“Bethel Church (Redding, California) is one of the most influential churches in America.  The charismatic megachurch has gained attention through its widely popular Bethel Music, books, conferences, and senior pastor, Bill Johnson.  Bethel is also known for its instances of supernatural power.  Divine healings, ecstatic manifestations, miracles, and prophetic words are common at the church.  As such, Bethel has garnered its share of critics and controversies.  Evangelical pastor Andy Fitzgerald (DMin) conducted a four-month ethnographic study of Bethel Church.  In the first extensive study of the church, Dr. Fitzgerald observed and participated daily in Bethel’s community, sat under its teaching, and interviewed its members and leaders to see how the church understands and practices supernatural power.  In A Powerful Presence, Fitzgerald analyzes Bethel culturally and theologically by interacting with thinkers such as Charles Taylor, Jurgen Moltmann, and James Dunn.  Dr. Fitzgerald brings his insights to bear for an appreciative but not uncritical look at Bethel Church.  This book offers new learnings and opens new pathways for churches and leaders to regain their apostolic footing in today’s modern world.”

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In the last two decades, Bethel Church, Redding, California, and its School of Supernatural Ministry, has risen to prominence in American Christianity. It has been both lavishly extolled and viciously attacked. Bethel’s rise comes largely from its worldwide reputation as a place of the Holy Spirit’s movement, accompanied by spectacular healing miracles. Much of the criticism directed its way has been aimed at its theology of the supernatural but also at several of its political positions taken amid a divided nation. The significance of Bethel, and the criticisms weighed against it, suggest it needs some serious theological reflection. More than an academic treatment of Bethel’s theology and practice of the supernatural, we need a closer look, one from the inside, where we can learn from the good and the bad.

It is all too easy these days to assess churches from afar. One look at a website, or some “newspaper clippings” we acquire online, is all we need these days to disparage a church. It’s easy to assess pastors and their ministries from a quick google search without ever having talked with them. And in so doing, so much is missed. We need to truly understand what God is and is not doing. And this takes listening. This great movement called Bethel is worthy of that kind of attention.

This is what A Powerful Presence does. It charts Dr. Fitzgerald’s careful listening to Bethel church and its participants. Through interviews, observing the daily practices, spending time as one among the people of Bethel, Fitzgerald explores the culture of Bethel like no purist theologian. He then interviews and listens to the mainstream evangelical leaders and churches surrounding Bethel. The dialogue that emerges illumines not only what is happening among people at Bethel, but how Bethel is being received or not by evangelical churches, and why or why not? 

A Powerful Presence delves deep into both the cultural dynamics that drives Bethel and the churches around it. It explores the ways Bethel church challenges modern conceptions of the self using the significant scholarship of Charles Taylor and Andrew Root. Fitzgerald probes what is going on here culturally that shapes the ground for Bethel church to make space for the Spirit, and what perhaps more traditional evangelicals aren’t seeing or understanding. 

In all of this, Bethel’s theology does not escape scrutiny. Fitzgerald examines the theology of Bethel and how it interacts with surrounding evangelical churches. He uses the insights of Jurgen Moltmann among others to explore theologically what is happening on the ground at Bethel in relation to the Spirit. What emerges is not only a deeper understanding of the ways of Bethel’s theology, but how indeed mainstream evangelicals clash and or learn from it. 

At a time when the evangelical church is facing unparalleled decline, it is my contention that evangelical churches need to listen and understand, and be challenged by the presence of Bethel church in Redding CA. No one should, including mainstream evangelicals, blindly accept all we see and hear from Bethel as from God. But God is moving. No one should ignore the flaws of Bethel, where they come from and how they get exposed. This too is part of engaging a church like Bethel that challenges us to live in the Spirit. We need a dialogue that is critical and helps us discern the impact of Bethel and what it means for our future. We need a theological reflection that asks of Bethel and the surrounding engagements, what is the Holy Spirit doing? And how should we as Christians, who come from many other streams of church, join in? 

In these times of much church decline and division, Bethel is a challenge to the rest of us. It is time for a radical appraisal of who we are and what we’re doing and Bethel’s presence among us provides the occasion for such a task. The evidences of the movement of the Holy Spirit must not be dismissed quickly because of Bethel’s perceived excesses or disappointing politics. All of us need to take a deep breath, slow down, and dare to read slowly Fitzgerald’s engaging work, and ask how can we make space faithfully for the presence of the Spirit in these most urgent of times? 

David Fitch – Lindner Chair Evangelical Theology

Northern Seminary