Coming Out of the Hangar: Confessions of an Evangelical Deist
In addition, it’s important to read the principal works of third wave theologians so that we understand their position, not a caricature of it. These works include:
- Power Evangelism (Harper & Row) and Power Healing (Harper & Row) by John Wimber and Kevin Springer.4
- Signs, Wonders, and the Kingdom of God (Servant) by Don Williams. An excellent primer, this is probably the best work of biblical theology on the kingdom of God from a third wave perspective. Williams, now a Vineyard pastor in La Jolla near San Diego, is a respected scholar, popular teacher, and the former college pastor at one of the largest Presbyterian churches in southern California.
- When the Spirit Comes With Power (InterVarsity Press) by John White. White’s work is especially interesting because his credentials as an evangelical are impeccable,5 and he writes from the perspective of a veteran missionary and professional psychiatrist.
- Christianity With Power (Servant) by Charles Kraft. Kraft is an anthropologist and former missionary on the faculty of Fuller School of World Mission. His book is addressed to evangelicals like himself.
Go out and investigate. Make contact with churches and attend conferences that teach, model, and advocate this kind of ministry. There is no way you can conduct an honest investigation without on-site study. Nicodemus was a Bible teacher who nevertheless went personally to check Jesus out (John 3:1). And so did Nathanael, despite his reservations; he became an apostle (John 1:45-50).
It’s an academic fallacy that we can sit in our study and learn everything God wants us to know. The Spirit of God is on the move in the world. We need to exercise an active, professional humility and go to those places where we hear the Spirit is moving (such as the mission frontiers of Brazil and Argentina or the Vineyard fellowship or some other church just across town). Like obedient sons and daughters, we watch what the Father is doing, try to discern his purpose, and cooperate in his work (John 5:19-20; John 14:10-13).
Take a Sunday off and visit a church with a reputation both for integrity and for Spirit-empowered ministry. (Many of these churches also have Sunday evening and midweek worship and teaching.) In addition, look around your own denomination for respected advocates of this ministry. Call them up and start networking with them. Do not be afraid to express your own reservations and fears and to ask them for counsel and prayer.
Conferences and weekend seminars are some of the best ways to be exposed to first-rate teaching and witness actual ministry. Over the next two years, set a goal of attending two or three of these. Besides the general sessions, sit in on workshops or seminars with topics like prayer for physical healing, inner healing (which refers mainly to the healing of emotions and memories), and spiritual warfare (which corresponds to the biblical ministry of “casting out demons”).
Charismatic churches and conferences will inevitably test your comfort level. To attend them you will have to overcome a hundred or more excuses your mind will cast up. “Not this time.” “Schedule’s full.” “Those guys are weird.” “I really need to relax and unwind this weekend.” “There’s no way I could explain this to my congregation.” “What if I ran into somebody who recognized me?” “What if I start speaking in tongues?”
Let’s also appreciate that the charismatic and third wave churches are no more monolithic than evangelical and mainline churches.6 There are lots of differences among them. There are good and awful churches, good and bad teachers, Sundays that are great and not-so-great. There is a wide range of biblical integrity among these churches and a wide range of “charismatic” styles. Some are “comfortably evangelical”; others are pretty wild. Remember, God’s call to ministry is not always to the intellectually astute or to the graceful, witty, or dignified. Do we believe that even today the Lord may choose the foolish and weak things as instruments of his wisdom and power (1 Cor. 1:26-29)?
Do biblical ministry. That simply means, “Watch what Jesus and his disciples do, and do the same.” A disciple, says Jesus, does not try to break new ground. If he can just imitate his Teacher, he has passed the course (Matt 10:24,25).
Much of our own habit and style of ministry is simply doing what we have seen other professional ministers do. In my pastoral circles, we have mainly conditioned ourselves and our congregations to “safe ministry.” We fence our worship and prayer in such a way as to prevent any intrusion of the supernatural or miraculous. We clump all the sick together and ask God to heal them—or else to give them grace to stay sick and be content. Can you hear Jesus praying like that?
The issue for me is this: Is the ministry of Jesus to be the ministry of the church? I do not think anything could be clearer. And what was Jesus’ ministry? He preached the kingdom of God. And he demonstrated the concrete reality of that kingdom by healing the sick, cleansing lepers, and casting out demons.
I am suggesting that—no matter how weird and scary it feels to us—we try to do what Jesus did. We begin to pray specifically and expectantly for people to be healed and delivered. Healed from physical and emotional brokenness and disease. Delivered from the bondage of guilt, destructive habits, and demonic oppression. These are spiritual works, which require a Christian to be attentive and yielded to the Holy Spirit.
We begin to do these works out of obedience and faith, before we see any results. It may be months or even years before there is a breakthrough in our own powerful unbelief. We begin to do these works before we understand fully what we are doing or have mastered any spiritual technique. Answering prayer is God’s job; our job is to pray (Jas. 4:2b). I do not pray because God has promised to do miracles through me; I pray because God says in his Word, Pray! This year as an act of faith I told the Lord I would pray whenever someone expressed a need. Now I ask, “Can I pray for you about that?” And right there, we pray. I still have much to learn about prayer, but there’s no way to grow in prayer without doing it.
Category: Living the Faith, Spring 2008
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