Image: FreeImages.com/Bas van den Eijkhof

The most powerful discipleship method for new believers is prayer. We MUST pray for them so that they will be able to conform to the image of Christ. The Lord’s Church should be filled with individuals who are growing in their relationship with their Lord and Savior and experiencing spiritual growth. If the Church will pray for and train up every new believer in love and service, we will be better equipped to advance God’s kingdom on this earth! Some churches form a prayer circle around new believers upon their confession of faith and make a commitment before the Lord to nurture and train them. Here are several key prayers to pray for the brand new in faith:

• For Spiritual Maturity: Father, I pray that this one who has just recently placed his/her faith in you will grow to spiritual maturity, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. May he speak the truth in love so that he will in all things grow up into Christ. (Ephesians 4:13-15).
• For Humility to allow others to teach and train: Lord, may this new believer open his/her heart to those who are more mature in faith so that his love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that he may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God (Phil. 1:9-11).
• Pray that they, being filled with the Holy Spirit, will discover and utilize the gifts God has given and use them to the best of their ability.
• Pray that they will have a daily, disciplined quiet time in order to know the Word of God and develop a powerful life of prayer.
• Pray that they will be able to resist the enemy and overcome sin when it arises in their lives.
• Pray that they will develop a fruitful ministry for the kingdom in their local church, community and beyond through the power of the Holy Spirit.
• Pray that they will be bold in their witness to unbelievers, having courage to share their testimony.

From The Harvest Prayer Messenger. Used with permission of www.harvestprayer.com.

Press Release: Believers’ Baptism Consultation

Observations on the Believers’ Baptism Consultation by Tony Richie

⁴There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, ⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:4-6 (NRSV)

A Consultation on Believers’ Baptism[1] was held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Kingston Jamaica from January 8 through 10, 2015. It was convened specifically to consider ways in which the thinking among those traditions that have normally practiced only believers’ baptism might have changed in the thirty years since the publication of the Faith and Order Convergence Text, Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry in 1982. Through the papers presented by each of the participating communions along with reflections from Faith and Order, the participants sought to discern the places of convergence in their understanding of the mode, meaning and practice of baptism as well as to name the hindrances to the general acceptance of those practices that do not accord with their own understanding. The participants were grateful for the hospitality shown by the Jamaican churches, and to the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands for their explanation of how they live with two practices of baptism within one church.

Recognizing the historic nature of the event as the first conversation of its kind, the consultation was filled with a spirit of excitement as relationships were deepened and new learnings discovered. Common affirmations were celebrated and differences were met with an attitude of respect and wonderment. At the conclusion of the consultation, a new hope emerged for continued conversations and meaningful ecumenical advance.

• The participants gave thanks for Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry in its call for churches to recognize in BEM and one another the “faith of the church through the ages;” and also the more recent document One Baptism: Towards Mutual Recognition (2011).
• They recognized that relatively little time has been spent on mutual reflection by traditions which do not practice infant baptism and gave thanks for this opportunity for open and honest reflections on the meaning, practice and shared understandings of baptism.
• They give thanks to God for the ongoing call to oneness as made manifest through the initiative of the Conference of Secretaries of Christian World Communions, the general support of the participating communions and the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches.
• They further give thanks for the presenters from the Baptist World Alliance, the Church of the Brethren, the Disciples of Christ, the Mennonite World Conference, the Pentecostal movement and the Churches of Christ/Christian Churches, while regretting the absence of the African Instituted Churches and their unique ecclesiological and cultural perspective.
• They give thanks for the spirit of listening and the mutual respect demonstrated by the participants and guests in the consultation.
• They give thanks to God for continuing to reveal God’s mission and purpose through these conversations.

(Kingston, Jamaica) — A three-day consultation took place involving representatives from six different “believers baptism” church traditions to share their understandings and practices of baptism and to explore how their thinking has changed in light of the emerging theological convergence on baptism and growing ecumenical encounter over the past 30 years. This was the first time such a gathering has taken place, and thus represents an historic moment in the life of these traditions.

The traditions included the Baptists, Brethren, Churches of Christ, Disciples of Christ, Mennonites, and Pentecostals. The 18 participants came from Jamaica, Kenya, Germany, Paraguay, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The initiative for the consultation grew out of the annual meeting of Secretaries of Christian World Communions in 2012, which noted fresh thinking and official agreements around the mutual recognition of baptism between churches who practice “infant baptism” and those who have practiced “believers baptism” have been observed.

The agenda of the consultation included presentations from each of the traditions on their past and current teaching and practice of baptism, with attention to how their understandings have changed or developed, along with the opportunity to discuss the presentations. A representative of the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches was also present to provide input from the perspective of the wider global discussion on baptism within the ecumenical movement.

The highlights of the consultation, as stated in a report on the meeting, included:

• gratitude for the opportunity to have an open and honest reflection on the meaning, practice and shared understandings of baptism among the participants;
• naming the potential found in the image of “being on a journey” for the Christian life, with different forms and expressions of initiation and confession, while sharing a similar call to discipleship;
• the significance of understanding the Holy Spirit as a source both of our diversity as well as our unity in Christ;
• the need for a re-examination of the language of ‘sacrament’, ‘ordinance’, ‘sign’ and ‘symbol’ as ways to acknowledge that God is the primary actor in baptism;
• the need to recognize the continuity between ecumenical reception of other traditions as church, and the practices that marks each tradition as a unique expression of the body of Christ.

The full text of the report on the meeting will be shared with both the Conference of Secretaries of Christian World Communions and the Faith and Order Commission of the WCC with the hope that it will move the discussion and work on the mutual recognition of baptism and Christian unity forward.

How to make a humble, biblical case for the charismata and allow the Holy Spirit to do the convincing.

In one sense, charismatics have finally achieved a certain level of respectability within the Evangelical movement. Today, we have academic societies and publications¹ dedicated to the study of charismatic and Pentecostal issues in which even non-charismatics participate. Our books can now be published outside of denominationally-based publishing houses.² One could reasonably argue that the movement has finally found a seat at the Evangelical table.

While it is gratifying that much of the overt and bitter opposition to charismatic theology has diminished in recent years³, charismatics still confront pockets of theological opposition. In the spirit of having answers for those that question (1 Pet 3:15) and rebuttals for those that doubt (Tit 1:9), I have several tips to help defend and propagate charismatic beliefs.

Before delving into the tips, I must lay a little ground work. First, this article deals with apologetics within the Christian community. Although elements of the following tips may be helpful for responding to non-believers that purpose is secondary to the goals in this article. Second, apologetics is a dangerous game not just because of the important theological and spiritual issues at stake, but also due to the emotions and pride that can accompany debates. Certain personalities are drawn to the challenge of ideological conflicts. If this trait characterizes you, I want to caution you to avoid the error of being more concerned about winning the argument than helping a brother understand the truth. Spiritual maturity is a critical element in responsible apologetics. We must always remember that our debates with fellow believers should have a different tone and spirit than our work with non-believers. Furthermore, one must employ wisdom when selecting among the following tips. Just as a golfer chooses different clubs for different situations, so apologists must select the right tip for the particular situation.

Tip #1. Ask the anti-charismatic to tell his/her testimony and experience in Christ. It may sound strange but I believe that many anti-charismatics took this position because of a bad experience. In other words, their bias against charismatic theology stems from experience not exegesis. Whether their negative experience was legitimate, or simply a misunderstanding on their part, is ultimately irrelevant. The point is that their negative experience with charismatic theology or behavior has colored their understanding and view of charismatics. I discovered this truth during a conversation with a non-charismatic minister. He recounted a sad story of how his charismatic mentor ultimately failed him. I could sense that his emotional pain still lingered even though many years had passed. I can only wonder how this brother’s theology would have developed if his charismatic mentor had treated him differently.

Oskar Skarsaune and Reidar Hvalvik, eds., Jewish Believers in Jesus: The Early Centuries (Peabody: Hendrickson, 2007), 930 pages, ISBN 9781565637634.

This volume is an imposing compendium of scholarly research into the Jewish Christianity of the first several centuries. The book features essays on nearly every major representative and aspect of this important stream within early Christianity.

The volume opens by exploring the definition of “Jewish Christianity” and then gives an overview of the literary evidence for this stream within the early church, discussing, in turn, the Jewish aspects of Paul’s mission and beliefs, the gospel of Matthew as a reflection of Jewish Christianity, the Fourth Gospel, the book of Revelation, the (non-canonical) Jewish gospel tradition, Jewish Christianity’s use and preservation of the OT pseudepigrapha, Jewish-Christian aspects within the Pseudo-Clementine writings, and the remains of Jewish-Christian witnesses as preserved in Greek and Latin patristic writers. After this is a series of essays on the various Jewish-Christian “schools”, such as the Ebionites, Nazoreans, etc., and various alleged Jewish-Christian leaders, like Cerinthus, Elxai (Elchesai), etc. Philip Alexander discusses the rabbinic evidence for Jewish Christianity, while James Strange discusses the archaeological record. Skarsaune (who wrote many of the articles) closes the volume with an overview, after which there is a bibliography running more than 100 pages. There is really very little that the book does not include, and anything to be gainsaid about the volume will likely focus on a particular issue as treated by one or another contributor, rather than on issues touching the volume as a whole. For example, Donald Hagner’s essay on “Paul as a Jewish Believer—According to his Letters” is rather reactionary, and not, I think, of the same quality as the other essays.

For most students of the New Testament, this volume is both a starting point and a likely ending point for the study of Jewish Christianity. It deserves a place in any personal library.

Reviewed by John Poirier

New publisher’s page: http://www.bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/jewish-believers-in-jesus/333750

As of October 30, 2014, the full text of the book appears here: http://khazarzar.skeptik.net/books/jewbelje.pdf

In August 2008, the Pneuma Foundation offered a link (on our legacy website page called “News & Current Links”) to a transcript of an Arabic TV [Al-Jazeerah] program: “Rare look at Islam: Muslims discuss the annual exodus of 6 million African Muslims to Christianity.” A few weeks later it was learned that this was deliberate misinformation on the part of the speaker, as pointed out in a report by Patrick Sookhdeo of the Barnabas Fund entitled “Exaggerated Convert Figures Could Cost Lives.” The Pneuma Foundation editorial committee asked Dr. Calvin Smith, editor of Evangelical Review of Society and Politics to comment on the situation of secret believers in Muslim dominated nations.

In an article published by the Barnabas Fund, a charity which raises awareness of and supports persecuted Christians, its leader Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, a Christian expert on Islam, warns against disseminating statistics of large-scale Muslim conversions to Christianity. Sookhdeo believes such figures are often inaccurate, sometimes even exaggerated by some Western Christian organizations “whose financial support depends on the enthusiasm of Christians in their home countries.” He highlights how Islamists, too, engage in deliberate disinformation for their own purposes, citing the following example:

A story that six million African Muslims are becoming Christians every year resulted from claims made by Sheikh Ahmad al Katani of Libya in a televised interview shown on Al-Jazeera. The sheikh’s aim appeared to be to alarm Muslim viewers with high figures of Muslims leaving their faith in order to persuade them to give more generously to Islamic missionary efforts in Africa.

Whether statistics are genuine, miscalculated or exaggerated, Sookhdeo’s point is clear: figures detailing widespread conversions to Christianity inflames Muslim sensibilities and can even cost lives.

It is a sobering warning. Indeed, Christians in many Muslim lands are already in a precarious position. That many Muslims might be converting to a downtrodden religious minority, to the deep alarm of Muslim leaders, makes it doubly so. Thus, in societies built upon a clan system and the need to protect family honour, so-called apostates are ruthlessly rooted out. Even here in the United Kingdom there have been several well-publicized reports of ex-Muslims being targeted for converting to Christianity. An former missionary in Arab North Africa told me of a well-known saying among missionaries to Muslim countries: “Islam follows a Christian convert to the grave”. Imprisonment and killings of even the most elderly Christians testify to this.

All this leaves evangelistically-motivated Western Christians (notably classical Pentecostals, whose pneumatology and eschatology drive their urgent evangelistic activity) with somewhat of a quandary. Repentance is a cause for Christian celebration, a reason to glorify God (Lk 15:10), which is why some Western Christian organizations publish conversion statistics. For them these figures translate into actual, real people who have discovered Jesus Christ as their personal saviour. Indeed, this is why the Pneuma Foundation recently published the statistics in question concerning Christian growth in Muslim lands.

A minister writes about the importance of significant and intentional community for followers of Jesus.

Church-hopping Christians who flit from one congregation to another do have a problem—but it is not with the people they meet, as they think. It is with themselves, observes one veteran pastor who believes local church involvement is the true measure of someone’s faith.

“Let’s face it; following God is much easier when we are not being jostled by fellow travelers on the journey,” says Daniel Brown, pastor of The Coastlands in Aptos, Calif. “How sad that some believers imagine all the trouble with people in the church is with the people in church.

“Some Christians are like kids with slivers in their hands—God asks them to hold still so He can get at the slivers with as pair of tweezers, but they keep pulling away and squirming around, hopping from church to church, getting more and more infected by the very stuff that could be extracted in fellowship. God uses church to increase our love and to refine us.”

With these principles of the purpose of fellowship Brown urges committed church involvement for every believer. Drawing from his 20-plus years in ministry—during which he has founded 23 churches and helped start two overseas—Brown says church is “the perfect setting for us to experience and to offer the love that Jesus said would characterize His followers.”

But that is not always easy, and if someone does not have ongoing contact with other Christians they can be “fooled into thinking [they] are loving others” because they experience little frustration. “But until you spend meaningful time with others, you do not really have much occasion to love them in spite of what they do.”

“Learning the truths of His kingdom is not like learning facts from a textbook,” he writes. “It is more like hiking over the rise of a hill and, for the first time, catching a glimpse of a valley where you could gladly spend the rest of your life. With each new element of truth you grasp, you find yourself thinking, ‘This is the best.'”

Adapted from a Charisma News Service article and used with permission.

Roger Stronstad, The Prophethood of All Believers: A Study in Luke’s Charismatic Theology, Journal of Pentecostal Theology Supplemental Series, vol. 16 (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999). 136 pp.

There are at least three reasons why every Pentecostal and charismatic pastor, minister, or leader should read this book. Let me briefly attempt to convince the reader by elaborating on these in no particular order. First, the argument of the book is itself revolutionary for our understanding of what it means to be the people and church of God. The Reformation doctrine of the priesthood of all believers is commonplace, even among Pentecostals and charismatics. Not only can and should all believers be bold when they approach God, all believers are also commissioned by God to boldly be messengers of the gospel. This, Stronstad argues, is what the “prophethood of all believers” means. He goes through Luke-Acts in painstaking detail to show that the Spirit who anointed Jesus to go about doing good, to heal, to proclaim the Kingdom, and to deliver all oppressed of the devil (Luke 4:18 and Acts 10:38) is the same Spirit who has empowered all believers to do the same. Thus if Jesus is the eschatological prophet who is mighty in word and deed, why should not all believers be likewise, following not only the example and paradigm of Jesus, but also that of the earliest Christians, including Stephen, Philip, Barnabas, Agabus, Peter, and Paul (chapters 5 and 6)? Throughout, Stronstad weaves his argument paying close attention to the biblical texts, even while not neglecting the arguments of other Lukan scholars at important junctures.

The 2010 edition from Centre for Pentecostal Theology Press.

The second and third reasons for reading this book are connected, concerned as they are with Pentecostal-charismatic experience and hermeneutics. Along with many others, Stronstad has long argued that Christians interpret the biblical texts in part according to what they have experienced or not experienced (the lack of experience). In interpreting Luke and Acts, the Christian (lack of) experience—in this case, of signs and wonders, glossolalia and other charisms—is crucial. The first chapter of this book therefore serves as an excellent summary introducing the fundamental principles of Pentecostal hermeneutics, of the ways in which Pentecostal experience has led them to insights and understandings of the biblical text which would be more difficult to come by apart from such experiences. The rest of the volume then shows this hermeneutic at work. For those of us concerned with the sound interpretation of Scripture (as I hope all of us are), this book is thus not just an abstract “how-to” of reading Scripture, but a model of how to read the Bible in a manner faithful to itself, the believing community and the integrity of the experiences which make one Pentecostal or charismatic. Those looking to see how a authentic Pentecostal Christian (Stronstad has long been academic dean of Western Pentecostal Bible College in Abbottsford, British Columbia, and member of the Society for Pentecostal Studies) interprets Scripture in a manner worthy of the convictions, sensibilities and orientations central to Pentecostal-charismatic preaching and teaching will find a gold mine of homiletical and pedagogical resources in this book.