Review: Reaching Single Adults

Reaching Single Adults: An Essential Guide for Ministry, by Dennis Franck. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007.

Dennis Franck has made history in single adult ministries in the Assemblies of God. In 1979, when Franck started his first full-time ministry position — as Single Adults pastor at First Assembly in Billings, Montana — he was one of five known paid single adult pastors in the Assemblies of God in the United States. He discovered great need within the single adult community — and the group in Billings soon attracted 125 singles, hailing from 27 church backgrounds, to its Sunday morning meetings. Not bad for a church of 400 people.

Today, Franck serves as National Director of Single Adult Ministries for the Assemblies of God, a position he has held since 2000. He is a frequent speaker at single adult conferences, retreats and leadership training in the Assemblies of God and in other denominations. Pastors and ministry leaders now have access to Franck’s research and hard-won ministry lessons in his new book, Reaching Single Adults. This book is significant for several reasons. Not only is it the first book on this subject to be published in the United States in eight years, it is the first known ministry/leadership book about ministry to single adults published by an Assemblies of God author.

Top Pentecostal history books in libraries

Next to Assemblies of God Heritage magazine the Bible, what is your favorite reading material? Do you have a top ten list of your all-time favorite books?

We thought it would be interesting to see which Pentecostal history books are most popular in libraries. So, we logged onto FirstSearch (aka WorldCat or OCLC, which is available at your local library) and searched for books with the following terms in their subject headings. The top ten books for each term, in terms of the numbers of libraries holding each book, are below.

Pentecostal history
1. Heaven Below : Early Pentecostals and American Culture / Grant Wacker (Harvard University Press, 2001) 878 libraries
2. Reinventing American Protestantism : Christianity in the New Millennium / Donald E. Miller (University of California Press, 1997) 847 libraries

Review: The Suffering Body

The Suffering Body: Responding to the Persecution of Christians, edited by Harold D. Hunter and Cecil M. Robeck, Jr. Waynesboro, GA ; Milton Keynes, UK : Paternoster Press, 2006.

“Suffering with Christ was not only the experience of the early churches but is that of many churches today. This volume presents up-to-date, global reflections on the different ways in which Christians suffer: from class discrimination to government persecution; from inter-religious conflict to tensions between different Christian groups. With a special focus on Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity, but also bringing perspectives from other Christian traditions into the discussion, this book provides both theological and practical insight.” — Samuel Kobia, General Secretary of the World Council of Churches

“An important and timely publication, the more so because it is edited by leading Pentecostal academics from the USA, where the role of suffering in Christian experience is often ignored and sometimes denied. A comprehensive theological, historical, and socio-political analysis of the role of suffering internationally, this is an important corrective to ‘health and wealth’ gospels and ideologies of power.” — Allan Anderson, Professor of Global Pentecostal Studies, University of Birmingham

Review: The Azusa Street Revival and Its Legacy

The Azusa Street Revival and Its Legacy, edited by Harold D. Hunter and Cecil M. Robeck, Jr. Cleveland, TN: Pathway Press, 2006.

The Azusa Street Centennial (Los Angeles, 2006) brought together approximately 45,000 Pentecostal pilgrims who traveled from all corners of the globe to celebrate, worship and reflect on the paths that led them to where they are in their spiritual journeys. Right in the heart of the celebration, historians gathered in an academic track where they presented a series of papers highlighting the most up-to-date scholarship on the history and legacy of the Azusa Street revival. Two leading Pentecostal historians, Harold D. Hunter and Cecil M. Robeck, Jr., assembled the majority of these papers, now available in The Azusa Street Revival and Its Legacy.

Review: Skeptics and Scoffers

Skeptics and Scoffers: The Religious World Looks at Azusa Street, 1906-1907 (The Complete Azusa Street Library, Vol. 8), compiled and edited by Larry E. Martin. Pensacola, FL: Christian Life Books, 2004.

Dr. Larry Martin has been my friend for many years and I have nothing but good things to say about him. We have been prayer partners, and one time we attended the Smithton Revival together. Another time Larry and I traveled to Indianapolis and Anderson, Indiana, tracing the footsteps of William J. Seymour and other early Pentecostals who sojourned there for awhile. Although now separated by distance, we have ongoing communication through emails and sharing of historical materials.

Larry has an outstanding ministry as an evangelist, teacher, and writer. He also has a profound interest in revival and its origins, which has led him to a deeper study of historical revivals such as the Topeka Outpouring, the Welsh Revival, and Azusa Street.

Review: The Azusa Street Mission and Revival

The Azusa Street Mission and Revival: The Birth of the Global Pentecostal Movement, by Cecil M. Robeck, Jr. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2006.

If you only read one book on the Azusa Street revival, this should be it. Written by the leading authority on the subject, The Azusa Street Mission and Revival is the result of over twenty years of research. Its engaging prose and careful attention to detail bring the story to life. This book is a joy to read.

Nearly twenty-five percent of the world’s Christians count themselves among the Charismatic and Pentecostal family of Christian movements, yet few know how Pentecostalism began. The Azusa Street Mission and Revival tells the story of the small racially-inclusive group that gathered in Los Angeles in 1906 and changed the world of Christianity. With little more than a printing press, a trolley stop and a powerful message, the revival that began at Apostolic Faith Mission on Azusa Street, rapidly crossed more than race lines — into Mexico, Canada, Britain, Scandinavia, western and southern Africa, India, and China — and began to change the landscape of Christianity. The complete story of the Mission has finally been recorded.

Review: Azusa Street and Beyond

Azusa Street and Beyond: 100 Years of Commentary on the Global Pentecostal/Charismatic Movement, edited by Grant McClung. Gainesville, FL: Bridge-Logos, 2006.

Grant McClung, in his timely volume, Azusa Street and Beyond, provides a valuable collection of 21 essays exploring the robust growth experienced by the global Pentecostal movement. McClung, a veteran missions leader and professor at the Church of God Theological Seminary, identifies missions as central to the identity of the Pentecostal movement and traces this missiological focus from Azusa Street through the ensuing century of Pentecostal history.