Sites that promote Word & Spirit content

In the nearly four years that I have been blogging, I have provided dozens of links to other sites. In fact, it's probably the best service I have rendered here. I love surfing the Net and sharing neat stuff I find along the way.

Today's entry is going to be a little different. I will be providing links again --- but to the sites that link back to here.

First, I am honored to have a link to my blog on The Foundation for Pentecostal Scholarship website. Robert Graves, the president of TTFPS, was kind enough to e-mail and say, "Just discovered your blog. It is the best by a Pentecostal that I have seen." Here is the link (once there, you need to scroll to the bottom of the page).

Second, on February 28 I reviewed the initial issue of Rick Warren's Purpose Driven magazine. A link to that review (and others) is provided on the Purpose Driven Connection website.

Third, in the July/August 2006 issue of Ministry Today magazine, I wrote a review of Bishop N. T. Wright's book, Simply Christian (HarperSanFrancisco). The website devoted to all-things-Wright, www.ntwrightpage.com, provides a link to that review (again, once there, you will need to scroll down almost to the bottom of the page).

Fourth, the Pneuma Foundation website has a link to the article I did on open source theological education for Ministry Today magazine in its November/December 2006 issue. (The link on Pneuma Foundation's page is about a 1/4 of the page down).

Fifth, my friend, Paul Wilkinson, at his blog, Thinking Out Loud, linked to an item I posted about reading through the Scriptures.

Finally, the painting I did of William Wilberforce, can be seen here. Just kidding. One of my father's ancestors, John Rising --- not Jon Rising --- did the painting.

Notes & Asides: The church of the late, disgraced preacher, Earl Paulk, has been sold. You can read about that here .... Darrell Bock and Ben Witherington III are among the scholars participating in a conference entitled, "The Bible and the American Future: A National Theological Conference" on October 18-20 in Lincoln, Nebraska .... Witherington, an Arminian, wrote an article about John Calvin for Christianity Today magazine in September. It can be read here .... The video of Dr. Mark Rutland's inauguration as the president of Oral Roberts University can be see here .... the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible is being updated with the publication slated for 2011. The Committee on Bible Translation (CBT) will do the update. The CBT includes Gordon Fee, Craig Blomberg, Bruce Waltke, Douglas Moo, Mark Strauss, and eight others.

Bethesda celebrates its 75th anniversary

Seventy-five years ago, in an old tire store on Nevada Avenue in Detroit, a mother of three started a Sunday School for her children and others in the neighborhood.

Tomorrow, more than 3,900 Sundays later, what has become the Bethesda Christian Church will celebrate all that God has done.

M. D. "Mom" Beall was that mother that started the Sunday School. She wasn't looking to pastor a mega-church, but that's what grew from her efforts. Over the decades, what was then known as, the Bethesda Missionary Temple, grew and grew without any of the church growth methods advocated today.

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According to her obituary in the Detroit News in September 1979:

"Membership in the tiny church, with Mrs. Beall as pastor, 'just exploded,' said her son, James. When the church grew out of its tiny quarters, Mrs. Beall's husband, a builder joined the project.

"'Dad was the builder; mother the pastor,' her son recalled."

Today, Bethesda is a suburban church in Sterling Heights, Michigan, seating 3,000. It is non-denominational, and can be characterized as Pentecostal or Charismatic (if by Pentecostal one means, practicing speaking in tongues, and if by Charismatic one means, operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit).

After revival broke out in Saskatchewan in 1948, Mom Beall traveled to Western Canada to see what it was all about. Specifically, she went to meetings in Vancouver where the revival had spread, as well.

She returned ablaze with revival fire, and her church in Detroit became one of centers of what became known as, the Latter Rain Movement. Other cities with prominent Latter Rain churches were Portland, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Memphis, and Houston.

Like far too many Pentecostal revivals, pernicious error crept into some of the churches. The most pronounced of these errors was a doctrine called, The Manifest Sons of God. Proponents of that doctrine taught that it did not matter what they did in their mortal bodies, because they had been spiritually glorified. Mom Beall and her children, who all followed her into the ministry, were grieved by such erroneous teaching and withstood it completely.

To my knowledge, the definitive work on the Latter Rain Movement is Dr. Richard Riss's, The Latter Rain Movement of 1948.

Balanced Biblical teaching and spontaneous, anointed praise and worship have been hallmarks of church life at Bethesda. In fact, the late Judson Cornwall, known for his teaching on praise and worship, stood in Bethesda's pulpit once and told the congregation, "I'm not sure why you've asked me to preach on praise and worship. The first time I ever heard the kind of praise and worship that I teach about, I was listening to a tape recording of this congregation." The beauty and harmony of Bethesda's spontaneous worship has been compared to a "heavenly choir" by many that have visited the church.

As noted, Mom Beall passed away in 1979. Her eldest, Patricia Gruits, is in her 80s now, but remains active in teaching and missions ministries. Her book, Understanding God, is a best-seller read worldwide.

The son quoted in the obituary, James Beall, went on to become one of the best-loved speakers in the charismatic movement of the 1970s. From articles in the Logos Journal to speaking at major events like the World Conference on the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem to teachings delivered to Roman Catholic charismatic audiences, James was in the thick of things. He wrote several books, including Laying the Foundation, a methodical teaching on the Christian life using Hebrews 6 as its springboard. He assumed both the pastorate of Bethesda and the microphone of the national radio broadcast, America to Your Knees, from his mother. After decades in Bethesda's pulpit he retired from daily ministry in 2004. He is seen in the photograph above, commissioning his daughter, Analee Dunn, to the senior pastorate.

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The youngest of the three, Harry Beall Jr., was for years Bethesda's minister of music and treasurer, in addition to ministering the Word there and in congregations throughout the United States. Now retired from Bethesda's ministry, he lives in Mesa, Arizona.

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I salute and thank Bethesda, its congregation and ministers, for 75 years of faithful service. Enjoy your celebration tomorrow!

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Bethesda's website can be accessed here. The bulletin for tomorrow's service can be seen here.

REVIEWED: "Simply Christian"

By Jon Rising
Ministry Today magazine, July/August 2006

Your friend tells you he is going to write a book of apologetics and Christian theology that will — in 240 pages — answer satisfactorily how it is that the Christian faith is reasonable, then go on to explain the continuity of the Christian message across the two testaments, before winding up with explanations of the Trinity, baptism, the canon of Scripture and life in the Spirit.

You avert your eyes from making contact with his. You shift your weight uneasily. You know he is biting off more than he can chew. Unless, of course, your friend is the Bishop of Durham, England, N.T. Wright.

One is tempted to say that Wright's Simply Christian — sure to become a classic — is his magnum opus. Simply the ability to elucidate such critical philosophical and theological themes in short compass would earn that praise. However, Wright already has a magnum opus. The bishop, 57, is best known for his multi-volume work on the New Testament, Christian Origins and the Question of God. It is a work of first-rate scholarship that has earned much acclaim.

But, as he has shown in Simply Christian, Wright knows how to distill the fruits of scholarship for a popular audience. He has done the same in his commentary series, The New Testament for Everyone (written under the name Tom Wright).

There is not a lull in the book — no dissatisfying sections. There are very high moments, though. In the chapter on beauty, the Anglican Wright will have Pentecostal readers coming out of their seats shouting. A sense of worship will be stirred as he deftly explains the Incarnation. And all should marvel as he unpacks the genius of the biblical narrative.

The rich texture God's wisdom calls for the reading and writing of many books (Wright has penned more than 40 himself), but a person who might be exposed to just one Christian tome would be well served by this one.

Strang Communications 2006

A video of Wright lecturing about Simply Christian at the National Cathedral in Washington D. C.  can be seen here.

Gordon Fee pens new commentary

A spokesperson for Eerdmans Publishing Company confirmed for Word & Spirit that Gordon Fee's commentary on the Thessalonian letters is scheduled for release in July.

Fee's volume will replace in the New International Commentary on the New Testament series the volume written by Leon Morris.

Roger Olson critiques Pentecostalism

Not every critque of the Pentecostal movement is friendly or irenic. Roger Olson's is.

Olson is a professor of theology at Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary and a prolific writer (his The Story of Christian Theology, for instance, is a treasure).

He has also spoken in tongues and was, in fact, raised in a Pentecostal home. But, he is Pentecostal no longer. The anti-intellectualism of the movement was one of the factors that drove him away.

Olson's critique of the Pentecostal movement was printed in The Christian Century in 2006, the 100th anniversary of the modern Pentecostal movement.

His comments that specifically addressed Pentecostal anti-intellectualism went this way:

"Endemic to Pentecostalism is a profoundly anti-intellectual ethos. It is manifested in a deep suspicion of scholars and educators and especially biblical scholars and theologians. Yes, there are some Pentecostal scholars who are respected outside the movement: Russell Spittler served as a dean at Fuller Theological Seminary for years; Gordon Fee taught New Testament at Regent College in Vancouver and produced highly regarded volumes in biblical studies; Amos Yong holds a Ph.D. from Boston University and teaches in the doctoral program at Regent University Graduate School of Divinity. Yet too many Pentecostal leaders hold even their own scholars at arms length and view them with suspicion. Merely being a member of the Society for Pentecostal Studies often brings a Pentecostal scholar’s commitment to the movement into question.

"This is without doubt the main reason I drifted away from the movement and eventually broke from it. I was not satisfied with the pat answers I was given by my mentors and teachers to questions I had about Pentecostal doctrines and practices ....

"Not all Pentecostals are anti-intellectual or revel in incoherence. But a deep antipathy to critical rationality applied to theology is a hallmark of the movement. Too often spiritual abuse in the form of shame is directed at those, especially young people, who dare to question the teachings of highly placed Pentecostal ministers and evangelists.

"I was one of the first Open Bible members to attend seminary and, like most Pentecostals who did that, I left the movement. I felt pushed out for wasting my time on intellectual pursuits rather than becoming a missionary or evangelist. Today evangelical seminaries are full of Pentecostal youths. Many of them still find doors closed when they return to their home denominations for ordination or for leadership positions in churches. Pentecostal scholars too often have to work outside Pentecostal institutions and live in the shadows and on the margins of the movement.

"Shaking off this anti-intellectual attitude won’t be easy for the movement; it is part of Pentecostalism’s DNA. A good beginning would be to draw those Pentecostal scholars who work on the margins into the movement’s centers of power and leadership. Honest and open dialogue between Pentecostal leaders and the movement’s own intellectuals -- with promises there will be no negative consequences -- could help shake off some of the mutual suspicion and fear that haunts their relationships. And Pentecostal leaders need to pledge never again to subject eager, faithful and intellectually inclined young people to shame merely for asking tough questions about Pentecostal distinctives."

The full article entitled, "Pentecostalism's Dark Side", can be read here.

Zondervan has published a book that addresses anti-intellectualism in the Pentecostal movement. Assemblies of God missionary Rick Nanez is the author of "Full Gospel, Fractured Minds?" My review of Nanez' book was published in 2006 in Ministry Today magazine. That review can be read here (readers will need to scroll down that linked page to get to the review).

Oh-so-quotable

"When John stood up after his encounter with the risen Lord, I suspect he was more fully John than ever before. Why? Knowing Papa does that to you. You become yourself by knowing Him as He really is," Larry Crabb in The Papa Prayer (Integrity).

"The gospel is both gift and demand. It is a divine call to both forgiveness and discipleship. It invites us both to 'come and dine' and to 'come and die,'" Larry Hart in Truth Aflame (Zondervan).

"Preaching parables is not the only way to preach to a postmodern. However, as a story it has an appeal to a worldview that rejects the larger story of life but is open, indeed curious, about the smaller stories. The preacher looks for ways to seed the Word. The use of parables is such a way," Brian Stiller in Preaching Parables to Postmoderns (Fortress Press).

"If Christians today were to learn discernment in large numbers, most television evangelists would go out of business!" Simon Chan in Spiritual Theology (InterVarsity Press).

"Like other recent Pentecostal and charismatic scholars such as Gordon Fee and former cessationist Jack Deere, I believe the position that supernatural gifts have ceased is one that no Bible reader would hold if not previously taught to do so," Craig Keener in Gift & Giver (Baker Academic).

"Although there is honest disagreement among Christians about the vailidity of tongues today, I personally cannot find any biblical justification for saying the gift of tongues was meant exclusively for New Testament times," Billy Graham in The Holy Spirit (Thomas Nelson).

Fee and Hubbard publishing new book

Renowned scholars Gordon Fee (left) and Robert Hubbard Jr. have compiled The Eerdmans Companion to the Bible and according to the publisher it will be released in October.

Fee is professor emeritus of New Testament studies at Regent College in Vancouver. A profile of his career was published on this blog last July 8.

This week, Regent is airing an audio lecture series by Fee on its internet broadcasting arm, Regent Radio. The 11-lecture series, The Holy Spirit in Pauline Theology, is based on his massive study on that subject, published in book form as, God's Empowering Presence. The syllabus for the lecture series is available here.

Earlier this month, his commentary on Galatians won an award from The Foundation for Pentecostal Scholarship. Also in April, Zondervan posted a video on YouTube where Fee notes that his favorite modern author is Bishop N. T. Wright.

Hubbard (right), professor of Old Testament at North Park Theological Seminary, is best known for his well-received commentary on the book of Ruth, as well as, his contribution to Introduction to Biblical Interpretation (Thomas Nelson), co-authored with Craig Blomberg and William Klein. A video of Hubbard discussing his forthcoming commentary on Joshua can be seen here.