At the very beginning of Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement<\/i> authors Miller and Yamamori state: \u201cPentecostalism is not simply a set of beliefs; it\u2019s an experience.\u201d[1] In this one sentence they sum up the whole of the book and in many ways, the reason for the growth of the Pentecostal movement, and it\u2019s new found social engagement\u2014although I would hold that Pentecostal social engagement is not\u00a0new.<\/p>\n
I was given this book by a friend of mine several years ago, and I have not had the opportunity to read it until now. My friend is not from a Pentecostal tradition; they found the book to be both interesting and enlightening and wanted to know what I thought. And so to my friend in Prague, I apologize it\u2019s taken me so long. My thoughts about the book are briefly these. Global Pentecostalism<\/i> gives fair and respectful treatment to the worldwide Pentecostal movement. The book is interesting and insightful.<\/p>\n
To begin, as a Pentecostal myself, I appreciated the authors\u2019 addressing the myths about Pentecostalism. As in any faith tradition, there is a view from the inside and a view from the outside. From my (inside) experience it can seem like Pentecostalism is one of the most misunderstood expressions of faith in the evangelical world. I can\u2019t speak for an outside view because I am a fourth generation Pentecostal. I can, however, state that on more than one occasion I have found myself in a situation where I had to argue\u2014hopefully with some vigor and persuasion\u2014that speaking in tongues is not a demonic expression and that the presence of the Holy Spirit is life-changing and empowering! In this light, I would state that there is \u201c\u2019 something more<\/i>\u2019 than just humanly generated activity in Pentecostalism.\u201d [2]<\/p>\n
There are other misconceptions. For example, Pentecostal \u201cworship services are [not] always populated with people being slain in the spirit, speaking in tongues, prophesying, and having their crutches thrown away by faith healers. Pentecostals are [not] lower-class marginalized people for whom religion is an opiate. Pentecostals are [not] so heavenly minded that they are no early good.\u201d [3] And, I might add, that they do not always allow their eschatology concerning the imminent return of Christ and a new heaven and new earth to hinder their response to the present needs of the world, social or otherwise. [4] But the narrative of myth is a powerful force, though not always negative. The effort to defend Pentecostalism against the myth has both strengthen the resolve of Pentecostal leaders and brought clearer thinking to Pentecostal scholars concerning Pentecostal theological and its missiological underpinnings.<\/p>\n
Personally, I am not thrilled about the term Progressive Pentecostalism. <\/i>\u00a0Not because of any political connotations,[5] but simply because of the fact that Pentecostals have been involved in church planting, church growth, building schools, hospitals, homeless shelters, programs to fight drug addiction, adult training programs, feeding, clothing, building churches in addition to the core value of reaching people with the message of the Gospel for at least 100 years.<\/p>\n
It seems to me that it can’t be any other way.\u00a0Because Pentecostalism is an experience, it is not something that one wants to keep to themselves. There is a strong, centrifugal-like force that compels Pentecostals to be part of changing the world. That change begins with preaching the gospel and then includes ministry of every kind, including compassion ministry. [6] \u00a0I agree that Pentecostals approach the world with a holistic view that says, the power of the Holy Spirit can change the heart, soul, mind, spirit, body, communities and culture and we want to be a part of that. Miller and Yamamori call is \u201cHolistic Ministry.\u201d [7] Pentecostals call it merely…normal life in the Spirit! It\u2019s what you do if you are a Pentecostal.<\/p>\n
I too would say that the authors give fair treatment to the Pentecostal church in its global state. The problems of growth are always challenging. Pentecostal eschatology can cause Pentecostals to focus on the distant or not so distant future, instead of the here and now. In addition, based on the Pentecostal understanding of a personal relationship with Christ, and the personal experience of the Holy Spirit, Pentecostals tend to focus on reaching and serving the individual and not larger groups. [8] Although I would argue that this is not the case with the Assemblies of God as the theme of the Assemblies of God World missions is: \u201cEvery Tribe, Every Nation.\u201d The Assemblies of God now have 67 million worldwide adherents and continues to grow. [9]<\/p>\n
Of course, the Assemblies of God is not the only Pentecostal movement in the world. Each movement is different in their own way. The uniqueness may be a strength as it mirrors the vastness of the Kingdom of God. But the one thing that brings Pentecostals together is the experience of the power of the Holy Spirit. Though Pentecostals are often misunderstood, are facing the challenges of growth and social engagement, I am proud to be a Pentecostal. \u201cPentecostalism is not simply a set of beliefs; it\u2019s an experience.\u201d [10]<\/p>\n
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At the very beginning of Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement authors Miller and Yamamori state: \u201cPentecostalism is not simply a set of beliefs; it\u2019s an experience.\u201d[1] In this one sentence they sum up the whole of the book and in many ways, the reason for the growth of the Pentecostal movement, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"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":[716],"class_list":["post-15527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-miller-and-yamamori","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15527","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\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15527"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15532,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15527\/revisions\/15532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}