Bruce Wilkinson

Bruce Wilkinson is a Christian teacher and author. He was born (circa 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.

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.

In 1998, he founded WorldTeach, 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.

You Were Born for This

His first book in more than six years - You Were Born for This: Seven Keys to a Life of Predictable Miracles - was released September 15, 2009. This book is based on the following premise:

Anyone can do a good deed, but some good works can only happen by an act of God. Around the world these acts are called miracles—not that even religious people expect to see one any time soon. But what would happen if millions of ordinary people walked out each morning expecting God to deliver a miracle through them to a person in need? You Were Born for This starts with the dramatic premise that everyone at all times is in need of a miracle, and that God is ready to meet those needs supernaturally through ordinary people who are willing to learn the “protocol of heaven.”

In the straightforward, story-driven, highly motivating style for which he is known, Wilkinson describes how anyone can be a ‘Delivery Guy from heaven in such universally significant arenas of life as finances, practical help, relationships, purpose and spiritual growth.

You Were Born for This was written in order to change how people see the world and show people what they can expect God to do through Christians (and even non-Christians) to meet real needs. Bruce explains that seven simple tools can be mastered so that people can say with confidence, “I want to deliver a supernatural gift from God to someone in need today–and I expect to!”

Dream for Africa and Never Ending Gardens

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. Never Ending Gardens recruited thousands of American volunteers to assist with planting gardens in African to help provide sustenance for low-income communities and families.

Teach Every Nation

Wilkinson founded Teach Every Nation (TEN) in 2013 as the culmination of four decades of 'best practices' learned from his teaching, training, and international leadership and ministry. TEN was formed to provide "innovative, practical and culturally relevant training" for pastors and leaders in the Global South (e.g. areas of Africa, Asia, and South/Central America). Training is provided through technology such as satellite simulcasts, as well as in-person courses on TEN's 2,500-acre training campus located on a wild animal reserve in the Waterberg Biosphere of northern South Africa. Thousands of TEN students have been trained through the TEN Campus and hundreds of satellite campuses located throughout Africa.

Personal

The Wilkinsons have three married children, David, Jennifer, & Jessica, and four grandchildren (Andrew, Eric, Johnny, and Jonathan).

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).

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.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ WalkThru the Bible US website
  2. ↑ Walk Thru the Bible Ministries

External links