The complex and sometimes contradictory articulation of ethnicity, religion and gender informs this book on the cultural construction of identity for Jamaican migrants in Britain. The author argues that religion -- in this case Pentecostalism -- cannot be understood simply as a means of spiritual compensation for the economically disadvantaged. Rather, in the New Testament Church of God, one of Britain's largest African Caribbean churches, the cosmology of the church resolves the questions surrounding identity as well as suffering. Religious participation is one way in which African Caribbean people negotiate the terms of representation and interaction in British society.

Foundational Teaching from Bestselling Author John Eckhardt We are currently experiencing the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit the world has ever known. God is raising up a new generation of people willing to move in kingdom authority--and you can be part of it! Join bestselling author John Eckhardt, world-renowned apostle and teacher, as he clarifies the gift and functions of apostolic ministry. Observing the roots of our biblical heritage, Eckhardt explores the function of an apostle--both the office and also the gifting every believer carries. With keen insight he reveals how the apostolic dimension affects all aspects of the local church and how apostolic leadership points the way toward fulfillment of the Great Commission. Now is the time to respond to the call. Receive your apostolic commissioning and watch for breakthrough in the hearts around you.

What you believe is a result of what you think. When believers allow God's Word to renew their minds, they begin thinking the right scriptural way to walk in victory.

This book is about that treasured doctrine of Pentecostalism: baptism in the Holy Spirit, understood as a work subsequent to conversion to Christ. Since the British theologian James Dunn's publication of his influential work Baptism in the Holy Spirit, there has been heated response from Pentecostals in defense of the doctrine. Key players are Roger Stronstad, Howard Ervin, David Petts, James Shelton, Robert Menzies, and ex-Pentecostal Max Turner. This book reviews Pentecostal criticisms of Dunn with respect to Luke-Acts, concluding that Pentecostals are right: for Luke, receiving the Spirit was not the inception of new covenant life. It was a powerful enabling for prophecy and miracles; for the church's outward mission and its internal life. After placing Luke-Acts in a wider canonical context, the book closes with some practical lessons from Luke-Acts for today's Pentecostal churches.

This collection of essays from established scholars and rising stars offers fresh perspectives in eschatology for the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. The fresh readings of eschatology in this volume are valuable because they demonstrate that Pentecostals no longer need to look to others to interpret their theology for them but can stand as scholars and thinkers in their own right.

Bestselling Author and Missionary Rolland Baker Reveals the Heart of True, Lasting Revival "There has been much talk in recent years of revival," says bestselling author and missionary Rolland Baker, "so much so that I wonder at times whether revival itself has become the object of devotion." Too often believers seek out revival, not the Reviver. When unchecked, they often pursue an emotional or physical experience or focus on how many came to Christ, rather than worship Jesus himself. Yet the heart of true, lasting revival is Christ--of falling in love with him so deeply that you can't help but tell others about him. And that, says Baker, is what has fueled him, his wife, Heidi, and all of Iris Ministries over the last thirty years. "This book is about sustaining revival over decades," says Baker. "By that I mean it is a book about falling in love and staying in love with the person of Jesus Christ. Revival is about the Reviver, nothing more and nothing less. My prayer is that you will fall in love with him with all your heart as you read these pages, and that you will not be able to resist giving that love away, wherever you place your feet."

Pentecostalism is one of the most dynamic forces in twentieth-century Christianity. From fast-growing denominations such as the Assemblies of God to popular television ministries such as "The 700 Club," the fruits of Pentecostalism can be seen throughout modern Christian life.
In this landmark study, Donald Dayton explains how Pentecostalism grew out of Methodism and the nineteenth-century holiness revivals. He finds evidence of Wesleyan teaching in the classic writings of many Pentecostal leaders. He shows how Pentecostalism is rooted in the Wesleyan theological tradition, rather than being a contrived system of modern revivalistic ides. Martin E. Marty says in his foreword that Pentecostals "have no choice, it is clear from this book, but to see that there were . . . roots to the growth they reaped." He calls "Theological Roots of Pentecostalism" "a very important statement . . . one without which subsequent commentators on Pentecostalism are not likely to give intelligent accounts."

Research on Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity has increased dramatically in recent decades, and a diverse array of disciplines have begun to address a range of elements of these movements. Yet, there exists very little understanding of Pentecostal theology, and it is not uncommon to encounter stereotypes and misperceptions. Addressing this gap in current research, The Routledge Handbook of Pentecostal Theology is an exceptional reference source to the key topics, challenges, and debates in this growing field of study and is the first collection of its kind to offer a comprehensive presentation and critical discussion of this subject. Comprising over forty chapters written by a team of international contributors, the Handbook is divided into five parts: Contextualizing Pentecostal Theology Sources Theological Method Doctrines and Practices Conversations and Challenges. These sections take the reader through a comprehensive introduction to what Pentecostals believe and how they practice their faith. Looking at issues such as the core teachings of Pentecostalism concerning Spirit baptism, divine healing, or eschatology; unique practices, such as spiritual warfare and worship; and less discussed issues, such as social justice and gender, each chapter builds towards a nuanced and global picture of the theology of the Pentecostal movement. The Routledge Handbook of Pentecostal Theology is essential reading for students and researchers in Pentecostal Studies, World Christianity, and Theology as well as scholars working in contemporary Religious Studies.

This book examines the complex and multifaceted nature of African Pentecostal engagements with genders and sexualities. In the last three decades, African Pentecostalism has emerged as one the most visible and profound aspects of religious change on the continent, and is a social force that straddles cultural, economic, and political spheres. Its conventional and selective literal interpretations of the Bible with respect to gender and sexualities are increasingly perceived as exhibiting a strong influence on many aspects of social and public institutions and their moral orientations. This collection features articles which examine sexualities and genders in African Pentecostalism using interdisciplinary methodological and theoretical approaches grounded within traditional African thought systems, with the goal of enabling a broader understanding of Pentecostalism and sexualities in Africa.

Christopher A. Stephenson offers the first critical study of the major theologians of pentecostalism, one of the fastest growing and most influential religious traditions in the world. Drawing on the scholarship of Myer Pearlman, E. S. Williams, French L. Arrington, Simon K. H. Chan, Frank D. Macchia, Amos Yong, and others, Stephenson establishes four original categories that classify recent pentecostal theologians' methodologies in systematic/constructive theology. The four categories are based on the arrangement of Biblical texts, the relationship between theology and Christian spirituality, doctrine concerning the kingdom of God, and pneumatology as a base for philosophical and fundamental theology. Stephenson analyzes each methodological type, then suggests a pentecostal theological method that builds on the strengths of each. He then offers his own, original contribution: an argument for a reciprocal relationship between pentecostal spirituality and doctrine that follows the pattern of lex orandi, lex credendi, and develops a doctrine of the Lord's supper as a demonstration of this reciprocal relationship. Types of Pentecostal Theology provides critical insight into such fundamental issues as the relationship between theology and philosophy, the dynamic between scripture and tradition, and similarities and differences between recent pentecostal theology and other currents in contemporary theology.

Theology has a rich tradition across the African continent, and has taken myriad directions since Christianity first arrived on its shores. This handbook charts both historical developments and contemporary issues in the formation and application of theologies across the member countries of the African Union. Written by a panel of expert international contributors, chapters firstly cover the various methodologies needed to carry out such a survey. Various theological movements and themes are then discussed, as well as biblical and doctrinal issues pertinent to African theology. Subjects addressed include: * Orality and theology * Indigenous religions and theology * Patristics * Pentecostalism * Liberation theology * Black theology * Social justice * Sexuality and theology * Environmental theology * Christology * Eschatology * The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament The Routledge Handbook of African Theology is an authoritative and comprehensive survey of the theological landscape of Africa. As such, it will be a hugely useful volume to any scholar interested in African religious dynamics, as well as academics of Theology or Biblical Studies in an African context.

True Joy is Powerful

When despair becomes the spirit of the age, and hopelessness breeds increasing chaos, how should Christians respond?

For dark times like these, God has given His children a sure anchor and a powerful weapon: Joy.

Pastor and worship leader, Roland Worton believes that God is inviting the Church to practice this fruit of the Spirit at an unparalleled level. In The Surprising Power of Joy, Worton teaches you how to walk in a contagious spirit of joy that releases Heaven’s atmosphere into your world.

• Encounter the profound reality of God’s joy
• Discover the powerful impact that joy can have on your everyday life
• Release Kingdom joy to change atmospheres around you
• Disable and disempower the spirits of despair and hopelessness

For more than sixteen years, veteran journalist J. Lee Grady has kept a finger on the pulse of the charismatic and Pentecostal renewal, which restored the power of the Holy Spirit to the church, but which now suffers from abuse. Since many Spirit-empowered believers have lost their original focus and purity, Grady delves into some of the problems that plague churches and ministries: financial scandal, faulty theology, moral failure, and more.
Yet the message of this fervent journalist, who loves the gifts of the Spirit, isn't one of condemnation and finger-pointing. Instead it is a clarion call to restore the fire of supernatural anointing with biblical boldness, purity, integrity, humility, truth, justice, and compassion. Grady longs for every believer to find or recover a genuine experience with the Holy Spirit.
Among the topics he addresses are
- the genuine work of the Holy Spirit
- strategies for developing healthy leaders
- how to set up proper accountability structures
- why so many churches and ministries have imploded in recent years
With extraordinary insight, a keen eye for discernment, and a desire to see the church purified and believers empowered, Grady gives a straightforward and ultimately affirming message that will expose the problems and ignite believers with God's fire.

"It's not a process," one pastor insisted, "rehabilitation is a miracle." In the face of addiction and few state resources, Pentecostal pastors in Guatemala City are fighting what they understand to be a major crisis. Yet the treatment centers they operate produce this miracle of rehabilitation through extraordinary means: captivity. These men of faith snatch drug users off the streets, often at the request of family members, and then lock them up inside their centers for months, sometimes years. Hunted is based on more than ten years of fieldwork among these centers and the drug users that populate them. Over time, as Kevin Lewis O'Neill engaged both those in treatment and those who surveilled them, he grew increasingly concerned that he, too, had become a hunter, albeit one snatching up information. This thoughtful, intense book will reframe the arc of redemption we so often associate with drug rehabilitation, painting instead a seemingly endless cycle of hunt, capture, and release.

Jesus’ disciples heard every message, witnessed every miracle and deliverance and healing and we don’t see one recorded time where they asked Him, “Teach us to preach,” or “Teach us to heal,” or “Teach us to deliver.” After spending three and a half years with the Son of God in the flesh, they cried out to Him, “We want Your prayer life… Teach Us to Pray!” They understood that Jesus’ public life of ministry was the result of His private life of prayer with the Father.

It’s in light of this reality that we must begin to shift all of our discipleship and training of the next generation. We are living in turbulent days, therefore we must get back to the foundational realities of intimate connection with heaven. We must come out of the swirl of noise and busyness and distraction and reconnect to heaven so that we will see heaven’s invasion into the earth.

Corey Russell has given himself to 30-plus hours of prayer a week for the last 20 years, and longs to take the lessons he has learned through all the seasons of life and impart them to as many as will receive.

Discover how:

• To tune out the noise, distractions, and busyness of our culture and cultivate hours at the feet of Jesus
• To allow the Lord to remove all of the props we build our lives on and hear His voice
• To ascend to the throne of God and see His power manifested in our families, our circumstances, and our world
• To persevere in prayer when you hit walls of resistance
• To be sent with authority and power and compassion into the world around you
• To build a life of consistent prayer that hosts the anointing of prayer
• To go from being an echo of someone else’s message to becoming a voice in your generation
• To develop a deeper intimacy with the Holy Spirit+BB36

This state-of-the-field overview of Pentecostalism around the world focuses on cultural developments among second- and third-generation adherents in regions with large Pentecostal communities, considering the impact of these developments on political participation, citizenship, gender relations, and economic morality. Leading scholars from anthropology, sociology, religious studies, and history present useful introductions to global issues and country-specific studies drawn from Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the former USSR.

In the first critical study of the major theologians of pentecostalism, one of the fastest growing and most influential religious traditions in the world, Christopher A. Stephenson establishes four original categories to classify pentecostal theologians' methodologies in systematic/constructive theology. The four categories are based respectively on: the arrangement of biblical texts; the relationship between theology and Christian spirituality; doctrine concerning the kingdom of God; and pneumatology as a basis for philosophical and fundamental theology. Stephenson analyzes each methodological type and suggests a pentecostal theological method that builds on the strengths of each. He then offers his own, original contribution, arguing for a reciprocal relationship between pentecostal spirituality and doctrine that follows the pattern of lex orandi, lex credendi, and develops a doctrine of the Lord's supper as a demonstration of this reciprocal relationship. Types of Pentecostal Theology provides critical insight into such fundamental issues as the relationship between theology and philosophy, the dynamic between scripture and tradition, and the similarities and differences between recent pentecostal theology and other currents in contemporary theology.

In her powerful, prophetic teaching style, bestselling author Jennifer Eivaz helps readers to continually sharpen their gifting in order to minister healing, breakthrough, and a supernatural display of God's glory. Helping those with this unique and powerful anointing, she teaches how to * learn the value of spending time in the secret place with God * distinguish the extraordinary voice of God * grow in knowledge of signs and dreams * avoid pet doctrines, fads, and heresies * understand when to keep a prophetic word, and when to let it go The world is desperate to hear the voice of God clearly--it is vital that his prophets give true expression to all that is on his heart. Are you prepared to become all God has created you to be?

Using the concept of a "religious market", this volume explores how African Traditional Religions and churches within Prophetic Pentecostalism in Zimbabwe seek to attract and retain members and clients. Chapters provide extensive coverage of two of the leading churches, namely, Emmanuel Makandiwa's United Family International Church (UFIC) and Walter Magaya's Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries (PHD). Contributors also explore the strategies adopted by Pentecostalism in general, while others focus on African Traditional Religions. They show that although Prophetic Pentecostalism has gained a significant share of the market in Zimbabwe and in Southern Africa in general, it is not without controversy. In particular, it has been associated with the abuse of women and exploiting members and clients for financial gain. Innovation and Competition in Zimbabwean Pentecostalism is an important contribution to understanding the marketization of religion.