Abstract
Jody Fleming shares about her appreciation of the Wesleyan tradition and its contribution to the missio Dei—“the mission of God to restore his creation and reestablish His relationship through Christ the Son, empowered by the Spirit” (9). Wesleyanism was the “old house” (10) in which she grew up, but over time Fleming became spiritually revitalized by the spark of pneumatology found in the Pentecostal/Charismatic tradition.
While undertaking short-term missions work in Venezuela, Fleming became inspired to remodel the “old house” of Wesleyanism with Pentecostal mission methodology. In her ministries with Venezuelan Christians, Fleming became convinced that they not only benefited from Pentecostal pneumatology, but that their indigenized faith and practice became an inspiration to her. From them, Fleming learned two important lessons through her survey of Venezuelan Christians. First, she concluded that they have “a much stronger understanding of holistic spirituality than in the North American Context (USA)” (134). Second, the holistic spirituality of Venezuelan Christians strongly benefited from the “social justice and liberation in Latin America” (134). Thus, Christian missions work needs to incorporate more liberation theology and praxis in their ministries.
In her book Fleming wrote about the Venezuelan context that she experienced, believing that it has relevance for Christians in the Unites States as well as around the world. She wrote about it in order to “spark” the Spirit through her Latin American case study.
I commend Fleming’s emphases on holism, indigenous theology, and ministry, and on letting Venezuelan voices speak to Christians beyond South America. There is also an ecumenical emphasis in Fleming’s writings that I consider constructive for missions work as well as for churches in general.
Fleming estimates that “the presence and work of the Holy Spirit is less prominent” (131) in the Wesleyan tradition than among Pentecostals. However, I would argue that John Wesley and his followers had a vital understanding of the person and work of God’s Spirit, for example, in their emphases on revivalism and social activism as well as on holy living. Since revivalism and social activism are crucial to Fleming, I believe that they occur with or without her Pentecostal mission methodology.