Transformed Lives
The move of God that shook
the New Zealand Church
Castle Publishing, compiled
by Bev Montgomery with
George Bryant
Reviewed by Ian McCleary
To choose 20 ‘ordinary’ people and let them reflect on their experience of the beginnings of the Charismatic Movement in the 1960s was a good idea — so much more readable and effective than a traditional historical approach.
Though the ‘big names’ are mentioned by each of the writers, the focus is on their personal experience and the way this flowed out to vital and widespread ministries. And that is the most convincing evidence that the experience of these people was valid. The participants in this compilation have been carefully selected to demonstrate both the variety of their experiences of the Holy Spirit and of the ministries they were led into and (for many) the Christian work they are still involved in. I personally was out of New Zealand ministering in India for much of this period and this movement was very specially a ‘New Zealand’ phenomena.
The book will be of real interest to those who lived through this time — reminiscent of an exciting time for those who were involved in it and a salutary challenge to those who either missed it or rejected it. Like any movement of the Spirit we can, with hindsight, see lots of mistakes and aberrations that accompanied this out-pouring and the compilers acknowledge this.
Some, like myself, would query the link between the tongues of Acts 2 and the praying in tongues that has accompanied revivals like that of the 60s.
Although it appears that this time in our history has passed, it has to a large extent left its mark on the Church and released most churches from the sterile patterns that marked the past. Even though the contributors were not ‘professional’ writers there is an easy flow from one chapter to the next.
I commend the book both to those who lived through it and even more so to those who began their Christian walk since that time, but who now enjoy the fruits of what happened ‘back then’.
