Examination of Christian Revival and Restoration To Identify New Spiritual and Social Constructs by Which Church-As-Organism Functions, Forms and Interfaces with Contemporary Society. by William Jesse Kloss Bachelor of Science Liberty University, 1994 Master of Education University of South Carolina, 1997 ———————————————————————————————— Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education in the College of Education University of South Carolina 2004 __________________________________ _______________________________ Co-Chairman, Examining Committee Committee Member __________________________________ _______________________________ Co-Chairman, Examining Committee Committee Member __________________________________ _______________________________ Committee Member Dean of the Graduate School i TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................ VII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................................... IX CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1 Revival and Education ........................................................................................................................... 4 Assumptions and Issues Related to this Study ........................................................................................ 6 ACCEPTANCE AND RESISTANCE TO REVIVAL ............................................................................................. 14 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................................................ 19 RESEARCH QUESTIONS .............................................................................................................................. 19 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY .................................................................................................................... 19 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY ..................................................................................................................... 21 CHAPTER SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................. 21 NEXT SECTIONS ........................................................................................................................................ 25 CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE 26 THE CHANGING FACE OF CHRISTIANITY ................................................................................................... 26 Context for wineskins ........................................................................................................................... 28 Explanation of New Wineskin Constructs ............................................................................................ 30 PERSPECTIVE TRANSFORMATION: MEANING SCHEMES AND MEANING PERSPECTIVES ............................. 32 Elaboration of meaning schemes and meaning perspectives ............................................................... 33 WHAT IS CHURCH? .................................................................................................................................... 37 NECESSITY OF REVIVAL AND OF NEW WINESKINS .................................................................................... 39 THEOLOGICAL BASIS OF NEW WINESKINS ................................................................................................ 41 TOP TEN REVIVAL WEBSITES—CONTENTS ............................................................................................... 44 Top Ten Revival Website Themes ........................................................................................................ 44 NEW WINE DEFINED ................................................................................................................................. 46 New Wineskins are or do the following things. .................................................................................... 47 New Wineskins Contain: ...................................................................................................................... 50 Quality New Wineskins Leaders: ......................................................................................................... 51 IMPLICATIONS (OF NEW WINE/SKIN FINDINGS) FOR PERSPECTIVE TRANSFORMATION ............................... 54 CORE ISSUES OF NEW WINESKINS ............................................................................................................. 55 Concept of Church-as-Institution—an Oxymoron? ............................................................................. 55 New wine and routinization ................................................................................................................. 60 Key Structures and Principles for New Wineskin Formation .............................................................. 66 Assimilating New Wineskins, Central Issues .................................................................................................. 67 CORE STRUGGLES OF SPIRIT AND ORGANIZATION .................................................................... 80 Spiritual experiences are institutionally dangerous. ........................................................................................ 84 Experiential Christianity: .................................................................................................................... 85 LINKING CORE WINESKIN ISSUES TO PERSPECTIVE TRANSFORMATION .................................................... 86 PERSPECTIVE TRANSFORMATION: MEANING SCHEMES AND MEANING PERSPECTIVES ............................. 88 Transformational learning through spiritual healing and emotional healing ................................................... 88 Top Ten Revival Websites: Implications for Perspective Transformation ...................................................... 91 RESTORATION: EXPLANATION AND SCRIPTURAL PROPHESIES .................................................................. 94 RESTORATION ........................................................................................................................................... 94 Twenty-first Century Restoration: Introduction to New Wine of Apostles and Prophets .................... 95 Scriptural Basis for Restoration ........................................................................................................ 101 Implications of Restoration for new wineskin constructs................................................................... 103 Characteristics of “Apostolic Churches” .......................................................................................... 103 Restoration of Apostles ................................................................................................................................. 104 Restoration of Prophets ..................................................................................................................... 105 Protocols for Revelatory Prophecy ................................................................................................................ 108 Prophetic Roundtables................................................................................................................................... 109 SECONDARY ISSUES OF REVIVAL AND RESTORATION ............................................................................... 109 Hindrances to Revival ........................................................................................................................ 109 Memes and Spiritual Warfare ........................................................................................................................ 111 Spiritual Warfare and Perspective Transformation ....................................................................................... 113 Ways New Wineskin Leaders Maintain Revival ................................................................................. 113 ii Should Apostles of the New Apostolic Reformation Use a Hierarchical Framework? ...................... 117 Characteristics of healthy church ...................................................................................................... 117 Criticism of Revival ........................................................................................................................... 118 Criticism of Revival ........................................................................................................................... 118 CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY 119 OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH DESIGN ........................................................................................................... 119 Research Questions Elaborated ......................................................................................................... 119 PREMISE FORMULA ................................................................................................................................. 120 Sources of Data .................................................................................................................................. 121 How Important Information Sources Were Identified ........................................................................ 122 DESIGN FACTORS ...................................................................................................................................