I was suprised and delighted to attend a seminar on Deliverance ministry last May at the Leadership Conference, by Alpha. Seated in HTB Brompton Road, Pete Hughes from KXC church introduced Tammy Comer (married to Jon Mark) and Jon Thompson to a packed house with many listening in from the overflow room. The huge demand for the seminar suggesting it was a topic really needing covering.

I asked Chat GPT to review the book for me and it decided that this is:

‘one of those texts that should come with a spiritual health warning: “Reading this may wake you up to realities you’ve been too British to admit exist.” It’s clinical, pastoral, scriptural—and absolutely vital.’

The seminar itself was a little disappointing in that Thomson was self-consciously trying to pack a four day course into an hour’s seminar, and starting from a place (reformed theology) few people in the room were at. Here in the UK John Wimber’s influence (with his arguably premodern worldwiew) has prepared the charismatic engine room of the Anglican church for an openness to this ministry, even if there has been little attempts at equipping it for many decades. Thompson had clearly been through the theological battle grounds of asserting that Christians could be impacted by demons. He made this primarily through reference to Ephesians 4 (don’t give the enemy a topos [place/foothold] in your life), and the very first story of Jesus driving out a demon in Mark 1, where that person seemed to be both Jewish (in the synagogue) and a member of that relgious house. But he also illustrated it through Tammy Comer’s quite lengthy and moving autobiographical story of her deliverance from a generational curse, which is also told by her husband in the forward to Thompson’s book.

The book is excellent. According to ChatGPT (reviewing apparently in my voice),

‘One of Thompson’s key insights—worth the price of the book alone—is that not all problems are psychological, not all are biological, and not all are spiritual. But some are. And the discernment to know the difference? That’s the gold. His framework of the “Three Causes” (sin, wounds, and demons) is pastoral dynamite. It allows churches to hold counselling, repentance, and deliverance in proper biblical tension. It’s like being handed a spiritual diagnostic toolkit that actually works.’

That’s an apt summary, of a comprehensive book drawn from experience and some humbly offered mistakes, as well as significant academic reflection on theology and praxis. He offers a framework of 4 main types of deliverance which I now draw on for my SOMA teaching. I bookend these with Conversion (repentace, dying to your old life and accepting Jesus Christ as Lord), and Consistency (living as a disciple, forgiven from sin and free from the effects of cancelled sin). The middle four are a mix of two that need continual growing in (inner healing/truth encounter) and two that can be done in a moment (power encounter, formal liturgical exorcism). So with conversion and consistency as points 1 and 6 in my revised framework the middle of the model looks like:

As much as the three causes of spiritual blockages (sin, wounds, demons) makes sense in diagnosis, so these six potential solutions are also incredibly helpful as a framework. There is no one solution needed. Discernment is needed as to what to lead with and when. This is in my thought the greatest contribution of the book.

Thompson goes on to outline a detailed way a (very well resourced) church might develop a minstry like this. In the UK and most other countries I visit I’d suggest setting this up as part of a network not an individual local church [I’ll write elsewhere about the four levels of deliverance ministry (what all Christians can do, what all mature Christians can do, what well trained church leadership teams can do, and what should only be done with the help of authorised and equipped teams) – the fourth of which should be deployed by someone with the right authority – in Church of England terms that is the Bishop]. But much of what Thompson is describing comes under the remit of discipleship which levels one, two and three are all clearly part of.

ChatGPT concludes its commentary on the book by urging

Fellow pastors: if you’re not equipping your teams in this area, you’re sending people into battle unarmed. Deliverance isn’t fringe—it’s frontline. Thompson writes with the heart of a shepherd, but also with the unapologetic conviction of someone who’s seen too many people stuck in cycles of bondage, when the Church should’ve been ready to help. If Demolishing Strongholds (Dave Devenish) is the war manual, Deliverance is the field guide. This is the book you give your prayer team, your youth leaders, your small group facilitators—and maybe even your bishop. Because when people come knocking with questions about torment, spiritual attack, or bizarre things they can’t explain, we need to do better than “Have you tried a podcast and a peppermint tea?”

It’s hard not to agree with that. Jesus came to set the captives free. This book is an excellent start in helping you think through as a church, as a leader, and maybe even as a denomination, how you should do that.