The Gospel Driven Church Retrieving Classical Ministries For Contemporary Revivalism

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Book Reviews / Pneuma 29 (2007) 131-178

Ian Stackhouse, The Gospel-Driven Church: Retrieving Classical Ministries for Contemporary Revivalism (Milton Keynes, England: Paternoster, 2005). xxiv + 291 pp. $19.99.

The Gospel-Driven Church is both a critique of the British charismatic renewal and a pro- posal for better revivalism. Ian Stackhouse, pastoral leader of a Baptist church in England, describes himself as a pastor-scholar. He is much indebted to other pastor-theologians such as British Peter Taylor Forsyth (1848-1921) and American Eugene Peterson, the founding pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church (1962-1991) in Maryland. Stackhouse’s sources also include Church Fathers and various British, Continental, and North American theologians representing well-known theological traditions, including Catholicism, Ortho- doxy, and Pentecostalism.

Stackhouse’s overall critique is that the charismatic renewal has become too experience- based, pragmatic, and accommodating to culture. This has happened because it was influenced by “fads” such as the Toronto Blessing, John Wimber’s Power Evangelism, Pensacola, and others. He proposes a better use of classical ministries (preaching, sacraments, Spirit bap- tism, prayer, and cure of souls) that will lead the church to maturity.

Stackhouse understands all the classical ministries mentioned above to be sacraments or sacramental, and wishes for the church to be christocentric and rooted in historical revela- tion. Unlike charismatic preaching that demands (in some circles, uncritical) obedience, authentic preaching should present the living Christ and grace (following Forsyth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Peterson).

Speaking of sacraments, an emphasis on communion and water baptism would highlight divine transcendence and the materiality of salvation. The Eucharist is “instrumental in the transmission of grace” and delivers a true anamnesis, “a present enjoyment of, and encoun- ter, with, the living Christ” (p. 137). Water baptism viewed as initiation into the church recalls a crisis for the catechumen, a life that has died and risen with Christ. This sense of crisis stands against the “politics of believing before belonging” prominent in several recent evangelistic initiatives endorsed by the charismatic renewal. Referencing John Zizioulas and going beyond him, Stackhouse interprets the believer’s incorporation into the body of Christ via baptism as transcending the barriers of race, gender, age, and wealth, thus dis- mantling the homogenous principle advocated by Peter Wagner.

A richer pneumatology will integrate christology, which does not happen with Toronto’s emphasis on “resting” and “soaking” in the Spirit, jerking, and laughing. A christocentric pneumatology develops when Spirit baptism, which allows participation in the perichoresis of the Trinity, is made a part of the ordo salutis. As an initiatory Christian rite, Spirit bap- tism remains the source of all subsequent spiritual experiences. Failure to make Spirit bap- tism a distinctive rite dislocates all other pneumatic experiences and the charismata from the ordo salutis. Stackhouse views Spirit baptism as the seal of the Spirit and elevates it to the rank of sacrament mediated by the laying on of hands.

Prayer as an act of communion is in and of itself more than intercession. T erefore, the Daily Office, and the Psalter and the Lord’s Prayer — both viewed by Martin Luther as marks of the church — and praying in tongues (regarded as a sacramental sign of grace in weakness) must be used by the church. Tese ritual prayers help one avoid self-indulgence and concern for immediate aspirations that are pitfalls of extempore prayers. Moreover, the

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2007 DOI: 10.1163/157007407X178409

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Book Reviews / Pneuma 29 (2007) 131-178

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Psalter attests more to the human condition by dealing with suffering and pain. In Luther’s thought, the Psalter encompasses “a theology of suffering as well as a theology of glory” (p. 206).

To recover “the lost art of the cure of souls,” ministers should practice ascesis and, as sug- gested by Catholic Henri Nouwen, become contemplative pastors. According to Peterson, the role of pastors is first to “be with God” and then help parishioners in “their dissatisfaction in being” (p. 240). Cura animarum ultimately leads to relief from sin and to the perfection of believers, and this is something Stackhouse finds lacking in Wagner’s concept of apostolic leadership. Pastoral visits and pastors’ conversations with the faithful become “sacramental moments” during which the living Christ is brought to the one being ministered to.

Methodologically, familiarity with Renewal T eology by Rodman Williams, a Presbyterian/ charismatic scholar and the foremost systematician of the American charismatic movement, would have tempered the perception that there is a “relative paucity of Reformed theology within charismatic circles” (p. 29). T eologically, making laying on of hands a modus operandi of Spirit baptism is problematic because it is absent from the initial account of Spirit bap- tism (Acts 2).

Even if one grants that Stackhouse’s work is primarily theological in nature, it becomes too obvious that he neither fully investigated nor well represented the American terrain of the charismatic renewal. The connection of Pensacola with the Assemblies of God, a denomination strongly committed to classical Pentecostalism, was entirely missed. An awareness of Margaret Poloma’s sociological findings would have facilitated a discussion of the numerous healings reported by Toronto participants. Healing, a frequent theme in the Gospels and Acts, is much ignored by Stackhouse who seems hindered by his bias against experience.

The Gospel-Driven Church ’s merit is that it is a sophisticated and robust theological proj- ect. A disciple of Stanley Hauerwas, the author shows a great deal of creativity through his bold attempt to use even Catholic theology to correct perceived lacunae in Protestant- charismatic practice. In critiquing Pensacola Stackhouse also expresses his dissatisfaction with Pentecostalism, and this makes his book a valuable resource for those who teach Pentecostal/ charismatic theology and ministry.

Reviewed by David Michel

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