Assemblies of God Missionaries in the Philippines

Led by the Spirit: The History of the American Assemblies of God Missionaries in the Philippines, by Dave Johnson. Pasig City, Philippines: ICI Ministries, 2009.

Dave Johnson, an Assemblies of God missionary to the Philippines, has written an impressive account of the development of Assemblies of God missions work in the Philippines from 1926 to the present. Johnson’s 676-page book, Led by the Spirit, is arranged chronologically into five sections: 1) 1926-1946, detailing the arrival of the first missionaries through the internment of missionaries by the Japanese during World War II; 2) 1946-1959, describing the regrouping of the missions efforts following the war; 3) 1960-1979, including the development of educational institutions and media ministries; 4) 1980-2000, documenting the further development of national programs and educational institutions; and 5) 2001-2008, showing the maturation of the institutions within the Assemblies of God of the Phillipines and the relationship of American missionaries with the national church. Each section provides extensive documentation of the lives and work of the American Assemblies of God missionaries active in the Philippines. This is an important addition to the literature on Pentecostal missiology and should be in the library of every seminary and university.

Paperback, 676 pages, illustrated. Available from the author for $22.95 postpaid to U.S. addresses. For more information or to order the book, see: http://www.daveanddebbiejohnson.com

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

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.

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

Assemblies of God in Guyana

The History of the Assemblies of God in Guyana, by Alfred S. Cockfield. Brooklyn, NY: Christian Times, 2008.

Dr. Alfred Cockfield, senior pastor of God’s Battalion of Prayer Church, an Assemblies of God congregation in Brooklyn, New York, has written a history of the Assemblies of God in Guyana. Cockfield, who was born in Guyana, has personal knowledge of many of the people, churches, themes, and events significant in the history of the Guyanese church. Cockfield supplemented these experiences with additional research and the resulting volume contains a treasure trove of information, which will be welcomed by church leaders, historians, and the people who lived the history.

Existing Pentecostal histories primarily document the stories of North American and European believers, paying inadequate attention to the development of the movement in non-Western lands. The challenge to the next generation of Pentecostal historians is to document these non-Western stories, so that Pentecostalism can be better understood from a global perspective. Cockfield’s work helps fill this need by documenting previously unpublished information about the Assemblies of God in Guyana. According to Cockfield, his book “will clearly affirm the fact that God is equally interested in the people and nation of Guyana as He is in the people and nations of the United States, Canada, England, or any other nation” (p. vii).

Reviewed by Darrin J. Rodgers

Softcover, 159 pages. $15.00 plus $3 postage to U.S. addresses. Order from: Dr. Alfred Cockfield, God’s Battalion of Prayer Church, 661 Linden Blvd, Brooklyn, NY 11203 (phone: 718-774-5447; email: Battalionp@aol.com).

Missions history of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church

The Simultaneous Principle: The History of IPHC World Missions, The First 100 Years, by Frank G. Tunstall. Franklin Springs, GA: LifeSprings Resources, 2005.

Dr. Frank G. Tunstall, World Missions Ministries board member and pastor of Northwest Christian Center in Oklahoma City, was selected to compose the 100 years of the history of missions, based in part on research and findings of writers from various regions of our mission fields. Dr. Tunstall has done a beautiful job of composing the information into a harmonious 100 years of history. In The Simultaneous Principle: The History of IPHC World Missions, The First 100 Years our rich history is conveyed by detailing the simultaneous movement of one gear, The Homeland, and the second gear, The Nations. Without the simultaneous movement of each gear, the stories and testimonies of the missionaries and people around the globe would not be possible. To catch the “Simultaneous Principle” of God’s Great Commission is to grasp His plan of discipling the nations, while at the same time ministering to people at home.

It is my hope that all who read this book will find it to be an inspiring account of the history of IPHC World Missions – a story worth telling.

–M. Donald Duncan, adapted from Introduction

Paperback, 455 pages, illustrated. $27.99 list price. Order from LifeSprings Resources.

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Doris Dresselhaus Menzies Autobiography

Young at Heart: The Story of a Heart Transplant Recipient, by Doris Dresselhaus Menzies. Springfield, MO: Celebration Publishing, 2007.

Doris Dresselhaus Menzies has had two famous last names. Her husband, Dr. William W. Menzies, is one of the most highly-regarded educators in the Assemblies of God. Her cousin, Dr. Richard Dresselhaus, served as the long-time pastor of San Diego (CA) First Assembly of God and continues to serve as an executive presbyter of the Assemblies of God. Few people can claim to be related to one statesman of their caliber, much less two!

But Doris Menzies has her own story to tell. In Young at Heart: The Story of a Heart Transplant Recipient, Menzies recounted her testimony — from her Assemblies of God upbringing in Iowa, to her years in the ministry with her husband, to her roles as wife and mother, to her recent medical triumphs as a heart transplant recipient and as a cancer survivor.

Born on a frigid December day in 1932 on an Iowa farm, Doris was reared in the sturdy Willard and Beatrice Dresselhaus family. Her mother taught Sunday school, and her father was the Sunday school superintendent of the Decorah Assembly of God. Willard, a farmer, served as Farm Bureau president for Winneshiek County, was involved in local politics, and owned his own plane. Young at Heart challenges the assumption, held by certain historians, that early Pentecostals were disinherited or socially uninvolved.

Doris met Bill Menzies, her future husband, at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. Bill graduated in 1953 and accepted the pastorate of the little Assemblies of God church in Big Rapids, Michigan. They married soon after Doris’ 1955 graduation and settled into pastoral ministry.

David and Gladys Guenther Missionary Biography

To God Be the Glory: The Story of David and Gladys Guenther, Assemblies of God Missionaries to Guyana, Belize, and Jamaica, by David J. Guenther. Springfield, MO: The Author, 2007.

David J. Guenther and his wife, Gladys, served on the evangelistic field and pastored Assemblies of God churches in Cataract, Wautoma, Marshfield, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They also followed God’s call and served as missionaries from 1959 to 1995 in Guyana (known as British Guiana until 1966), Jamaica, and Belize.

Guenther, in his new book To God Be the Glory, preserves and shares the stories and lessons from their lives and ministry. This engaging autobiographical account will be welcomed, not only by those who have counted the Guenthers as friends and ministry partners, but also by church leaders and scholars. Guenther’s careful, detailed account of their ministry years documents the people, events, and places significant in the development of the Assemblies of God in three countries along the Caribbean Basin.

David and Gladys Guenther started life on the northern tier of the United States; David in Wausau, Wisconsin, and Gladys in North Dakota. Both were reared in Pentecostal homes. David’s grandfather, Ernest B. Guenther, was baptized in the Holy Spirit in about 1908, shortly after hearing of the great Pentecostal revival in Chicago. He was ordained by the Full Gospel Assembly in Chicago in 1911 and led German-language house meetings in Merrill, Wisconsin. David grew up in Wausau Christian Assembly of God, where his father was a lay pastor. Gladys was the daughter of Clarence J. Larson, a leader in the North Dakota District who pastored Assemblies of God congregations in Cavalier, Minot, Lisbon, Powers Lake, and Grand Forks, North Dakota, as well as in Eureka, California.

Globalbeliever.com

Globalbeliever.com: Connecting to God’s Work in Your World [Rev. ed.], by Grant McClung. Cleveland, TN: Pathway Press, 2004.

Despite the fact that more than 75 percent of Church of God (Cleveland, TN) membership exists outside North America, Grant McClung still believes in a need to send missionaries overseas “until all have heard.” This conviction is what inspired the 2004 revised edition of Globalbeliever.com: Connecting to God’s Work in Your World, a local church missions resource written by Grant McClung, who serves as field director for the Church of God in Western Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

Defining a Globalbeliever
The term globalbeliever comes from McClung’s concept of a follower of Jesus Christ who is active in his/her world through intercessory prayer, stewardship, evangelism and positive acts of Christian benevolence. Being a “globalbeliever” is another way of saying that one is a “world Christian”—a believer who is actively involved in ministry beyond the “four walls of the church,” both locally and internationally.

Lithuanian Pentecostal History

Lietuvos Sekmininkų Bažnyčia: Istorine Apybraiza (The Pentecostal Church of Lithuania: Historical Sketch), edited by Rimantas Kupstys, et al. Vilnius, Lithuania: Apyausris, 2002.

Lietuvos Sekmininkų Bažnyčia: Istorine Apybraiza, published in 2002 upon the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Pentecostal church in Lithuania, provides a detailed grassroots account in the Lithuanian language of the development of Pentecostalism across the Baltic nation. The volume was assembled by an editorial committee headed by Rimantas Kupstys, Bishop of the Union of Pentecostal Churches of Lithuania.

The publisher notes the volume is not an exhaustive scientific study. However, this historical sketch is a valuable written account of a national history that, until now, was largely available only in scattered documents or in oral form. The work was based on archival materials, memories of eyewitnesses, published articles, and government documents.

Lietuvos Sekmininkų Bažnyčia begins by tracing Pentecostalism’s roots in the trans-Atlantic revivals of the 18th and 19th centuries, resulting in a significant evangelical and Holiness movement in England and America. The traditional version of Pentecostal origins is retold, identifying Charles Parham and the Azusa Street revival as central to the emerging movement. Thomas Ball Barratt, the Methodist minister from Oslo who received the Pentecostal message while visiting New York in 1906, is commended for, upon his return to Norway, helping to nurture Pentecostal leaders across Europe.