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Missiology, or mission studies, is the theological study of Christian mission worldwide. An outline of six features of Pentecostal and Charismatic mission describe their missiology.Firstly, Pentecostalism places primary emphasis on being “sent by the Spirit”. In comparison to the “Missio Dei” of older Catholic and Protestant missions and the “obedience to the Great Commission” of evangelical “Christocentric” missions, Pentecostal mission is grounded first and foremost in the conviction that the Holy Spirit is the motiv…

One of the most remarkable of the first missionaries coming from the Azusa Street Revival was Lucy Leatherman (1870–1925), who was born near Greencastle, Indiana. She was probably also the most travelled of all the itinerant missionaries in early Pentecostalism. At the time she became a Pentecostal she was a doctor’s widow and had been a student at A.B. Simpson’s Missionary Training School in Nyack, New York. She received Spirit baptism when Lucy Farrow prayed for her in 1901 at Charles Parham’s…

One of the best-known Chinesehealing evangelists of the twentieth century, John Sung (Song Shangjie) (1901–1944), was an independent itinerant preacher in the 1930s. He lived during a turbulent time in China; but this was also the time of the Shandong Revival, when spiritual gifts were accepted in many Protestant churches. Song drew thousands to his meetings and regularly prayed for the sick, anointing them with oil. Startling results were reported. Born in the home of a Methodist preacher in Xi…

William W. Simpson (1869–1961) arrived in China as a Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA) missionary in 1892 and spent most of the next 57 years there. He was no relation to the CMA founder A.B. Simpson. When Pentecostal phenomena broke out in north-west China at a CMA convention in Taozhou, Gansu in 1912, Simpson and his wife Otilia were baptized in the Spirit. They passed on their Pentecostal experience to many CMA churches in Gansu and their testimony was published in the official CMA’s Alliance Weekly. Their Tibetan Border district was greatly affected by this Pentecostal…

[English Version] Taylor, William M. (2.5.1821 Rockbridge, VA – 18.5.1902 Palo Alto, CA). T. wurde 1842 Geistlicher der Methodisten, aktiver Mitarbeiter der National Association for the Promotion of Holiness und 1847 nach Kalifornien berufen, wo er als »California T.« bekannt wurde. Er eröffnete die erste methodistische Gemeinde in San Francisco und leitete evangelistische Open-air-Versammlungen. 1870 gelangte T. nach Indien und wurde dort ein früher Fürsprecher der indigenen Kirche und der Theorie …

[German Version] (1866, Greenock, Scotland – 1953). After completing medical training in Glasgow, Cochrane was sent by the London Missionary Society to Mongolia in 1897. In 1904 he founded the Peking Union Medical College and served as its first director until 1915. On returning to England, he started the periodical World Dominion and the following year founded the Survey Application Trust. In both ventures, he worked in collaboration with missionary author Roland Allen. In 1930 he founded the Movement for World Evangelism, …

[German Version] (May 2, 1821, Rockbridge, VA – May 28, 1902, Palo Alto, CA). Ordained a Methodist minister in 1842 and an active worker in the National Association for the Promotion of Holiness, Taylor was called to California in 1847, where he became known as “California Taylor.” He founded the first Methodist church in San Francisco and conducted evangelistic open-air meetings. In 1870 Taylor arrived in India, where he became an early promoter of an indigenous church and the Three-Self Movement ( Pauline Methods of Missionary Work, 1879). His missionary activity even took him …

[English Version] I. Geschichtlich und religionssoziologisch Unter dem Begriff »n. rel. B.« werden von der heutigen religionswiss. Forschung eine große Zahl unterschiedlicher, erst in neuerer Zeit entstandener rel. Gruppierungen zusammengefaßt, die ein gewisses »neues rel. Bewußtsein« gemeinsam haben, das sich in Teilen auf ältere okkult-theosophische Lehren bezieht. Einige Definitionen n. rel. B. beziehen v.a. Gruppen mit ein, die nach dem 2. Weltkrieg und speziell nach 1960 entstanden sind, andere …

[German Version] I. History and Sociology of Religion Under the term “new religious movements” (NRM), scholars class together a wide variety of religious groups of recent origin that presumably share a “new religious consciousness,” which draws in part upon old occult-theosophical teachings. Some definitions emphasize groups developed after World War II and especially after the 1960s, whereas other definitions include religions founded within the last 200 years. Some definitions include Eastern religion…