Mostly backwards looking, but still nice to see someone embracing the term. Closely related to the book: Quest for the Radical Middle.
http://radicalmiddleministries.org/intro/ Intro to RMM The Quest for the Radical Middle: A Historical Introduction In 1925, fundamentalist prosecutor, William Jennings Bryan, was bitterly defeated by the atheist, Clarence Darrow, with the acquittal of John Scopes, a science teacher who had been accused of teaching evolution in his Tennessee classroom. After that, Fundamentalism, once on the cutting edge of both evangelism and social action in America, submerged into an isolated subculture. It was not until the early 1940s that some of these fundamentalists shed the trappings of their self-induced, insular prison by refusing to embrace any longer the false dichotomy between head and heart. They initiated a new brand of Christianity that was passionate not just for evangelism but also for engaging liberals on their own ground by producing their own scholars. Calling themselves “evangelicals” this new brand of Christianity embraced the radical middle between head and heart. These new scholars began to write books at a clip, thus calling for new publishing houses like Zondervan, Eerdmans and Baker, and journals like Christianity Today. Sadly, however, the new Evangelicalism never embraced the biblical tension between the Word and the Spirit and rejected healing, deliverance and signs and wonders, experiences associated with Pentecostalism. Despite the inclusion of Pentecostals within the newly formed “National Association of Evangelicals,” Evangelicals rejected this branch of Christianity doctrinally because of the Pentecostal conviction of the need for a second work of grace subsequent to salvation they called “the baptism in the Holy Ghost” (to use the language of their Bible, the King James Version. This “baptism” was an empowerment for service that was evidenced by speaking in tongues, as the one hundred twenty did on the day of Pentecost in Acts. This is where they got the name “Pentecostals.” After being kept at bay from Pentecostal experience for the better part of a century, in the 1980s, John Wimber and others began to experience the release of the power of the Spirit without demanding a second work of grace. Based on Paul’s understanding that introduction into the Body of Christ was to drink of one Spirit (1 Cor 12.13; Eph 4.4) and exhorted believers to be continually “filled” with the Spirit (Eph 5.18), Wimber taught “one baptism, many fillings.” This explanation made sense of both the theology of Paul but also the repeated fillings recorded in Acts, thus removing the doctrinal blockage of “second blessings with tongues.” Having removed the barrier, Wimber and others began to travel the globe teaching evangelicals how to heal the sick and cast out demons by stepping out to take risks rather than tarrying to receive a second move of grace. Such second, third and fourth (ad infinitum) experiences of empowerment were available, of course, but along the way, not prior to, as if they were the doorway into supernatural activity. In doing so, conversion was made the consummate change from the era of the old age to the era of the new age. Now what remained was to get to know the Spirit the same way someone get to know the Father and the Son, through relationship and intimacy associated with taking steps of faith. Wimber used to say that if Christians would just step out, God would “back up their act” by bringing the gifts of the Spirit when they needed them. It was Rich Nathan and Kevin Springer who coined the term “empowered evangelicals” in their book by the same name, to describe this new group of evangelicals who stood firmly inside the camp but simply added healing and deliverance to their toolkit. Anxious to continue to embrace the head and heart qualities typical within historic evangelicalism, this new group of radical middle, Word and Spirit people began to write books to chronicle their work. This called again for new publishing houses such as Vineyard International Press in Cape Town, South Africa, Ampelōn in Boise, Idaho, and Harmon Press, in Seattle Washington. They also began to produce a number of fine magazines such as First Fruits, Voice of the Vineyard, Vineyard Reflections, and the excellent Cutting Edge. These publishing houses and magazines—and there will be others—are beginning to produce the very literature Don Williams prophesied about in 1989 (see “What is the Radical Middle”). Sent from my iPhone -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
