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266
Book Reviews
William L. De Arteaga,The Public Prayer Station: Taking Healing Prayer to the Streets
and Evangelizing the Nones(Lexington,KY: Emeth Press, 2018). 75 pp. $15.00
paperback.
InThe Public Prayer Station: Taking Healing Prayer to the Streets and Evangeliz- ing the Nones, William L. De Arteaga provides a useful collection of anecdotes andadviceforaspecifictypeof evangelisticoutreachapproach.DeArteagawas a pioneer of the “public prayer station” (PPS), a small setup consisting mainly of a prayer team and a sign, which grew naturally from his experience leading healing ministries associated with the Order of St. Luke. This short volume is divided evenly along the lines of the book’s subtitle: the first section focuses heavily on De Arteaga’s personal experiences and the early attempts at execut- ing a successful prayer station outreach, while the latter two sections provide overviews of other ministries who specialize in the PPS and guidelines for the reader to launch his or her ownPPS.
As such, the first portion of the book reads similarly to a memoir. Much of the first few chapters deals with De Arteaga’s path to salvation and eventual dis- covery of healing prayer ministries, along with a number of personal stories of influential figures on both himself and the movement as a whole. While some of the anecdotes initially seem tangential, they usually serve to support consis- tent themes that resurface throughout the work, namely, the initial pushback from traditional Catholic and Anglican churches, the uphill battle to encour- age healing prayer in a cessationist Evangelical subculture, the importance of command prayers for effective healing, and the witnessing potential of power encounters.
On these last two points, it is especially vital to remember that De Arteaga does not intend this work to be an exhaustive “theology of public prayer sta- tions,” nor an especially academic resource on healing prayer. That is not to say, however, that the author’s more conversational writing style fails to estab- lish him as an authority on the subject. Indeed, the first five chapters of the work, detailing the impetus for the project and the pragmatic and theological challenges presented at early PPS sites, are precisely what qualify him to offer suggestions for where—or, more accurately, whom—the movement can reach in the coming decades.
The book’s first chapter highlights De Arteaga’s Catholic upbringing, his experience of salvation, and his journey toward charismatic congregations, which ultimately led him to meet his future wife. For the purposes of the PPS, these formative years also exposed De Arteaga to a number of prominent Pen- tecostal and charismatic figures, whose method of healing prayer directly led to the creation of thePPS. This pattern continues in the second chapter, which is
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devoted entirely to the influence of Charles and Frances Hunter on the pattern of prayer exercised at De Arteaga’s PPS sessions; that is, healing prayer in the “command mode,” and specifically coupled with chiropractic elements such as leg extension prayer. De Arteaga argues that commanding a healing is more effective—or at least, more efficient—than healing prayer by petition, in that it tends to be “quicker than petition healing, and often produces results that can be immediately felt …” (20).
The distinction between “command” and “petitionary” prayer is made clear throughout the work, and is likely to be the major source of disagreement between readers on either side of the divide. De Arteaga is quick to point out that the New Testament pattern, particularly in Acts, for healing prayer is to pray by command, and adds that the authority of the disciples and use of Jesus’ name constituted the basis for their prayers’ efficacy (14). He offers examples of each: command prayer is characterized by the phrase, “In Jesus’ name, I com- mand …”, while he represents petition prayer by the phrase “Father, in Jesus’ name, heal” the recipient (13). Ultimately, his evaluation of the latter is that it is “less effective, and more time consuming, but OK” (69)—though in fairness, he does not recommend command prayer merely as a personal preference, but as a result of witnessing its “particular significance for the ministry of thePPS” (20).
Following this dissection of the specific influence of the Hunters, De Arteaga presents a series of anecdotes from the first few PPS outings in the Little Five Points district of Atlanta in the late 1980s (Chapter 3). These stories offer both humor and sound advice for the prayer minister who may feel called to wit- ness in a public place—an encounter with a young man who jokingly asked for prayer “to have some great sex” is of particular note (25). In this setting, De Arteaga first began encountering a demographic that would eventually be referred to as “nones”—people of no particular religious affiliation, many of whom also had no religious upbringing. Through constant experiences with nones in the course ofPPSministry, he came to believe that such prayer stations are uniquely positioned to demonstrate “the power of Jesus’ name to heal,” and to offer “immediate and powerful prayer to those who have no intention or inclination of going to church” (27).
This affirmation leads into the second section, “Taking the Public Prayer Stations to the World.” Its two chapters focus on the PPS outreaches of Youth with a Mission and Healing on the Streets, respectively. De Arteaga is gener- ous in his assessment of each, taking care to note the similarities and differ- ences between the proto-PPS he established and the later iterations, which have spread across the globe. Finally, the third section consists of a brief chap- ter of pragmatic advice for the prayer minister who may be considering a
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PPS, which crucially notes the need for prayer team members with expe- rience in intercessory prayer (67).
Throughout the book, some of De Arteaga’s opinions are overly generalized and sweeping. For example, in a brief comment on how healing prayer organ- ically brought together an ecumenical group of Christians, the author states that classical theology taught that Roman Catholics and Baptists were hereti- cal to each other, and then cites his wife’s experience in Sunday school as his source (6). Other comments demonstrate some questionable phrasing, such as when he refers to the congregation he led in a Spanish-language service as “my Hispanics” (21). These instances are unfortunate, as they are often extrane- ous to the point De Arteaga is detailing. Overall, though, this is a worthwhile collection of personal insights and advice, and offers an especially welcome reaffirmation of the importance of discernment for those involved in healing prayer.
Robert Book
Hudson United Methodist Church, Hudson, Ohio,USA [email protected]
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