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Perry, Aaron

258 Book Reviews
Elliott, Stephen D. By Signs and Wonders: How the Holy Spirit Grows the Church. Franklin, TN: 
Seedbed, 2014. 178 pp. $16.95.
Reviewed by Aaron Perry, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pastoral Care and Christian Ministry at Wes-
ley Seminary at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, IN. He is an ordained pastor in The Wes-
leyan Church and has served as a pastor near Binghamton, NY, and Brockville, Ontario, Canada.
Church planter, pastor, and current professor and program director of 
pastoral ministries and church planting at Kingswood University in New 
Brunswick, Canada, Stephen D. Elliott has written a book to spur a new 
form of evangelism in the contemporary Western church. Elliott writes 
from his doctoral research (DMin, Asbury Theological Seminary) and pro-
fessional experience as a church planter and pastor where he utilized and 
critically observed various evangelism strategies, including a pursuit of the 
Holy Spirit for miraculous signs in the conversion of unbelievers. By Signs 
and Wonders: How the Holy Spirit Grows the Church is a popular, reasoned, 
and passionate presentation of the case for the role of miraculous deeds and 
supernatural events in conversion.
Elliott begins and sustains a sharp and pointed critique of what often 
passes for friendship evangelism, the evangelism strategy that a holy, posi-
tive, helpful, sacrificial life will lead unbelievers to understand the source of 
this lifestyle and become followers of Jesus (xi). Frankly, argues Elliott, the 
approach is not working. While Elliott repeats that friendship evangelism is 
Vol . 8 • No. 2 • w i N t er 2 017 • 258–273 
Book Reviews
259gReat commission ReseaRch jouRnal
not bad, misguided, or to be discarded, the reader will not question Elliott’s 
desire to persuade the reader that it is ineffective. Elliott’s version of friend-
ship evangelism is best described as a friendship evangelism in use, rather 
than the approach in its full form. This in-use form of friendship evangelism 
is an evangelism that really is not evangelistic (and hardly that concerned 
with friendships!). It is, at best, a wish in fairly surface-level friendships that 
never gets at sharing the gospel. As such, it is better understood as “pre-
evangelism” (71). Elliott will not let the reader away from his belief and 
argued point that friendship evangelism, as it is typically practiced, will not 
have any significant influence in converting unbelievers.
In its place, Elliott presents the miraculous role of the Holy Spirit com-
bined with proclamation and/or testimony as a more effective model for 
attracting, persuading, and converting unbelievers. Evidence is drawn from 
Scripture (both Old and New Testaments), early church history, revival 
accounts, the Wesleyan tradition, spirituality authors (such as A.W. Tozer), 
contemporary documentaries (the “Transformation Videos”), recent evan-
gelism programs (e.g., Alpha), the experience of the non-Western world 
churches, and personal experience to present this case. The Spirit’s presence 
and miraculous work are presented as being normative for the church and 
a means of conversion that the contemporary Western church should seek. 
The Holy Spirit, through healings, words of knowledge, prophecies, and 
other actions, must be sought and expected in today’s church for there to be 
meaningful, widespread conversions.
By Signs and Wonders does a fine job of presenting a readable, organized 
case of the author’s experience and conviction of evidence for the Spirit’s 
role in evangelism. Elliott offers a plethora of stories, quotes, and statistics 
for the miraculous presence of the Spirit in conversion and the failure of 
contemporary Western churches to evangelize the lost. Those readers who 
have become disillusioned with friendship evangelism or who have failed 
to see it bear much (if any) fruit, as was the case with Elliott, will find the 
book convincing. Further, Elliott’s case is grounded in the lordship of 
Jesus, with consistent critiques and warnings of unbiblical signs. The Spirit 
is not sought for entertainment, and the Christian’s allegiance is to Jesus, 
not to the signs themselves (p. 141). Others who are naturally skeptical of 
the approach will argue that a more critical assessment of statistics, online 
materials, and Elliott’s plain read of Scripture and history is needed. While 
these maneuvers would certainly strengthen Elliott’s case, they would also 
change the nature of the book. 
Elliott intentionally writes for a lay audience in addition to pastoral lead-
ers. Each chapter comes equipped with small group discussion questions, 
and Elliott provides helpful teaching points and repeatable models in the 
appendices. Elliott’s own experience is used to help interested pastors begin 
to introduce an openness to the Holy Spirit to church leadership, staff, and 
the whole church so as to help people incorporate what might be awkward 
260 Book Reviews
and foreign into their corporate worship and small group practice. Read-
ers, both lay and clergy, predisposed to Elliott’s argument will find the work 
a helpful resource for encouragement, small groups, and practical insights, 
while those open to the argument will be presented with new evidence and 
avenues of thought.
Payne, J.D. Apostolic Church Planting: Birthing New Churches from New Believers. Downers 
Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015. 128 pp. $15.00.
Reviewed by Joey Chen. Joey has a passion for what God is doing in cities and is currently lead pas-
tor at Sunset Church in San Francisco, California. He is also currently working on a DMin at Talbot 
School of Theology. He earned his MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and a BA from 
Cedarville University.
At a recent church planting conference, I listened to speakers stress the 
importance of cultural relevance and discuss how to handle setup and 
teardown challenges for multisite locations. There were talks about staff-
ing challenges and what kind of staff positions to fill when starting a new 
church. While I appreciated the content and practical guidance, I felt 
that something was missing. J.D. Payne’s book, Apostolic Church Planting, 
addresses a talking point that is often neglected or assumed in the present 
church planting conversation. Payne was pressed to write this book when 
he discovered that church planters were unfamiliar with basic biblical 
foundations at church planting conferences! The urgency is great because 
“when the church is shocked at a biblical model, it reveals just how far 
away from the Scriptures we have moved in our missionary practices” (14). 
Payne’s work seeks to provide biblical paradigms and practices of church 
planting. 
The heart of Payne’s church planting paradigm is that it should be “evan-
gelism that results in new churches” (13). Throughout the book, Payne gives 
definitions, biblical foundations, and best practices that help the church 
planter to stay grounded in Scripture. In the first chapter, Payne deals with 
the question, “what is church planting,” and why assuming the answer to 
this question is not wise. He points out that “nowhere in the Bible is the 
church commanded to plant churches” (17). We have a commission to go 
make disciples, and he notes that “we read the birth of churches—after dis-
ciples are made” (17). He is concerned that much of modern church plant-
ing focuses on the secondary, not the primary, matters. 
Important to the discussion of church planting is ecclesiology. Payne 
criticizes the common desire of planters to focus on the secondary matters 
of the church, such as trendy people, locations, and aesthetics. By focus-
ing on these matters first, he believes that church planting starts off on the 
wrong foot because this leads church plants to prioritize existing Christians. 


English

Book Review: By Signs and Wonders: How the Holy Spirit Grows the Church by Stephen D. Elliot

Slaton, Dustin

263gReat commission ReseaRch jouRnal
chapter is his ability to anticipate common questions and give answers at 
the end of many of his chapters. In addition, he gives a helpful summary at 
the end of each chapter. His communication style and approach make this 
an approachable book for a challenging topic.
One attractive feature of this book is its succinctness. This is because this 
book is not an update but a complement to his earlier and more comprehen-
sive resource, Discovering Church Planting, published in 2009. This means 
that many topics do not receive an in-depth treatment, but its brevity may 
play favorably for a church planter wanting to pass this book out as a primer 
for team members who are not lovers of books. 
Payne’s book is easy to recommend for church planters, church planting 
team members, or leaders considering church planting. One caveat is that 
the title may need some explanation since apostolic may be misleading, but 
it does not take away from its biblical substance and practical helpfulness. 
Payne skillfully presents church planting as a work that is filled with both 
hope and difficulties that must be overcome. The stakes are high because at 
least four billion people in the world do not know Christ, and like Payne, 
I hope there will be many more church planters who heed God’s call and 
respond with their lives for the glory of God among all peoples of the earth.
Ott, Craig, Ed. The Mission of the Church: Five Views in Conversation. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker 
Academic, 2106. 181 pp. 
A review by Dustin Slaton, Campus Pastor of the South Campus of Green Acres Baptist Church of 
Tyler, TX and a PhD student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
In The Mission of the Church: Five Views in Conversation, Craig Ott, professor 
of mission and intercultural studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 
presents a conversation between five different perspectives on the nature of 
the church’s mission. The book presents five chapters in which the authors 
make a case for their particular view, then follows up with five chapters 
where each author has an opportunity to respond to the other authors and 
to offer clarification. This review is written by a pastor with a western evan-
gelical worldview, and will raise concerns from an evangelical viewpoint.
Steven B. Bevans’s chapter presents the mission of the Church as the task 
of prophetic dialogue. The goal of prophetic dialogue is to engage the lost 
world in their context, using their own life and religious experience as the 
foundation for a conversation (4). Bevans is a Roman Catholic priest and 
missionary, who has written extensively on mission. Prophetic dialogue 
seeks to help people discover the validity of their own religious experience 
and discover the deeper truth within their experience. These deeper truths 
264 Book Reviews
will lead them to a better understanding of who God is. The core princi-
ples of prophetic dialogue are “(1) witness and proclamation; (2) liturgy, 
prayer and contemplation; (3) justice, peace and the integrity of creation; 
(4) interfaith, secular (and ecumenical) dialogue; (5) inculturation; and 
(6) reconciliation”(10). Bevan’s arguments show a definite concern for the 
well-being and care of individuals, reconciliation, and contextual ministry. 
However, evangelicals will have a difficult time with some of his conclusions 
regarding the role of evangelization as it engages other religions. He suggests 
that other religions can be a pathway to faith in God, writing that “they have 
come to realize that the religions among which they live are not demonic 
creations but vehicles of God’s saving power. And so they have come to real-
ize that other religions are not Christianity’s rivals, but potential allies in 
working for the values of the reign of God”(7). Concerning the Holy Spirit, 
Bevans says in his response chapter that a non-linear approach to the Trin-
ity “would allow room for the presence of the Spirit in other religions both 
before and after the advent of Jesus”(121). This is a definite problem for 
those who view salvation being by faith in Jesus Christ alone and the Word 
of God being found exclusively in the biblical text.
Darrell L. Guder’s chapter discusses a multicultural and translational 
approach to the mission of the church. Guder is a professor emeritus at 
Princeton Theological Seminary and has written on the mission of the 
church and mission theology. The multicultural and translational approach 
to mission has as its primary purpose the contextualization of the Gospel 
into culturally appropriate forms. “At every step of the way, the discourse 
evoked by this approach precludes any particular culture making claims to 
universal validity and normativity, recognizing that it is the Spirit’s empow-
ering work to enable the articulation of the gospel in every culture, as it is 
translated by faithful witnesses carrying out the apostolic mission” (22–23). 
Guder’s focus is on the expansion of the church in these cultural forms, 
but he does not emphasize the role of evangelization as a vital element of 
that mission. The reader must read between the lines to discover if Guder 
believes evangelization has a vital role. He says, “Cultures require conver-
sion just as individual sinners do”(28), and, “The mandate of the apostolic 
mission that generates the multicultural church is summarized in Matthew’s 
Great Commission: ‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations’ (Matt 
28:19)”(31). It would be preferable for him to make more emphasis on 
evangelism as it relates to the mission of the church.
Ruth Padilla DeBorst is a teacher and writer on the topic of mission, and 
she is coordinator of the Networking Team of the International Fellowship 
of Mission as Transformation. Her writing comes out of her experience as 
a Latin American Christian. Her chapter presents the integral transforma-
tional approach to the mission of the church. This approach emphasized 
the power of the Gospel to transform spiritual realities as well as physical 
265gReat commission ReseaRch jouRnal
realities, providing restoration and reconciliation in multiple areas. She 
writes, “Reconciled relationships in the creation community are at the 
heart of transformation. And this transformation affects all dimensions 
of life, matters spiritual, social, political, economic, and ecological”(42). 
While DeBorst does say an emphasis on salvation has its place, it cannot 
be removed from social impact. In fact, DeBorst truly gives more emphasis 
to creating changes in the society and physical situation of people than on 
spiritual change. The gospel appears to take a back seat to meeting physical 
needs. Quoting Washington Padilla, she writes, “The integral transforma-
tional approach, in sum, is grounded in an understanding of the kingdom 
of the ‘triune God who hears the cry of the people’; the life and ministry 
of Jesus Christ, ‘model of solidarity and service to the poor’; and the ever-
present work of the Holy Spirit ‘in human beings [that] produces transfor-
mation which also reaches social reality’” (48).1
Edward Rommen’s chapter concerns the sacramental vision approach. 
Rommen is the rector of Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church in Raleigh-
Durham, NC, and an adjunct professor at Duke Divinity School. Rommen 
states, “The church and its sacraments are…the beginning and end of its mis-
sion” (69). Rommen argues the mission of the church is to bring more peo-
ple into the church. He is concerned with evangelism, writing that “the most 
pressing duty for Christian witness is to introduce the person of Christ to 
those who do not yet know him”(74). Yet Rommen, writing from an Ortho-
dox Church view, sees the goal as incorporating people into the church so 
that they may receive salvation and ongoing spiritual nourishment through 
receiving the grace-administering sacraments of baptism and communion in 
the Eucharistic celebration (74–75). Thus, from Rommen’s perspective, the 
mission of the church can only happen where the Orthodox church is present, 
because these sacraments can only be administered by “a canonically conse-
crated bishop or one of his ordained priests”(80). Church planting, there-
fore, can only occur through authorized missionaries who have “received this 
authority from this unbroken [Apostolic] chain of command,” and only those 
authorized can “legitimately engage in the mission of the church” (83). This 
high view of the place of the church, specifically the Orthodox Church, raises 
serious problems for the widespread expansion of the church, and gives no 
place for contextualization of the church as it spreads.
Ed Stetzer’s chapter is on the evangelical kingdom community approach 
to the mission of the church. Stetzer served as the executive director of Life-
way Research and is a prolific author on mission and the church. Stetzer 
defines his approach: “God’s people are to participate in the divine mission 
to manifest and advance God’s kingdom on earth through the means of shar-
ing and showing the gospel of God’s kingdom in Jesus Christ”(92). He adds 
1 Padilla, Washington. Hacia una Transformacion Intergral. Buenos Aires: FTL, 1989. 95.
266 Book Reviews
that it “must be rooted in the biblical text, focus on the work of Christ on the 
cross, call for conversion, and display activism as a missional church”(92). 
The mission of the church is primarily the evangelization of nations and the 
establishment of the kingdom of God in new areas. Along the way, Stetzer 
says social change will occur, and a contextualized church will be established 
(94–95). The primary impetus for all of this is God’s glory being manifested 
and proclaimed throughout the nations (97). Stetzer gives a biblical argu-
ment for this view that is solidly based on the Scripture rather than a partic-
ular church tradition or social situation. It would be good for Stetzer to add 
a more explicit reference to evangelization in his definition, perhaps adding 
“and to call people to salvation through faith in Christ.” Evangelism is more 
than just “sharing and showing the gospel.” It is sharing, showing, and call-
ing people to response to what they have received. He includes this in his 
chapter, but it is missing from his definition.
This book is a quick read, being only 181 pages, including indexes and 
bibliographies. It offers a thorough, yet succinct, description of these five 
views on the mission of the church, and gives some space for interaction 
between the contributors. It would have been preferable if the contribu-
tors’ responses could have been included with the original chapters, so 
arguments could be directly pointed toward each specific view of mission. 
However, it is obvious Ott’s goal was to have more of a conversational tone, 
which is accomplished by the general responses in the second half of the 
book. This is a great resource for developing conversation on the mission of 
the church. It is perfect for expanding the reader’s understanding of mission 
beyond his or her own denominational understanding. This contribution to 
the conversation by Craig Ott is necessary and appreciated.
Patrick, Darrin. Church Planter: The Man, The Message, The Mission. Wheaton: Crossway, 2010. 
Print. 240 pp. $14.00.
Reviewed by Jamie Booth. Booth earned a BA in Bible from Central Bible College in Springfield, 
Missouri, and an MDiv from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massa-
chusetts. Currently, he is pursuing a Doctor of Ministry degree from Talbot School of Theology, La 
Mirada, California. Booth serves as the Executive Pastor of Calvary Christian Church, Lynnfield, 
Massachusetts. 
Church Planter is a well-written and thought-provoking book that covers 
three crucial elements for any church plant: the man planting the church, 
the message the church proclaims, and the mission that the church carries 
out. The author of this book, Darrin Patrick, was a church planter himself. 
Darrin began The Journey church in St. Louis, Missouri, in 2002. Since its 
inception, The Journey has grown to be a multisite church with six cam-
puses throughout both Missouri and Illinois. The church has also planted 


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