Witherington, the Jean R. Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Seminary, has written commentaries, a book about New Testament history, books about Jesus, and even novels. All of that and depth of his scholarship have resulted in him being recognized as one of the leading NT academics of our time.
Add to that - he's charismatic.
He told the backstory on his blog 13 years ago:
Though I have been a life long Methodist, for most of my adult life I have also been very involved in the life of the Spirit. This goes back to attending Gordon Fee's Bible study in his home with my wife to be in 1975 where I first heard speaking in tongues. Then there was the day I was at a healing and exorcism service in Tremont Temple in Boston and the next thing I knew, I was speaking in tongues. I need to tell you while of course there are always counterfeits when it comes to spiritual gifts, the genuine experience is simply one that comes unbidden and sweeps over you. Like grits on a southern breakfast plate, it just comes. And while you can stop it, its a pretty overwhelming experience. You don't have to be in an emotional state for it to happen. You don't have to be revved up by the praise band. You don't have to be praying for it--- it just comes. And why should this surprise us. The Holy Spirit is so much more powerful than we are and our little wills, and the Spirit does not want to be quenched by us as Paul reminds the Thessalonians in 1 Thess. 5.
You can read the entire blog post entitled, "Here Come the Pentecostals" at this link: http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2007/01/here-come-pentecostals.html
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