CHAPTER 5
NZ-WIDE REVIVAL
Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you (Psa 85:6)?
In continuing to anchor this study in the context of Auckland, I will regard the wider charismatic renewal in New Zealand from 1965-1989 as a revival. In this chapter, I will test this,[1] by examining its rise and fall against existing revival theory.[2] A discussion follows as to the capacity of the revival to progress into a subsequent phase of transformative revival. Based on this, I develop a theory of four phases of revival. Throughout, I identify thirteen revival principles.
My intent is to tell a simple story based on personal involvement in the revival, as the basis for reviewing missional theology rather than to give a detailed history. My involvement ranges from the years 1981-1989, living in community for part of that time with Bob and Prue Wakelin, who were running Inspirational Tapes and recorded most of the major conferences in the development of the revival, and Geoff and Gayle Stevens, who exercised a prophetic role to many communities that had formed across the nation. I travelled to over 50 charismatic churches and communities each year I was in New Zealand, ranging from charismatic Anglican and Methodist churches to new Pentecostal ones and small fledgling communities.
Progression into RevivalThe renewal began in the early 1960’s (Steel, 2003:125) as a small stream that became a river of nation-wide revival. It was preceded by a period of brokenness and prayer, of the common believer searching for God beyond the traditions. This led to an encounter with God for many who are now the country’s spiritual leaders. It resulted in new patterns of worship and the exercise of spiritual gifts.
George Bryant describes the sense of spiritual decline in the 1970’s and 1980’s:
As the number of Christians in the mainline denominations reaches their lowest ebb ever, as the population turns in droves to atheism and agnosticism… Between 1976 and 1981 census membership of the four mainline New Zealand churches — Anglican, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian and Methodist — dropped by a massive 190,496 or 8.9%.… Mix up the philosophies of liberalism, humanism, secularism and modernism with that of materialism and you have a built in recipe for decay in Christ’s church on earth (1986:3,7,9).
Into this barrenness, the testimony of new experiences of the charismatic renewal found fertile ground among lay people. The possible renewal of churches, viewed by progressive church leaders as a way to success, allowed for tacit or active assent.[3]
THE SEARCH FOR THE SPIRITH. W. Annan (1997) speaks of his experience at the early Palmerston North epicentre:
I was immersed in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in 1959 at Palmerston North — an experience that was to lift my vision and increase my expectation of what God wanted to do in our nation…
The 60’s decade was a decade of discovery… An insatiable appetite dawned upon groups of young people especially, to seek God in ways that were not taught; unstructured spontaneous prayer times, calling out to God expecting response, lying on the floor and sometimes banging on the floor with hands, weeping and praying. This hunger led to a search for answers and for books where answers may be found…
Denominational boundaries were crossed in the search for ‘enduement from on high’. The desire for evangelism surpassed the tradition of denominational loyalty. Informal gatherings in homes increased to fellowship around the quest for answers. At first the ones and two’s were filled with the Holy Spirit followed by larger numbers until there was an obvious move under way. Frequently interdenominational meetings were springing up and the desire for church unity became the ‘in’ word.
A prophet, Arthur Wallis, travelled the land, calling for revival (Knowles, 2000:146), initiating a significant conference in August 1964 in Palmerston North along with Milton Smith and British revivalist Campbell McAlpine (Steel, 2003: 137). This influenced many, particularly in the Brethren movement. Orama, a renewal centre on Great Barrier Island, developed by Neville Winger, who had been reaching out to drug addicts, became a centre for teaching and encounters with the “power of God”. David du Plessis (world leader in connecting Pentecostal, Catholic and ecumenical streams) spoke in 1964, at the first “Massey” charismatic conference. These were developed by the Anglican Christian Advance Ministries as yearly Summer Schools which were attended by up to 800 leaders (mainly Anglican, yet ecumenical) in Palmerston North from 1973 (Battley, 1986:49). Dennis Bennett, a leader in charismatic experience in the USA (1966); Rev Michael Harper, a respected Anglican expositor; and others, were brought in to Anglican circles, laying a solid biblical and experiential foundation for the work of the Holy Spirit and doctrine of the Baptism of the Spirit. Bob Wakelin developed Inspirational Tapes, a vehicle for distributing the teaching of many visiting charismatic teachers, such as Derek Prince. In Auckland, the ministry of Anglican evangelist Bill Subritsky and Doug Maskill resulted in thousands becoming Christians (Francis, 1993: 73-80).
EARLY PUBLIC EXPRESSION OF REVIVALIn 1969, a massive march of Christians occurred along Queen St. in Auckland, with the Maori prophet-evangelist, Muri Thomson, in the forefront. It was a sign of a new generation of youth rejecting the marginalisation of classic Christianity.
All of these created new theological paradigms. These paradigms were limited to certain issues. But those issues were significant shifts in thinking that opened up whole new fields of understanding. I can identify three aspects of significance: emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit and her gifts; a shared theology of confessional groups and spiritual leadership based on the evidence of the power of the Spirit.
The next level of expansion was the development of small confessional groups. House groups and prayer groups (some would call them cells) developed. From 1971-1979, the Life in the Spirit seminars gave small group structure to the expansion of the movement. Deep relationships and spiritual ministry to personal needs occurred. These became the basis for new economic relationships, sharing of possessions and formation of communities.
As I travelled by motorbike from church to church in the 1980’s, it became apparent that another dynamic was occurring, a structural transformation of leadership roles in some churches. Among the Baptists, “spiritually dead” deacons’ courts and elderships became transformed as elders began to be elected because of functioning spiritual giftings. House group leadership continued to provide an environment for developing leadership and the potential missionaries I was looking for.
My estimate at the time, was that around four to six years after renewal began in a church, these emergent leaders found ways to outwork their spiritual fervour in new socio-economic relationships and apostolic structures. Hundreds volunteered for missions. 800 attended a week long Youth Missions Fest. One year, 700 signed up for YWAM Discipleship Training Schools. Servants to Asia’s Urban Poor, one of the few Kiwi-born missions was birthed. All the Bible Schools were filled. The number of Bible Schools doubled to 60 (Allis, 1995).
This generated renewal of church structures within denominations and some structural reformation of denominations (excluding the theological training (Davidson, 1991:172)). More than 100 committed communities formed, many from ex-Brethren fellowships in the 1970’s and 1980’s.[4] Milton Smith gathered leaders of these exiled communities in 1977 into a series of symposium and conferences (Steel, 2003:141). The Anglicans and Catholics have always had a capacity for enfolding new movements and the Anglicans appointed leadership to the Renewal Ministries. But despite nearly 100 Auckland clergy experiencing “the baptism of the Holy Spirit” and speaking in tongues between 1973 to 1976 under the ministry of Bill Subritszky, “the leadership of the church was not favourable” (Francis, 1993:194), so that the majority of parishes did not back the renewal. Presbyterians were largely trapped by their theological commitment to structural forms and existing patterns of theological training, so renewal did not result in structural reform, but became a part of the increasing polarisation between liberal and evangelical wings.[5]
Among the Baptists, renewal (which had affected 25% of Baptist pastors by as early as 1975 (Brown, 1985:108)), resulted in effective local church reformation of leadership structures based on spiritual giftings and then in denominational reformation. It eventually enabled the denomination to reject the leadership of a small liberal minority and sustain a commitment to evangelical values and to growth. An increasing number of pastors moved into pastoral roles through church-planting experience. The mindset of such pioneers is apostolic rather than academic. The growth of churches under such leaders forced them into prominence, with Murray Robertson recognised as having earned leadership through effectiveness in church growth, while the majority of academic trainees from the Theological College had left the pastoral ministry within a few years (though most remain active in lay, or parachurch roles).[6]
A process of migration to institutional Pentecostalism from the charismatic movement began. In the midst of other research, Elaine Bolitho identifies a flow of people from mainline through Baptist to Pentecostal structures (1992:114), though neither she nor I can accurately date nor measure the extent of this.[7] Fig 8 can be interpreted on this basis.
Fig 8: Baptist National Annual Baptisms and Membership
Fig. 8[8] shows the increase of baptisms in Baptist churches during the time of the revival (1970-1991), decreasing from 1992 to 1996 (because of the loss of revival or migration to Pentecostalism?). The subsequent increase indicates post-revival consolidation, more effective theological training and new structural developments post-revival (or does it show a reversion from Pentecostalism?). The fruit of revival moved into a peak of membership, again with a (7 year?) time lag. Membership has become less significant for a generation that does not commit easily to institutions, but does reflect baptismal and attendance growth with a 5-8 year time lag.
The Pentecostals’ new fellowships and training schools recruited many enthusiastic leaders who found little place for their gifts in other denominations with more static (rural) leadership models. Worsfold (1974:127-166) had demonstrated the necessity after the revival of the Smith Wigglesworth Crusade in the New Zealand context of the 1920’s, of creating cell and authority structures to harvest the fruits of renewal. After a period of freedom, the renewal of that period became structured into what became Elim and AOG denominations.[9]
Many negative critiques of the transition to Pentecostalism grow from the pain of mainline pastors from whom sheep have departed. Departures represented a great weakening of many mainline churches, a great loss of leadership. Faced with old doctrines and structures that had been found wanting, yet a new-found spirituality among their people and new patterns of small group leadership, the nature of pastoral leadership had to change rapidly to survive. Many could not.
I would suggest that the end of the renewal was 1989 (not that the Spirit stopped working in isolated outbreaks of revival, but that the nation-wide movement halted). When the renewal became denominationalised (Davidson and Battey identify 1989 (1991:171)[10]), then it stumbled. Rather than being a “church across the churches” (ecclesia inter ecclesiae) it once again became pastorally controlled. We are too close to that date to state this categorically.Fig 9 indicates the same.
Fig 9: Expanding Phases in the New Zealand Revival
Fig 9 shows four expanding phases and some principles that occur at each phase, demonstrated in the New Zealand revival. It also shows the truncation of the revival.
The phases identified in this story have included the following elements, which I have identified at four phases of expansion:
Phase 1: Personal Renewal
1. Human Precondition: searching, prayer, brokenness and repentance.
2. Divine Presence: outpouring of the Spirit in power and cleansing.
3. Personal Renewal
4. New Theological Paradigms
Phase 2: Small Group Renewal
5. Small Confessional Groups
6. New Socio-Economic Relationships
Phase 3: Structural Renewal
7. Structural Renewal of church leadership roles
8. Structural Reformation of denominations
9. Migration to institutional Pentecostalism from the revival movement
Phase 4: Cultural Engagement
10. Initial Engagement in social issues
Principles in the Rise of the New Zealand Revival
To analyse the rise and decline of this revival, I will correlate some of the principles in the schemata above with global principles of revival that I have developed over the years (based on the literature and recent research, but drawing largely on Pierson and Snyder). In the next chapter, I will integrate these into a more comprehensive theory.
Human Preconditions: Prayer, Confession, Brokenness
All the theological literature and much of the historical analysis of revivals points to a sense of desperation, as seen earlier in Annan’s comments. Wallis has adequately justified this from Scriptures (1956: 99-137). I also identified above the expansion of confessional groups in this revival. There is a linkage between the outpouring of the Spirit, and theology and practice of public confession (Hessian, c1960).
Confessional groups sprang up everywhere. Prayer groups, house groups and cell groups were integral in this New Zealand charismatic renewal and they normally broke denominational barriers. This parallels a diversity of small group structures that have been identified in different revivals, for example Wesley’s bands as discipleship groups (see Snyder, 1989/1997: 222-230), team ministries in the Indonesian and Timor revivals (Koch, 1970), small groups in Presbyterian revival in Ghana (Dadzaa, 1993), or cell group structures sustaining revival in other nations (Neighbour, 1995: 20-37). The biblical basis is found in the “eating house to house” dynamics in Acts 2 and 4. To summarize:
Principle 1 - Human Precondition: Revivals are preceded by a sense of spiritual desperation, repentance and prayer.
Principle 2 - Confession: A commonly shared folk theology of confession and brokenness is foundational to revival.
Principle 3 - Small Groups: Revival multiplies through confessional small group structures (Tanner, c1995:220).[11]
Leadership Renewal: Lay TrainingThe creation of a layer of cell group leaders in churches received impetus from within the renewal. Beyond cell group leadership, some leadership training infrastructures for lay leaders developed, largely among the Pentecostals rather than the mainline denominations, with the exception of the Anglican-led Life in the Spirit seminars, then tightly franchised Alpha programs.[12]
These congregational leadership training processes illustrate two missiological principles:Principle 4 - Lay Leadership: Revival is sustained in contexts where new training structures for lay leadership can be developed.
Principle 5 - Lay Leadership and Small Groups: The small group is the initial context for the release of lay leadership (Snyder, 1989/1997:230, 252-258).
Beyond the early revival phases, and at a higher level, the changes to the Education Act of 1989 and the creation of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) provided pathways for accelerated development of training schools that had been birthed during these years, such as Faith Bible College in Tauranga, or New Covenant International Bible College in Auckland. After two decades where the only recognized New Zealand-based theological qualifications for Evangelicals had been bachelors degrees from the Bible College of New Zealand or Carey Baptist College, or degrees at either St Johns, or University of Otago (where liberal theology was the norm), suddenly there was a possibility of recognised academic courses and eventually masters degrees. A theological sector within NZQA was developed with significant involvement from within the Pentecostal sector and from the Bible College of New Zealand.
The majority of new Bible Schools created during the renewal were Pentecostal. Bruce Patrick (home director for the Baptists) and Marjory Gibson, however, created a churchplanters’ training school (which was after a few years reintegrated with the Baptist College in order to “consolidate resources”). Though improving quality of existing institutions, Presbyterians and Anglicans created no significant new training structures.
These leadership structures have implications for transformation. New Covenant Bible College, one of the leading Pentecostal Bible Colleges for some years, recently developed several courses on issues related to societal change and others related to cross-cultural bridge-building. Upper Hutt Christian Fellowship, a significant centre of post-charismatic Pentecostalism has developed an NZQA recognised course from Dennis Peacock’s material on social analysis. The Bible College of New Zealand has also broadened its theological training to cover many aspects of societal issues. One of their courses has to do with Workplace Theology. This is the fruit of reflection for years by Alistair McKenzie (http://www.faithatwork.org.nz/) in Christchurch and Martien Kelderman in Auckland. Derek Christiansen has been developing similar themes at Carey Baptist College.
Theological Renewal Releases EnergyEach of the four phases requires new clusters of ideas in their development. Kuhn’s concept of “paradigm shifts” has become popular terminology, indicating ideas that open up whole new fields of knowledge. Snyder comments, “Church history shows that conceptual renewal has often been at the heart of revival movements” (1989/1997:289).
Burns discusses the return to simplicity of doctrine, particularly the doctrine of the cross as central in all revivals, the cutting through of overlays (1909/1960:45). This is dramatically confirmed by study of the sustained East African Revival (Hessian, c1960). Pierson expands on these but adds the theme of authority in spiritual conflict (1985:3). These appear to be critical factors in the personal renewal phase.
In Phase 2, as mentioned, theologies of gifts of the Spirit, lay leadership and small groups (part of a global emphasis in the 1970’s), accomplished this return to the simplicity of the cross in the New Zealand charismatic renewal. These small groups affirmed the cross, as people confessed sin to each other and prayed for each other’s healing. Where the Spirit is present in small groups, there is conviction, openness and healing.
SMALL GROUP HEALINGI recall a period when a pneumatic drill operator and his wife were praying with me in a group. They did not know me, but week by week, the Lord would reveal issues in my spirit to the pneumatic drill operator, an unlettered man with a big heart. “What is that dagger in your back?” was the first query and I knew all the pain of a recent betrayal and felt the healing love of God enter into that void. Over eight weeks, step by step, each “word from God” brought healing to deeper levels of spirit or body, till a decade old sickness was completely healed, my spirit was alive with his presence and I could walk back into the pain of missionary advance.
New paradigms of leadership and institutional models were needed in phase 3. This was difficult within the mainline churches, with theological rationales for older traditions of leadership. New lay leaders became frustrated and after a few years would often give up. As a result, I identify a third wave of theological change sustaining the revival for a few years as the charismatic renewal began to wane. In the migration of renewed believers from renewed churches to institutional Pentecostalism, processes of learning new Pentecostal leadership styles and church growth theologies released new energies. This confirms the comments above on a turning towards simplicity — in this case a turning towards simplicity of church structure, leadership and theology.
This study proposes that a theological breakthrough is now needed to sustain momentum into phase 4 and the full purposes of revival, that of a social vision of the city of God and Kingdom of God[13] being fully manifest in the human city. It must be simple, hence the focus on these two themes. It must involve the cross, in this case a progression from private to public repentance.[14] In summary:
Principle 6 - Theological Renewal: Revival requires theological change at each phase that releases new energy (Lovelace, 1979: 381-383; Pierson, 1998: 3a; Snyder, 1989/1997: 289).
Pierson adds a strategic element to this principle of conceptual renewal:
Principle 7 - Information Flow: Central co-ordination of information flow is critical in sustaining revival movements (1998:3a).[15]
This is evidenced in the way the pastoral leadership of churches in renewal was well networked through yearly Charismatic Renewal Conferences at Massey, preparing them to bless the lay movements infiltrating their churches.
SMALL GROUP MULTIPLICATIONExpansion came notably with the Life in the Spirit seminars that drove the flow of ideas and dynamic networking. This is being repeated now with Alpha courses, following a similar but evangelistic model of small groups, having involved 50,000 people by the year 2000.[16]
Such information flow[17] implies resources for a co-ordinating office, conferencing and publications, leading to pragmatic factors in a theory of sustainable revival.
Movement Dynamics: Revival from the Edges and InstitutionalismAnthropologist A.F.C. Wallace, in a highly recognised study, Revitalization Movements: Some Theoretical Considerations for Their Comparative Study (1956) speaks of five stages in revitalisation of culture from steady state to a period of individual stress and then cultural distortion, followed by a period of revitalisation and a new steady state. Pierson’s historical missiology identifies the epicentre of such change:
Principle 8 - Diffused Sources: Renewal does not emanate from ecclesiastical centres but from the pioneering edges (Pierson, 1998:3a).
Again, this was evident in the centrality of the Life in the Spirit seminars, the visiting prophets, the Massey conferences, the welcoming of ministry by Pentecostal leaders, the small groups. These things did not come from Bishops’ conferences. [18]
The movement also displayed all five dynamics described by Gerlach and Hine’s study on movements (1970:xvii):
Principle 9 - Cellular Structure: A revival movement will have five structural characteristics:
Ÿ face-to-face recruiting
Ÿ personal commitment
Ÿ multi-cellular small-group structures
Ÿ an ideology which codifies values and goals
Ÿ opposition by existing power structures.
These were evident in the wave of charismatic renewal of the 1970’s, but my observation is that they are no longer significantly apparent in charismatic movements in mainline churches. A case can be made for their consistent presence in Pentecostal church structure. The opposition indicated in the last point was intense in the early days of the movement, but became a dull rumble as the movement gained in popularity. In contrast, Pentecostals still find themselves in conflict with older ecclesiastical power centres.
While revival starts on the edges, sustaining it requires institutional support. The sustaining of the charismatic renewal is largely attributed to institutional support within the Christian Advance Ministries in the Anglican communion and particularly in the early years to support from Pentecostal leadership in New Zealand (Knowles, 2000:172). Baptists, for some time, sought this route, appointing some charismatic home mission directors and regional superintendents. However, in the end, the non-directive denominational decision-making processes resulted in collective non-affirmation. Charismatic renewal does not even feature in the executive secretary’s ten-year report on the denomination by the year 2000 (Brown, 2000). Home mission leaders are now consultants who look at structural health of churches. On the other hand, some of these are men raised up in the renewal and these new consultant processes include issues of renewal in the Spirit.
Principle 10 - Institutional Support: Expansion and consummation of revival requires structural and theological support by denominational leadership.
Entropy: Decline and Failure to Develop Transformative Revival
The above contrast of the New Zealand charismatic renewal with revival theses may have been sufficient to indicate the validity of presuming the New Zealand revival as a genuine work of the Holy Spirit. As a participant, I will now identify factors that eventually betrayed the heart of the renewal, moving it into an entropic state. These may also have killed the possibility of it becoming a transformative revival. The factors do not negate the growth of the renewal as a work of the Spirit.
The Periodicity of Revival
Revival literature struggles with issues of timing and extent (I will deal with this more thoroughly in the next chapter).
Principle 11 - Periodicity: Revivals have a built in time limit and periodicity.
Burns (1909/1960), in his definition of the laws of revival, identifies periodicity as a factor: “Every revival has a time limit… The constant factor, is that whatever the size of the wave, it has its limits marked out for it.” Thus, on the one hand, the decline of a nation-wide, interdenominational renewal was to be expected. On the other hand, causes of decline can be examined. Violation of any one of a number of revival principles can cause the death of a revival. Orr, interprets the death of the Welsh revival as largely resulting from its genius, the lack of organisation by its leadership (Joyner, 1993:17). The Maori revival of last century was largely halted by the taking of Maori land and Maori Wars (Tippett, 1971:64-68). Historians, with their skills, may evaluate these violations more accurately for this New Zealand revival, but among them, I suggest the following:
Loss of the Prayer MovementsBeginning with the united prayer of Acts 2 and Acts 4, revival literature confirms the pre-existence of movements of prayer before revival. It would be difficult to cite any book on revival that did not begin with this presupposition. While revivals are the sovereign acts of the grace of God, they appear to be in response to the pleas of his children. Tanner identifies both a sense of crisis and the intercessory stage, as prerequisites (c1995:215-6). Both have been demonstrated above for the early charismatic movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s. With the cessation of the Massey conferences and loss of information flows by 1989, the prayer movements dissipated, despite the ongoing communications from Brian Caughley and Intercessors for New Zealand. This violated a universal principle which I will summarize as:
Principle 12 - Hungry Prayer: Revivals begin and expand in prayer movements representing a hunger for God.
COLLECTIVE PRAYER — PREDICTOR OF SOCIETAL ACTIVISMBy 1996, attempts to encourage city-wide prayer meetings in Auckland, met with insignificant responses. After the collapse around 1989, of the revival dynamic and then the prayer movements generated in the renewal, there was no apparent sense of need for prayer across the city and little linkage between existing prayer groups.
After several attempts, by the end of 2000, John Fulford, a denominational leader of the Church of Christ, was able to link an infrastructure of prayer leaders and city-wide prayer events. It included all night prayer meetings, 24 hour prayer vigils involving multiple churches, prayer summits,[19] and a March for Jesus as an act of public prayer, but lacked any wave of enthusiasm.
Discussions with Colin Shaw, a prayer summit leader from Australia, after he had travelled the country in 2004, confirmed that there was little hunger for prayer.
Structural Issues: Loss of Small Confessional GroupsI have already identified the confessional group dynamic as essential to maintaining revival. My observation (not easily verified) is that the emphasis in the renewal moved from the confessional, healing, small group to the frontal, anointed pastor. More directive Pentecostal leadership styles replaced the grassroots, charismatic Spirit-led movement. Pentecostal pastoral enthusiasm for the rightness of their beliefs and sense of being anointed by God, plus the more directional leadership styles imported from US sources by many of these groups, added to a general ignorance of what had been happening culturally in terms of diffusion of leadership under the Spirit in the indigenous renewal. Confession is not highly valued by performance-focused pastors.
By the late 1990’s, a general decline of small groups was apparent,[20] certainly in the mainline churches — perhaps due to these cultural styles of leadership, perhaps due to increasing economic stress on couples, most likely due to the loss of information flow and training from a central revival cadre. This was despite some nation-wide attempts to develop cell-group structures under the authority of strong pastors, some linked to the global cell-group movement of Ralph Neighbour, Nev Chamberlain and Ben Wong.[21] In contrast, the larger charismatic and Pentecostal churches still maintain significant cell group structures that provide pastoral care for about 30%[22] of their membership and contexts for leadership development. While these are encouraged to focus on evangelism after the model of Ralph Neighbour, my observation is that the generally unresponsive context of Pakeha culture, renders them more pastoral in style.[23]
Leadership Issues: The Loss of the Cell Group LeadershipSignificant numbers of lay leaders emerged in renewed mainline churches but my observation is that they found, after periods in church leadership teams, that the theologically-trained pastors (viz-a-viz pastors trained in group and movement dynamics) often could not lead them. This appears to be largely because of the 400 year old process of formally appointing or electing pastors based on a tradition of academic training (in largely liberal European theologies). The style of leadership, understanding of pastoral roles and thinking, contrasted with how lay people were now emerging into leadership through demonstrated spiritual gifting and its fruit as they led cell groups. The need for cell-group level training processes for Kiwi contexts was acute.
This reflects the nature of Kiwi society. Whereas Americans think of franchising both business and spirituality, Kiwis both lack the resources and the population base to do this well, so tend to depend on marketable religious products from the US or, as with the Alpha course, from the UK. US approaches did not fit culturally, such as Ralph Neighbour’s cell group model, so were generally unsustainable. The Alpha course had a better cultural fit, plus a marketing niche within Anglicanism.
Many lay leaders moved to Pentecostal churches, whose pastoral emergence processes depend on fruitfulness not academic ability. This was perhaps wise, as Jesus states that new wine needs new wine skins (Snyder, 1996). This often provided a learning context for several more years before new difficulties of serving under spiritually gifted pastors but usually with minimal theological and professional pastoral training. These elements plus directive leadership styles would often cause a second round of disillusionment.
There are perhaps several thousand such lay leaders now living outside the church in Auckland, either hurt, disappointed, or seeking to follow the Lord through independent small house group models (Jamieson, 2000). My observation based on relationships to many in these groups is that they have generally failed to sustain spirituality through the blessings and trials of marriage, pressures of work demands or failure, though some have been sustained for many years. Even interlinked small groups do not allow for the full operation of the fivefold leadership gifts of Ephesians 4. Structured movements are required.[24]
CELL GROUPS AT THE EDGES OF REVIVALI encountered one example of a successful group however, as I was waiting for my son’s moment of fame at the school cross-country. We discussed my friend’s 20 year pilgrimage from involvement in a large charismatic church, to his enjoyment for some years of meeting every Friday with a small group of several couples. “We minister in seminars to churches so we don’t lack connection to the wider body of Christ. But, we are able live out real Christianity in the small group without all the politics of church thrown in. This is real. We deal with heart issues.”
At higher leadership levels, the expansion of Bible schools, moved to a consolidation phase, reducing them from a peak of sixty-two to eventually forty-two providers as of 1999, but numbers of theological students continued to climb dramatically from 2,644 heads in 1988 to 5,230 in 1999 (Knox, 2004:76-77). This reflects both the desire for personal growth and educational expansion in general, including foreign student growth, but also expanding pastoral and leadership training, largely outside of the denominational training schools.
Theological Issues: Decrease of SpiritualityThe lack of major breakthroughs into consistent patterns of small group leadership training in charismatic churches results in failure to pastor individuals in lifestyles of holiness. This has natural corollaries — a loss of committed spirituality among charismatics, a deadness in worship, and a drifting off of the sheep.
It is also helpful to note the fundamentalist critique of the charismatic theology of spiritual experiences — that it leads to a never-ending search for the ultimate spiritual experience, which never occurs. The conflict between the monthly ups and downs of life — success and failure, sickness and health, poverty and affluence — and often a positive theology that is close to absolute in its belief that God brings prosperity, health, magnificent displays of the supernatural and success to all who follow him, eventually creates too great a dissonance for people.
Jamieson (2000), indicates this includes disillusionment with church structures and power relationships and dissatisfaction with the inadequacy of personal faith in influencing society. (Jamieson’s study however, based on interviews, does not significantly address the wider social phenomenon of dislocation in the city and its impact on dislocation from the church). Urban social change causes the morphing and breakdown of socially supportive Christian contexts over extended periods. My perception is that lack of such long-term social contexts makes the above dissonance untenable, leading to loss of faith, or as Knowles (2004:56) summarizes, “inability to move to higher levels of spirituality” that require questioning and academic reflection. Positively, such dissatisfaction means that many people are ready for a call into a spirituality that involves deeper theological reflection and social action.
The classical evangelical commitment to separation from the world of drunkenness, gambling, immorality and vices has become blurred, as in many churches wealthier people came in for whom social drinking, dancing, and the ease of materialism were normal parts of life. In the midst of the ease of materialism, the sacrificial lifestyles of the missionary-oriented Evangelicals of last century has to some extent dissipated.[25]
This loss of spirituality and separateness anticipates loss of motivation for societal change, since the emergence of change agents is accelerated in families from revival contexts where the search for perfection is emphasised (McClelland, 1962:165-178). This loss of clarity as to what disciples are to separate from, violates a significant principle developed by Pierson:
Principle 13 - Revival as disenculturation is crucial for the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit (1998:3).
Holiness involves separation from at least the values of the world. According to the apostle Paul, consumption, wrongful sensuality and spirituality are incompatible bedfellows (Col 3:5). Christ is against culture — when the cultural traits are sinful, he resists. The early revival demarcation between spirituality and sensuality has been blurred in attempts to relate to the postmodern world. This must count as a significant factor in the death of renewal. This issue is very apparent to migrant leaders:
MIGRANT EVALUATIONS OF NZ EVANGELICAL SPIRITUALITYThey come as missionaries bringing renewal of inner holiness and prayer: evangelical Indian friends, from a tradition of regulated prayer morning and evening; evangelical Korean Presbyterians, known for their early morning prayer meeting patterns; my Brazilian wife from an evangelical context of intense activism and devotion. They conclude that the New Zealand Evangelical and Pentecostal church is too weak spiritually to influence this nation for God. Their message is one of repentance for laxity and the necessity of revival and holiness.
Cultural Incompatibility: Dependency on American ModelsNew Zealanders still depend for theological validity on outside sources — Catholics for decades on the Irish, Anglicans on the English and more recently Pentecostals on the US. This allows both the possibility of openness to significant teaching on social involvement from groups like Regent College in Vancouver, or Tony Campolo of Eastern College, or reversions by Pentecostal leadership to American Pentecostal or right-wing, fundamentalist, American political agendas. In the postmodern city, some aspects are a good fit for the sector which is Americanised, particularly the managerial and business leadership sector.
“SUCCESSFUL” POSTMODERN GLOBALIZED CHURCHWalking into the new building of the rapidly grown Christian Life Centre of Auckland is like walking into a medium sized Assemblies of God church in the US, with a complete high profile media/worship show in full gear. The reproduction came via Australia. The church ministers to the needs of 5000 in many creative ways and affirms cultural diversity in its style, so believes it has created a new and more effective indigenous Christian culture. The values and culture derive from elsewhere, but success in numbers and finances indicate that a culturally modified version from elsewhere is meeting peoples’ needs within the globalized sector of the postmodern diversity of Auckland.
On the other hand, the heavy dependence for teaching in most Pentecostal denominations, on “anointed” (= “well marketed”?) American models, has also included a remarkable intrusion of American hierarchical concepts of spiritual authority as against the egalitarianism of Kiwi culture and of the early renewal.
Too Rapid Institutionalism, Poor InstitutionalisationOver the years, I have utilised a principle that administrative structures must follow not lead the development of ministry. I am venturing to suggest here that institutionalisation into Pentecostalism occurred too quickly with this renewal. On the other hand, the evangelical denominations in general failed to denominationally institutionalise cell groups and leadership training, leaving them with renewed people and renewed worship, but not transformed church structures with accessible pathways to leadership.
Beginning with Weber’s “Routinisation of Charisma” (Weber, 1947), there are numerous models of institutionalisation that could be used to analyse this. Among them, O’Dea (1961) identifies five dilemmas in the institutionalisation of religion:[26] (1) the dilemma of mixed motivation, where the single minded goal is replaced by self interest (1961:304); (2) the symbolic dilemma, focused on the transmission of the charismatic through rituals vs. the development of inauthentic rituals; (3) the dilemma of administrative order in institution building versus the freedom of the Spirit; (4) delimitation, the balance between the need for concrete definitions versus the substitution of law for charisma; (5) the dilemma of inappropriate controls and accommodation to the larger society.
My above comments show that I perceive (1) the rapidity of institutionalisation into Pentecostalism in New Zealand to have diverted the revival from the release of the Spirit, driven by motivation to successful institutionalisation, (i.e., successful church growth in new congregations) and the economic necessities of aspiring pastors for a sufficient membership base to sustain their own salary and the costs of institutional growth towards such a goal. (2) This has often been accompanied by inauthentic development of rituals in worship, preaching and prayer to sustain the work of the Spirit, when that Spirit has often departed. In the name of revival, revival has often been muted by fixed structural forms (patterns of worship, modes of prophetic, styles of leadership) sloganised theologies developed in foreign contexts (even though Pentecostal pastors swear they are indigenous), and divorced from the Spirit’s creativity in generating new patterns of reflective theology. (3) The administrative controls, (4) overly legalistic definition and (5) and accommodation to the culture in materialism and leadership styles of many larger churches, often have tended to be beyond necessary levels and have quenched the work of the Spirit. Such generalisations do not take into account the greater indigeneity of New Life and Apostolic streams
These very broad (for there are tremendous variations within Pentecostalism) comments are based on a cursory consideration of these dilemmas. Yet they are from one who has sympathetically lived within and advocated Pentecostal frameworks among the poor (Grigg, 1992/2004: Chap 15, 16). However, they would not be issues necessarily perceived negatively by those migrating – people like a secure place, they like ritual and performances and there is often little discernment about the marketing rhetoric of Pentecostalism that requires pastors to affirm their actions as being from God for survival in their market niche. A sociologist needs to research this across several Pentecostal denominations, with those who have migrated.[27]
My observation, (and this may be biased by my prophetic personality and non-conformist heritage with aversion to overly controlling authority),[28] is that in the transition to Pentecostalism, the sheep have often been well pastored. Yet there are glaring pastoral enigmas. Particularly destructive have been imported American theologies that prevent people from challenging senior pastors over their actions and morals.[29] The Pentecostal structuralist model of church growth replaced the model of freedom in the charismatic renewal. This has resulted positively in consolidation of the fruit of the renewal, but negatively it also has created a culture of power and control in many groups.[30] This is both a financial and a theological issue. Theologies of “the anointing” resting on leadership, of the need for “spiritual covering”[31], meaning submission to directive leadership, meshed with abuse or poor use of “words of wisdom and knowledge” (direct revelations from the Lord into people’s lives), “health and wealth” theologies that indicate a church is successful if growing and large, all contribute to the structural model. Diary notes on a visit to one church show some issues:
LIMITATIONS OF SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY AND CONTROLIt was an independent Pentecostal church of 350, built up over 11 years, with wonderful worship. To accomplish this growth, the pastor and his wife had needed to exercise strong authority. This was given and supported by the people, initially because of the pastor and his wife’s loving relationships with a core team and their sense of divine calling to the leadership of the church.
Over the longer term, this was backed up by their experience and their gifts as teachers, administrators and preachers and the sense by many, of the peoples’ needs being met. This leadership operated with a style of speaking directly ‘from the Lord’ into peoples problems, building the direction of the church around their personal sense of vision and need for a successful church (with assent from their eldership), ways of testing people’s loyalties and directive organisational styles. In this situation, a good leadership team had developed, which balanced out most extremes in the leadership style.
This strongly directive leadership style may be preferable to another dynamic. In general, Pakeha Kiwis are averse to authority as reflected in comments against structure that I have heard in many smaller house churches and fellowships. I would suggest that the historic scoffing against authority of the lower class British migrants in New Zealand transmuted into a peculiar trait of rejection of authority in New Zealand culture. When this rejection is affirmed as spiritual, it can cement the group as a new (and in their eyes, more spiritual?) alternative, but never fully confront the underlying value system.
Failure to Move to Socio-Economic RevivalThe NZ revival showed fruit in new economics, as have other revivals. This occurred in the development of economic communities, many moving as far as becoming landed communities; concern for the poor that enabled initiation of Servants to Asia’s Urban Poor; and a number of work schemes for poor people.[32] New social dynamics developed as new fellowships formed.
Prophetically, some leaders called the church to live simply, live for the poor, do justice and seek racial reconciliation. The book of Acts is clear about these economic dimensions of the revived lifestyle (Acts 2: 44-45; 4: 32-34). Pierson has identified them in several evangelical revival movements in history (Waldensians, Lollards, Hutterites, Moravians (1998:vi)). Many heard these as a call from God and obeyed. Others and in general most Christians, became trapped by survival or consumer materialism. The result predicted in the Scriptures is that the hunger for God and commitment to community declined. This affects the work of the Spirit.
For many who transferred to Pentecostalism, a further step away from these issues occurred with the importation (at times via Australia) of the American “prosperity gospel”. This has become particularly true for the mega-churches descended from American AOG models as they drew in many from mainline and other Pentecostal churches in the cities in the 1990’s. Christian Life Centre in Auckland perceives their teaching on materialistic success as a positive “release from a spirit of poverty” – a choice to oppose the teaching from within the renewal to “live simply that others may simply live.” High pastoral salaries and luxurious living are cited as evidence of successful Christianity.[33] Brian Tamaki, self-appointed bishop of the Destiny Churches, interviewed on Radio Rhema, stated that this kind of lifestyle set a model for his flock.[34]
Central in the Acts 2 passage on Pentecost is the multiracial mix of the peoples. President of YWAM and New Zealand leader in reconciliation, John Dawson, developed comprehensive theologies about the relationship of revival and reconciliation between peoples (1996). A number of prophets called the church elders in local areas to go and sit with the Maori elders, listen to their wounds and seek reconciliation (Clover, 1996; Grigg, 2001b). The renewed church, in general, did not obey. Returning to several churches where this message was received, I found there had been no significant action. (I personally wonder if God could have released a wave of revival among Maori. This would have created a synergistic impact on the Pakeha community. It did not happen). This contrasts with the obedience of many liberal leaders in mainline churches who sought such just reconciliation between the peoples.
Thus, I suggest that the grass roots work of the Holy Spirit in a renewal of humility, simplicity reconciliation, unity and purity became focused on front-led revivalists with symbols of spiritual power affirmed by materialism. Sensuality[35], accumulation of wealth and seeking power are often not far away from such power-symbols.
In summary, renewal did not move to its socio-economic outworking.
Revival, Launching Pad for Transformation?In conclusion, a movement ascribed to the Holy Spirit has been authenticated in this chapter as a genuine revival when examined against principles in the theological and historical literature of revival. It has swelled across the land from a hungry searching for God to confessional groups experimenting with new theological paradigms. Assisted by centres of informational flow; and moving to some levels of denominational support, it produced new levels of lay, then institutional leadership.
But it stumbled, as many revivals do, for revivals are multivariate and these multiple variables need to function in synergy. The information flow and leadership from the revival core was redirected; intercessory movements and hunger for revival declined. Pastors began to redirect the revival from its role in creating new freedoms for spiritual gifts to local (under pastoral control) institutional church growth. Despite some prophets, the revival leadership in the main, had not moved theologically beyond spiritual experience to define issues of reconciliation, economic repentance and societal sins.
My theological interpretation of this, is that people began to falter in obedience to what the Spirit was saying across the country. Spirituality began to die and as that happens people turn to pursuing the good life with its affluence and to the cult. The religious show began to take over on Sunday mornings from the confessional group on weekdays, affirming these changes with an imported churchy “signs, success, health and wealth” gospel that directly contradicted what revival leaders believed the Spirit had been saying to the churches.
Yet the revived individuals and the missional structures they have generated (remnant missional clusters of the revival, along with the institutionalised post-revival structures of congregational-based Pentecostalism), are now potential sources of new cultural energy. This study proposes that redirection of revival to transformational ends remains a possibility.
However, the loss of renewal dynamics and transition of many activist Christians from classic churches with their deeper level of theological and historical reflection on the faith, presages a possible lack of momentum for sustaining cultural change and predict a likely reversion to Pentecostal fundamentalism, unless new theological paradigms are disseminated…
I wish to move from this story to a comprehensive model of revival, as a basis for then developing such a paradigm in a theology of transformative revival.
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[1] Many would not call it revival. Wyn Fountain writes in his Salt Shaker Letter, #47, February 2005, “In 1934 Edwin Orr came to N.Z. and he taught us to sing, “Revival is coming from North Cape to Bluff.” It didn’t come. Then Billy Graham came and we thought maybe this is the time. It wasn’t. Along comes the charismatic renewal. We didn’t call it revival, but we hoped that maybe this was going to bring just that. It didn’t… Revival still evades us…Instead of revival our society has been sliding down a slippery slope of unrighteousness and social corruption. We’ve prayed, but prayer is not enough.” In contrast, this chapter demonstrates that all the signs of this latter being a revival have been there, but that it has not moved to its consummation as a transformative revival.
[2]One could equally have evaluated the signs of the Spirit against Moltmann’s pneumatology. This would have less credibility within Pentecostal circles.
[3]Davidson (1991) gives a historian’s view of early progressions; Battley (1986), gives an insider’s view. Knowles (2000:143-151) reflects historically as a Pentecostal on the contribution of Pentecostalism to the charismatic movement. These only cover the first two decades of the revival.
[4]The Brethren (one of the major evangelistic movements of the early part of the century and major source of leaders for interdenominational evangelistic movements), consistently rejected phenomenology related to gifts of the Spirit, forcing many out of their fellowships in order to sustain this stance. These exiles carried with them the genius of this grassroots movement at establishing new fellowships, which later attached to Pentecostal (particularly New Life) or Baptist denominations.
[5]From discussion with evangelical Presbyterian leaders.
[6]This comment is based on personal discussion with a denominational leader as to the present roles of graduates of the Baptist College classes of the 1970’s - 1980’s.
[7] Kevin Ward (2001: 2), documents two growing churches with 33% and 38% transfer from mainline churches. It would be unwise to generalize from his figures, beyond saying that in general the transfer is significant. Knowles discusses some of the factors and particularly a sectarian, “come out” of the “old wineskins” mentality of the New Life churches, towards mainline charismatics (2000:104-5).
[8] Source, NZ Baptist annual statistics, Lynne Taylor and Lindsay Jones.
[9] At a global level, Wagner (1998:29), Schaller (1995:17, 53), and Neighbour (1988), all with decades of global ministry in renewal of denominational churches, have concluded that the establishing of new structures (‘new wineskins’ (1991)), is critical if growth of the church is to occur. These ideas lead to a positive evaluation of the migration from the mainline churches to Pentecostalism.
[10]Wyn Fountain, a key leader in the development of Life in the Spirit Seminars in personal conversation, indicated this as one of the turning points away from growth of the movement. On the other hand Peter Robertson, with a roving prophetic ministry, has indicated in conversation, an extended season of growth through to 1996 derived from the intrusion of elements of the Toronto blessing into the New Zealand scene.
[11] This is one of the hallmarks of the ongoing East African revival, identified by Hessian in a major contribution to revival theory. Discussions with African missionaries indicate the sustaining of this, over two thirds of a century, was connected to its organisational structure as an ecclesia inter ecclesia.
[12] The Alpha Programs are a series of small group evenings utilising an apologetic video series that leads people through the gospel and encounter with the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, because of the UK franchising of this program, culturally customised versions have not been developed. Beyond two courses, people are expected to join the church. However they find “church” is other to “the church” they had been experiencing in relational cell groups. Beyond its effective evangelism, a potential lay discipling movement has thus been truncated for some years.
[13] Similar proposals have been surfacing across the globe among Evangelicals since the mid 1990’s, for example Peterson’s proposal of the Kingdom as foundational for a “Social Doctrine for Pentecostals in Latin America” (1996: 209-222).
[14]Yet even in proposing this, I wonder if the costliness of the way of the cross is sufficient in these visionary formulations, sufficiently strong to generate another wave of revival, or if they have sufficient simplicity. While mainline and liberationist themes of justice are put to one side in this study as not being central to evangelical presuppositions, they are inherently crucicentric. Demonstrating the crucicentric aspects of the Kingdom is more complex.
[15]A corollary of this, is the challenge underlying this study, of developing a transformation network. Unless it can integrate a central cadre with funded base structure, from whom information on new transformational theology flows, it will not develop a movement dynamic.
[16] Figure from Fr. Ray Muller, NZ director of Alpha.
[17] Montgomery develops theoretical constructs that can be applied to information flow and mission, in his analysis of Diffusion Theory and Missions (1999:29-44).
[18] Principle 8 can be derived by extension of Principles 61-68 of Fink and Stark on Professional Ecclesiastics (Stark & Finke, 2000: 283).
[19] Prayer summits developed in revival contexts in the Seattle region in the US. Groups of pastors or leaders go away for some days with no agenda but to wait on God. Confession of sin and healing of disunity occurs.
[20]A statement that needs examination of numbers of groups during these years in the various denominations and churches. The Baptists have been keeping records in the last few years which could be analysed.
[21]Ralph Neighbour developed materials (1988; 1995: http://www.ccmnglobal.com/) on cell-group based church development in the hierarchical and responsive Southern US. He saw this reproduced in Singapore and other hierarchical cultural contexts and a global network has been developed. In non-hierarchical and somewhat unresponsive Kiwi contexts, his methodology has not been so fruitful.< p>
[22] Figure derived from questioning of leaders as I travel. Generally it is around 30%. One church indicated 85% in cells, but checking this out showed less than 50%. The CLS survey results of 1997 showed 33% Baptist, 36% Brethren down to 14% Methodist in small prayer/study groups (Brookes & Curnow, 1998: A-6). My observation is that higher figures appear to be related to more evangelical doctrinal stance of congregations.
[23] This may be one factor explaining Kevin Ward’s figure of only 3.9% conversions from non-churched contexts at one of the “models” of New Zealand church growth, Spreydon Baptist, which has utilised small groups extensively over the years.
[24] These are reflections based on my analyses of committed communities of the early Irish monks and the preaching friars, when I was first forming apostolic orders among the poor (Grigg, 1986). A seminal book is Charles Mellis, Committed Communities (1976).
[25]Quebedeaux analyses this for the US in The Worldly Evangelicals (1978), Bruce does the same from a UK Perspective (Bruce, 2001:90)
[26] Utilized by Poloma (1997) in analysing the “Toronto Blessing”, a revival in Toronto in the 1990’s.
[27] The appropriate level of these tensions might need to be examined within each phase of A.F.C. Wallace's revitalisation movements theory (2003) (a model from Europe may be found in Need & Evans, 2004)
[28] It was heartening eight years after penning this, to have Knowles confirm these thoughts, with an analysis of similar issues (2004: 53-55).
[29] I could include a dozen cameos from discussions on this point, but it is inappropriate.
[30] Kevin Ward indicates the dissonance that this causes for baby boomers and for children of postmodernism, results in a drifting off of believers (2001: 6).
[31] I began to hear this term in the mid 1970’s. Knowles links it to the teachings of David Ellis of the Ashburton New Life (2000: 236). He demonstrates how it helped independent churches move into a more structured denomination.
[32] The Apostolics, particularly, were able to set up numerous work schemes with government funding, thus enhancing their entrance to poorer sectors of society.
[33] Knowles identifies these same issues (2004: 57).
[34] 9 a.m. interview with Bob McCoskrie, Tuesday 17th, May 2005.
[35] It is inappropriate to document the extent of immorality among leading pastors in these movements, some of which have not put significant pastoral accountability structures in place. An exception has been the New Life pastors who have made significant structural decisions in these areas of moral accountability in recent years.