Matti Wendelin: My ministry, Full Gospel for All Nations, was founded 1990 in Finland. I have been preaching the gospel since 1977. This is still a small ministry, but thanks to God we are wining many souls around the world, especially in Asia. My vision is to do mass crusades and I love when I see people being saved and healed. We often see that everyone attending our crusades wants to get saved.

PR: When did you sense that the Lord was calling you into ministry?

Matti Wendelin: When I was a child, the Lord spoke to me through many different ways about my calling to preach the gospel. I used to go alone to forest where I had collection of empty bottles. I preached to those bottles and at the end of the service, I pushed them down. When I grew up, I wanted to do something else with my life until Lord took me for a visit to Heaven. In Heaven, one angel took me to the room where there were a lot of crowns. He took one crown and came to me saying, “The Lord has prepared this for you.” I liked it and it was very beautiful in my eyes, but he put it back and took another crown and said to me, “This is for you.” Immediately I could see there was a big different between those two crowns, like night and day. He continued, “That first one was prepared for you, but because you did not want to do the will of God and you were not willing to go to Pakistan, India, Papua New Guinea, and wherever the Lord would send you to preach the gospel, so someone else is going to do what you were asked to do, and they will receive what was prepared for you.”

The exclusively digital edition of The Pneuma Review, Fall 2014 (17:4).

Some of what you will find in this issue:

Are Pentecostals offering Strange Fire? In this issue, Pneuma Review continues its response to John MacArthur’s new book, Strange Fire: The Danger of Offending the Holy Spirit with Counterfeit Worship (Thomas Nelson, 2013).

Coping with Criticism Constructively

Interviews with Rick Wadholm Jr., William David Spencer, Matti Wendelin, and Robert Graves.

Find all of these articles individually in an easy-to-read format on the archive page: http://pneumareview.com/fall-2014/

Full issue coming soon.

William L. De Arteaga, “Fr. Zakaria Botros – Apostle to the Muslims” Anglican Pentecostal (July 13, 2013).

Father De Arteaga introduced his article on October 1, 2014 by saying: “Many of us are deeply troubled by the rise of ISIS and the destruction of the Christian communities in Syria and Iraq. The short term answer may be forceful military action, but in the long term the only solution is spiritual – the conversion of the Muslim peoples. Here is a posting on the person who is in the lead of this. He has led to the conversion of millions of Arabs. He deserves our prayers and support.”

Margaret Poloma, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Sociology at University of Akron.

Margaret M. Poloma, “The Spirit Bade Me Go: Pentecostalism and Global Religion.”

This paper by esteemed Pentecostal/charismatic sociologist Margaret Poloma is by no means recent, it was presented at the Association for the Sociology of Religion annual meeting which ran August 11-13, 2000, in Washington, D.C. However, if you have never read it, you should make time to do so.

Michelle Van Loon, “The History We’d Prefer to Forget: Why we pass on pain to the next generation” ChristianityToday.com (October 13, 2014).

William De Arteaga writes: “Excellent article from CT on the current controversy over advanced placement history standards.”

Hal Knight

Henry H. Knight III, “On Knowing God: Wesley and the Methodists” Catalyst Online (October 22, 2014).

Hal Knight writes, “The central point Wesley makes … is that we are intended not just to know about God, but to know God.”

Diane Reynolds, “Holy Spirit Hunger: Amos Yong” Publishers Weekly (October 21, 2014).

Jeremy Weber, “InterVarsity Will ‘Reinvent’ Student Ministry on California State Campuses: Christian fellowship finds silver lining in being booted from America’s largest university system” Christianity Today (September 9, 2014). 

This brief article brings together all of the latest information (as of September 9, 2014) about what is happening in the wake of campus ministry InterVarsity Christian Fellowship being derecognized by the largest university system in America.

Timothy George, “Reformation Day” First Things (October 31, 2014). 

William De Arteaga writes: “This is a gracious appreciation of Martin Luther’s work from the preeminent Catholic journal in America. It is nice to know we don’t insult each other any more!”

Shane Clifton, “The Dark Side of Prayer for Healing” Pneuma 36 (2014), pages 204–25.

Shane Clifton offers an introduction to the article and a link to the full article on his blog: http://shaneclifton.com/2014/07/02/the-dark-side-of-prayer-for-healing/  

Timothy B. Walsh, Professor of Pentecostal and Evangelical History at Regents Theological College of West Malvern, UK, contributes another volume to the Studies in Evangelical History and Thought series. It is a thorough research thesis, written for an academic audience, which is much easier to follow when the chapter conclusions are read first. Equally, Walsh expects that his readers have an ability to catch subtle nuances of academic Latin and German terms and phrases. As the subtitle implies, it covers two decades of Pentecostal history, focusing most of its research on Alexander Boddy and his ministry in Sunderland, Smith Wigglesworth and his ministry in Bradford, William Oliver Hutchinson and his ministry in Bournemouth, and Pastor Inchcomb and his ministry in Croydon. The research is divided into three primary sections: the emergence of the Pentecostal ideals, their development, and their structures. It concludes with summation, “this study has been an endeavour to distinguish between fact and fiction, certainly between hagiographical wirings or episodic chronicles penned for personal edification and the bolstering of collective morale, and such primary source materials as can form the basis of recognizable historical investigation” (239).

In the first section, Walsh echoes the theme of Grant Wacker, who notices that Pentecostals tended to have an “extravagant assessment of their own importance” (25). Herein Walsh investigates the hagiographic habit and reports of ministry successes, written by those who were too close to the subjects to be reasonably objective in their telling of ministry events and successes. After providing multiple examples and evidences, Walsh concludes that the successes and spread of the Pentecostal message was largely responsible through the “face-to-face recruitment along lines of pre-existing social relationship” (84) rather than only on mystical, revivalistic, or special spiritual basis—alone. In several instances, he refers to the “sacred meteor” or “suddenly from heaven” phrases, or similar terms used in early Pentecostal historical narratives, in a nearly pejorative sense, providing a critique of those who have overemphasized supernatural nature of the Pentecostal movement.

The second section focuses on the ideological developments and the acknowledgement that the Pentecostal movement became a “third force in Christendom” (86). After working through examples and evidences from the lives of leaders like Smith Wigglesworth and the Jefferys brothers, Walsh concludes, “Initiation is, by definition, of primary significance… as a fundamental building block” for the Pentecostal movement (174). The key elements of initiation include a baptism in the Spirit experience, dynamic worship, pre-millennial eschatology, and dynamic and gifted leadership.

The serious scholar of Pentecostalism recognizes the incredible complexity of Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity. The numerical and geographical explosion of Pentecostals continues to produce an ever-diversifying movement that proves both challenging and exciting for researchers. For this volume, coeditors Cecil Robeck and Amos Yong assemble a team of well-respected scholars, skilled in multiple disciplines and from across the globe, to lead us into and not through this spaghetti junction. True to the nature of a Companion volume, the contributors refuse to provide easy answers and choose instead to offer sufficient introduction to chosen topics so that readers may navigate their way through the maze of scholarship. The editors divide the book into three parts.

Jonathan Downie, a regular contributor to PneumaReview.com, wrote to the editors about the ongoing coverage we have featured here of John MacArthur’s 2013 book, Strange Fire. Please read his concern and our response below it.

Jonathan Downie

I am growing concerned about how much coverage the Strange Fire book is getting in the Pneuma Review. If it is as wrong as your reviewers say, I fail to see what good the extensive coverage will do. In fact, I am very concerned that it is taking over the Pneuma Review and pushing out the more practical and impactful content for which the publication has rightly become well known.

My concern is even greater given that some of the responses seem to have attempted to delineate between “true” and “false” charismatics based mostly on what TV channel they appear on or whether they have a big ministry. This is very worrying as it seems to be adding to divisions in the church, something Scripture warns us about.

Please reconsider your coverage and return to issues that have a more direct effect on church practice and the growth of the kingdom.

Yours in Christ,
Jonathan Downie

Thank you, Jonathan, for sharing your concern about how much time PneumaReview.com has spent on John MacArthur’s Strange Fire.

Since MacArthur’s challenge is about whether Pentecostals and charismatics understand and worship God wrongly, it is a subject that has gained the attention of church leaders and even some scholars. This debate has been an opportunity to explore the biblical use of the gifts of the Spirit, a subject that has always been an emphasis for The Pneuma Review and all Pneuma Foundation (our parent organization) publications.

Over the years, the Pneuma Foundation has taken time to focus on issues that have been important to church leaders. These have included “How Much Does God Control?” “How Shall We Lead the Church?” and “Postmodernism, The Church, and The Future.” While the debate concerning MacArthur’s book does not have the same scope as these discussions, all of which appeared in The Pneuma Review over the course of years, it is a timely subject which concerns the very core of the Pentecostal/charismatic movement and has been addressed by layman and scholar alike. PneumaReview.com is glad to help facilitate this discussion.

One of the editors wrote:

A good deal of space on PneumaReview.com was given to the Strange Fire controversy. Some of the content of the book was justified (aberrations and abuses) but quite a bit of it was outlandish. The Pentecostal/charismatic response to Strange Fire was either to ignore it or counter it. Apart from how the controversy was addressed by PneumaReview.com authors, MacArthur’s book set off a firestorm on its own drawing strong responses to it that were published in many other places. Also, not all of the PneumaReview.com coverage of Strange Fire was specifically about MacArthur’s book or the October 2013 Strange Fire conference. Some of the posts were reviews of Michael Brown‘s book, Authentic Fire, R. T. Kendall‘s book, Holy Fire, and Strangers to Fire, edited by Robert Graves. I think that the bulk of the conversation is behind us for now (unless MacArthur publishes a follow-up book as he said he would do).

As to your concern regarding adding to divisions in the church, authors often share opinions that garner strong responses. The renewal movement of Pentecostals and charismatics is broad, and many voices are heard. PneumaReview.com is an open forum and readers are encouraged to leave comments and challenge what they read.

Raul Mock and the PneumaReview.com editors

For our panel of contributors talking about Strange Fire, including scholars like Michael Brown, Craig Keener, Jon Ruthven, and Frank Macchia, please see: Are Pentecostals offering Strange Fire?

Robert W. Graves, ed., Strangers To Fire: When Tradition Trumps Scripture (Woodstock, GA: The Foundation for Pentecostal Scholarship, 2014), 604 pages, ISBN 9780996044509

A quick overview reveals that Strangers to Fire is an anthology of 35 essays edited by Robert W. Graves, President of The Foundation for Pentecostal Scholarship. These essays are written by 26 authors from across the spectrum of the Pentecostal, Charismatic, and Third Wave movements. This book represents the non-cessationist or, better, continuationist, view that the charismata (spiritual gifts) active in the New Testament Church are still authentically operative in contemporary times. Strangers to Fire is a specific response to John F. MacArthur’s (JFM) caustic polemical, Strange Fire, and a general response to cessationism (view that spiritual gifts have ceased), and the abuse of the charismata. It has a Foreword by J. Lee Grady, noted Charisma contributor. Authors include such notables as Wayne Grudem, Jack Deere, Craig Keener, Jon Ruthven, Sam Storms, Doug Oss, Mel Robeck, Paul Elbert, Randy Clark, Robert Menzies, J. P. Moreland, Gary Greig, Mark Rutland, Gary Shogren, William De Arteaga, William K. Kay, Melvin Hodges, and others.

Cover for the November 2016 re-release by Empowered Life.

I begin by noting some significant contributions of Strangers to Fire. Before getting started directly with that process, however, I want to say that I particularly appreciate its apt title. JFM drew on the depiction of Aaron’s sons in Leviticus 10:1 offering strange fire and consequently being consumed by the fire of divine judgment for their blasphemous action (cp. Numbers 3:4; 26:61). It’s difficult to escape JFM’s implication that Pentecostals and Charismatics are guilty of the same sin and will suffer the same end. However, one must not dismiss the reality of authentic divine fire in his chosen text. Therefore, the choice of Graves and his team to call their book Strangers to Fire is telling. Divine presence is often depicted in Scripture in association with holy fire, most notably in the tongues of fire in the paradigmatic Day of Pentecost event (Acts 2:1-4). Accordingly, Graves flips the quip back on JFM. Rather than Pentecostals and Charismatics offering some kind of “strange fire” offensive to God and inevitably suffering terrible consequences, perhaps cessationist strangers to the fire of God are missing an opportunity to encounter holy fire in God’s awesome presence through the Holy Spirit—and suffering the lack thereof accordingly. The subtitle is also telling. When Tradition Trumps Scripture implies that in spite of all claims by JFM et al to be the only honest representatives of biblical faith and truth in this debate, they may be allowing human traditionalism to override and undermine the scriptural witness to God’s work in our day.

Rick Wadholm Jr. speaks with PneumaReview.com about a new online academic journal, The Pentecostal Educator.

PneumaReview.com: Introduce us to The Pentecostal Educator and tell us what you want the journal to accomplish.

Rick Wadholm Jr.: The Pentecostal Educator is an e-journal biannually publishing scholarly and practical articles related to theological education within the Pentecostal tradition to encourage the continuing maturation of Pentecostal theological education. It is intentionally practical, applied and international. The journal is intended to provide materials related to worldwide Pentecostal theological education like: institutional case studies, critical engagement with current newsworthy events, educational trends and trajectories, pedagogical analysis, and book reviews.

PneumaReview.com: How did the journal come into being? Who had the vision for this new publication and how did it progress from a vision to reality?

RW: The journal is the result of Paul Alexander being elected as chairperson of The World Alliance for Pentecostal Theological Education in the fall of 2013 at the consultation in Kuala Lumpur. It was his desire to see an e-journal provided with open access to resource Pentecostal theological educators globally where often minimal resources are available of this kind. Through his vision for this, he asked me to serve as the Executive Editor (with himself as Senior Editor) and begin pulling together a team (Justin Evans as Book Review Editor; Roland Dudley as Editorial Advisor; and Derek Simonsen initially, with Robert Wadholm currently, as Technical Services). We solicited a number of articles for our first issue to offer an inaugural issue (Fall 2014) on “The Future of Pentecostal Theological Education”.

PneumaReview.com: Are there any denominations or institutions directly involved with the journal? Who is contributing to the journal and who you would like to see writing for it in the future?

RW: The journal is under the umbrella of The World Alliance for Pentecostal Theological Education (WAPTE) which is a global cooperative fellowship of Pentecostal/Charismatic theological associations, denominational offices and missions agencies affiliated with a member body of the Pentecostal World Fellowship (PWF) that provide educational services to theological and/or ministry training schools. It exists to assist and encourage these organizations in their endeavor to promote the development of Pentecostal theological education and leadership training. WAPTE is affiliated with the Pentecostal World Fellowship and its member bodies.

As far as contributors, when I solicited writers we received submissions from William Kay, Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, and Byron Klaus. There are several other well-known Pentecostal scholars I have spoken with who will be contributing to future issues. However, we would welcome submissions from anyone writing a quality article pertaining to issues of Pentecostal theological education. We would be especially welcoming of those writing from the majority world context. Academic credentials are not included in the articles nor considered for submissions. Quality research and writing on issues of Pentecostal theological education are the only issues under consideration.

“Criticisms are the nails which keep us on the cross dead to self.”[1] At least they puncture the soul and lodge in the memory for a long time. Few church leaders maintain any self-esteem after an executioner (i.e., critic) nails them.

Leaders fear criticism in large part because it often determines how their followers evaluate them, whether the criticism is justified or unjustified. Sometimes leaders find it simply impossible to correct misconceptions even when they are totally false.[2]

At the same time, critics can spur leaders on to success. As William J. Diehm aptly says, “Many persons have become great trying to prove to their critics that they could do what critics said they could not do.”[3] Of course, to turn criticism into a motivation rather than a demotivation requires a deep residual confidence in the leader’s own innate abilities and a determination to persevere whatever the cost.

But, for such confidence and determination to succeed, leaders need at least a minimal amount of working knowledge about a critic’s motivation. For instance, some critics only need more information. Other critics like how things have been and need time to process changes. Another group of critics feels left out of the decision-making process. A few critics are right and require only a simple confession of that fact from the leadership. The worst faultfinders simply complain about everything because they feel depressed, ignored, or powerless.[4] In any case, leaders must cope with criticism constructively by means of the appropriate philosophical and practical responses.

Constructive Philosophical Responses to Criticism

Responding constructively to criticism calls for a philosophical mindset. Leaders must learn to evaluate their own need for personal approval from critics. They must also train themselves to expect criticism. Leaders must differentiate between destructive and constructive criticism. And, last but not least, wise leaders develop an appreciation for the role of their critics.

Evaluate the Need for Approval from Critics

It is not healthy for leaders to care too much about what people think. As John Ortberg explains, “To truly care for people requires not caring too much about their approval or disapproval. Otherwise, the temptation to give their preferences too much emotional weight is almost inevitable” (emphasis his).[5] Fear of criticism robs leaders of their objectivity and courage.

How liberating for leaders to realize that they “are not the passive victim of others’ opinions! In fact, their opinions are powerless until [leaders] validate them. No one’s approval will affect [them] unless [leaders] grant it credibility and status. The same holds true for disapproval.”[6] While leaders are not able to control what people do to them outwardly, they are able to control their influence inwardly.

Thank you to our authors and readers for making the first year of PneumaReview.com such a success. Thank you for your prayers and patience as we transition from print to a digital publication.

Most of all, please join me in thanking our God and Father for giving us Jesus who expresses him perfectly and pours out his Spirit upon us, enabling us to tell everyone about the love, power, and forgiveness found only in him.

Raul Mock
Thanksgiving 2014