Scandinavian Pentecostal Mission

Visions of Apostolic Mission: Scandinavian Pentecostal Mission to 1935, by David Bundy. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Studia Historico-Ecclesiastica Upsaliensia, 45. Uppsala, Sweden: Uppsala University Library, 2009.

Scandinavian missionaries have played an important role in the spread of Pentecostalism both in Europe and in the southern hemisphere. That is one of the major conclusions of David Bundy’s recently-published dissertation: Visions of Apostolic Mission: Scandinavian Pentecostal Mission to 1935. Among many other things, Bundy underscores the achievements of T.B. Barratt, the Norwegian pastor and Pentecostal pioneer.

The Pentecostal revival spread across the globe following the Azusa Street outpouring in 1906. From the very beginning Scandinavians took part in this process. By 1906-1907 a foothold had already been established for the revival in Sweden and Norway. In contrast to the development of the movement in North America, the advent of Scandinavian Pentecostalism did not initially cause splits and the founding of new denominations. Many viewed the new revival as a continuation of the earlier international Holiness movement, which in the Scandinavian countries was influenced by Lutheran pietists, Methodists and Baptists. In Sweden the largest Baptist denomination became the center of the Pentecostal revival.

Bundy shows how Scandinavian pietism influenced not only the character of Pentecostalism in Scandinavia, but also Pentecostalism in other parts of the world through the work of Scandinavian Pentecostal missionaries. One of the characteristics developed by Scandinavian Pentecostalism was an emphasis on the autonomy of the local church. This peculiarity arose from the heritage of Baptist congregationalism in Sweden. Through the missionary strategy of the emerging leader of Swedish Pentecostalism, Lewi Pethrus, this ecclesiology was exported with remarkable success, particularly to Brazil. Bundy’s research using early Pentecostal primary sources in the native Scandinavian languages is unparalleled. His painstaking scholarship has resulted in a great narrative of early Pentecostal revival and missions and is recommended reading for everyone interested in the formative years of global Pentecostalism.

Reviewed by Torbjörn Aronson, Livets Ord University

Paperback, 562 pages. To order, contact the publisher: Acta@ub.uu.se

In the Steps of Smith Wigglesworth

In the Steps of Smith Wigglesworth, by Philip B. Taylor. England: The Author, 2007.

This a beautifully produced book. It contains over 150 photographs, many in colour of places connected with the ministry of Smith Wigglesworth. Here are the house and churches of the young Smith. From the humble beginning from his christening in 1859 to his conversion in Menston Chapel aged eight, all of these buildings are shown within the narrative of the story. Other places from Bowland Street in Bradford to All Saints’ in Sunderland and Glad Tidings in Wakefield where he died are all shown in full colour. Anyone interested in the life and ministry of Wigglesworth will want to add this sumptuous volume to their collection. For anyone wishing to follow the Wigglesworth trail or simply view the places when reading about him it makes an ideal companion. The compiler is congratulated on his production that is a valuable addition to the history of Pentecostalism in Britain.

Reviewed by Desmond Cartwright, Elim Pentecostal Church

Paperback, 128 pages, illustrated. £10.99 plus postage. Order from: www.smithwigglesworth.com

Mission Possible

Mission Possible: Paul Williscroft’s Epic Christian Struggle Against Nazi & Communist Oppression, by Gladys L. Williscroft. Enterprise, OR: Biography Press, 2000.

Paul and Gladys Williscroft were newlyweds when they left the U.S. as missionaries to Eastern Europe in January 1938. In less than 2 years they were leaving Europe as World War II plunged the continent into total disorder, change, and unbelievable bloodshed.

As German troops massed on the Polish border, the couple caught the last trains out of two stations and were assigned the last cabin in a ship out of Oslo bound for the U.S. They returned almost as refugees to the United States, yet they lived for the time when they could return to Germany and pursue their mission.

During the 1940s they pastored in the Montana District. They returned to Europe after the war where they ministered for a total of 37 years, producing Sunday school materials, introducing Royal Rangers, and teaching in the German Bible School in Erzhausen. Paul died in 1987, and Gladys in 2002.

Excerpts from the book are included in “Fleeing an Explosive Europe as Adolph Hitler Begins World War II” in the Fall 2003 issue of Assemblies of God Heritage.

Paperback, 414 pages, illustrated. $15.95, plus $2.00 postage. Order from: R. G. Williscroft, P.O. Box 1087, Studio City, CA 91614-0087.

Stanley M. Horton: Shaper of Pentecostal Theology

Stanley M. Horton: Shaper of Pentecostal Theology, by Lois E. Olena with Raymond L. Gannon. Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 2009.

The second half of the twentieth century has seen Pentecostal scholarship emerge and thrive. Out of that emergence, few names are more recognizable than Stanley Horton. Called to teach Bible while a chemistry student at UC Berkeley, Horton did the unthinkable and went to Harvard to prepare for ministry as a Pentecostal scholar. The long shadow of Horton’s influence among Pentecostals began humbly and now stretches around the world and into the first decade of the twenty-first century. You may have read his books, but Stanley Horton: Shaper of Pentecostal Theology will tell you “the rest of the story.” As you read, be encouraged and see what a long obedience in the same direction can yield.

–Dr. Byron Klaus, President, Assemblies of God Theological Seminary

I am very happy to see in print this tribute to Stanley Horton, one of my esteemed professors, a model of godliness, sacrifice, and scholarship. I am also delighted to learn more about his life, and through it the history of the Pentecostal movement in North America. All who have been touched by this rich heritage will appreciate this work.

–Dr. Craig Keener, Professor of New Testament, Palmer Theological Seminary

Who has been a greater luminary in the twentieth-century Pentecostal galaxy than Dr. Stanley M. Horton? Many make their mark on but one island of ministry, but heroes impact many. This book shows how this scholar-saint set the standard for Pentecostal scholarship as a model professor, left a unique Gospel witness across the globe, and kept on “getting it right.” In a nation of conflicted social policies and in a church of confusing racial standards, he showed how one man’s life could clearly reveal Christ’s Church. May this volume inform others as much as my teacher Dr. Horton reformed me. Paul said in 1 Timothy 5:17 to give double honor to the elders who rule well; this read is just a portion of such honor.

–Bishop Lemuel Thuston, Kansas East Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, Church of God in Christ

Paperback, 318 pages, illustrated. $19.95 retail. Order from: Gospel Publishing House

No Place for Plastic Saints

No Place for Plastic Saints: Earthquakes, Chicken Feet, and Candid Confessions of a Missionary Wife, by Margaret A. Register. Xulon Press, 2009.

In this delightful memoir, Margaret Register speaks in a conversational tone, drawing the reader first into her early years as a Methodist “preacher’s kid” who, with her parents, became Pentecostals while she was still young. She is authentic in describing, sometimes with great humor, the struggles, setbacks, and joys of her preparation for ministry—first as a pastor’s wife and then in answer to her missionary call—and the unexpected traumas of life as a “foreign” missionary for the Assemblies of God.

From language study to the country of Chile, and later in Paraguay, Register rejoices in miracles of provision, in miraculous healings in a tent church, in protection on steep Andean mountain roads. We cry with her as she describes disappointing resistance by some whom they went to serve. She recounts vividly an earthquake and many other unusual happenings (including dead bodies, chicken feet, and outhouses) as they ministered first in Temuco and then in Viña, Chile, and later in Paraguay, where, in addition to pastoring and teaching, they began a very successful television ministry that would eventually reach all of Latin America.

“But sometimes I felt false because ‘on stage’ [at American churches] my holy-self was demonstrated with wonderful stories from Viña,” writes Margaret Register, who with her husband, Joe, served Latin America as missionaries for 38 years starting in 1967. “Missionaries never talked in public about the painful times. I dared not mention the pain of Temuco. I felt like a plastic saint.”

Intrigued with Register’s transparency, a pastor states, “I could hardly put the book down to do other things. I laughed, sometimes had tears, and was amazed at the stories. I learned of the tremendous struggles that missionaries go through—finances, sickness, rejection, etc. I guess to us here in the States, missionary life looks a little too glamorous.”

“Who knew that missionary life was more than love offerings and extended vacations to exotic places?” says another reader.

Margaret Register has done a great service to the body of Christ in writing No Place for Plastic Saints. She excels in painting delightful and vivid word pictures so that you, the reader, feel you are there with her as she walks through each dramatic story. This is truly an authentic account of the good, the bad, and the miraculous in the life of a dedicated Pentecostal missionary family. This book is a must read!

Reviewed by Juanita Cunningham Blackburn, AGWM missionary

Paperback, 440 pages, illustrated. $22.99 retail. Order from: amazon.com

Out Behind the Barn

Out Behind the Barn, by Jon Liechty. Jamestown, ND: the author, 2008.

The Liechty family has been a fixture in the Assemblies of God in North Dakota since before the North Dakota District Council was organized. Spirit-baptized in the Egeland Free Mission (Egeland, ND) in the 1910s, John H. Liechty helped to organize a small but sturdy independent Pentecostal congregation, Minnewaukan Gospel Tabernacle. Of Liechty’s seven children, Jon, Paul, and Silas went on to become ministers or layleaders in the North Dakota District, using their business acumen, work ethic, and heart for ministry to build the church in the state.

In Out Behind the Barn, Jon Liechty tells his heart-warming testimony, which demonstrates the provisions and faithfulness of God. Liechty reminisces about people, places and events that will be familiar to many in his corner of the world. This book will be welcomed by the numerous people whose lives have been impacted by the Liechty family and by those who are interested in learning more about the development of Pentecostalism in North Dakota.

Reviewed by Darrin J. Rodgers

Paperback, 232 pages, illustrated. $12.99 postpaid. Order from: Jon Liechty, PO Box 758, Jamestown, ND 58402.

Correspondence of Lewi Pethrus

Lewis brev: urval ur Lewi Pethrus korrespondens, by Joel Halldorf. Foreword by Per Olof Enquist. Örebro, Sweden: Libris, 2007.

Sometimes it is not obvious how an investigation should be conducted and what methods are most appropriate for working through subject matter. Sometimes we think that the strict scientific approach is superior. Other times we learn that there are perspectives that can help us reach insights that go beyond what is determinable by scientific method. We might discuss the relative merits of keeping a distance from the subject, or at least attempt to not be too positive towards it. However, some serious scholars and philosophers claim that an inside perspective towards a subject is, in their scientific judgment, a precondition for doing justice to the material. Everything must be understood from the inside.

These thoughts ran through my mind while reading Joel Halldorf’s book, Lewis brev: urval ur Lewi Pethrus korrespondens (in English, Lewi’s Letters: Selections from Lewi Pethrus’ Correspondence), which is based on the correspondence of Swedish Pentecostal leader Lewi Pethrus (1884–1974). Halldorf shoulders a number of roles as author of this book. He unearthed letters to and from Lewi Pethrus that until now had not been public. He places this correspondence in its historical context. And he also conducted journalistic interviews with children and close friends of the correspondents. Halldorf acts as a critical and constructive presenter of the Pentecostal movement of which he himself is part.

This is a beautiful book. By the choice of title and preface-writer it is also connected to Per Olof Enquist’s great novel about Lewi Pethrus. It also works through, with new perspectives, some of those tensions and conflicts documented by Enquist. The book is well-designed, with different fonts for the regular text and the letters, and it also includes a number of pictures and photographs. The author provides commentary alongside the correspondence, and the book also lists the sources used. This demonstrates great care on the part of the author. An investigation of this kind is particularly welcome since the scholarly treatment of the life of Lewi Pethrus was previously limited to one dissertation. Neither are there any reasons to question the author’s insights concerning the material or his willingness to uncover sources. All the stones have been turned.

Also interesting are some of the author’s own comments about the journalistic method he at times employs, in particular because he belongs to the very movement he studied. There is no need for an apology. I think his broad investigation yielded more insights than if he had limited his methods. The journalistic interviews that are included not only shine brightly, but they provide depth to the related comments, due to the author’s ability to link them to both the present day and the his own insights concerning our own times. Halldorf’s connection to the Pentecostal movement often adds color to his comments and makes it possible to see different connections, although at times it runs the risk of becoming “a book inside the book” when the author does not clearly identify his own opinion concerning the early debate on whether to provide education for ministers.

What, then, is the picture of this Pentecostal leader offered through these letters? And how does it complement earlier presentations? I am not sure of the answer to these questions. Here, too, we meet the modernity of Lewi Pethrus to which Carl-Gustav Carlsson introduced us in his dissertation (Människan, Samhället och Gud, Lunds Universitet, 1990). Lewi Pethrus was the man of the great projects. The man who was able to see around the corner, and to make it there, in his building of an empire. He was a leader whose building of the kingdom of God demanded sacrifices, not only of his own personal comfort, but also of friends and colleagues. Nothing important must stand in the way of the most important.

The new things, that we earlier might have guessed but can now see more clearly in this material, are the tenderness in friendship and the awareness of the price of leadership that Pethrus was willing to pay. He does really write to his colleagues in love. His friendship extended also to ordinary people who asked simple questions. He was a center of communication, not only on stage – the stages of the whole world – but he also gave time and room to give advice, counsel and direction, and often in a tender way. It is a beautiful portrait.

Halldorf’s method also demonstrates how this leader lived with and, over time, reflected over his own leadership. He could write a letter on how every leader must be ready to be tried and face challenges in his everyday work, and then in another context view these challenges in darker colors as something that has to be fought and weeded out. The leader Lewi Pethrus had a sense of timing. And when he claimed to be ready to step aside after facing opposition from the wife of one of his colleagues, one really wonders how this was possible. His cause was greater than his own position, at least that was his own view on things. And this might be the salt of every great leader: that the personal comfort, but also the personal position, might have to give room to a greater cause.

Reviewed by Dr. Runar Eldebo, Stockholm School of Theology
This review was originally published in Swedish in Kyrkohistorisk Årsskrift , 2007.
Posted with the permission of the author and publisher.

Hardcover, 359 pages, illustrated. SEK218 plus shipping. Available from Libris.se

Portraits of a Generation

Portraits of a Generation: Early Pentecostal Leaders, ed. by James R. Goff, Jr. and Grant Wacker. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2002.

Portraits of a Generation talks about many of the early Pentecostal leaders. Instead of giving a large, drawn-out list of every leader in the Pentecostal movement, it gives the testimonies and interests of those leaders that maybe weren’t quite as famous. It gives insight into who really had the vision and those who desired seeing those visions put into real life. In this book, they represent leaders from all different walks of life. They differ on areas from ideas about theology, ethnic and social background, and areas of living. There is a common view that Pentecostalism was a movement without structure or leaders, but this book instead shows that the movement had a strong sense of both.

Portraits of a Generation is separated into three sections: “Forerunners,” “Visionaries,” and “Builders.” All of the chapters are about individual early leaders. Many of the contributors are known scholars of Pentecostalism while others aren’t very well known in the academic world.

In the first section, “Forerunners,” the leaders that the editors include are John Alexander Dowie, E. L. Harvey, Charles Price Jones, Frank Sandford, and Alma White. They are all leaders who paved the way toward the formal Pentecostal movement. These leaders were not directly tied with the Pentecostal movement, and some didn’t believe in the same standards that Pentecostals do today, such as speaking in tongues. Though not specifically under the Pentecostal umbrella, they laid out some of the ground beliefs and ideals that were later accepted into Pentecostal doctrines.

In the section on “Visionaries,” there are discussions about Minnie F. Abrams, Frank Bartleman, William H. Durham, Thomas Hampton Gourley, Alice E. Luce, Francisco Olazábal, and Maria B. Woodworth-Etter. These leaders were between the forerunners and the builders. They were the ones who envisioned what the movement eventually became and helped provide for the structure. Francisco Olazábal was one of the main contributors in the growth of Pentecostalism in the Hispanic culture while Minnie F. Abrams, Alice E. Luce, and Maria B. Woodworth-Etter gained popularity in being some of the first female leaders for the Pentecostal movement.

“Builders,” the last section, discusses the leaders Florence Crawford, G. T. Haywood, Charles Harrison Mason, Carrie Judd Montgomery, Antonio Castañeda Nava, Ida B. Robinson, George Floyd Taylor, and A. J. Tomlinson. In this section, Pentecostalism begins to take on the form of classical Pentecostalism. The people included in this section are those who heard and saw what the other leaders were trying to do and started to put their beliefs and ideals into action.

Because the volume is collective, there are some essays that were different in the quality of their sources than others. Some of the arguments had limited sources so are based on suppositions. Overall, the quality of the essays is very professional. All twenty-two chapters looked at Pentecostalism in three different lights: those who came before, those who had the vision, and those who put the vision into action. This gives us a good understanding of the early stages of the Pentecostal movement and how it was viewed by those with whom it began.

Reviewed by Samantha Beck, Evangel University student

Softcover, 430 pages, illustrated. $34.95 plus shipping. Available from amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com

Wayne and Evelyn Pitts biography

Touching Lives the Jesus Way!: Sixty-nine Years of Ministry, Wayne and Evelyn Pitts, Stories of Lives Changed by the Gospel, by Wayne and Evelyn Pitts with Londa Duncan. Xulon Press, 2008.

From stories of their childhood in Texas in the 1920s and 1930s, to memories of God’s provisions during the Great Depression, to accounts of healing and early Pentecostal revivals, Wayne and Evelyn Pitts’ new book will be warmly welcomed by the thousands who have been touched by their lives and ministry. Wayne Pitts, ordained by the Assemblies of God in 1943, and his wife Evelyn enjoyed long-term pastoral ministry in Florida.

Hardcover, 284 pages, illustrated. $25.99 retail. Order from: amazon.com

Maria Woodworth-Etter biography

Maria Woodworth-Etter: For Such a Time as This, by Wayne Warner. Gainesville, FL: Bridge-Logos, 2004.

The author, Wayne Warner, has done intense, investigative work to bring his readers Woodworth-Etter’s true life story, and it is a thorough story at that. Maria Woodworth-Etter was a phenomenal woman evangelist who strongly opposed racial and gender discrimination. She believed the only way to be saved from sin was through Jesus Christ and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Not only does he share her accomplishments and successes, but also moments when her faith was weak and when life was not fair. He also displays her with power brought on by the Holy Spirit. Warner compares her in many ways to several important, powerful followers of God in the Bible who also had a calling specifically for that period of time.

The book includes detailed descriptions of significant events in Woodworth-Etter’s career and life along with excerpts from her own book, Marvels and Miracles. The author gathers several newspaper stories and editorials along with descendants’ accounts of her life and her powerful meetings. He gives both the positive and negative newspaper reports. Warner takes several primary sources and even personal accounts and ties them together into a detailed, yet exciting review of Woodworth-Etter’s life and the influences she had during her time. He also includes valuable pictures of her, her meetings, and her family members.

Warner shares of Woodworth-Etter’s struggles before she was able to fulfill her calling as a female evangelist. He also explains, with the help of excerpts from Woodworth-Etter’s book, that the basis of her ministry was her desperate prayers before every sermon. He goes on to describe her ministry extending outside of Ohio and the oppositions that came with this from her family and several others. Most of the time, he goes through her life like he’s following a time line. But there are a few times that he jumps back to a significant event to add or elaborate on it.

Readers are taken on a detailed journey through not only the trials and ministry of Woodworth-Etter but also her heart and influences on her time and those around her. She dramatically changed the view people had of women and their roles in the Church and God’s work. She paved the way for the Pentecostal movement and for many after her, including several women such as Aimee Semple McPherson and Kathryn Kuhlman, and also influenced men like Smith Wigglesworth.

Reviewed by Sarah Ahmed, Evangel University student

Paperback, 359 pages. $12.99 retail. Order from amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com