As we wrap up this Fall Term and frantically write our Academic Essays, Global Pentecostalism by Miller and Yamamori is a help to me in two ways and also brings up one question for consideration. The thesis of the study that Pentecostals are increasingly engaged in holistic community-based ministries inspires me!
\nFirst, this study proves that Pentecostals are not one monolithic group of people around the world. As the authors traveled around the world they discovered that there are many types of Pentecostals. To properly communicate their new discoveries, the authors had to actually create a new term, Progressive Pentecostalism. Perfect! Progressive Pentecostals are \u201cChristians who claim to be inspired by the Holy Spirit and the life of Jesus and see to holistically address the spiritual, physical, and social needs of the people in their community\u201d (212). In my research this term I\u2019ve learned that bivocational pastors in the Vineyard are also not a monolithic group of people. Some bivocational pastors are who I call Classic Tentmakers. These are pastors who plant churches and hold a second job. Their goal is to grow their church large enough to be able to quit their second job and pastor their church full time. This strategy is a fruit of the Church Growth Movement championed by Peter Wagner and others. Another group of bivocational pastors in the Vineyard hold an outside job as part of their strategy to holistically reach their city. Like Miller and Yamamori\u2019s, Progressive Pentecostals, these Vineyard pastors do not fit into traditional bivocational categories. Consequently, I have decided to label this group, Working Priests.
\nSecond, the way that Global Pentecostalism is researched and written causes me to get excited about researching and writing myself. Not only do I find it fascinating that the authors traveled around the world to study (Much like we do in this program!), but they also incorporated some of the experiences and books we have encountered thus far on our doctoral journey. I loved reading about Jack Pullinger! What made it even more meaningful for me was to mentally and emotionally recall our time with her and all those saints at St. Stephens. What a great day!
\nI also appreciate chapter 6 where the authors engage with Max Weber and his The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. For me, especially with church planting in Uganda for over ten years, one of the most destructive \u201cfalsisms\u201d of Pentecostalism is the so-called Health and Wealth Gospel. I can\u2019t tell you how many Ugandan leaders I\u2019ve met with, and even cried with, over this hurtful neo-colonialist teaching. I find the interplay between Progressive Pentecostals and their upward social mobility to be more in line with Weber and solid research than some made-up doctrine (Thank you Grenz for teaching us about Folk Theology last year!).
\nEven though the authors set out parameters of who they would and would not research, and it indeed gladdened my heart to read that they refused to study any pentecostal church who aligned itself with repressive right wing politics, not only am I wondering what the authors would say about this year\u2019s spectrum of evangelical and pentecostal political endorsements, I would have liked to read about some Progressive Pentecostal Churches pastored by women. I just don\u2019t understand why in 2016 so many denominations refuse to let women lead churches. In Oxford we listened to Emma Percy lecture on the need for pastors to have a more feminine theology. As a professor at USC (Go Trojans!), Miller was financed by Howard Ahmanson Jr. who is a conservative evangelical philanthropist. Did this effect the churches studied? I understand the Progressive Pentecostalism is not to be combined with Liberation Theology, but for me it is not enough to write about great women like Jackie Pullinger and Amiee Semple McPherson. I find it sadly ironic that a pentecostal strand like the Foursquare Church could be founded by a woman, but has never had a woman president. When half the population is disqualified from leading a church, the term \u201cholistic ministry\u201d takes a hit. It becomes more \u201chalf-holistic.\u201d A more indigenous holistic ministry would reach out to the young girls and say to them, \u201cYou too could be called by God to pastor a church!\u201d
\nEven with the absence of women pastors, the churches highlighted in this book represent a huge piece of the answer to some of the questions posed to our cohort during our last Zoom. How do we live in a Harari Sapiens-infused world? What should our tone and strategy be as leaders in a globalized world? I would assert that we should strive to be indigenous leaders who are inspired by the Holy Spirit and the life of Jesus who seek to holistically address the spiritual, physical, and social needs of people in our community. This book shows us how to do that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As we wrap up this Fall Term and frantically write our Academic Essays, Global Pentecostalism by Miller and Yamamori is a help to me in two ways and also brings up one question for consideration. The thesis of the study that Pentecostals are increasingly engaged in holistic community-based ministries inspires me! First, this study proves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"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":[531,675],"class_list":["post-10672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-milleryamamori","tag-dmlgp6","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10672","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\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}