In this video, Jeanne DeFazio, contributor to and co-editor of the book Creative Ways to Build Christian Community interviews Dr. William David Spencer about his latest book Name In the Papers. Dr. Spencer is Ranked Adjunct Professor of Theology and the Arts at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. All of his students know him to be a great encourager.

Rick Wadholm Jr. speaks with PneumaReview.com about a new online academic journal, The Pentecostal Educator.

PneumaReview.com: Introduce us to The Pentecostal Educator and tell us what you want the journal to accomplish.

Rick Wadholm Jr.: The Pentecostal Educator is an e-journal biannually publishing scholarly and practical articles related to theological education within the Pentecostal tradition to encourage the continuing maturation of Pentecostal theological education. It is intentionally practical, applied and international. The journal is intended to provide materials related to worldwide Pentecostal theological education like: institutional case studies, critical engagement with current newsworthy events, educational trends and trajectories, pedagogical analysis, and book reviews.

PneumaReview.com: How did the journal come into being? Who had the vision for this new publication and how did it progress from a vision to reality?

RW: The journal is the result of Paul Alexander being elected as chairperson of The World Alliance for Pentecostal Theological Education in the fall of 2013 at the consultation in Kuala Lumpur. It was his desire to see an e-journal provided with open access to resource Pentecostal theological educators globally where often minimal resources are available of this kind. Through his vision for this, he asked me to serve as the Executive Editor (with himself as Senior Editor) and begin pulling together a team (Justin Evans as Book Review Editor; Roland Dudley as Editorial Advisor; and Derek Simonsen initially, with Robert Wadholm currently, as Technical Services). We solicited a number of articles for our first issue to offer an inaugural issue (Fall 2014) on “The Future of Pentecostal Theological Education”.

PneumaReview.com: Are there any denominations or institutions directly involved with the journal? Who is contributing to the journal and who you would like to see writing for it in the future?

RW: The journal is under the umbrella of The World Alliance for Pentecostal Theological Education (WAPTE) which is a global cooperative fellowship of Pentecostal/Charismatic theological associations, denominational offices and missions agencies affiliated with a member body of the Pentecostal World Fellowship (PWF) that provide educational services to theological and/or ministry training schools. It exists to assist and encourage these organizations in their endeavor to promote the development of Pentecostal theological education and leadership training. WAPTE is affiliated with the Pentecostal World Fellowship and its member bodies.

As far as contributors, when I solicited writers we received submissions from William Kay, Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, and Byron Klaus. There are several other well-known Pentecostal scholars I have spoken with who will be contributing to future issues. However, we would welcome submissions from anyone writing a quality article pertaining to issues of Pentecostal theological education. We would be especially welcoming of those writing from the majority world context. Academic credentials are not included in the articles nor considered for submissions. Quality research and writing on issues of Pentecostal theological education are the only issues under consideration.

PneumaReview.com: Please tell our readers about your ministry.

Matti Wendelin: My ministry, Full Gospel for All Nations, was founded 1990 in Finland. I have been preaching the gospel since 1977. This is still a small ministry, but thanks to God we are wining many souls around the world, especially in Asia. My vision is to do mass crusades and I love when I see people being saved and healed. We often see that everyone attending our crusades wants to get saved.

PR: When did you sense that the Lord was calling you into ministry?

Matti Wendelin: When I was a child, the Lord spoke to me through many different ways about my calling to preach the gospel. I used to go alone to forest where I had collection of empty bottles. I preached to those bottles and at the end of the service, I pushed them down. When I grew up, I wanted to do something else with my life until Lord took me for a visit to Heaven. In Heaven, one angel took me to the room where there were a lot of crowns. He took one crown and came to me saying, “The Lord has prepared this for you.” I liked it and it was very beautiful in my eyes, but he put it back and took another crown and said to me, “This is for you.” Immediately I could see there was a big different between those two crowns, like night and day. He continued, “That first one was prepared for you, but because you did not want to do the will of God and you were not willing to go to Pakistan, India, Papua New Guinea, and wherever the Lord would send you to preach the gospel, so someone else is going to do what you were asked to do, and they will receive what was prepared for you.”

A conversation about the people who say they are done with church. 

Don’t miss my interview with Josh Packard this Tuesday night. Thanks Pneuma Review for asking me to review the book which led to an interview with Josh. The book is: Church Refugees: Sociologists reveal why people are DONE with church but not their faith by Josh Packard and Ashleigh Hope.

Watch the recorded Interview now

John Lathrop interviewed Harvey Cox at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1996 about his book, Fire From Heaven.

Harvey Cox was the Hollis Research Professor of Divinity at Harvard University until his retirement in 2009. His book, Fire From Heaven: The Rise Of Pentecostal Spirituality And The Reshaping Of Religion In The Twenty-first Century (Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1995), was one of the winners of Christianity Today’s 1995 Book Awards.

What prompted you to write a book about the Pentecostal Movement?

Two things prompted me. One was my discovery which came through my great interest in urban ministry. This discovery was that although the mainline denominations sometimes issue marvelous statements and do great studies of urban life, on the front lines of urban ministry, many of the churches are Pentecostal. This is true both here and in other parts of the world. And I got to know Eldin Villafane, who I value as a very close friend. He is a Pentecostal minister. We actually gave a course together on urban ministry. There were some Pentecostal pastors in the course, and I began visiting some of these churches. I came to believe that the Spirit was really saying something to the entire Christian world through the Pentecostal movement. I also thought that the Pentecostals got bad press. They have been misunderstood and bad mouthed a lot. I wanted to write something that would be more accurate and fair.

The other reason I got interested in Pentecostals grew out of my work in Latin America and other parts of the Third World. I give courses here on Christianity and in the non-western world, especially Latin America. I began to notice many years ago that the Pentecostal movement in Latin American countries was growing very rapidly. I noticed that it was in many ways not just a reflection of North American Pentecostalism; it had its own qualities and strengths. So I decided when I finally bit off writing this book that I would deal with the whole worldwide picture of Pentecostals. People have written things about this or that part of its history or theology or some special study. I really wanted to write a book that would talk about the global emergence of this new stream of Christian vitality. That is how I got started, and I’m glad I did because I had a wonderful time doing that.

As you have studied the Pentecostal Movement, what do you see as some of its strengths?

Well, I think the main strengths of the movement are two. The major strength is that Pentecostalism is solidly based on the direct, personal experience of the Spirit. It’s based on an experience in a time when many churches have an audience format in which the experiential dimension has been lost in either the creedal or the institutional aspects of the church. There is an old Pentecostal saying from way back in the early years of Pentecostalism: “A man with an argument has no chance against a man with an experience.” There is something to be said for that.

What would you do if you learned you had leprosy? Pastor John Lathrop interviews pastor and missionary Dan Izzet about his ministry and advocacy for those afflicted with the ancient, debilitating disease.

John Lathrop: Please tell us where you come from and how you began your walk with Jesus.

Dan Izzett: When I was born my parents were attending the Presbyterian Church. My father realized that he needed to be baptized in water and receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but he discovered that he could not do this in the Presbyterian Church. So as a family we moved to a Pentecostal church, The Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe, a movement that was a result of John G. Lake’s ministry in South Africa.

I was born again at the age of five and a half years old and still remember the service the pastor preached when I went forward to the front of the church.

Soon after that I remember one Sunday my parents taking communion and seeing the emotion, joy and rapture they were enjoying during communion, I longed for it! I asked my father if I could join with them the next time and he said that he’d have to ask the pastor. After speaking to the pastor, he was told that the ruling of the church was that I’d need to be baptized first. Therefore, I wanted to get baptized right away. But I was told that I could not be because I was not 12 years old yet. This disappointed me deeply and made me feel that Christianity was only for older people.

My father passed away when I was eight years old and by the age of 14 I’d drifted into a bad relationship with God. An uncle of mine, not many years older than myself, encouraged me to do Hatha Yoga, Yoga for the physical body. But this was a demonic trap to get me into the occult. The end result was that for 11 years I lived in a desert of confused religious ideas.

In 1974 I returned to serving my heavenly Father and my wife got saved! We’d been married since 1970 and then in 1975 we were blessed with our first son. We now have two sons who are married and have blessed us with two wonderful daughters-in-law. That was an answer to at least 25 years of prayer. We are now grandparents to five very special grandchildren.

Lathrop: You have been involved in ministry in Africa for a number of years. Please tell our readers a little bit about that.

Izzett: Here is a brief overview of my involvement in ministry at various levels:

• Youth leader in my local church in 1975
• Served on the church board, first as a member, then as a deacon, then as an elder and finally as the treasurer.
• Full time church discipleship – internship 1981. Taught in 5 Bible Colleges in Harare. Local church bible studies and home groups.
• 1987 worked with CfAN, the ministry of Reinhard Bonnke, as a crusade director, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi.
• Planted a church in 1986 and pastored there until retiring in April 2012.
• Through the years I have also done numerous pastors’ seminars with Barnabas Ministries, led by Dr. David Wyns in Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, Kenya and Botswana.

John Lathrop interviews Finny Philip about the new South Asia Bible Commentary.

John Lathrop: Please give us a brief history of the development of this commentary.

Finny Philip: The South Asia Bible Commentary (SABC) is a project of Langham Partnership International and partners. Langham is the organization founded by the late evangelical scholar, author and leader John Stott.

John R. W. Stott (1921–2011), “started Langham in 1969 with the vision that every pastor in every church is equipped to preach the Bible.”
Image: Langham Partnership International / Wikimedia Commons.

The project started in 2008 when a few Langham scholars in India came together for fellowship in Kolkata. The project is led by Brian Wintle (New Testament scholar), three Old Testament theological editors (Drs. Paul Swarup, J.B. Jeyraj, Havilah Dharmraj) and two New Testament theological editors, Dr. Jacob Cherian and myself.

Who are the contributors to this volume and what countries are they from?

Finny Philip: The writers are all South Asian—scholars from India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka contributed to the volume. The commentaries have been written by over ninety scholars. This resource represents the first effort of its kind written by South Asians.

What denominations do the commentators come from?

Finny Philip: Pentecostals, Baptist, Methodist, Brethren, Church of North India, Church of South India, and the rest are evangelicals and charismatics. Of the 92 scholars who contributed to SABC, 18 are Pentecostals including the two New Testament editors.

What are some of the main theological concerns facing the church in South Asia at this time?

Finny Philip: There a lot of issues that the commentary deals with.

To speak to South Asians powerfully and with relevance, the commentary uses local metaphors and imagery and helps its users apply the Bible to the challenges in their culture. In addition to the commentary, more than 100 topics are explored from a biblical perspective, including:

Bribery & Corruption

Caste

Children At Risk

Christian Bhakti (devotion) in South Asia

Death and Life after Death

Human Trafficking

Jesus in South Asia/ South Asian responses to Christ

Karma and Fatalism

Living as the People of God in South Asia

Mission of God in South Asia

The Finality of Christ

The Holy Spirit in South Asian Spirituality

Violence against Women

Witchcraft and Demons

Yoga, Gurus and God men

Karl Barth was an influential Swiss Reformed theologian that lived from 1886 to 1968. Featured on postage stamps and the cover of Time (April 20, 1962), today we would call him a rock star among theologians. A strong critic of those Christians who supported the Nazis, Barth is best known for his involvement in the neo-orthodoxy movement and writing Church Dogmatics. PneumaReview.com speaks with Terry Cross about why Barth remains so influential and what church leaders should glean from his prolific writings.

PneumaReview.com: You have been working with the theology of Karl Barth for many years. What has drawn your long-term interest?

Terry Cross: I began reading Barth seriously in 1980 while working on the MDiv thesis. I was comparing Karl Barth and the evangelical theologian, Carl Henry, on their views of revelation. Henry was quite adamant about some of Barth’s errors in relation to the Word of God—as were a number of evangelical scholars. However, when I actually read Barth himself, I realized that the caricatures made of him by many evangelicals did not hold water. Barth actually said in numerous places the direct opposite of what Henry thought he said. I began to wonder, ‘If Henry can read this incorrectly, what else has been written by Barth that deserves closer attention?’ That started my journey through the 13 volumes of the Church Dogmatics. It also fueled the flame to learn German well enough to read Barth in the original language he wrote. Over and over I have discovered that rather simplistic thumbnail sketches of Barth’s ideas on any one theological position have missed the complexity and nuance of Barth’s own words. In addition, as a Pentecostal theologian I became fascinated with some of Barth’s ideas as related to Pietism and, by extension, to Pentecostal thought. For example, in Church Dogmatics I/1, Barth expounds his idea that the Word of God has a threefold form—Jesus Christ (Word in flesh); Scripture (Word in writing); and Preaching/proclamation (Word of God in preaching/teaching). Barth has a rather “occasionalist” view of what occurs. The Scripture, for example, becomes the Word of God but may not be the Word of God (in some fundamentalist sense) because such equation of God’s Word in revelation with written Scripture can make the Bible into a “holy” book that has almost magical qualities instead of a record that becomes God’s Word when God’s Spirit enlivens it to our hearts. Indeed, Barth is the only theologian I know who has a pentecostal-like theology of preaching: our human words are taken up by God’s Spirit and are made clear and powerful as it becomes the Word of God to individual believers in the community of faith. In many ways, this seemed reminiscent to me of the high respect for preaching that Pentecostals have whereby a “word” from the Lord becomes clear and really rings true when the Spirit drives it home in our hearts.

PR: Some argue that Barth was the most important Protestant Theologian of the Twentieth Century. Do you agree?

Terry Cross: Barth is the only theologian I know who has a pentecostal-like theology of preaching: our human words are taken up by God’s Spirit and are made clear and powerful as it becomes the Word of God to individual believers in the community of faith.

Terry Cross: Yes, I do. While others have had long-lasting impact from the 20^th century (e.g., Tillich, Bultmann, Reinhold Niebuhr, Juergen Moltmann), Barth’s herculean shift of the balance of the weight off of the old Protestant liberalism of his professors (like Harnack and Herrmann) that signaled the immanence of God in human lives and onto a view of the transcendence of God in which God is entirely other than humans. The old liberal school had proposed that Jesus taught a valuable morality that we should follow, but was not divine. For them, God’s Spirit was to be equated with the human spirit—the human personality. Faith, then, was some psychological commitment that connected on a deep emotional level with God. Into this situation that seemed to glorify humans, Barth became frustrated with the easy manner in which his German professors rushed to support Kaiser Wilhelm going to war in 1914. Barth was a pastor in a small village in Switzerland at the time (Safenwil) and gave himself totally into the socialism of the day, working as the “red pastor” in assisting laborers to form unions and more equitable wages. By 1915, his excitement for socialism began to run dry and his theological source for preaching was no longer effective. Into this setting in 1915, Barth and his close friend (a nearby pastor named Thurneysen) began to study Scripture again, but this time not through the lens of historical criticism or psychological critique of the authors. They studied the book of Romans, all the while Barth wrote his thoughts about each verse in a notebook. In a later lecture, he described this encounter with Scripture as a “new world of the Bible.” What was this? He tried to listen to and read Scripture as if God himself were speaking to him today from this long-ago text. The result was a vivid freshness of his preaching and interpretation. Some called this a “pneumatic exegesis” because of the emphasis on the Spirit but also because of his sense that the Spirit operates with the text and with the hearer. The freshness of letting God be transcendent and speak to the Church through the Scriptures today was so powerful that one theologian described his commentary on Romans as a “bomb on the playground of theologians.” Instead of starting theology from the human dimension and attempting to build one’s way up to the divine (a la Schleiermacher), Barth began theology from the divine dimension and asked what God was saying to us through his revelation. While some folks during the decade of the 1920s called Barth’s theology “dialectical,” Barth himself preferred to speak of it as “a theology of the Word of God.” Almost singlehandedly Barth turned the theological trajectory away from the old Protestant liberal school of thought to a new, fresh way of viewing God that tended to sound more like the Protestant Reformers of the 1500s. To be even more precise, some felt they saw in Barth a simple rehashing of old Protestant Scholastic Orthodoxy of the 1600s and 1700s. For this alone, he could be considered an important theologian of the 20^th century, but add to that the depth of his understanding of the connections between Christology and various doctrines as well as his dogged determination to keep Christ as the center of the revelation of the triune God and we have someone who is not only innovative and interesting, but paradigm-setting for the future of the theological task.

Here is a woman from a Hindu background now passionately serving Jesus Christ. PneumaReview.com has the privilege to introduce you to Evangelist Dr. Esther Shekher and let her tell us about her ministry and her book, All the Commandments of God: Find Out the Secret to Inherit All the Blessings of God (Westbow, 2013).

PneumaReview.com: Please tell us about your ministry.

Esther V. Shekher: Calling of God…I am a Medical Doctor and a full time Missionary & Evangelist for the past 11 years. In 1989, the Lord, in His grace, enrolled me in His School of Training. He prepared me by taking me through numerous trials, especially the four major tests, namely, Character Test, Obedience Test, Word Test and Faith Test for the next 14 years. The tests got tougher and tougher and finally, to be honest before God, I felt like I was taking Ph.D. level tests in these four spiritual areas. Only by the grace of God, I could pass these tests according to God’s standard of righteousness. All glory to God!

Ministry Highlights

• Pastors’ Conferences…The Lord said to me, after preparing me for His calling for many years, in 2010, “Now you are worthy to preach to the Pastors and Believers of nations around the world.” The Lord Himself opened up opportunities for me to speak in Pastors’ Conferences. I ended up speaking in 35 Pastors’ Conferencesincluding National Chinese Pastors’ Conferences, National Methodist Pastors’ Conferences, AG Pastors’ Fellowships, etc., across Asia.
• I also spoke in numerous Churches of all denominations, Bible College, Prayer Revival Conferences, Women’s Meetings, Youth Camps, Rural Outreach, etc., in 5 nations – Malaysia, Singapore, USA, India and Sri Lanka, strengthening the believers and winning the lost to Christ. Praise be to God!
• Set up “Christ Rules Ministries” in 2008…The Lord enabled me to establish “Christ Rules Ministries” in 2008 to raise up fervent Intercessors and worthy Laborers for the Kingdom of God to win the lost souls to Christ.
• Established International Prayer Network (IPN) in 2010…The Lord gave me a divine strategy to start prayer cells through International Prayer Network (IPN) which I started in 2010 to intercede for the Salvation of every lost soul in Americaand in every other nation of the world. With the help of the Pastors and believers, so far, by God’s grace, I have started more than 7000 Prayer Cells in five different nations, namely, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, USA, India including Andaman Islands.
• TV Ministry: My TV messages are being aired on 2 television networks which cover more than 110 nations around the world.
• TV Ministry in USA in 2015:
  • Interview with Shana on Atlanta’s 57 WATC TV, Georgia on June 10, 2015.
  • Interview with Arthelene Rippy, Christian Television Network, Florida on June 15, 2015.
  • Interview with Dorothy and Russell, By the Book TV, WBPI, in Augusta, Georgia on June 26 and June 30, and on August 20, 2015.
  • Interviewed on August 19, 2015 on WGGS, Dove Broadcasting TV, Greenville, South Carolina.
• Prayer Ministry in USA…Since 2012, I have been preaching in several Churches in Stockton, Hayward, Galt and Bay Area in Northern California, and in Georgia. I have sowed the seed of prayer in the hearts of people and have started about 730 prayer cells to pray for the Salvation of every perishing soul living in these cities. I have also been preparing the believers for the soon coming Rapture.
• Publications…By God’s grace, I have written 2 books entitled, All the Commandments of God, Volume 1 and 2. The first book is a checklist of Jesus’ commandmentswith their rewards and consequences clearly explained, from the Gospels of Matthew and John, covering all the major topics in Christian faith. The second book is also on the same concept of God’s Commandments, taken from the Epistles of Apostle Paul, which will be published soon.
• Discipleship Seminars…I have been holding Discipleship Seminars based on my book entitled All the Commandments of God, using very interesting power-point presentations, to strengthen the believers in the Word of God.

• Seminars on End Times…I have been preaching on End Times and teaching the whole “Book of Revelation” using powerful power-point presentations, to bring the awareness about the Rapture and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ in the Churches.
• Social work: Started Gypsy Literacy Programs, Widows Ministry, Handicapped Ministry, Orphanage Ministry, etc., in Asia.

Shane Perry interviews Antipas Harris on TBN, Monday, January 4, 2016 at 7pm EST.

To see more from Antipas Harris, click on his name in the About the Author section below to see his author page where you will find a full listing of PneumaReview.com articles.

Matthew Elliot, project director for the Africa Study Bible, speaks with PneumaReview.com about this soon-to-arrive resource that millions of Africans have been praying for.

PneumaReview.com:  Where did the idea for the Africa Study Bible originate?

Matthew Elliot

Matthew Elliot: After ten years working in Africa and observing the needs first hand, by 2005 the leadership of Oasis was convinced that there was a great need for Bibles that fit the African context–bringing the power of Scripture to the continent in a new and culturally relevant way. With nearly every full evangelical study Bible having been written from a western perspective, Africans lack a resource that connects with their culture and experience. In our experience this really hinders discipleship. After exploring a number of options with major Bible publishers over the next five years, our board eventually decided in 2010 to embark on a landmark study Bible project that would eventually be named the Africa Study Bible.

PneumaReview.com: How has the church in Africa responded to this project?

Matthew Elliot: In many ways, it has been overwhelming. Many great leaders have volunteered their time, saying “we really need this, how can I help.” Whole denominations and movements of millions of people are waiting for their pastors and leaders to have access to the ASB. It is not uncommon for us to hear, “when is this going to be ready.” I basically never hear from a leader, “great, send me an email when this is ready.” Instead a typical response of a denominational leader is more like, “We need this as soon as possible. Please, will you come to our pastor conference next November to share the news of this amazing resource. And, here are the names of a couple of our professors who can write for you.”

We have also printed copies the Gospel of John and Genesis which have been received with open arms and and enthusiasm.  Including the free app of John, about 10,000 people have seen John and the response has been strong. A recent Google Store review from an African reads, “This is the best Bible I ever read. I love it please do the whole Bible like that it is awesome.” Pre-launch, thousands of African followers are gathering at our Facebook pages and are reviewing the ASB content on our online review website, anxiously awaiting its release.

PneumaReview.com: What organizations or denominations have supported it?

Anticipated cover for the Africa Study Bible.

Matthew Elliot: Tyndale House Publishers has been a cornerstone development partner, English will launch with the NLT. I don’t want to overstep in declaring all these names are official partners, but they have all helped in at least some way, many by helping with our writer network.  These include Wycliffe, Moody, Trans World Radio, The Association for Pentecostal Theological Education in Africa, SIM, Association of Evangelicals in Africa, Willow Creek Church, CRU, UMI, Center for Early African Christianity, ACTS, IFES–to name a few. There are over 50 denominations represented through the contributors of the ASB including Baptist, Pentecostal, Assemblies of God, Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Redeemed Christian Church of God.

PneumaReview.com: When will the African Study Bible be complete?

Matthew Elliot: We anticipate the English completion and launch in African countries by the end of 2016 and a US launch in February 2017 for Black History Month. Our goal is for it to be in French by 2019 and Portuguese by 2020.

PneumaReview.com speaks with Rolland Baker about Iris Global and his new book, Keeping the Fire.

Rolland and Heidi Baker

PneumaReview.com: Many people know about the work that you and Heidi are doing in Mozambique but Iris Global has leaders in over 30 nations. What are some of the other nations that Iris works in?

PneumaReview.com: In your new book, Keeping the Fire, you write about the five core values of Iris Global, please tell our readers what they are.

Keeping the Fire: Discovering the Heart of True Revival from Chosen (October 2016).

Baker: Our first core value is that we believe there is no limit to the extent of which we can know God and experience him. Jesus is not just the destination to some place, he is the destination. All the mysteries of life are hidden in him for us to discover as we seek Him with all our heart, mind, and soul. Not only can we find God, but also we depend on Him completely. This is our second core value. We do not put confidence in the flesh – either in people or plans. Our confidence is in Jesus, and all fruitfulness flows from intimacy with him. Our third core value is to look for revival and begin ministries, not always but as a general rule, at the bottom and not the top. This means going to the least, to the poor and the unwanted. It means going to the people most Churches don’t want to have anything to do with; the people others have given up on and thrown away. We go to the most hurting, the most broken, and the forgotten of the world as vessels of the kind of love the world has never seen. This leads to our fourth value, the willingness to suffer, if necessary, for the sake of the Gospel. The Bible tells us that we will share Jesus’ glory to the extent and in the proportion we share his suffering. Some people might teach that he suffered so that we won’t have to. But we in Iris don’t feel that way. We feel that he suffered so that he could save us from our sins and give us a heart like he has so that we can live the way He lived among evil opposition. We are not about to tell people that if you get into tough stuff that you’re doing something wrong. In fact, in this world we are told we will face evil opposition, but we also realize that trials and tribulations produce a character in us that proves to the glory of God. It was for the joy set before him that Jesus endured the cross. Therefore, our last value is deeply important, and that is the joy of the Lord. In His Presence is fullness of joy, and with Paul we testify that in all our troubles our joy knows no bounds. It is our strength and energy, without which we die. People tell me all the time places of persecution and difficulty are not places to experience joy. We are told that we need to get serious and focus on problems. But, it was the persecuted Christians in China that taught me that joy is the energy of the Holy Spirit. It’s the joy given by the Holy Spirit that kept Christians from losing hope in prison, solitary confinement, and torture in China. If they needed it, and if Jesus needed it to go through the Cross, then we must need it too! It’s for the joy set before us that we are willing to do the stuff. Without joy, life is meaningless. Love without joy is a killer. The perfection of Heaven, and of the gospel is that perfect love which results in joy and that’s the whole outcome of everything!

Doctors Craig and Médine Keener speak with PneumaReview.com about their new book, Impossible Love.

PneumaReview.com: Craig, you are a highly respected biblical scholar and a seminary professor. In Impossible Love, you mention that the Presence of God played a very important part in your conversion and that after becoming a Christian you prophesied regularly in church. Do you think that more emphasis on experiencing God should be part of a theological education?

Craig Keener and Médine Moussounga Keener, Impossible Love: The True Story of an African Civil War, Miracles and Hope against All Odds (Chosen, 2016).

Craig Keener: In an academic setting (at least a specifically Christian one) we can, and I do, talk about the life of the Spirit, but talk alone does not impart the Spirit nor substitute for mentoring in the ways of the Spirit. At the same time, teaching is a spiritual gift, and I believe that those of us who teach can model the life of the Spirit. Somehow the students see it and sense it; it can whet the appetite of students who don’t know about that empowerment and can also encourage those who do. There have also been times when the Spirit moved deeply during a student’s opening prayer and prophecies and other gifts occurred. But the clearest indication of the Spirit’s work is when lives are changed for the long term. The Bible of course is good at that, and I trust that the Spirit is always ready to speak through the Bible. Even if I were teaching Bible in a setting where I could not express my personal faith convictions, which I am not, I trust that God would work in people’s hearts through the Scriptures the way that he desires.

PneumaReview.com: It has been said that God does not waste any experiences in our lives. Craig, in the book you said “I discovered that a broken heart can help us to feel what matters to God, whose heart breaks for the world” (page 23). Please share with our readers some of the positive qualities that your own brokenness has produced in you.

Craig: One of the changes was a much deeper compassion for the broken and greater passion for justice. In the midst of my brokenness, I learned to share the good news not from a position of spiritual superiority but from one broken person to another about what is good news for us both. I found healing and strength in the African-American church, which knows how to deal with pain in a way that a lot of predominantly white North American churches don’t. Also my calling was something that I could no longer even pretend to hope to achieve; only God could make it happen. Things He spoke to me decades ago are happening in my life now; I’m full of gratitude now. But at the time, I could only humble myself beneath God’s hand and trust that, if He wished, He would exalt me in due time. It’s biblically normal to go through testing before fulfilling our callings, and I would guess that is the pattern for most of us. That way when God does choose to lift us up, we can look back and remember and know that it wasn’t us. It’s the faithfulness of our precious Lord.

PneumaReview.com: Médine, your experience in Congo was filled with many difficult circumstances including war, scarceness of resources, and family separation. Which was the most difficult for you to endure?

Médine: I would say family separation; it was easier for us to endure the lack of food, drinking water and other resources while together, but when my two brothers were separated from us, it was very hard. We often had dreams about them at night and during the day we wondered if they were sick, in danger or dead. The day we reunited with each of them was a glorious one.

John Lathrop interviews award-winning photographer Shamow’el Rama Surya for PneumaReview.com about his art and what he has seen God doing in remote places in West Papua.

John Lathrop: You are a photographer. How long have you been doing photography?

Shamow’el Rama Surya: My career in photography has already spanned more than 25 years. Starting in 1990, I studied photography in Bandung, West Java after I graduated from High School in my hometown in West Sumatra, Indonesia.

Lathrop: I know that you are also a Christian. Please tell our readers how you became a believer in Jesus.

Surya: I became a Christian on May 10, 2012. On that day, there was an event by a church in Jakarta who was doing a mass baptism service, about 500 people registered. I came there to take photographs of them. It was colossal to see so many people being baptized in this ceremony in the water. And it looked great on camera.

But, when I was there, God’s Spirit touched me and I felt a strong desire that I wanted to get saved as well. So, I spoke with an old lady beside me, telling her that I wanted to be baptized also, like others in this place. The lady’s response was to go quickly and register me. And she asked me, “Have you ‘new born’?”

I replied, “What’s that?”

The lady answered, “Okay, just follow my every word and at the end say Amen.”

So, I followed her instructions, I repeated the words and I said Amen.

I received a Bible as a gift from the lady’s friend, and since that day I started reading the Word of God.

God’s truth has set me free!

Shamow’el Rama Surya with students at Junior School.

Lathrop: In 2014, you made a trip to West Papua. What was the purpose of that trip?

Surya: A Christian ministry called Pelangi, “rainbow,” sent me to West Papua as a teacher. Pelangi ministers to street children from scavengers’ families in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Because the school has no English teacher, they requested that I teach English for the students there.

Before they sent me to Papua, I worked in Jakarta for five months.

After I came back from Papua, I worked with a publisher to produce a book named A Certain Grace.

PneumaReview.com: Why did you choose to write a book on theology?

Charles Carrin: I had a specific God-instruction to write a “charismatic catechism” for the benefit of Spirit-filled believers who had no such resource. I began working and the book assumed the nature of a theological-treatise. There are 300 questions and answers on a progression of 18 sub-topics, beginning with “Who Is God?,” and including questions about the Kingdom, the Church, the Bible, Mankind, Israel, Church History, Spiritual Gifts, the Devil/Demons, and Significant People. A beneficial feature of the book is that it can be opened at any page and the reader can begin studying a “capsule” of important Christian truth. The period of study can effectively be three minutes or three hours.

PneumaReview.com: Whom do you feel will benefit the most from this book?

Charles Carrin: There is something for every age and specialty-interest. Youth, middle-aged, seniors, will find an introduction to the Bible, Christianity, church history, and other important information. It will be of special help to the new Christian who is just beginning their learning process of Kingdom facts, or the long-time believer who needs to re-fresh his Christian education.

PneumaReview.com: How did you select the subjects that you included in the book?

Spirit-Empowered Theology (Chosen, 2017).

Charles Carrin: There were two motivations: A Catechism contains a progression of theological and historical topics. The format reads in an expanding way. One topic leads into another and as far as possible I pursued that development of thought. Themes were chosen in the hope that readers would continue pursuing them beyond the Catechism. Secondly, I prayed, seeking God’s direction for the fields I covered.

PneumaReview.com: Why did you include entries about things outside of the Bible, such as events and people in post apostolic church history?

Charles Carrin: I have been in ordained ministry almost 70 years and have had opportunity for long-range observations of strengths and failures among believers. Most Christians, including many pastors, are woefully uninformed about their own church history. In brief, I have included such historical facts as Emperor Theodosius decreeing in 380 A.D. that only those churches accepting Imperial endorsement and known as Roman Catholic would be recognized as official. All others would be heretic. Modern Christians need to know that there were more Bishops who boycotted this decree than accepted it. Even so, the minority was declared “official” and the others heretic. My hope is that the reader will be motivated to explore the church’s historical field far beyond what I have written. Most Protestants are unaware of their own antiquity.

PneumaReview.com: Please tell our readers briefly what your film The Insanity of God is about.

The Insanity of God (LifeWay Films 2016).
Read the review by Pastor John Lathrop.

Nik and Ruth Ripken: The Insanity of God journeys with Nik and Ruth Ripken as they seek to walk in obedience and follow what God has asked of them. From the hills of Kentucky to the villages of Africa they see God working and shaping and moving them until they come face to face that sometimes it costs a lot to believe and follow Christ. This fact became a stark reality in the civil war, famine, drought and death of Somalia. How do you make Christ known when it could cost those who hear the message their lives?

Nik and Ruth are faced with the tragedy of the death of their son and then go on a pilgrimage that takes them around the globe to answer the question, “Is Jesus Worth It?” They do this by going to believers living in places where persecution for their faith is an everything event and they ask them to share their stories.

The Insanity of God allows the viewer to see and hear some of the stories of faith and then struggle with that question along with Nik and Ruth.

PneumaReview.com: How did you choose the nations you went to in order to conduct your interviews?

Nik and Ruth Ripken: When we first felt the urgency of this task we developed a “Persecution Task Force” to help guide us. The group sat together and decided to open the Bible and see where the verses that addressed persecution and the cost of faith and found that from Genesis to Revelation this has been the plan. Following Christ costs something. The countries were selected by using Open Doors “World Watch List”. Nik looked at the list of the 50 most persecuted places on the planet and then grouped them together. He started in the Soviet areas where they had experienced persecution for many years and were coming out of the worst times. He knew they would have much to teach us. Then he moved to the other Communist areas. After that he moved back through areas of Buddhism, Hinduism and finally landing in places where Islam is in control.

PneumaReview.com: What qualities impressed you most about the people that you met with?

Nik and Ruth Ripken: The answer to this question could take volumes. If we had to narrow it down to a few ways that these believers impacted us, first would be the deep joy they exhibit when they talk about Jesus and who He is in their lives. No matter the persecution that has tried to silence them, they live in joy.

The largest revival in Christian history: PneumaReview.com speaks with Bible smuggler and missionary to Asia, Paul Hattaway, about his ministry and new autobiography, An Asian Harvest.

PneumaReview.com: You are the founder of a ministry called Asia Harvest. What prompted you to start this ministry and what types of work does Asia Harvest do?

Paul Hattaway: Our primary goal is to equip Asian believers to reach the remaining unreached people groups in their countries. Basically wherever there are tribes and people groups left who haven’t heard the Gospel, we want to help them be saved and walking in fellowship with the Lord Jesus. We currently support more than 1,500 evangelists working among over 800 people groups.

PneumaReview.com: How long have you been involved in this ministry? Where did you serve and what did you see God doing there?

Paul Hattaway: October 2017 marks 30 years since I met the Lord, and just six months after my conversion He called me to serve Him in China, so it has been a while. I went on a 6-week trip to carry Bibles to China but the Lord had a surprise in store and it was the start of a 30-year involvement!

Over the years our ministry Asia Harvest has expanded and now includes work in over a dozen Asian countries. We are privileged to serve in are China, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos and others.

PneumaReview.com: Shortly after you became a Christian you became “a donkey for Jesus.” Where did expression this expression come from?

Paul Hattaway: Being a ‘donkey for Jesus’ was a term created in the 1980s to describe the many Christians who travelled to Hong Kong to carry Bibles across the border to the spiritually-starving Christians in Mainland China. It was a great honor to be a donkey for the Lord this way and it was the start of my service in the kingdom of God. Several other ministry leaders we know also had their start this way.

PneumaReview.com: When were you baptized in the Holy Spirit what differences did this experience bring to your ministry?

Jack and Anna Marie Sheffield

Jack Sheffield: In 1973, I was converted to Christianity out from a pagan background, and I was baptized in the Holy Spirit in the same moment I was saved. I spoke in a heavenly language not even knowing what was happening to me. It was quite overwhelming! My rage, fear, trauma and rebellion was turned to radiant joy and peaceful love with an extreme desire to please my Jesus in every way. One night, not too long after my conversion, I broke past remnants of fear into a powerful anointing to preach and minister to people in a Methodist Church. It’s like I became “another man.” My fiancé asked a friend, “Who is that guy?” Shortly thereafter, because of this baptism in the Spirit, I had an encounter where Jesus drove me from a nap into a cotton field behind my house. I tried to hide away because I was weeping profusely with groaning and travailing! After a while, I crawled out into the grass, and I heard these words out loud, “You are going to carry my gospel to the nations.” My baptism in the Holy Spirit was a complete immersion in love for Jesus, and eventually led my wife and I to many nations on six continents.

PneumaReview.com: Did you receive a specific call to the healing ministry?

Jack Sheffield: Healing was a very real experience for me from the beginning of my walk with Jesus. It began with me. I was healed in spirit, soul, and physically on numerous occasions. Fear, guilt, shame and anger were washed away in wave after wave of His mercy. My spirit soared in ecstatic encounters of weeping only to be followed by bouts of laughing in glorious joy! My scared little spirit was married to the Holy Spirit and was learning all about freedom in Christ. Heart disease ran rampant in my family, and through a very stressful business attempt, I developed a bad heart. God used this to bring me to utter surrender to that cotton patch call. Jesus completely baffled my doctor when she examined me for my physical and discovered my heart was totally normal. I still have the two disparate EKG readouts.

It was then I realized I had a very distinct call to the healing ministry in the United Methodist Church.

This happened in the Summer of 1978. Healing began to manifest immediately in my ministry.

PneumaReview.com: In your book, God’s Healing River, you mention that “presence” is very important in healing. Please tell our readers what you are referring to.

Jack Sheffield: In the Fall of Adam and Eve, what was lost to humanity was the “presence” of the Lord. Adam hid from His presence in fear and, I believe shame. Jesus could not wait to get it back for us. Moses basically told God he was not going anywhere unless God’s presence went with Him. He said it was the only thing that distinguished his people from all the other peoples of the world. Presence is everything when it comes to healing. Without it, very little happens. My criteria for discerning the true presence of God is this when He “shows up”: 1) There is clarity in the atmosphere – Words preached or taught become very clear. People perk up attentively. 2) Brightness irradiates everyone present. There is a glow in the room and on people’s faces 3) There is a cleanness that is felt and experienced as real and tangible, and 4) Great joy breaks out which is “unspeakable and full of glory.” How do we get into that atmosphere? Ruth Ward Heflin used to say in the 1990’s, “You praise your way into worship, and you worship your way into the glory.” When the glory shows up in worship, healing and miracles can abound. We have seen it over and over again. Therefore, we worship Jesus all the time, even in our cars. The greater the worship, the greater the operations of healing gifts.

Lisa Sharon Harper is a follower of Jesus calling all followers of Jesus to love every person the same and seek their flourishing. PneumaReview.com speaks with her about her story and how God is inviting each of us to participate with him in making his Gospel of Peace real in our communities today.

PneumaReview.com: Please share with us some of your story. Where are you from? What Christian traditions do you most identify with? What have you been involved with for which you are most grateful to God?

Lisa Sharon Harper: To know me you must know my ancestors. God laid the foundations of who I am through them.

As a teenager, my mother was a member of the Philadelphia chapter of S.N.C.C. (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) in the mid-1960s. Her job was to connect Stokely Carmichael and others, such as James Farmer, with churches to speak in when they came through town. Her branch of our family tree reaches through the great northern migration, to enslaved and indentured family members in Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina as far back as 1650. Great grandfathers and uncles fought in every war this nation has ever seen; from the Revolutionary War through the Civil War to World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam. And one branch of the family, the Fortens of Philadelphia, served as primary financial backers of the abolitionist movement and helped build and lead the very first women’s equality gathering in Philadelphia in

My father was a member of C.O.R.E. (Congress of Racial Equality) in New York City. He attended the meeting where Freedom Summer participants were introduced: They were about to head to Mississippi to help register black Mississippians to vote. My father was considering joining Freedom Summer, but realized he needed to stay back and work for the summer. He met Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner at that meeting. My father’s father emigrated to the U.S. as a child joining his family in the South Bronx in New York City. They had arrived in waves over a period of years, directly following the United States’ annexation of the island. The earlier generation hailed from St. Kitts/Nevis where they were likely enslaved in extremely poor and brutal conditions. My great grandfather and his brother island-hopped looking for work throughout the turn of the century. His brother found work in Panama, building the canal.

My father’s mother was the daughter of an itinerate preacher who preached in all fifty states, according to family lore. She told me her father was college educated in British Guyana at the turn of the 20^th century. Most of her family, in fact, were college educated business people, she said. While the question of how black men were college educated businessmen in British Guyana at the turn of the century remains unclear. The Census revealed one clue: that my great grandfather was born in Holland and lived in a Dutch quarter of a French section of British Guiana.

Eugene Bach speaks with PneumaReview.com about the amazing things he has seen God doing in China, Iran, North Korea, and other difficult places. What can we learn about the causes of the greatest revival of our age? How can you learn more about these Jesus movements that few others seem to be talking about?

PneumaReview.com: You have written books about Christianity in China, North Korea, and Iran. How did you become interested in writing about the persecuted church?

Eugene in Delhi, India.

Eugene Bach: Firstly, I am not an author. I have written books, but writing is not my gift. It is not something that I am good at. What I have written comes out of a sense of duty rather than a traditional interest. My background is in special operations in the US Military. As a former US Marine, I feel much more comfortable working with my hands, crawling in mud, and shooting weapons than sitting at a laptop writing, but as I have traveled around the world I realized that there are not many things that are written about certain areas of the world where Christians are persecuted.

If I desire to study the history of the western church in America and Europe, I will undoubtedly find a plethora of books that fill thousands of libraries from floor to ceiling. I will find endless discussions, websites, university courses, and computer programs to help me understand and learn more about the places, dates, and people involved in American and European revivals.

In contrast, the world is witnessing the world’s largest revival take place in China. What is being written about it? Who is recording it? What will the coming generations use to reference it?

The largest revival of any Muslim nation on earth is taking place in Iran. What is being written about it? There are so many pastors, missionaries, and evangelists that are doing amazing things and seeing tremendous church growth, but their stories are largely unknown to the rest of the world.

PneumaReview.com: The growth of the church in China has attracted worldwide attention. What are some of the key factors that have contributed to this tremendous growth?

Eugene Bach: I do not want to pretend that I know the perfect answer to this question. I am not an expert on the house church in China. After having lived in China for more than 17 years, I have learned that the term “China Expert” is an oxymoron.

I want to be extremely careful not to glorify persecution. I do not want to peddle a theology that profits from the pain of persecution, but I cannot deny the role that persecution has played in the growth of the church in China.