{"id":10408,"date":"2016-11-28T08:58:39","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T16:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/?p=10408"},"modified":"2016-11-28T08:58:39","modified_gmt":"2016-11-28T16:58:39","slug":"compelled-by-the-love-of-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/compelled-by-the-love-of-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Compelled by the Love of Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald E. Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori\u2014Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement<\/em><\/p>\n

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Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this work, Donald E Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori, sociology of religion scholars, discuss Pentecostalism\u2019s beginnings and typologies to the impact of its current global reach in social ministry. This book is the product of the authors\u2019 four-year research study of active Pentecostal engagement in social ministries in twenty different countries in various parts of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and eastern Europe. The thesis of the book is that \u201csome of the most innovative social programs in the world are being initiated by fast growing Pentecostal churches.\u201d [1]<\/p>\n

The authors dispel the myth that Pentecostalism is one phenomenon and demonstrate that it is a \u201ccomplex social movement with many different strains.\u201d [2] This work focuses primarily on an emergent, global element of the movement they call, \u201cProgressive Pentecostalism\u201d which seeks to unify evangelism and social ministry as a singular Christian witness.<\/p>\n

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Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Miller and Yamamori, Progressive Pentecostals are \u201cChristians who claim to be inspired by the Holy Spirit and the life of Jesus and seek to holistically address the spiritual, physical, and social needs of people in their community.\u201d [3] The terms \u201cholistic ministry\u201d and \u201cintegral ministry\u201d indicate that \u201cevangelism should never be divorced from meeting the needs of the whole individual.\u201d [4] This reflects how Pentecostalism is evolving from an \u201cotherworldly sect\u201d waiting on the return of Christ, to a \u201cdominant force in reshaping global Christianity.\u201d [5] The authors declare that Progressive Pentecostals are characterized as a lively worshipping community that intentionally seek the leading of the Holy Spirit, the compelling force that drives their compassionate service to others. They view their interventions in social problems as a mandate from God and a way to identity with the mission and person of Christ.<\/p>\n

In their research, Miller and Yamamori encountered a wide spectrum of social ministry that Progressive Pentecostals are engaged in. The diversity of their social ministry includes: \u201cresponding to natural disasters; providing food, clothing, and shelter; drug rehabilitation programs; HIV\/AIDS prevention and medical care; job training; visiting people in prison\u00a0\u00a0and providing support systems for their families; family reunification; pregnancy counseling; medical and dental services; services to the elderly, handicapped, and single parents; educational programs for children; and residential programs for street children and orphans.\u201d [6] Some of this pervasive social ministry is due to churches becoming financially equipped to establish large scale social programs, often through partnerships with non- governmental organizations.<\/p>\n

Progressive Pentecostals are basically concerned with ameliorating social conditions and spiritually transforming individuals and societies. Generally, their agenda does not include effecting change through reform measures pertaining to socio-political structures and practices. Rather, their strategy for addressing the systemic factors that create social problems in the first place is to nurture a new generation of Christians to be involved in leadership positions in the public sector to promote equitable social policies.<\/p>\n

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Analysis\/Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reading this book was a breath of fresh air! \u00a0First of all, because of the various Christocentric Scriptural mandates that compel Progressive Pentecostals to respond to their divine calling in accordance with the leading of the Holy Spirit. Secondly, because it has greatly enhanced my awareness of tools to enrich my dissertation research concerned with marginalized, vulnerable youth in sub-Saharan Africa. I thoroughly enjoyed the learning experiences from the diverse case studies and experimental approaches. I paid close attention to the research methodologies employed by Miller and Yamamori and the problem-resolution tactics of Christian churches and organizations.<\/p>\n

Research studies pertaining to \u201cauthoritative communities\u201d in the lives of youth alluded to by the authors correspond with my present research findings. Specifically, that \u201cindividuals who grow up outside the boundaries of parental authority and the moral demands of structured communities actually develop different neural pathways in the brain when compared with children who are reared in loving environments that provide age-appropriate moral guidance.\u201d [7] For this reason, children left on their own are considered a threat to the moral fabric of society because of their tendency to adopt self-destructive and predatory behaviors. Miller and Yamamori indicate the Pentecostal churches that are devising programs to combat this problem are also observing its impact on the community.<\/p>\n

In Ethiopia, Dr. Florence Muindi embraced the methods of many Pentecostal congregations in moving away from \u201ca charity model of social engagement and into a community-organizing and\/or development program.\u201d [8] This contemporary paradigm is designed to promote \u201ccommunity cohesion and encourage members of the community to work together to solve their collective problems.\u201d [9] I agree with Muindi\u2019s statement that the church is in a strategic position to effect long-term change in the community as Christ\u2019s representative in a suffering world.<\/p>\n

Miller and Yamamori were perplexed by St. Stephens Society in Hong Kong, a drug rehabilitation ministry headed by Jackie Pullinger (2015 Advance experience). As a faith based Christian ministry it is committed to transforming addicts by the power of Jesus\u2019 unconditional love, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the power of prayer. \u00a0According to the authors\u2019 observations on site, \u201cTwo elements that seemed pervasive in the four facilities we visited were unconditional love and what we described as supernatural intervention.\u201d [10] They acknowledged, \u201cSomething was happening to these individuals at the deepest level of their being. In our interviews with them, they claimed that the Holy Spirit had entered their bodies and a process of spiritual transformation was initiated.\u201d [11] The researchers term it, the \u201cS\u201d factor.<\/p>\n

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Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n

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  1. Donald Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori, Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement <\/em>(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), 6.<\/li>\n
  2. Ibid., 1<\/li>\n
  3. Ibid., 2.<\/li>\n
  4. Ibid., 59.<\/li>\n
  5. Ibid., 212.<\/li>\n
  6. Ibid., 42.<\/li>\n
  7. Ibid., 97.<\/li>\n
  8. Ibid., 39.<\/li>\n
  9. Ibid.<\/li>\n
  10. Ibid., 104.<\/li>\n
  11. Ibid.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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    Donald E. Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori\u2014Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement   Introduction In this work, Donald E Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori, sociology of religion scholars, discuss Pentecostalism\u2019s beginnings and typologies to the impact of its current global reach in social ministry. This book is the product of the authors\u2019 four-year research […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[676,716],"class_list":["post-10408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp6","tag-miller-and-yamamori","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}