The Rev. Dr. Randy Clark, one of the most important and influential figures of the present Pentecostal/charismatic movement, has just published his latest book, Power to Heal. It is a significant work as it encapsulates over four decades of experience of a major healing ministry. This ministry, Global Awakening, has been responsible for hundreds of thousands of healings in the U.S., Brazil and many other countries.

Randy Clark was born to a humble and hard-working family. His father worked in the oil fields, and young Randy learned both frugality and perseverance. At seventeen he was in an auto accident and severely injured. He was miraculously healed of his injuries and walked out of the hospital, way ahead of the expected time, and committed his life to the Lord. He had a backsliding period, but was brought back to his calling as minister with a visionary experience from the Lord. By 1977 he received a degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Two decades later he earned a Doctor of Divinity from United Theological Seminary in Dayton OH.

The Rev Clark began ministry as a Baptist preacher, but by 1980 experienced the power and gifting of the Holy Spirit, and joined John Wimber’s Vineyard Fellowship. In 1984, Wimber prophesied over him, proclaiming that he would be sent to many nations and empower many great ministries. For ten years Clark continued as a local Vineyard pastor as he grew in healing gifting and experience. Fulfillment of Wimber’s prophecy began when he received a call from a Canadian pastor John Arnott to do a four day preaching and healing mission at the small Vineyard church near the Toronto Airport (January of 1994).

The four day engagement lasted twelve and a half years, the longest running revival in North America. Over 3,000,000 people were touched by it, and thousands of church plants resulted. (I had the privilege of speaking at one of the Toronto Vineyard “Catch the Fire” conferences for pastors in 1996.)

One of the persons especially touched by Randy Clark at the Toronto revival was a young missionary called Heidi Baker. She came up to Clark’s podium one evening and insisted on an “impartation.” When Clark laid his hands on her head she experienced waves upon waves of God’s glory and power come upon her. Her ministry in Mozambique has transformed that nation from Marxist to Christian and is further transforming other nations. Critics of the Toronto Blessing often cite its exuberant manifestation (at one point animal sounds) as proof that it could not be from the Lord. But certainly impartations that resulted in the vast orchards of good fruit of Baker’s, and many other significant ministries, could only be of the Lord.

Doug Murren, Churches that Heal: Becoming a Church That Mends Broken Hearts and Restores Shattered Lives (W. Monroe, LA: Howard Publishing Company, 1999), 256 pages.

The church needs to be about the work of healing people. Churches need to be places where the whole gospel is heard and people are wholly restored to what God intended. This kind of healing process in the community of believers glorifies God.

Doug Murren says that this book is not a theological treatise, but rather a process of looking at biblical texts and sharing true stories about healing. He relates several incidents of people receiving healing that happened during his ministry. He learned he had to teach people to reach out to those who were hurting and not criticize them. The church needs to create an environment of healing.

Answering the question as to why churches do not heal, Doug Murren relates that sometimes Christians work too hard and take themselves too seriously instead of planting people in an environment that will let them grow in the Lord and their healing. The church too often is not a safe place for people to let their guard down. They may have been injured and they will not take that risk again. He relates in this book that every decision we make as a Christian is driven by one of two motivations: fear or the power of God’s love in us. “When churches live in fear, they destroy leaders, and they send away broken people.”

Doug Murren

So, how does the church change its environment? There are three basic factors that must be in place. First, is the desire to change, second, there must be within the group the energy to change, and thirdly, you must have a plan to change.

Another point that Doug makes is that a church can only help heal as many people as the strength of its core allows at any given time. They must pay the price of stepping out of their comfort zone, and many are not willing to do this.