Cindy Jacobs, The Reformation Manifesto: Your Part in God’s Plan to Change the Nations Today (Bloomington, Minnesota: Bethany House, 2008), 238 pages, ISBN 9780764205026.

Texan Cindy Jacobs is an international leader in the modern prayer movement. With her husband, Mike, she founded Generals International which works to achieve social transformation through intercession and prophetic ministry. Her writings, including Possessing the Gates of the Enemy and The Voice of God, and television program, God Knows, tend to call for intercession, repentance, and renewal. A notable aspect of Jacobs’ work is its aim not only at religious revival or spiritual renewal but also social transformation. Further, a key aspect of the present volume is an emphasis on social transformation on an international scale. In fact, it compares and contrasts what Jacobs perceives as a move of God toward changing the nations that is a completion of the 16^th century Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther and others. This is a popular level book that uses a lot of scriptural quotes and references, testimonies and examples, and includes frequent prayers and challenges to action. Likely it will most benefit those interested in a contemporary Charismatic Renewal approach integrating spirituality and social transformation.

Popular Charismatic leaders such as C. Peter Wagner are increasingly declaring that the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20) is much more than evangelism. Wagner, in his Forward to Jacobs, The Reformation Manifesto, confesses that many, including him, “have for too long harbored a truncated view of the kingdom of God”, explaining further that they “began by over-identifying the church with the kingdom” and proceeded to limit their mission to saving souls without improving society. He specifically names the Great Commission, confessing again, that he “used to think making disciples meant getting people saved and multiplying churches” but that he has come to see a broader vision, in agreement with Jacobs, that includes “sustained social transformation”. This integrative application of Christian mission, the Great Commission, and social transformation is characteristic of this volume by Cindy Jacobs.

After an introduction that calls for a new reformation integrating revival, transformation, and reformation and explaining Jacobs’ own passion for this kind of ministry, the first chapter insists social reformation is founded upon prior personal reformation. Chapter two argues that social reformation today is in the tradition of previous generations of Christians who have shared a similar burden in their own context and time. The next several chapters set forth a vision of what nations ought to be and a course for accomplishing that objective, what Jacobs calls “teaching the nations” or “discipling the nations”. There is a strong emphasis on justice with accountability to God as ultimate judge. There is some discussion of the relationship between the Bible and contemporary government, including various approaches to political realities that affirm leaders and thinkers such as William Wilberforce and Abraham Kuyper as worthy examples but decry those such as Jean-Jacques Rouseau and Karl Marx. Chapters on economics and legislation attempt to set these complex and controversial fields in biblical perspective, in each case calling for radical reformation of present systems. The media, including journalism and entertainment, are not missed either. Finally, a stirring chapter on “Costly Grace,” ala Dietrich Bonhoeffer, challenges believers today to sacrificial action for achieving radical reformation.

Cindy Jacobs is a gifted communicator, and she’s passionate about her topic. She strenuously attempts to integrate Scripture, prayer, and Christian history and thought, as well as personal experience, and apply them to the contemporary social context. I find it refreshing that she interprets the Great Commission, the catch phrase of Christian mission for so many Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and Charismatics, with social mission and vision—and on an international scale at that. Her avid integration of spirituality and social activity is worth the price of the book. Her devotion is evident. It is a genuine treat to hear her heart and how God’s speaks and works in her life.

A special summary of the book Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola.

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for the body of Christ to come to its senses and spell out the biblical bands which define it, the Spirit of God impels us to arise in the same confidence as our ancestors who unwaveringly proclaimed “the present truth” for their day and time and declare the causes which compel this Manifesto.

We hold these truths to be biblically-evident, that all people have fallen short of the glory of God, that they are endowed by their Creator with a Savior, who is Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, our risen, rising, and reigning Lord. He is the heat in our heart, the marrow of our mind, and the art of our life.

Alas, much of the contemporary church has short-changed Jesus. It has replaced Christ with methods, strategies, concepts, principles, doctrines, programs, fads, gimmicks, etc., and has lost Him who is the Center and Circumference of our faith.

To demonstrate this, we submit the following to a candid world:

Jesus Christ is the subject, goal, and motivation of our faith and devotion.

Jesus Christ came to show us how to be a new kind of human, a Jesus kind of human. He came to do what Adam failed to do. He is the firstborn of a new humanity.

Jesus Christ is the “e” that turns the human into the humane – Emmanuel – God with us.

Jesus Christ is alive. He lives. He lives His resurrection life in and through us – members of His beloved bride – the body of Christ on earth.

Jesus is the Way. What is Christianity? It is Christ.

Jesus is the Life. What is the gospel? It is Christ.

Jesus is the Truth. What is truth? It is Christ. Truth is personified in a person. That person is Christ. Truth is not an ideology. Truth is not a philosophy. Truth is not an ethics. Truth is Christ. When the gospel truth becomes something other than Christ, the church suffers from JDD: Jesus Deficit Disorder.

The gospel is the “good news” that Beauty, Truth and Goodness are found in Love, the Love of God in Christ. The mystery of life has a name: LOVE. God is love, and there is no God outside of Jesus Christ. Hence there is no authentic love outside of Jesus. The Greatest Lover that this universe has ever known says to each and every one of us, “Follow me.”

Not “follow my preachings” or “follow my teachings” or “follow my practices” But “Follow me.” Not “follow me” to become more “like me.” That is too low an ambition for a Christian.

Not “follow me” to “mimic me.” But “follow me” to “manifest me.”

Not “follow me” to “imitate me.” But “follow me” to let my Spirit be implanted in you and to you.

Not “follow me” to become more “like me.” But “follow me” to “become part of me.”

“I am in you and you are in me, as the Father is in you and you are in Him. You are my sister and you are my brother.” This is not a metaphor. … Our greatest dream is to write with our lives a Jesus autobiography.

There seems to be a move by some Evangelicals to engage more effectively today’s culture and society. This has been building for some time. Neither do these appear to be isolated incidents. Several Evangelicals are moving in similar directions. “An Evangelical Manifesto: A Declaration of Evangelical Identity and Public Commitment” (see www.evangelicalmanifesto.com) is an especially significant example. First, several stalwart Evangelical leaders and thinkers, including Richard Mouw (Fuller Theological Seminary), Timothy George (Samford University), Dallas Willard (Southern California University), and others not only signed it but also helped shape it. Leith Anderson, President of the National Association of Evangelicals, was one of the charter signatories. Other notable signatories include Kay Arthur, Stuart Briscoe, Leighton Ford, Justo Gonzalez, Mark Noll, and Alvin Plantinga. Pentecostals will notice names like Jack Hayford, Cheryl Bridges Johns, Mel Robeck, Amos Yong, and others. (I just now signed it myself, and I encourage others to do so too.)

Second, among other things, “An Evangelical Manifesto” enumerates concerns for political and social action, ecological awareness, and ecumenical openness and even interreligious engagement – all without sacrificing or apologizing for continuing commitment to historic Evangelical principles regarding Christ, the Bible, or the Church and its mission. Its tone is quite positive, though perhaps just a bit defensive at times, but overall well balanced. Most of all, it is an intelligent and articulate presentation of Evangelical concerns for a wider arena of issues than previously typical. Additionally, it steadfastly resists and repudiates attempts to stereotype Evangelicals, maintaining a firm grip on a moderate posture between reactionary fundamentalism and reductionist liberalism, viewing both as undesirable, avoidable extremes. These Evangelicals see themselves, though perhaps not as “mainline,” yet as moderates, that is, as members of a movement more in the middle rather than to the far left or far right. Significantly, “An Evangelical Manifesto” is biblically and theologically sound while being culturally engaged. The steering committee and participants are to be commended for courageous work of exceptional quality. (NPR also has an interview about this with Mouw that is interesting. See http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90252763.)

Interestingly, there appears to be an expanding and, at times, energetic move among some Pentecostals toward cultural and social engagement that gels well with “An Evangelical Manifesto”. For example, Jerry Redman has written persuasively on “A Theology of Social Action” (http://www.faithnews.cc/articles.cfm?sid=8827) designed for Evangelicals and Pentecostals. Furthermore, Fleming Rutledge, in “When God Disturbs the Peace” (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/june/13.30.html), has connected Pentecostal and Charismatic understandings of the supernatural dimension and spiritual deliverance with social dynamics. Internationally known Charismatic speaker and writer Cindy Jacobs’s emphasis on working to achieve social transformation through intercession and prophetic ministry (The Reformation Manifesto: Your Part in God’s Plan to Change Nations Today [Bethany House, 2008]) comes to mind as well. From a sociological standpoint, the significance of the move toward Pentecostal social engagement has been studied by Donald Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori in Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007).

“An Evangelical Manifesto” is apparently an emphatic attempt to address contemporary concerns without abdicating traditional commitments. Likeminded Pentecostals can say “Amen!” Faith in Christ and life in the Spirit propels one beyond the borders of individual experience and interest into the wider arena of a needy if sometimes nasty world. Yet one does not forsake the former in favor of the other. Personal piety and social activity are, or ought to be, partners in Christ-centered, Spirit-filled living.

The Memphis Miracle was a meeting of North American Pentecostals in October of 1994 where the Racial Reconciliation Manifesto was drafted and signed and the Pentecostal Charismatic Churches of North America (PCCNA) Task Force was formed.

Challenged by the reality of our racial divisions, we have been drawn by the Holy Spirit to Memphis, Tennessee, October 1 7-19, 1994 in order to become true “Pentecostal Partners” and to develop together “A Reconciliation Strategy for 2lst Century Ministry” We desire to covenant together in the ongoing task of racial reconciliation by committing Ourselves to the following agenda.

I. I pledge in concert with my brothers and sisters of many hues to oppose racism prophetically in all its various manifestations within and without the Body of Christ and to be vigilant in the struggle with all my God-given might.

II. I am committed personally to treat those in the Fellowship who are not of my race or ethnicity, regardless of color, with love and respect as my sisters and brothers in Christ. I am further committed to work against all forms of personal and institutional racism, including those which are revealed within the very structures of our environment. 

III. With complete bold and courageous honesty, we mutually confess that racism is sin and as a blight in the Fellowship must be condemned for having hindered the maturation of spiritual development and mutual sharing among Pentecostal-Charismatic believers for decades.

IV. We openly confess our shortcomings and our participation in the sin of racism by our silence, denial and blindness. We admit the harm it has brought to generations born and unborn. We strongly contend that the past does not always completely determine the future. New horizons are emerging. God wants to do a new thing through His people.

V. We admit that there is no single solution to racism in the Fellowship. We pray and are open to tough love and radical repentance with deep sensitivity to the Holy Spirit as Liberator.

VI. Together we will work to affirm one another’s strengths and acknowledge our own weaknesses and inadequacies, recognizing that all of us only “see in a mirror dimly” what God desires to do in this world. Together, we affirm the wholeness of the Body of Christ as fully inclusive of Christians regardless of color. We, therefore, commit ourselves “to love one another with mutual affection, outdoing one another in showing honor (Romans 12: 10).”

VII. We commit ourselves not only to pray but also to work for genuine and visible manifestations of Christian unity.

VIII. We hereby commit ourselves not only to the task of making prophetic denouncement of racism in word and creed, but to live by acting in deed. We will fully support and encourage those among us who are attempting change.

On October 17-19, 1994 the leadership of the essentially all white Pentecostal Fellowship of the North America (PFNA) met in Memphis to confront its racial past and to meet with African American Pentecostals to establish an integrated fellowship. The result was a new organization known as the Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America (PCCNA). As part of that process those present from the PFNA confessed that they had practiced bigotry and exclusiveness in their preference for a congregation and administration of the same color. Five years have passed since this historic event, and it is time to look at the results of the “Memphis miracle” and to take further steps and longer strides to meet the challenge presented there.

I have lived in Honolulu for the past 13 years where white people like me are called “haoles”, and are in the minority—some thirty percent of us who live here have European ancestors. I am on the pastoral staff of the largest church in the State. Our congregation of 10,000 looks like it should for our area, seventy percent of the attendees and the staff are people of color and the rest are white.

Donald J. Evans washing the feet of Bishop Ithiel Clemmons during footwashing service at PCCNA at “The Miracle of Memphis” in October 1994.
Image: Flowers Pentecostal Heritage Center

The Memphis Manifesto challenges all believers to take a look at their own attitudes and pre-judgments regarding race. In light of this, the first point I want to make is that white is also a color, and that everyone in my church therefore is a person of color. I know too that everyone in your church is a person of color, hence the problem we face is not one of color but one of preference. Preference is sin.

My friend Helen W. was a missionary in Liberia for many many years. She left the field in the sixties and came back to Fort Washington, PA to work in the home office of her sending agency. Helen had malaria and could not stay any longer. She went to Liberia as a young single woman and while there met and fell in love with a local man. Her sending agency would not let them marry—he was black, she was white; it would not be good, they said.

I lived near Helen back then. I lived in a white neighborhood and was appalled to learn that Helen spent all her free time in the black areas of Philadelphia. I admonished her, she could get hurt down there. Helen said, “Oh no.” She explained that she had lived for twenty years as the only white woman in the bush of Liberia, a country where white people played a leading role in government. In those twenty years, Helen had learned that you were far safer in the black community than with the white ones who governed and could not be trusted. Helen found crowds of white people frightening. Back in the sixties, I found black people frightening.

As part of that process those present from the PFNA confessed that they had practiced bigotry and exclusiveness in their preference for a congregation and administration of the same color. Five years have passed since this historic event, and it is time to look at the results of the “Memphis miracle” and to take further steps and longer strides to meet the challenge presented there.

I have lived in Honolulu for the past 13 years where white people like me are called “haoles”, and are in the minority-some thirty percent of us who live here have European ancestors. I am on the pastoral staff of the largest church in the State. Our congregation of 10,000 looks like it should for our area, seventy percent of the attendees and the staff are people of color and the rest are white.

The Memphis Manifesto challenges all believers to take a look at their own attitudes and pre-judgments regarding race. In light of this, the first point I want to make is that white is also a color, and that everyone in my church therefore is a person of color. I know too that everyone in your church is a person of color, hence the problem we face is not one of color but one of preference. Preference is sin.

My friend Helen W. was a missionary in Liberia for many many years. She left the field in the sixties and came back to Fort Washington, PA to work in the home office of her sending agency. Helen had malaria and could not stay any longer. She went to Liberia as a young single woman and while there met and fell in love with a local man. Her sending agency would not let them marry-he was black, she was white; it would not be good, they said.

I lived near Helen back then. I lived in a white neighborhood and was appalled to learn that Helen spent all her free time in the black areas of Philadelphia. I admonished her, she could get hurt down there. Helen said, “Oh no.” She explained that she had lived for twenty years as the only white woman in the bush of Liberia, a country where white people played a leading role in government. In those twenty years, Helen had learned that you were far safer in the black community than with the white ones who governed and could not be trusted. Helen found crowds of white people frightening. Back in the sixties, I found black people frightening.

My second point is that fright is a feeling. It does not appear in Paul’s list of the deeds of the flesh or in his list of the fruits of the Spirit. Fright is one way we deal with the unknown, the unfamiliar and the unexpected. Scripture teaches us to fear God, not to fear each other but to love each other. We do the opposite. Doing the opposite to what Scripture urges is sin.

There are many voices today pressing all of us to be tolerant. We are assailed by this thought on a continuous basis. My wife and I were in New York City recently. We were there for fun and relaxation and we saw four Broadway shows. One night we stopped and listened to some sidewalk preachers who were interpreting the Bible to condemn the white and exalt the black. Their message was hardly tolerant, indeed they were filled with hate and not interested in any challenge or discussion of their rhetoric.