Tag Archives: John Wimber

Church History, Vineyard Movement

What is the Vineyard? Our History – Booklet Excerpt #2

[box]The following text is an excerpt from the recently released “What is the Vineyard?” booklet published by the Vineyard USA.[/box]

Kenn and Joanie Gulliksen
A Brief Snapshot

The first Vineyards were planted in 1975. By 1982, there were at least seven “Vineyards” in a loose-knit fellowship of churches. Kenn Gulliksen, a soft-spoken, unassuming leader with a passion to know and walk with God, started a church in Hollywood in 1974. In 1975, believing that God had instructed him to do so, he officially gave the name “Vineyard” to this association of churches and led them for about five years.

In the early 1980s, Kenn felt led to ask John Wimber to assume leadership for the growing movement. The official recognition of this transition took place in 1982: the emergence of what was to be called the “Association of Vineyard Churches.”

John Wimber

John Wimber’s influence profoundly shaped the theology and practice of Vineyard churches, from their earliest days until his death in November 1997. When John was conscripted by God, he was, in the words of Christianity Today, a “beer-guzzling, drugabusing pop musician, who was converted at the age of 29 while chain-smoking his way through a Quaker-led Bible study.”

john and carol wimberIn John’s first decade as a Christian, he led hundreds of people to Christ. By 1970 he was leading 11 Bible studies that included more than 500 people. John became so fruitful as an evangelical pastor he was asked to lead the Charles E. Fuller Institute of Evangelism and Church Growth. He also later became an adjunct instructor at Fuller Theological Seminary, where his classes set attendance records. In 1977, John re-entered pastoral ministry to plant Calvary Chapel of Yorba Linda.

During this time, John’s conservative evangelical paradigm for understanding the ministry of the church began to grow. George Eldon Ladd’s theological writings on the kingdom of God convinced John intellectually that all the biblical gifts of the Holy Spirit should be active in the Church.

Encounters with Fuller missiologists Donald McGavaran and C. Peter Wagner, along with seasoned missionaries and international students, gave John credible evidence for combining evangelism with healing and prophecy. As he became more convinced of God’s desire to be active in the world through all the biblical gifts of the Spirit, John began to teach and train his church to imitate Jesus’ full-orbed kingdom ministry. He began to “do the stuff” of the Bible, about which he had formerly only read.

Early Experiences With The Holy Spirit

As John and his congregation, mostly made up of former Quakers, sought God in intimate worship, they experienced empowerment by the Holy Spirit, significant renewal in the gifts, and conversion growth. Since it soon became clear that the church’s emphasis on the experience of the Holy Spirit was not shared by some leaders in the Calvary Chapel movement, John’s church left Calvary Chapel in 1982 and joined the Association of Vineyard Churches.

A Network Of Churches Worldwide

Over time, the Vineyard movement has grown to be a network of over 1,500 churches worldwide. We seek to blend the best of the evangelical traditions with their focus on Christ-like character and regard for the Scriptures, with the best of the Pentecostal and Charismatic traditions of welcoming the empowering of the Holy Spirit for life, ministry, and acts of service.

Book Reviews, Theology Thoughts, Vineyard Movement

Kingdom Theology Resources

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kingdom theologyA friend of mine emailed me today asking for a list of resources about Kingdom Theology. As I typed up the list, I realized that there might be some others out there who were wondering the same thing.

To that end, here is my list of the top Kingdom Theology resources. Note that I focused PRIMARILY on resources about Kingdom Theology proper and not on how Kingdom Theology affects how we live our lives. As in, I didn’t included John Wimber’s books on healing or evangelism as they mainly dealt with how Kingdom Theology influences our practical lives and not the theological structure itself.

If you know of other books, audio files, online articles, etc., please post them in the comments below.

Books on Kingdom Theology Proper

1.    “Breakthrough: Discovering the Kingdom” by Derek Morphew – This THE BEST book on the subject, IMHO, and should be read by everyone in the Vineyard… Derek is a South African pastor, and theologian who was named the Academic Dean of Vineyard Institute, the online school started by six different national Vineyard Associations across the globe (i.e. USA, UK/Ireland, South Africa, Kenya, Norden, and Benelux). This book has the added bonus of having been translated in to Spanish… (oh, lest I forget, Derek has published several ebooks through Amazon which are great Kingdom Theology resources if you have an e-reader).

2.    “Kingdom Come: How Jesus Wants to Change the World” by Allen M. Wakabayashi – This is a good starter book on Kingdom Theology and what it means to join God in His Mission to redeem all of creation to Himself. Sadly however, Allen fails to take Kingdom Theology outside of the parameters of conservative evangelism (i.e. no signs and wonders or healing prayers in this book, just a focus on Bible studies and living a life devoted to Jesus).

3.    “Gospel of the Kingdom: Scriptural Studies in the Kingdom of God” by George Ladd – Kingdom Theology, as understood by the Vineyard, is deeply indebted to George Ladd and his scholarly work on the kingdom of God. This book is based upon lectures by Ladd given during his time at Fuller Theological Seminary. While a bit scholarly at times, it goes a great overview of the ‘here and not yet.’ However similar to Wakabayashi’s book, Ladd stops short of fully exploring the practical ramifications of Kingdom Theology’s inaugurated eschatology. (For those who really want to dive into Ladd’s writings, try “The Presence of the Future: The Eschatology of Biblical Realism” as it was the book that started it all.)

4.    “The Eclipse of Christ in Eschatology: Toward a Christ-Centred Approach” by Adrio König – This book is out of print now and may be hard to find…however, it is worth the read for whoever can find it. König is a professor of Systematic Theology at the University of South Africa and member of the Dutch Reformed Church, which gives him a slightly different view on the Bible and the kingdom of God.

5. “Start Here: Kingdom Essentials for Christians” by Don Williams – Written for folks who have just started following Jesus, this is a GREAT book for ALL Jesus followers as it summarizes the basic principles of being a Christian. While it is a bit of a topic book, I went ahead and listed it here as Don does a wonderful job of highlighting the value of Kingdom Theology within a very easy to read framework. Don, by the way, is one of the top Vineyard scholars/pastors out there. He was the one, for example, who crafted the Vineyard Statement of Faith.

Online Articles on the Kingdom

1.    “What Is Kingdom Theology?” by Derek Morphew – A short article outlining the basics of Kingdom Theology

2.    “Understanding Vineyard Theology: Introduction & Challenges” , “Kingdom Theology in the Vineyard: Upside Down & Now Not Yet” and “Vineyard Theology Doesn’t Mix with Dispensationalism” are some GREAT posts by Vineyard pastor Luke Geraty on the importance of Kingdom Theology.

3.    “Defining ‘Kingdom of God’: Part 1, 2 and 3” – a three part blog article defining the central message of Jesus by yours truly.

4. “A Vineyard Kingdom Hermeneutic: Pneumatic, Communal, Transformative, and Missional” by Luke Geraty – A paper written by Luke while at the University of Birmingham on how the Vineyard’s focus on the Kingdom effects how we read the Bible. While it contains a bunch of $5 words, it is a good read for those interested in Kingdom Theology.

Kingdom Theology Audio Files

1.    “The Kingdom of God” – a five part sermon by Derek Morphew given at the Vineyard USA Southwest Regional Pastors and Leaders conference held in New Orleans from 5-8 June 2006.

Reading The Bible Through A Kingdom Theology Lens

1.    “God’s EPIC Adventure” by Winn Griffin – A great book which challenges the fragmentation of the biblical story in modern society by teaching the church to understand what “her story is and how to become the people of God living as his recreated humanity.” Winn does a GREAT job at showing how each of the books of the Bible fit within the grand story of the Bible. Winn, by the way, was the founder and director of Vineyard Institute for Ministry as well as the Research Director for Vineyard Ministries International under John Wimber.

2.    “The Biblical Metanarrative: One God, One Plan, One Story” by Bill Jackson – This book traces the main themes of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and is required  reading for all Vineyard Institute students. Bill is a Vineyard pastor, church planter and theologian who has taught at St. Stephen’s University and Vineyard Leadership Institute.

3.    “Drama of Scripture, The: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story” by Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen – Written by two Redeemer University College professors, this book summarizes the grand story of the Bible in an easy to read narrative prose. Some folks will find this book easier to read than Winn or Bill’s book as it is both physical smaller and shorter in page length.

Church History, Theology Thoughts

My Life Through The Three Movements of the Holy Spirit: Pentecostal, Charismatic, and Third Wave

azuzs streetEd Stetzer, the President of LifeWay Research and great missiologist, has recently embarked on a series of blog posts about the Pentecostal / Charismatic / Third Wave Movements. The first post starts off by defining the “continualist movement” (i.e. Christians who believe that the spiritual gifts are still active today) as opposed to the cessastionists who believing that such gifts have stopped. From there, Stetzer gives a good history overview of the beginning of Pentecostalism before summarizing their doctrine/theology.

In the second post, Stetzer tackles the Charismatic movement – with a great history on how that movement got started in in the early 1960s. This was, to me, the most interesting article of the series as I didn’t know very much about how the Charismatic movement got started. (Spoiler: God used Dennis Bennett at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church in Van Nuys, CA to spark the movement).

The next post was about the Third Wave, which moved through the USA in the 1980’s. This wave was different from both the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements in both doctrine and practice. Pentecostalism was rooted in the Holiness Revival of the 1800’s and hold to a doctrine of subsequence (meaning that a believer is fill with the Holy Spirit in a second, or subsequence, event after conversion). The Charismatic movement pick up this doctrine of subsequence and brought it into the mainline churches (i.e. Anglican, Episcopal, Roman Catholic, Lutherans, Orthodox, and Reformed).

Third Wavers, a term coined by C. Peter Wagner Professor of Church Growth at Fuller, disagreed with this doctrine. They believe that a follower of Jesus is baptized with the Holy Spirit at the time of conversion and that one could be filled with the Spirit without speaking in tongues (something the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches would disagree with). Stetzer lists John Wimber of the Vineyard and Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel as proponents of this view.

Wild Goose Chase Computer imageAs I write this overview of Ed Stetzer’s articles, I can’t help but smile as I’ve personally been shaped by all three movements. My paternal great-grandmother, paternal great-granduncle, paternal great-uncle, maternal grandfather, mother, step-father, maternal aunt, and maternal uncle all have been licensed and/or ordinated pastors within Pentecostalism (mostly with the Independent Assemblies, who broke off from the Assemblies of God in 1967). Growing up, I remember attending Buddy Harrison’s Faith Christian Fellowship in Tulsa, Ok, before my family sifted over to some Charismatic churches in Tyler, TX. College found me deeply rooted in a local Church On The Rock church, a network of Charismatic churches in Texas started by Larry Lea. After college I moved to Idaho where I fell headlong into the Third Wave through Tri Robinson and the Vineyard Movement.

Looking back, I can see where these three movements have shaped my worldview and theology. My Pentecostal roots taught me to look at the world through spiritual eyes, seeing the spiritual battle waging around us every day. It also introduced me to spiritual gifts, miracles, and the Christus victor atonement model, among other things. My journey within the Charismatic movement tampered my typically emotional self and introduced me to the Reform/Calvinist approach to spiritual gifts as well as the penal substitutionary atonement model. Charismatic and Evangelical college professors also opened my eyes up biblical studies, giving me a taste of the joy that comes with studying the Scriptures.

Life within the Third Wave over the last ten years have transformed me once again – opening my eyes up the center-set beauty of enacted inaugurated eschatology Kingdom Theology. Big words describing a worldview deeply rooted in the Kingship of Jesus who transformed history and all of creation with his birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension. Gone is guilt of not having enough faith when praying for the sick, or anything else matter; gone is the doctrine of subsequence (granted, I was introduced to the Holy-Spirit-at-conversion concept at the Charismatic leaning Church On The Rock); gone is the strict holiness club mind set of Pentecostalism…

It has been an interesting journey full of twists and turns (like any good journey). Three unique movements with different histories and doctrines with some overlapping theology and practices…three movements that have left their stamp on global church and my life. Three movements all chasing after the Holy Spirit with a belief that God is still working in the world today and is calling His people to step out in faith and do the impossible.

Fun times. Let’s go.

Vineyard Movement

Vineyard and the New Archbishop of Canterbury

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justin welbyEarlier I had mentioned in passing that Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby spoke at the Vineyard UK/Ireland National Leaders’ Conference last week. Sadly the conversation between him, his lovely wife, Caroline and the Vineyard national directors, John and Eleanor Mumford, has been taken off the internet… however, I did make some notes about his talk that I wanted to share with you all. 😀

First off, it was really cool to hear a little more about Justin’s background as he has a very influential position on the world stage (the Anglican Communion has around 85 million members worldwide). One cool item that stood out to me was the openness that  he and Caroline had towards the movement of the Spirit through signs and wonders. Having never been to an Anglican church, I’ve always assumed that they were more cessatist (I know, I know…it is wrong to assume…). However, Justin spoke of being greatly influenced by John Wimber and having just come back from a retreat center in Europe ran by a bunch of charismatic Catholic monks (I told you assuming was wrong! Besides, I should have remembered that Wimber spend years blessing the Anglican Church!).

Secondly, and I think most importantly, at one point in the conversation John Mumford asked Justin what he thought about the Vineyard. Justin responded with a wonderful encouragement to keep on keeping in the direction and calling that God gave us. Here is the question John asked as well as Justin’s response (transcribed by yours truly):

John: “What do you feel that the Vineyard can bring? What can we contribute as a family of churches that loves to be part of the broader body of Christ?”

Justin: “I think it is a really important question. I think – there is a lot of answer that can come. One of the one’s is around the holistic ministry – the idea that you deal with people as they are, not as you would like them to be – you deal with them where they are – you take them were they are – the ministry to the poor, integrated utterly with a passionate commitment to Jesus Christ and to worship. I think I want to say something else – for me part of the inspiration of the Vineyard is seeing the reminder that in the presence of Christ we can we transform the life of the church, which in the churches we have been at – it is sometimes taken a while – and it is this sense of transformation – of integrity, reality and hope and living in the power of the Spirit.  I suppose I want to encourage you all in more than anything else: Do not move away from the gift of the spirit to this place.” (underlines added)

Continue reading Vineyard and the New Archbishop of Canterbury →

Theology Thoughts

It’s Messy and I Don’t Like It

Regardless of culture background or individual personalities I think one of the common factors of humanity is a desire to be in control. We want crave the desire to make choices that effect our lives and, for the most part, having a certain amount of control over what we do, think, act, goes, etc. is a GOOD thing! The opposite of having control is being out of control, which by definition, means that something or someone else is controlling you.

Yet this basic urge to have control over our lives is in direct conflict with the life that Jesus is calling us all towards. St. Paul in Romans 12:1 tells us that are to “offer [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.” While we may want to pretty things up a bit, in ancient days sacrifices involved the killing of an animal. So if we are to be a “living sacrifice”, that means we are to give Jesus everything (our desires, passions, jobs, family, dreams, future, etc.) as if we had died.

In fact, though we are still physically alive and make look the same, when we do give Jesus everything we do “die” in the sense that the “old us” is gone and we have been made anew through the life giving grace and blood of Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). In doing this, we, as followers of Jesus, take up His mission, passion, dreams, hopes, etc. (this would be the “transformed by the renewing of your mind” that St. Paul mentions in Romans 12:2 right after his “living sacrifice” comment).

C.S. Lewis puts it this way:

“The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become – because He made us. He invented us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be. . .It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.”

So far so good…However, there is a catch…Most Jesus followers would be ok with giving up everything to Jesus if it only meant taking up good ethics and living a good life. You know, don’t lie, cheat, steal, kill folks or any of those ‘bad’ things. Unfortunately, Jesus didn’t define things that way. When He called us lose our lives for His sake (Mark 8:34-35), He actually meant giving up EVERYTHING – no holdovers or hidden places where we get to keep a little something for ourselves.

This is where things gets messy.

You see, in most of places of Christianity around the world and throughout time there has been a desire to control the working of the Holy Spirit (who, by the way, is God just as Jesus is God and the Father is God – they are One through the great mystery Christians call the “Trinity”). In his first letter to the Thessalonians, St. Paul addressed this issue and told them not to “quench the Spirit” or to “treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22).

Continue reading It’s Messy and I Don’t Like It →

Vineyard Movement

Top 12 Resources From the Vineyard UK/Ireland in 2012

Each week the Vineyard UK/Ireland AVC uploads some new resources for the church – either ones they re-discovered in their vaults or new material recently released. In celebration of the year just finished, they posted a summary of the top 12 popular resources.

Here is a quick list of the resources in reserve order along with a few of my notes. Feel free to navigate over to the main article for more details as well links to specific resources.

12. Creative Evangelism // Alan Scott

11. Developing Fearlessness // Robby Dawkins

A short video by Robby on being willing to risk everything – including looking like an idiot – to tell people about Jesus. What are we willing to risk to share the message of Jesus?

10. Burned for the Bible // James Mumford

9.  Kids Can Too // Nigel & Jo Hemming

Children are not the church of tomorrow – they are the church of today!! The church in general needs to move past ‘babysitting’ kids on Sunday and allow them to participate in the mission of God as a fully functional member of Christ’s body.

8.  Why bother with theology in the Vineyard // Jason Clark

This is a written article based upon a talk Jason gave last year. It is a well thought out article about the importance of theology in our daily lives – give it a read!

7. Songs that reflect a season of the church // Kathryn Scott

6. Everybody gets to play // John Mumford

A great article by the National Director of the Vineyard UK/Ireland on the value of allowing everyone to participate in the mission of God.

5. Serving our Communities // Alan Scott

Continue reading Top 12 Resources From the Vineyard UK/Ireland in 2012 →

Vineyard Movement

Church Planting: An Interview With Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer has a long and very impressive resume full of planting, revitalizing and pastoring churches across the USA. He has also taught and mentored tons of pastors over the years as well as spend many a hour researching and surveying in state of the local church. Currently he is the President of LifeWay Research and a member of the International Mission Board’s Church Services Team.

Accordingly, his comments on church planting in North America have some weight… as in, they are worth listening too and thinking about. Which is why I recommend reading this article detailing a recent interview with Vineyard USA.

To help spur you on in reading the interview, I have posted some quotes from Ed along with some of my thoughts below.

Reflections on the Church Planting Scene in North America

“I think church planting is exploding. But I think it’s also important to note that the focus of many of these movements, and even the methods that they have used, have been influenced by the gifts that the Vineyard gave us all: a heart for church planting, new network approaches and strategies, and a passion for reaching the lost.”

Yeah…I couldn’t pass up quoting this piece as it is nice to see such favorable press for one’s tribe. Granted, Ed is talking to the Vineyard USA so it could be a simple ‘don’t bite the hand that is feeding you’ statement…but I seriously doubt that as Ed, who is not part of the Vineyard, doesn’t have a motivation to suck up to the Vineyard. If he didn’t like us, he could simply say so and walk away.

Therefore, the fact that he, as a noted missiologist and church researcher, publicly acknowledged the influence that the Vineyard has had on the wider church is amazing! I personally think that one of the reasons the Vineyard, which at 554 churches in the USA is not a large denomination, has had such a large voice in the greater church is because of our love for the whole church. From the very beginning, John Wimber and all the braze souls who started the Vineyard constantly gave way the gifts the Lord in trusted to them to the wider body. It has never been just about the Vineyard; it has been loving Jesus and His Bride (i.e. the WHOLE church).

What Opportunities Would You Say The Vineyard Has Now?

“I think the opportunity here is, will the Vineyard rediscover its roots without feeling it necessary to relive its past? I think the roots of the Vineyard are birthed in a passion for the kingdom of God, church planting and evangelistic engagement, and yes, societal concern. And I think many would say that focus has been diminished and might have a desire to go back to the glory days…. So the underlying principles that made the Vineyard an explosive movement could be rediscovered, but perhaps some of the methodological practices would not be as helpful in the future.”

I think these comments by Ed are interesting to say the least. They seem to echo the words of warning given to the Vineyard years ago from Bill Jackson in his 1999 book “The Search for the Radical Middle” and Bert Waggoner in his address at the 2008 Northwest Leaders Gathering. The warning primarily being that we are to continue to follow Jesus wherever he takes us while being careful not to fall into a cycle of routine (i.e. “we do this because it’s what Vineyards do” vs “we do this because it is what God is doing at this time and place.”).

Continue reading Church Planting: An Interview With Ed Stetzer →

Church History, Vineyard Movement

A Heritage of Leadership: Vineyard USA History Overview

The Five: Current and Past Vineyard USA National Directors

A few days ago I mentioned that the Vineyard USA had recently installed a new National Director; well today, I have discovered (via Jason Clark) an amazing article on the Vineyard USA homesite giving a short history of the movement and the previous five USA national directors.

Some of the highlights of the article – which I encourage everyone to read in full – as listed below:

The Five
  • Kenn Gulliksen (late 1970’s-1982)
  • John Wimber (1982-1995)
  • Todd Hunter (1995-2000)
  • Bert Waggoner (2000-2012)
  • Phil Strout (2012-Present)

As a side note, I love the fact that they mentioned Kenn as he was very foundational in starting the Vineyard Movement. Yet, sadly enough, his leadership is sometimes forgot due to the huge shadow cast by John Wimber.

Todd Hunter’s Leadership Years

The late 1990’s were a turbulent time full of controversial prophetic and renewal meetings and shifting worldviews, not to mention the fact that John Wimber died in 1997, causing more uneasiness… Talk about getting handed a hornets nest!

Having not been there (I joined in 2003), I can’t comment on how well or not-so-well Todd navigating these waters…Yet, what I can tell you is that Todd was on the forefront of the shifting worldview in the USA. This came to light for me a few years ago when I was studying the emerging church. His name (along with some others in the Vineyard) kept popping up time and time again from different sources and denominations. God really used him to spark a worldwide movement that goes beyond the Vineyard; we were just blessed enough to have him journey with us for a while (he is now an Anglican Bishop and author).

Continue reading A Heritage of Leadership: Vineyard USA History Overview →
Book Reviews

All About Worship

Published in 1998 by Vineyard Music, the small booklet “All About Worship: Insights and Perspectives on Worship” is a treasure trove of worship related information. The seventeen articles included in the booklet are written by fifteen passionate worships whose heart burns with the desire to share their love of God with others.

The articles themselves cover a wide range of information – from the theology of worship to practical steps in setting up a band to evangelizing the community through public worship.

  1. “The Life-Changing Power of Worship” by John Wimber
  2. “Worship: Out Highest Priority” by Rich Nathan
  3. “Humility, the Key to Serving in Worship” by Terry Butler
  4. “Putting God First” by Brian T. Anderson
  5. “Calling Women to Lead Worship” by Andy Park
  6. “Purity (A Woman’s Perspective)” by Cindy Rethmeier
  7. “Maintaining Purity While Working With The Opposite Sex (A Man’s Perspective)” by Andy Park
  8. “The Call to Worship the Father” by Brian Doerksen
  9. “What is Full-Time Worship Ministry?” By John Barnett
  10. “Performance: An Attitude of the Heart” by Danny Daniels
  11. “Worship Evangelism” by Mark McCoy
  12. “Worship Leaders from a Pastor’s Perspective” by Lloyd Rankin
  13. “Leaning to Lead Worship: A Beginners Guide” by Brent Helming
  14. “Leading Worship in a Small Group” by Brent Helming
  15. “Leading Worship in a Smaller Church” by Larry Myers
  16. “Ministry Time Worship: A Practical Point of View” by Scott Underwood
  17. “Serving Through Sound” by Marianne Kleine

As you can see from the above titles, having such a wide range of worship topics, it is hard to summarize this booklet in general… as such, I am going to leave you all with some selected quotes that I found particularly compelling:

Continue reading All About Worship →

Book Reviews, Vineyard Movement

Power Evangelism by John Wimber and Kevin Springer

wimberThe book title says it all: “Power Evangelism”

In a landmark book, John Wimber and Kevin Springer craft a wondering argument in the purpose of the gifts of the Spirit. Namely, signs and wonders are to seen in marketplaces (i.e. outside the church building) so that people will come to know Jesus.

To do this, the authors (the principles and theology are mainly from John Wimber; Kevin Springer was the writer who put everything down on paper) spilt the book into seven parts::

  1. The Kingdom Has Come (ch 1-5) – An outline of Kingdom Theology stating that the dymantic rule and reign of God has entered the present time through the person of Jesus.
  2. The Power Encounter (ch 6-9) – Humanity is in the middle of a war between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. There is no ‘safe zone’; we are all in the battle.
  3. Power Evangelism (ch 10-13) – Wimber’s personal story on how God taught him how to evangelize using the gifts of the Spirit.
  4. The Divine Appointment (ch 14-17) – God is already working in people’s lives before we arrive on the scene. We need to be aware of this and join with what God is doing.
  5. Signs and Wonders and Worldviews (ch 18-22) – A challenge to the western modernity worldview that denies the supernatural.
  6. The Works of Jesus (ch 23-27) – A look at Jesus’ life and ministry with special focus to Jesus’ power of demons, disease, nature and death.
  7. Signs and Wonders in the Church (ch 28-31) – Miracles did not stop with the death and resurrection of Jesus, the book of Acts and history itself testify to the fact that God continues to use miracles to bring people to Himself.

This is the second time that I have read this book – and it was still just as good. I love how Wimber takes what is usually reserved for the church gathering and uses it in the streets.

Yet, it is tough…Personally, I find that it is easier to pray for the sick in a church meeting then at work – mostly because I’m nervous about what people will say (that and lawsuits). Sigh. 😕

God please grant me the boldness and the wisdom to obey You in every area and place.