Last week, Talk To Action contributor Rachel Tabachnick confirmed with the Gingrich campaign on Thursday, January 26th, that apostle and top NAR leader Dutch Sheets has endorsed Gingrich and joined the Faith Leaders Coalition, also co-directed by pastor Jim Garlow.

The involvement of these three makes the New Apostolic Reformation by far the dominant sectarian faction in the Gingrich Faith Leaders Coalition - an astounding fact in light of the ideologically and theologically controversial nature of the NAR, within evangelicalism both in America but also worldwide.

George Barna and the New Apostolic Reformation

In a March 19, 2010 post on his personal website, George Barna complained about the propagation on the Internet of inaccurate information. One example Barna provided was a comment I had made, on a Religion Dispatches story published in February 2010:

"George Barna taught for years at C. Peter Wagner's Wagner Leadership Institute, and his writing appears in "Evangelism and Church Growth: Reference Library" published by Regal books, with contributions from the following notable authors: Elmer L. Towns, George Barna, C. Peter Wagner, Ted Haggard, Ed Silvoso, Jack W. Hayford, and Larry Stockstill. "

In his post, Barna claimed to have only taught a single course for the Wagner Leadership Institute, many years ago. He wrote, "I taught a course there once, about 15 years ago, and I think it last two or three days; it may only have seemed like years to those who had to take my class. (Note: I was never invited back.)"

However, George Barna was on the original faculty list of WLI and is still listed as a WLI faculty member, up into the present. If Barna's account is correct then WLI, it would seem, has inexplicably kept him on its faculty list, in error, for over a decade. Mere laziness? It would seem not - over the course of WLI's existence, the names of numerous teachers previously listed as WLI faculty have been removed and the names of new faculty members have been added.

[image, below: screen shot from home page of the Wagner Leadership Institute, 2000, which lists George Barna as a WLI faculty member. Also note John Arnott, John Maxwell, and Ted Haggard]

But this is only a part of a wider pattern, in George Barna's involvement with the New Apostolic Reformation movement.

It is worth noting that George Barna's involvement with Peter Wagner's movement traces back to the mid-1990s, at which time the apostolic and prophetic movement, soon to be launched as the NAR after the turn of the new millennium, was far more controversial (among evangelicals, at least) than it even is now.

One of prolific author Barna's many projects was the co-authorship, with Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Jr., a member of the elite Wagner-founded Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders, of the 2004 Regal / Gospel Light book High Impact African American Churches. Wagner contributed an enthusiastic plug for the book, writing,

"For years, most Christian leaders have admired the amazing and  profound religious and social impact of black churches in our cities. Now my friends, George Barna and Harry Jackson, have focused a brilliant floodlight on African-American churches, allowing us to see clearly how they have gone about doing it. High-Impact African-American Churches is important reading!"

Barna has also co-authored two books with evangelical leader Bill Dallas who, following his felony conviction and imprisonment for real estate embezzlement, has embarked on a second career as a church networking specialist - plugged into a major New Apostolic Reformation funding channel.  

Dallas' Church