Amos Yong, presenting “Receiving a Pentecostal Witness: Toward an Ecumenism of the Spirit for the Third Millennium”

When: February 16-17, 2018

Where: The Avon Theater in Birmingham, Alabama

The Day of Pentecost signaled the emergence of a new people of God drawn from all tongues, tribes, and nations, yoked onto the history of Israel.

What are the challenges and possibilities for such a Pentecost catholicity for the 21st century world Christian movement?

In the fifth annual Nevin Lectures, Prof. Amos Yong will explore these questions in dialogue with Spirit-movements – pentecostal, charismatic, and other renewalist groups.

His lectures will sketch a fresh Pentecostal ecumenism that will be relevant to and engaging of our dawning third millennium global context.

More Information and Registration

More from Amos Yong on his author page: http://pneumareview.com/author/amosyong/

Don’t miss: Pentecostalism and Ecumenism: Past, Present, and Future, by Amos Yong

Stanford E. Linzey, Jr., The Holy Spirit in the Third Millennium: Handbook on the Holy Spirit: A Guide to the Spirit within. (Fairfax, Virginia: Xulon Press, 2003), 214 pages, ISBN 9781591604372.

Linzey aptly subtitled this text as a handbook; it is written for those who desire a straightforward “how to” book. He has divided it into two major parts. The first part is composed of nine chapters that expound on the practical aspect of the infilling and manifestation of the Holy Spirit. The second part is a dialogue of fifty-three commonly asked questions and Linzey’s answers to them.

With masterful storytelling, Linzey opens each segment with an illustrative narration of the principle that he is about to elaborate. These anecdotes, from his extensive experience in ministry, provide the backdrop for the theological position that he reinforces with Scriptural evidences. The text engages the reader through vivid imagery and powerful dialogue. His approach is down-to-earth and at times folksy.

Doctrinally, Linzey posits a finished-work position in contrast to a classical Pentecostal position of second (or third) blessing. There is no need to tarry; there is no prerequisite holiness, or standard of right living, that makes the believer ready to receive the Holy Spirit. The believer receives the Spirit by grace; the right living is a result of the enabling power of the Spirit.

Linzey makes the distinction between being baptized with the Spirit and the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit–specifically the gift of tongues. Linzey prefers the term “manifest” because all believers have the Spirit at conversion (p. 42). He teaches the reader and the people in his anecdotes, that they have already received the Spirit at conversion. The message of the book focuses on how to break out of the trap of wrong thinking that has bound the Christian and now inhibits the manifestation and blessings of the Spirit. The reader will notice that the text weaves several ideas throughout the book and revisits, almost verbatim, the same dialogue. This technique emphasizes Linzey’s primary message–every Spirit-filled believer can speak in tongues. He iterates, “this should be the normal spiritual experience…” (p. 71). Moreover, it is not that every believer must speak in tongues, but that they get to speak in tongues.

The question and answer section of the text explores the most common objections and exceptions to the phenomena of speaking in tongues. Linzey succinctly answers and belays the fears and objections of many believers, both the Pentecostal and the non-Pentecostal.

The aim of the book is not to be a systematic theology of the Holy Spirit, but it delineates pragmatically Linzey’s theological perspective. He defends his insistence on the ability of every Spirit-filled believer to speak in tongues through his presentation and his interpretation of Biblical proof texts.

Reviewed by John R. Miller

Preview The Holy Spirit in the Third Millennium: books.google.com/books?id=V4hQq5DgHGIC

Debra Wood, “Local Church Missions for the New Millennium” Ministries Today 17:2 (March/April 1999). Pages 64-68.

As the new millennium approaches, amidst all the sensationalism and millennial hype, there is at least one positive emphasis shining through all the nervous excitements: renewed zeal for missions and evangelism.

A number of articles about missions and evangelism, from many streams of Evangelicalism, have recently appeared among periodicals (see Other Significant Articles).

The article, “Local Church Missions for the New Millennium” in the March/April Issue of Ministries Today is an extortive challenge to get radical about missions in your local church. This challenge for developing a successful missions program is given by an up-close look at three missions-oriented churches. The testimonies of Pastor David Kim of Grace Korean Church, Pastor Ted Haggard of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, and Pastor Zacharias Fomum of Christian Missionary Fellowship in Yaound, Cameroon will encourage you to seek God for a fresh expression of the Great Commission in your congregation.

Each of these pastors shares how their burden for missions has grown within their churches, beginning with them and their congregations catching the same vision. David Kim speaks of how early on he laid the groundwork for Grace Korean Church to be missions-focused. According to Ministries Today, Pastor Kim told his three-family fledgling congregation that they should start supporting a missionary. Startled at first, they expressed their desire to have some “basics” first like a building and a piano. Kim said, “There are 400 churches in this area. If you do not want to do the will of Jesus, why do want to start a church with me?” Today they still do not have a building, but they have planted over 2,400 churches worldwide. They have planted a church for nearly every member of their 2,500-member church.

Ted Haggard has been stirred to see the spiritual powers in heavenly places be brought low. He has personally traveled to many nations to pray for the overthrow of these demonic forces. As a part of this personal emphasis, every week he reads a profile of a Joshua Project people, one of the people groups the A.D. 2000 & Beyond Movement has identified as needing a church planting effort. He and his church have also been an integral part in seeing the new World Prayer Center, based in Colorado Springs, become a reality. Already it is apparent that this intercessor’s center is going to be a hub for prayer efforts in the coming years. Pastor Ted Haggard believes that for a church to have an effective missions program the leadership needs to set an example of prayer and missions outreach—guilt-laden lectures are not the answer. He says, “The church’s vitality rests on the spiritual life of the leadership, particularly the senior pastor. He must ‘do it himself’ before he can lead the flock.”