C. PETER WAGNER (AUGUST 15, 1930 - OCTOBER 21, 2016)

I first knew C. Peter Wagner from his books – I was then still in my high school. Between 1991-1994, I was instrumentally active in National Prayer Network. In those years, Peter Wagner’s books are to me must to read. Through the chairman and the founder of National Prayer Network, Dr. Iman Santosoand his library, my knowledge of Peter Wagner grew. In 1993, National Prayer Network facilitated a meeting for church leaders to arrange for Peter Wagner to come to Indonesia to speak on a National Prayer Conference. The meeting was led by the late Reverend Jerimia Rim only a week before his passing. The late Jerimia Rim had been in conversation with Peter Wagner and planned to invite him to Indonesia the following year. He also introduced to and invited participants of that meeting to attend Global Consultation on World Evangelization (GCOWE) in Seoul, Korea(1995) in which Peter Wagner was one of important figures of the movement.

I was appointed to be member of steering committees for 1994 Indonesia Berdoa, a national prayer conference in which Dr. Peter Wagner was the main speaker. Gereja Kristus Yesus, an evangelical Chinese church hosted the conference. More than 3,000 Christian leaders attended that prayer conference. I had the opportunity to talk with him personally during one meal. That conversation focused on united prayer movement and global mission. At the end, we also talked about the plan for 1995 GCOWE and the likelihood for me to study at Fuller School for World Mission.

Few months after that conversation, I went to pursue my theological education not in Fuller, but in Chicago. In those years, I was introduced more to Dr. Wagner’s works – some of them are course required readings. His contributions in theological education, mission and Christian life are without doubt significant. Together with Donald McGavran, he is called the father of church growth movement. His writing covers the wide area of spiritual gifts, spiritual warfare, church planting, church growth, mission, Christian leadership, and the history of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic movement. It is interesting to me to know that those wide ranges of topics are all by Dr. Wagner related to mission and church ministry. Among his works, The Third Wave of the Holy Spirit is my favorite. The book inspires me to looking forward for the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh waves.

I had some e-mail conversation with him during my stay in Chicago, but never get a chance to meet with him again. I am thankful for his significant contributions that influenced many theologians, missiologists, missionaries and churchgoers. From his testimonies, I am also grateful to understanding him as a significant academic figure whose encounter with the Holy Spirit is real and alive. In Dr. Wagner’s life, one sees the Gnosisand the Pneuma come together integrally and in harmony.