Resources for an Aspiring Methocostal
Photo from the 2019 Spirit & Truth Conference, Dayton, Ohio.
“…how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” Luke 11:13b, NLT
The first time someone prayed with me to receive the Holy Spirit I was seventeen and at a funeral reception of a distant relative. The pastor, who had just led the funeral service, was from the local Hispanic Methodist Church. He was chatting with my father who shared with him that I was discerning a call to ministry. After a few moments, they came over and the pastor asked if I had received the Holy Spirit. I didn’t know what he meant; I had only been attending church for two years and was a bit overwhelmed by the prospect of a lifetime spent in ministry.
The pastor offered to pray with me and the three of us went into a quieter room. I had no frame of reference for charismatic prayer or an expectation of the infilling of the Holy Spirit. My home church was a typical United Methodist congregation. Everything about this prayer was new and at the time a little unsettling. He prayed for me to be filled with the Spirit, as I stood there nervous and confused.
At the end of the lengthy prayer, he asked me pointedly if I had felt anything. The last thing I wanted was to be in that room a moment longer, so I sheepishly nodded (i.e., I lied), and I was finally free. It would be seventeen years until I would experience this kind of prayer again, but on this later occasion it would be a welcome encounter.
During that seventeen-year span, I majored in Religious Studies at Southwestern University, was married, received an MDiv from Duke Divinity School, was ordained in the Southwest Texas Annual Conference, and had served numerous churches. But a thought had begun nagging my spirit: there is more.
I wanted to experience ministry like the early apostles, Christian community fueled by the power of the Holy Spirit. I had read miraculous testimony of those ministering in Muslim countries, where Christians were persecuted and spreading the Gospel in hostile environments (e.g., see Spirit Rising by Jim Cymbala and Miraculous Movements by Jerry Trousdale). But was the miraculous happening in America or other parts of the West?
I went to the place most millennials search for information, YouTube. The first video I clicked on featured someone I had never heard of, Randy Clark. Within a few minutes he spoke of John Wesley. I was hooked! A quick Google search sent me to his most popular book, There is More. The thought that had been nagging my spirit was right in front of me. I knew I was onto something.
Perhaps this same thought has found its way into your mind and soul, but it feels daunting to know where to start. How does one begin to explore the world of charismatic ministry? There are so many people with platform ministries, teaching video series, conferences, and courses. Who can be trusted? Whose teaching is sound?
In the last four years I have come across many different ministries, books, and teachings. I want to share with you a few of the most helpful resources and places you might consider exploring. It goes without saying that I would highly recommend Spirit & Truth publications, “Plain Truth: A Holy-Spirited Podcast,” Firebrand, Aldersgate Renewal Ministries, and Spirit & Truth’s annual gathering. The rest of the resources I’ll share are mostly outside of Methodist circles.
Once I discovered Randy Clark, I researched his ministry Global Awakening. They host conferences all over North America, ministry trips around the world, and ministry school courses, and even have a doctoral cohort at United Theological Seminary (UTS). I’ve attended their “Voice of the Prophets” conference, which features an eclectic array of speakers and a personal prophetic ministry experience with a team of their students. The summer before I started my doctoral work in the Randy Clark cohort at UTS, I participated in Global Awakening’s three-week “Global Summer Intensive” ministry school. Although Clark is certainly a sought after speaker, his main goal is to equip the saints to move in the gifts of the Spirit. Focusing on impartation, Clark has created a culture of empowerment and shared responsibility among the Christian community. I have also found them eager to seek out ecumenical partnerships and to be supportive of women in pastoral leadership. For instance, Clark recently partnered with Mary Healy, a renowned Catholic theologian, to author The Spiritual Gifts Handbook.
Global Awakening’s current Director of Education is Mike Hutchings. I had the privilege of getting to know him during the summer intensive where he shared his PTSD healing model. It was not a ministry model he sought out but something God initiated in his life. Hutchings has seen numerous people healed of PTSD and shares this model at conferences around the globe in an effort to bring healing to a greater population. His workshops are focused on equipping attendees in this area of ministry. The testimonies shared forever changed what I believed possible when praying with individuals for healing, whether their needs are physical, emotional, psychological, or spiritual. Hutching’s teaching is available in DVD format in their online store.
Tangentially connected to Clark’s ministry are Heidi and Rolland Baker with Iris Global Ministries. Based in Mozambique, Heidi and Rolland Baker’s ministry is expansive, meeting the physical and spiritual needs of orphans throughout the region. Over the years they have expanded to 25 other countries and offer ministry/mission schools centered on Iris’ core values. I’ve attended a number of Iris’s conferences. Hearing Heidi Baker speak is an experience I will not soon forget. She manages to minister while teaching, making us laugh, cry, and expect God’s kingdom to manifest on the earth. They have a number of devotionals and teaching resources available, as well as a documentary of their ministry, Mama Heidi.
Speaking of videos, Darren Wilson is a filmmaker who has spent his life seeking to capture the miraculous on film. In Father of Lights, he explores the goodness and love of God on display. I’ve used this video in a number of settings, including with our youth or a retreat with adults. In faith, Wilson travels around the world to connect with different ministry leaders and see God at work. The testimony happening before your eyes is powerful and authentic. In another of his films, Holy Ghost Reborn, Wilson interviews Supresa (Surprise) Sithole, a leader with Iris Global Ministries in South Africa. His joy and faith are infectious as he leads an elderly witch doctor to healing and faith. Sithole has a miraculous salvation story as told in his autobiography, Voice in the Night.
Another author I would highly recommend is James Goll, founder of God Encounters Ministries. His book The Lost Art of Practicing the Presence was a valuable resource when implementing my doctoral project on hearing God’s voice. It’s now part of my syllabus for the first semester of Contextual Ministry students at United and has been well received. Goll’s book includes Brother Lawrence’s The Practice of the Presence of God as its final chapter, along with practical ways of deepening one’s intimacy with God. Goll also writes extensively about prophetic ministry, offering wisdom, humility, and discernment to an area of ministry quite foreign to mainstream Methodists.
Two Methodist resources that should be in the library of any aspiring Methocostal are Daniel Jennings’ The Supernatural Occurrences of John Wesley and Frank Billman’s The Supernatural Thread in Methodism (a new edition of which is being released soon). Jennings catalogues every John Wesley journal entry that details supernatural encounters and ministry. Billman focuses on the overarching supernatural history of Methodism from the 18th to 21st century, the redacted Methodist history many of us were taught at UMC seminaries. These two resources are indispensable when seeking to recapture the fullness of our Wesleyan heritage.
Finally, a Bible translation recently released, The Passion Translation (NT, Psalms, and Proverbs), is a powerful supplemental devotional resource. According to the website for this work, “The Passion Translation is an essential equivalence translation. TPT maintains the essential form and essential function of the original words. It is a meaning-for-meaning translation, translating the essence of God’s original message and heart into modern English.” The lead translator, Dr. Brian Simmons, has also released Genesis and Isaiah, as he works his way through the OT.
The resources I’ve outlined for you above were a lifeline as I began my quest to discover the “more” God had in store for me. It is God who stirs the hunger inside of us, and you can trust He will be there to feed that hunger. That’s precisely what He did the first time I attended a Global Awakening conference. Seventeen years after that well-intentioned pastor prayed for me at the funeral reception, I stood in a sanctuary in Denver, Colorado, desperate for an infilling of the Holy Spirit. As the speaker began to minister, I felt the outpouring of the Holy Spirit come upon me. Tears streamed from my face and relief swept over me. I didn’t fall to the floor, I didn’t shake, and I didn’t speak in tongues. I simply stood there joyfully crying, trusting that God had initiated this journey.
I had no idea how quickly God would change my worldview and expectancy for His kingdom to manifest in the here and now. In the months and years that would follow this initial breakthrough, God revealed to me the various boxes in which I had placed Him. Like a surgeon, He removed the scales from my eyes and spirit, and He’s not through with me yet.
Dr. Madeline Carrasco Henners is Director of Contextual Ministries at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.