeting on Friday, December 26, 1952, was going to be the last meeting of the FGBMFI. But then, something happened.
The evening before that meeting, Demos Shakarian had a vision. He wrote,
The air around me suddenly became heavy, overwhelming, forcing me to the floor. I fell to my knees, then on my face, stretched full length on the patterned red rug. I could not have stood up. . . . So I did not try. I simply relaxed in his irresistible love, feeling his Spirit pulse through the room in endless torrents of power. Time ceased. Place disappeared. . . . And suddenly I saw myself as I must have looked to Him these past months: struggling and straining, a very busy ant scurrying here and there, dashing off to Europe to try to get the backing of an ‘official’ group, depending everywhere on my own energy instead of His. . . . I had acted as though it were my strength which counted – as though I personally had to start the thousand chapters that Oral [Roberts] had seen. And of course I hadn’t been able to start a single one. God said, “I am the One, Demos, who alone can open doors. I am the One who removes the beam from unseeing eyes.”
From this time forward, everything changed. That morning, at what was to be the last meeting, the FGBMFI director who thought the experiment had failed, handed a check to Demos Shakarian for a thousand dollars payable to the FGBMFI. He had heard a voice from God saying, “This work is to go around the world and you’re to donate the first money.” Then Thomas Nickel said to him that he, also, had received a message from the Lord in the middle of the night, telling him to drive four hundred miles to Los Angeles to offer both his services and his printing press for the work of FGBMFI.
Demos said to his wife that evening, “Last night at this time the Fellowship was finished. Now we have a thousand-dollar treasury and a magazine. I can’t wait to see what the Lord will do next!”
Ten months later, by October of 1953, there were nine chapters of FGBMFI and six hundred people showed up for an FGBMFI convention at the Clark Hotel in Los Angeles. By the mid-1960s, there were 300 chapters with a total membership of 100,000, and by 1988, there were more than three thousand chapters in 87 countries. But what was even more impressive was the work that the Lord was doing in the lives of the multitudes of people that this organization touched.
The experiences of Demos Shakarian and his associates during that first year go a long way toward emphasizing that, in and of ourselves, we are nothing. It is only the blessing of God that enables us to be effective in his service.
Watchman Nee
Another individual through whom God chose to bring incalculable blessing was Watchman Nee. Although he had great natural gifts, the results of his ministry were way out of proportion to what could be accomplished by a human being in his or her own strength.
As a Christian in Red China, he was in prison during the last twenty years of his life, so he probably never knew that his life and writings had much of an influence outside of China, but he has touched multitudes in almost every nation of the world. This was the case despite that fact that he spent so much of his life in prison.
But Watchman Nee knew and understood very clearly that it is only the blessing of God that gets the job done in the Church, and that where the blessing is present, the results are supernatural, not only in their nature, but in their scope. It is God’s blessing that changes lives and touches people, and it is also God’s blessing that enlarges the influence of a ministry far and wide, completely beyond anyone’s natural abilities.
It was also in 1951, but on New Year’s Day, that Watchman Nee addressed his church at Nanyang Road hall in Shanghai on this topic in a significant sermon that later gained widespread circulation, especially in China, Hong Kong, the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South America, the Carribean, Africa, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Japan, the Middle East, Korea, Thailand, and New Guinea.
In this address, he indicated that, really, all of God’s work is dependent upon his blessing. Moreover, where the blessing of the Lord flows freely, it will sweep away everything that could impede it.
We can be very faithful, conscientious and diligent. We can believe in God’s power and we can pray to Him to show His power, but if the blessing of God is lacking, then all of our conscientiousness, all of our diligence, all of our faith, and all of our prayers, will be in vain.
On the other hand, even if we make mistakes, and even if the situations we face are hopeless, if we have the blessing of God, then the results will be fruitful.
A boy’s lunch
Do you remember the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, described in Mark 6: 35-44? Did it make any difference how many loaves and fishes they started out with? Of course not. What mattered was the blessing that rested upon what was available. We must recognize that the thing that counts is not the amount of money we have or the number of gifts that we have. It is the blessing of the Lord, and that alone, from which humanity derives sustenance. Our own resources, our own power, our own toil, our own faithfulness, in and of themselves, are completely sterile. Apart from His blessing, we are totally inadequate, no matter who we are or what gifts we might have.
So many of us centre our hopes, not on the blessing of the Lord, but upon the few loaves in our hands. We have so pitifully little, and yet we keep calculating what we can do with it. The more we calculate, the harder our work becomes. Yet, if we let the blessing of the Lord be upon the loaves, they will be multiplied.
If the blessing rests upon a ministry, then thousands are fed. If it is absent, then even two hundred denarii worth of bread is still not enough. Once we recognize this, then we can stop asking “How many loaves do we have?” There would be no need to manipulate, no need to advertise, no need for human wisdom, and no need for flattery. We would be able just to trust the blessing of God and wait for it. And we would find that even if we had bungled things, somehow, things would still turn out well. While we hope that we will be preserved from mistakes and from careless words and acts, we will find that if God’s blessing is upon us, even our serious blunders will not ultimately hinder his purpose.
Very often, we only expect results that are commensurate with our own time and money, or our own gifts and abilities. But God’s blessing is fruit that is out of all proportion to what we are. If we plan simply on the basis of what we put into something, then it can be a hindrance to God’s working beyond our plans. On the other hand, if we set our hearts on the blessing of the Lord, then we will often find things happening that are totally out of keeping with our own capacities, and beyond even our wildest dreams.
Once these truths really grip us, we can discard as worthless all of our clever ways, our specious words, and our scrupulous work. Then, even if we are not completely conscientious about the work, and even if we make mistakes, the need of the hungry will still be met.
In preaching about God’s blessing, Watchman Nee was, of course, talking about what has been known in our culture as revival. The lessons that he taught here are some of the same lessons that we must learn in order to understand how God works with respect to revival.
Past and future blessing
One of the things that Nee observed is that “one of the most serious threats to future blessing is past blessing. . . . If we accept what He has done in the past as the measure of His future working, then His blessing in the past will become a hindrance to future blessing.”
One good illustration of this principle comes, again, from the lives of Demos and Rose Shakarian. Their families had emigrated from Armenia, where there had been a great revival which resulted from a group of on-fire Christians visiting Armenia from Russia, just across the border, in the year 1900. Many of these Armenians soon emigrated en masse to California as a result of a prophecy of a coming persecution, which was fulfilled in 1914.
But by 1940, things had changed. It was still ten years before the founding of the FGBMFI, but Demos and Rose Shakarian were already being led of God into transdenominational ministry. That summer, in accordance with God’s direction, they did a series of outdoor evangelistic meetings near Lincoln Park in Downey, California, their home town.
However, they soon began to experience resistance from the Elders of their church. As these meetings continued week after week, the older people of their church began to protest. For the first time in their lives they found themselves in conflict with their parents’ generation. They tried to get the permission of the Elders, but without success. It looked to them as though they would have to cancel their plans to hold meetings the following summer. In the end, Demos’s father was able to get permission from the Elders.
The meetings did carry on the next summer, but it taught Demos a lesson. Here’s what he wrote:
The wind of Pentecost, which had blown out of Russia into Armenia . . . had dwindled by now into a denomination as rigid as any other. It was always this way. All through history, each fresh outpouring of the Spirit soon became, in human hands, a new orthodoxy. The great revival on Azusa Street, for example, . . . which started out in freedom and joy and a breaking down of barriers, had solidified by the 1940s into a number of self-contained churches who couldn’t communicate even with each other, let alone with the world as a whole.
This is a principle of revival that is easily observable. I wrote about it myself in a magazine article more than fifteen years ago, in which I observed that it is probably this phenomenon, more than anything else, that has brought about the formation of new denominations, and before that time, the founding of new monastic orders within the Roman Catholic Church. Old institutional forms soon become inadequate for the new thing that God begins to do.
So what can we learn from this?
First, to be flexible enough to allow God to do his thing.
And second, to remember that it is God who is doing his work through us, and that apart from him, we can’t accomplish anything. But with him, we can and will, turn the world upside-down, just as it happened in the days of Peter, Paul, Timothy, John, Barnabas, Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus, and Tertullian.
A new millennium, like each new year, encourages vision. New hope. New possibilities. New vision.
Christian vision remains grounded in God’s revelation of himself in Scripture, inspired and illuminated by his Spirit. So the vision is both old and new.
The vision is old because Jesus Christ is the same, “yesterday, today and forever”. God’s word hasn’t changed with changing times. We have the same that God Abraham, Moses, David, Esther, Mary, Peter and Paul served.
They all served God in their time, their era. Now it’s our turn, in our time, our era.
Ours is a very different world from their day. We communicate rapidly, globally. We fly globally for mission and holidays. We spend billions of dollars in Kingdom business.
So is there a vision for the 21st century?
There must be. Where there is no vision, the people perish. Where there is no prophetic word the people cast off restraint. See Proverbs 29:18.
This issue of the Renewal Journal looks at some visions, directions and implications for serving God in the 21st century.
The essentials remain the same. God is. Jesus saves. The Holy Spirit moves in all the earth. The church grows – with endless cultural and social expressions. Yet still the Lord only recognizes one church – his.
All over the world powerful expressions of the church have emerged at the beginning of the 21st century. This is not triumphalism. But it is war. Jesus is still building his church and smashing through the gates of hell.
Mell Winger, missionary to Latin America, tells the astounding story of Almolonga, Guetemala, the “Miracle City”. There the Christians have united in prayer and seen the powers of darkness dramatically overcome. The four jails, once packed, are now empty – closed. The curse on the land has been broken and they grow the biggest and best food in the world. Families, once at war, are united in loving service.
George Otis Jr., producer of the vivid, prophetic video Transformations, tells how Cali, Columbia, has been transformed through united repentance and prayer. Once the centre of billions of dollars in drug trafficking with a turnover of over 400 million US dollars a month, it is now transformed. What global law enforcement agents could not do, God has done.
Guido Kuwas describes revival in Bogotá, Columbia – another transformations story. A church is impacting the whole city and region by applying Jesus’ principles of discipleship. Christian disciple just 12 people. Very effectively. They gather in huge areas to celebrate together.
Daryl and Cecily Brenton, now missionary translators in Papua New Guinea, comment on the world’s largest data base of church growth factors to draw conclusions about effective mission and evangelism.
I have condensed my research on the emerging church into an article surveying the dramatic and powerful global shifts going on in church life and ministry amid accelerating change today.
Gene Wilkes’ book Jesus on Leadership challenges our usual ideas of leadership in the church by examining how Jesus led.
We hope you find this issue of the Renewal Journal inspiring and informative, and that you can recommend it to your friends and your church!
Reviewed by Dr. Vinson Synan, Dean of the School of Divinity, Regent University, Virginia. From the Foreword.
Eddie Hyatt’s new book, 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity, is Hyatt’s most important work to date. It is a fine historical survey of the charismatic history and nature of the church. His treatment of the origins and fate of the cessation of the charismata theory is well researched and convincingly presented. As the subtitle suggests, this volume is indeed “a 21st century look at Church History from a Pentecostal/Charismatic perspective.” Of particular value and interest are Hyatt’s sections on Charles Fox Parham, the formulator of Pentecostal theology, and the crucial part played by followers of Alexander Dowie who left Zion City to found important Pentecostal movements around the world.
Hyatt’s work is another in a stream of scholarly works that are driving nails in the coffin of the Warfield theory of the cessation of the miraculous signs, wonders, and miracles after the end of the apostolic age. He writes well and convincingly.I feel that this book brings together the most recent research on the subject and presents it in a popular way that any reader can understand.
I commend 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity to all who look for deeper understanding of the modern Penteconal/Charismatic movements that have exploded in the 2Oth Century to become the second largest family of Christians in the world.
www.eddiehyatt.com – Hyatt International Ministries Mailing Address: P. O. Box 3877, Grapevine, TX 76051 USA
(c) Renewal Journal 12: Harvest, 1998, 2011.
Reproduction is allowed with the copyright included in the text.
Dr Rodney and Adonica Howard-Brown are pastors and revival evangelists.
Critics focus on the rip-roaring style of his revivalist “camp meetings”, but this US-based South African evangelist says all he’s interested in is God touching people’s lives.
The Holy Spirit wants to touch the lives of real people.
I don’t spend much time wondering about God’s ability
to do what he said he could do. I just trust him.
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On previous visits to Australia, Rodney Howard-Browne has attracted both crowds and controversy. But vigorous debate about his methods and the “phenomena” seen at his meetings has not kept thousands away. … The US-based South African evangelist spoke with Rob Buckingham about spiritual power, the simplicity of faith, and how it feels to be surprised by God.
Buckingham: Things took off for you number of years ago. Can you tell us what took place at that time?
Howard-Browne: We’d moved to America in December ‘87 and travelled wherever the doors opened. One pastor in upstate New York asked us to have two meetings a day and invited the whole congregation. So in April 1989 we went to [a town called] Clifton Park to a church with about 250 members.
I was amazed to see people so hungry for the things of God. On the Monday morning 60 people came to the morning service. This was amazing, especially in America at that time – there had been some major set backs with different major ministries crumbling, and people were disillusioned. Next day we had 100 people at the service – nearly a third of the church coming out on a Tuesday morning!
While I was teaching, just like I normally do, the praises of God just filled the room, and people started falling out of their seats. It looked like someone was sitting in the balcony and shooting people with an invisible gun. Some were crying, some were laughing, others were rolling on the floor. It took a little getting used to.
The presence of God literally filled that place. We saw an outbreak of a revival that now, this April, is nine years old. It’s gone around the world, touched the lives of millions of people, an it hasn’t subsided or stopped. It’s been a great adventure.
Buckingham: What are your reflections now on what took place back then?
Howard-Browne: I see it as an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It’s not like we weren’t expecting it. We were crying out to God to come and move; we just didn’t know how or when it was going to happen. So when it happened the way it did it totally took us by surprise.
Buckingham: Is there any change in what took place then compared to what’s happening now?
Howard-Browne: It’s just multiplied many times over. In the beginning it was 100 people and now it’s thousands. Whether we’ve been in China or Japan, Holland, Germany, Russia or the islands of the sea, it’s the same. People are the same and they have the same needs. The Holy Spirit wants to touch the lives of real people. There are many religions in the world, but religions will leave you empty because it’s man’s vain attempt to reach God. But Christianity is God reaching man through the person of Jesus Christ.
Buckingham: There are reports of physical healings at your meetings. Do these happen in every country?
Howard-Browne: It happens everywhere. We look at it this way. When people come to a meeting where the Holy Spirit is moving, whatever their needs are God will touch them at that point. Healing is just one of these. People come with cancer, arthritis, different diseases, and the presence of god touches them. Some are healed in their seat without even having hands laid on them, and it’s only later they find out that they’ve been healed.
Dolly, a little Alaskan native lady, came to our meetings in a wheelchair. She’d had arthritis for 18 years, the last five confined to a wheelchair and the final two years bedridden. She came as a last resort, asking God to please touch her. We laid hands on her, but we didn’t really pray that she’s be able to get out of the wheelchair, just that she’d get some joy and that God would touch her. I said, “Lady, what do you want to do?” She responded, “I want to get out of this chair.” So I said, “Well then, go ahead.” Then she climbed out of the chair and walked around the building and was totally healed of crippling arthritis. This happened back in 1991 and we’ve seen her subsequently. She’s still totally healed with no trace of arthritis in her body.
Buckingham: That’s physical healing. What about emotional healing? People can carry a lot of baggage around inside.
Howard-Browne: There are many examples. One is about a woman in North Dakota who was raped by a so-called friend. She contracted two venereal diseases, the worst the doctor said he’d seen. He told her that she’d never be able to have children.
This woman came to the meeting pretty traumatized – this had only happened weeks before. The power of God touched her, she fell on the floor and as she was lying there she felt like there was a fireman standing over her with a big fire hose washing her clean. For about two-and-a-half hours she felt this water washing her clean. When she got up she could remember the rape but it was like it happened to somebody else. God had totally removed the hurt from her. When she went back to the doctor there was no trace of the diseases. That was over five years ago. Today she’s married to one of the pastors of the church. They’ve had children with nothing wrong.
Buckingham: What about other stories?
Howard-Browne: An executive-type lady came to a meeting with a lot of deep hurt in her heart. About 20 years ago she’d had an abortion, and every time she was around things of God she felt guilty and condemned with thoughts like “God’s never going to bless you because of what you did.”
We prayed for her and she was overcome, lying there filled with joy. Laughing hysterically. Later she told us it was as if she was taken up to heaven to see a little girl dancing around, with Jesus standing to the side. The little girl said, “Look Jesus, Mummy’s laughing”. When that happened, she said it felt like a hand reached down inside her and pulled out all the hurt. When she got up from the floor she didn’t feel guilty any more. She knew that God had forgiven her and everything was all right.
Buckingham: Are these incidents isolated events?
Howard-Browne: No. People are healed from depression, a lot from fear, even from wanting to commit suicide. There’s so much pressure on people today. People feel like they can’t make it. So they come to the meetings. God touches them and sets them free. It’s wonderful to see.
Buckingham: Australians are quite different from Americans, and you minister in America a lot. How do you respond to that difference in your meetings when you come to Australia?
Howard-Browne: Because I’m a South African, I think it’s probably easier for me to respond than it would be for an American. I find the Aussies very direct, which I like. There’s no airs or graces, nobody’s pretending. I think maybe that’s why we’ve had such a great response in Australia.
Buckingham: You travel extensively around the world. That must be draining on you. How do you handle the pace?
Howard-Browne: Actually, I find the travel exhilarating, so that by the time I get to a new place I’m refreshed. We travel 46 weeks of the year, and it’s awesome to see people’s lives touched and changed. That’s the thing that’s refreshing. When we get tired, we try to take a break for two or three days.
Buckingham: Rodney, how do you describe your own relationship with God?
Howard-Browne: I would describe my relationship as very, very simple. I don’t understand some people when they always want to complicate God. I just see him as God – nothing is impossible to him. I have a very childlike faith that God honours his word. I don’t spend much time arguing about it or wondering about his ability to do what he said he could do. I just trust him.
Buckingham: How does your relationship with God impact your life personally?
Howard-Browne: Well, because nothing is impossible for him, I always want to believe him for big things. When you think that he made the heavens and the earth, then everything we come up with after that is really so small. I just think sometimes people make everything so difficult when there’s nothing too hard for God.
Buckingham: What about your relationship with others? How does your faith impact that?
Howard-Browne: I want God to do for them what he’s done for me. I’m not anything special or different. I’m just an ordinary person. But I know that if he can do great things for me, he can do great things for them.
Buckingham: How does your faith impact your care for the world around you?
Howard-Browne: When I see a need, my wife has to calm me down; she says, “You can’t do everything.” God leads you into areas where you can minister effectively to touch the needs of people. We all want to reach out and feed the poor or help those less fortunate than we are, yet because I’m busy doing what I’m doing, I can’t do it. So I try to find other ministries and get behind them. I don’t have to do what they’re doing: I just finance and support them.
Buckingham: What can people expect at your meetings this year?
Howard-Browne: Pretty much like two years ago, we’re going to focus on he person of Jesus – people being touched by the Lord and coming back to their “first love”.
Buckingham: What do you mean by “first love”?
Howard-Browne: “First love” is the love you have when you first give your life to Christ – the joy that you’ve just met him, that he’s set you free from sin, that all the guilt and condemnation is gone. It’s like a young guy and a girl; when they first fall in love, they’re just beside themselves.
It’s so easy as a child of God to get caught up in the daily grind, trying to please God, caught up in rituals and traditions. You end up losing that joy and peace. Revival is about people falling in love with Jesus all over again.
Anything can happen when people come back to their first love.
This is an edited version of an interview conducted by Rob Buckingham for use in On Being ALIVE and his weekly radio program “Rob Buckingham and Friends”. It was originally broadcast on 3MP on 29 March, 1998.
Reprinted with permission from On Being ALIVE Magazine, No. 4, May 1998, pages 30-34.
(c) 2011, 2nd edition. Reproduction allowed with copyright included in text.
