Toward a Pentecostal Philosophy of Education

March 15, 2025 by Cup&Cross
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Toward a Pentecostal Philosophy of Education Jeffrey S. Hittenberger Introduction Michael Parra serves as Outreach Coordinator at Valley High School in Santa Ana, California, an urban community south of Los Angeles. Every day Michael works with students in crisis, on the verge of dropping out, involved in gangs, pregnant, suicidal. He states: ‘ Whereas some people might say, “This kid is lost,” I have an of what God can do. Some expectation call people might say I’m optimistic because I’m But what young. or see as a attitude, I would call people optimism, positive expectation, vibrant expectation of what God can do. Outside looking in, some might see it as youthful impetuousness, but I see it as a recognition of God’s power, and my wanting to be involved in God’s Kingdom work. Michael Parra is one of perhaps millions of Pentecostal educators, tens of thousands of whom are working in formal education systems. To be a Pentecostal or Charismatic Christian (henceforth, for the sake of simplicity, Pentecostal) is to be one of more than 400 million people in the world who have submitted their lives to Jesus Christ and opened their souls to receive the baptism or infilling of the Holy Spirit. Terminology varies, but Pentecostals share a belief that the gifts of the Spirit did not end with the Apostles, that the signs, wonders, and miracles in the Acts of the Apostles are not confined to the first century, but that that outpouring of the Spirit continues into the presents. I How do Pentecostal Christians think about and do education? How do Pentecostal experience and theology shape Pentecostal educational philoso- phy and pedagogy? I am especially interested in how Pentecostal experi- ence and theology influence our teaching and thinking when we teach in formal education systems and in higher education systems. Do our experi- ences of Spirit baptism or Spirit in filling and our beliefs about the ongoing outpouring of the Spirit give our educational ideas and practices a distinc- ‘ I David B. Barrett, and Todd M. Johnson, “Annual Statistical Table on Global Mission: 1999,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 23:1 (January 1999), Johnson estimate pp. 24-25. Barrett and Pentecostal/Charismatic population at just over 449 million in mid-1999. define this They category as “Church members involved in the Pentecostal/Charismatic Renewal.” ” 217 1 tive quality? Is there some special gift that Pentecostal educators have to share with the larger church and with the wider world? Four sections follow, corresponding to the major questions to be addressed: What do Pentecostals say about how their experience and theology impacts their educational thought and practice? . What framework might allow us to formulate and compare philosophies of education? How do Pentecostal educators adopt and adapt various educational philoso- phies ? What framework might enable Pentecostals to further explore and articulate the impact of Pentecostal experience and theology upon their educational philosophy and practice? – The bulk of this study is descriptive and analytic in character, covering the first three questions above in some detail, while suggesting a preliminary framework in response to question four. This study is exploratory in nature and seeks to contribute to Pentecostal thinking and practice regarding edu- cation. The structure of this article is inductive, moving from the specifics of Pentecostals reflecting on their own experience as educators toward the generalities of educational philosophy. I do not presume to articulate a Pentecostal philosophy of education in any definitive fashion. I do suggest, however, that Pentecostal experience and theology have relevance for the educational philosophies and practices of Pentecostal educators, a relevance that opens fascinating possibilities for further research and development. For the purposes of this study, “Pentecostal” is defined broadly to include those Christians who consider themselves Pentecostal or Charismatic, embracing the works of the Holy Spirit in the first-century church as described in Acts and elsewhere in the New Testament as relevant and normative for contemporary Christians. Pentecostal experience, by extension, is defined as personal participation in Christian communities that embrace and seek the continuous outpouring of the Holy Spirit and practice the multiple gifts of the Spirit described in the New Testament. A subsequent study might fruitfully examine distinctions among various Pentecostal and Charismatic groups (with their varied ideas of the nature of the continuous 218 2 outpouring) with regard to educational philosophy. Education is also defined broadly to include both the formal (school- based, credit- or degree-oriented) and nonformal (church- or home-based, mentoring-oriented). A Pentecostal educator, therefore, might be a teacher, a pastor, a mentor, a parent, or a friend who intentionally contributes to the learning of another. This broad definition of education also recognizes that much learning occurs indirectly, or informally, and this is of particular sig- nificance to Pentecostals. The primary focus of the study, however, is on education in formal and post-secondary settings. Peterson has defined a philosophy of education as “a unified set of philosophical assumptions together with their implications for the educa- tional enterprise.”2 Knight notes that the task of educational philosophy is to bring educators into z . Face-to-face contact with the large questions underlying the meaning and purpose of life and education. To understand these questions, the student must wrestle with such issues as the nature of reality, the meaning and sources of knowledge, and the structure of values. Educational must philoso- phy bring students into a position from which they can evaluate alternative intelligent- ly ends, relate their aims to desired ends, and select methods that harmonize with their aims. Thus a major task of educational philosophy is to help educators think pedagogical about the total educational and life process, so that they will be in a meaningfully better tion to posi- develop a consistent and comprehensive 3 program that will assist their students in arriving at the desired goal.3 . This study’s methodology includes interviews of Pentecostal educators, a cross disciplinary review of literature related to this topic, as well as philo- sophical and theological reflection. This article is also informed by a life- time of interaction with Pentecostal educators and by my career as a Pentecostal educator serving in a variety of educational contexts. . What Do Pentecostals Say about How Their Experience and Theology Impact Their Educational Thought and Practice? Pentecostal educators face a dilemma. The Pentecostal movement is, among other things, a Spirit-inspired protest against structures and forms that obscure the truths of God’s Kingdom. Pentecostals have historically ‘ . 2 Michael L. Peterson, Philosophy of Education (Downer’s Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1986), 24. 3 George R. Knight, Issues and Alternatives in Educational Philosophy, 3d ed. (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1998), 3. 219 3 shared Jesus’ distaste for religious systems that have become instruments of oppression. “Woe to you experts in the law,” Jesus said, “because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”4 They have also shared the per- spective of the Apostle Paul, who wrote, “See to it that no one takes you cap- tive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tra- dition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”5 Pentecostalism is a renewed experience of God’s direct intervention in one’s life, God’s self-revelation in the world. For a Pentecostal, a second- or third- hand experience of God does not satisfy. True ideas about God are no sub- stitute for God’s tangible presence. This Pentecostal emphasis on immediacy makes more abstract thought, or academic discussion about spiritual experiences, suspect. It is one thing to have a theology of Holy Spirit baptism. It is quite another to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. These attitudes toward education, particularly of the rationalistic vari- ety, are clearly not unique to twentieth-century Pentecostalism. Tertullian, in the second century, differed with Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria as to the value of classical education, posing the famous ques- tions : “What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord is there between the Academy and the Church?”6 For Pentecostals, to quote Cheryl Bridges Johns, the question might be rephrased, “What has Athens to do with Azusa Street?” Almost six hundred years ago, Thomas a Kempis wrote in his classic The Imitation of Christ: . Cease from an inordinate desire of knowing, for therein is much distrac- tion and deceit. The learned are well-pleased to seem so to others, and to be accounted wise… If thou dost more thine own reason or than upon that power which rely upon brings thee under the obedience of Jesus Christ, it will be long before thou become enlightened; for God industry will have us perfectly subject unto him, that being inflamed with his love, we may transcend the narrow limits of human reason.7 Apprehensions regarding formal education and the pursuit of knowl- 4 Luke 11:52 (New International Version). 5 Colossians 2:8 (New International Version). All subsequent biblical references are from the New Revised Standard Version. 6 Tertullian, “Prescription Against Heretics.” in D. Bruce Lockerbie, ed., A Passion for Leaning: The History of Christian Thought on Education (Chicago: Moody Press, 1994), 71. 7 Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (Chicago: Moody Press. 1984), 26; 48. 220 4 edge have been counterbalanced for Pentecostals by Jesus’ inclusion of the mind in the greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”8 Moreover, Jesus and his biblical followers, including the writers of Scripture, embodied the Apostle Paul’s injunction, “Be trans- formed by the renewing of your minds.”9 Of special interest to Pentecostals is the scholarly approach of the writer of Luke-Acts, who frames his Gospel with these words: “I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.”10 Spirit and mind are clearly complementary for Luke. Likewise, church leaders and reformers through the centuries have drawn upon their formal education in the conviction, encouraged by leaders like Augustine, that “all truth is God’s truth.” Several of the early leaders of the twentieth century Pentecostal movement benefited from their own expe- rience in higher education, like E. N. Bell, first Superintendent of the U.S. Assemblies of God, who had a Bachelor’s degree, a seminary degree, and three years of graduate study at the University of Chicago. So despite ambivalence about formal education, Pentecostals recog- nized the need to prepare believers to be effective students of Scripture and articulate ambassadors of Christ. Pentecostals quickly began to establish Bible schools, then Bible institutes, then Bible colleges, then Christian lib- eral arts colleges, and, most recently, theological seminaries and compre- hensive universities. I I Pentecostals pursued and obtained advanced degrees and Pentecostal churches began to produce scholars. Each of the Pentecostal educators I interviewed for this paper has at least a Bachelor’s degree and almost 80 per cent have earned doctorates. They represent the large number of Pentecostals who combine a Pentecostal experience with advanced formal education ‘ 8 Mark 12:30. 9 Romans 12:2. 10 Luke 1:3-4. ‘ 11 For a summary of the development of higher education in the United States Assemblies of God, the largest denomination in Pentecostalism, see William W. Menzies. Anointed to Sen?e: The Story of the Assemblies of God (Springfield, MO: 12 Gospel Publishing House, 1971 ). For this paper, I interviewed 35 Pentecostal educators either in person or via telephone or email. The profile of my interview group is as follows: Pastors – 2 , Missionary Educators – 3 , 221 5 The responses of these educators have greatest relevance for Pentecostals in higher education, since over 70 per cent of my respondents fit that profile. In principle, however, many of the same findings apply to Pentecostals in other educational settings, as my respondents in these other settings tended to confirm. Future studies of this topic would do well to focus on and compare other populations of Pentecostal educators (e.g., those in two-thirds-world set- tings ; without formal higher education; in various academic disciplines; from different generations; from various Pentecostal and Charismatic move- ments). My interviews included five basic questions, which I will list below with summaries of the responses I received. These questions were meant to elicit personal reflection from Pentecostal educators about the impact of their Pentecostal experience and theology on their educational thought and practice. Thus the questions were open-ended, and in my analysis of their responses I try to let them speak for themselves. For each question I offer a major finding, sample responses, and some elaboration. Question 1: In what ways has your own education been a “Pentecostal education”? Finding: Pentecostal educators note a tremendous Spirit- inspired dynamic in their educational experience and practice. . This group of Pentecostal educators is impressive both academically Public school teachers – 3 ‘ Private Sector Human Resources Trainer – I Educational Consultant (focusing on Sunday Schools) – 1 . Professors at Pentecostal institutions of higher education (IHEs) in the U.S. – 13 3 Professors at Pentecostal IHEs outside the U.S. – 1 Professors at non-Pentecostal IHEs – 2 Administrators at Pentecostal IHEs in the U.S. – 3 Administrators at Pentecostal IHEs non-U.S. – 3 Administrators at non-Pentecostal IHEs – I K-12 Christian school leaders – 2 I did not attempt to select a statistically representative sample of Pentecostal educators. Instead, I sought to interview Pentecostal educators who had a formal educational experience that would have exposed them to diverse philosophies of education, them to reflect on the rele- vance of their Pentecostal experience and theology for their educational causing philosophy. Of my seven are women, five live outside the United States, and three are citizens of nations other than the United States. They are of diverse ethnicities, with seven sample, either have being non-Anglo. completed or are completing doctoral degrees. Approximately 70 per cent attend Assemblies of God churches, with others scattered among other Pentecostal and Twenty-six Charismatic churches. 222 6 and from the point of view of Christian service. Many in this group have obtained graduate degrees from prestigious universities in the United States and abroad. They are also impressive in terms of their commitment to the spiritual growth of their students and their desire to be instruments of the Holy Spirit in their teaching. Almost three-quarters (73 per cent) of these Pentecostal educators had experience as undergraduate or graduate students in Pentecostal institutions of higher education (IHEs). Though most had attended Pentecostal IHEs for at least part of their undergraduate experience, most cited nonformal dimen- sions of their Pentecostal education (through mentors or family members) as more influential in their lives than the formal curriculum. Examples of their comments: ‘ I learned about the church and ministry from my grandfather and from my father. They taught me, informally, the Christian ethics of Pentecostalism. I also learned how to interpret the world and my reality Pentecostally. My Pentecostal education was enriched by the corporate model of the Ivoirian [Cote d’ Ivoire] church, which experienced a sovereign, nation- wide move of God. I was intluenced by the model of African some pastors, well-educated, others not schooled. Often when the formal education experience at a Pentecostal IHE was mentioned, the nonformal educational/spiritual experiences were highlight- ed : . I attended an Assemblies of God school at the undergraduate level and in that sense I suppose you could say I had a Pentecostal education. It . was not so much what was taught, but the ethos that surrounded the com- .. Belief that learning had to be enhanced by encounter with God. Belief that God munity. enriched the classroom that fullest dimension to what we were always by experiences gave leaming. The belief that chapel was a central experience, not because it was ‘more spiritual’ but because , there we actualized the relationship we had with God to include more than left brain activity. In that context there was the real expectation that God would regularly intrude into the humanly devised schedule that sur- rounds formal educational activity. Several noted a deepening of their “Pentecostal education” through influences not generally associated with classical Pentecostalism: Exposure to Catholic and Anglican Charismatics has broadened and resensitized me to the Holy Spirit’s work both personally and corporate- ly. ‘ 223 7 The great irony of my Pentecostal education is that I first to learn about seriously began my tradition’s history and theology when I attended a non- Pentecostal institution: Fuller Seminary! Responses to this question suggest that Pentecostal education has had a very strong mentoring orientation, with families, pastors, and faculty mem- bers personally engaging with their children/parishioners/students and pro- viding personal guidance in their spiritual growth. Conversely, responses to this question suggest that Pentecostal educa- tors have not been thoroughly engaged within their Pentecostal IHEs in reflection on the implications of their Pentecostal experience and theology for their formal education, per se. That is, none mentioned that the formal curriculum in their Pentecostal IHEs had engaged them in asking the ques- tion : “How does my Pentecostal experience and theology impact the way I understand my discipline, my academic field, my professional studies?” Whether at the graduate or undergraduate level or at the K-12 level, all those I interviewed, like most Pentecostal educators, have wrestled with their ideas about formal education in institutions (whether secular or affili- ated with other Christian traditions) whose philosophies of education were not informed by Pentecostal experience or theology (and which were, in some cases, hostile to Pentecostal experience and theology). Question 2: Describe a Pentecostal educator who had a particularly sig- nificant influence on your life. If more than one, would you pick one and tell about their influence on you? , Finding: Pentecostals have experienced Pentecostal education through the mentoring of their professors (as well as pastors, friends and family members) who modeled an integration of mind, spirit, and life. Responses to this question tended to focus on the life qualities of influ- ential Pentecostal educators (their relationship with God, integration of spir- it and mind, personal integrity). Examples of comments on the nature of their influence follow. I could cite a number of very useful influences in my life, but I will sin- out one: W. I. Evans. Evans was the academic dean at Central Bible Institute (now Central Bible College) when I was a student. His knowl- gle edge of the Scriptures, his obvious deep fellowship with the Lord, and his leadership in the chapel services had a great effect on me. He embodied the best features of the Pentecostal revival, in my judg- particularly ‘ 224 8 ment. Professor Daniel E. Albrecht, Professor at Bethany College, was one of the first models I had that one could be/remain Pentecostal and still sue the life of the mind. pur- , Dick Foth, Assemblies of God minister and former President of Bethany Bible College, represented a combination of passionate faith, joyful serv- ice, and an affirmation of the intellect integrated with the previous two disciplines. Dr. James M. Beaty and his wife gave me a great example of what to be a Christian is all about. In their life and practice they lived the values of the Kingdom. Their spiritual disciplines and their faith with vision and their sense of mission impacted my life. I had Murray Dempster for only one course. It was my senior year, a very important moment in my life… It was a turning point in my life. He was just fantastic, so passionate, so animated. He was inspiring a vision, inspiring a passion. ‘ Pentecostal educators interviewed for this study emphasized the char- acter, the passion, the embodiment of truth in the professors who shaped their lives at Pentecostal IHEs. Their mentors integrated mind and spirit and led lives of personal integrity and ministry. Those who mentioned other Pentecostal mentors emphasized these same traits. Question 3: As a Pentecostal educator, how does your Pentecostal expe- rience and/or theology shape the way your teach? Finding: Pentecostal experience and theology strongly influ- ence the ideas of Pentecostal educators about pedagogy, orient- ing instruction toward inspiration, transformation, and empowerment. ‘ In reflecting on their own teaching, Pentecostal educators described what they try to do in their pedagogy. Some of the contrasts they drew were as follows: Transformation rather than just information Practice rather than just cerebral knowledge Experience rather than just theory Inspiration rather than just information. In describing their ideals for teaching, the following words were fre- 225 9 quently used: Vibrant Gift Mentoring Empowerment Power Mission Sensitivity Dynamic Expectation Growth ‘ . . I have sought to pattern my teaching on I Thessalonians 1:4-10. In this passage, Paul reviews the object of his ministry among the Thessalonians, but also the manner in which he ministered to them. I see in this the following: ( 1 ) “with words”-he was articulate in his com- munication ; (2) “with power”-not simply with ‘words,’ but also with the empowering of the Spirit; (3) “with the Holy would under- stand this to mean exercising sensitivity to the Spirit”-I leading of the Spirit; (4) “with deep conviction”-In this I see that the faculty person has an obli- share with the students gation to [personal] convictions, although he must be careful not to insist that the students must how we lived agree with him; (5) “You know among you”-I see this as transparent model- ing of a lifestyle, outside the classroom as well as inside. ‘ The idea that when you’re equipped with God’s power, nothing is in the classroom. I have seen so many pessimistic teachers who can make a list of everything they can’t do. I had the genuine belief, impossible based on my Pentecostal that God could move mountains, that this vessel could be used experience, by God. Marie Brown and my mother [my mentors] also emphasized that the vessel needed to be equipped. God will use your talents. God works in history. Wonderful things can in that classroom. You have to hap- pen equip yourself. I teach from my own experience. I believe that is part of integrity. One should not teach something that isn’t part of her/his experience, in that that is particu- larly related to spiritual principles and values. Some of the educators I interviewed expressed concern that often these principles are not in practice in Pentecostal IHEs due at least in part to reliance upon pedagogical and philosophical models that are more Evangelical (or fundamentalist) than Pentecostal. Most of my ‘Pentecostal’ education could be characterized as classical Most of the teachers and pastors who had the influence on me were Pentecostal but had Evangelicalism. greatest largely embraced a philosophy . 226 10 and lifestyle that would represent more Evangelicalism than Pentecostalism. My ministry today has been shaped more ‘Charismatic’ theology and ecclesiology. This segment of by has Christianity impacted me and allowed me to re-embrace the theology and tice of prac- early Pentecostalism, which is fundamentally different from the suburban, Bible College Pentecostalism of the 1980s and 1990s. ‘ . ‘ Pentecostals have mostly adopted the methods and modes of the larger Evangelical church. And that adaptation does not only concern reli- gious, biblical, or theological education. This conformity to has its Evangelicalism strengths and weaknesses. On the plus side it has more recent Pentecostal taught generations to think, and to think criti- It has also cally. taught the Pentecostals some degree of humility about their own tradition (they are learning to appreciate those who are unlike them). It has caused them to be less myopic about Christianity and them- selves… On the negative side, Pentecostals have forsaken some of their own dynamics. In their desire to appear rational, they forsook their to the openness mystery of Christianity. In their desire to develop their minds, that is they adapted an overly rational, overly linear mode of thinking gutting them of the dynamics that birthed their movement. In their uncritical embracing of Fundamentalist American abandoned what to me was a natural Christianity, they byproduct of their ethos: an aes- thetic awareness, appreciation, and creativity. – Question Four: As a Pentecostal educator, how would you characterize your philosophy of education? In what ways might a Pentecostal phi- losophy of education be distinct or have emphases different from other Christian philosophies of education? Finding: With regard to educational philosophy, Pentecostal educators note Pentecostal influences and distinctives at a number of levels, but indicate that a need exists to further explore this topic. Without exception, the Pentecostal educators I interviewed thought that a Pentecostal philosophy of education could be distinguished, at least in its emphases, from other Christian philosophies of education and certainly from secular philosophies of education. What is less clear is the meaning of a phi- losophy of education. Pentecostal educators located the distinctives of Pentecostal educational philosophy at various levels. Some suggested Pentecostal distinctives at the metaphysical (ultimate reality) level. Pentecostals should have a worldview that informs their philosophy of education. This worldview includes an openness and embracing of the . 227 11 mystery of God and life. God can and does surprise us. God is both frighteningly transcendent and joyously immanent. We need to embrace a pre-Enlightenment scientific vista that sees God as present in the world. Some suggested Pentecostal distinctives at the axiological (value) level. The values of the Pentecostal experience are distinct and deeply rooted in our community: values of a devotion to God’s inerrant Word, to truth, to urgency, to the breadth of God’s people, to Christian to Christian to the of calling, to holi- ness, community, power the Holy Spirit. As we think back about these values, these ideals of Pentecostalism, we are bet- ter able to look forward. . Others see Pentecostal distinctives at the epistemological (knowledge) level. I take one of the hallmarks of Pentecostal theology to be its which calls into epistemolo- gy question any form of rationalism … think a distinct- Pentecostal ly philosophy of education would be grounded in the non- rationalist, experiential epistemology, coupled with an emphasis on lib- erating practice. . Some suggested distinctives with regard to our view of the student. It seems to me that Pentecostal education has to be holistic, all three of Bloom’s traditional taxonomies in the cultivation of mind and embracing spirit for the larger service of the Kingdom of God. Others emphasized the difference in the role of the teacher. A Pentecostal philosophy has to recognize the essential charismatic nature of the teaching gift, and cultivate that gift, realizing that the leads Spirit one, and energizes one, in the communication of truth and bonds the learner into a process of common discovery. . The role of the teacher is different from the role of expert pouring knowl- edge into the uninformed. I want to learn about learning more than about teaching. It’s a dynamic process, not a disengaged, content-driven There is a phi- losophy. dynamic between the content, the learner, and the educator. That’s where the role of the Spirit comes in. Others emphasized distinctives at the level of the curriculum. Truly Christian discipleship (training for mission) must involve the of acquisition spiritual skills: prayer, spiritual power, radical obedience to the Spirit, etc.-all usually regarded as ‘extra-curricular’ or assumed 228 12 . for the student rather than carefully taught as the core of the curriculum. The very method of teaching in Bible colleges and seminaries reflects a detached observation of the Christian phenomena ‘out there’ (a Western/Greek way of knowing) vs. the knowing-by-experience of nor- mative, New Testament Christianity. Several emphasized distinctives in pedagogy, discussed above. Others emphasized the nature and role of the school/educational community. . Pentecostal education has to be holistic. It is tied to an inclusiveness that comes out of Acts. It is global and cross cultural, uniting bond and free, male and female. It has to remember the margins as well as the center. The field in a class is never level. How do I help those for whom this does not come playing easily’? My philosophy of education focuses on stu- dent learning for empowerment. · – . Many spoke of the difference all this makes in practice. My philosophy of education as a Pentecostal educator is impacted by a sense of “present tenseness.” I am not so much wanting to characterize a humanly devised system of to discern cognition. I am dealing with a process of learning implications of information. I am much more aware of a full orbed dimension of education that includes both cognitive and affective and also a dimension of subsequent action. . . Several mentioned the need for Pentecostals at this stage of our history to give focused attention to the topic of educational philosophy. _ We have to learn from the rest of the church. They are centuries ahead of us in terms of developing Christian character; thinking about church- state issues; thinking about societal and ethical issues; thinking about the human person… Too quickly, we are embracing non-Christian ‘ approaches to these disciplines and questions and this will lead to our , demise. . Very little of the earlier approaches to Pentecostal pedagogy or of education remains. It philoso- phy probably is time once again (as the educational founders of our institutions had to original do) to raise the ‘What is an question, appropriate Pentecostal educational pedagogy for our insti- tutions today?’ It is useful to review the thoughts and educational philosophies and practices of our founding educators themselves. Question Five: What resources have been helpful to you in your devel- opment as a Pentecostal educator? . Finding: Most Pentecostal educators agreed that we are still in 229 13 the early stages of the work of bringing Pentecostal experience and theology to bear on explicitly educational issues of philoso- phy and pedagogy. Most of my respondents indicated that written resources on education- al philosophy and pedagogy authored by Pentecostals for Pentecostal edu- cators are lacking, especially for higher education. So what resources have been helpful to them in their development as Pentecostal educators? Eight mentioned colleagues and mentors as their primary resources. Eight men- tioned Pentecostal writers, leaders, and theologians, with each of the fol- lowing named at least once: Gordon Fee, Steven Land, Cheryl Bridges Johns, Myer Pearlman, Billie Ralph Riggs, Davis, Miroslav Volf, Opal Reddin, Robert Menzies, Walter Hollenweger, Roger Stronstad, Mel Robeck, Russell Spittler, Vinson Synan, Lyle Lovett, Murray Dempster, J. Robert Ashcroft, and Robert Cooley. Seven mentioned writers and thinkers not generally associated with pente- costalism, such as: Watchman Nee, Brother Lawrence, Thomas a Kempis, Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, C.S. Lewis, John Wesley, John Piper, Gustavo Gonzalez, Andrew Murray, Madame Guyon, Arthur Holmes, Harry Blamires, Thomas Groome, Parker Palmer, Jean Piaget, George Marsden, and James Burtchaell. Two mentioned “Third Wave” Pentecostal/Charismatic writers, such as: C. Peter Wagner, Cindy Jacobs, John Arnott, Charles Kraft, and Guy Chevreau. . Two mentioned Pentecostal periodicals, such as Enrichment. Several men- tioned the Holy Spirit and Scripture. One mentioned worship music. Few of the Pentecostals mentioned have written specifically on educa- tion. Commenting on one of the challenges faced by Pentecostal educators within Pentecostal IHEs, one of the respondents wrote: “We have had limit- ed opportunity to study our own experience as Pentecostals because [of what might happen] if you don’t come up with the accepted perspective (approved by the denomination).” I conclude this section with a quote that summarizes much of the above: 230 14 ‘ . The creation of Christian higher education institutions outside of min- istry training will no doubt encourage the growth of a professional teach- Pentecostal in the new setting remains to be seen, as the ing class within pentecost. Whether that teaching class can remain roots of Augustinian tradition (Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist) are much more deep context of professional pentecostal educators…Beyond creating institu- powerful and widespread, providing both the training and the continuing tional space for the of Pentecostal training and continuing education and employment teachers, there needs to develop a flourishing interdisci- plinary concentration on the nature and function of Pentecostal a peda- gogy, fellowship between teachers and pastors, and appropriate resources such as journals, internet sites, conventions, etc. As well as an institutional approach to linked to pedagogy, it is essential that Pentecostal teach- ers remain strong local congregations where their gifting is both and relativized by its setting amongst other gifts. There is no room in Pentecostal pedagogy for elitism or showmanship…To some appreciated degree, we are having to invent pentecostal higher education as we go! . The same may likely be said of other forms of Pentecostal education as well. What Framework Might Allow Us to Formulate and Compare Philosophies of Education? A Proposed Framework Pentecostal educators rarely describe their ideas about education in terms of classical philosophies or contemporary educational theories. Their descriptions of the impact of their Pentecostal experience and theology on their educational ideas and practices more often refer to intuitive connec- tions than to systematically defined relationships. While this intuitive sense is both powerful and consistent with Pentecostal experience, it translates with difficulty into formal educational settings, where strategies for curriculum and instruction must be formulated in a systematic way. Consequently, Pentecostal educators often find them- selves lacking a specifically Pentecostal framework for educational philoso- phy, with the result that Pentecostals then borrow heavily from other educa- tional philosophies that do not fully capture the dynamic of the implicit edu- cational ideas undergirding Pentecostalism. Daniels has described this dilemma within the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), a historically African-American Pentecostal denomination. A system of Bible colleges was launched within COGIC in 1972 with the pur- pose of preparing ministers and missionaries. However, while successful numerically, the Bible colleges found themselves, in Daniels’ view, overly reliant upon curriculum and pedagogy insensitive to educational ideas and 231 15 practices implicit within the COGIC Pentecostal community. 13 3 Likewise, Pentecostal educators across formal education systems have been reliant upon books, curricular materials, and instructional methods rooted in other Christian and secular philosophies of education. 14 It would be of value, then, to have a framework within which to com- pare various philosophies of education, which would then allow Pentecostals to intentionally integrate their experience and theology with their educational ideas and practices. Thus we could draw on the wealth of ideas available to us within our own history and communion, as well as on other Christian traditions and other educational and philosophical schools of thought. I suggest that our search for such a framework might fruitfully begin with the questions that educators ask. What are some core questions per- taining to the educational process? I would suggest that the following ten questions are universal educational concerns. While this is not intended to be an exhaustive list of core questions, it does provide a common framework for our discussion of educational philosophies. 1. What is real? 2. What is true and how do we know? 3. What is of value? 13 David D. Daniels, Ill, “‘Live So Can Use Me Anytime, Lord, Anywhere’: Theological Education in the Church of God in Christ, 1970 to 1997,” Asian Journal of Pentecostal Theology 3:2 (July 2000), 303. Daniels writes: “The mission of the of the System of Bible Colleges is admirable, although the uncritical appropriation Evangelical curriculum is problematic.. . What is the best pedagogy to transmit the COGIC message and experience? Does an implic- it COGIC pedagogy exist that could be employed? The System of Bible Colleges promoted a pedagogy that was alien to the COGIC context. The pedagogy of the System of Bible Colleges mitigates against COGIC’s informal education processes of Bible discussion and mentoring.” 14 See, e.g., Cheryl Bridges Johns, Pentecostal Formation: A Pedagogy Among the Oppressed (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993), 7. Johns writes: “The area of Christian edu- cation reflects some of the best and most sincere attempts to fit in with more established churches. For many Pentecostals, the schooling paradigm, with its closely graded classes, cog- nitive and deductive approach to faith formation, four-color curriculum materials and stream- lined organization, is the wished-for ideal. We point to our untrained teachers, poor facilities and lack of good pedagogy as sure signs of our sectarian backwardness, all the while over- formational processes which have historically been part of our discipleship.” An example of this from looking powerful my own experience concerned the core textbook in the Basic Christianity class at Evangel University, an Assemblies of God institution in Springfield, Missouri, when I attended there in the late 1970s and early 80s. An book on edu- cational philosophy is entitled The Idea of a Christian College, by Arthur outstanding Holmes, a professor of philosophy at Wheaton College. Writing from a Reformed perspective, Holmes provided my classmates and me with a coherent and powerful evangelical philosophy of education, but we to relate it to our Pentecostal experience and theology, and no comparable philosophy of education from a Pentecostal Christian perspective was available. struggled 232 16 4. What are my goals as an educator? 5. How does my contextual setting frame and constrain my educational goals? 6. What is the nature of the student? 7. What is the role of a teacher? 8. What should be learned? 9. How should it be taught? 10. How do my ideas shape my educational practice (and vice versa)? Put simply, then, an educational philosophy involves an educator’s responses to, ideas about, and assumptions regarding these ten essential and mutually informing questions (and others). Within each of these questions there are sub-questions. For example, within the question “What is real?” one will find questions concerning the nature of the universe, the nature of God, the nature of human beings. These are all “metaphysical” questions, and, when one asks about distinctives for a Pentecostal philosophy of education, one might reflect on whether Pentecostals would answer these questions differently, or with different emphases, than others. Insofar as one is an educator, I would suggest, one has ideas about each of these matters. These ideas may be richly or slightly considered. They may be honed by consistent practice or relatively untried. They may be con- sciously related to a philosophical school of thought, a wisdom tradition, or . an educational theory, or not related. One may be said to have a formal edu- cational philosophy if these ideas are made explicit. If these ideas remain implicit, one may be said to have an informal philosophy of education. But educational practice is rooted in these questions and, in this sense, every educator has an educational philosophy. Often, the degree of formality in a statement of educational philosophy is a function of the formality of the educational setting, with formal systems demanding more explicit articula- tion of an educational philosophy and nonformal setting demanding less explicit articulation. 15 As for institutions, an institutional philosophy of edu- 15 Though we may not be explicitly aware of the labels and terminology of educational we are in phi many ways the products of one or some combination of these educational ideas and their working out in practice. For example, few have read the writings of John losophy, Dewey, the foremost American philosopher of education and author of books like and Democracy Education, but virtually all of us are products, at least in part, of reforms in American schools. Deweyian progressive Many Christian educators Alan Bloomri The Closing of the American Mind in the early 1980s, but just what enjoyed reading was the educational Bloom’s philosophy underlying thesis, and was it an educational philosophy that Pentecostal educators 233 17 cation may likewise be said to consist of the institution’s responses to these ten questions, with personal pronouns modified. Toward the end of this discussion, I will suggest a model that draws on depictions of a philosophy of education like the one below. Knight’s model, while lacking a reciprocal dynamic, does have the virtue of depicting the various components of a philosophy of education. Fig. 1. Components of a Philosophy of Education from Theory to Practicel6 The first three elements of Knight’s model are the classical questions of philosophy, organized around metaphysics (What is ultimately real?), axi- ology (What is of value?), and epistemology (How can we know?). Educational goals follow from our worldview, and these goals are shaped and reshaped by contextual factors, such as political dynamics, social forces, economic conditions, and the expectations of immediate family or commu- nity. Our goals then find expression in the framework of specifically edu- cational issues, such as the nature of the student, the role of the teacher, appropriate curricular emphases and teaching methodologies, and our ideas about the social functions of educational institutions. These ideas in turn underlie and shape our educational practices. Joldersma depicts that central place of Christian perspective for Christian educators below. could fully resonate with? Likewise, Paulo Freire’s 1986 book The Pedagogy of the Oppressed touched a responsive chord with many Christians in its appeal for justice, but how cognizant are Pentecostal educators of the underlying educational philosophy? Thanks to to Cheryl Bridges Johns and others, Pentecostals are beginning engage Freirian thought in just this kind of dia- logue, but overall we are in the early stages of this kind of reflection. 16 Knight, Issues and Alternatives, 34. – 234 18 Fig. 2: Influence Domains 17 of Christian Perspective on Various Educational – – Do Pentecostals have anything to add to Joldersma’s model? We will continue to explore this question below. The length limitations of this essay do not allow for a discussion of each of the historic and contemporary philosophies, ideologies, and educa- tional theories that have shaped our educational experiences. For summaries of the philosophies and their educational implications, I would recommend Knight and Gutek.lg In the next section, I provide a brief overview of the components of several contemporary educational philosophies and discuss ways in which they have been adopted and adapted by Pentecostal educa- tors. How Do Pentecostal Educators Adopt and Adapt Various Educational Philosophies? Pentecostals do not hold a single philosophy of education. Some Pentecostal educators would identify with a form of Pentecostal particular- ism. Others would tend to agree with essentialist approaches. Others are 17 Julia K. Stronks and Gloria Goris Stronks, Christian Teachers in Public Schools (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1999), 45. 1 See Knight, Issues and Alternatives, and Gerald L. Gutek, Philosophical and Ideological on Perspectives Education, 2d ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1997). 235 19 inclined to speak of their educational ideas in terms that resonate with peren- nialism. Some would consider themselves progressive educators. Still oth- ers are enthusiastic about educational goals and practices that correspond to reconstructionism. There are also Pentecostal educators who would identi- fy with critical pedagogy. They would typically not use this terminology, but I hope to show that the diverse ideas of Pentecostals about education res- onate with these widely divergent educational theories. Drawing primarily upon the history of Assemblies of God education in the United States, I suggest eight approaches to educational philosophy that have emerged in roughly chronological order, but that now coexist among (and within) diverse Pentecostal educators. All eight may be seen as adap- tations of philosophies of education that exist in the larger culture, and we will explore how existing philosophies of education have been adopted and adapted by Pentecostal educators over time. The eight approaches to edu- cational philosophy to be explored in this section are: 1. particularism 2. essentialism 3. perennialism , 4. progressivism 5. reconstructionism 6. critical pedagogy . 7. pragmatism 8. eclecticism. The earliest educational approaches among American Pentecostals may be described as “particularistic.” Particularism in education is characterized by a withdrawal from dominant and mainstream education systems, often a forced withdrawal made by minority groups whose values are not accepted in the dominant culture. Pentecostal particularism is related to forms of fun- damentalist and minority ethnic (such as Afrocentric) educational philoso- phy, in which marginalized groups embrace their separateness and distance themselves from the educational systems of mainstream (and oppressive) society. This Pentecostal separatism was also expressed in a pacifist stance toward war, which was the official position of the U.S. Assemblies of God, for example, until 1967, and in a code of personal piety that avoided involvement in many social activities of mainstream culture (e.g., movies, social dancing, involvement in party politics). Some of the characteristics of Pentecostal particularism are: – emphasis on Bible study and ministry preparation – emphasis on eschatological expectation that Jesus’ Second Coming 236 20 – may occur at any time – flowing from this eschatological expectation, an emphasis on short- term, intense, and practical training for – ministry likewise, a suspicion of longer-term academic pursuits that seem the oretical and insensitive to the shortness of time – use of fundamentalist curricula and theological models, even when such models seem inconsistent with Pentecostal experience and the – ology (e.g., dispensational theology and the Scofield Reference Bible) pragmatic emphasis on practical skills for evangelistic and mission ary endeavors; academic subjects are valued insofar as they give pragmatic assistance for Pentecostal mission (e.g., literacy for preach – ing, writing, and Bible study; math for financial and logistical efforts) formal degrees from academic institutions are considered unimportant and even undesirable. Pentecostal- education in its particularist form is often accused of being anti-intellectual, and in some senses this is true. Many young Pentecostals have been discouraged from “thinking too much.” Pentecostals have some- times seen the mind as an enemy of the spirit and the Spirit. However, as Jesse Miranda, Director of the Urban Studies and Ethnic Leadership Center at Vanguard University, stated in an interview, “They were reacting against pseudo-education and the lack of balance between the rational and the rela- tional. They wanted to go beyond the rational.” The hostility of early Pentecostals, and some contemporary Pentecostals, was not toward intellect or formal education per se, but rather toward the intellectual status systems of formal education from which Pentecostals, largely from lower social strata, had been excluded. Pentecostal anti-intellectualism, then, while sometimes an unbalanced rejec- tion of the mind, more often rejected the rationalism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that sought to build great structures of truth upon human reason alone. In this sense, Pentecostal particularism antici- pated some of the postmodern critiques of both traditionalist and modernist education. Pentecostal particularism, then, was the educational approach most characteristic of Pentecostal education in the United States in the first few decades of the twentieth century, through the founding of the many Bible institutes and Bible schools. Beginning in the late 1930s, with the establishment of the first Assemblies of God four-year degree-granting institution, Southern California Bible College, and continuing into the 1940s, with the Pentecostal . 237 21 rapprochement with moderate Evangelicals in the various agencies related to the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), Pentecostal educators began to explore other approaches to formal education. The figure below shows key elements of five other educational theories mentioned above. Other educational philosophers would use slightly differ- ent terminology and even different categorical labels, but for the point I wish to make here about diversity of educational opinion within Pentecostalism, I draw upon the educational theory taxonomy suggested by Gutek. (See Figure 3) While most Pentecostals would not describe their educational ideas in terms of the labels above, one often hears the elements of these various the- ories in Pentecostal descriptions of educational ideas. The following descriptions are compilations of comments from Pentecostals, past and pres- ent, that seem to resonate with core elements of these five educational theo- ries. E.ssentialist orientation ‘ ‘ In order to accomplish that Great Commission, we need to be prac- tical and we need to be skilled. To that end, we need to teach our young people to read and write and to calculate, to be able to have the academic skills necessary to spread the gospel through litera- ture, and through Bible study, teaching, and preaching. People without literacy skills cannot really study the Bible and are prone to error and immaturity. Furthermore, math skills are essential if we are to use modem methods of construction, technology, and other tools that allow us to take the message to all the world. In addition to their Bible education, our people need these basic aca- demic tools and we must make sure that they acquire these. These skills are also necessary for good citizenship. , Perennialist orientation God is the giver of gifts, and God’s gifts are of many kinds; super- natural gifts, leadership gifts, service gifts. The Body of Christ is very diverse and so must be the preparation of our youth for their unique callings. In addition to our Great Commission, which impels us to bring the gospel to all people, we have received a cul- tural mandate, which compels us to bring our Christian worldview to bear on all the activities of our lives. We must integrate our faith with our learning and with our lives. All truth is God’s truth. The Bible is wholly true, but it is not an encyclopedia of human knowl- 238 22 edge. We must seek out and understand the truth wherever it is found. To this end, our young people need to study the great works of literature, must understand that science is not opposed to our faith but is compatible with it. The Spirit of God is to lead us into all truth and so our educational endeavors are a sacred activity. . Progressive orientation Traditional education has been much too focused on abstract ideas of truth and too little focused on the child or the learner and her unique needs. As Pentecostals, we prize the soul and spirit as much as the mind. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit touches every aspect of a person’s life. Jesus models that compassionate concern for the whole person. His teaching is not full of abstractions, but is rooted in people’s real life experiences. We need to recover his gra- cious concern for the whole person. Moreover, the Biblical model associates the work of the Holy Spirit with the formation of a com- munity. The church in the book of Acts is a community of concern and love, which values each member, recognizes its diversity and treasures it, and seeks the full formation of each person within the context of the body of Christ. Our education should reflect this concern for body, mind, and spirit, so that we may reflect the love of Christ to the world. All our abstract ideas and great pronounce- ments tend to alienate people from Christ rather than attract them to him. Reconstructionist orientation The outpouring of the Holy Spirit comes with liberating power. When Mary learned from the angel of Jesus’ coming birth, she exclaimed that God has sided with the poor and brought down the proud oppressors. Jesus’ life modeled this identification with the outcast and his judgment upon their rich oppressors. When the Spirit of God came at Pentecost, the Spirit came upon men and women, slaves and free, Jew and Gentile, and most notably upon those outside the structures of political, social, and economic power. This baptism in the Holy Spirit lifted up oppressed people and brought them into a community empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak prophetically against their oppressive circumstances and for a community of equality before God. Our education should likewise empower the oppressed to receive God’s power and to 239 23 build a new society based on inclusion, gender equality, and peace- making. We should be involved in transforming society, not just seeking spiritual experiences for our own satisfaction. Critical 12edagogy orientation Both traditional and modem forms of education have asserted an ability to know and convey absolute truths about the world. They have constructed rationalistic systems and complex theories to explain the world, and then have attempted to force these systems of thought on generations of students. In fact, we should be suspi- cious of all these claims. The Apostle Paul said that we see through a glass, darkly. In other words, our knowledge is very limited. We should be humble about our assertions. What concerns God more than our epistemology and our rationalistic metaphysical systems are our relationships, our authenticity, our advocacy on behalf of the voiceless and the marginalized. We need to teach our children to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. The Holy Spirit comes with a power not rooted in rationalistic systems, but with authentic, personal, intimate, and liberating power. Each of these expressions of Pentecostal educational ideas represents a synthesis of Pentecostal experience and theology with educational philoso- phies rooted in other intellectual traditions. That elements of these educa- tional theories should be attractive to Pentecostal educators should come as no surprise, since all of these theories are informed by elements of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Many of the proponents of these theories have been and are believers in God and in Jesus Christ, while many other propo- nents within the same general philosophy are not (See Fig. 3). Two other varieties of Pentecostal philosophies of education that merit comment here are Pentecostal pragmatism and Pentecostal eclecticism. Pentecostal pragmatism would assert that the nature of the education system really is not all that important because the Spirit-filled believer can function within any of them, bearing witness to Christ in a dynamic and suc- cessful way, adjusting to the circumstances as need be, just as he or she would adapt and function within any culture. This pragmatism is especially compelling in cultures like the United States, in which the ultimate justifi- cation for most actions is whether it “works.” ” In secular society, the criteri- on to measure whether something works is usually whether it allows one to attain one’s desired outcome, usually defined in materialistic terms. This emphasis on ends can blur the worldview and ethical issues pertaining to the 240 24 Fig. 3. Elements of Five Major Educational Theories means by which those ends are to be achieved, leaving people in a frenetic competition for wealth, status, and personal gratification. The same danger exists for Pentecostal pragmatists, whether the desired end be a growing 241 25 church, a successful ministry, or personal spiritual fulfillment. Pentecostal eclecticism may be the most common philosophy of educa- tion among Pentecostals. The general American public tends to pick and choose elements of educational philosophies in an eclectic way, often with little opportunity to reflect on the larger issues of worldview. “Reflective” eclecticism makes good sense in that good ideas about education and worth- while practices come from a variety of sources and perspectives. However, one must be cautious about what George Posner calls “garbage-can eclecti- cism, in which practices based on contradictory or invalid assumptions are collected into a ‘bag of tricks.”‘ 19 9 Indeed, each of the educational philosophies discussed above has its merits. I believe, however, that Pentecostals are still in relatively early stages of reaching beyond these conventional or popular educational ideas to examine the educational possibilities inherent within Pentecostal experi- ence and theology. The current syntheses have often been forged in a prag- matic way and need to be reexamined. Menzies’s summary of the state of Assemblies of God education in 1970 continues to hold true ‘ thirty years later: ‘ The changes seem to have been occasioned largely by economic and social pressures, not matched by an overarching philosophy of educa- tion. The result of unassimilated changes has produced a degree of uncertainty and competition on the undergraduate level.20 A Possible Framework for Exploring the Impact of Pentecostal Experience and Theology upon Educational Philosophy and Practice It is a crucial time for Pentecostals to re-examine our educational philosophies in the light of our Pentecostal experience and theology. It is conceivable, of course, that Pentecostals may have little that is special to contribute to the discussion of philosophies of education. Some would argue that Pentecostalism merely reasserts orthodox Christian belief with a focus on practice and experience of those truths and not mere intellectual assent to them. The results of this survey and literature review, however, would seem to suggest otherwise. Perhaps Pentecostals do have something to contribute to retlection on educational philosophy, beginning with metaphysics, axiology, 19 George J. Posner, Analyzing the Curriculum, 2d ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1995), 3. 20 Menzies, Anointed, 373. 242 26 and epistemology and extending to the nature of the student, the role of the teacher, pedagogy, curricular emphases, and the relationship of practice to ideas. Based on my interviews, comments by Pentecostal writers, as well as other Christian and secular writers and the biblical text, I offer the following draft framework for envisioning a Pentecostal philosophy of education in order to suggest potential areas of reflection and study for Pentecostal edu- cators in various domains of a comprehensive philosophy of education. I look forward to dialoguing with and learning from my fellow educators and fellow Pentecostals in this exploratory process. ‘ Fig. 4. Draft Framework for Envisioning a Pentecostal Philosophy of Education In this model, God’s empowering presence becomes the framework for the entire educational process. The Holy Spirit informs our reflection and prac- tice. The relationships among worldview formulation, educational goals, issues, applications, and educational practice are dynamic and reciprocal. The Pentecostal theologian Gordon Fee writes, , We are not left on our own as far as our relationship with God is con- cerned; neither are we left on our own to “slug it out in the trenches,” as it were, with regard to the Christian life. Life in the present is ered empow- by the God who dwells among us and in us. As the personal pres- 243 27 ence of God, the Spirit is not merely some “force” or “influence.” The living God is a God of power; and by the Spirit the power of the 1 living God is present with us and for us.21 Like other Christians, Pentecostal educators draw on Scripture and the- ology for their perspectives, and become proficient in contextualizing their educational goals and activities. In doing so, Pentecostal educators see God through the Holy Spirit as One whose presence infuses one’s formulation of ideas, goals, strategies, and who not only guides the process and empowers the plan, but who might break into the process at any time to accomplish the unexpected. The teacher and learner, then, find themselves together in the presence of God, whatever the educational context. From this vantage point, one could suggest fresh ways in which Pentecostals might think and are thinking about their educational philosophy and various ways in which they may continue to engage in powerful educational practice. 21 Gordon Fee, God’s Empowering Presence (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), 8. 244 28

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Gustavo Gutiérrez’s Mysticism as a Door to Pentecostal Dialogue

March 10, 2025 by Cup&Cross
Filed under Books, Events, Featured, Missions, News, Publication

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Pneuma 33 (2011) 5-24

Te Movement Toward Mysticism in Gustavo Gutiérrez’s Tought: Is Tis an Open Door

to Pentecostal Dialogue?

Joseph Davis

Associate Professor of Religion, Southeastern University, Lakeland, Florida

[email protected]

Abstract

Over the last few years a distinct shift has occurred within the thought of liberation theology’s most famous proponent, Gustavo Gutiérrez. Speciﬁcally, Gutiérrez has ventured into mysticism. With this movement a fascinating question can be posed: Does the incorporation of mysti- cism open up a door for dialogue with Latin America’s other popular theology, Pentecostalism? Conversely, should Pentecostalism reﬂexively understand itself historically and theologically as a liberating movement of the poor? Placed together, an emphasis on praxis seems to reveal, at minimum, a common starting point. Te methodology of the paper incorporates a detailed historical analysis of Gutiérrez’s position on mysticism and moves to the conclusion that the shift in emphasis opens the door, albeit a small crack, to one of the most exciting opportuni- ties to occur within the history of Christianity: the marriage of Pentecostal spirituality with liberating social action.

Keywords

Gustavo Gutiérrez, liberation theology, mysticism, Pentecostalism

At the 2008 Society for Pentecostal Theology conference, Jürgen Moltmann made a startling statement to commence his talk on the work of “Pentecostals and Liberation Teology.” He said, “I met with Gustavo Gutiérrez in Lima a few years ago, and as we were talking he looked out his window and pointed to the barrios below saying, ‘Out there, it is the Pentecostals who are going into the barrios [to reach the poor].”1 What Gutiérrez meant by the statement was that despite the divide that had separated the two most dominant camps of religious fervor within Latin America, the evidence was clear: it was the

Jürgen Moltmann, Statement made at Society for Pentecostal Theology, 15 March 2008, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.

J. Davis / Pneuma 33 (2011) 5-24

Pentecostals who were helping the poor. Laden within such a statement are a plethora of both endless possibilities and admittedly speculative projections. In fact, at the onset one must admit that one small statement does not equate to a full-blown theological tour de force. Nor does it mean that the wedding ceremony is about to begin to join these two previously disparate antagonists. What this statement does create, however, is an open door to further scholarly reﬂection. Tis is particularly true if the aforementioned statement is coupled with perceived changes in Gutiérrez’s stance toward a kindred spirit of Pente- costalism, namely, mysticism. Granted, mysticism is not Pentecostalism and Pentecostalism is not mysticism.2 But it would not be too much to say that there are similarities between the two, and any movement toward the one may have broader ranging implications for the other. Terefore, before venturing further in fruitless conjecture, a number of questions must be answered. First, have there been any changes in Gutiérrez’s theology of liberation that warrant such projections? Tere are some who feel that all talk of change within Gutiér- rez’s theology of liberation is a misunderstanding of his thought.3 Second, what is Gutiérrez’s approach to mysticism? And third, is it possible that praxis itself has created a crack in the door within Gutiérrez’s thought that might integrate two seemingly disparate theologies? Of course, these questions do not stop at Latin America; rather, the prospect of such a provocative fusion has worldwide implications.

Over the past half-century primarily two religious movements have gripped the imaginations and aspirations of the poor in Latin America. Tose two movements are the theology of liberation and the Pentecostal movement.4 Of the two, only liberation theology can be truly said to be indigenous in origin. Pentecostalism is indigenous in another manner; it is the overwhelming choice of the poor in Latin America.5 Daniel Chiquete, commenting on the perceived rise of Protestantism, denied this misunderstanding by retorting that Latin America has not turned Protestant at all; rather, “Latin America has turned

Simon Chan has made an interesting case for a structural compatibility between the two. See Simon Chan, “Pentecostal Teology and Christian Spiritual Tradition,” Journal of Pentecostal Teology Supplement Series 21 (2000).

One of Gutiérrez’s most recent biographers, James Nickoloﬀ, maintains such a conservative position. See James B. Nickoloﬀ, “A Future for Peru? Gustavo Gutiérrez and the Reasons for His Hope,” Horizons 19 (Spring 1992): 31-43.

Te Pentecostal movement originated at the Azusa Street Revival in 1906. Most point to the Medellín Conference in 1968 as the beginning of the liberation theology movement.

Laurie Goodstein, “Pentecostal and Charismatic Groups Growing,” New York Times, 6 Octo- ber 2006.

J. Davis / Pneuma 33 (2011) 5-24

Pentecostal!”6 In his book on Pentecostalism, Allan Anderson conﬁrms this by saying, “Te growth of Pentecostalism in Latin America has been one of the most remarkable stories in the history of Christianity.”7 In fact, a Templeton grant research project conﬁrmed these observations. In terms of the world’s population, two of the top three countries with the largest percentage of Char- ismatics/Pentecostals are in Latin America.8

Interestingly enough, the tie between Pentecostalism and the poor in Latin America is not a local aberration. Te history of Pentecostalism reveals that a disproportionate number of dispossessed and poor are attracted to its message of a God whose Spirit is active and fully invested in the present. Juan Sep- ulveda notes, “From a statistical point of view, Pentecostalism has spread far more in the lower classes of popular sections of Latin American societies” than in the upper or middle classes of society.9 In fact, recent studies conﬁrm not just an interest among the Hispanic poor in the “spiritual” aspects of faith but also a commitment among Hispanic Pentecostals for social change.10 Why? Te answer lies both in Pentecostalism’s derivation and its foundational thesis that God can speak to the common person of any nation, tongue, or tribe. Chiquete notes, “By their very nature the Pentecostals are natural promoters of plurality and inner-cultural contact.”11 In the Azusa Street Revival, one ﬁnds the message of a God active in history born among the poor and racially, sexually (gender), and economically dispossessed. From the movement’s inception, Pentecostals were the people “from the other side of the tracks.” Yet, in spite of these humble roots, the exportation of Pentecostalism to Latin America was often viewed with a jaundiced eye among the local religious intelligentsia. Given its origin in the United States, Pentecostalism was sus- pected of being tinged with imperialism.12 As a result, the missions-centered

Daniel Chiquete, “Latin American Pentecostalism and Western Modernism: Reﬂections of a Complex Relationship,” International Review of Mission 92, no. 364 (2003): 38.

Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 63.

Tirty-four percent of the population of Brazil and 40 percent of the population of Guate- mala are Pentecostal/Charismatic worshippers. Te Pew Forum, 6 October 2006.

Juan Sepulveda, “Future Perspectives for Latin American Pentecostalism,” International Review of Mission 87 (April 1998): 191.

Villafane points out that Pentecostals in the Hispanic community in New York City are at the forefront of social concern and outreach. See Eldin Villafane, Te Liberating Spirit: Toward an Hispanic American Pentecostal Social Ethic (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1993), 110-26.

Chiquete, “Latin American Pentecostalism and Western Modernism,” 36.

Sepulveda refutes this conception, saying, “Te commonly held accusation that the rapid growth of Latin American Pentecostalism is the result of a sort of conspiracy of the U.S.

J. Davis / Pneuma 33 (2011) 5-24

Pentecostalism exported to Latin America had the label, “Made in America.” Te label should have read more correctly, “Made among the Poor and Dis- possessed of America.” Here, in Pentecostalism, was a movement that began with the poor and contained in its origins the foundational tenets of breaking down the barriers of social, racial, and gender classiﬁcations.

Te early Gutiérrez was clearly one of the students of Latin American theol- ogy who viewed any importation of religion from capitalistic countries with caution. He notes, “Te history of Christianity, too, has been written with a white, Western, bourgeois hand.”13 His primary concern resided in changing the structures of societal oppression, which he called “institutionalized violence.”14 From this starting point, spirituality was seemingly subsumed teleologically under the mandate of eﬀectiveness. Teology itself is formed as “a critical reﬂection on praxis” as a second step. Gutiérrez aﬃrms this view- point in saying, “From the beginning, the theology of liberation posited that the ﬁrst act is involvement in the liberation process, and theology came after- ward in a second act.”15 Yet, underneath the deﬁnition of praxis is an evalua- tive principle — dissolution of poverty. Gutiérrez notes, “Te criterion mentioned to judge praxis is clearly political eﬀectiveness.”16 As a result of this foundation, the measurement of true spirituality lay within the ethos of social revolution. He says, “We are dealing with two inseparable correlations here and it is important to emphasize this. Te potential of a liberating faith, and the capacities of revolution, are intimately bound together . . . Hence it is impossible to cultivate the one without the other as well, and this is what many ﬁnd unsettling.”17

Within the criterion of political eﬀectiveness, Gutiérrez also accepted Marx- ist economic theory operationally and coupled it with a heavy reliance upon the social sciences as the proper barometers of societal change. In this, Gutiér- rez believes that Marx’s economic understanding of history is a “scientiﬁc understanding of historical reality.” He says:

right-wing to counter the people’s movement and Liberation Teology, has very little basis in the facts.” See Sepulveda, “Future Perspectives for Latin American Pentecostalism,” 190.

Gustavo Gutiérrez, Te Power of the Poor in History, trans. Robert Barr (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1983), 200-201.

Gustavo Gutiérrez, A Teology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation, trans. Sister Caridad Inda and John Eagleson (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990), xviii.

Gutiérrez, Te Power of the Poor in History, 200.

Gustavo Gutiérrez, “Notes to a Teology of Liberation,” Teological Studies 31 (1970): 250.

Gutiérrez, Te Power of the Poor in History, xx.

J. Davis / Pneuma 33 (2011) 5-24

Marx deepened and renewed this line of thought in his unique way. But this required what has been called an “epistemological break” (a notion taken from Gaston Bachelard) with previous thought. Te new attitude was expressed clearly in the famous Teses on Feuerbach, in which Marx presented concisely but penetratingly the essential elements of his approach. . . . Basing his thought on these ﬁrst intuitions, he went on to construct a scientiﬁc understanding of historical reality. He analyzed capi- talistic society, in which were found concrete instances of the exploitation of man by his fellows and of one social class by another. Pointing the way toward an era in history when man can live humanly, Marx created categories which allowed for the elabora- tion of a science of history.18

Te early Gutiérrez accented the Marxist aspect in his thought by noting, “Many agree with Sartre that Marxism, as the formal framework of all con- temporary philosophical thought, cannot be superseded.”19 Te accentuating of social and economic liberation led to the misguided perception that the salvation motif in Gutiérrez’s writings was almost exclusively immanistic. Gutiérrez even admitted that

[i]t may seem that we entertain precious little interest in a person’s spiritual attitudes. It could even seem that we disdain qualities of faith or of morality in the poor. We are only seeking to avoid beginning with secondary, derivative considerations in such a way that would confer them with what is primary and basic, creating an interminable number of hair splitting distinctions that in the end only yield ideas devoid of interest and historical impact.20

Given the overt political criterion for evaluating theoretical premises, anyone not involved with immediate political change was viewed axiomatically as part of the problem. Pentecostals fell readily into this category, particularly with a premillennial eschatology as the primary understanding of justice in society. However, the corresponding view from Pentecostals that Gutiérrez’s theology was nothing more than reworked Marxism made the chasm between both diametric. Both assumptions missed the mark in the stereotypical minimiza- tions about the other. Pentecostals misunderstood the theoretical foundations implicit within the ethical imperative of liberation theology, and Gutiérrez minimized the liberating eﬀects of a theology whose historical nexus origi- nated from within the world of the poor.

Gutiérrez, A Teology of Liberation, xx. 19

Ibid., 59.

Gutiérrez, Te Power of the Poor in History, 95.

J. Davis / Pneuma 33 (2011) 5-24

Te latter misunderstanding struck at the very heart of the characterizations of each position and proleptically disposed each toward a position on personal religion and, by consequence, on mysticism. Was religion a matter of the indi- vidual before God or was God exclusively in the work to liberate the oppressed? Of course, both realized, at least theoretically, that the question raised is not an either/or question but one of degree, given that humanity is made up of individuals, at least on a certain level. Leaning more to the corporate under- standing of self, Gutiérrez placed the poor and oppressed as the basis from which true spirituality began. He said,

A spiritual experience, we like to think, should be something out beyond the frontiers of human realities as profane and tainted as politics. And yet this is what we strive for here, this is our aim and goal; an encounter with the Lord, not in the poor person who is “isolated and good,” but in the oppressed person. . . . [H]istory, concrete history, is the place where God reveals the mystery of God’s personhood. God’s word comes to us in proportion to our involvement in historical becoming.21

Much of Gutierrez’s approach could easily be ascribed to the overwhelming degradation of poverty and the miniscule attention that the issue had previ- ously received in theological forums. Te problem was that most of Gutiérrez’s socioeconomic presentation gave the impression that personal faith only has value within the liberation process. Consequently, the most personal of spiri- tual evidence, conversion, was also stated in terms of self revelation in the midst of involvement with the poor. Tis, coupled with a perceived dialectical universalism, made God seem more like a Hegelian construct than a savior who was accepted personally.22 Te result was that much of the personal moti- vation for societal change was relegated to ﬁlial love as an implicit love for God. In other words, of the two Great Commandments, Gutiérrez’s presenta- tion of liberation theology emphasized the second almost as the sum total of the ﬁrst and the sole extension of its meaning. Gutiérrez had aimed to link the two by showing how love for the poor was biblically equated with a love for God, which, of course, had plenty of biblical support; however, Gutiérrez’s presentation of love for the poor made love for God axiomatic in that the two were the same. Christ was in the naked, the hungry, and the imprisoned — but seemingly nowhere else. Gutiérrez notes, “And this is precisely why it [spirituality] is not a purely ‘interior,’ private attitude, but a process occurring

Ibid., 52.

Gutiérrez said, “I was greatly inﬂuenced by Hegel in his understanding of history in writing A Teology of Liberation. Personal Interview with Gutiérrez, 5 May 1994.

J. Davis / Pneuma 33 (2011) 5-24

in the socio-economic, political, and cultural milieu in which we live, and which we ought to transform.”23 Terefore, there was little need to talk about spirituality prior to its implementation in praxis. Te coterminous equation made spirituality seemingly exclusive to one’s neighbor. Anything else was pietistic narcissism.

Something, or more correctly someone, was lacking. To appropriate Martin Buber, the “I” in the “I-Tou relationship” seemed to be unconditionally assumed in the philosophical category of the other presented by Gutiérrez. Te explanation given for this methodology is that theology is a critical reﬂec- tion on praxis from the viewpoint of the poor. Te ﬂaw in this methodology was that the original application of this deﬁnition viewed the poor almost exclusively through a socioeconomic lens. In other words, the poor were deﬁned by a standard that they themselves did not accept. Te poor viewed themselves as more than merely the victims of institutionalized violence. Reli- gion was not an escape from brutality and minimization; it was a full-scale rebellion to negate the denigrating terms of limitation awkwardly placed upon them by their oppressors.

A Shift in Method Is Noticed

In the early 1980s subtle shifts began to occur within Gutiérrez’s thought that revealed a change in his approach to the question of personal spirituality. Pre- viously Gutiérrez had emphasized theology as a critical reﬂection on praxis accomplished through the prism of sociopolitical analysis. In the early 1980s word began to leak out from Gutiérrez’s summer school sessions that Gutiérrez had begun to change, or at least modify, his approach to liberation theology. Gerhard Hanlon, who had attended the 1982 summer school session, wrote in a journal article:

In its early years liberation theology in Latin America was concerned with analyzing social reality and interpreting the Bible in terms of liberation from social and political oppression. A few years ago interest turned to the study of the popular religiosity of the masses of the oppressed and attempted to see therein values which might contribute to that liberation. Te most recent interest of Latin American theology is spirituality.24

Gutiérrez, Te Power of the Poor in History, 53.

Gerhard Hanlon, “A Spirituality for Our Times,” Clergy Review (June 1984): 200.

J. Davis / Pneuma 33 (2011) 5-24

In this article Hanlon suggests that there is a new theme in Gutiérrez’s theol- ogy. Tat theme is the “popular religiosity of the masses.” But is this a diﬀerent direction for Gutiérrez’s thought? Hanlon seems to think that this is an added emphasis but not necessarily a contrary viewpoint. Others, however, ﬁnd in this added emphasis a discarding of the older ways of thinking to make way for the new.

One of Gutiérrez’s harshest critics in methodology is fellow liberation theo- logian Juan Luis Segundo. In a lecture given at Regent College in 1983, Segundo made a startling remark about what he perceived as a reversal in Gutiérrez’s thinking. Segundo stated that his old friend and compatriot Gustavo Gutiérrez had abandoned the font of his former thinking. In this lecture Segundo called upon his old companion to return to the philosopher’s stone from which they were both hewn. Tat stone, said Segundo, was the sociopolitical methodology that was liberation theology’s original contribu- tion to the world. But more than this, Segundo maintained that the changes in Gutiérrez’s thought were more than just an added dimension to his thought. Segundo asserted that the changes were so drastic that it did not make sense to talk anymore about a singular continuous train of thought but rather “of at least two types of liberation theology.”25 Along these lines, Segundo sadly con- fessed, “And what is painful to me is that I no longer know whether Gustavo himself would endorse what he said then, or whether he would consider it a mere sin of his youth.”26

In 1989 Arthur McGovern, in his book Liberation Teology and Its Critics, took up some of the same questions raised by both Hanlon and Segundo and reached similar conclusions. McGovern noted, “Te revolutionary excitement has dimmed,” and as a result “Gutiérrez has devoted much of his time and writings to the question of spirituality.”27 Echoing both Hanlon and Segundo again, McGovern also noted that Gutiérrez’s liberation theology had “shifted” from a more sociopolitical agenda to one that now emphasizes more the spiri- tual side. He pointed this out by noting the diﬀerences between the two books A Teology of Liberation and We Drink from Our Own Wells. He says, “ A Teol- ogy of Liberation deals almost exclusively with the issue of sociopolitical eman-

Juan Luis Segundo, Signs of the Times, trans. Robert R. Barr (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1993), 67.

Ibid., 93.

Arthur McGovern, Liberation Teology and Its Critics: Toward an Assessment (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1989), 87.

J. Davis / Pneuma 33 (2011) 5-24

cipation, and most of the discussion about liberation from sin deals with eliminating unjust structures caused by sin.”28 Conversely, McGovern notes,

In We Drink from Our Own Wells, Gutiérrez reﬂects theologically on the journey of the poor in Latin America and the journey of those who have attempted to walk with the poor. When liberation theology ﬁrst emerged, Gutiérrez wrote about the “revolution- ary ferment” alive throughout Latin America. Te revolutionary excitement has dimmed, but Gutiérrez ﬁnds a deeper, more faith centered hope still strong.29

McGovern concludes, “I would clearly designate spirituality as the dominant theme of contemporary liberation theology.”30

Paul Sigmund in his book Liberation Teology at the Crossroads also sees the changes in Gutiérrez’s thought. Sigmund identiﬁes Gutiérrez as the progenitor of what he calls the new line of theological speculation that began to depart from the older, more militant liberation theology of the early years. He says, “Many writers have seen the anticipation of the characteristic elements of lib- eration theology in the writings by Latin American theologians in the middle and early 1960s. . . . However the clearest beginnings of the new line of theo- logical speculation are in the writings of Gustavo Gutiérrez.”31 Why have all these changes occurred? Te answer, for Sigmund, is the times in which Gutiérrez wrote his books. He says,

In A Teology of Liberation, however, the emphasis is much more on the former than the latter in the sense that the structuralist anticapitalism is discussed at much greater length than the participatory populism. Tis emphasis is an understandable product of the time at which the work was written — the late 1960s and the early 1970s. As the book was being completed Chile elected a Marxist president, Salvador Allende, with the support of a coalition that also included Christians and parties of a more secular orientation. Allende’s popular unity seemed to embody the commitment to the poor and the oppressed — and to socialism — that liberation theology argued was the logical conclusion to be drawn from the scriptures.

Ibid., 82.

Ibid., 87.

Ibid., 83.

Paul Sigmund, Liberation Teology at the Crossroads (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), 28.

Ibid., 39.

J. Davis / Pneuma 33 (2011) 5-24

Te Movement to Mysticism

Had changes occurred within the presentation of a theology of liberation? In A Teology of Liberation Gutiérrez had maintained that “theological categories are not enough. . . . we need a spirituality.”33 With the issuing of the book We Drink from Our Own Wells, Gutiérrez began to make explicit what to many of his followers was implicit, namely, that there was a verdant spirituality within the original coordinates of the theology of liberation schemata. In the fore- word to this long anticipated work, Henri Nouwen stated, “Tis book fulﬁlls the promise that was implicit in his A Teology of Liberation.”34 In this Gutiér- rez was not abandoning his earlier emphasis but “expanding upon the view.”35 In Gutiérrez’s mind, part of the rationale for minimizing the spiritual aspects was that the tenets of spirituality for the poor should germinate from the poor as a part of their own liberation pilgrimage. He notes, “Evangelization, the proclamation of the gospel, will be genuinely liberating when the poor them- selves become its messengers.”36 Tis embryonic spirituality could not be com- plete until the poor were the artisans of their own spirituality: “Te spirituality of liberation will have its point of departure in the spirituality of the anawin.”37 As Gutiérrez warmly anticipated this new type of spirituality, he felt con- strained to contain his own ruminations since the people of liberation would traverse unknown ground in the birthing of a spiritual paradigm. He notes,

Te problem, however, is not only to ﬁnd a new theological framework. Te personal and community prayer of many Christians committed to the process of liberation is undergoing a serious crisis. Tis could purify prayer life of childish attitudes, routine, and escapes. But it will not do this if new paths are not broken and new spiritual experiences are not lived. . . . Tere is a great need for a spirituality of liberation; yet in Latin America those who have opted to participate in the process of liberation as we have outlined it above, comprise, in a manner of speaking, a ﬁrst Christian generation. In many areas of their life they are without a theological and spiritual tradition. Tey are creating their own.38

Gutiérrez, A Teology of Liberation, 117.

Henri Nouwen’s foreword in Gustavo Gutiérrez, We Drink from Our Own Wells: Te Spiri- tual Journey of a People (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1984), xiii.

Tis is the title Gutiérrez gave to his new introduction in commemoration of the ﬁfteenth anniversary edition of A Teology of Liberation, xviii.

Gutiérrez, Te Power of the Poor in History, 22.

Ibid., 53.

Gutiérrez, A Teology of Liberation, 74.

J. Davis / Pneuma 33 (2011) 5-24

At least in emphasis, Gutiérrez’s liberation spirituality had begun to change. Te question was what would the new changes look like and how would the new emphasis on spirituality cohere with the old expressions of liberation?

A funny thing occurred in the forging of new spiritualities for the theology of liberation. Te new formulations of faith began to look suspiciously like older, more traditional spiritualities within Roman Catholic mystical life. Sigmund commented, “Without admitting that he was doing so, Gutiérrez continued to modify his approach and to emphasize the agreement between his version of liberation theology and the social teaching of the church.”39 Was it a coincidence that the spiritual evolution looked particularly Roman Catho- lic? True, Gutiérrez had previously noted that “without ‘contemplative life,’ to use a traditional term, there is no authentic Christian life.”40 But in its embry- onic development, he had maintained, “what this contemplative life will be is still unknown.”41 Te unknown of the earlier works became known in such traditional Catholic mystics as St. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. Monastic pillars of contemplation also began to ﬁlter into the thought of Gutiérrez in Augustine and particularly in Ignatius Loyola (contemplation in action). Here, Gutiérrez began to ﬁnd historical compatriots of liberation who had traversed the spiritual and had never given up the concern for action. As a result, the interior life was seen not as an impediment to liberation but rather as an ally. A recent work by Gutiérrez emphatically embraces spiritual- ity’s help in observing that “spirituality provides strength and durability for social options.”42 In Gutiérrez’s rereading of the mystical and monastic pil- grims, a new vantage point was found to embrace the historical expressions of the faith without losing the present praxis. Te mystical had been demytholo- gized of self-absorbed pietism and had become practical. As a result, Gutiérrez began to mine the deeper recesses of mysticism laden within Christian history. Now Gutiérrez would even become an apostle for the mystical life: “Only within the framework provided by mysticism and practice,” he observed, “is it possible to develop a meaningful discourse about God that is both authentic and respectful of its object.”43 Speciﬁcally, the call to contemplation within

Sigmund, Liberation Teology at the Crossroads, 171.

Gutiérrez, A Teology of Liberation, 74.

Ibid.

Gustavo Gutiérrez, “Te Teology of Liberation: Perspectives and Tasks,” trans. Fernando F. Segonia, in Toward a New Heaven and a New Earth: Essays in Honor of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2003), 297.

Gustavo Gutiérrez, Te Truth Shall Make You Free (Maryknoll, NY Orbis Books, 1990), 55.

J. Davis / Pneuma 33 (2011) 5-24

mysticism was now seen as an active participation in the process of liberation as opposed to a fearful withdrawal from the world of need.

Contemplation

What was it about mysticism that attracted the later Gutiérrez? Te answer, of course, is praxis. Gutiérrez had always held to a concept of spirituality that included contemplation, but the adoption of mysticism thrust Gutiérrez into the interior life, which previously had only occupied a footnote in his think- ing. Gutiérrez noted, “Poverty was always a central point in the history of spirituality, and it was always linked to the contemplative life.”44 In Gutiérrez’s life as a parish priest he would often reﬂect upon the contemplative aspect of the poor, both in merely being within the repose of the church and in active praying. Gutiérrez noted the poor’s abiding presence in the local churches as something more than a place to get out of the rain. He says, “Te poor spend long hours reﬂecting on their lives [in the church].”45 Reﬂexively and naturally the poor move from their reﬂection to prayer. He says, “Tere is perhaps noth- ing more impressive and creative than the praying praxis of Christians among the poor and oppressed. Teirs is not a prayer divorced from the liberating praxis of people. On the contrary, the Christian prayer of the poor springs up from roots in that very praxis.”46

Prayer

Prayer in the spirituality of liberation is not to be thought of as routine, pas- sive, or accepting of degradation. Nor does contemplative silence before God equate to an acceptance of brutality. Gutiérrez states, “Passivity or quietism not only is not a real acknowledgement of the gratuitous love of God, but even denies it or deforms it.”47 Prayer, then, actually questions God about the unac- ceptability of suﬀering from within the constructs of God’s loving nature: “Teology addresses how to speak about God from the suﬀerings of the inno-

James L. Heﬀ, ed., Believing Scholars: Ten Catholic Intellectuals (New York: Fordham Uni- versity Press, 2005), 45.

Gustavo Gutiérrez, “Liberation Teology for the Twenty-First Century” in Romero’s Legacy: Te Call to Peace and Justice, ed. Pillar Closkey (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littleﬁeld, 2007), 55.

Gutiérrez, Te Power of the Poor in History, 107.

Gutiérrez, Te Truth Shall Make You Free, 35.

J. Davis / Pneuma 33 (2011) 5-24

cents, the suﬀering of the poor.”48 Gutiérrez likewise maintains, “If the ele- ment of injustice be added to this situation of suﬀering, it can produce resentment and a rejection of the presence and existence of God, because God’s love becomes diﬃcult to understand for one living a life of unmerited aﬄiction.”49 It also maintains the theological structure of struggle before God (coram Deo) as opposed to in atheistic disengagement. Gutiérrez aﬃrms, “Tis painful dialectical approach to God is one of the most profound messages of the book of Job.”50 Te prelude of prayer is central to all God talk because it begins in an attitude of faith from which all talk of God must originate.

True prayer also moves one to action. To pray without a commitment to action nulliﬁes the prayers uttered as faithless. In this dialectical process the surd of suﬀering moves one to a mystical appropriation of Christ’s suﬀering. In all unjust suﬀering the Christian is called to understand that Christ suﬀers with the victim and “will be in agony until the end of the world.”51 In this suf- fering faith is born — not in a dismissing manner but rather in a mystical paschal participation. From identiﬁcation with Christ a “hermeneutic of hope” is appropriated that sees in the resurrection of Christ the future redemption.52 Yet, because the suﬀering is not abated in the present time, there is a need for continued contemplation. Tis discipline of silent meditation beckons the suﬀerer into an interior life that helps them persevere through the present aﬄiction. Gutiérrez notes, “Teology will then be speech that has been enriched by silence.”53 Yet, the present disciplines and the future hope do not always provide easy answers to the larger, more personal questions of theodicy. In this Gutiérrez confesses, “Tis question is larger than our capacity to answer it. It is a very deep, personal question. Ultimately, we have no answers except to be with the poor.”54 As a result, contemplation continues and compassion follows from the inability (both personal and corporate) to explain God’s love in the midst of evil. Perhaps this is why Gutiérrez was fond of quoting Jose Maria Arguedas’ aphorism, “What we know is much less than the great hope we feel.”55

Gustavo Gutiérrez, “How Do You Tell the Poor God Loves You?” Interview by Mev Puleo, St. Anthony Messenger 96 (February 1989): 10.

Gustavo Gutiérrez, On Job: God-Talk and the Suﬀering of the Innocent, trans. Matthew J. O’Connell (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987), 13.

Ibid., 65.

Ibid., 101.

Gutiérrez, Te Power of the Poor in History, 15.

Ibid., xiv.

Ibid.

Ibid., 22.

J. Davis / Pneuma 33 (2011) 5-24

Revelation and Praxis

As part of the liberation imperative, Gutiérrez also advocates the age-old dis- cipline of the reading of the Scriptures. From the beginning of Gutiérrez’s project of liberation, the Bible has held a central position. However, even the Scriptures seem to take on a new dimension within the thought of the latter Gutiérrez. Te early Gutiérrez’s epistemology located truth as a dialectical interaction with praxis. He says, “For what we are concerned with is a re- reading of the gospel message within the praxis of liberation.”56 In this he agrees with Congar in saying, “It [the church] must open as it were a new chapter of the theological-pastoral epistemology. Instead of using only revela- tion and tradition as starting points, as classical theology has generally done, it must start with the facts and questions derived from the world and from history.”57 He also notes that “all truth must modify the real world . . . knowl- edge is thus dialectical starts and returns.”58 By 1983 he had revised his episte- mology to include a more preeminent status for revelation in epistemology. He said, “Te ultimate criterion for judgment comes from revelation not from praxis itself.”59 Correspondingly, Gutiérrez also began to modify his position on the social sciences’ place in epistemology. He wrote, “Te Bible concept is very rich, richer than a purely sociological understanding of the poor.”60

Has Gutiérrez’s Mysticism Created an Open Door for Dialogue?

Is Gutiérrez’s incorporation of mysticism a theological portal through which dialogue with Pentecostalism might commence? Given the chasm that has historically separated them, the answer to such a question is at best tentative. First, while the accentuation of mysticism is without question an elaboration of Gutiérrez’s latent spirituality, the translation from mysticism to Pentecostal- ism is not a seamless transition from either side. Yet, there are voices within Pentecostalism who believe that the chasm is not too deep and that a latent commonality abides between the two. Miroslav Volf is one who implores these two theologies to come together. He states, “It is of ecumenical importance for

Ibid., 66.

Gutiérrez, A Teology of Liberation, 9.

Gustavo Gutiérrez, “Te Praxis of Liberation and the Christian Faith,” Humane Vitae (September 1974): 373.

Gustavo Gutiérrez, Te Truth Shall Make You Free, 101.

Gustavo Gutiérrez, “Gutiérrez Reﬂects on 15 Years of Liberation Teology,” Interview by Latinamerica Press, Latinamerica Press 15 (19 May 1983): 5-7.

J. Davis / Pneuma 33 (2011) 5-24

liberation theology and Pentecostal theology to recognize each other as feud- ing family members,” as opposed to enemies.61 Te reason for this, Volf points out, is an increasing awareness within the Pentecostal movement of both the liberation imperative and the conscientization of socioeconomic need. At ﬁrst glance, he says, “Liberation theology and Pentecostal theology seem to be prime examples of radically opposing theologies.”62 As Volf notes, however, the two theologies have much more in common than either one of them may wish to believe: “Individual groups of Pentecostalists around the world seem to be slowly discovering the socioeconomic implications of their soteriology, and liberation theologians are becoming more aware of the need for a spiritual framework for their socioeconomic activity.”63 Dario Lopez Rodriguez com- ments on the liberating activity: “Today there is suﬃcient evidence from sev- eral countries of Latin America that a gradual awakening of the social conscience of a signiﬁcant sector of the Pentecostal movement is taking place.”64 Doug Peterson agrees: “Ultimately, by empowering people who were previ- ously denied a voice, the Pentecostal Movement in Latin America has acquired a revolutionary potential.”65

On the question of spirituality, Simon Chan also sees a great deal of conti- nuity between Catholic mysticism and Pentecostalism. Within the two tradi- tions Chan sees great possibility in the celebration of the Eucharist as a “central” Pentecostal event.66 Chan also views tongues as, in essence, an expres- sion of Teresa of Avilla’s progression to joy “in which joy becomes so over- whelming that the soul could only respond with all tongues and heavenly madness.”67 Chan says, “Pentecostalism cannot be regarded as a marginal movement, much less an aberration: it is a spiritual movement that matches in every way the time-tested development in Catholic tradition.”68 Chan even believes that the Pentecostal giftings work best in the structure of Roman Catholic and the Episcopal Charismatic traditions. He notes, “In fact I would

Miroslav Volf, “Materiality of Salvation: An Investigation in the Soteriologies of Liberation and Pentecostal Teologies,” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 26, no. 3 (Summer 1989): 449.

Ibid., 447.

Ibid., 460.

Dario Lopez Rodriguez, “A Critical Review of Douglas Peterson’s Not by Might Nor by Power: A Pentecostal Teology of Social Concern in Latin America,” Journal of Pentecostal Teology 17 (2000): 136.

Douglas Peterson, “Latin American Pentecostalism: Social Capital, Networks, and Poli- tics,” Pneuma: Te Journal of Pentecostal Theology 26, no. 2 (Fall 2004): 306.

Chan, “Pentecostal Teology and Christian Spiritual Tradition,” 108.

Ibid., 60.

Ibid., 71.

J. Davis / Pneuma 33 (2011) 5-24

like to show that [the Pentecostal reality] is better traditioned in a church that recognizes the constitutive role of the sacraments and the Spirit.”69 But is there a tradition within liberation theology that militates against the indigenous nature of Pentecostalism?

Ecclesiology

In “La Koinonia Eclesial” Gutiérrez proclaims that “the task of the church is as an extension of the missions of the Son and the Spirit.”70 Even in Gutiérrez’s earlier thought he had stated that “spirituality in the strict and profound sense of the word is the dominion of the Spirit.”71 But what does this mean in rela- tion to the ecclesiology? In the formation of the spirituality of liberation, Gutiérrez earlier maintained that he was hesitant to conjecture as to the expli- cation of this “new” spirituality. His reasoning was that the people of libera- tion were “ﬁrst generation” liberationists; therefore, what liberation spirituality comprised was subsequently in an embryonic and much too formative stage. Gutiérrez has consistently maintained that the poor will not be truly liberated until they are the artisans of their own spirituality. But, as Segundo pointed out, “Something was obvious . . . the common people had neither understood nor welcomed anything from the ﬁrst theology of liberation, and had actually reacted against its criticism of the supposed oppressive elements of popular religions.”72 Paradoxically, many now have begun to criticize liberation theol- ogy for its lack of indigenous authenticity and for being primarily an academic exercise. Solivan says, “Te power and authenticity present in the early voices of the liberation theologians have been diluted by the process of academic advancement.”73 Charles Self has asserted that “Pentecostalism is truly a faith of the poor and is thus distinct from some liberation theology movements which are for the poor.”74 Tis critique echoes Moltmann’s previous criticism that the theology of liberation had more to do with European theology than it

Ibid., 15.

Gustavo Gutiérrez, “La Koinonia Eclesial,” trans. David Bustos, Paginas 200 (August 2006): 22.

Gutiérrez, A Teology of Liberation, 117.

Segundo, Signs of the Times, 74.

Samuel Solivan, “Te Spirit, Pathos, and Liberation: Toward an Hispanic Pentecostal Te- ology,” Journal of Pentecostal Supplement Series 14 (1998): 36.

Charles Self, “Conscientization, Conversion, and Convergence: Reﬂections on Base Com- munities and Emerging Pentecostalism in Latin America,” Pneuma: Te Journal of the Society of Pentecostal Theology 14, no. 1 (Spring 1992): 63.

J. Davis / Pneuma 33 (2011) 5-24

did with any indigenous ecclesiology. In his “Open Letter to Jose Miguez Bonino,” Moltmann remarked that Gutiérrez’s work “oﬀers many new insights — but precisely only in the framework of Europe’s history, scarcely any in the history of Latin America.”75 Gutiérrez often acknowledges his Euro- pean pedagogy as an encumbrance to his own veracity in speaking for the poor. Solivan states, “Without the poor — those who suﬀer — as subject, theology denigrates into the academic exercise of cognitive praxis.”76 For a privileged theologian educated in ﬁrst-rate schools, it would be hard to sepa- rate the wineskins of austere academia from the degradation of poverty. To be sure, Gutiérrez has advocated and modeled the incarnational lifestyle, but does this model extend to his theological method? Or theoretically rephrased, does praxis, itself, have a criterion that uncritically incorporates a residual European pedagogy?

Pneumatology

In We Drink from Our Own Wells, Gutiérrez created considerable distance between “popular religion” and liberation theology by juxtaposing those who believe in miracles with those who are involved in the work of liberation: “Te power of the Spirit leads to love of God and others and not to the working of miracles.”77 Here there is a clear divergence from the view of the poor as it relates to both love and pneumatology. Exceedingly little is said throughout Gutiérrez’s works about pneumatology.78 It is an area of immense neglect. As a result, a penetrating criticism must be directed at this lack, and a question of suﬃciency must be raised when the most theologically active participant in historical change (the Holy Spirit) is absent. But perhaps this is the point. Does the weakness in Gutiérrez’s pneumatology nuance his entire understand- ing of the Pentecostal movement? And does this lack predispose the theology of liberation to a critique of immanence from which the Pentecostal poor can speak more adequately? Solivan again points out that the two, miracles and

Jürgen Moltmann, “An Open Letter to Jose Miguez Bonino,” Christianity in Crisis 36 (29 March 1976): 5.

Solivan, “Te Spirit, Pathos, and Liberation,” 65.

Gutiérrez, We Drink from Our Own Wells, 63.

A quick perusal of the indexes of Gutiérrez’s books reveals the disparity. In Te Truth Shall Make You Free, the index does not have any references to the Holy Spirit. Tere are thirty-seven to Jesus and eleven to Marx. In A Teology of Liberation there are 107 references to Jesus, ten to Marx, and three to the Holy Spirit. All of the books that Gutiérrez has written display this disparity.

J. Davis / Pneuma 33 (2011) 5-24

liberation imperatives, are not inimical to one another: “For many suﬀering people what makes God’s promise possible in their present experience is the acceptance of the miraculous. . . .Te experiences of promises fulﬁlled today serve as ﬁrst fruits of what is yet in store.”79 Gutiérrez emphasizes only the silent suﬀering aspect of transcendence. But why is it inconsistent to believe, as the poor do, that God’s identiﬁcation with weakness is equally as true as the Holy Spirit’s manifestation of power? On an economic level Gutiérrez agrees — it is just in the supernatural aspects where there is resistance. Of course, one might ask how God acting supernaturally now would be any dif- ferent from the Word becoming ﬂesh and dwelling among us long ago. But the fallout does not end there. Systemically there is another more problematic result, namely, liberation itself.

Eschatology

In Acts 2:15-16 Peter exclaims, “Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel.” Not only were they not drunk, but the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost inaugurated a new era within the life of the church that Joel referred to as the last days (v. 17). In Gutiérrez’s thought there is a great empha- sis on the hermeneutic of hope that creates eschatological longing for change. Gutiérrez is correct in believing in an eschatological hope but does not incor- porate any real pneumatology into his eschatology. As a result, the motivation for change rests primarily within the subject of history, as opposed to the Spirit of, over, and in history. Tis places a heavy weight upon the subject of history, who has hitherto been unable to realize his and her eschatological implica- tions. Granted, the hermeneutic of hope comes through humanity, but it does not originate in humanity. To ﬁll this need, Gutiérrez adopts the methodology of conscientization in what seems to appear more as a Promethean construct than an emphasis upon the Spirit. Tis lack of proper emphasis threatens the entire ediﬁce of liberation in that it places the realization of the movement in the ability of humanity to see. Tis is not the biblical presentation of the noetic eﬀects of sin or the Holy Spirit’s relegation to a subordinate eschato- logical role. Te person who leads into all truth is the primogenitor of the eschatological hope. As a result, the assurance for hope is limited to the ability or inability of humanity to both see and accomplish this hope. And this is a

Solivan, “Te Spirit, Pathos, and Liberation,” 91.

J. Davis / Pneuma 33 (2011) 5-24

major diﬀerence between Pentecostalism and liberation theology. To para- phrase Solivan, Pentecostalism has placed its hope for the future upon a pres- ent belief in the Spirit’s workings. In so doing, they have found the impetus for change both on a personal level and in society. Tis is why there is hope for the future. Revealed in the present dispensation is the future realization of abiding liberation.

Hope for the Future?

Is there a crack in the door that allows for dialogue between what, on the sur- face, seems like two antagonistic viewpoints on liberation spirituality? Gutiér- rez has noted that theology will not be free of illegitimate presuppositions until the poor create their own theology. What became apparent with the writ- ing of We Drink from Our Own Wells, however, was that Gutiérrez did have within his own mind the parameters of a certain type of spirituality, namely, Roman Catholic mysticism. As Volf and Chan have pointed out, this does not invalidate dialogue between Pentecostalism and Gutiérrez. Conversely, neither do the similarities between the two extinguish all distance. Simply put, what validates or invalidates the Pentecostal experience, according to Gutiérrez’s theology, is liberating praxis. Te question is, does Pentecostalism qualify according to this criterion? For many, and particularly the poor of Latin Amer- ica, the answer is a resounding yes. But is it enough that the poor have voted with their feet? Gutiérrez maintains, “If we are to ﬁnd God acting in history, we must have an attitude of faith that is open to novelty and mystery.”80 Where does this openness to mystery lead? Te answer is, a door that was previously closed and is being opened ever so slowly. Yet, diﬃculties abide when a lack of openness to novelty and mystery persist. Te close proximity of focus and geography could not help but create some expected sibling rivalry. However, this should not be enough to seal the door shut or close it back again. Tus, in order for greater openness to occur, the father of liberation theology must realize that true liberating praxis is occurring within Latin America under the name of Pentecostalism. Tere must also be the realization of the indigenous choice and that the label attached to Pentecostalism “Made in America,” is not accurate. Rather, the “Made in America” label should, as previously noted, more correctly read, “Made among the Poor and Dispos- sessed of America.” Te location of liberating praxis’s nexus should not

Gustavo Gutiérrez, Te God of Life (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1991), 80.

J. Davis / Pneuma 33 (2011) 5-24

disqualify its extension or incorporation. If Gutiérrez truly believes in a theol- ogy from the poor, then the poor must be allowed to speak, even if their thoughts take them down less traditional and more mysterious pathways. And perhaps they have spoken — in tongues. Te elaboration of a spiritual need is what precipitated Gutiérrez’s movement into mysticism. Te limitation of that elaboration is where the truly liberating prospects come to an end. Te desire to have a “faith that is open to novelty and mystery” is a glorious incarnational goal. However, the constricting deﬁnitions of “novel” and, in this case, “mys- terious” prohibit implementation. Where does this leave the hopes of dialogue between the two most potent forms of religious expression in Latin America? Te answer is looking at a ray of light behind a partially opened door wonder- ing what might happen if the door were to open fully.

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Last Days Revival

March 5, 2025 by Cup&Cross
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As we are getting ready to hit once again the Revival Trail this week, we wanted to give a quick update on our ministry with a praise report and a prayer request. We have received the final reports from our 200-day revival in Europe last year, with multiple salvations, baptisms and dozens of documented healings. For us as a family, this is a great answer for the time, effort and resources we invested in 39 different churches across six EU countries in 2024.

On the same day in 1909, William Seymour at Azusa and Charles Parham at Topeka prophesied that in a hundred years another, “significantly more powerful move of God” would occur, marking a historic milestone regarding the Last Days Revival in America. Just four years later, during the Stone Church revival in Chicago, this same prophetic word was reaffirmed by Maria Woodworth-Etter who stated that “when the Latter Rain comes, it will far exceed anything we have seen!”

We are reminded that the Lord has also been preparing our own ministry for one last powerful move of God. We recall the 2023 Polk County revival that ran for seven weeks, and prior to that in 2017, when one short missionary service we held in rural Mississippi opened the next three months for revival that took place across six southern states.

As we recall our revival summer across South Carolina back in 1999, we are also reminded that for over a quarter of a century since then, we have almost weekly traveled the Southern Road Music Highway, which extends through Appalachia and have ministered in just about every church along its rout. Last but not least, we also recall the 1990 post-Communist revival in Bulgaria, where in less than one school year (nine months), our youth group grew from 30 to 300 active teenage members. To experience all this for a Bulgarian immigrant, who came to this country over 30 years ago as a young 19-year-old, is nothing short of a miracle!

But this one is different! The revival that is about to happen around us will have neither national nor denominational but a worldwide impact. I am talking about miracles occurring in China and Indonesia just because a few of us gathered for a weekly prayer meeting and brought a need before God. I am talking about God moving in Texas and Miami, across the Mexican border and in Havana, just because a local church fasted in Juno, Alaska.

And I don’t know about you, but I DO want to be part of this new great move of God! The time for one last great revival is here – but where’s the Church?

25 Years of Revivals in America

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CIA Report: STATUS OF THE PROTESTANTS IN BULGARIA

February 20, 2025 by Cup&Cross
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https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp82-00457r006100810004-5

STATUS OF THE PROTESTANTS IN BULGARIA

Document Type:

CREST

Collection:

General CIA Records

Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):

CIA-RDP82-00457R006100810004-5

Release Decision:

RIPPUB

Original Classification:

Document Page Count:

Document Creation Date:

December 14, 2016

Document Release Date:

March 23, 2001

Sequence Number:

Case Number:

Publication Date:

November 3, 1950

Content Type:

REPORT

File:

Attachment	Size
CIA-RDP82-00457R006100810004-5.pdf	134.43 KB

Body:

st;~~1~ d E a _ . ~ : 3 4`ii152’S U 0’1` Approved For ReleaJ~40j~11,L dR~l8F0061 ~01 CODUNTP i SUBJECT Bulgaria Status of the Protestants in Bulgaria 25X1A CD NO. 25X1A I NO., CASE DISTR.. 3 1T()V 50 NO, OF PAGES 2 NO. OF ENCLS. (LISTED BELOW SUPPLEMENT TO REPORT NO. 25X1X 1,, For a short time after 9 September 1944 the Protestants in Bulgaria enjoyed religious freedom. Belief in God, though rejected by Communism was tolerated in the country. In 1948 the Congregational Church services were regularly attended by an increased number of people. This was also true of other denominations,, 2,, After the trial of the 15 pastors early in 1949,,.# Protestants were labeled traitors,. spies, and instruments of the western capitalists. Much publicity was given by the Government accusing the Protestants of betraying their country. 3. Following the trial many churches remained without pastors. In some places laymen started preaching. In other places churches were closed by the local authorities and services forbidden. Source has been told that the Church of Mericr,lery is now being used for a Communist Party club, Many people were frightened and preferred not to go to church. There were instances when -people were warned not to go to church. Comparing the Sofia cI’-urches and those in the provinces,, the province churches suffered more losses of pastors and laymen. The Government authorities can exercise greater supervision and pressure in smaller communities, The Protestants in Sofia, therefore, enjoyed greater freedom in that no church was officially closed and people were free to go to church. 4. In November 1948 the editor of the only Protestant newspaper Zornitza was arrested and as of August 1950 was still in a labor camp without having been tried by a court or officially sentenced. 5. A printing house has just recently been taken over for use by the Committee for sciences Art,, and Culture,, 6, Following the trial of the pastors, many other Protestants were detained for a certain period of time by the militia authorities and others are still In labor carps. Many of the most ardent members of the Methodist Church in Sofia are either imprisoned or in labor camps, and their families have been ordered to leave Sofia, CLASSIFICATION 9PCffT/C0TZ-TR0L STATE NAVY NSRB DISTRIBUTION ARf`; ~~ Ain FBI Approved For Release 2001/04/13 : CIA-RDP82-00457R006100810004-5 Approved For Release 2001/04/13 : CIA-RDP82-00457R006100810004-5 8T/CONTROL – U. S. OFFICIALS ONLY CEP

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365 Daily

February 5, 2025 by Cup&Cross
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In 1999, Dony and Kathryn established Cup & Cross Ministries International with a vision for restoration of New Testament theology and praxis. Today they have over 50 years of combined commitment to Kingdom work. This book invites you to spend a few moments each day on the field sharing their experiences of serving as pastors, evangelists, chaplains, consultants, church trainers, researchers, missionaries and educators of His Harvest around the globe.

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Day 175 of the Revival

February 1, 2025 by Cup&Cross
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On day 175 of our Revival, I drove by a building close to our ministry’s home location and it caught my eye. Newly built, large enough, specious parking, perfect location easily reachable from at least three large city regions. An ideal place to hold our large revival meetings in my human perception. Quite naturally, I stopped the car in front of the beautiful gate and began telling the Lord how great would it be to continue the revival here. My reasons were many. No need to travel hundreds of miles to just preach one time, spend the night in strange places, walk in the ankle-deep mud-covered streets of slums and ghettos just to reach a soul. They could all come here, park, gather, worship, hear the Gospel, be saved, healed and delivered. The same way we had seen already in the revival for almost 200 days in a row. My heart’s thoughts were shut down by one brief word from the Lord: I did not choose to have it THIS way…

Reflections on a 200-day Revival

Creative developing of fasting, prayer and giving of alms, all commanded by Jesus Himself as a regular expression of our faith (Gr. оταν = when you pray, fast, give), is the prerequisite for every Spirit-led revival. On the third day of our 10-day fasting, God used a child to revive our dead Volvo, which no mechanic in a radius of 200 miles could crank for over 6 months.

The church that forced-left the building during the pandemic, has now returned to multimillion-dollar buildings where God did not choose to start a 200-day Revival. And even when He did, the move was shut down for lack of parking space or nightly supervision. In all actuality, a church building is a result of a revival, its finish and its end. An association with a place, address or location is a sign of its centralized settlement. It was the forced getting-out of a church building (as in Acts 7) that caused the Great Azusa Revival to emerge as a grass-root movement engraved in the streets of LA.

Revival must emerge from the Desire and Will of God in order to be supernaturally visited by the Power of His Glory! It cannot be approached as a man-made multiplication initiative, be it local, national or globally dimensioned. It is not a project to involve people, but a spiritual tsunami of power, authority and anointing that invites a prophetic projection of what God desires for eternity and not merely what man needs in the now.

When the now and then align, revival sparks. When the now has lost its sight on eternity, revival is long done and gone. The remain is but a motion imitating the wave of the Spirit Who has already moved to other more receptive spiritual trenches and valleys of humbleness. It is these societal peripheries and spiritual layers that God visits first with Revival before proceeding to the center of religious life. Meaning, the Heart of God for Revival is not in a religious center. As a matter of fact, any association with external centralized governing denies God’s centrality in what the Spirit wills from His Church. A man cannot vanquish the ocean and cosmos of space!

We can win no soul Christ has not already won at the Cross! We should not try to empty hell to fill Heaven, lest we end up in hell ourselves.

A final word to fundraisers who turn revival into a business-like know-how: Can’t buy God’s love!

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A Call to Righteousness over the Road Ahead

January 30, 2025 by Cup&Cross
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Global Mission In Pentecostal Perspective

January 25, 2025 by Cup&Cross
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113 Murray W. Dempster, Byron D. Klaus and Douglas Petersen, eds., Called & Empowered: Global Mission in Pentecostal Perspective (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1991), 321 pp. $14.95 paper. Reviewed by L. Grant McClung, Jr. Who has the answer to what Pentecostals believe about mission and the description of how they go about doing mission? Coming out of a sense of urgency that caused them to “act now and theologize later,” Pentecostals have been known more for action than reflection. Identifying who the Pentecostals were and how they did the job was a task largely left up to sympathizers from groups such as the Church Growth Movement. Other outside observers, however, were not always so sympathetic. This book is a statement by Pentecostals about Pentecostal missions, a move toward what I have called a “Decade of Self-Definition in the 1990s.” What has emerged since the mid 1980s are signs of a budding “pentecostal missiology,” a development exemplified in this volume. Readers of this excellent new contribution will find that Pentecostals have a broader understanding of wholistic mission issues than the supposed limited agenda of evangelism/church planting via the supernatural. This collection of twelve articles–all from Assemblies of God authors–and three “outside observer” responses has something to say about biblical/theological dimensions, the integration of gospel and culture, response to non-Christian religions, and missiological strategy. It reads well as a text (which I am using) or as a pre-study tool, for example, for a field conference or consultation devoted to understanding the Pentecostal/Charismatic contribution to world evangelization. The three editors are professors at Southern California College in Costa Mesa, California, a Christian liberal arts college sponsored by the Assemblies of God, and are also involved in Latin America ChildCare, an Assemblies of God ministry to underprivileged children in sixteen Latin American countries. The editors introduce each of the five sections of the book with a rationale for the theme of the section and a brief synopsis of each chapter in the section. These sectional introductions give an overall conceptual coherence to the volume, reducing the choppiness and unevenness that often attend multi-authored anthologies. Gordon Fee opens the first section on “Biblical and Theological Dimensions of Global Mission in the Pentecostal Tradition” with a chapter which aims to demonstrate that the roots of the Pentecostal conviction about the global mission of the church are to be found in Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God. In the next chapter, 1 114 Murray Dempster utilizes the concept of the kingdom of God as an integrating center in the development of a wholistic Pentecostal theology which features evangelism, social service and social action. Douglas Petersen in the third chapter of this section adopts and modifies “the hermeneutical circle” of Latin American liberation theologians in order to promote a Pentecostal praxis which applies Jesus’ message of the kingdom within the context of the Third World. Section two focuses on “The Emerging Pentecostal Integration of Gospel and Culture” and features chapters written by Everett Wilson, Augustus Cerillo, Jr., and Del Tarr. Wilson analyzes the phenomenal growth of Pentecostalism in Latin America from a functional perspective, identifying the changing social conditions in Latin culture which encouraged indigenous, national Pentecostal leaders to create “a church of the people.” Cerillo identifies the issues that Pentecostals face in light of the ever-increasing global trend of urbanization, and offers some pertinent suggestions for formulating effective urban ministries. In rounding out this section, Tarr develops a model of communication for preaching the gospel across the different cultural regions of the globe. The issue of gospel and culture is taken up again in section three but the issue is analyzed from the perspective of differing worldviews. Each author describes the worldview under investigation in his chapter from his viewpoint as a participant: Peter Kuzmic analyzes the Marxist worldview, Sunday Aigbe analyzes the worldview of tribal people groups and Sobhi Malek analyzes the Muslim worldview. Given the breakup of the former Soviet Union subsequent to the writing of his chapter, Kuzmic sho.wed great insight in noting: “Anything written about the ‘communist world’ today should be written in pencil. All across Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union monumental changes are taking place at a breathtaking speed and in most dramatic and unpredictable ways” (143-44). Even though sweeping changes have occurred in the Communist bloc countries, Kuzmic’s study still provides a goldmine of information in understanding what is happening in that part of the world. “Pentecostals and Current Missiological Strategies” is the topic of section four. A chapter by Gary McGee provides a descriptive historical overview of the multiple mission strategies that Pentecostals have used in this century. A jointly-written chapter by Byron Klaus and Loren Triplett documents the historical connection between non-formal/informal national leadership programs and the mushrooming growth of Pentecostalism, warns Pentecostals about their newly found reliance on formal structures of national leadership development and calls for a renewed commitment to indigenous leadership development “in ministry.” Missiologist Larry Pate, in the last chapter in the strategies section, describes the emergence of the 2 115 “two-thirds world missions movement” and assesses its implications for Pentecostal missions efforts. Pate makes a compelling case that theological and practical reflection on the implications of the global shift embodied in the two-thirds world missions movement is the most important strategic issue facing Pentecostal missions today. The fifth and final section of the book provides “Views from Outside” the Pentecostal movement, and according to the editors, the chapters in this section “stress the importance of Pentecostals learning to listen to the broader church as part of its missiological activity” (xviii). Pentecostal mission effort is evaluated from a Church Growth perspective by Peter Wagner, from an ecumenical perspective by Jeffrey Gros, FCS, and from a Third Wave perspective by Charles Kraft. These chapters, designed to provide “dialogical feedback,” are stimulating to read and insightful in both their positive appraisals and constructive criticisms. Hopefully, Called & Empowered will be expanded and revised in a subsequent edition to include a broader participation of missions practice and reflection from a wider variety of Pentecostal and Charismatic missions ministries, along with more contributions from women (all the authors are male) and voices from the “southern world” (only three of twelve essays are from non-North Americans). The book, however, is well-researched and highly readable for those seeking to look through the window into the self-understanding of Pentecostals and their responsibility in world evangelization. Even the casual observer of this tradition would agree that the energy Pentecostals expend in world missions activity flows out of the belief that Pentecostals are Called & Empowered. L. Grant McClung, Jr., is Coordinator of Research and Strategic Planning for the Church of God World Missions and Associate Professor of Missions and Church Growth at the Church of God School of Theology in Cleveland, Tennessee. 3

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A Call to Righteousness over Italy

January 15, 2025 by Cup&Cross
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A Great Century of Pentecostal Charismatic Renewal

January 5, 2025 by Cup&Cross
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A “Great Century” 81 of Pentecostal/Charismatic Renewal and Missions Edward Keith Pousson Pentecostals and Charismatics missionary-minded segment of dynamics Charismatic to produce a worldwide The following make up what is probably the most world Christianity today. What are the of this century-long movement of both Pentecostal and Renewal that have converged missionary thrust? And on what grounds can we speak of the twentieth century as a “great century” of Pentecostal/Charismatic missions? two questions launch and guide our discussion. will also be addressed: What kind of missionary has emerged from the Charismatic Renewal in particular? has Pentecostal missions impacted Charismatic missions, and what lessons can Charismatic missions learn from Pentecostal missions? What is the emerging Charismatic contribution to mission theology? between renewal and missions is the theme that unites These related questions movement How The relationship this entire article. An End-Time Movement in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Missions Scott Latourette Christian missions. worldwide religion. century as a comparably “great renewal and missions? What common to Renewal and Missionary This section explores the relationship between renewal and missions against the backdrop of developments Professor Stephen Neill and Yale Historian Kenneth called the nineteenth century the “Great Century” of It was that century that made Christianity a On what grounds may we speak of the twentieth century” are some of the dynamics of renewal both of these centuries that have birthed massive missionary movements around the world? Renewal Results in Mission First, and of primary significance movements every Christian Orthodox, renewed of Pentecostal/Charismatic for this article, spiritual renewal to global missionary in both of these periods gave birth expansion. By the end of the eighteenth century, for example, virtually denomination throughout the Western world, including Catholic and Protestant churches, had been recently in one way or another. Renewal movements in Protestantism included Pietism, Puritanism, Moravianism, England and the related Wesleyan revival, and the Great Awakenings the American Colonies. Though unevenly distributed and timed, it was this church-wide awakening that provided the spiritual impetus for that the Evangelical Revival in in 1 82 which is now called the “Great I Century” of Christian missions, Similarly, renewal pervasive missionary expansion and global country where rapid church Pentecostal/Charismatic decadal growth rates.2 In 1992, Wagner penned this hypothesis: non-militaristic, beginning 1792 and ending 1914.’ in the twentieth century, impacted virtually every renewal has likewise brought church growth. Pentecostal and Charismatic Christian denomination. This about unprecedented In nearly every multiplication is occurring, are leading the way in terms of C. Peter movement has over the past congregations church growth professor “In all of human history not another non-political voluntary human movement has grown as dramatically as the Pentecostal/charismatic 25 years.”3 Without question, as Wagner suggests, Pentecostalism in all its forms is the fastest growing segment of Christianity in the twentieth century. It grew from 16 million worldwide adherents in 1945 to 4.3 billion in 1993.4 Renewal about dramatic changes of that both periods of renewal Protestant institutions, new missionary structures. Protestant the nineteenth century minds of Neill and Latourette Changes Christian Institutions A second comparison from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is brought in including and especially a vast proliferation The birth and multiplication of these missionary societies is perhaps the leading factor that makes the Great Century of Christian missions in the Once freed from church and state launched more than 21,000 control, these voluntary societies focused exclusively on missions and Protestant missionaries by 1910.6 Thanks to Harper History of ‘ See Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of Christianity, Vol. 2 (New York, NY: . & Row Publishers, Inc., 1953), 1013-1035; Gary B. McGee, This Shall Be Preached. A Gospel to 1959 History and Theology of Assemblies of God Foreign Missions (Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1986), 24; Stephen Neill, A Christian Missions (Second edition revised by Owen Chadwick; London and New York: Penguin Books, 1986), 204, 213-215, 240-245, 286-287, 332-334. 2 C. Peter “Church Growth,” in Pentecostal and Charismatic Wagner, Dictionary of Movements, eds. Stanley M. Burgess and Gary B. McGee (Grand MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1988), 185-188. [Hereafter cited as Rapids, A1issions, 214; Sydney (New 6 McGee, missionary DPCM.] I ‘ C. Peter Wagner, Warfare Prayer (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1992), 48. 4 ‘David J. Hesselgrave, Today’s Choices for Tomorrow’s Mission (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1988), 119; David B. Barrett, “Annual Statistical Table on Global Mission: 1993,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 17 (January 1993): 22-23. ‘Latourette, A History of Christianity, 1013-1033ff.; Neill, A History of Christian E. Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1972), 422-423. This Gospel Shall Be Preached, I, 21. Examples of early Protestant societies include William Carey’s Baptist Missionary Society (1792), the London Missionary Society (1795), and the American Board of Commissioners for Missions (incorporated 1812). Foreign 2 during Through the twentieth movement has likewise given sending agencies, including 83 living in Asia, the Pentecostal/Charismatic and the world’s largest with some 25,000 of recent their efforts, the percentage of the world’s Protestants Africa and Latin America increased from one percent to ten percent the nineteenth century.’ 7 century, birth to hundreds of new missionary the Assemblies of God Foreign Missions Division with more than 1,500 missionaries, Christian mission, Youth With a Mission (YWAM), missionaries reaching out to nearly every country of the world.’ But the the movement is not its number of missionaries, on the mission field. Eighty percent to Christianity have been the result of according Today at least 66% of the world’s Pentecostals/Charismatics Latin America, and Oceania, including 88% of Assemblies church members and 75% of Church of God (Cleveland, TN) believers, two of the largest Pentecostal denominations worldwide.’° crowning success of but its growth conversions from paganism Pentecostal/Charismatic efforts, Asia, Africa, of God Patterns of Piety fueled the nineteenth produced striking changes piety. Moravian pietism to several researchers.’ live in movement, for instance, of Protestant Renewal Changes A third common feature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is that both periods of renewal unleashed new forms of spirituality that aided fresh missionary expansion. The various renewal movements that century missionary in the forms and expressions centered on Christ and him crucified. Wesleyanism called for personal conversion, The Great Awakenings in the Colonies/States stressed the unchurched, preaching. “evangelical” preaching for the need for individual “decisions” holy living, and zeal in resulting responsibility for witness, in the “new birth,” and a prayer for enabled the Protestant strong desire for individual and corporate prayer, including concerts of world missions. These new expressions of spirituality faith to adapt itself and reach out to the ends of History 8 Gary for (Grand Rapids, ‘Paul E. Pierson, “Why Did the 1800s Explode with Missions?,” Christian 11/4 (1992): 20. B. McGee, “Overseas Missions (North American),” DPCM, 614-624; David B. Barrett, “Global Statistics,” DPCM, 814-815, 830; Choices Tomorrow’s Mission, 120, 255n; Edward K. Hesselgrave, Today’s Pousson, Spreading the Flame MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), 88-89; John A. Siewert and John A. Kenyon, eds., Mission Handbook 1993-95 (15th Edition; Monrovia, CA: MARC, 1993), 243, 248, 255-256. 9 Vinson Synan, “Global Consultation on AD 2000 3 Evangelization: AD 2000 the Target,” Together (Spring 1989): 7; Larry Pate, From Every People (Monrovia, CA: MARC, 1989), 129; C. Peter Wagner, Spiritual Power and Church Growth (Altamonte Springs, FL: Strang Communications 1986), 12; C. Peter How to Have a Healing Ministry Without Company, Making Your Church Sick (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1988), 68-89. ‘°L. Grant McClung, “The Pentecostal ‘Trunk’ must Learn from its ‘Branches’,” Missions Quarterly 29 (January 1993): 35. Wagner, Evangelical 3 84 our changing movements.” world through many new and unprecedented renewal has produced new and material. Comparing needs-spiritual, Pentecostal Comparatively, Pentecostal/Charismatic and varied expressions of worship and spirituality which have reached to the ends of the earth. One major factor behind the astonishing success of the movement is its appeal to a broader range of human physical to ministry with the Interdenominational Foreign Missions Association (IFMA), missionary theologian Arthur F. Glasser of Fuller Theological Seminary’s School of World Mission emotional, approaches writes, challenge evangelicals… … Pentecostals were willing to tackle the “dark side of the soul” and the growing phenomenon of occultism, Satan worship and demon possession. Whereas IFMA people and other non-charismatic had found it relatively easy to the occasional expose the extravagance of charlatan, they were silenced in the presence of the Pentecostal’s serious confrontation of the hard realities of the spirit world. Here was a spirituality which could not be ignored. 12 Charismatic spiritual guidance, together ministry, dynamic praying movement world. such as exorcisms, worship, healings and spontaneous secularizing “power-encounters,” with expressive and a lively oral tradition make this especially appealing to many peoples of the non-Western Through these and other viable spiritual dynamics, PentecostaUCharismatic missions has curtailed trends of earlier missions that offered people “soul-salvation” but left miracles, healings to the early church.’3 Pentecostal/Charismatic missionaries offer healing, not to “disembodied exorcism and physical souls,” but to whole persons. Renewal expansion global of Changes Leadership Patterns A fourth renewal dynamism giving rise to unprecedented in nineteenth century was the creation of new patterns of leadership, including the service of women, increased participation lay people and of less formally trained clergy, and the unprecedented mobilization of 180,000 student volunteers for missions.14 Similarly, Pentecostals/Charismatics have advanced in missions through hands-on, leadership training models, and the sending of many women evangelists and missionaries. ‘ decentralized training, semiformal Bible institute 11 Latourette, A History ojChristianity, 959-960, 1019-1029, 1043-1047; Neill, A History of Christian A1issions, 202-204, 214, 275. 12 Arthur F. Glasser and Donald A. McGavran, Contemporary Theologies of Mission (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1983), 119-120. “See Paul G. Hiebert, “The Flaw of the Excluded Middle,” Missiology: An International Review 10 A (January 1982): 35ff. 14 Latourette, History ojChristianity, 960, 1020, 1027; McGee, This Gospel Shall Be Preached, I, 24; Neill, A History of Christian Missions, 217-218. “L. Grant McClung, ed., Azusa Street and Beyond: Pentecostal ivissions and 4 example, undesirable, proven growth provided people respond. They “experience” 85 modified Calvinism by making Strong reliance on the laity and multiple routes to ordination have accelerated leadership emergence in areas of rapid church growth. For most Assemblies of God pastors around the world are without so much as a Bible school education. `6 Higher education is not but imposing educational requirements for ordination is a restriction in some cases. And the lack of educational requirements for ordination has not stopped the Assemblies of God from becoming the largest Pentecostal denomination. Renewal Alters Theological Traditions Consider one final comparison between these two “great centuries” of renewal and missions. In both cases, renewed theological reflection motivations for a new thrust in world evangelization. Of great significance for the nineteenth century missions movement was this one fact: renewal reshaped traditional Calvinism with respect to election and predestination. The Puritan fathers, for example, believed that all would hear the gospel and that some from every nation would launched missions to the Indians in all Thirteen Colonies. The Great Awakening in the Colonies broached Arminian-ish ideas, establishing the need for an individual “decision” and a personal of salvation for the elect. And Jonathan Edwards, a leading theologian of the Awakening, for the sinner’s response in accepting God’s forgiveness.” in England, the Evangelical Awakening with its stress breaking up hyper-Calvinism. Even among the Particular Baptists, William Carey’s there was a “slow awakening,” Stutd1fse, Carey, and others planted seeds of a mission theology into In these and many other ways, revival . of traditional theology, providing fundamental convictions and motivations for the nineteenth century missions more room Simultaneously on evangelism was also denomination, the English religious scene.” altered the landscape movement. Topeka, America. the fallow ground of as Andrew Fuller, John in Pentecostalism. The revival in of Pentecostalism in North reflection to Los Angeles, We observe the same pattern Kansas marks the beginning This revival was triggered by fresh theological concerning sanctification, the baptism in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. From Topeka the revival spread to Houston, Texas, and then where the Azusa Street Revival broke out and 76-77; Rapids, Church Growth in the Twentieth Century (South Plainfield, NJ: Bridge, 1986), McGee, This Gospel Shall Be Preached, I, 91-93. 16 J. Herbert Kane, The Christian World Mission: Today and Tomorrow (Grand MI: Baker Book House, 1981), 105. “These and many other theological developments linked to the Great and Awakenings providing missionary motivations are discussed in Latourette, A History of 958-961, 1019, 1043-45. ‘eTim Dowley, ed., A Lion Handbook: The History of Christianity (Oxford: Lion 406-409. Christianity, Publishing, 1990), 5 86 innovations in early motivations and convictions movements. Consider One, Pentecostals Spirit Testament experience. impacted various parts of the world. Theological and mature Pentecostalism have provided powerful that could not help but produce explosive missionary the following three theological innovations. claimed that the personalized power of the Holy is readily available now to every believer just as it was in New Pentecostals discovered that they can receive the sacraments and experience the Spirit, not through the mediation of and the clergy (as in Catholicism), and not only through the ministry of the Word (as in mainstream Protestantism), but through direct and personal access to the Father and to Jesus, the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit.19 Two, Pentecostals emphasized Pentecost expect the supernatural ministering that the purpose of this personal for missions. This claim of the biblical experience of the Holy Spirit is empowerment is a rediscovery by experience of the true purpose (Acts 1:8). Being “baptized” in the Spirit, Pentecostals manifestations or charismata of the Spirit to be there for them in evangelistic and missionary outreach. Three, Pentecostals see themselves as living in the last days and in the same salvation history context as that of the New Testament.2° They have, therefore, recovered the New Testament hope of the soon return of Jesus. This view of things has generated powerful motivation which is characterized by expectancy, urgency, how renewal alters missionary and intensity. These three innovations theological traditions movements. Theological serve to illustrate in such a way as to stimulate fresh missionary reflection concerning the mission of the church has played a vital role across the last two great centuries of renewal and missions. century” above parallels between these of a professional of the School of World Mission Pasadena, California. 21 Although my analysis may lack the nuances historian, I believe that the twentieth century can be called the “great of Pentecostal/Charismatic renewal and missions in that it bears comparison to the nineteenth-century missionary movement. The two periods of renewal and expansion are not only striking but also instructive. They illustrate the following key missionary principles taught by missions historian Paul E. Pierson at Fuller Theological Seminary in First, renewal and missions are interlinked. Missionary expansion is both the natural and the supernatural result of the outpouring of the Spirit of God upon the church (Acts 1:8). Any renewal that is truly Missions “Dowley, ed., A Lion Handbook, 646; Paul A. Pomerville, The Third Force in (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1985), 65. 2°Pomerville, 21 The Third Force in Missions, 57-58. While Pierson is to be credited for these principles, I do not claim his authority for the ways in which I have adapted and applied them in this article. 6 87 eschatological will eventually turn its focus outward and cross social and cultural barriers to reach the lost, as the biblical Pentecost did. Second, renewal changes the way we do church and missions, creating new structures and patterns for both. Specifically, missions is most effective when local churches and extra-local mission structures cooperate together in a semi-autonomous, mutually interdependent fashion, as seen in both the nineteenth and twentieth century missionary movements mentioned above, as well as throughout church and missions history. Third, renewal creates new and viable forms of spirituality that spur fresh missionary outreach and appeal more effectively to the unchurched peoples of the day. Fourth, renewal creates new patterns of leadership that unleash fresh missionary outreach. And fifth, renewal alters older theological traditions and ushers in new theological insights that provide fresh motivation for evangelistic and missionary outreach. Observing Pentecostal/Charismatic renewal and missions in a general way, we have thus far identified key dynamics or characteristics of renewal that lead almost inevitably to a missions thrust. This analysis provides the foundation, perspectives and presuppositions for all that follows. From here on, however, the emphasis falls more specifically on Charismatic missions of the latter half of this century. The Charismatic Renewal: Creating New Patterns for Church and Missions That the Pentecostal revival has produced a major missionary movement is a well documented fact. By 1990 there were 320,000 classical Pentecostal churches around the world with a total membership of over 45 million. 22 But what kind of missionary movement has the Charismatic Renewal produced? How are the dynamics and principles observed above also working in the Charismatic Renewal? . The Emergence of a “Charismatic” Ecclesia Renewal, we have observed, changes the way we do church. The healing revival of the 1950s formed the bridge between the Pentecostal Movement and the Charismatic Renewal. William Branham, Oral Roberts, T. L. Osborn, Jack Coe, A. A. Allen, R. W. Schambach and hundreds of other healing revival leaders caught the attention of the masses in mainline churches who had more or less ignored classical Pentecostalism. This was the real beginning of the Charismatic Renewal. Dennis Bennett’s public announcement in 1960 of his “nine o’clock in the morning” experience was merely the cutting of the ribbon. After the media publicized Bennett’s announcement, many others in mainline churches admitted their own Charismatic experiences. Many z2 Barrett, “Global Statistics,” DPCM, 812-815. 7 88 Charismatic leaders were able to stay in their traditional churches and cultivate renewal. But hundreds of others were forced out. New wine skins were needed for the new wine. As a result, tens of thousands of independent Charismatic churches were eventually formed across the United States and around the world. For the sake of definition, “independent Charismatic” denotes churches or ministries that have embraced the Charismatic Renewal and, because of their Charismatic experiences and innovations, are not institutionally linked to classical Pentecostalism or any denomination. Although these churches only began to form in the early 1970s, they represent 14% of all Charismatics and now make up the fastest growing segment of Christianity in the United States as well as in many Third World countries.23 There are between 60,000 and 100,000 independent Charismatic congregations in the USA alone. Consistent with observations made in the beginning of this article, independent Charismatic churches are bom out of renewal and have certain characteristics which promote effective missionary outreach. What are these characteristics? First, despite the apparent “babel” of diversity, there is an underlying spiritual unity among these churches. Nowadays old rifts are being forgotten and Charismatic churches and ministers are coming together in “networks”-loose, overlapping ministerial associations without the legal or bureaucratic encumbrances. Well known examples include Charismatic Bible Ministries (1,500 ministers), Christ for the Nations (600 churches), Rhema Ministerial Association (500 churches) and the large, umbrella type Network of Christian Ministries, which brings together leaders of other networks. Second, independent Charismatic churches, like new wine skins, help preserve the witness and the heritage of the Charismatic Renewal. The practical value of this is best seen in light of the fact that most mainline Charismatics become “postcharismatics” after two or three years of involvement in the renewal. 24 Third, independent Charismatic churches have unleashed their laity. They have recruited, apprenticed, and released into ministry and missions thousands of people with little or no formal theological training. Not that professional training is of no value. But Christian history teaches us that God often calls and uses people on the periphery of our religious institutions. “Can . anything good come out of Nazareth?” “Peter D. Hocken, “Charismatic Movement,” DPCM, 144; Wagner, “Church Growth,” DPCM, 181-182; Paul G. Chappell, “Healing Movements,” DPCIU 374; Stephen Strang, “Nondenominational Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches,” DPCM, 640; Barrett, “Global Statistics,” DPCM, 811-813. “For definition and statistics on “postcharismatics” in mainline churches, see Wagner, “Church Growth,” DPCM, 183; Barrett, “Global Statistics,” DPCM, 811-813, 826. 8 Fourth, Charismatic The by leaders, Jesus, people Renewal, powerful strongest and most consistent For an exception the movement’s missions. Many movement. 89 and missionaries are “practical” or mission fields. But some of these love the Lord Missions thrust of the Charismatic Charismatic churches and a major missionary pastors theologians. frame of reference for their theology is provided, not the seminary, but by the context of their ministry and by the hurts, needs and questions of their congregations The lack of theological foundations is sometimes problematic. who are often the subject of a media-inquisition, love their congregations and have led hundreds and thousands of into a liberating experience of the kingdom of God. These and other spiritual and institutional dynamics make the Charismatic and in particular, the independent Charismatic church, a force for world evangelism. The “Slow” Emergence of Charismatic If renewal and missions are linked, then what kind of missionary movement has come out of the Charismatic Renewal, and what kinds of structures and strategies are being used to muster missions activity? While denominational Charismatic missionaries have excelled, the missionary Renewal has come from the independent ministries.’ To this exciting story we now turn. a while, it looked as though the Charismatic Renewal would be to the rule that revival results in mission. Some still question missionary track record. Three things need to be noted. First, not all Charismatic churches are equally interested in are still “bless-me” communities, not yet realizing missions as the reason for revival. Second, the Protestant Reformation was nearly two centuries old before it produced And third, most of what is now being done by Charismatics in missions remains undocumented. But there are indicators of a ground swell of effective missionary activity among Charismatics. the beginnings of a distinctively Charismatic missionary thrust have been relatively slow for the following reasons.26 within the churches. rightly spent much time and energy bringing their own churches and denominations. Structure limitations. Thousands of independent have no connections with organized missions agencies. Many have espoused the ideal of being a “sending church” apart from the expertise and assistance of agencies that specialize in if any, have really succeeded over the long haul. Related to this problem is the spirit of independence that obstructs practical, functional unity and cooperation however, Renewal ministry Charismatic leaders renewal to bear upon churches training and sending missionaries. efforts. Admittedly, Many of the early Charismatic sending Few, in missions 2S 26 Hocken, “Charismatic Movement,” DPCM, 157. Pousson, Spreading the Flame, 79-82. 9 90 Strategy limitations. The emphasis on the Holy Spirit and subjective guidance sometimes preempts practical goal-setting and informed strategy planning. Once a Charismatic minister “felt led” to evangelize a certain Caribbean island. He resigned from his pastorate, raised funds and went to the island, finding nothing but coconut trees. No people. Limited theology of mission. Charismatic anti-intellectualism coupled with the idea of learning by “revelation” apart from theological discipline has taken a toll. Too many churches are built around faith for prosperity, healing and spiritual gifts, often to the exclusion of the biblical basis of missions and the New Testament revelation of the Holy Spirit as empowerment for worldwide, cross-cultural witness to the Risen Lord. Limited missions exposure. Many independent Charismatics have little awareness of recent global mission trends even in their own movement. What is an unreached people group? What is the 10/40 Window? What is the AD 2000 & Beyond movement? What is a career missionary, and how does a person become one? Sad to say, surveys have shown that vast numbers of Charismatics all across the United States are simply unacquainted with these and other mission dynamics. Related to this lack of exposure is the lack of real missionary vision and leadership. These and other bottlenecks account for what some would consider a sluggish start for Charismatic missions. But that is not the whole picture. There are signs that Charismatics, particularly the independents, are seizing a global missions vision and making a global contribution. Charismatics, for example, outnumbered Pentecostals in the number of worldwide annual converts in 1988, according to David Banrett.2′ From the very beginning of the Charismatic movement there were notable missionary pioneers. And through the decades of movement we have seen the emergence of Charismatic sending churches, sending agencies, and a premier association of Charismatic mission agencies and churches called the Association of International Missions Services (AIMS). Charismatic Missionary Pioneers Oral Roberts, T. L. Osborn, Gordon Lindsay, Kenneth Hagin, Sr., and Lester Sumrall are among the few leaders from the Post-World War II healing revival (1947-1958) who also became significant leaders in the subsequent Charismatic Renewal. They have blazed a trail for Charismatic missions. Oral Roberts founded the university named after him which trains Charismatics from all over the world. From 1976 to 1990, Oral Roberts University sent several thousand students into more than 30 countries on “Summer Missions” assignments. T. L. Osborn has played a leading role in Charismatic renewal and missions. By the early 1970s he had already evangelized in over 50 27Barrett,. “Global Statistics,” DPCM, 811. 10 91 countries where his ministry was producing more than 400 self-supporting churches annually. 21 In 1970 Gordon Lindsay founded Christ for the Nations Institute (CFNI) which continues to train and send out Charismatic missionaries to many parts of the world. Kenneth Hagin, Sr. and Lester Sumrall have also founded and led major Charismatic ministries which have launched missionaries and missions efforts in every continent. Pentecostal/Charismatic pioneer Daniel Ost founded Charismatic Ministerial Institute (CMI) in El Carmen, Mexico in 1955. Since then, CMI has trained and launched more than 1,000 ministers throughout Mexico and in ten other countries, including India and France. CMI graduates have founded 120 churches called “Centers of Faith, Hope and Love” which are transforming major cities across Mexico. The school is now challenging its students to go as missionaries to the “10/40 Window,” the least evangelized region of the world, stretching from West Africa to East Asia, 10 degrees and 40 degrees north of the equator. Mexico is no longer just a mission field, but also a missionary force.29 Charismatic Sending Churches Bethany World Prayer Center in Baker, Louisiana is an independent Charismatic church of four to five thousand members. A million dollars annually from their budget supports various projects and over 100 missionaries in 25 countries. One-third of these missionaries were recruited and sent out from Bethany World Prayer Center. The pastor, Larry Stockstill, a graduate of Oral Roberts University, has adopted a strategy which combines crusade evangelism with church planting techniques. With this strategy, several large and growing churches have recently been planted in Russia, Nicaragua, Uganda and India. In 1991, for example, a Bethany team held an evangelistic church planting crusade in Moscow. The result was 5,000 decisions for Christ and 1,000 new believers in attendance at the first service of the Moscow Christian Center. . Another Charismatic church with a serious missionary vision is John Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. Since its founding in 1961, Lakewood Church has launched effective missions outreaches to more than a hundred countries.3° Tulsa Christian Fellowship, the oldest independent Charismatic church in Tulsa, Oklahoma numbers about 500 and gives $150,000 a year to missions. They have sent out at least 28 David Edwin Harrell, Jr., All Things Are Possible: The Healing and Charismatic Revivals in Modern America (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1975), 171. z9 Lee Anderson and Christina Tumey, “Mexican Churches Charisma & Growing Christian Rapidly,” Life 19 (October 1993): 68-73. ” Stephen Strang, “Osteen, John Pentecostal Explosion (Altamonte Springs, FL: Creation House, Hillery,” DPCM, 656; Vinson Synan, The Twentieth-Century 1987), 25-29. 11 92 40 of their own people as missionaries involved in just about everything from Bible translation to pioneer evangelism among unreached people groups. Still another example, the 8,000-member Victory Christian Center, also in Tulsa, supports 125 missionaries to 20 different countries. A closer look at a few successful sending churches, including some of those mentioned above, has revealed certain keys to their success. 1) They have a consistently missions-minded pastor and a missions director or a missions committee to steer the church’s missionary involvement. 2) They commit a substantially large percentage, typically from 20% to 30%, of their annual budget to missions. 3) They strongly emphasize the role of the local church in missions, providing consistent missions exposure through literature, preaching and mission conventions. 4) They provide their missionary candidates with both informal apprentice training as well as structured Bible school training. 5) They have loose but functional ties with mission organizations that provide various types of training, helps and services to their missionaries. For example, they may send a missionary through Youth With a Mission or Wycliffe Bible Translators. Some churches relate to Charismatic service agencies that handle the missionaries’ financial matters and newsletters. 6) Sending churches usually have relationships with senior missionaries and/or indigenous Christian leaders in or near to the countries where their missionaries serve. These leaders in the host countries serve as mentors and field directors, especially for new missionaries. 7) Successful sending churches provide pastoral care for their missionaries away from home. This caring support involves correspondence, phone calls, cassette recordings of the pastor’s sermons, and, if necessary, a personal visit from the missions director. These seven factors make up a fairly simple and reproducible methodology, regardless of the size of the church. The Charismatic sending church model has much to offer. It bring their members back to the New Testament conviction that Charismatic experiences are given to the church for the purpose of mission. It emphasizes the centrality of the local church in missions. It produces missionaries that have the local church at heart and believe in church planting. And it helps ease church-missions tensions that exist in many Christian traditions. Despite a highly vocalized ideal of “sending direct” without the aid of so-called “para-church” organizations, I have found that the really successful sending churches usually rely on extra-local entities for help in training, mobilizing, serving and supervising their missionaries. When, however, the church tries to act like a self-contained mission agency, certain weaknesses crop up. Missionaries often become like lone rangers on the frontier without proper supervision or accountability. To the other extreme, some sending churches only get 12 93 involved with persons and projects that they can somehow control from the home front. Furthermore, many churches that try to be the mission agency act more like travel agencies. Short term mission trips to places where churches already exist becomes a substitute for real pioneer missions work. Other weaknesses include the sending of inadequately trained missionaries, haphazard field selection, and duplication or lack of cooperation between missionaries in the same location. The greatest problem with churches that try to become the mission agency is the historically repeating pattern whereby the apostolic function becomes absorbed by churchly concerns. A sudden or gradual shift in missions philosophy or priorities on the part of the sending church can leave missionaries in the lurch. In 1990, for example, a large Charismatic sending church changed its focus from foreign missions to home missions and expeditiously withdrew financial support from 35 overseas missionaries. Many of these had to come home because all their eggs were in one basket. Charismatic Sending Agencies Consistent with the pattern of the Great (nineteenth) Century, whereby awakening resulted in the proliferation of new mission agencies, the Charismatic Renewal has also produced a multitude of new mission structures. Many of the Charismatic networks described earlier in this article have formed creative missionary sending and service agencies which contribute in various ways to the recruiting, training, and mobilizing of cross-cultural missionaries. Other Charismatic mission structures have emerged independently of networks. In the late 1980s, one hundred new agencies surfaced in the Western world, and over three hundred in the Third World.3′ At least ten of the agencies listed as “Charismatic” in the 1993-95 edition of the Mission Handbook are independent Charismatic and represent a total of 646 USA personnel overseas.32 There are many other agencies of various types which represent thousands of Charismatic missionaries. Listed in the Mission Handbook as transdenominational, Youth With A Mission has thousands of missionaries who come from independent Charismatic churches. Not listed in the Handbook, the Oklahoma-based “Teen Mania” has sent hundreds of high school students on summer missions outreaches since 1987. In the summer of 1993, for example, Teen Mania took 1,750 teens to 14 countries, including Mongolia, Egypt and Albania.33 A Charismatic Missions Association In 1985, Charismatic leader Howard Foltz saw that the groundswell Charismatic missionary activity would warrant some kind of 31 32 Barrett, “Global Statistics,” DPCM 830. Siewert and Kenyon, Mission Handbook, 248, 255-256. “1. Lee Grady, “Radically Saved,” Charisma & Christian Life 19 (September 1993): 38-40. 13 94 overarching fellowship or association. So he founded and now leads the Association of International Missions Services (AIMS), a consortium of some 150 Charismatic sending churches, sending agencies and training institutions. Based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, AIMS is devoted to catalyzing the resources of the Charismatic Renewal for world evangelization. It provides a framework for unity, cooperation and the sharing of information between its member organizations. These kinds of developments suggest that the Charismatic Renewal is producing a major missionary thrust, and that the independent Charismatic church is the heartbeat of this thrust. With this in view, we now take up questions raised in the introduction about the relationship between Pentecostal missions and Charismatic missions. The Charismatic Contribution in Relation to Pentecostal Missions Several observers of Pentecostalism agree that the various Pentecostal and Charismatic expressions in the twentieth century all stem from one eschatological renewal movement. The spiritual foundations and impulses for Charismatic missions are traced to the same Holy Spirit revival that began at the start of this century. For all their innovations, Charismatic missions stand in strong continuity with the Pentecostal movement in certain important respects. How Pentecostal Missions Impacts Charismatic Missions First, most of the early pioneers in Charismatic missions, including those mentioned above, either had Pentecostal roots or were influenced by Pentecostalism. Gordon Lindsay, for example, in the late 1960s transformed his revivalistic “Voice of Healing” organization into a Charismatic missionary society devoted to world evangelization. By 1973, Lindsay’s ministry, Christ for the Nations, had helped finance 3,000 church buildings in 83 nations and had distributed 15 million books in 46 languages. 31 Second, Charismatics have also followed many of the strategies of Pentecostal missions. For example, the supernatural calling and recruitment of missionaries, apprenticeship training of missionaries, the use of women in missions, the dependence on the Spirit’s intervention in evangelism, the use of evangelistic crusades to plant churches and the application of indigenous church principles are common strategies in both Pentecostal and Charismatic missions. And third, Pentecostalism’s theological motivation for mission has significantly impacted the Charismatic movement. The Pentecostal emphasis on the Holy Spirit as empowerment for mission is basic to Charismatic missions. Charismatics have inherited from Pentecostals a “Gary B. McGee, “Association of International Mission Services,” DPCM, 30; Pousson, Spreading the Flame, 25-26, 52, 70, 88, 127-128. 35Harrell,A// Things Are Possible, 166-168. 14 95 strong commitment to the literal and plain meanings of Scripture, a Christ-centered approach to worship, preaching, and ministry, a sense of urgency for mission as people living in the last days and a sense of divine destiny.36 Although “Charismatic theology” is still in its formative stages, many Charismatic leaders intuitively know that their Charismatic experiences should lead to evangelism and missions. Emerging Charismatic Contributions to Theology of Mission The Charismatic movement is consistent with historic Evangelical theology with respect to the Trinity, the Incarnation, Christ’s atonement, resurrection, regeneration by the Spirit and other basic doctrines.” Also, as noted above, Charismatics are basically in the same theological orbit as Pentecostals. The Charismatic movement, however, is yet to develop an adequate theology of mission as such. A solid theology of mission would, in fact, be an effective antidote to many of the abuses in Charismatic circles. Nevertheless, there are several tenets of Charismatic “theology-on-the-way” that can or do contribute positively to mission and mission theology. Faith teachings. Despite its many abuses, the so-called “faith movement” honors God and serves mission inasmuch as it cultivates in people a deeply personal, corporate and biblical trust in the Person and power of Jesus Christ. Charismatic faith teaching stresses physical healing, material well-being, positive thinking and confession, divine guidance and the believer’s authority and victory over Satan, principalities and powers. Criticisms and reactions against these teachings abound. Some criticisms are valid. But the spiritual dynamics related to the faith teachings positively account for much of the success in Charismatic evangelism and missions today. Rightly focused faith is central and essential to all successful missions. Howard Foltz of AIMS writes, Faith teaching has elevated the expectations of many believers today to for God and “attempt great things expect great things from God.” When dynamic rhema faith is released in reaching the nations, and not on selfish or material wants, great things can happen. Numerous missionaries from the faith movement have gone to the mission field and believed God for far more than the “average” missionary. 38 Kingdom now. There is another stream of Charismatic thought known as “Kingdom Now.” Leading centers of this emphasis include Earl Paulk’s 10,000-member Chapel Hill Harvester Church in Atlanta, Georgia, and Tommy Reid’s Full Gospel Tabernacle of Orchard Park, New York. These, and others in the “kingdom now” circle, model and 36 McClung, Azusa Street and Beyond, 48-52. “J. I. Packer, “Piety on Fire,” Christianity Today, 12 May 1989, 20. 38Howard Foltz, “Moving Toward a Charismatic Theology of Missions,” paper presented at the 17th Annual Meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies (Virginia Beach, VA: November 12-14, 1987), 76-77. 15 96 visible expression of God’s concern on change social conscience Covenant theology. into secular society for the sake of The church is to be a of urge active Christian penetration social service and structural transformation. dominion in the world. Kingdom now theology represents at least a small step towards a theology of social the part of Charismatics. Since internal and external cultural is part of the biblical missionary mandate, the emergence of a in Charismatic circles is praiseworthy. This wing of the Charismatic movement emerged from the controversial discipleship-shepherding teachings the 1970s. Some of these principles continue to find expression in many Charismatic churches today, such as the Fellowship of Covenant Churches and Ministers founded by Charles Simpson and based in Mobile, Alabama. Covenant teachings emphasize self denial, obedience to the commands of Jesus and the need for growth to maturity in the between believers and between spiritual and mentorees. Notwithstanding abuses in discipleship circles, their basic principles are at the heart of the Great Commission and can contribute positively to a theology of mission. context of strong relationships mentors Restorationism. Restorationist Charismatic Carolina based National emphasize the recovery paradigms, teachings are emphasized in several and the Montreat, North groupings, including a nation-wide network of churches known as the People of Destiny International, Leadership Conference. Their teachings of the nine spiritual gifts of 1 Corinthians 12, and the “five-fold ministry” of Ephesians 4:11, especially the apostolic and prophetic dimensions of church authority. Driven by these the People of Destiny movement has developed a creative model of ministry based on Paul’s apostolic team in the book of Acts. The movement is led by a mobile team of four to six “apostolic” team” provides direction for church planting, church nurturing and leadership training, but the relationship between churches is spiritual, leaders. This “apostolic the team and the non-bureaucratic.39 This approach Paul’s missionary band. This semi-autonomous and and its theological convictions display principles and dynamics consistent with those of the apostle “restoration” of apostolic teams is a positive contribution to world evangelism movements. One of the most significant Prayer theological and power developments in the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement 1986): Quoted Prince,” People of Destiny Lfagazine 39Hocken, “Charismatic Movement,” DPCM, 141f; Larry Tomczak, “The World Mission of Every Christian,” People of Destiny Magazine 4 (September/October 15; Larry Tomczak, “Relationship With the Sending Church,” in The Church Planters Handbook, ed. Jim Durkin, et. ai. (South Lake Tahoe, CA: Christian Equippers International, 1988), 105. 40 in 1986 Charismatic leader Derek Prince said, “I’ve also begun to see that in a certain sense the major outreach arm of the Church should be apostolic teams.” from Larry Tomczak, ed., “Unfinished Business, An Interview with Derek 4 (September/October 1986): 23. 16 97 comes under the rubric of “signs and wonders” and “spiritual warfare.” The present proliferation of power literature by Pentecostals/ Charismatics and “third-wavers,” such as Peter Wagner and Charles Kraft,. is making an immense contribution toward our understanding of how effectively to resist and neutralize demonic powers that hinder evangelism and missions. Without these and other spiritual dynamics, missiological techniques and methodologies are like state-of-the-art computer hardware without the software to run it. The current global prayer and power movement which is sweeping into all six continents is introducing new spiritual dynamics for evangelism and missions with documented results in terms of countable disciples of the kingdom. Much of the above may indeed represent formative Charismatic contributions to mission theology and the science of missiology. Most of the hermeneutical problems in Charismatic teachings could be ironed out by the integration of a solid evangelical theology of the kingdom with an understanding of the mission of God. However, theological formulation always lags behind revival and missionary movements. We must remain patient but hopeful. I agree with missions professor, L. Grant McClung’s statement that, . In this “Decade of Definition” there will be a rapid growth in the science of pentecostal/charismatic studies and enough missiological literature to support what I feel is the emergence of a definitive pentecostal/charismatic missiology.” Consistent with precedent patterns of renewal and missions, fresh theological reflection has created fresh missionary motivation among Charismatic believers. What Charismatic Missions Can Learn from Pentecostals If Charismatic churches, especially those of the independent movement, are to maximize their potential for world evangelism, there are several areas where Charismatics need to catch up with their Pentecostal friends. First, Charismatics need to tackle the disciplines of theology and missiology. Charismatics must learn from Pentecostals to overcome their own anti-intellectualism and engage in high-level theological reflection as Pentecostals are now doing. J. Rodman Williams of Regent University in Virginia has made forward strides with Renewal Theology, a three-volume work which takes a fresh look at theology from a Charismatic perspective. But much remains to be done, especially in the area of mission theology. Many Charismatics are yet to learn and embrace what classical Pentecostalism really stands for-that, as a part of salvation history, renewal is essentially missionary in nature and cannot be complete without expansion to the unchurched and the unreached. 41 L. Grant McClung, ” Mission in the 1990s,” International Bulletin Research 14 ofMissionary (October 1990): 153. 17 98 Second, Charismatics must overcome their own aversion to organization. It was not until the forebearers of the Pentecostal movement struck the right balance between Spirit-led spontaneity and strategic organization that their movement became an effective worldwide missionary force. The Assemblies of God denomination, for example, was formed in 1914 as an agency for world evangelization. This organizational move helped provide sorely needed cooperation among pastors and churches, and helped achieve a more effective missionary outreach. Before that time, Pentecostal missions was notorious for a number of fiascoes due to the lack of organization. Charismatics have needlessly repeated virtually every early Pentecostal fiasco: duplication, competition, inadequate training and financial backing for missionaries, lack of structure and the omission of long-term strategy planning. Many are yet to learn the lesson from Pentecostalism that a certain amount of organization is necessary if Charismatics are to fulfill their own missionary calling.” Third, Charismatics need to create, recognize, and unchain more mission structures. Espousing ideals of a “sending church,” some Charismatics all around the world are trying to turn local churches into missionary sending agencies. A related problem is the practice of subjecting mission agencies to the control of sending churches. These practices are contrary to the New Testament pattern and deaf to the voice and verdict of missions history, which teaches us that the authority for mission is not tied to any ecclesiastical institution. The authority- for mission stems directly from the word of the Spirit and from a revelation of Christ in the calling of the missionary. Paul’s apostolic team was not in any way under the direction of the Antioch church. Both church and mission team were under the headship of Christ and the spontaneous leading of the Spirit of God. Where this pattern has been recovered through history, missions has prospered. But where the local church has tried to control missions, it has generally stifled rather than stimulated effective cross-cultural evangelism. Research has confirmed this outcome among Charismatics as well. For Charismatics to unleash a more effective missionary force, they will need to multiply and release more mission structures and provide more and more missionary candidates with a clearly defined career path to missions. Conclusion: “Nine O’Clock in the Evening” The century-old Pentecostal movement, and the one-half-century-old Charismatic movement, and the younger expression known as the “third wave” all represent twentieth-century expressions of the eschatological outpouring of the Holy Spirit which began in the first 42 Howard Foltz, “Bottlenecks Hindering Mission Mobilization,” Ministries 4 (Summer 1986): 42; Pomerville, The Third Force in Missions, 57. 18 engage 99 century A.D. The essential purpose of this and all other renewals is to the church in God’s redemptive mission to the nations. What will it take to make the twentieth century the greatest century of all in even if this achievement takes factors, the history Christian missions, Pentecostals, twenty-first century? theological breakthroughs, needed? Charismatics and other Christians a few decades into the What new institutional and what new spiritual dynamics institutionalization. happens, God always sparks what new are that First, with respect to the above suggestions about organization, both Pentecostals and Charismatics must avoid the trap of over Renewal creates new patterns and structures for ministry and missions. But eventually, these become organizations quench the Spirit. As movements become mature institutions, they tend to “domesticate” the Spirit and the kingdom of God. When this a renewal somewhere on the periphery of the ecclesiastical structures of the day. Then, old wine skins often burst rather than stretch to accommodate the new things God is doing. The and Charismatics is this: how can they the necessary and church spontaneous institutions are increasingly ineffective for cross-cultural Third World models and strategies are multiplying question for Pentecostals continue to provide evangelism, missions spiritual dynamics? informal becoming increasingly effective. 43 overlooked. are Calvinistic thinking think Charismatics reflection structures and strategies for growth without quenching Traditional centralized, hierarchical missions, while and if they to critical Second, the necessity of ongoing theological reflection must not be We have noted that new missionary movements have often been fueled by fresh theological thinking. What theological alterations now needed in Pentecostal/Charismatic communities in order for there to be a fresh outburst of missionary zeal and action? Extreme was a theological barrier in the days of William Carey. Pentecostals and Charismatics are kidding themselves there are no theological barriers today. What are these barriers? How can they be identified and challenged? Are Pentecostals and willing to subject their favorite theologies and scrutiny in order to identify their own blind spots that hinder world missions? And third, what kinds of new spiritual dynamics are needed to launch new and greater missionary movements from Pentecostal/Charismatic communities? Reporting on the 45th General Council of the Assemblies in Minneapolis in August 1993, Peter Johnson asked the question, “Can the world’s largest Pentecostal the revival fires of Azusa Street and go on to greater spiritual heights? of God held denomination reignite Handbook “Bryant L. Myers, “The Changing Shape of World Mission,” in A4ission 1993-95, eds. John A. Siewert and John A. Kenyon (15th Edition; Monrovia, CA: MARC, 1993), 35. 19 100 Or will it degenerate into a bureaucratic dinosaur nourished chiefly by programs, building projects, and committees?”44 Johnson’s question represents the kinds of questions being asked by many Pentecostals and Charismatic leaders today. But my response is, do Pentecostals and Charismatics really want to relight Azusa Street? Some Pentecostal and Charismatics are looking back to what God has done in the past with a kind of “do-it-again-God” nostalgia. But God never quite does it again; his work is often new, surprising, incredible. But a recurring problem with every generation that experiences renewal is the tendency to cling to and perpetuate the forms and expressions of their particular brand of spirituality. When God begins doing new things, they look back to the old ways. My point is this: God is already lighting new fires of renewal and missionary zeal around the world. Many Pentecostals and Charismatics are in the center of it, but some either do not see it or they are standing aloof and looking askance. I am referring to the many multifaceted movements, especially in the Third World, that are now converging under the banner of the AD 2000 & Beyond movement. In all six continents there are the stirrings of an unprecedented transdenominational prayer and power movement which has its focus on the unfinished task of world evangelization. Through this global prayer movement, new spiritual dynamics are being introduced for the “pulling down of strongholds” that hinder evangelism and missions. Prayer concerts, prayer walks, marches for Jesus, spiritual mapping, repentance and reconciliation between pastors and leaders from different denominations and ethnic groups, and a renewed compassion for the lost, especially the peoples of the 10/40 window are some of the new patterns of spirituality that God is using to turn resistant populations into people who are receptive to the gospel.” One of the greatest challenges for the heirs of Pentecostalism will be to recognize the new ways in which the kingdom of God is now advancing and to remain on the crest of that wave until his glorious return. The way home is through harvest. “Peter K. Johnson, “AG Leaders Call for New Pentecost,” Charisma & Christian Life 19 (October 1993): 84. resources for the United Prayer Network of the AD 2000 Movement include: John Dawson, Taking Our Cities for God (Lake the the Mary, FL: Creation House, 1989); Cindy Jacobs, Possessing Gates of Enemy (Grand Rapids, MI: Chosen Books, 1991); C. Peter Wagner, ed., Engaging the Enemy (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1991); C. Peter Wagner, Warfare Prayer (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1992); C. Peter Wagner, ed., Breaking Strongholds in Your City (Ventura, CA: C. Peter Wagner, Churches that Pray Regal Books, 1993); (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1993); George Otis, Jr., The Last of the Giants (Grand Rapids, MI: Chosen Books, 1991). Information is available from: Mobilization of United Prayer Resource Network, 215 N. Marengo Ave., Suite 151, Pasadena, CA 91109. 20

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