{"id":653,"date":"2013-10-10T21:38:01","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T21:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=653"},"modified":"2014-08-13T22:09:32","modified_gmt":"2014-08-13T22:09:32","slug":"its-a-cult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/its-a-cult\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s a Cult!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a cult, it\u2019s a cult!\u00a0 These were the words that described the Communidade da Graca in Brazil that Miller and Yamamori write of in Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement.\u00a0 <\/em>For years, since the church\u2019s founding, an expressed message of health and wealth had been its constant.\u00a0 Along with this theology came cries and claims that it really wasn\u2019t a church at all but a cult \u2013 not only from mainline churches throughout Latin America but also from established Pentecostal churches in Brazil such as the Assembly of God.<\/p>\n

But transformation has taken place.\u00a0 The Communidade da Graca has become mainstream and other churches have sought to not only silence their criticisms but to join forces and emulate their expression of faith, as have other growing churches in Latin American and Africa.\u00a0 Three global alterations have caused the dynamics to change.\u00a0 According to Miller and Yamamori, one is the demographic shift of global Christianity, to the center South and developing countries from the West.\u00a0 Another is that most of worldwide Christian growth has come by way of Pentecostal churches.\u00a0 Lastly, these churches are maturing to include social change in their gospel.\u00a0 A new vision is replacing \u201chealth and wealth\u201d and from only \u201clooking toward the afterlife\u201d to an interest in giving value to those who live in the \u201cKingdom on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cdriving engine\u201d as the book claims, began in my hometown of Topeka, KS but most remember the revival of Azuza Street Church in California that launched the Pentecostal movement.\u00a0 This crusade desired to focus only on the future with little thought for today and has been the cornerstone of Pentecostal theology.\u00a0 As a beacon for the poor and marginalized, hope was offered to all who sought it \u2013 not only with a message revolving around Heaven but through uplifting music filled with spiritual embodiment.<\/p>\n

Patrick, one of the lead mentors of LGP4 and from Kenya agrees, sharing that \u201cin the past we only preached the gospel, now we are experiencing a paradigm shift to include helping the poor, adding deed to word and deed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although many will say that Pentecostalism has had a social element since its inception, there is an agreement now that a \u201cnascent but becoming development in social ministry, largely non-political, but giving value to all\u201d belief is growing, with many embracing a holistic acceptance of faith.\u00a0 The teachings which bring life in the here and now, are that all people are made in \u201cthe image of God, have dignity and are equal in God\u2019s sight.\u201d (Kindle location 69)<\/p>\n

Thought generally as non-political, the new middle class that is gravitating to a more stable Pentecostal expression is interested in making changes through politics or without.\u00a0 The effort to live holy lives, stay free from alcohol, practical leadership skills in the church and small group communities helps build a stable middleclass, longing for upward mobility \u2013 as did the \u00a0protestant work ethic for the mainline denominations in Europe and the US years ago.<\/p>\n

The authors cite three ways Pentecostalism has the ability to provide change.\u00a0 1) Religion has the potential to blunt the pain of poverty, because of a better hereafter. 2)\u00a0 Upward mobility is possibility through the followings of the pastor\u2019s teachings.\u00a0 3)\u00a0 Becoming a part of a supportive community contributes to their social welfare (Kindle location 399)<\/p>\n

However, some reoccurring problems I\u2019ve seen in the third-world Pentecostal church are that the general poverty level continues to be prevalent in most, with the exception of the pastors.\u00a0 A very large inequality between pastors and parishioners seems present, especially in the larger churches.\u00a0 It has been explained to me as the need to show what success looks like or to be an example of how God can bless us.\u00a0 The \u201chealth and wealth\u201d gospel is still pervasive, at times to the exploitation of the poor themselves as they give all they can to the church for perceived blessings.<\/p>\n

Whatever problems lie ahead for the progressive Pentecostal Church, understanding the importance of its place in current Christianity is essential.\u00a0 As Miller and Yamamori say \u201cin terms of analytical frameworks, the most useful theoretical perspective is to identify Pentecostalism as a renewal movement.\u00a0 Without renewal movements, religion simply routinizes and dies as it becomes increasingly formalized.\u201d (Kindle location 2589)<\/p>\n

My prayer is that as this progressive movement matures, stabilizes and includes more and more people of means, that it doesn\u2019t lose its passion that initially ignited its worship and hope \u2013 and that it can incorporate those essentials to a social relevance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a cult, it\u2019s a cult!\u00a0 These were the words that described the Communidade da Graca in Brazil that Miller and Yamamori write of in Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement.\u00a0 For years, since the church\u2019s founding, an expressed message of health and wealth had been its constant.\u00a0 Along with this theology […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"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":[261,2,262,255,260,259,256],"class_list":["post-653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-africa","tag-dminlgp","tag-latin-america","tag-miller","tag-pentecostalism","tag-y","tag-yamamori","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653","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\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1986,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653\/revisions\/1986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}