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C. Peter Wagner is the former professor of Church Growth at Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Mission. He coined the term Third Wave. Wagner is the founder of Global Harvest Ministries, and co-founder of the World Prayer Center. He promotes Kingdom Now theology, as well as countless other extra-Biblical and un-Biblical teachings on, for instance, faith healing, prayer, and spiritual warfare. [A] global movement of evangelicals has developed over the past decade that seeks to free cities and neighborhoods from social scourges even as it “takes them for God.” Through “spiritual warfare” and an in-depth research effort called “spiritual mapping,” they aim to bring people to Christ and, in their words, “break spiritual strongholds” holding communities in their grip, whether they be vices, “false religions,” or “territorial spirits.” The more aggressive, potentially confrontational aspects of these practices raise concerns within and beyond the evangelical community. C. Peter Wagner, head of Global Harvest Ministries in Colorado Springs, Colo., is in the vanguard of the movement. He defines three levels of spiritual warfare: “Ground-level” involves casting demons out of individuals; “occult-level warfare” involves more organized “powers of darkness” [They target here New Age thought, Tibetan Buddhism, Freemasonry, etc.]; and “strategic-level warfare” directly “confronts ‘territorial spirits’ assigned by Satan to coordinate activities over a geographical area.” Spiritual warfare has been practiced most vigorously in other countries - particularly in Latin America and Africa - where the idea of demons has greater parlance. But its influence is growing in the United States, along with spiritual mapping. Even as conferences on the subject attract larger numbers,
these practices serve as a source of controversy. Among evangelicals,
some question how much of a biblical basis there is, and just
how far such prayer should go. New Apostolic Reformation Leading figures in NAR suggest that these prophets and apostles alone have the power and authority to execute God’s plans and purposes on earth. They believe they are laying the foundation for a global church, governed by them. At the website of Global Harvest Ministries, Wagner is described as follows: Peter Wagner is the President of the Global Harvest Ministries and Chancellor of the Wagner Leadership Institute. Established in 1998, the Institute equips men and women for leadership positions in churches and translocal ministries. It is designed especially, but not exclusively, to meet the needs of leaders who have become a part of the New Apostolic reformation. Missions have been a watermark of Peter’s career. From 1956 to 1971, he and his wife Doris served as missionaries in Bolivia under the South American Mission and Andes Evangelical Mission (now SIM International). In 1971, Peter Wagner became a Professor of Church Growth at Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Missions. During his 30-year tenure at Fuller ending in 2001, he had the privilege to teach students from nearly every country in the world. To advance the role of missions in church growth, Peter Wagner has served on several mission oriented ministries, committees, and organizations. His memberships include: Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (1974-1989); American Society of Missiology; Society for Scientific Study of Religion; Association of Professors of Mission; Evangelical Missiological Society; American Society for Church Growth (founding president); and the American Lausanne Committee. For about two decades, Peter Wagner has been associated with several global movements of the Holy Spirit. This exciting journey began back in 1982, when he and John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship, co-instructed the course “Signs, Wonders and Church Growth” at Fuller Seminary. His outspoken advocacy of praying for the sick, spiritual mapping, identificational repentance, the ministry and role of apostles and prophets in the church today, and demonic deliverance have identified Peter as a pioneer in the arena of spiritual warfare. One of his most significant contributions so far has been his relentless effort to promote strategic and effective prayer. During the decade of the 1990s Wagner assumed a leadership
role in what became known as the New Apostolic Reformation. He
became the Presiding Apostle of the International Coalition of
Apostles (ICA) and also founded a more intimate group for apostolic
alignment, Eagles Vision Apostolic Team (EVAT). In the 2000s,
he began to move strongly in promoting the Dominion Mandate for
social transformation, adopting the template of the Seven Mountains
or the 7-M Mandate for practical implementation. In his introduction of the book, The New Apostolic Churches (Regal Books, 1998. C. Peter Wagner, editor), Wagner writes: During my decades as a scholar, God has seen fit to focus my research energies on certain aspects of church growth for certain periods of time. As I have done that, I have tried to use what I have learned to develop new courses for my students at Fuller Theological Seminary, and many of the lessons eventually become books. My mentor church growth research was Donald A. McGavran, the founder of the whole field of church growth. He is now with the Lord, but for years I have had the singular privilege of carrying the title Donald A. McGavran Professor of Church Growth. One of the most basic lessons I learned from McGavran was that the best way to discover what makes churches grow is to study growing churches. As a result, my first season of research, spanning the 1970s and into the 1980s, was spent doing exactly that. In retrospect, I now look at this as researching the technical principles of church growth. During that time, I began to notice something I obviously did not have the mental equipment to understand or to assimilate into my analysis of church growth. I noticed that the churches worldwide that seemed to grow the most rapidly were, for the most part, those that outwardly featured the immediate present-day supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit. My mentor for helping me make a paradigm shift into what I now call spiritual principles of church growth was John Wimber, founder of the Association of Vineyard Churches and Vineyard Ministries International, to whom this book is dedicated. This began my second season of research, focusing first of all on the relationship between supernatural signs and wonders and church growth, then on prayer and spiritual warfare. This began in the early 1980s and continued to the mid-1990s. My third season of research is now focusing on the New Apostolic
Reformation, the subject of this book. I am very excited because
the new apostolic churches, better than any I have previously
studied, combine, on the highest level, solid technical principles
of church with solid spiritual principles of church growth. Horizontal Apostle If the term “horizontal apostle” doesn’t ring a bell, it’s because Wagner made up the term. In an article titled, Understanding How Apostles Minister in Different Spheres, Wagner writes: Toward a useful terminology. The current apostolic movement is so new, and it is developing at such a dizzying speed, that a considerable amount of confusion has arisen. Who is an apostle? Are all apostles the same? How do bona fide apostles minister? I believe that the answers to these and other similar questions will emerge through a phenomenological approach. This is the methodology that I have used to arrive at a continually-developing set of conclusions. Terminology that accurately describes current apostolic phenomena will greatly help dispel the confusion. Here is a terminology that seems to me to be helpful, at least at this moment: Vertical Apostles Please note: Dr.Wagner functions as a horizontal apostle within
a sphere of recognized apostles. As such, Dr.Wagner does not
provide apostolic ‘covering’ or accountability as a
vertical apostle. Again, you won’t find this in your Bible. It was simply made up. Wagner Leadership Institute Vision Mission C. Peter Wagner and Todd Bentley California pastors Ché Ahn and Bill Johnson, along
with Canadian pastor John Arnott, laid hands on the 32-year-old
Bentley while Peter Wagner, leader of the International Coalition
of Apostles, read a statement about the need for apostolic alignment. Wagner said to Bentley on the platform: “This commissioning represents a powerful spiritual transaction taking place in the invisible world. With this in mind, I take the apostolic authority that God has given me and I decree to Todd Bentley, your power will increase, your authority will increase, your favor will increase, your influence will increase, your revelation will increase. “I also decree that a new supernatural strength will
flow through this ministry. A new life force will penetrate this
move of God. Government will be established to set things in
their proper order. God will pour out a higher level of discernment
to distinguish truth from error. New relationships will surface
to open the gates to the future.” Apostolic alignment? You’re right, it’s not in the Bible. Just another phrase thought up by those involved in this fantasy game of ‘apostles and prophets.’ Yet with all their alleged spiritual insight, talks with Jesus, visits from angels, dreams and vision, and declarations, decrees, and revelations, none of the ‘apostles’ and ‘prophets’ involved in Bentley’s commissioning knew that just two weeks later Bentley would file for divorce from his wife, and that — during the so-called Lakeland Revival, Bentley had “entered into an unhealthy relationship on an emotional level with a female member of his staff.” It was later revealed that Bentley was romantically involved with her, and that during the ‘revival’ Bentley had been drunk a few times. Apostlic alignment? Looks like someone needs to keep an eye on those who consider themselves to be ‘presiding’ or ‘horizontal’ apostles. http://www.apologeticsindex.org/797-c-peter-wagner |
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