Editorial Introduction

Rolland and Heidi Baker founded IRIS Global (then known as IRIS Ministries) in 1980, the year they were married, spending the next twelve years ministering in Asia, first by leading evangelistic dance and drama teams and then transitioning to work one by one with the poor and forgotten. In 1992, they moved to London to complete their PhD’s at King’s College, planting a church and ministering to the homeless of downtown London. In 1995, Rolland was offered a neglected orphanage in Maputo, Mozambique. Their ministry, now based in Pemba, Mozambique, has continued to expand to include feeding programs, well drilling, medical clinics, primary and secondary schools, Bible schools and vocational training, and planting thousands of churches in Mozambique and in more than 20 nations. Their book, There is Always Enough (Chosen, 2003), serves as a good introduction to their ministry.

Adapted from the December 13, 2010 letter from Rolland Baker. www.irismin.org/about

Pneuma Review: You and your husband, Rolland, have been involved in missions and ministry to the poor for many years. What countries have you served in and how did you end up in Mozambique?

Heidi Baker: When I was sixteen, I was powerfully saved, and I had a vision of Jesus. He called me to Asia, Africa and England to be a minister and missionary. From that day on, I became a missionary, and I saw God do miracles. We started seeing the demonized set free and drug addicts come off of drugs. Cancer was healed in California; in Hong Kong, many women who had been living in cages received the healing of their hearts. God would heal all kinds of physical ailments: heads backs, necks, livers, knees. People have given me X-rays of restored organs.

We started out in Indonesia and then went to Hong Kong. We served in Hawaii for a short time. Then we went back to Asia and eventually on to England to do our PhD program. In England we had a church among the homeless and street people, which is still going on today. After that, we were called to Mozambique.

In 1996, I received a prophecy from Randy Clark that I would witness the blind see and the deaf hear. After a year of praying, three women who all had my name (“Aida” in Portuguese), saw for the first time within days of each other. There has been great breakthrough for the deaf. Approximately 99% of the deaf in the Makua and Makonde tribe have been healed in the last few years.

PR: How do the miracles you have seen meet the needs and impact the community?

These are some of the least reached people in Southeast Africa, and we go out to meet them in their bush villages. Since the deaf started to hear, we planted more than 2000 churches. Entire villages have been hearing and receiving the Gospel. We have a church witness among almost every Makua and Makonde village.

Often, villages of another faith are resistant when we arrive. Sometimes they throw rocks at us, or jeer or show their disapproval, but when the deaf in their village hear, they drop their rocks.

In one community across the bay from Pemba, the people in the village have never had a school for their children. We first planted a church there, and then built a school for the children. Now when we visit, the children show us their books and are excited about what they’re learning.

An Ethical Approach

More of a practical guide than a theological statement, “Recommendations for Conduct” outlines “A Basis for Christian Witness”. This is the most consistently biblical section, and primarily upholds mission as a participation in the mission of God and obedience to the example of Jesus and the early church with a strong emphasis on ethical behavior and responsibility.³ The document also details “Principles” of Christian conduct in bearing witness to the gospel: “Acting in God’s love,” “Imitating Jesus Christ,” “Christian virtues,” “Acts of service and justice,” “Discernment in ministries of healing,” “Rejection of violence,” “Freedom of religion and belief,” “Mutual respect and solidarity,” “Respect for all people,” “Renouncing false witness,” “Ensuring personal discernment,” and “Building interreligious relationships.” True to its subtitle, it also suggests “Recommendations” for guiding relationships between Christians and others as Christians respond to God’s call to do mission: “study” the critical issues involved, “build” relationships of respect and trust, “encourage” Christians to strengthen their own religious identity and faith, “cooperate” with other religious communities for justice and the common good, “call” on governments to respect religious freedom, and “pray” for all neighbors.

“Recommendations for Conduct” ends with an “Appendix” describing the background and process of its origin and development over the last five years. As a participant from beginning to end in that process, I understand that this background is essential for appreciating many of the nuances of the statements of this document. Also, it would be a mistake to divorce the content and tone of “Recommendations for Conduct” from the clear purpose statement in the “Preamble”.

The purpose of this document is to encourage churches, church councils and mission agencies to reflect on their current practices and to use the recommendations in this document to prepare, where appropriate, their own guidelines for their witness and mission among those of different religions and among those who do not profess any particular religion. It is hoped that Christians across the world will study this document in the light of their own practices in witnessing to their faith in Christ, both by word and deed.

Early Response

How Shall We Lead the Church?

In this Pneuma Review conversation, Pastor John Lathrop says that New Testament leadership should be scripturally based, marked by servanthood, Spirit-empowered, and equipping everyone for ministry.

Jesus Christ has a very real relationship with the church. He described the church as His and said that He would build it (Matt. 16:18). Paul, in his address to the elders of the church of Ephesus said that God purchased the church with His own blood (Acts 20:28). The reference to purchasing with blood indicates that Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, is the one being referred to in this verse. The church belongs to Jesus. In a couple of other texts the apostle Paul affirms that we (believers/the church) have been purchased by Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 6:19-20; 7:23). In addition to His ownership of the church Paul also says a number of times that Jesus is the head of the church (Eph. 1:22; 5:23; Col. 1:18). Jesus’ leadership of the church is not just a position of power and authority, but also one of service. Ephesians 5:29 tells us that the Lord feeds and cares for the church. Romans 8:34 and Hebrews 7:25 indicate that He is now constantly praying for His followers. The one who has the highest authority in the church is its greatest servant. The Lord can, and certainly does, feed and care for us as His people; He does this for us both as individuals and as a body. The Lord can minister to us directly, or He can work through the earthly spiritual leadership of the church. These men and women have been placed in the church by Him (Eph. 4:11) to accomplish His plans and purposes.

In the New Testament we find a number of different words used to describe leadership ministries in the church words like: apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, elder, overseer, teacher, deacon and deaconess. All of these words describe various leadership ministries.

Without question all of these ministries existed in the New Testament church, and I believe that all of them exist in the church today. However, some of these leadership ministries do not seem to have been found in every local church. For example, there is no concrete evidence in the New Testament that every church had apostles and prophets who remained in the congregation on an ongoing basis, they seem to have been more mobile ministries¹ Local church leadership seems to be entrusted more into the hands of pastors/elders, teachers, deacons and deaconesses.

It is not my intent to make this a highly academic paper. Neither do I intend to go into a detailed description of any of the ministries listed above. Instead I would like to focus on four characteristics that I believe should mark all leadership ministries of the church. These four essentials of ministry are that it should be: scripturally based, marked by servanthood, empowered and directed by the Spirit, and should equip people for service.

Let us turn our attention now to a brief consideration of these four essential qualities.

Scripturally Based

The church belongs to God, because this is so we need to build it in accordance with His instructions. These instructions are found in Scripture; the Bible should be the blueprint for the church. Now I know that not everyone holds the same view about how a church should be governed. Some people feel that a church should be pastor/elder led, based on texts such as 1 Timothy 5:17, Acts 20:28 and 1 Peter 5: 1-3. In these verses elders/pastors are given the responsibility of providing direction and oversight to the congregation. Other Christians lean toward a more congregational form of government. They may cite Acts 6 where the larger church body chose the seven men to take care of the widow’s distribution. It should be noted in this case that the larger church body made the decision only after the apostles gave them the criteria for who could be considered for this ministry. The apostles authorized the congregation to make the choices. I personally believe the Bible teaches that the church should be led by pastors/elders. Regardless of the view that you or your church holds we should all agree that the Bible is to be the source of authority for the beliefs and practices of the church.

Editor’s Note: In this excerpt from his latest book, Professor Lederle says the “third wave” should perhaps be called the rise of the new independent charismatic churches. The Pneuma Review editorial committee hopes you will be encouraged as you read this chapter and will purchase this excellent book for yourself.

The third major movement of the Pentecostal-Charismatic segment of Protestantism distinguishes itself from the First and Second Waves in two important ways. First, as we have just seen, it led to new structures being formed. Although the word “denomination” has remained suspect in these circles, and the idea of tradition is usually also viewed rather negatively, these new Christian groups are, in fact, already new denominations in the making, rapidly forming their own traditional patterns of organization and church life. It has been estimated that over 3,000 of these new independent Charismatic groups or denominations have been established globally. Second, in the teaching of these Independent Charismatic Churches, a whole spectrum of innovative doctrinal emphases emerged. There has been much debate about some of these teachings. Usually there is some continuity to be found within the Pentecostal-Charismatic heritage with these new teachings. Some of their teachings have remained contentious, especially in the wider circles of Christianity. The fact is, however, that most of these innovations had their roots in the classic spiritual writers of the nineteenth century. This fact will be pursued later.

The term “Third Wave” will now be used as synonymous with the Independent Charismatic Churches. Here the primary slogans and metaphors were not “Hang in there,” “Be salt and light,” “Renew from within,” as in the Second Wave, but rather, “Go out from among them,” avoid “unequal yoking,” seek “new wineskins” for the new wine. The universally pervasive conviction was that “the Cloud has moved on” and God’s pilgrim people need to launch out and chart a new course. The people who make up this new move include both converts to the Christian faith and many believers who transferred from other churches. A significant number of the latter group came from both the First and the Second Waves. Classical Pentecostalism provided a large number of leaders in the Independent Charismatic movement.

Some believed that the Pentecostals had themselves fallen prey to denominationalism and had become too formal or traditional. The Latter Rain movement expressed this in a scathing critique of Pentecostal churches that led to an equally swift denouncing of the Latter Rain as a heretical movement. Although the Classical Pentecostal denominations continued to experience growth, some of their members left to join the new Independent Charismatic ministries. The same applied to the Second Wave. It has been estimated that at least 50% of mainline denominational Charismatics gave up on their program to renew their churches from within and left for what they considered to be greener pastures. They had a hunger for a church where Spirit-empowerment and Charismatic gifts and ministry could be more visible or regular. Some naturally found a home in major Pentecostal denominations, such as the Assemblies of God. A larger section of the discontented, however, pursued the pathway of the non-denominational or Independent Charismatic Churches.

First a word needs to be said about the term “Third Wave.” It was, I believe, first coined by C. Peter Wagner, at that time from the School of World Missions at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He believed that the “Second Wave,” or denominational Charismatic movement, influenced the larger mainline Protestant churches that were of a more liberal background theologically. I disagree with this analysis and maintain that more conservative and evangelical Protestants were also deeply involved in this movement from the very beginning. Wagner further stated that the Second Wave writers, who preferred to identify themselves as Charismatics rather than as being of a Neo-Pentecostal persuasion, nevertheless still remained within the theological tradition of a theology of subsequence with a heavy emphasis on glossolalia. The more integrative understandings of Spirit-baptism, as developed in the global Charismatic awakening, especially in England and Germany, were less prominent in the United States than in Europe, and their unique contribution may have escaped his notice. As a result, the awakening of charismatic gifts—especially of healing and prophecy—among more conservative Protestant groups was heralded by Wagner as constituting a “Third Wave,” while others, like myself, still considered them as an integral part of the whole denominational Charismatic Renewal, or Second Wave.

Holistic mission, or integral mission, implies God is concerned with the whole person, the whole community, body, mind and spirit—and, that’s just what this book is about. Specifically, it discusses the meaning of the holistic gospel, how it has developed, and implications for the Church. Holistic Mission takes a global, eclectic approach, with 19 writers, all experienced in and committed to holistic mission. It addresses its theme in a critical and honest manner, arguing that “To be part of God’s plan for God’s people, the church must take holistic mission to the world.” The perspective of this book, and the tradition of the different contributors, are largely from the conservative, evangelical, Pentecostal, charismatic wing of the Church. It’s therefore likely of particular interest for scholars and students of missiology from this general background, or those interested in it academically, although it emphasizes both evangelical and ecumenical streams. Furthermore, it is certainly not “merely academic,” being filled with information fit for the most practical-minded practitioners. In fact, a deliberate effort to give a wide-ranging and eclectic overview of holistic mission definitely shows. The editors have brought together perspectives from theologians, church leaders, practitioners, and insights from around the world from the United Kingdom, Asia, Africa and southern and northern America. Their joint insights are both illuminating and inspirational.

The editors are well qualified for this particular task. Brian Woolnough is Research Tutor at Oxford Centre for Mission Studies (OCMS) and Emeritus Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford. Having originally trained as a physicist, he spent most of professional life in education as an academic at Oxford University. Woolnough then worked with international team of Tearfund, UK, travelling widely in Asia and Africa, before moving to OCMS. Wonsuk Ma, a Korean academic and missionary, has been the Director of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies (OCMS) since 2006. Previously he served as Academic Dean of the Asian Theological Seminary in the Philippines. Ma is the founder of the Asian Pentecostal Society and two international journals: The Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies and the Journal of Asian Mission.

The Regnum Edinburgh 2010 Series itself is inspired by the Centenary of the World Missionary Conference of 1910, held in Edinburgh, which was a suggestive and determinative moment for Christian mission in the 21st century. Since 2005, an international group has worked collaboratively to develop an intercontinental and multi-denominational project, known as Edinburgh 2010, and based at New College, University of Edinburgh. This initiative has brought together representatives of twenty different global Christian bodies, representing all major Christian denominations, confessions, and many different strands of mission and church life, to mark the Centenary. Essential to the work of the Edinburgh 1910 Conference, and of abiding value, were the findings of the eight think-tanks or “commissions”. These inspired the idea of a new round of collaborative reflection on Christian mission—and the present volume is one part of that reflection process. Commendably, there has been a concerted effort to assure that the study process has been polycentric, open-ended, and as inclusive as possible of the different genders, regions of the world, and theological and confessional perspectives in today’s Church.

A basic assumption of Holistic Mission is that contemporary Christian missiology is undergoing a recovery of a theology of mission that integrates faith and life, word and deed, proclamation and presence. It suggests this holistic understanding of Christian mission is deeply rooted in the biblical theology of the Judeo-Christian faith. In particular, it notes that in the explosion of Christianity in the global south in the twentieth century the Church has had to contend with sharp socio-political issues of poverty, greed, corruption, health, education, and human sin in all its manifestations. Accordingly, because the Christian gospel of kingdom of God is “universally transformative, strong, and holistic, it challenges the status quo everywhere it is proclaimed.” Holistic Mission is particularly concerned with countering the ill effects of colonialism in which it judges that the gospel of Christ was diminished, and the workings of God’s kingdom in the world not sufficiently understood. Therefore, it challenges the churches today to “authenticate the gospel in contexts where colonialism has left a legacy of structural poverty, economic underdevelopment, and disempowered and marginalized peoples.”

Michael F. Bird, Are You the One Who Is to Come?: The Historical Jesus and the Messianic Question (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009), 208 pages, ISBN 9780801036385 .

Michael Bird’s ever expanding catalog now includes a volume on messianic expectations in the time of Jesus, and how the historical Jesus fits within that field of expectations. It is no coincidence that the book follows quickly after another such study by Joseph Fitzmyer—Bird’s book takes specific issue with Fitzmyer’s dismissal of the idea of Jesus’ messianic self-awareness, and with his unduly narrow conception of the Messiah. (In a long footnote on pp. 28-29, Bird presents a long list of other scholars who argue that Jesus claimed messianic status for himself.) Bird argues that Fitzmyer’s treatment hardly does justice to the NT evidence.

Like all discussions of the messianic idea, Bird’s study includes an overview of messianic conceptions found at Qumran, in pseudepigraphic writings, and early rabbinic writings. He devotes little space to competing concepts, like the idea of a priestly messiah, probably because he sees little impress of such ideas in the New Testament.

There are other NT scholars who are capable of writing books as quickly (yet as complete) as Bird, but I know of no other scholar that mastered the craft so early in their career. Some of those known for writing books quickly, unfortunately, do not have much of interest to say—they have well-padded CVs but have not really contributed to the field of NT studies. So far, this has not been the case with Bird.

Reviewed by John C. Poirier

Preview this book: books.google.com/books?id=FyLeIQ5WFZIC

When I was first offered the opportunity to review Diogenes Allen’s new book, Theology for a Troubled Believer, I immediately welcomed the opportunity. While in graduate school, I had the great pleasure of having Dr. Allen as a Sunday School teacher and, consequently, eagerly looked forward to the opportunity to interact with him again. His teaching was, at the same time, profound, understandable, and practical. The mastery of a subject necessary to accomplish all three is not common. Dr. Allen, though currently retired, had a long and prestigious career as the Stuart Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Princeton Theological Seminary. In addition, he holds the rare distinction of being ordained in both the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA).

While he engages most of the classical topics in systematic theology in this book, his approach is, to a degree, novel. This book is Allen’s extended response to questions posed to him by a thoughtful and intelligent man; a friend seeking to make sense of the world and, particularly, of the Christian faith in light of both the significant suffering that exists in the world and the fact that we live “in a world very different than the one inhabited by the biblical writers.” Allen’s goal is to aid his readers in gaining the skills necessary to put the various pieces of life’s puzzle together in a coherent fashion, to help them make more sense of the world through a Christian perspective, and to move them beyond simply a “notional” understanding of the faith to something more “real.”

With the idea of human suffering as his central theme, Allen addresses the major topics of classical Christian systematic theology. Not surprisingly, however, his somewhat unique purpose leads him to present these categories with varying amounts of emphasis and, to a degree, in an order outside of the ordinary. He starts with an investigation into the nature of God, challenging the philosophical ideas of how God must be, including some ideas that have been adopted by classic Christian theology. Allen gives significant attention to the holiness of God, focussing on the idea of God’s “transcendence,” which he calls “the essential quality of the Deity.” (The two chapters that Allen dedicates to this topic alone, in my opinion, is worth the price of the book!) It is a thoughtful, engaging, and masterful treatment of the Christian doctrine of holiness; both in the sense of that which is essential to God Himself and in the sense of how humanity, created in His image, is to manifest this holiness through the pursuit and establishment of justice. From there, Allen, who has received significant and numerous accolades for his work on the relation of faith and science, discusses what it means for God to be the Creator and the inherent limits of science to investigate Him. In this chapter, Allen, dismantles the commonly held “God-of-the-gaps” thesis that asserts that the concept of the divine is simply an historic, and now unnecessary, approach to explaining the heretofore mysterious.

The next major section, “The Divine Sacrifices,” contains Allen’s thoughts on a number of classic theological categories, including creation (which Allen asserts is the prototype of true human behaviour), human lostness, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Temptation of Christ, and the Cross. Throughout this section, Allen ably and effectively weaves together insights from various thinkers and authors across the expanse of the last 2,000 years. Following that, in the section titled, “The New Life in God,” the author unpacks his understanding of salvation, which he asserts is not only grounded in the resurrection of Jesus but brings, consequently, not just life but a new kind of life not only filled with but the product of the life of God Himself. God’s purpose and priority in the work of salvation is to share His divine life with humanity. While traditional evangelical systematic theology tends to introduce the definition of faith early on in system, Allen saves that topic until much later. When he finally does introduce it, he asserts that, contrary to popular opinion, faith and reason are not mutually exclusive. Instead, both are necessary aspects of Christian belief. The question is not, then, “Which one is the true Christian practice?” but “How do the two relate and contribute to Christian discipleship?”

George M. Flattery, A Biblical Theology of the Holy Spirit, vol. 2, Luke and Acts, James E. Richardson, ed. (Springfield, MO: Global University, 2009), xxxiii + 365 pages.

George M. Flattery, A Biblical Theology of the Holy Spirit, vol. 3, John and Paul, James E. Richardson, ed. (Springfield, MO: Global University, 2009), xxxii + 368 pages.

James E. Richardson, ed., A Biblical Theology of the Holy Spirit, vol. 4, Contemporary Issues in Pneumatology (Springfield, MO: Global University, 2009), xxxiv + 325 pages.

Global University (GU), an online institution of higher education in the pentecostal tradition, has an 80-year history if you count its derivation from the merger of ICI University and Berean University, two schools initiated by the American Assemblies of God (AOG). George Flattery has taught at GU for decades, all the while studying and teaching the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The first three volumes in this set comprise his own conclusions reached in wrestling with the scriptures and the research he has undertaken.

All of the volumes in this series are fairly similarly structured. They each include a Foreword (by L. John Bueno, the executive director of the Assemblies of God World Missions Department), comments by the publisher (Carl Chrisner, the dean of the Graduate School of Theology, within which Flattery has taught for most of his GU tenure) and the editor (Richardson is GU’s professor of education and missions), a general introduction by Flattery that covers the four volumes, and distinct prefaces (respectively for the four volumes: Richard Dresselhaus, executive presbyter of the AOG; William Menzies, the denomination’s leading historian; Gary L. Seevers, Jr., then GU’s Provost and more recently its president; and George W. Flattery, son of the author and lead pastor of Stone Church in Springfield, Missouri). The back-matter for each volume includes appendices, references lists, scripture and other indices. Designed for use in GU’s courses, this handsomely produced set provides an excellent point of entry into the biblical material on the Holy Spirit to students all over the world, many of whom have limited access to scholarly resources and very basic biblical and theological literacy.

Flattery writes pastorally. The structure, method, and organization of this pneumatology are deeply shaped by the Bible school traditions of evangelical and pentecostal theological education over the course of the twentieth century. Many of the sources consulted, cited, and engaged will be familiar to readers of this journal who have a basic theological education. On occasions, Flattery engages with more recent pentecostal scholarship and in some of these instances, nicely and successfully introduces what might otherwise be threatening ideas to GU’s student audience. But by and large, Flattery proceeds methodologically through an inductive and in-some-cases exegetically driven, section-by-section, study of the scriptures. The three volumes thus provide a sort of summa on “what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit,” beginning with the Old Testament (which proceeds according to the canonical ordering), moving through Luke and Acts (amounting to what might be called a pentecostal reading of the Lukan materials), and concluding with John (including the Johannine epistles and the Apocalypse) and Paul (making no distinctions between authentic and inauthentic Pauline epistles divined by modern scholarship). The result is a compendium of biblical insights into the person and work of the Spirit that suitably introduces students from around the world to a pentecostal and charismatic worldview, at least as conceived within the classical North American pentecostal movement.

Lynn H. Cohick, associate professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, illuminates the cultural, religious, and social roles of Greco-Roman women in the second temple period. She has examined primary sources from that era, laboring to recover an accurate picture of the lives of both the elite and common woman. In this regard, Cohick first examines the Greco-Roman world, next, Early Judaism, and then early Christianity, in order to demonstrate the active role women had in every strata of that culture. Each chapter reviews her research from the primary source material, illustrates it with a character studies, and she includes an effective summary section at the end of each chapter. Cohick’s passion to get “the historical story right and the facts correct” claims the essential place for her study of history and for her proposed pathway of the future (324). However, contrary to our expectations, Cohick approaches the subject in a manner that is unlike Catherine and Richard Clark Kroeger’s approach in their I Suffer Not a Woman historical critique of 1 Timothy, in that she emphasizes her own feminist hermeneutic on the primary texts of her research.

Cohick prefaces her research with her intentions: “to provide an engaging and accurate reconstruction of ancient women’s way of life” (21); “to tell the story of the average woman… active at all levels within their social and religious communities” (23); “to correct the misconceptions about women’s lives” (24); and to expose “how gender was used as a devise” in the promotion of “a vision of social order” (27). Herein she candidly expresses her historical and sociological approach, while at the same time defining her literary and feminist critiques. In sum, Cohick’s research on women in Greco-Roman culture finds “a woman was honored for who she was and how she behaved relative to a man, not for what she accomplished” (255).

The format of the book follows the life progress and pattern of a regular Greco-Roman woman. Cohick alarms her readers by starting with the practice of infanticide or abandonment accepted in their culture, noting that more often than not a female child was less desirable than a male child. Next, if the female child survived and was raised by her family, she would then be trained to understand the ideology of what it meant to be a good wife. Equally, Cohick follows the life expectation of the girl who was abandoned by her own parents and raised for prostitution and/or slavery by others. The centerpiece of this book focuses on chapter four—Motherhood—for birthing and nurturing children is central to the preeminent role of the Greco-Roman women in Cohick’s research. The other roles of women in this book—religious, business, education, vocation, slavery, or prostitution—become sounding boards for her returning focus on the role of the average woman, the “real marriages and the real wives” (97). Nevertheless, Cohick makes a convincing argument for the “patronage” role of women in the life of Jesus and in the ministry of the Apostle Paul, where she demonstrates their ability to financially support and theologically contribute to the birthing and nurturing of Christianity. “The female benefactors would have a voice and an authoritative role in the community, granted to them without consideration of gender” (320).