scholarly journals Menuju Gereja Apostolik Transformatif

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 136
Author(s):  
Gernaida K. R. Pakpahan ◽  
Frans Pantan ◽  
Epafras Djohan Handojo

Peter Wagner, as an expert on church growth, stated that the Apostolic church is a church that is experiencing rapid growth. This claim is made because many Apostolic churches have been built around the world. The church continued the spirit of the apostles at the time of the early church's birth. However, it is important to conduct an in-depth study regarding the realization in the field; whether a thriving Apostolic church is carrying out God's mission or the personal ambition of a charismatic church leader. This study analyzes how the church which is said to be an Apostolic church runs its organization so that it experiences significant growth. The research method used is descriptive qualitative. The researcher tries to explore the phenomena and data obtained through respondents about the transformative apostolic church that was developed in the ministry of the Indonesian Bethel Church of Gatot Subroto. In conclusion, GBI Gatot Subroto is a transformative apostolic church, because of several things, such as a visionary church, senior pastors or mentor pastors as apostolic leaders, divine authority and the work of the Holy Spirit have an impact, the church as a center for leadership training and discipleship across generations implements apostolic ministry followed by other gifts/services, prioritizing mission, and focusing on the Kingdom of God.AbstrakPeter Wagner, sebagai salah satu ahli pertumbuhan gereja, menyatakan bahwa gereja Apostolik adalah gereja yang mengalami pertumbuhan secara pesat. Klaim ini disampaikan karena banyak-nya terbangun gereja-gereja beraliran Apostolik di seluruh dunia. Gereja tersebut melanjutkan semangat para rasul pada masa lahirnya gereja mula-mula. Namun, penting untuk dilakukan kajian mendalam terkait realisasi di lapangan; apakah gereja Apostolik yang berkembang menja-lankan misi Allah atau ambisi pribadi dari pemimpin gereja yang berkharismatik. Penelitian ini menganalisis bagaimana gereja yang dikatakan sebagai gereja Apostolik menjalankan organisa-sinya, sehingga mengalami pertumbuhan yang signifikan. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah kualitatif deskriptif. Peneliti berusaha mengeksplorasi fenomena dan data-data yang diperoleh melalui responden tentang gereja apostolik transformatif yang dikembangkan dalam pelayanan Gereja Bethel Indonesia Gatot Subroto. Kesimpu-lannya, GBI Gatot Subroto adalah gereja apostolik transformatif, karena beberapa hal, seperti: gereja yang visioner, gembala senior atau gembala pembina sebagai pemimpin kerasulan, otoritas Ilahi dan pekerjaan Roh Kudus berdampak, gereja sebagai pusat pelatihan kepemimpinan dan pemuridan lintas generasi, menerap-kan jawatan rasuli diikuti karunia-karunia/jawatan lainnya, memprioritaskan misi, dan berfokus pada Kerajaan Allah.

2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-25
Author(s):  
Terri Martinson Elton ◽  
Richard Osmer

Confirmation is a ministry aimed at strengthening young people's understanding of faith, deepening their experience in Christian community, and equipping them to discern their calling to join in God's mission in the world. As the church engages in confirmation, young people encounter the gospel anew and congregations bear witness to the redemptive love of God and the covenant of grace into which all Christians are baptized. Learning from and with each other, within and across denominations, enhances confirmation as a discipleship ministry for young people. But it does more than that. As the body of Christ comes together to help young people encounter the gospel anew, lives are changed and become open to the Holy Spirit. Embracing our call to share the gospel and cultivate faith within young people not only serves the church today, it invests in the future.


2015 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Kotze ◽  
C.J.P. Niemandt

This article deals with the importance of a missional approach to the funeral and bereavement counselling process in congregational praxis in the midst of a context of secularisation. The creation of a missional perspective on the funeral and bereavement counselling could support the nature and praxis of a congregation in a secular society, especially if the congregation finds its relevance in the expression of the missio Dei. The basic theoretical research for missional ecclesiology, which is the systematic study directed toward greater knowledge of the fundamental aspects of missional ecclesiology (National Science Foundation 1953:38), is based on the premise that God is the source of all missions. The expression missio Dei means to join God in the mission he is already busy with in the world. As the one who sends, God the Father sends the Son, the Son sends the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit sends the church. The church only participates in the mission God is already busy with. It is a mission that uses both words and deeds and brings hope in the midst of tragedy. It is the hope of the kingdom of God and the incarnation of Christ that can already be experienced and expressed in the present. It is also the hope of the transformation of everything to form a new heaven and earth. Hope and mission can therefore not be separated. The concretisation of the expression of the kingdom of Christ in the world is hope, and a strong emphasis is therefore placed on mission as action in hope. Hope must be present where tragedy reigns, and the funeral and bereavement counselling can be used as a vehicle for this hope. Hope can then become an instrument of healing. The church can thus participate in God’s mission in the midst of tragedy and make an impact on society by taking on a missional character of hope.


2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-47
Author(s):  
Richard Bliese

AbstractThe Pentecostal and Charismatic movements have assisted many denominations, including Lutherans, with the call to mission by challenging them with a new view of the Holy Spirit. A full immersion in these movements along with a firm grounding in the tradition will lead to a fuller grasp of what the Spirit is doing in the world. This article reviews two prominent Lutheran theologians who have shaped a whole generation of leaders concerning the Holy Spirit: Robert Jenson and Larry Christenson. In response to their work, I will explore how the work of the Spirit can be understood when framed within God's mission (the missio Dei). The call to mission is central. The church emerges as it engages in the missionary activity of witness and sanctification. This is the story of Acts. It is the story of the Spirit. The church's missionary call is to speak in tongues.


1988 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-309
Author(s):  
Joseph M. McShane

Throughout his career John Carroll supported the American religious settlement with surprising and consistent enthusiasm. Indeed, his enthusiasm for the religious liberty of the new republic seemed to be boundless. Thus he never tired of celebrating and advertising its benefits. He assured American Catholics that it was “a signal instance of [God's] mercy” and a product of the active intervention of Divine Providence and the Holy Spirit, who have “tutored the minds of men” in such a way that Catholics could now freely worship God according to the “dictates of conscience.” Flushed with pride, he even predicted that if America were wise enough to abide by the terms of this providential arrangement, the nation would become a beacon to the world, proving that “general and equal toleration…is the most effectual method to bring all denominations of Christians to an unity of faith.” Finally, confident that the extraordinary freedom accorded American Catholics would make the American church “the most flourishing portion of the church,” he urged European states and churches to follow America's inspired lead.


2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-32
Author(s):  
Dale T. Irvin

In his 1998 article titled “God Inside Out: Toward a Missionary Theology of the Holy Spirit,” Stephen Bevans referred to Johannes Hoekendijk’s 1964 publication The Church Inside Out as his starting point. This article follows Bevans’s lead in exploring Hoekendijk’s legacy and contribution to theology and mission today. At key points I draw the connection of Hoekendijk’s thinking with that of Bevans, highlighting in the end the manner in which they both agree that the church itself is not of ultimate importance to God, but the world into which the Spirit still sends us in mission.


2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-101
Author(s):  
Robert P. Menzies

AbstractIn this article, Menzies notes that Reformed theologians have tended to read Luke's writings in the light of Paul's epistles. As a result, their theological reflection on the Spirit has centered more on his work in the Word and sacraments, the 'inner witness' of the Spirit, and less on his mission to the world. Additionally, this methodology has encouraged Reformed scholars to associate the Pentecostal gift (i.e. Spirit baptism) with conversion and regeneration. However, through an examination of key passages in Luke-Acts, Menzies argues that Luke has a unique contribution to make to a holistic biblical theology of the Spirit. Luke's understanding of baptism in the Holy Spirit is different from that of Paul. It is missiological rather than soteriological in nature. The Spirit of Pentecost is, in reality, the Spirit for others - the Spirit that compels and empowers the church to bring the 'good news' of Jesus to a lost and dying world. It is this Lukan, missiological perspective that shapes a Pentecostal understanding of baptism in the Holy Spirit. Menzies concludes that the clarity and vigor of Luke's message is lost when his narrative is read through Pauline lenses. Luke has a distinctive voice and it is a voice the church needs to hear.


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-111
Author(s):  
Ferderika Pertiwi Ndiy ◽  
S Susanto

Church growth is an important study in church history. The Bible has important principles in church growth, therefore these principles need to be analyzed so that they can contribute to the study of church growth. The Acts of the Apostles is a book that has a history and principles of church growth, therefore the author conducted research on church growth based on Acts 2: 1-47. The author uses a qualitative approach to literature study to find the principles of church growth based on Acts 2: 1-47. The results showed that there were three principles for the growth of the early church. The first principle based on the fourth verse is to depend on the Holy Spirit, the second principle based on verses 14-36, 42 is to preach the Word of God, the third principle based on verses 42-46 is to live in fellowship. For the growth of the church today the church must depend on the power of the Holy Spirit, teaching based on the word of God, and the church lives in fellowship.


Author(s):  
Tom Greggs

This chapter examines Bonhoeffer’s account of the church and advocates that throughout Bonhoeffer’s corpus there remains a desire to explicate the reality of the church in terms of its structural being with and for the other. This structure exists both internally in terms of its members’ relation to each other, and externally as the church relates as a corporate body to the world. The chapter considers Bonhoeffer’s ecclesiological method; the visibility of the church; vicarious representation; the church as the body of Christ; the agency of the Holy Spirit; preaching, the sacraments, and the offices of the church; and the question of the church in a religionless age.


1948 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-240
Author(s):  
G. Johnson

In its classical expression Christianity means a new life which God makes available for all who become apprentices of His Son Jesus Christ. Now sinful men cannot unaided appropriate the blessings of that life. Besides the message of the Prodigal who “ came to himself” the Gospel exhibits in the Cross divine love that has entered the far country and suffers the ordeal inevitably imposed there by human sin. Really to hear the Gospel is to respond in penitent love to the God who was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. But how shall men hear unless there be preachers? The Gospel by God's gracious provision is brought to each new generation by those who enter into the apostolic tradition; apostolic, because in history we depend upon those who were the first eye-witnesses of Jesus and His resurrection. Nevertheless the apostles preached under the authority of the Holy Spirit who testifies to Christ and proceeds from the eternal life of the Father and the Son (see John 14.26; 15.26 f.). Paul the apostle preached in the power of the Spirit (Rom. 15.19; 1 Cor. 2.4); it was God who had given apostles to the Church, inspiring them with wisdom and knowledge (1 Cor. 12.8, 28). We find similar testimony in Eph. 3.5 (a revelation disclosed to the apostles and prophets by the Spirit); 1 Pet. 1.12, which links preaching and inspiration; and Acts where we read of men filled with the Spirit, like Stephen and Philip, going out as evangelists.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-248
Author(s):  
Bolean Silalahi

The Contribution of Intercessory Prayer in the Growth of the Early Church according to the Book of the Acts provide a great role and influence for the growth and development of the Church. The Church as a Spiritual Organization craves healthy growth and development, both in quality and quantity. One of the most effective and efficient ways is to intercede, in addition to other methods of course. Nowadays, Intercessory prayer is receiving less serious attention in some churches. The growth and development of the Gospels according to what is written in the Book of Acts shows an event that resulted in major and prominent changes to be examined. There is a significant growth in the preaching of the Gospel both in terms of quality and quantity, many prayers delivered to God are fulfilled and accomplished. In the development of Mission and Gospel in this world it cannot be denied that there are certain individuals, even certain groups do not agree that the creation of a Church growth and development is caused by one of the supporting factors, namely Intercessory Prayer. Luke the writer of the Book of Acts reveals the extraordinary events experienced by Jesus's disciples. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit became the basis of everything that happened and the disciples obeyed the commandments. Behind these events there is a very important thing to remember, that they gather and pray, and even intercede for the fulfillment of God's promises for them and the world. Disciples are baptized, equipped, and even empowered by the Holy Spirit to carry out the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. There is no denying that this miraculous event in the Book of Acts has had a great impact until now. Because through this event many people became believers in Jesus Christ and accepted the Gospel in their lives. So that the Church is growing rapidly and extraordinary. Everything that happened during the Early Church was the key to the growth and development of the Church today. May Churches today increasingly realize that behind the Intercessory Prayer there is a real power that will be fulfilled by God for His people. Especially at this time of the Pandemic Covid-19, Intercessory Prayer is very urgent and important because the Churches needed the power of the Holy Spirit poured out for the Churches in this world.


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