Pentecostal Framework of Primitive Faith: Comparative Insights from Leading Pentecostal Scholars
Gordon Fee: Scripture-Centered Pneumatology
Fee’s scholarship emphasizes the Spirit’s role in New Testament theology, particularly in Pauline writings. While he critiques traditional Pentecostal doctrines like initial evidence, he affirms the Spirit’s transformative presence. Compared to Donev, Fee’s approach is exegetical and text-driven, whereas Donev’s triangle is experiential and restorationist, prioritizing lived encounter over doctrinal precision.
Stanley M. Horton: Doctrinal Clarity and Holiness
Horton’s work, especially in Bible Doctrines, provides a systematic articulation of Pentecostal beliefs, including Spirit baptism and sanctification. His theology is deeply rooted in Assemblies of God tradition. Donev de-emphasizes denominational boundaries, focusing instead on the primitive church’s egalitarian and Spirit-led ethos.
Craig Keener: Charismatic Experience and Historical Context
Keener bridges academic rigor with charismatic openness, especially in his work on miracles and Acts. His emphasis on historical plausibility and global charismatic phenomena aligns with Donev’s praxis-driven model. However, Keener’s scholarship is more apologetic and evidential, while Donev’s triangle is formational and communal.
Frank Macchia: Spirit Baptism and Trinitarian Theology
Macchia’s theology centers on Spirit baptism as a metaphor for inclusion and transformation, often framed within Trinitarian and sacramental lenses. Donev shares Macchia’s Trinitarian depth, especially in Eastern European contexts, but leans more toward neo-primitivism and ecclesial simplicity.
Vinson Synan: Historical Continuity and Global Pentecostalism
Synan’s historical work traces Pentecostalism’s roots and global expansion. Donev builds on this by reclaiming Pentecostal narratives, such as those of Ivan Voronaev. Both emphasize restoration, but Donev’s triangle is more prescriptive, offering a model for future church practice.
Robert Menzies: Missional and Contextual Theology
Menzies focuses on Pentecostal mission and theology in Asian contexts, often challenging Western assumptions. His emphasis on Spirit empowerment for mission resonates with Donev’s praxis element. Yet, Donev’s model is more legitimately communal, drawing from Orthodox and Puritan influences.
Cecil M. “Mel” Robeck: Ecumenism and Pentecostal Identity
Robeck’s work on Pentecostal ecumenism and global dialogue complements Donev’s inclusive vision. Both advocate for Pentecostal distinctiveness without isolation, though Donev’s triangle is more grassroots and revivalist, aimed at local church transformation.
Implications for Church Practice
Donev’s triangle offers a practical blueprint for churches seeking renewal:
- Prayer ministries that foster intimacy and prophetic intercession.
- Power encounters through healing services and spiritual gift activation.
- Praxis initiatives like community outreach, justice advocacy, and discipleship.
Compared to other scholars, Donev’s model is less academic and more actionable, designed to reignite the apostolic fire in everyday church life.
10 New Insights on Fighting COVID-19: Increasing Immunity, Natural Action and Common Sense
- COVID-19 can live for some 24-hours on cardboard. Leave home-delivery shipments in garage for this time and then bring only inside contents into home after disinfecting them.
- Shave facial hair and consider removing fake fingernails or cutting long nails.
- Eucalyptus oil shows anti-viral activity as a vapor.
- Be careful with DIY hand-sanitizers – only those that have 60-70% alcohol content will be effective.
- Soap and water remove germs from skin, but hand sanitizer just reduces germs – per CDC.
- COVID-19 can also transmit through our eyes and tiny viral particles or aerosols, can penetrate masks and reusing masks can be a breeding ground for virus.
- MERV 13 filters capture airborne viruses and bacteria from coughs and sneezes. Clean air helps keep your immune system strong even though it might not remove COVID-19.
- Sucking on zinc lozenges at first signs of sickness can create barrier for COVID-19 to enter body.
- Steam for 5 minutes and dishwashers reaching a final rinse temperature of 150 degrees can disinfect pet bowls, scrub pads, some kids’ toys and more and drying laundry on hot cycle for 45 minutes is effective against certain viruses and germs.
- Worry only decreases your immunity to fight off viruses; prayer is proven to increase it.
The Missional Church
The nature of the church is missional, through the fact that its existence is powered by the Great Commission. The book summarizes the culture of today’s American spirituality and its relation to the apostolic church. The main question is, “What would a theology of the church look like that took seriously the fact that North America is now itself a mission field?”
Five Key Insights
1. The missional nature of the church – The place which the church takes in the surrounding world/society defines its nature as missional. How it interacts with the surrounding worlds identifies the church’s response to the needs of individuals and groups of people and results in its success/failure to fulfill its original mission. A valid point was the statement that the witness of the missional church is characterized by its integrity.
2. Recovering missional identity – Recovering the church’s original New Testament identity has been a subject of discussion for many various ages in church history. The volume of works written about it has indeed increased in the latter part of the 20th century. The discussion in the book claims that as truth, self, and society are rediscovered in postmodernism, the churches of North America will recover its missional identity. Thus, the individual search of identity will reflect on the corporate search of the church as a community and as the Body of Christ. Chapter four further claims that the churches missional identity is shaped by the gospel of the reign of God which Jesus preached.
3. The Holy Spirit and the community of the missional churches – The Chapter on the Holy Spirit, although very informative, did not integrate the connection between the Spirit and Missional outreach to a practical paradigm, but it was mostly a theoretic and philosophical proposition.
4. On spiritual leadership – the discussion on spiritual leadership is based on the axiom that leadership is focused on the reign of God. Only then the church assumes its mission. Solving problems and creating unity within the church is reached through the same focus on the reign of God.
5. The secular surroundings – the vision of the church may not align with the secular surrounds. Actually, it may often completely contradict them fulfilling its role as a prophetic utterance. At the same time, social, political and economical factors may oppose the message and the mission of the church, thus creating an atmosphere in which the church grows against the grain.
