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The September 2007 PNEUMA INFORMERIn this issueWhat's New at www.PneumaFoundation.orgNew Online Articles
Reports from Around the World
Malaysia marks 50 years, believers pray for unity
Christian development group dedicated to growth of medical training programs
Cuba: Despite isolation, the church experiences revival
Japan: Christians use English to reach youth
Visit links.jsp for Current News and Links
See other news to pray and praise God about in the Prayer Requests department below.
Report the News
They Love to Tell 'The Story'!
Special Report about reaching oral cultures with the story of Jesus "Oh stories!" exclaims Ramesh Sapkota, leader from Nepal. "I eat stories, sleep stories, drink stories, tell stories. Not only me--it is like a communicable disease. Everyone can tell stories. Blessed be God!" Sapkota has caught the virus, and his new-found passion for Bible stories, from Genesis through Revelation, is characteristic of an emerging harvest work force. It's a force that is energized and motivated by its love for the story of God in all its color, drama and depth. Along with this is the realization that in all kinds and cultures of people, this powerful story speaks for itself with the wisdom of the ages. The thread, that runs through testimony after testimony from this cadre of workers using narrative portions of the Bible as its mainstay, is a thrilling sense of discovery. Non-literate believers who never imagined they could be teachers, leaders or trainers, are seeing that the story of God empowers them. Literate leaders are finding that when they tell pure stories of the Bible, without extra commentary, but with questions and discussion instead, their disciples are hearing and learning as never before. "I want to translate this" Sapkota was already a church planter and leader in his country when he made a fresh discovery of the scriptures. He'd been a believer in Jesus since age 13, but had only read one or two stories in the Old Testament for himself. "Most of the preaching I heard was from the New Testament," he explains. That left him confused about a lot of things. "Questions that people would ask, I wouldn't know how to answer." Then he heard about the Amsterdam 2000 conference for evangelists. He didn't go, but he did request the materials from the event. By the time the package arrived at his door, he had forgotten about his order. "Who is sending me a Christmas gift?" he thought as he opened up a box of videos and materials. Inserting the God's Story video, produced by Dorothy Miller, into his player, he watched the whole story of the Bible in 80 minutes, starting from creation and beautifully illustrated with still-life drawings. "I felt like I was watching a movie," said Sapkota. "The story was told in a way I could track it, in order chronologically. It talked to me in the cultural way that I think--I loved it." After seeing the video in English he said, "I want to translate this." Getting it into his own language of Nepali became his first project. Since then, he has overseen the translation of the God's Story video into 16 languages including all the languages of Tibet and Bhutan, and most of Nepal. "We have several languages to be done in a queue," he says. Now Sapkota is teaching "Simply The Story" workshops, training church leaders, both literate and non-literate, to use the telling of Bible stories to start and lead churches and disciple believers. And the people he trains are having reactions similar to his own. On the edge of their seats An Hispanic pastor with influence over more than 1,000 other pastors called the God's Story office the day after a workshop. "As a pastor for 30 years, I knew something was missing," he said. "We Pentecostal and charismatic preachers have dramatized the stories of the Bible, adding what we thought would make the information more interesting. But you said to let the story speak. We have not been doing that." For four days he told complete Bible stories from the pulpit, in the morning and evening services. "The congregation loved it," he said. "They were on the edge of their seats with interest. Afterwards they said it was the best teaching they had ever heard." "I am Jonah" But Sapkota is teaching more than storytelling. In his seminars he demonstrates how to walk through a story, get to know its characters and see what they saw. People from oral cultures seem to be especially good at it, such as the 35 Masai and Komba pastors Sapkota taught in Kenya in 2006. "One day, as we told the story of Jonah," tells Sapkota, "a man who had started 200 churches stood up and confessed, "I am Jonah. I have started churches, but never cared about the people." That began a wave of confession and repentance. At a second workshop with Komba believers in August, 2007, the group was so deeply affected by the story of Jesus in the home of Martha and Mary that they called for a special meeting of the elders. They had been shocked by the disrespect of Martha's question to Jesus, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work?" Then these people, living in a remote and isolated area, realized that they had been asking the same question of God: "Don't you care about us?" They were ready to adjust their attitude. That is what the God's Story Project is all about--giving people in oral communities, such as these, access to a significant number of the key events, characters and encounters of the Scriptures, and the expertise to search them out and gain understanding. Perhaps these are precisely the kind of workers needed to see a vivid, vital, obedient church emerge among peoples that have seemed distant and uninterested for so long. Source: Great Commission Update 16 (August/September 2007). Used with permission.
Resources You Can Use
Christian Workers from the USA: Become aware of new IRS regulations
Ministry Resource: Reaching Single Adults
MyChurch.org
Free online courses from MIT
Excerpts from the Fall 2007 issue of the PNEUMA REVIEWThe PNEUMA REVIEW is a quarterly printed journal of ministry resources and theology for Pentecostal and charismatic ministries and leaders. For more information about the PNEUMA REVIEW, and to learn how to subscribe, please visit: Introducing the PNEUMA REVIEW. www.pneumafoundation.org/intro_pr.jsp Buy the PNEUMA REVIEW online at Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000D8CY9 For a full index of the contents of all Pneuma Review issues, visit: http://www.pneumafoundation.org/pr_archive.jsp. Book Review: The Myth of a Christian Nation Gregory A. Boyd, The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 207 pages. When you were a child did your mother ever make you take bad tasting medicine? And when you complained about the bad taste did she ever tell you "That's because it's good for you"? If so, then you may recognize a similar response to this book by Greg Boyd. At least I did. Gregory A. Boyd is founder and senior pastor of Woodland Hills (mega) Church in St Paul, Minnesota, founder and president of Christus Victor Ministries, former professor of theology at Bethel College (St Paul), and author of numerous books, including the international bestseller Letters from a Skeptic. And he is no stranger to controversy. For example, he has been embroiled in the debate over divine omniscience as a proponent of openness theism. Considered by some a post-evangelical liberal, Boyd here bucks the tide and attacks the religious right for over identifying the Kingdom of God with partisan politics. While many Pentecostal/charismatics will undoubtedly disagree with much of what he says about specific issues, perhaps they will intuitively agree that he may be right about his main point: Kingdom-of-God citizens ought to be dramatically different from kingdom-of-the-world citizens in their approach to power. Boyd begins by explaining how this particular book arose out of a split in his Woodland Hills congregation over a series of sermons he preached about religion and politics. His central thesis is that American Evangelicalism is "guilty of nationalistic and political idolatry." Then he argues that the kingdom of this world is a "power over" kingdom exercising rule over others as exemplified in human governments and nations, which are to a large extent diabolically backed, while the Kingdom of God is a "power under" kingdom practicing submission as exemplified in the cross. Their stark contrast calls for Christians to make a clear choice. Next he argues that Kingdom-of-God citizens ought to be more concerned with keeping their kingdom holy than gaining political clout. He chides the Church for behaving more like "conquering warlords" than "resident aliens," that is, for a history of militancy, and insists the "taking America back for God" ideology is misguided and mistaken. For him the country never has been Christian, and probably should not be so anyway. This explains his title and recurring theme on "the myth of a Christian nation." For him, the idea of America being Christian in anything but the most general sense is a foul fabrication of a national civil religion designed to get the people to do the government's self-serving will for supposedly altruistic purposes. And he really becomes inflamed on "chief sinners" acting as "moral guardians." In his judgment the Church has little or no business concerning itself with issues of national morality. Christians who speak out against abortion or gay rights are simply exposing themselves and the Church to charges of hypocrisy and self-righteousness. Boyd concludes the book with an argument that under no conditions could a Christian justifiably participate in any form of violence. That would exchange the "power under" Kingdom of God for a "power over" kingdom of this world. Not only does he prohibit participation in war, but also any level of membership in the military or the right to defend one's own life and family--though he admits to a personal struggle on this last issue. Boyd skillfully employs everything from the Bible, the Church Fathers, and ancient Greek literature and philosophy to world history and contemporary economics, political science, and personal anecdotes to prove his points. However, he shows an inordinate dependence on certain thinkers, for example, John Howard Yoder especially, and Stanley Hauerwas also, widely noted for radical and liberal ideas on religion and politics. He does not refute in any depth expert opposing viewpoints. For example, Boyd doesn't at all touch much less discuss well known and widely acclaimed Christian political theologies such as Abraham Kuyper's "sphere sovereignty," Richard Niebuhr's classic study Christ and Culture, or Jurgen Moltmann's theology of hope and liberation. And on Augustine's "just war" theory, he employs more irony than argumentation. Admirably, Greg Boyd shares his heart in honesty and humility, but he has a tendency to overstate his case. For example, he emphatically and repeatedly argues that John 18:36 shows Christians should be absolute pacifists, that is, total non-combatants in any kind of military conflict between earthly nations. Yet even a cursory glance at that text reveals Jesus only stated that his kingdom has heavenly origins and is not advanced or defended by earthly force (cf. J. Ramsey Michaels, New International Biblical Commentary). All that can be conscientiously gleaned from this verse is that Christianity is not sustained or spread by the sword. I often felt Boyd's biblical, theological, and logical arguments fell into this same kind of category: they made good points but he pushed them beyond their proper boundaries. I must mention what to me are two important points, one positive and the other negative. First, Boyd is not improbably performing an important service simply by pushing Evangelicals to examine underlying assumptions and presuppositions about religion and politics in the USA. That's a good thing, a healthy thing, for all of us. And I'm sure he's right about our often going overboard. Second, sometimes Boyd's approach sounds suspiciously like a more sophisticated version of the old liberal attempt to drive religion into the closet, making it a private affair bracketed out of the public square. And that's not a good thing, or a healthy thing, for any of us. I seem to recall Daniel was both a saint and a statesman (Dan 1:17-21; 5:10-12; 6:1-3). And, as Boyd candidly confesses, he definitely focuses on debunking the Christian religious right with all its perceived failings but doesn't bother to address failings of the religious left. My own committee experience suggests radical religious leftists are at least as fatally flawed as radical religious rightists. But then that's three things. This is a disturbing book. And probably for that reason, like bad tasting medicine, it is a needed book. It's written on a generally readable level but the endnotes are overdone and there is no index. For stalwart citizens really willing to work through their presuppositions and responsibilities regarding their dual roles as Christians and Americans, I recommend it. But remember: unlike your mother's medicine, you don't have to swallow it all for it to help. Reviewed by Tony Richie __________ Tony Richie, D.Min, D.Th. (candidate), a bishop in the Church of God (Cleveland, TN), is pastor of New Harvest in Knoxville, TN and does adjunct teaching at Church of God Theological Seminary (Cleveland, TN) and Church of God South American Seminary (Quito, Ecuador). He also serves the Society for Pentecostal Studies as liaison to the Interfaith Relations Committee of the National Council of Churches. His articles have appeared in numerous Christian academic journals.
Read more reviews and articles from the Fall 2007 issue of the PNEUMA REVIEW www.pneumafoundation.org/intro_pr.jsp
Book Review: In Defense of the New Perspective on Paul Don Garlington, In Defense of the New Perspective on Paul: Essays and Reviews (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2005), viii + 245 pages. Garlington earned his MDiv and ThM degrees from Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia), and his PhD in New Testament at the University of Durham under James D. G. Dunn. He taught from 1987-2002 at Toronto Baptist Seminary, and has served since as an adjunct professor at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto. Previous to this volume, he had authored four others on various aspects of Pauline theology, including book length treatments of the epistles of Romans and Galatians. From the beginning of his academic career, he has been defending a version of what has come to be known as the New Perspective on Paul (NPP). What is the NPP? The NPP was initially articulated in 1977 by E. P. Sanders in his important book, Paul and Palestinian Judaism, although it was not given this title phrase until Dunn did so in his Manson Memorial Lecture in 1982. In brief, the NPP can be summarized as making three sets of interlocking claims. First, rather than holding to an exclusively defined religion of works-based righteousness, Second Temple Judaism embraced a form of what might be called "covenantal nomism" (Sanders) whereby God established a covenant relationship with his people (in this case, Israel) which required, as a proper response, human obedience to the commandments of the law. Second, that when understood against this background, St. Paul neither advocates a superseding of the law nor offers a polemic against the law as a means of gaining merit; rather he should be read as defending a view of the law as a way of living within and according to the covenant. Finally, then, the Pauline dictum of justification by faith alone is one aspect of a wider covenant that includes rather than excludes the transformed life and the works of faith. Within this scheme of things, one does not "get into" the covenant via keeping the law; instead, one "stays in" the covenant according to one's faithful obedience to the terms of the covenant (reflected in the law), even if God also graciously provides for the atonement of sins that are inevitably committed by those who fall short because of either faithlessness or disobedience. The NPP has had its share of critics and interlocutors within the broader academy over the last thirty years. Since 2000, a number of volumes engaging the NPP thesis have appeared from evangelical exegetes and scholars. The subtitle of Garlington's book, Essays and Reviews, nicely summarizes what it is about: a sustained interaction with the ongoing conversation. But one would not know that Garlington is focused especially on engaging this more recent evangelical scholarship unless one looked at least at his table of contents. After two chapters summarizing the NPP debate and revisiting specifically the exegetical issues surrounding the interpretation of Galatians 2:15-16 relative to the NPP thesis, the remaining six chapters of the book critically review the following five volumes: 1) D. A. Carson, et al., Justification and Variegated Nomism (2001); 2) John Piper, Counted Righteous in Christ: Should We Abandon the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness (2002); 3) Simon Gathercole, Where is Boasting? Early Jewish Soteriology and Paul's Response in Romans 1-5 (2002); 4) Mark Adam Eliot, The Survivors of Israel: A Reconsideration of the Theology of Pre-Christian Judaism (2000); and 5) Gordon J. Wenham, Story as Torah: Reading Old Testament Narratives Ethically (2000). While some of these reviews are much longer than others--e.g., almost 100 pages is devoted to assessing Piper's book, and only ten pages to Elliott's--in every case Garlington fairly overviews the arguments of the books and authors before respectfully and systematically subjecting their proposals to critical analysis. With regard to Piper's Counted Righteous in Christ, two chapters are presented: the first being Garlington's review of Piper's book, and the second being Garlington's rejoinder to Piper's response which was published in the same venue as the original review essay. So in this one case, readers are treated to (at least one side of) a scholarly exchange. As the title of this volume under review announces, Garlington's objective is to defend the NPP against its (evangelical) critics. Yet to call this book a "defense" may be a bit overstated for various reasons. In the case of Carson's book, for example, Garlington rightly points out that many of the contributors to that volume actually embrace one or another aspect of the NPP, and this results in the NPP apologetic being targeted really only at Carson's introductory and concluding essays, and at one other article (by Mark Seifrid) on the idea of righteousness in the Hebrew Bible. Next, turning to Garlington's sustained engagement with Piper, the former is at his rhetorical and exegetical best in this part of the book. But Piper's polemics are directed less at the heart of the NPP debate than at one of its side trajectories: that regarding the doctrine of imputation, especially as seen in the work of Robert Gundry (who Piper considers a representative of the NPP position, if not an actual participant in that "movement"). Of course, Piper and those in his camp are right to be concerned that the NPP has implications that might undermine the traditional view of imputation. Yet the response to Piper could be made, arguably, apart from the NPP. Last (because of space constraints) but not least, Gathercole's thesis is an interesting one, honed in extensive discussion with his doktorvater, Jimmy Dunn: that the NPP's overall interpretation of Second Temple Judaism is essentially correct, but not its reading of St. Paul. Rather, Gathercole believes, from what Paul writes in the first five chapters of Romans, that Paul does indeed oppose the view that justification is linked to Torah-obedience. So on this issue Garlington's defense may be more of St. Paul than the NPP interpretation of Paul. Overall, however, Garlington consistently makes the following NPP-related triad of arguments: that "covenantal nomism" involves not only the doctrine of justification but also that of liberation from sin and the transformation of believers into conformity with God's covenant; that while the doctrine of justification includes the classical doctrine of imputation as retrieved by the Reformers, yet the wider framework of St. Paul's soteriology involves the believer's life of obedience accomplished through "union with Christ"; and that God's final judgment requires both faith and "works," the latter understood in terms of the obedience related to covenantal faithfulness. These theses may place Garlington "outside" the halls of contemporary Reformed-evangelical orthodoxy. However evangelical apologists, whether of the stripe of Carson, Piper, or others, will need to grapple with Garlington's challenge to approach the texts of the NT in the context of Second Temple Judaism (a central pillar of the NPP) rather than through a confessional theological stance (even if that is one shaped by Reformed and Westminster orthodoxy!). Readers of the Pneuma Review should be warned that without either an adequate background or interest in contemporary NT scholarship, the reading of In Defense of the New Perspective on Paul will be demanding in many places. There are various technical points of debate, fitting for the halls of the Evangelical Theological Society or the Society of Biblical Literature and often debated within the pages of their respective scholarly journals, but these are for the most part practically inaccessible to most pastors and even informed laypeople in the Renewal movement. Yet those with interest in the scholarly debates will be drawn into the issues via Garlington's engaging mode of writing, and those who persevere through the volume will be rewarded with insights into the text of the NT itself, as well as into issues in the wider biblical and theological debates. One such issue of relevance for Renewal scholarship has to do with how to understand the relationship between justification and sanctification on the one hand, and between justification and salvation as a whole, including what Protestants call glorification, on the other. I make this connection as a pentecostal systematic theologian rather than a biblical scholar. What I have observed is not that Renewal (by which I mean pentecostal-and-charismatic, broadly speaking) biblical scholarship has engaged the NPP--they might well have, but I am not as up-to-date in this area--but that pentecostal theologians and, especially, systematicians have made some recent proposals at least consistent with, if not presuming of, some of the basic NPP proposals as defended by Garlington. For instance, one of the main points in Frank D. Macchia's Baptized in the Spirit: A Global Pentecostal Theology (Zondervan, 2006) concerns the interconnectedness between the doctrines of justification and sanctification. For Macchia, the pentecostal theological emphasis on the Spirit means that justification can never be merely a forensic imputation of alien righteousness, but must also be a pneumatological impartation of the righteousness of Christ resulting in a transformed life. As an extension of this idea (although actually preceding Macchia's book by two years), pentecostal systematician Veli-Matti Karkkainen--although he prefers to call himself an ecumenical theologian--has argued in his One with God: Salvation as Deification and Justification (Liturgical, 2004) that justification is intimately tied in not only with sanctification but also with full salvation understood as glorification. More specifically, drawing from the new Finnish Lutheran scholarship that has unveiled an emphasis in the early Luther on salvation understood as linking justification and what the Eastern Orthodox tradition has called theosis (deification, or union with God), Karkkainen claims that such a holistic soteriology is consistent with the pentecostal pneumatological focus on the Spirit's work from conversion through to sanctification and final union with God in Christ. While both Macchia and Karkkainen interact with the NPP, they have done so (thus far) only in passing. Yet it is interesting to note that pentecostal systematicians are coming to similar theological conclusions as is Garlington, even if the latter approaches St. Paul from the intersection of an evangelical Reformed perspective and a covenantal monist hermeneutic arguably in the background of apostolic Christianity. This raises the question of whether or not Renewal biblical scholars might also find in the NPP new approaches to the Pauline corpus that may open up uncharted paths of inquiry. I hazard to guess that engaging the NPP will lead to an expansion of the traditional Renewal focus on Luke-Acts so that Luke will be read together with Paul rather than either against Paul or only after bracketing the Pauline witness. The NPP, at least as interpreted by Garlington, seems congenial to Renewal sensibilities and commitments. Only the ongoing conversation will determine what else the NPP can offer not only to Renewal biblical scholarship, but also to the wider domain of Christian biblical interpretation. Reviewed by Amos Yong __________ Amos Yong, is Associate Research Professor of Theology at Regent University School of Divinity in Virginia Beach, Virginia. His graduate education includes degrees in theology, history, and religious studies from Western Evangelical Seminary and Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, and Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Yong has served as a pastor, educator, conference speaker, and is the author of numerous papers and books including The Spirit Poured Out on All Flesh: Pentecostalism and the Possibility of Global Theology (Baker Academic, 2005), Theology and Down Syndrome: Reimagining Disability in Late Modernity (Baylor University Press, 2007), and Hospitality and the Other: Pentecost, Christian Practices, and the Neighbor (Orbis Books, 2008). He and his wife, Alma, currently reside with their three children in Chesapeake, Virginia.
Read more reviews and articles from the Fall 2007 issue of the PNEUMA REVIEW www.pneumafoundation.org/intro_pr.jsp
X Youth Event: A Miracle in the Making
Special Report by Kathryn N. Donev This is a special report from Cup & Cross Ministries www.cupandcross.com about a concert they held on July 28, 2007, along the shore of the Black Sea to reach out to young adults in Bulgaria. As you walk in the garden area going to the Black Sea coastline to catch a glimpse of the sailboat exhibition, you begin to notice posters for an event. Before you are able to read any further you hear off in the distance what appears to be preparations for a concert. Your curiosity draws you closer and you inquire what will be taking place. The sound person tells you that at 7:00 o'clock sharp the Christian music group "Extremum" will be performing here at the open air sea garden auditorium.. It is only 30 minutes till 7:00 so you find a free seat on the bleacher in the back and watch as a large crowd gathers with standing room only. Then the concert begins strong. Before you realize, an hour has past and the call for intermission is given. Shortly you see something being thrown to the crowd. You run to the front and catch a small plastic bag the size of a business card. You open it and find inside a bracelet with the colors of the Bulgarian flag and the text "www.bibliata.com" embossed on the white silicone surface. Instead of returning to your seat you put on your bracelet, remain upfront and the band returns to perform another set of songs. Twenty minutes until 9:00 pm, just as the sun is setting, a message is delivered which encourages freedom from sin and deliverance from drugs and alcohol. This message is one that you have never heard before and honestly do not think much of it at the moment. You are just interested in hearing more music. To conclude the band takes the stage for their final songs. After, the crowd cheers for more, the band comes back to perform two more songs. The lyrics proclaim "Just show me a moment in your presences" and the band has the crowd repeat after them. At 9:00 pm it's over and you are ready to go home. As daylight fades, you find your way back through the garden to a nearby street where you catch a taxi. During the drive you revisit the delivered message of "being free". You are still a bit confused and want to know more. You look down to the bracelet you put on and before taking the elevator up to your apartment block you stop at the internet cafe and log on to the website address "Bibliata.com." As you surf the site you find that you can read the text of the Bible, listen to sermons about the Bible, and even download music from the concert you just attended. At this site's consortium is where you begin to have your questions answered. Church ministry must reach beyond the church walls to the places where the oppressed, hopeless, alcoholics and addicted are found, whether that be on a street corner, a sandy beach or even the Internet highways. God's love has no limit and as His arms and legs neither should we, as we strive to share His love with those who so disparately need deliverance. The above account illustrates how the event, X at the Black Sea we held on July 28, 2007, may have influenced a single life, but in faith we believe that this event is only the beginning of a much larger ripple, the effects of which will be felt long after the band packed up, the sermon concluded and the sun set. A price cannot be put on this event for it was truly a priceless experience and one that occurred only by the grace of God. Many obstacles had to be overcome and it is only a miracle that X at the Black Sea became a reality. When the mayor's offices denied a permit, when funds and means of transportation were limited, when it seemed impossible to acquire the needed equipment and when friends said it would not work, is when God receives the full glory. For it was not with the efforts of money or men that this event happened but by the intervention of the Holy Spirit. As long as you have the Holy Spirit all things are possible. Praise be to God for what He has done and for the miracles He has yet to perform!
Prayer Requests
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