Three years ago, I was cutting across the campus when a zealous African-American freshman named Lena Marlowe stopped me. We had never met, but she asked if she could pray for me. Lena is now a senior, and she was one of the members of the gospel choir singing when the Spirit fell on February 8.

People in our community had prayed for another outpouring since the last one here, fifty years ago. Asbury experienced significant outpourings of the Spirit in 1905, 1908, 1950, and 1970. Anna Gulick, a French professor at the university in 1970, assured me that during that outpouring one could feel the presence of God from blocks away. Robert Coleman, a professor at the seminary in 1970, told me just enough professors at the seminary were on board with shutting down classes that the seminary joined in.

Hughes Auditorium, February 8, 2023

The university normally has chapel at 10 am three days a week for 45 or 50 minutes. Chapel on Wednesday Feb. 8, 2023, started like chapel any other day. Zach Meerkreebs preached a very ordinary message. The gospel choir closed the service with a song. It was not unusual for a few students to stick around to sing an extra song or two, but this day the gospel choir was so caught up in worship that they didn’t stop. And soon others wouldn’t stop either.

Student Zeke Atha continued to worship in his seat, and then went to class. After class, however, he heard singing still continuing in the chapel. As he entered, he recognized that God had begun pouring out the Spirit and he joined others in spreading word. Eventually hundreds were worshiping God. Some students began to openly confess their sins, weeping and dedicating their lives to Christ.

That evening after small group in our house some friends texted my wife Médine. “You’ve been praying for this!” she called, interrupting my commentary writing. “Why aren’t you there?” It was her way of announcing that an outpouring had begun. We donned our shoes and headed over to Hughes Auditorium.

While I didn’t “feel” much that night, something shifted over the next few days—especially as I moved from trying to feel something to seeking to serve. As worship continued, the sense of God’s presence in a special way became palpable. Walking even beside the chapel or across the street at the seminary, I could now feel God’s presence in an extraordinary way. The university was making no effort to publicize what was happening, but word spread. Soon so many people were visiting from outside that I quit trying to get into the auditorium myself. But even as I served as a doorkeeper at one of the exits, I was caught up in the Spirit of worship. As I joined in the singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy,” I pondered how sad it was that some Christians today object if you sing a song too many times. Yet the glorious living creatures before God’s throne do not rest from crying, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come!” What a foretaste of heaven we enjoy in the beauty of God’s presence during worship.

Radical humility

The focus on the Lord himself and his holiness pervaded most of the worship I experienced and witnessed there. It was the sense of his holy presence that led so many—first students and then others—to consecrate their lives more deeply to God.

Although famous preachers and singers visited and worshiped as part of the congregation, they did not lead. The campus leaders maintained the ethos with which it began. Lena and other students continued to lead worship. Zach and others regularly involved at the university periodically preached, including messages about the gospel and holiness (which continued to be needed as new people continued to visit). When they did invite anyone new to help in leading worship, they first succinctly explained the worship “culture” to them: radical humility and racial unity.

No names, no introductions; the focus belonged on King Jesus alone. The outpouring surrounded God’s own manifest presence, and the leaders were careful not to quench his gracious Spirit. Recognizing who God is puts everything else, including ourselves, in perspective: in the presence of a holy God, no flesh can boast. Zach insisted, “Jesus is the only celebrity here” (See further: https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2023/february/asbury-revival-outpouring-protect-work-admin-volunteers.html).

Worship continued seamlessly as worship teams rotated day and night. The worship was low-tech and without human fanfare, promoting neither those on the platform nor Asbury itself. For journalistic and historical purposes, I would share more names of those who displayed sacrificial devotion, but they insist that the honor should go only to Jesus.

I was not one of those secret-identity professors she mentioned, but my seminary colleagues Tom McCall (https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/february-web-only/asbury-revival-1970-2023-methodist-christian-holy-spirit.html) and Jessica LaGrone certainly were among those at the front line, as were even more professors from the university. Médine was often up front praying for people one on one, but I stayed more in the intercessor room, engaging the many visitors outside, or (when the chapel began closing at night) praying with students and visitors in the student union.

Eventually I shifted more of my attention to trying to field interviews and calls. As a seminary professor, I was not at the heart of it the way many others were, but those at its heart were tied up on the front line, and I finally realized that I could be of greater service trying to write and speak and counter misinformation. I nevertheless shared a concern that one of the campuses’ ministers expressed to me: pouring out continually to serve during this time, she did not want to miss out on what the Lord had for her as well as for others. Me neither; as the old hymn pleaded, “While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by!”

Radical unity

While the university is in the Wesleyan tradition, it welcomed all traditions hospitably, occasioning a few complaints from some outside critics (Those don’t like charismatics, for example, have sometimes complained that charismatics attended. But everybody else attended too).

The spirit of unity transcended denomination. One participant who has worshiped in several denominations over her life shared her appreciation for how believers from all denominations were worshiping in one accord. There was nothing there to divide us because it was all about Jesus, the one we adore. Michael McClymond, the St. Louis University revival historian who came to report on the outpouring for Christianity Today, shared that what he experienced in the auditorium was what Acts 1:14 calls homothumadon—a unity of heart with others worshiping in the same place. Believers who had never met before and would never meet again in this life experienced a common heart.

This was often evident outside the auditorium as well, as many of those crowded on the lawn outside the auditorium worshiped and prayed together. Some Korean friends from another evangelical seminary came to visit and we worshiped together on the lawn before moving to one of the overflow destinations. I had more fortuitous, Spirit-led encounters, including with visitors from various nations, than there is space or need to describe.

A Back Story

In 2010, Asbury Seminary interviewed me for a position. Being a night person, I don’t remember what I said at the morning interview and have no idea why they hired me. But afterward I stopped at the university’s Hughes Auditorium, already vaguely familiar with the 1970 Asbury Revival. As I peered in, I was struck by the words “Holiness Unto the Lord” emblazoned above the altar, and I felt the wind of the Spirit sweep through me. I felt there were embers still there, ready to be fanned into flame when God would move in such a way again.

Since then, my wife and I have prayed for revival, all the more so once our son and daughter were students there. But as mentioned earlier, we were far from the only ones. Indeed, Anna Gulick noted that before the 1970 outpouring, various students around the campus had been praying together.

What we call revival is a collective experience of God’s presence that transforms us (cf. Acts 2:4; 4:31; 8:15-17; 10:44; 13:52; and 19:6). In Matthew 7:11, Jesus promises that the Father will give us the good gifts we request, but the parallel passage in Luke 11:13 focuses on the best gift of all: God’s own presence by the Holy Spirit. That insight struck me deeply. One night when I was teaching in Indonesia, I dreamed that the most important insight from the decade of work on my four-volume Acts commentary was how often the outpouring of the Spirit follows prayer.

Scripture offers many prayers for empowerment by or revelation from the Holy Spirit (Ps 143:10; Rom 15:13; Eph 1:17; 3:16), but in Luke’s second volume he develops at greater length this theme of the Spirit coming after prayer (cf. also Luke 3:21-22). After believers spend some days praying together (Acts 1:14), Jesus pours out the Spirit (2:4, 17-18, 33); they pray again with the same effect in 4:31 and 8:15. Although God can pour out the Spirit whenever he wills, often (and in Acts, especially when the outpouring involves those who are already believers) he first moves his people to pray for this. Concerts of prayer also preceded many outpourings in the history of the U.S.

A few years ago, many students at the seminary, especially international students, were meeting together in small groups for prayer. One of the most ardent advocates of revival on campus was Malaysian visiting scholar Hong Leow. He had one time not given much stock to dreams or spiritual experiences, but after a dramatic dream in which he saw God pouring out revival on the campus, Hong insisted that revival was coming and we should be ready.

One big encouragement of this outpouring was that God does hear our prayers. For the first week or two I was walking around disoriented. Something I was used to praying for, I was now seeing, and at a level beyond what I had imagined. I had prayed for an outpouring of the Spirit in our community; I hadn’t expected it to connect so closely and quickly to what he was also doing elsewhere.

But while years of prayer preceded this experience at Asbury, the timing and manner took us all by surprise. Actually, I will confess a secret here (so don’t tell anybody!): in my arrogance, I had sometimes hoped that maybe revival would happen when I preached in chapel or taught my New Testament class at the seminary. But God in his gracious wisdom did it in a way that nobody else could even try to take credit for. The outpouring was God’s action, his initiative. His Spirit fell as students were caught up in worship.

Divine Coordination

Within the first week of the outpouring we heard that the Spirit was now also stirring worship on Christian campuses such as Lee University and Samford University. We also heard that on a nearby secular campus students stirred by the Spirit were sharing their faith boldly and baptizing new believers in public fountains.

Of course, this can happen here or there at any time, but it seemed like it was happening in a special way right now. In fact, it looked coordinated—by the only One who could have coordinated it.

Long before this outpouring began at Asbury’s campus, representatives from a range of campus ministries united to reignite the historic Collegiate Day of Prayer in 2023. Because Asbury University already had a history of campus revivals, the last being in 1970, they settled on Asbury as their host campus for the 2023 event, scheduled for February 23. At that time, campuses and prayer partners around the country would band together through a simulcast to pray that God would stir this new generation of students with his heart. Francis Chan narrated the announcement days before the outpouring began.

Gabe, a freshmen on the university’s planning committee for the event, says that he started praying that God would get the campus ready. God surprised Gabe, along with everybody else, with an answer that began a couple weeks before the human schedule. Most of the students who just kept worshiping on February 8 probably had no thought about the Feb. 23 event. (There are lots of events on campuses, and though I had heard about the planned event from a friend months earlier, I didn’t remember when it would be.)

Nobody humanly planned for more than fifteen days of mostly nonstop prayer before the prayer meeting, and nobody humanly could have recruited most of the participants to engage in such intense prayer. But the inaugural February 23 event now became the closing event of the outpouring’s public phase. Students from other campuses joined those from Asbury, sharing testimonies, reading Scripture, and banding together in worship. Meanwhile, the closing service was simulcast far beyond the walls of Hughes Auditorium (I had planned to watch the simulcast, but got to attend this one in person. A friend snuck me a seat. That’s a secret, though, so don’t tell anybody I was there).

This was not, as originally planned, a prayer for revival to start. It was gratitude for what God had already begun, and a commissioning service for those beyond Asbury to continue the call elsewhere to recognize God’s holy presence. What happened at Asbury was not meant to be simply perpetuated on Asbury’s campus for “revival’s” sake. Nor was it meant to be kept at Asbury as if it was the location that made the difference. The simulcast spread this final service around the country—though the outpouring had already been spreading to other campuses long before this.

God had been getting things ready. Zach Meerkreebs, the humble and low-key preacher from February 8, felt he bombed his sermon that day. But he told me that for a year before he had been feeling that revival was coming.

Nor was Hong the only person at the seminary to feel confidence that God was sending revival. A few years ago, some new students at the seminary insisted that God told them that revival was coming, and they wanted to be here when it happened. One even said God showed him this in a vision. Donna Covington, the seminary’s vice president of formation at the time, told Médine and me about a prophecy that revival would come in Kentucky; she felt that it would begin at the university campus first.

Not unlike Hong, I had dreams in which revival fell. In one, it came during worship, and I just came in the back and joyfully sang in tongues (and somersaulted through the air, which I can do with great agility—in dreams). In another, revival started in Hughes Auditorium, and we were going out into the community to welcome people. As I knocked on one door, an older African-American man asked if he would be welcome. “That,” I answered in the dream, “will be how we know if it’s a true revival.” But happily God fixed that from the beginning, since many of the members of the gospel choir where the outpouring started are Black. Racial unity was one of the outpouring’s central foundations.

Divine coordination also happened on an individual level. To give one example, although Riely Mikrut had led worship at her old church for years, she was not doing it at her new church. On February 5, she journaled, “Lord, I don’t want to be a ‘good’ worship leader; I want to be an anointed one.” Without God’s anointing, she resolved, she didn’t ever need to get on a stage again. On February 10 she was with her former worship colleagues at her old church and insisted, “The Lord would have to force a microphone in my hand right now for me to get up and lead again.”

The next evening she and some friends traveled to Wilmore to experience what was happening at Asbury. Médine and I had just slipped out of the balcony before she arrived. The Lord spoke to her heart that he had made her for leading worship. The next day, as she was kneeling at the altar, one of the worship leaders approached her and declared, “You’re a worship leader, aren’t you?” How could she have known that? Riely wondered. Then the leader shoved a microphone in Riely’s hand. Riely had led hundreds of hours of worship over the previous decade, but she had never felt the fear of the Lord and his presence like she did for the next two hours. God had reconfirmed his calling in her life.

Some piercing observations for a young generation

Madison Pierce, a seminarian from the same generation as the university students, has allowed me to share here some of his experience and insight.

I come from a spiritual background that has left me weary of hype in a culture of spectacle. I’ve grown tired of disingenuous representations of divine work but it is clear God is moving in a surprising and transformative way.

The movements of the spirit in western evangelicalism always exist in the middle of a cultural moment. A generous interpretation of these movements reveals unique traits for each one. For example, fervor for the great commission at the Mt. Hermon Conference, overwhelming joy in Toronto Outpouring, zeal for the lost in Brownsville Revival, acts of healing at the Kansas City awakening, and manifestation of tongues at the Azusa Street revival. In each move of the Spirit, God clearly manifests in a specific way for that generation. I find it interesting that God would mark this [present] outpouring with:

• A tangible sense of peace for a generation with unprecedented anxiety.
• A restorative sense of belonging for a generation amidst an epidemic of loneliness.
• An authentic hope for a generation marked by depression.
• A leadership emphasizing protective humility in relationship with power for a generation deeply hurt by the abuse of religious power.
• A focus on participatory adoration for an age of digital distraction.

It feels as if God is personally meeting young adults in ways meaningful to them. My generation was formed differently than previous generations and so the traits of this revival are different than revivals of old. The new outpouring is not the signs and wonders nor zealous intercession nor spontaneous tongues nor charismatic physicality nor the visceral travail. It is marked by a tangible feeling of holistic peace, a restorative sense of belonging, a non-anxious presence through felt safety, repentance driven by experienced kindness, humble stewardship of power, and holiness through treasuring adoration.

I too witnessed brokenness when I prayed with people, for example, a young man broken by being abused as a child, but now finally able to feel God’s pure love for him. Others struggled with fear or need for direction.

You don’t need to be at Asbury

The university and community labored to receive hospitably the tens of thousands of visitors who came. But the university also wanted everyone to be clear that this wasn’t about Asbury. It was about Jesus. You don’t need to come to Asbury to experience humble adoration of the Lord.

The new movie, Jesus Revolution, brought back old memories of my early Christian experiences at High Mill Christian Center in northern Ohio, a movement that in the 1970s brought some of the fruit of the Jesus movement to our community. The Spirit moved in remarkable ways, with the pastor, Chuck Schumacher, regularly calling out issues by the Spirit and people being converted in virtually every meeting.

Likewise, there was a brother named Ernie at the Assemblies of God Seminary when I was there, who was just so full of the Spirit that it didn’t take much extra for him to spill over. One of us would say something about the Lord; the other would say, “Thank you, Lord!” and within a few moments we would both be worshiping in tongues and prophesying, even there in the seminary corridor (Yes, the Spirit can be expressed that way; note tongues in Acts 2:4; 10:46; 19:6; prophesying in e.g., 2:17-18; 19:6; Num 11:25-29; 1 Sam 10:5, 10; 19:20-25).

When I was teaching at a predominantly African-American seminary attached to Livingstone College, our undergraduate campus ministry joined up with New Generation, an African-American campus ministry. One year, the moment we entered NGM’s conference, the Spirit was so strong I heard God’s voice immediately. When we returned from the NGM conference, we planned to pray together for half an hour each evening at 5 pm. Instead, the praying and prophesying went on for a couple hours each time; it was just too hard to stop. On Sunday, at the end of that prayer-filled week, the campus minister got up to preach in the campus church. She was also my seminary student, and I was feeling worthless as a professor as I listened to what I thought was a horrible sermon. Then she gave the altar call and one-third of the congregation came forward to give their lives to Christ. I may have underestimated the sermon, but too often we all underestimate prayer.

God is available and even eager to touch us by his Spirit everywhere. Again Luke 11:13: “So if you, even though you’re evil, know how to give your children good gifts, how much more will your Father from heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

But is it “revival”?

One cannot readily identify long-term effects when we are still the short term. What we can say for sure is that the Holy Spirit met us. I am grateful to the leaders for their openness to the Holy Spirit. This time around it was accomplished without canceling classes (except when individual teachers chose to do so). That is fine; God is at work in the ordinary too. When you combine the ordinary and the extraordinary, though, you are doing double duty. Many of us were exhausted after the most labor-intensive period of hospitality and ministry, so the opportunity to rest felt timely.

Sometimes people have preconceptions of what revivals should look like. Some say they have to include healings, or conversions, people falling down and shaking, or massive cultural transformation. But different revivals in history have taken different forms, and part of the problem is that we have lumped a range of different expressions of God’s work under the label “revival.” During the First and Second Great Awakenings in the U.S., many people did fall to the ground, shake, and do other things that Christian descendants of those converted in those awakenings criticize when they happen today. But as Jonathan Edwards pointed out, it’s not such “manifestations” that prove or disprove revival. It is changed lives.

“Revivals” come in different shapes and sizes. The First Great Awakening spanned decades in the eighteenth century, was most prominently Calvinist (on this side of the Atlantic) and especially impacted churchgoers. The Second Great Awakening lasted for half a century (about 1790 to 1840); it was more Wesleyan-Arminian, evangelized the unevangelized, and mobilized Christians against slavery. It included revivals such as the Cane Ridge Revival in Kentucky for nearly a week in 1801, a revival that involved Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists. God has sent revivals among Calvinists (such as the Hebrides and West Timor Revivals) and Wesleyans (such as the Azusa Street Revival). Some events called revivals last for years; some (such as most college revivals, including past Asbury revivals) only for a week or weeks.

The Bible doesn’t use “revival” the way we’ve used it historically, so nobody can, on biblical grounds, claim that something must or must not be defined as a revival. But outpourings of the Spirit are certainly biblical (Acts 2:33; 10:45). As in historic revivals, so in the Bible not everybody showed up for the right reasons (cf. 5:1-2; 8:18-19), but that did not stop God from changing the lives of many others in ways that ultimately shifted their direction and often the course of history. This was often called an “Asbury revival” because that’s the nomenclature used for the earlier outpourings at Asbury, but as I asked in an earlier article (https://julieroys.com/opinion-what-revival-happening-asbury/): “Who cares what we call it?” Let’s not miss out on what God is doing in many people’s lives.

But the key purpose of outpourings of the Spirit in Acts was to empower God’s people for mission (Acts 1:8), and that has characterized all the Asbury outpourings so far. In this one, many, touched by God’s holiness, consecrated their lives to his service (Meanwhile, those who want to make Acts 2 the only template are often the same people who complain about speaking in tongues [2:4] or onlookers thinking disciples are drunk [2:13]. And imagine the uproar if we get so radical as share many of our possessions, 2:44-45!).

Weeping characterized many past revivals, but some worried in the 1990s when cathartic laughter occurred—even though Acts does not describe weeping during outpourings yet once describes being “filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” God does not always do things the same way and does not fit our boxes. Yet early in the outpouring at Asbury many were weeping in repentance for sin, before forgiveness turned their sorrow into joy.

In the final analysis, people met Jesus deeply here. We thank God for the obedience of Lena and the gospel choir, who, overwhelmed by the Spirit, just kept worshiping. By the time they were done, tens of thousands of other people had joined in worshiping the same Lord.

PR

Further Reading

Craig S. Keener, “The outpouring at Asbury University: Responding to a critic” CraigKeener.com (February 19, 2023)

Asbury Outpouring Documentary

Lora Timenia, “Reflections on the 2023 Asbury Revival and its Implications for Pentecostal Christians“

Pastors, is it hard to talk about money with your church? In this article, Pastor Dan Reiland looks into the reasons behind why people give, wanting to fuel fellow church leaders to speak about finances well and with the right spiritual emphasis..

I find it interesting that many good pastoral leaders are hesitant or even timid in the area of challenging their people to give. In this issue of The Pastor’s Coach I hope to give some insight into the reasons people give and hopefully encourage you in this challenging area of leadership.

For most pastors, Monday morning carries with it anticipation for two critical numbers. One is how many people responded to the Holy Spirit’s promptings (as guided by the morning sermon.) And a distant second, but nonetheless second, is the offering. Let’s get honest for a moment, no matter how clear the priority of changed lives according to God’s purpose and power, money still matters when it comes to ministry. If you don’t believe that then you have never in the history of your church fallen below budget for several months at a time. (And if that is true, we would all love to hear how you do that!)

When I was a young leader I often said I wish money wasn’t an issue. I wish that some rich person would write one big check a year so we wouldn’t have to deal with this. My rationale? It is difficult enough to focus on life transformation without financial issues getting in the way. When you add the “money factor” to the equation it seems to get intensely complicated. That kind of thinking showed both my naivety about the reality that “ministry cost money” and the deeper theological issues about God wanting us to wrestle with the topic of money. Why? Money always leads us to the real issues of the heart. There are some 2,000 scriptures on money, and the following three give us a taste of the truth of this point.

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. (Matthew 6:24)

1 And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. 5 And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will. (2 Corinthians 8:1-5) The “Money Factor” is really more about the “God Factor.” It reveals levels of spiritual maturity, obedience, commitment, trust, and an overall Kingdom mindset that causes people to invest in the eternal.

Pastor, my purpose is to encourage you and challenge you to dive into the issue of money in your church. Why people give is a good place to start.

Let’s begin with the wrong reasons people give.

Steve Bremner is a missionary to Peru. He co-hosts and produces the “Fire on Your Head” podcast and contributes to Fire Press, which is an online Christian magazine he founded in 2008. This book addresses questions on the baptism and in-filling of the Holy Spirit, which are commonly asked among Evangelical, Charismatic, and Pentecostal Christians. This book is written in a non-academic format that targets most adult readers who want to know more about the theological topic of being empowered by the Holy Spirit. The book is divided into three sections: Bremner’s personal story, common misconceptions, and intimacy with God. He includes one appendix on how to receive the baptism on the Holy Spirit and another appendix on how to lead someone else in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The book is not a theological thesis; it is a practical response to questions, written in the tone of a gentle pastoral mentor.

Bremner states his purpose as twofold. He wants, “to help remove the stigma surrounding the gift of tongues… to help clarify the unfortunate misconceptions that prevent people from walking in the fullness of the dimensions this gift unlocks” (25). Later, he clarifies, “I wanted to make the focus of this book on only speaking in tongues and not all of the gifts of the Spirit, or even specifically Spirit baptism” (68). In thus stating, he addresses the multitude of books and articles that explore a wide variety of theological perspectives, but, more importantly, his pastoral heart is drawn to helping people experience a fuller dimension of the Holy Spirit, in order that they will be empowered to effectively minister to others.

Nine Lies builds its argument through four primary means.

Steve Bremner

First, the opening argument of the book surrounds the premise that “The baptism in the Holy Spirit is not synonymous for receiving the Holy Spirit upon salvation. Jesus told the disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they received power, and he did not tell them to wait until they ‘got saved,’ ‘reborn,’ ‘regenerated,’ or any other synonym we may use to describe the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives upon salvation” (75-76). Bremner argues for the filling of the Holy Spirit as an experience following salvation. He further builds his position by emphasizing the empowerment for ministry that is evident in the lives of the believers. Obviously, no one comes to knowledge of God without the Holy Spirit being at work in his or her heart. We were all pagans when we first experience the Holy Spirit at work, drawing us towards Christ. “Spirit baptism is an additional work of the already indwelling Holy Spirit. The empowerment that comes with the baptism in the Spirit is to strengthen their witness with other gifts and signs and wonders. As a result, the manifestation of tongues usually tends to accompany it” (83 – 83).

Second, Bremner leads the reader through common arguments against and for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, expanding on cessationist and continuist positions. He describes the cessationist argument against the gifts and particularly speaking in tongues as unneeded because, “the early church was immature and childish (Ephesians 4:11-13), and the gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit were given to help mature the church in its infancy” (87 – 88). And he illustrated this with the example of adults not needing the persistent mothering in the same way that the infant needs it. Later, Bremner will use the illustration of an automobile. “Speaking in tongues in this sense is a mere indication that the engine is now turned on to a new level than when the car was parked. Once that contact is made from the key into the car’s ignition and turned correctly, something is ignited. It’s the same when the Holy Spirit comes on someone for the first time in this post-conversion way” (108).

In Richard Bustraan’s work, The Jesus People Movement, the author aims to describe and trace the Jesus People Movement within Pentecostal historiography. Although this work is a comprehensive research thesis, non-academic readers will be able to appreciate and enjoy Bustraan’s work. It’s content covers and tracks the movement from it’s inception in 1967 to the end of the 1970’s all the while exploring the historical, sociological, and theological nature of the Jesus People Movement and its eventual acceptance as another peripheral sensation among American Pentecostalism. The research is divided into six different chapters covering the emergence of Hippies, a historical overview of the Jesus People movement, a historical overview of the Pentecostal movement, the sociological identity of the movement, the theological identity of the movement and the author’s final conclusions. However, rather than summarize each of the chapters, I will look at the key strengths and weaknesses of the work as a whole.

From the beginning of the work, Bustraan successfully sets the backdrop for the Jesus People Movement by exploring the various factors and influences that gave rise to the hippies. After effectively showing how the 1960’s and the hippies were influential in setting the stage for the Jesus People movement, the author turns his attention to explore the historical, sociological, and theological nature of the Jesus People Movement, while consistently noting the lasting contributions made to Evangelicalism. Most notably, these contributions include the eventual formation of the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) industry, emerging primarily because of “Jesus Music” (34), and the establishment of church networks and movements including Hope Chapel, Calvary Chapel and the Association Vineyard of Churches (35).

Perhaps the best part of the work in my estimation is the concentration on the continuities and discontinuities between Jesus People theology and classical Pentecostal theology due to this topic’s relevance today within modern Pentecostal scholarship. The author notes that the major discontinuity comes from the issue of “subsequence and consequence” relating to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and sign gifts (159). The author notes that although classical Pentecostal denominations struggled early on in the twentieth century regarding the timing and expectations of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Jesus People Movement did not. There was no rigidness and singular demands regarding Spirit Baptism within the whole of the movement. Therefore Bustraan concludes that it allowed for theological variances regarding timing and expectations within the various segments of the movement (160). Since the issue of “subsequence and consequence” once solved within classical Pentecostal denominations has begun to resurface, I could not help but wonder if the Jesus People theology impacted this development.

Timothy B. Walsh, Professor of Pentecostal and Evangelical History at Regents Theological College of West Malvern, UK, contributes another volume to the Studies in Evangelical History and Thought series. It is a thorough research thesis, written for an academic audience, which is much easier to follow when the chapter conclusions are read first. Equally, Walsh expects that his readers have an ability to catch subtle nuances of academic Latin and German terms and phrases. As the subtitle implies, it covers two decades of Pentecostal history, focusing most of its research on Alexander Boddy and his ministry in Sunderland, Smith Wigglesworth and his ministry in Bradford, William Oliver Hutchinson and his ministry in Bournemouth, and Pastor Inchcomb and his ministry in Croydon. The research is divided into three primary sections: the emergence of the Pentecostal ideals, their development, and their structures. It concludes with summation, “this study has been an endeavour to distinguish between fact and fiction, certainly between hagiographical wirings or episodic chronicles penned for personal edification and the bolstering of collective morale, and such primary source materials as can form the basis of recognizable historical investigation” (239).

In the first section, Walsh echoes the theme of Grant Wacker, who notices that Pentecostals tended to have an “extravagant assessment of their own importance” (25). Herein Walsh investigates the hagiographic habit and reports of ministry successes, written by those who were too close to the subjects to be reasonably objective in their telling of ministry events and successes. After providing multiple examples and evidences, Walsh concludes that the successes and spread of the Pentecostal message was largely responsible through the “face-to-face recruitment along lines of pre-existing social relationship” (84) rather than only on mystical, revivalistic, or special spiritual basis—alone. In several instances, he refers to the “sacred meteor” or “suddenly from heaven” phrases, or similar terms used in early Pentecostal historical narratives, in a nearly pejorative sense, providing a critique of those who have overemphasized supernatural nature of the Pentecostal movement.

The second section focuses on the ideological developments and the acknowledgement that the Pentecostal movement became a “third force in Christendom” (86). After working through examples and evidences from the lives of leaders like Smith Wigglesworth and the Jefferys brothers, Walsh concludes, “Initiation is, by definition, of primary significance… as a fundamental building block” for the Pentecostal movement (174). The key elements of initiation include a baptism in the Spirit experience, dynamic worship, pre-millennial eschatology, and dynamic and gifted leadership.

Blaine Allen, When People Throw Stones: A Leader’s Guide to Fielding Personal Criticism (Kregel, 2005), 176 pages, ISBN 978-0825420146.

Blaine Allen’s book, When People Throw Stones, is important and necessary. The ugly truth is that Christian service has downsides. All too often, the chief downside is criticism.

The book is organized in ten chapters; “When You Can’t Take Any More,” “When You’ve Done Your Best,” “When God Doesn’t Defend,” “When Your Critic Speaks The Truth,” “When To Blow It Off,” “When To Take A Stand,” “When Survival Techniques Make It Easier,” “When Primed To Fire,” “When An Explosion Seems Inevitable,” and “When You Don’t Want To Forgive.”Each chapter speaks to a different aspect of criticism against Christian servants.

Pastor Blaine is careful to point out that not all critical comments are negative. Sometimes, a vital truth is painful to hear. You should assume the credence and credibility of some criticizers. Chapter 4, When Your Critic Speaks The Truth, speaks to this very circumstance.

Pastor Blaine carefully explains that truthfulness, empathy, and accuracy are some of the traits of good critics. With Scripture backing each point, the author draws a detailed picture of the men and women who should have your ear. Even when they do a poor job of delivering the message, even if they popped the bubble of your self-esteem, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful”(Proverbs 27:6 KJV).

Even anointed, faithful servants of the Most High can be in the wrong. Or need a nudge in a better direction. “If there’s life after a word-walloping, you must embrace valid criticism.” Prayerfully, that will include embracing the Gospel brother or sister who brought the message.

The author directs God’s servants to face the Judge. Not a mere earthly court, but the Throne of heaven. If God approves of your service, why pay attention to any one else? In this way, Blaine teaches God’s servants to have confidence in themselves and in the God who empowers them. If a miracle working Apostle received criticism, you can expect to receive some yourself.

Maria Cimperman, When God’s People Have HIV/AIDS: An Approach to Ethics (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2005), 159 pages, ISBN 9781570756238.

How should Christians affected by HIV/AIDS be understood? Maria Cimperman, an Ursuline sister, challenges the church to view those affected or threatened by the pandemic as God’s children in need of help—just as Christ would see them. She advises the Christian community to embrace them, love them, and work tirelessly to eliminate the source of their suffering.

The book, the content of which was Cimperman’s doctorial dissertation, presents touchable realities on HIV/AIDS within the human community. It offers more of practical experiences and encounters on the topic rather than theoretical formulation. In her introduction, she explains the experiences that pushed her to research on HIV/AIDS as a theologian. She says it was born out of the necessity to address the issue after she interacted with people affected by the pandemic.

A discussion of the meaning of human existence as understood in the context of Christian revelation is offered. Cimperman develops a theological anthropology that engages human identity on the basis of relationship with God, others, and self. For her, suffering is so central that any decision on HIV/AIDS must be based on the reality of experience. Cimperman sees suffering as something that creates in us Christ’s love, hope and liberty. Christ’s love calls us to a response that involves sacrifice.

We are to be active agents of hope in the world of HIV/AIDS through relationships. She argues that for our response to be effective virtues must play a leading role. Hope, fidelity, justice, and prudence are discussed as part of the virtues that the Christian community cannot leave behind while responding to HIV/AIDS. Spirituality and morality must be integrated in Christian discipleship in order to offer an adequate response to the pandemic.

I find the presentation of real cases of people responding to HIV/AIDS in the last chapter quite helpful. Noerine Keleba’s story moves me a great deal. The suffering she encountered due to the loss of her husband through HIV/AIDS stirred her to begin The AIDS Support Organization (TASO). Her words arouse a needed sense of concern that is worth noting. She says they met to “cry and pray together,” and focused on the practical issues that affected their lives.

Sean S. O’Neal, Bridges To People: Communicating Jesus to People and Growing Missional Churches in a Multi-Ethnic World (Xulon Press, 2007), 288 pages, ISBN 9781602662681.

My longtime friend, mentor and colleague, Sean O’Neal, who serves as the Director of Evangelism and Youth Ministries for the Church of God California/Nevada State Executive Office, has published his dissertation work under the title Bridges to People. The book is one of a few, if not the only published academic research on urban missions from a Pentecostal perspective.

This text, however, is much more than just a dissertation project. It is a practical application emerging from over two decades of urban missions work across America, which is intended to be used as a training tool for pastors and congregations who are involved in cross-cultural urban ministry.

Sean’s ministry begins in Indiana and moves to Chicago metro where the church he pastors transforms into a multicultural center ministering to Bulgarians, Romanians, Hungarians and Mexicans and building bridges between ethnic groups within the Kingdom of God. The practical experience, which becomes the basis and the heart of the publication redefines the philosophy of modern day urban ministry in the 21st century. The claim that the book defends over and over is simple: the effectiveness of urban ministry depends on its origin in the praxis of ministry. And this is a truly Pentecostal claim, as it places the practical experience of faith within the multicultural context of ministry before all theological and philosophical presuppositions.

I know that by now, most of you who are involved in any type of urban ministry are already asking the question: “Will this work for me?” It worked for Sean and the ministers whom he trained to recognize the need and provide the needed ministry. The principles which he defines and describes come directly from his experience within the multicultural ethnic context of Chicago (1990-1998), New Jersey and New York (1998-2002), Urbana (2002-2004) and California, where he currently teaches and ministers.

Bridges to People is intended to be used exactly the way it was developed: in a practical self-growing, self-testing and self-accountable ministry. It is a cross-cultural training manual for ministries and churches through redefining the ethnic reality of your community. Its objective to build a multi-facet cross cultural ministry makes it applicable not only for American based organizations, but for international ones as well. And last, but not least: it is written from a Pentecostal perspective, giving a central place of the work of the Holy Spirit building bridges between people across cultures and redefining doing missions in, from, by and with the Spirit of God.

Reviewed by Dony K. Donev

R. Loren Sandford is pastor of New Song Fellowship in Denver, Colorado; he is also the son of John Loren Sandford, co-founder of the Elijah House. Pastor Sandford is himself prophetic and grew up in a prophetic home. His experience of, and exposure to, prophetic ministry qualifies him to write about this subject.

Understanding Prophetic People is divided into three sections. Section one is called “Foundations.” Topics covered in this section are: the profile of the prophetic person, an overview of prophetic ministry, a discussion of what prophetic ministry is not, a description of the prophetic task, the prophet as intercessor, and the office of a prophet.

Of particular interest in this section is Sandford’s profile of the prophetic person. Sandford begins the first chapter by saying: “Prophetic people are generally weird.” In the remainder of the chapter he goes on to describe some of the characteristics of the prophetic person including rarely being happy, being burden bearers, having the gift of weakness, having eccentric personalities, being self-protective, people who are lonely and suffer from rejection, being over serious about life and having unusual experiences. An awareness of these things can help churches, and especially pastors, relate to, and help incorporate prophetic people into the church.

The remaining chapters in section one are devoted to various aspects of prophetic ministry. Significant points that Sandford makes in this section are that prophetic words need to be tested (he is very strong on this), that modern day prophets do not have the right to command and that prophetic words should not be general, but be specific and have substance.

Section two is titled “Hearing God.” In this section Sandford discusses meditation, visions and dreams and the voice of God.

Sandford says that meditation (on the Lord and on His Word) is a must for a prophetic person. Before one can speak the Word of the Lord to people they must first hear it. Sandford says if a prophetic person does not meditate they increase their risk of hearing from sources other than God.

Also in this section Sandford addresses the subject of dreams. He warns us that all dreams are not God communicating with us, some are natural dreams. He also says that dream interpretation is not a science or learned skill, but rather a prophetic gift (which can be developed).

Section three is “Training and Placement.” In this last section Sandford addresses the issues of the need for wilderness experiences and the dark night of the soul and the placement of the prophetic gift within the church.

I thought that this last section of the book was the most powerful. In it Sandford describes some of the experiences that a prophetic person can expect to go through. These experiences purify and prepare them to be the person that God wants them to be. While he specifically applies the experiences of the wilderness and the dark night of the soul to the prophetic, I think that what he writes has relevance for other areas of ministry as well. The wilderness experience and the dark night of the soul are painful times but Sandford provides some insight into their purposes in developing the prophetic person. Sandford is brutally honest and transparent about his own experiences as he has gone through these places of testing.

The Power of the Cross: The Biblical Place of Healing and Gift-Based Ministry in Proclaiming the Gospel

Old Testament Foundations: Signs, Wonders and the People, by Jeffrey J. Niehaus

When the Son of God came to earth he brought what the Bible metaphorically calls the “water” of the Holy Spirit, who had been poured out on him without measure. The Son’s first advent was foretold by the prophet Isaiah, who foresaw the result of Christ’s ministry. He said it would be a time when “the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field” (Isa. 32:15). Isaiah was a great poet as well as a prophet, and he spoke powerfully of the Messiah’s life and work. What he said has come to pass, and both he and the other Old Testament prophets have much to teach us, not only about God and his Christ, but also about prophetic ministry—a kingdom ministry of “signs and wonders”—both in the past and today.

Signs and Wonders—Moses and Jesus

We know from the Old Testament that God did signs and wonders to advance his kingdom. The phrase, “signs and wonders,” first occurs in the Bible to describe the plagues which God, through his prophet Moses, brought upon Egypt (Exo. 7:3). But the miracles of God in the Old Testament are not only destructive. God also parted the Red Sea and held up the waters of the Jordan River and brought his people safely across both. Such miracles were part of his plan of salvation for Israel.

The ministries of Jesus and Moses have important things in common. Both were covenant mediators: Moses mediated the old covenant; Jesus mediated the new. Both Moses (Deut. 34:10) and Jesus (Acts 3:22) were prophets. And both did signs and wonders which were part of the advance of God’s kingdom—his program of salvation for his people.