{"id":15606,"date":"2017-11-30T22:07:39","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T06:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=15606"},"modified":"2017-12-01T14:58:43","modified_gmt":"2017-12-01T22:58:43","slug":"im-not-ready-to-commit-but","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/im-not-ready-to-commit-but\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m Not Ready To Commit, But…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2026I think I\u2019d like to try dating Progressive Pentecostalism. It\u2019s not like I\u2019m simply church \u201cshopping.\u201d It\u2019s more that I am looking for a community that I can spend my life with, that makes my heart race with the presence of the Spirit, and makes me want to put in the work of building community. In fact, if anyone knows of a church in Portland that reflects the Progressive Pentecostalism described by Miller and Yamamori in Global Pentecostalism<\/em>, message me ASAP. Seriously, I want to check it out.<\/p>\n

Miller and Yamamori do an excellent job of laying out their research into the global phenomenon of the growth of Pentecostalism. In their book, they are reasonably fair and work hard to follow the data to come to their conclusions. In a few places, I am not sure they do justice to the ideals of Marxism or Liberation Theology (both positive and negative), but for the most part, the presentation of their research was not only solid and clear, but managed to lift the lid on the unseen beauty of Pentecostalism for those of us who have only had brief encounters and have not ever engaged with Progressive Pentecostalism.<\/p>\n

Miller and Yamamori define Progressive Pentecostalism as \u201ca movement of Christians who claim to be inspired by the Holy Spirit and the life of Jesus and who seek to holistically address the spiritual, physical, and social needs of people in their community.\u201d[1]<\/a> That definition alone is enough to make my Wesleyan Holiness heart swoon. Even though the authors say that these Pentecostals are \u201ctypically not engaged in structural critiques of social issues, nor are they working at systemic solutions,\u201d[2]<\/a> they throw in the caveat that there are a \u201cgrowing number of exceptions.\u201d Since this book was written ten years ago, what I really need to know is, have those exceptions continued to grow, or has Progressive Pentecostalism retreated into the otherworldly escapism that some accuse Pentecostalism of doing? I have to believe that in this present time, anyone listening to the Spirit is forging ahead in social engagement, and so noticing the way systemic injustice breaks down their communities. I also have to believe that anyone listing to the Spirit knows that there is no hope for healing that injustice without the work of the Spirit and sharing the good news that God makes all things new through the love and actions of Christ. The ministries described by the authors in chapter two made me cry. The salve that these ministries apply to deep pain around the world is pretty beautiful. I know this happens in many traditions and denominations, but there is something about the way the authors contextualize the idea that the ministers here are responding to the compelling love of the Spirit that makes me want to watch, listen, and learn from these people.<\/p>\n

I do wonder if part of what draws me to Progressive Pentecostalism (as described in this book) is the way it tugs at my Wesleyan Holiness roots. I grew up in a swirling mixture of social engagement and Spirit directed evangelistic love that I can\u2019t seem to find anymore. Many of those in my former traditions are either too busy listing those things that they are against, while others seem to have left the love of Christ out of the search for social justice. Both groups trot out the words of their favorite theologian to back their game, but neither seem to talk much about the Spirit. Grenz and Olson describe theology as \u201cseeking to understand with the intellect what the heart \u2013 a person\u2019s central core of character \u2013 already believes and to which it is committed.\u201d[3]<\/a> Sometimes it feels to me like the Church in general did this backward \u2013 we intellectualized our theology without listening to the Spirit\u2019s whisper to our hearts. The more theological education I receive, the more loudly I hear my heart say, \u201cIs that really what you believe?\u201d<\/p>\n

I know my earlier comment about \u201cdating\u201d Progressive Pentecostalism may have seemed like a joke, but to me it really isn\u2019t. Miller and Yamamori have led me to hope that there may be a Spirit-led community out there that is more concerned with loving people through social engagement and through making the love of Jesus real and available, than they are of deciding who is and isn\u2019t fit for hell, or who is and isn\u2019t worthy to serve. Is my hope well-founded?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [1]. Donald Miller and Tesunao Yamamori, Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement<\/em>, (Berkley: University of California Press, 2007), 2.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [2]. Miller and Yamamori, 216.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [3]. Stanley J. Grenz and Roger E. Olson, Who Needs Theology? An Invitation to the Study of God<\/em>, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2026I think I\u2019d like to try dating Progressive Pentecostalism. It\u2019s not like I\u2019m simply church \u201cshopping.\u201d It\u2019s more that I am looking for a community that I can spend my life with, that makes my heart race with the presence of the Spirit, and makes me want to put in the work of building community. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"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":[263,716],"class_list":["post-15606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-global-pentecostalism","tag-miller-and-yamamori","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15606","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\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15607,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15606\/revisions\/15607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}