Bruce Wilkinson

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Bruce Wilkinson is a Christian teacher and author. He was born (ca. 1940) in New Jersey and graduated from Northeastern Bible College (B.A. and Th.B.), Dallas Theological Seminary (Th.M.) and Western Conservative Baptist Seminary (D.D.). He served as a college professor at Multnomah School of the Bible in Portland, Oregon, until resigning to launch Walk Thru the Bible in June 1976. He is best known for his best-selling (and, in some circles, highly controversial) book The Prayer of Jabez in 2000.

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[edit] Biography

Walk Thru the Bible is a global, non-denominational Christian organization headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. It has become one of North America's most successful Christian ministries, producing 11,000 seminars for 2 million people. [1]

Wilkinson has spoken to more than 400,000 men across America as a Promise Keepers stadium speaker. At the request of Promise Keepers, he developed the widely used video curriculum, Personal Holiness in Times of Temptation, as a part of the "Biblical Manhood" series.

After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Wilkinson traveled to Russia to teach in conjunction with the presentation of the Jesus film. Wilkinson served five years as chairman of CoMission, an innovative education ministry in Russia[2].

In 1998, he founded WorldTeachers, a global initiative to develop a Bible teacher for every 50,000 people in every nation of the world. In the first three years, over 6,000 WorldTeachers have joined the WorldTeach vision from 40 nations including India, Brazil, Ukraine, Singapore, South Africa, Nepal, Mozambique, Philippines, Vietnam, Kenya, El Salvador, Mexico, Hungary, Romania, Sri Lanka,Russia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Angola, Namibia, Zambia, Myanmar, Jordan, South Korea, and Belarus. This constitutes 5% of the goal.

In 1976, Wilkinson was named Northeastern Bible College Alumnus of the Year and in 1986 he was awarded the Religious Heritage of America Committee's Faith and Freedom Award.

[edit] Dream for Africa

Believing that Africa should be the next focal point for evangelical efforts, Wilkinson moved to Bryanston, Johannesburg, in 2002, and started an organization called Dream for Africa, which included the launch of the Never Ending Gardens. This organization helps fight against the AIDS epidemic in Africa. It sent American, Bible college students and young, African volunteers to 172 high schools. They showed a week long program of film (Beat the Drum), drama, and music to promote abstinence.

Recently, political conflicts, particularly in Swaziland, forced him to resign from the Dream for Africa project and return to the United States. The details of the events that led to Wilkinson's departure from Africa were provided in an article in the Wall Street Journal. As reported in the article, among the reasons for his pullout were the complications in establishing a planned "African Dream Village" in Swaziland. Wilkinson had plans to build this African Dream Village to house 10,000 orphans. These homes were to form a village and be based on themes — such as Wild West rodeos or Swazi village life — to entertain tourists. The orphans would be trained as rodeo stars and serve as safari guides at nearby game reserves. The idea, Wilkinson said, was to "try to bring experiences to the kids they could only get at Walt Disney or a dude ranch." [3]

In the 40-page "Dream for Africa" plan, Wilkinson sought a 99-year lease on the land and control of nearby game parks from the King Mswati of Swaziland. Wilkinson gave Mswati just five days to approve the plan, which was refused. Soon thereafter, Swazi newspapers published details of the "Dream for Africa" draft plan, which turned public opinion against Wilkinson. According to the Wall Street Journal article, when the Swazi king failed to meet with him again in what was perceived as a snub on behalf of the king, Wilkinson decided to depart.

[edit] Personal

The Wilkinsons have two married children, David and Jennifer, one still at home (Jessica), and four grandchildren (Andrew, Eric, Johnny, and Jonathan).

[edit] List of books

Wilkinson served on the overview committee for the New King James Version of the Bible, authored the Books of the Bible outlines and co-edited the Bible book introductions for The Open Bible. He is the executive editor of four best-selling Bibles including The Daily Walk Bible (NIV, NL, NKV, RSV), The Closer Walk New Testament (NIV), The Youth Walk Bible (NIV), and The Family Walk Bible (NIV).

[edit] Critics

Wilkinson has been criticized by Christian Fundamentalist missionary and writer David Cloud because of his ecumenical involvements with Roman Catholics and the Russian Orthodox Church.[4]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ WalkThru the Bible US website
  2. ^ http://worldpartnersusa.com/wpusafields/Russia.htm
  3. ^ Wall Street Journal article, December 19, 2005
  4. ^ Walk Thru the Bible Ministries

[edit] External links

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