'The Man from Wales’: A Study of the Mission of Ivor Powell in New Zealand, 1955-1956

Abstract

This article focuses on Ivor Powell’s two years of evangelistic crusades
under the auspices of the Baptist Union of New Zealand in the mid-
1950s. It notes their highly organised and strongly denominational
flavour. Early Baptist euphoria at 2729 crusade ‘decisions for Christ’ was
much more restrained in a survey fifteen months after Powell left New
Zealand which indicated that relatively few of those ‘converts’ were in
Baptist church membership. The article notes the narrowness of Powell’s
preaching approach and suggests that conversion is commonly more of a
process and more relational in nature than the crusade approach assumed.