The Essential J. Philip Hogan Strategy Of The Spirit J. Philip Hogan And The Growth Of The Assemblies Of God Worldwide 1960 1990

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Byron D. Klaus and Douglas P. Petersen, editors, The Essential J. Philip Hogan , The J. Philip Hogan World Missions Series, vol. 1 (Springfield, MO: Assemblies of God T eological Seminary, 2006). 148 pp.

Everett A. Wilson, Strategy of the Spirit: J. Philip Hogan and the Growth of the Assemblies of God Worldwide 1960-1990 (Carlisle, UK: Regnum, 1997). xiv + 214 pp.

At first browse it is obvious that these two books are Assemblies’ books, written by Assemblies’ mission professors (two are college/seminary presidents) for the American faithful, seemingly to inspire and motivate them for worldwide mission. Yet on closer examination the reviewer discovered spiritual depths and missional insights that deserve a wider audience.

The more recent publication is the first volume in a series produced by the Assemblies of God T eological Seminary (named in honor of the subject of the books) “to provide fresh missiological thinking in the Pentecostal tradition to the Assemblies of God and all Chris- tian traditions committed to the mandate of the Great Commission” (6). Monographs in the series are to follow annually from the writings of Assemblies’ missiologists appointed to the seminary. The aim is to stimulate “rigorous missiological reflection that wrestles with our cultural context and commits itself to allow biblical revelation to critique our mission- ary efforts” (6). It is hoped that this accumulation of missiological thought will challenge the Christian communities.

So who is J. Philip Hogan? For thirty years (1959-1989) he was the executive director of the USA Division of Foreign Missions of the Assemblies of God (DFM), and considered by Klaus and Petersen as “one of the greatest missionary strategists of modern times” (8) and “the most powerful human influence in the shaping of Pentecostal missions” (9), who “emerged as the central driving force in the explosion of Pentecostal missionary activity” (10).

Editorial hagiography aside, Brother Hogan emerges as quite a “vibrant personality” as well as “a brilliant strategist.” He was man of determination and courage who “in his unique and direct manner” could put the fear of God (“intimidating challenge”) into a young American missionary to El Salvador with the exhortation, “Don’t mess it up. Do NOT fail. The weight of the Missionary in Training program is on your shoulders. If you fail, the program will fail with you. So don’t fail” (138-39). To use his own metaphors, Hogan was a man who didn’t “want to come in on the last load of hay” or “sit and bark at the moon,” but challenged his troops “to stop talking and put the ink to the paper” (the list of Hogan- isms at the end of the book adds loads of character flavors).

Evidently, the prolific written legacy of this “remarkable pioneer, leader, theologian, and missiologist” (8) was a buried treasure in the archives of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center in Springfield for the last few decades, and only now, in The Essential J. Philip Hogan, is there an attempt to provide selected writings that would act as an introductory guide to this missiological strategist. And why should we “revisit again and again the words and life of J. Philip Hogan”? Because the Assemblies administration (and others?) need their people “to emulate proven examples,” and “the Holy Spirit will use his [Hogan’s] mis- sionary story to shape our story” (139). In other words, the Assemblies need more Hogans for their global missionary endeavors.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2007 DOI: 10.1163/157007407X238006

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The editors chose the nineteen selected essays from “more than four hundred published articles and thousands of personal letters including a monthly letter written to Hogan’s ‘missionary family’” (7), as well as from sermons, interviews, and newspapers. Why these specific writings? The book is divided into two parts. The first part tells the story of the pioneer’s life and ministry drawn largely from Wilson’s biography, Strategy of the Spirit, which was “an account of the explosive growth of the most extensive contemporary Protes- tant missionary endeavor, and the man whose career and outlook gave it form” (ii). The second part contains Hogan’s writings categorized under the headings: “the missionary statesman,” “the missions strategist,” “the missions executive, and “the missionary.” T ese are followed by an epilogue, photographs, and a list of Hogan’s central Colorado rural metaphors.

An analysis of the various essays in The Essential reveals that of the eighteen Hogan entries (one essay was by Hogan’s wife, Virginia), three were mission conference speeches (two were for the Evangelical Foreign Missions Association [EFMA] and one for Urbana), and two were DFM annual reports. The other articles first appeared in various Assemblies’ periodicals such as Advance, Intercom, Mountain Movers, and Pentecostal Evangel (nine arti- cles were from the Pentecostal Evangel). Hogan’s selected writings ranged from 1961 to 1989, with each major section having a representation from all the decades of his ministry. Most of the essays, with one noticeable exception, were from three to seven pages in length. Fifteen pages were devoted to Hogan’s 1962 address to the missions directors of the EFMA on the “Social Implications of Missions,” with an editorial explanation at the end that it “will prove helpful and provocative to all who are interested in missions” (60). The only other editorial comment was found after the 1962 paper, “This Year in Foreign Missions,” that was made available upon the “request of the General Presbyters” in Springfield (103). One can only imagine that these two entries contain information that the Assemblies’ administration deem imperative for “missionaries and leaders of mission.”

Wilson’s Strategy in the Spirit describes “the phenomenal global impact of the Assemblies of God foreign missions programme” and the influence of Hogan’s pneumatological mis- siology on its direction, perhaps partly in reaction to the “remarkably little recognition even in missionary circles” of this “often underestimated branch of the evangelical church.” Hogan’s goal was the establishment of independent local churches in vastly different cul- tures around the world with Spirit-filled, committed missionaries as essential in this pro- cess. The volume describes personal and challenging missional stories of how this worked out in the field through national Pentecostal leaders, and how the Holy Spirit orchestrated this work of world evangelization.

Not only has Hogan’s written legacy been lost in archival catacombs, but during his lifetime it was largely confined to the denomination’s missionary machinery. In these two volumes, Hogan’s challenging and inspirational missional influence begins to awaken from a forced slumber. His voice needs to be heard by all those “committed to the mandate of the Great Commission.”

Reviewed by Robert L. Gallagher

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