For the most part, the church has been silent about Jesus' role as baptiser in the Spirit, though John declared this to be the principal contribution of his Messianic ministry. Through exploration of the relevant scriptures of both Old and New Testaments, David Pawson describes eight essential elements in Spirit baptism. He maintains that the sacramental, evangelical and pentecostal streams in Christianity have all failed to do justice to this biblical doctrine. In particular its dual purpose of purity and power, for salvation and service, needs to be recovered if we are to become a truly apostolic church in the twenty-first century.