Table Of Contents

Introduction
Introducing John Wimber
His innovative theological contributions
The two authors

Part one: the gift of the spirit

Avoiding Paralysis
The command of Jesus
Avoiding Paralysis: Wimber’s both/and

Two views of the Spirit’s Work
Kingdom lenses
Diverse works of the Holy Spirit

What is Pentecost?
End times prophetic restoration
Commissioning and empowering

Christian experience
How do you know?
Power for ministry
Excurses on Old Testament Phenomena of the Spirit

The Thomas Lyons Thesis
Continuity and Discontinuity
Historical research
Spirit reception in Luke-Acts
Christian revivals
For reflection

Part two: the gifts of the Spirit
Introduction
Actuality, Relevance, and Motivation
Survey of Vineyard pastors in California
Cross-Cultural Transferability

1: WIMBER’S THEOLOGY OF CHARISMATA
Theological Position
A historical shift from “Baptism in the Spirit” to “Anointing”
Overview of Wimber’s Theology of Charismata
The Right Motivation for Ministry
The Gracelets and the Kingdom
Impartation
The Dynamic Aspects
Role – Gracelet – Ministry – Gifted equipper (office)
The Charismata as Tools
Summary

2: IMPLICATIONS OF THE DYNAMIC VIEW
Categorization of the Charismata
Descriptions of some Charismata

3: BIBLICAL THEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF WIMBER’S THEOLOGY
Word-study of Charismata
Christ’s Gift
The Charismata-Taxonomies
Analysis of the Punctual Aspect of Charisma
General Comments and Summary

4: APPLICATIONS FOR DEVELOPING CHARISMATA
Is Charisma an Enhancement of Natural Talents?
Why is it Important to Discover Your Charismata?
Why Develop Your Charismata?
Who is Responsible for Developing one’s Charismata?
The “Show and Tell” Method of Training
How Can Charismata be Developed?

5: LEVELS OF CHARISMATIC MINISTRY
Analysis of the Various Gift Passages
Gracelets
Ministries
Gifted equippers (offices)
Summary

6: WIMBER’S THEOLOGY in CONTEXT
The Permanent View of Charismata
The Semi-Permanent View of Charismata
Focus on Permanent Ministry
The Cessationist View of Charismata
The Evangelical Charismatic View of Charismata
The Pentecostal View of Charismata
The “Faith” and “Discipleship” movements
Concluding Comments

7: JOHN WIMBER
Jazz Musician Wrestling with the Holy Spirit
Evangelist and Pastor in the Yorba Linda Friends Church
Church Growth Consultant
The Emergence of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Anaheim
Ministry in the Marketplace
Leaving Calvary Chapel and Becoming “Vineyard”
The Kansas Prophets, the Toronto Renewal, and Battle with Cancer
The Major Themes in John Wimber’s Ministry
Analysis of John Wimber’s Contribution to the Church

Bibliography
Part One
Part Two

John Wimber’s contribution to fresh theological thinking was more diverse than many are aware of. As a result of his best-known publications, he is usually associated with power healing and power evangelism. But there was more to Wimber than that, including his innovative thinking on the Gift and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. This book is not a replication of his views. Rather the authors take Wimber’s innovative thinking and develop it further, hopefully in a manner that reflects his instincts.

Wimber chose to base his views on the Gift or reception of the Spirit on Pauline theology and the theology of Luke-Acts. He was one of the first to argue that what Paul meant by the phrase “baptism in the Spirit” and what Luke meant by that phrase were not the same. Therefore, while conservative evangelicals have tended to impose Paul’s meaning onto Luke, and Pentecostals have tended to impose Luke’s meaning onto Paul, Wimber held to a more nuanced view that affirmed both. This enabled him to come to a flexible understanding of the reception or empowering of the Spirit. In this sense Wimber’s teaching breaks out from the century old disagreement between conservative evangelicals and Pentecostals.

Derek Morphew explores this aspect of Wimber’s contribution in Part One.

The experience of being empowered by the Spirit leads directly to the Christian disciple operating in the Gifts of the Spirit. Here again Wimber made a fresh contribution. One of his slogans reflects his approach: “we all get to play.” On the one hand, he was concerned that traditional elements within the Pentecostal tradition, and later reflected in the “Kansas City Prophets”, had produced a culture of anointed “superstars” who moved effectively in the charismatic gifts, making the general Christian disciple an observer more than a participant. While he put some of this down to ministry models, often saying that “models rule”, he also discerned that the more fundamental issue was the theology of the charismatic gifts. This led to his notion of “situational” versus “static” gifts of the Spirit and to his metaphor of the gifts as “the dancing hand of God.”

On the other hand, traditional conservative evangelical teaching on the charismatic gifts tended to make them little more than natural talents, received at birth, but enhanced at rebirth, reducing their charismatic dimension and severing them from the situational and empowering work of the Spirit. Wimber resisted both the “natural talent” view of the gifts and the “superstar” view of the gifts.

Øyvind Nerheim, from the Oslo Vineyard in Norway, explores this aspect of Wimber’s teaching in Part Two.