History
The concept of transformation was birthed out of an apparently uncoordinated series of city-wide revivals which took place around the world in the 1990s. These were documented by several individuals, notably: George Otis, Jr. and his popular (if controversial) Transformations film which claims drug arrests (see Cali Cartel) were connected to revival in the Colombian city. Jack Dennison also wrote a book, City Reaching. This led to an upswell of global interest in both city reaching and marketplace ministry. Argentinian evangelist Ed Silvoso popularized the latter approach in his book Anointed for Business, which introduced the term Marketplace Transformation. This combined with the concept of community transformation to develop a more general focus on transformation.
The term 'Transformationalism' was apparently first used in conjunction with groups such as Pray the Bay in early 2004, reflecting a more general view of transformation as a key (if not defining) attribute of the Christian life. This coincided with a possibly unrelated increase in the use of the term 'transformation' by a wide range of different churches and organizations during 2004.
Transformation conferences in 2005 (Indonesia) and 2007 (Seoul, Korea) focused on five "streams": saturation church planting; revival; reaching cities; marketplace ministry and economic development for the poor. The goal was, among other things, to develop a transformational covenant, to provide further definition to this movement.
Read more about this topic: Christian Transformationalism
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.”
—Henry Ford (1863–1947)
“Like their personal lives, women’s history is fragmented, interrupted; a shadow history of human beings whose existence has been shaped by the efforts and the demands of others.”
—Elizabeth Janeway (b. 1913)
“It would be naive to think that peace and justice can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of history will automatically resolve the problems.... However, with faith and perseverance,... complex problems in the past have been resolved in our search for justice and peace. They can be resolved in the future, provided, of course, that we can think of five new ways to measure the height of a tall building by using a barometer.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)