Restoring the Church to Christ's Original Intention
Terry Virgo
“Undoubtedly, there was often excessive preoccupation with the phenomena associated with the blessing, but I am grateful to God that my first exposure to it was with people I knew at Columbia, whose lives were so radically changed. The fruit was excellent in their lives and though we made a lot of space for the Holy Spirit to come among us, I never saw the kind of so-called “animal noises” and other related distractions that were grabbing the headlines elsewhere.”
Terry Virgo has had a fascinating life. On the one hand, not many men could say that John Stott had written to them personally, that they’d sat under the preaching of Martyn Lloyd-Jones for three years, and could warmly recommend J.I. Packer, Wayne Grudem, Don Carson, John Piper and Charles Spurgeon. Even fewer men could say all of the above whilst also having experienced first-hand the Toronto blessing and being largely positive about it. Virgo’s treatment of this is magnificently balanced, showcasing that what is so readily dismissed in conservative-evangelical circles is a caricature.
No Well-Worn Paths is Virgo’s autobiography, appearing to cover his life up until 2001. In reality, he seems relatively uninterested by his own life. He writes as if he knows he’s part of a bigger narrative. Because of this, he traces the theme of the church throughout his life. The house-church movement, John Wimber’s influence and the birth of Newfrontiers International (NFI) are delicately woven in.
In fact, it’s the autobiographical flavouring that makes the book most powerful and most infuriating. By speaking so matter-of-factly about some enormously significant events, whilst grounding these in a very “normal” setting (No Well-Worn Paths felt eerily close to home; I was brought up in Horsham and Crawley and currently work for Everyday Church Wimbledon, all of which are mentioned) the reader is pleasantly swept along. However, the frustrating nature of this is that Virgo doesn’t see it as his purpose to provide any theological explanation. Two examples of this are being “baptised in the Spirit” (somewhat alarmingly, Virgo seems to subscribe to something appropriating second blessing theology) and “apostolic oversight” (although NFI strongly maintain the difference between the first-century Apostles [capital “A”] and apostles [small “a”] throughout church history). He approaches something coming close to theological explanation in the last two chapters, which are lamentably fantastic.
Other dubious moments are usually able to be defused. Steve Chalke briefly makes an endorsed appearance, but No Well-Worn Paths was written before his obvious apostasy. Slightly harder to shake off is Virgo speaking at a conference that Kenneth Copeland, the brazen prosperity preacher, also spoke at. He’s also very much part of what I call “the old guard” of Biblical teaching; giving lessons and principles from character studies in the Bible. This is probably legitimate, but it’s pleasing nonetheless that elsewhere he endorses whole-book exposition. Virgo can sometimes sound as if spontaneity and “freedom” in worship are automatically a “Holy Spirit thing”, something NFI has been battling with for some time. The seemingly arrogant title comes from the words of a prophecy given to Virgo and his team, although the laughably arrogant subtitle is (hopefully) a publisher’s choice.
No Well-Worn Paths is a gripping and easy read. I recommend it to those wanting to come to grips with the DNA of NFI, or for those wanting a personal account of the charismatic renewal. If you want to know what NFI believe, however, you’ll probably want to go elsewhere.
5/10