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Churchquake: How the New Apostolic Reformation Is Shaking Up the Church As We Know It
Best-selling author and church growth expert C. Peter Wagner writes about a revolution taking place in the Church-an extraordinary work of God that is changing the shape of Christianity around the world. The New Apostolic Reformation is a grassroots phenomenon in which God is raising up alliances of non-denominational churches and leaders worldwide to help fulfill the last awesome push for the Great Commission. Wagner identifies and examines present-day apostolic church networks that are bound together not by doctrine or tradition, but by a shared passion for local and worldwide evangelism, energetic worship, fervent prayer and church planting.
276 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1999
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About the author
C. Peter Wagner
196 books46 followersCharles Peter Wagner (August 15, 1930 – October 21, 2016) was a theologian, missiologist, missionary, writer, teacher, and church growth specialist best known for his highly controversial writings on spiritual warfare.
Wagner served as a missionary in Bolivia under the South American Mission and Andes Evangelical Mission (now SIM International) from 1956 to 1971. He then served for 30 years (1971 to 2001) as Professor of Church Growth at the Fuller Theological Seminary's School of World Missions until his retirement in 2001. He is the author of more than 70 books. He was the president of Global Harvest Ministries from 1993 to 2011 and served as the chancellor emeritus of Wagner Leadership Institute, which trains leaders to join in a movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation, an organization Wagner also helped found. He was also the vice president of Global Spheres, Inc.
Excerpted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Pete...]
Wagner served as a missionary in Bolivia under the South American Mission and Andes Evangelical Mission (now SIM International) from 1956 to 1971. He then served for 30 years (1971 to 2001) as Professor of Church Growth at the Fuller Theological Seminary's School of World Missions until his retirement in 2001. He is the author of more than 70 books. He was the president of Global Harvest Ministries from 1993 to 2011 and served as the chancellor emeritus of Wagner Leadership Institute, which trains leaders to join in a movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation, an organization Wagner also helped found. He was also the vice president of Global Spheres, Inc.
Excerpted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._Pete...]
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July 8, 2024
A COMPREHENSIVE LOOK AT THE ‘NEW APOSTOLIC’ MOVEMENT
Former ‘Church Growth’ specialist wrote in the first chapter of this 1999 book, “The greatest change in the way of doing church since the Protestant Reformation is taking place before our very eyes. I have come to label this phenomenon the ‘New Apostolic Reformation’… I think it will be well to set forth as concise a definition of the New Apostolic Reformation … right at the outset… ‘The New Apostolic Reformation is an extraordinary work or God at the close of the twentieth century, which is… changing the shape or Protestant Christianity around the world. For almost 5000 years Christian churches have largely functioned within traditional denominational structures … Particularly in the 1990s… new forms and operational procedures began to emerge in areas such as local church government, interchurch relationships, financing, evangelism, missions, prayer, leadership selection and training, the role of supernatural power, worship and other important aspects of church life… for the most part they are taking the form of loosely structured apostolic networks. In virtually every region of the world, these new apostolic churches constitute the fastest growing segment of Christianity.” (Pg. 5-6)
He explains, “For almost 30 years, I have carried the title ‘professor of church growth.’ … I began to realize that the new apostolic churches were the fastest growing group of churches on six continents… it is difficult to count these churches, because they do not have a denominational headquarters to which they report annual statistics… [I] conjecture that we have at least as many new apostolic congregations in the United States as Southern Baptist churches---around 40,000… The new apostolic growth is also reflected in the student enrollment at Fuller Theological Seminary, the interdenominational graduate school in which I have taught for more than a quarter of a century.” (Pg. 7-8)
He reports, “By the end of the missiologists had begun to observe at least three interesting phenomena worldwide. The first was the extraordinary growth of the African Independent Churches… It is largely because of the independent churches that Africa south of the Sahara is considerably more than 50 percent Christian today. The second missiological phenomenon is the surprising emergence of the Chinese house churches… In spite of … a Marxist government… unfavorable to Christianity, China has been witnessing the most massive numbers of non-Christians … turning to the Christian faith ever recorded in history… The third phenomenon is .. [the] ‘Latin American grassroots churches’… The effective Christian leadership across the continent is now in the hands of culturally authentic Latin Americans who are leading the most significant churches and denominations.” (Pg. 9-11)
He observes, “Innovators introduce new ideas into social networks. Those who first accept them are called ‘early adopters.’ … we are well into the early adoption phase of the New Apostolic Reformation, when we can expect fairly strong objections from traditionalists who are threatened by these changes. The major oppositions, undoubtedly, will come from denominational executives, but it will not last forever.” (Pg. 19)
He identifies, “Seven Institutional Factors that Have Caused and Perpetuated Denominational Decline: 1. DENIAL: Many denominational leaders have refused to admit they have a problem… 2. LIBERALISM: … virtually all church growth advocates have held a strongly conservative evangelical theology that is biblical… 3. INFLATED TOLERANCE: … If it ever came down to a choice between truth and tolerance, a large number of our mainline denominational leaders would choose tolerance… Tolerance is a virtue, but INFLATED tolerance can dilute truth and weaken churches… 4. MISPLACED PRIORITIES: … a consensus among evangelicals has been that our mission …involves two mandates: the ‘cultural mandate’ (social ministries) and the ‘evangelistic mandate’ (soul-saving ministries)… In a short period of time, the cultural mandate became supreme and the mainline churches believed it was more important to improve society than to win the lost for Christ… the evangelical churches which were growing also did social work, but without shifting priorities… 5. AVERSION TO EVANGELISM… [some] considered preaching the gospel as a kind of proselytism, which certainly could offend the personal dignity of unbelievers…6. SUSPICION OF GROWTH: Denominational leaders seem to have a lurking assumption that high quality churches are not expected to grow. Therefore, if churches do show unusual growth, something must be wrong with them… 7. DISTRUST OF CHARISMATIC LEADERSHIP: Among many denominational executives, as well as … seminary professors… the word ‘entrepreneur’ is… almost a cuss word.” (Pg. 23-28)
He states, “Traditional church leaders begin with the present and then look to the past. New apostolic leaders begin with the future and then look to the present. Most denominations are ‘heritage driven.’ Most apostolic networks are ‘vision driven.’ The difference is enormous… New apostolic leaders appreciate the past, live in the present, and long for the future… those who choose to focus on the future are more likely to be PROACTIVE, they readily see opportunities and they have a high tolerance of risk.” (Pg. 56-57)
He also outlines “Five Compass-Point New Apostolic Values: … These five compass-point values are nonnegotiable… Three of these values relate to faith: theology, ecclesiology and eschatology. The other two relate to practice: organization and leadership… [1] Theology Has Absolute Norms… new apostolic churches are not ‘creedal,’ but they do agree on the core of theology… there are three generally agreed-upon theological absolutes in new apostolic churches: 1. The Bible … is the absolute authority for faith and practice. 2. Jesus Christ is God and Lord. 3. An individual’s personal relationship with Jesus Christ makes the difference between heaven and hell… [2] Ecclesiology Looks Outward. Another trait of new apostolic strictness is a burning desire to win the lost to Christ… [3] Eschatology is Optimistic… Satan is being defeated… things are going well for the kingdom of god and … spiritual victories will continue to exceed spiritual defeats…. [4] Organization Emerges from Personal Relationships… denominational structures that worked only a couple of decades ago are now becoming obsolete. God is pouring our new wine, and many of the old wineskins are proving dysfunctional… The best way to spend time, most new apostolic leaders will agree, is in building relationships… [5] Leaders Can Be Trusted. Of all the radical elements of change in the New Apostolic Reformation… one of them … is so important that I have chosen these words very carefully: ‘The amount of spiritual authority delegated by the Holy Spirit to individuals… within present denominational structures there is virtually no possibility of trusting INDIVIDUALS enough to delegate to them vision-casting authority for the whole organization…. Suspicion and distrust feed the status quo; trust and empowerment shape the future.” (Pg. 64-78)
He argues, “Those who process data through [a cessationist] paradigm naturally would affirm that there are no such things as apostles, in the biblical sense of the word, in churches today… We are witnessing a fairly rapid change in the attitude of church leaders toward accepting the contemporary office of apostle… The trend is clear, though, and my guess is that in a few years the controversy will begin to die down.” (Pg. 108-110)
He says, “The charismatic leader possesses qualities the followers perceive as emanating from superhuman sources. This is one of the reasons the apostle who founds an apostolic network carries so much authority… When the charismatic leader dies, the followers then feel obligated to devise ways and means to perpetuate the charisma… the tendency is for the followers to develop rational, bureaucratic, democratic structures in their attempt to preserve the charisma… However, the trade-off is that when democratic structures are developed, the leaders then gain their positions of power by… the votes of the followers. When this happens, the course of power subtly shifts from God to a group…” (Pg. 133-134)
He observes, “Churches that have broken with the traditional outreach methods tend to fall into a typology of three philosophies of ministry… *Seeker-Driven Churches… [where] the ministry of the church is prioritized around the felt needs of the unchurched…. *Seeker-Sensitive Churches… in which believers and their needs are given… a similar priority… *Power-Oriented Churches… the magnetism of supernatural power… appeals to the unchurched.” (Pg. 188-189)
He admits, “One of my personal disappointments … with … new apostolic pastors has been their relatively underdeveloped understanding of the biblical teaching about spiritual gifts.” (Pg. 215) He also observes, “As a vehicle for credentialing a person for ordinary grass-roots parish ministry … the value of a seminary degree is clearly not what it used to be.” (Pg. 234) But he also notes, “Members of new apostolic churches are taught that all good Christians tithe their income.” (Pg. 246)
This book will be of great interest to those studying developments in the contemporary church.
Former ‘Church Growth’ specialist wrote in the first chapter of this 1999 book, “The greatest change in the way of doing church since the Protestant Reformation is taking place before our very eyes. I have come to label this phenomenon the ‘New Apostolic Reformation’… I think it will be well to set forth as concise a definition of the New Apostolic Reformation … right at the outset… ‘The New Apostolic Reformation is an extraordinary work or God at the close of the twentieth century, which is… changing the shape or Protestant Christianity around the world. For almost 5000 years Christian churches have largely functioned within traditional denominational structures … Particularly in the 1990s… new forms and operational procedures began to emerge in areas such as local church government, interchurch relationships, financing, evangelism, missions, prayer, leadership selection and training, the role of supernatural power, worship and other important aspects of church life… for the most part they are taking the form of loosely structured apostolic networks. In virtually every region of the world, these new apostolic churches constitute the fastest growing segment of Christianity.” (Pg. 5-6)
He explains, “For almost 30 years, I have carried the title ‘professor of church growth.’ … I began to realize that the new apostolic churches were the fastest growing group of churches on six continents… it is difficult to count these churches, because they do not have a denominational headquarters to which they report annual statistics… [I] conjecture that we have at least as many new apostolic congregations in the United States as Southern Baptist churches---around 40,000… The new apostolic growth is also reflected in the student enrollment at Fuller Theological Seminary, the interdenominational graduate school in which I have taught for more than a quarter of a century.” (Pg. 7-8)
He reports, “By the end of the missiologists had begun to observe at least three interesting phenomena worldwide. The first was the extraordinary growth of the African Independent Churches… It is largely because of the independent churches that Africa south of the Sahara is considerably more than 50 percent Christian today. The second missiological phenomenon is the surprising emergence of the Chinese house churches… In spite of … a Marxist government… unfavorable to Christianity, China has been witnessing the most massive numbers of non-Christians … turning to the Christian faith ever recorded in history… The third phenomenon is .. [the] ‘Latin American grassroots churches’… The effective Christian leadership across the continent is now in the hands of culturally authentic Latin Americans who are leading the most significant churches and denominations.” (Pg. 9-11)
He observes, “Innovators introduce new ideas into social networks. Those who first accept them are called ‘early adopters.’ … we are well into the early adoption phase of the New Apostolic Reformation, when we can expect fairly strong objections from traditionalists who are threatened by these changes. The major oppositions, undoubtedly, will come from denominational executives, but it will not last forever.” (Pg. 19)
He identifies, “Seven Institutional Factors that Have Caused and Perpetuated Denominational Decline: 1. DENIAL: Many denominational leaders have refused to admit they have a problem… 2. LIBERALISM: … virtually all church growth advocates have held a strongly conservative evangelical theology that is biblical… 3. INFLATED TOLERANCE: … If it ever came down to a choice between truth and tolerance, a large number of our mainline denominational leaders would choose tolerance… Tolerance is a virtue, but INFLATED tolerance can dilute truth and weaken churches… 4. MISPLACED PRIORITIES: … a consensus among evangelicals has been that our mission …involves two mandates: the ‘cultural mandate’ (social ministries) and the ‘evangelistic mandate’ (soul-saving ministries)… In a short period of time, the cultural mandate became supreme and the mainline churches believed it was more important to improve society than to win the lost for Christ… the evangelical churches which were growing also did social work, but without shifting priorities… 5. AVERSION TO EVANGELISM… [some] considered preaching the gospel as a kind of proselytism, which certainly could offend the personal dignity of unbelievers…6. SUSPICION OF GROWTH: Denominational leaders seem to have a lurking assumption that high quality churches are not expected to grow. Therefore, if churches do show unusual growth, something must be wrong with them… 7. DISTRUST OF CHARISMATIC LEADERSHIP: Among many denominational executives, as well as … seminary professors… the word ‘entrepreneur’ is… almost a cuss word.” (Pg. 23-28)
He states, “Traditional church leaders begin with the present and then look to the past. New apostolic leaders begin with the future and then look to the present. Most denominations are ‘heritage driven.’ Most apostolic networks are ‘vision driven.’ The difference is enormous… New apostolic leaders appreciate the past, live in the present, and long for the future… those who choose to focus on the future are more likely to be PROACTIVE, they readily see opportunities and they have a high tolerance of risk.” (Pg. 56-57)
He also outlines “Five Compass-Point New Apostolic Values: … These five compass-point values are nonnegotiable… Three of these values relate to faith: theology, ecclesiology and eschatology. The other two relate to practice: organization and leadership… [1] Theology Has Absolute Norms… new apostolic churches are not ‘creedal,’ but they do agree on the core of theology… there are three generally agreed-upon theological absolutes in new apostolic churches: 1. The Bible … is the absolute authority for faith and practice. 2. Jesus Christ is God and Lord. 3. An individual’s personal relationship with Jesus Christ makes the difference between heaven and hell… [2] Ecclesiology Looks Outward. Another trait of new apostolic strictness is a burning desire to win the lost to Christ… [3] Eschatology is Optimistic… Satan is being defeated… things are going well for the kingdom of god and … spiritual victories will continue to exceed spiritual defeats…. [4] Organization Emerges from Personal Relationships… denominational structures that worked only a couple of decades ago are now becoming obsolete. God is pouring our new wine, and many of the old wineskins are proving dysfunctional… The best way to spend time, most new apostolic leaders will agree, is in building relationships… [5] Leaders Can Be Trusted. Of all the radical elements of change in the New Apostolic Reformation… one of them … is so important that I have chosen these words very carefully: ‘The amount of spiritual authority delegated by the Holy Spirit to individuals… within present denominational structures there is virtually no possibility of trusting INDIVIDUALS enough to delegate to them vision-casting authority for the whole organization…. Suspicion and distrust feed the status quo; trust and empowerment shape the future.” (Pg. 64-78)
He argues, “Those who process data through [a cessationist] paradigm naturally would affirm that there are no such things as apostles, in the biblical sense of the word, in churches today… We are witnessing a fairly rapid change in the attitude of church leaders toward accepting the contemporary office of apostle… The trend is clear, though, and my guess is that in a few years the controversy will begin to die down.” (Pg. 108-110)
He says, “The charismatic leader possesses qualities the followers perceive as emanating from superhuman sources. This is one of the reasons the apostle who founds an apostolic network carries so much authority… When the charismatic leader dies, the followers then feel obligated to devise ways and means to perpetuate the charisma… the tendency is for the followers to develop rational, bureaucratic, democratic structures in their attempt to preserve the charisma… However, the trade-off is that when democratic structures are developed, the leaders then gain their positions of power by… the votes of the followers. When this happens, the course of power subtly shifts from God to a group…” (Pg. 133-134)
He observes, “Churches that have broken with the traditional outreach methods tend to fall into a typology of three philosophies of ministry… *Seeker-Driven Churches… [where] the ministry of the church is prioritized around the felt needs of the unchurched…. *Seeker-Sensitive Churches… in which believers and their needs are given… a similar priority… *Power-Oriented Churches… the magnetism of supernatural power… appeals to the unchurched.” (Pg. 188-189)
He admits, “One of my personal disappointments … with … new apostolic pastors has been their relatively underdeveloped understanding of the biblical teaching about spiritual gifts.” (Pg. 215) He also observes, “As a vehicle for credentialing a person for ordinary grass-roots parish ministry … the value of a seminary degree is clearly not what it used to be.” (Pg. 234) But he also notes, “Members of new apostolic churches are taught that all good Christians tithe their income.” (Pg. 246)
This book will be of great interest to those studying developments in the contemporary church.
March 17, 2011
A very good book explaining the "New Apostolic Movement." An understanding to what is happening - especially in charismatic churches.
However, my own personal views fight for autonomy of the local church.
However, my own personal views fight for autonomy of the local church.
April 20, 2015
Wagner looks into the phenomena of the "New Apostolic Reformation" and profiles the characteristics contributing to its growth. He utilized the interviews from his book "New Apostolic Churches" to present a more professional engagement of this missiological phenomena.
March 6, 2013
Very good and informative
June 22, 2013
Not my kind of writing style, but an interesting take on high impact churches in our time and on what Wagner calls "apostolic leadership."
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews