My aim is to give a summary introduction to a term and a movement. I suspect that it is something we will be less familiar with in the UK, both the term and the concept. However, we will be familiar with some names because people such as C Peter Wagner who was a key figure in the Church Growth movement of the late 20th Century and Bill Johnson have particularly been associated with it. Bill Johnson is of course the founding pastor of Bethel Church, Redding, California which has had a significant influence particularly on worship through a number of worship leaders and also through Jesus Culture, the youth movement that grew out of it.
One of the first challenges with understanding the term and movement is that we might associate it with the new church movement of the late 20th Century that emerged in the UK in the 60s and 70s. This included figures like Terry Virgo, Roger Foster, Bryn Jones and Keri Jones. It has sometimes been referred to as Restorationism because at its heart was the belief that apostles need to be restored to the church. Like many movements including both Pentecostalism and the Brethren, there was a desire to return to a more New Testament church culture and practice.
The challenge with that movement was exactly what was meant by “apostles” and “apostolic”. I get the impression that some elements in the early days did think they were restoring the church to its foundations with apostles equivalent to the 12. However, much of the movement would see a distinction between what we might refer to as capital A Apostles of Christ and small a apostles of the 12. The latter are seen more as missional leaders, planters and father figures to churches and movements with an “invited in” relational authority. It is fair to say that most church networks and movements including non Charismatic conservative ones would have a history of such people even if they do not use the term. For example, in the mid 20th Century conservative evangelicals and even some Charismatics looked to Martyn Lloyd Jones as a father figure and later to Stott and Lucas. In recent years we may recognise the influence of Piper, Keller, Carson and dare I mention John MacArthur. At more local level churches might invite trusted leaders in to offer wise counsel. Which not being able impose their will, such people often have more influence than just giving “take it or leave it” advice.
So, we would recognise the legitimacy of networks such as New Frontiers, Pioneer and Icthus. Indeed such movements have tended to be protected from excess by their accountability within mainstream evangelicalism and moreover have been a gift to the wider body in many ways.
However, whilst we can distinguish the 20th C Restoration movement from NAR, there may be potential relationships that we need to alert to especially on the extremes where there was at times an emphasis on authoritarian heavy shepherding and a tendency towards the dominionist thinking that we will come to shortly.
The potential for confusing these two phenomena may have slowed our ability to understand and engage the NAR movement. In particular, some of the earliest and quickest off the mark critiques came from those on the cessationists wing of conservative Evangelicalism and so tended to focus on gifts and emotionalism. Even non Charismatic Christians may be tempted to conclude that we are just dealing with an excessive extreme element within the charismatic movement.
However, I want to suggest that we are dealing with something a little different. The crucial matter is the issue I mentioned above of “dominionism”, sometimes referred to as ” the seven mountain Mandate”. This is central to Bar thinking with the restoration of apostles being key to this. Whereas the new church apostolic movements was thinking about relational leadership within the church, this is more about the generals in a spiritual battle to extend God’s kingdom’s dominion on earth. It is about bringing heaven on earth.
And that means two things. First, it means that Christians are expected not just to have an impact but authoritative influence over those spheres or kingdoms referred to in the Seven Mountain Mandate: religion, business, arts, family, education and church. This should happen from this perspective on a number of fronts including:
- Spiritual warfare: The spheres are seen as under demonic control and those spirits are to be driven out by prayer, fasting and worshipping
- Hard power: Christians or those sympathetic to Christians gaining control of businesses, political parties, courtrooms and governments
- Soft power as gifted Christians have an influence in their field and also as they shape minds and hearts through education, culture and media.
This approach distinguishes NAR from other charismatic/apostolic movements. It also connects the thinking and methodology with the postmillenial theonomism associated with Federal Vision thinking.
Conservative and charismatic evangelicals here in the UK would do well to engage with the concept to get a better understanding of the movement and why it proves popular.
Faithroots 