Jim Cymbala

Jim Cymbala (born 1943) is an American evangelical pastor who has served as senior pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle (Brooklyn, NY) since 1971. When he and his wife Carol arrived, the congregation numbered fewer than twenty people meeting in a rundown building in an impoverished section of downtown Brooklyn; through sustained prayer-emphasis and Spirit-dependence the church grew to thousands. Carol Cymbala directs the seven-time Grammy Award–winning Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. Jim Cymbala is best known for his 1997 book *Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire* (Christian Book of the Year, 1M+ copies sold), which articulates the prayer-and-revival framework that defined the Brooklyn Tabernacle's transformation. His ministry's Tuesday-night prayer meeting is one of the most-discussed contemporary corporate-prayer practices in American evangelicalism. Subsequent books include *Fresh Faith*, *Fresh Power*, *Breakthrough Prayer*, and *Storm: Hearing Jesus for the Times We Live In*.

• Intercession as Co Laboring — Affirmed substantively; sustained corporate prayer is the operational instrument by which God transforms congregations. Cymbala's framework is more pastoral-congregational than NAR-strategic-warfare; the prayer-emphasis is intimate-and-desperate dependence rather than declaration-and-decree authority.
• Cessation — Continuationist; the Spirit's gifts and operations are operative. Less doctrinally-systematized than charismatic-Pentecostal stream peers; the framework is more pastoral-experiential than theological-systematic.
• Glory and Presence Theology — The Spirit's manifest presence is the church's true power. The Brooklyn Tabernacle's worship and prayer emphasis is rooted in this presence-theology framework.
• Corporate vs Private Emphasis — Substantial corporate-prayer emphasis. The Tuesday-night prayer meeting is the most-public expression. Both private and corporate prayer are essential; the framework distinguishes itself by sustained corporate practice.
• Role of Prayer in Revival — Affirmed; revival follows prayer. The Brooklyn Tabernacle's transformation from twenty-person struggling congregation to multi-thousand racially-diverse church is offered as case-study confirmation.

• The Brooklyn Tabernacle