Power Encounters Among Christians In The Western World

Describes personal encounters with the Holy Spirit, including the experiences of theologians, ministers, and missionaries

Provides a thematic discussion and case studies on the history and development of Pentecostal and Charismatic churches in the countries of South Asia, South East Asia and East Asia.

The message of Power Evangelism has been embraced around the world, and the book that started it all has become a classic, with more than one million sold. In 2006, Christianity Today named it one of the 50 most significant Christian books to be published in the last 50 years. This revised and updated edition describes the releasing of God’s power through signs and wonders to refresh, renew, heal and equip His people. Drawing from the teaching of the New Testament and with illustrations from his own experience, Vineyard leader John Wimber persuades the reader to “yield control of our lives to the Holy Spirit.” Though Wimber died in 1997, his teaching continues to spread throughout the Vineyard movement, through the broader renewal movement and to Christians across the globe, even those who do not consider themselves Charismatic. Co-author Kevin Springer—also a Vineyard pastor—has found that in the years since its first publication, Power Evangelism has only grown, and the results continue to be explosive. This edition includes a chapter-by-chapter study guide and reflects changes Springer and other power evangelism practitioners have made in presentation—not in content—for readers in the new millennium.

Power. Politicians crave it. Money buys it. And some people will do anything to get it. In a world where New Agers rely on crystals and channeling to tap into spiritual power, the Christian is reminded that Jesus used supernatural power to heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead. Two thousand years later, the world still desperately needs a Savior who works in power. However, many modern Christians are embarrassed and reluctant to preach a gospel accompanied by supernatural power. Our Western worldview conditions us to fit God into a neat, predictable mold. But Kraft is convinced that the power of the gospel will not be confined to our categories. Step by step, he offers a biblical understanding of signs and wonders and shows how Christians can become God's instruments to heal the sick, to work miracles, and to oppose the counterfeit powers of this age. There is something that makes ['Christianity with Power'] quite possibly great, maybe even a major publishing event to be noted some day when the history of the modern church is written. . . . Kraft helps us as no one else has in understanding our Western worldview in relation to the way the Holy Spirit is working today.Ó --from the Foreword

There is a profusion of missional issues emerging in the Asian fields that call Christ's followers to actively witnessing the Truth. Missionaries from different continents have come to serve the Asian nations, and yet, these God's loving missionaries' effectiveness often seem to have left in the shade by some damaging fruits and (sometimes) being too much of Westernness stemming from a diversity of lacking knowledge particularly the local contexts to contextualize, and lack of preparation. The irrefutable finding is appealing within the Asian mission study in regard to the essentiality in equipping the Christians so that the ministries in Asia will experience the effectiveness in cultivating the diverse contexts (cultures) with the text (Scripture) they have. Many principles and practical information from this book grew out of the authors' experiences and the reflection of Missiologists and scholars such as Andrew Walls, Christopher Wright, Kazoh Kitamori, Paul Hiebert, etc.

Acceptance of Christianity in Southern Polynesia during the eighteenth century proceeded rapidly without missionary activity. This fact attracted the attention of Alan Tippett, who served for twenty years as an Australian missionary to the Fiji Islands. What he found was that the key to their conversion lay in the fact that, without missionary presence, the south sea islanders responded to demonstrations of what Tippett learned to call "power encounters." These were contests, some staged, some not staged, in which there was a power encounter between the true God and the gods of the islanders in which the traditional gods were defeated. Kraft here discusses the fact that this power principle applies much more widely.

This volume focuses on a central question: What does a person need to know for developing a theology? In other words, this book will not only answer objections lodged against the study of theology, but will explain to students, pastors, and laypersons alike what a theologian actually does. It will also present different approaches to the study of theology and review the present status of theological reflection in various Protestant, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic traditions. In the first section of the book evangelical Protestant scholars describe the contributions various disciplines make to the study of theology. In the next section, evangelical Protestant scholars explain the distinctives of their approaches to doing theology. In the third part, theologians who do not identify with evangelical Protestant convictions seek to explain the distinctives of their approaches to doing theology. In the final section, Dr. Kantzer provides a summary analysis of how he does theology and interacts critically with a number of essays in this volume.

Appropriate Christianity examines contextualization in three crucial dimensions: truth, allegiance and spiritual power. With eighteen contributing authors including Sherwood Lingenfelter, Paul E. Pierson, Paul H. DeNeui, and Paul G. Hiebert, this compilation is a must-read for the student of contextualization.