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This blog is about looking for information and advice from a Pentecostal view.

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I don't see any reason for tension between head and heart in Pentecostal spirituality, and every reason why life in the Spirit should be radically integrated. In her great book Pentecostal Formation: A Pedagogy Among the Oppressed, Dr. Cheryl Johns uses the Hebrew word yada as the basis for the Pentecostal understanding of "knowing" God. Yada is a "knowing more by the heart than by the mind, a knowing that arises not by standing back from in order to look at, but by active and intentional engagement in lived experience." Significantly, was used as a euphemism for love making and the past participle of yada used for a good friend or confidant. This is not just a Pentecostal understanding of what it is to know God, but a biblical one. It is not truly possible to love God without loving Him with "all your mind" and "all your heart."

At Renovatus, we have a document we really live by called the Renovatus manifesto. It doesn't replace the apostles' creed as a doctrinal statement (which we confess every week), but it is very much what we believe is particular to our call as a community. One of those statements is "We will practice the liturgy and the primal shout: We will incite worship that engages both intellect and emotion, believing that the head and heart are to be integrated and not divorced." I think embracing diverse aspects of liturgy and the shout ensures that both head and heart are nurtured.

We have another statement that says: " We will reach out without dumbing down (I borrowed that phrase brazenly from Marva Dawn): We will challenge you to think hard about God, Church and culture. We will not treat you like a consumer, but as a co-conspirator in the re-imagining of the world." I once saw a bumper-sticker that said "If you won't pray at my school, I won't think at your church." In our Pentecostal church, you won't last long if you aren't willing to think, because we take the business of being the church very seriously-and that requires deep, sustained reflection. Caesars and empires do everything than can to keep people from thinking, and in our culture I see challenging people to think deeply about their faith to be an act of resistance. At Renovatus, we attempt to model an integration of head and heart, belief and action.
From James: I know Pentecostals who are dogmatic about God speaking to them. The thing is, God appears to tell different people different things, so I wonder if God actually is speaking to them. What are your thoughts on God speaking to people? How can one avoid abuses that come from that claim?
Here's the truthful answer: on one hand, the idea that God speaks dynamically through Christian community has been the thing that I've most cherished about my Pentecostal tradition. Some of the most powerful, life-altering moments of my life have come through the gift of brothers and sisters speaking to me on God's behalf. The idea that anyone in the Church can be a vessel for divine speech is especially beautiful to me.

It is also extremely dangerous. And alternately, some of my worst experiences within Pentecostal tradition have been through people running amuck giving out "words." We have had to step into situations pastorally on a couple of occasions where we felt like individuals within our community gave words that were manipulative or misleading. I have had a number of personal "prophecies" delivered over me that could have been faith shattering. My wife and I have been married for over 12 years without children (another story for another time). I have literally lost count of the people who have spoken over us that we would have a baby within some kind of a specific time frame. That's a sore spot for me.

But here is what it comes down to: you cannot create space for the real without creating space for the immature and even the fake. I think it's fascinating that in the context of lengthy instructions on how to ensure that tongues and interpretations operate in an orderly way in I Corinthians 12-14, Paul comes back around to say "Forbid not to speak in tongues." Because the most natural response to abuse of a gift is not to use the gift at all. And for as deeply Pentecostal as I am, as a pastor now I completely understand this instinct. There are moments in the heat of that kind of pastoral correction where you would just as soon (where I would just as soon!) shut the whole enterprise down. But ultimately, you have to ask yourself the question: is it worth shutting down the authentic voice of God in an attempt to root out the fake? I think the risks of that are far greater.

So like many Pentecostals, I do share a strong belief that we can hear God speak to us. But I also believe there are some necessary safeguards. We have an elder couple in our church, Jim and Mims Driscoll, who teach a class for us on "Receiving and Giving Revelation." They have had a lot of experience counseling/training/rehabilitating misguided "prophetic" people. One of the things I love most about their approach is that they stress, over and over again, that the primary function of speaking God's heart in Christian community is to share His love. While it is possible that a corrective or instructive word could be given, this will not usually be the case. Usually, when God speaks to His bride, He speaks with tenderness. Prophecy or words of knowledge in the Church should be a direct extension of the love of God. The Driscolls counsel people that words should not generally be given in private-but normally with 2 or 3 others present so there is some accountability. This simple practice circumvents a world of problems.

For my part, I have become quite suspicious of the kind of "word" where somebody gives instruction to go and sell your house or get a different job or go on the mission field or make some radical life change. If such a word confirmed something an individual already sensed God saying to them, that would be one thing. But I am not likely to change course completely on something just because of an alleged prophetic utterance. I've seen that go wrong too many times. Because I do believe so strongly that each of us has the capacity to hear and discern the voice of God, I just don't think that much weight is typically going to land entirely on another person.
From Marty: A friend of mine grew up in a Pentecostal church and told me the story of the pressure to speak in tongues. Apparently in that church he couldn't be fully accepted until he had the Spirit and was able to demonstrate that verbally. So as a kid, he would go home and practice when no one was listening. He was successful at some point and everyone was happy. Now as an adult and part of a different tradition, he still has that skill and is quite convincing, but it is a skill he developed an not something else. My guess is that my friend's childhood impression is not quite where the tradition is at. So what does it mean to "speak in tongues"?
I sighed when I read this, as stories like these are still painful for me to hear (even though I know plenty of them). The doctrine of Spirit baptism with accompanying speaking in tongues has been the lynch pin of the Pentecostal movement, and I never want to minimize that. But all too often, tongues are treated as some sort of merit badge, and that is unfortunate. I think many people who sincerely want to operate within that gift are unable to, precisely because too much pressure is put on the experience. Instead of "you may kiss the bride," it can feel like a chore or something to check off on some sort of list. As Jack Hayford stated so well years ago, there is a fundamental beauty to spiritual language that is often lost when people put too much pressure and/or hype around the experience.

Like most Pentecostals, I believe that speaking in tongues is first and foremost a prayer language, a language of adoration and worship and intercession, between us and God. In the context of public worship, a tongue that is given in the assembly (not in a corporate time of prayer or worship) should be interpreted by someone with that gift for the edification of the church. If there is no interpreter, Paul says the person should "speak quietly to God." While I strongly believe in the interpretation of tongues, and even in the capacity of someone to speak in a foreign natural tongue they have not been taught (a la Acts 2), that experience is far less common than that of tongues as a prayer language.
From Sara: Many experiences I have had with members of Pentecostal churches and their leadership believe and teach that the Catholic church (and other liturgical Protestant denominations) are not Christian churches. What is your view? If you agree, where are you getting your information from? If you disagree, how are you challenging this stereotype?
I absolutely consider Catholic and mainline Protestant churches to be Christian churches. As I mentioned earlier, at Renovatus we recite the Apostles' Creed weekly, so it is ever before us that we are part of "the holy catholic church." (Though I end up having to explain in the South frequently that we mean "one universal Church comprised of all who call Jesus Lord," which of course includes Catholics but does not refer to the Roman Catholic Church explicitly.)

Now to be truthful, in the churches where I grew up, traveling prophecy preachers and teachers taught us that the Catholic church was the whore of Babylon and that the Pope would be the antichrist! As I got older, I rejected not only that notion but the entire dispensational eschatology on which those ideas are based (I will save my rant for later on why dispensational in any form should have no place in Pentecostal churches).

In terms of challenging the stereotype, I can tell you that my primary focus with my ThM at Duke was in Catholic Moral Theology. I published a piece in the Journal of Pentecostal Theology a few years ago called "Spirit, Apocalypse and Ethics: Reading Catholic Moral Theology as a Pentecostal." I don't know exactly where this fits in with my current day job and writing obligations, but I would love to do a PhD at some point that articulates a constructive Pentecostal approach to ethics in dialogue with Catholic moral theology, as I think there are significant connections. While Pentecostals have significant differences from Catholicism, we do have our own quirky catholicity mediated through our Wesleyan roots. While John Wesley was not Catholic, the Methodist/holiness movement that later gave rise to Pentecostalism certainly had tendencies more in line with Catholicism than the magisterial reformers, and I'd like to explore those further.
From Charity: I went to a pentecostal church as a teenager and two things I noticed was that prophesy and casting out demons were big to-do's. I was always afraid of having a demon, and afraid someone was going to prophesy something bad about me. Now, I realize not all pentecostal churches are the same, just as no two churches are the same, but I wonder what you believe is appropriate for keeping order within the church. I understand the importance of letting the Holy Spirit work, but when does this become a dangerous thing that could allow people not really under the influence of the spirit to hurt and manipulate others?
Anything that is powerful is dangerous, and power that legitimately comes from God is especially volatile. Both testaments are full of examples of people who have legitimate gifts but misuse the power. Combustible things are always going to happen when you mix genuine spiritual authority with broken human vessels, so structure and order are absolutely critical. As I referenced earlier, we have a number of safeguards for these practices at our church.

I do believe that there is a force of evil in the world that is greater than the sum of its parts, and that in the normal course of life in the kingdom, real resistance will be encountered. So I do believe there are times and places where demonic influences must be confronted. But I am also highly suspicious at this point of the over preoccupation with spiritual warfare that has become common in many Pentecostal/Charismatic churches. I find a lot of the "demon-busters" rhetoric to be overblown and in some cases destructive. On a pastoral level, I've had to deal with individuals within our community who have kind of jumped the shark with all of that. I like to remind people that, first and foremost, submission to God IS resistance to the evil one. Most of the time that will be enough.

I also lived in dread that certain evangelists would "call me out"-um, especially when I was going through puberty! At this point in my life, I am so convinced of the tenderness of the Father's heart that in those times when a public "word" is given from a person who understands the function of these gifts in the body of Christ, edification will be the aim.
From Matthew: Thanks for coming Jonathan! Let's assume that I was to come to your church with no knowledge of Pentecostal church tradition. I know I want to follow Christ, and I have heard great things about your church--what books do you recommend I read? What passage of Scripture do you recommend I dwell on? What conversation do you give to introduce me to Pentecostal faith?
I know I referenced it already, but Steven J. Land's Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdomreally is the definitive work for me on the nature and character of Pentecostalism, and certainly the resource that has most shaped me. The more recent Signs and Wonders: Why Pentecostalism is the World's Fastest Growing Faith by Paul Alexander is a more accessible introduction. Rather that recommending particular "Pentecostal texts," I would suggest a close reading of the Book of Acts on the whole. Acts frames the work of the Spirit in the broader context of Christian mission in precisely the same way Pentecostals do today. Thus there is not a sense of Pentecostal experiences as isolated or disconnected events, but deeply connected to the broader story of the kingdom of God advancing in the world.
From James: I'd like for you to interact with the issue of healing. If God heals today, why are there so many people who are sick? Do you believe it's due to lack of faith?
There is no way I can do justice to this issue here, but this is my short take: as it was in the ministry of the incarnate Son of God, healing serves as a sign of the wholeness yet to come when "the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea." Sickness and disease is a reality of a fallen world, but never part of God's intention for the creation.

I do not by any means think that people are generally not healed because of a lack of faith. I see the "word of faith" notion in some Charismatic circles (that all who have adequate faith will be healed and all who are not healed have inadequate faith) to be a destructive caricature of the doctrine of divine healing. In these systems, God is no longer the object of faith-faith is the object of faith. That's a disastrous move.

I have seen many people healed, I have seen many people pray and fast and seek God and not be healed. Ultimately, the question of why some are healed and others are not is beyond my pay grade. There is great mystery to this, and I cannot attempt to resolve the tension prematurely.

***
If you were as impressed with these responses as I was, please consider jumping over to Jonathan's blogand subscribing, so you can learn more! Check out the rest of our interview series here.

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I don't see any reason for tension between head and heart in Pentecostal spirituality, and every reason why life in the Spirit should be radically integrated. In her great book Pentecostal Formation: A Pedagogy Among the Oppressed, Dr. Cheryl Johns uses the Hebrew word yada as the basis for the Pentecostal understanding of "knowing" God.

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Bring a little light to the religion with a meme, this religion may look crazy to the outside eye.

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Britannica is a great source for information about Pentecostalism

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The origins of Pentecostalism

Although Pentecostals trace their origin to the Apostles, the modern-day Pentecostal movement has its roots in the late 19th century, a time of mounting indifference to traditional religion. Denominations that were known for revivalistic fervour became subdued. Emotional modes of religious expression-enthusiastic congregational singing, spontaneous testimonies, prayer in unison, and extemporaneous sermons on simple biblical themes by lay preachers-gave way to ordered, formal worship services that were conducted by "reverends," ministers trained in homiletics (preaching skills), who were influenced by higher biblical criticism. Lecture centres and elegant sanctuaries replaced camp meetings and crude wood-frame tabernacles.

As the large popular Protestant denominations became the churches of the upper-middle class, people of limited means began to feel out of place. They yearned to return to a "heart religion" that would satisfy their spiritual desires and their emotional, psychological, and physical needs. Pentecostalism, like its precursor, the Holiness movement (based on the belief that a second work of grace following conversion would "sanctify" Christians and remove the desire to sin), fulfilled these needs for churchgoers and nonchurchgoers alike. Moreover, Pentecostal churches, though open to all levels of society, spoke to the special needs of the disaffected.

Notwithstanding the charismatic outbursts in some 19th-century Protestant churches, the watershed of contemporary Pentecostalism came in the early 20th century at Bethel Bible College, a small religious school in Topeka, Kansas. The college's director, Charles Fox Parham, one of many ministers who was influenced by the Holiness movement, believed that the complacent, worldly, and coldly formalistic church needed to be revived by another outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He instructed his students-many of whom already were ministers-to pray, fast, study the Scriptures, and, like the Apostles, await the blessings of the Holy Spirit.

On January 1, 1901, Agnes Oznam became the first of Parham's students to speak in an unknown tongue. Others soon had the same experience, and Parham claimed that glossolalia was the "initial evidence" that one had been truly baptized with the Holy Spirit. Parham and his students understood these recurrences of Pentecost prophetically, interpreting them as signs of the imminence of the last days, or Endtime. Imbued with this sense of urgency, they set out on an evangelical mission.

Their initial efforts were unsuccessful, and the movement nearly collapsed as it encountered disbelief and ridicule. In 1903 its fortunes were revived when Parham returned to the practice of faith healing. Borrowed from several Holiness churches, notably the Christian and Missionary Alliance, faith healing became a hallmark of Pentecostalism. Parham was the first in a long line of Pentecostal evangelists (Mary B. Woodworth-Etter, Charles Price, Aimee Semple McPherson, and, more recently Oral Roberts, Kathryn Kuhlman, and Benny Hinn) who taught that Christ's atonement provides deliverance from sickness and is, therefore, the privilege of all who have the requisite faith. Attracting new converts, the movement enjoyed success in the American South and Southwest, especially in Texas, Alabama, and Florida. In Texas alone, 25,000 people had embraced the Pentecostal faith by 1905, according to Parham. Kansas and Missouri also became hotbeds for Pentecostalism.

Wider national and international expansion, however, resulted from the Azusa Street revival that began in 1906 at the Apostolic Faith Gospel Mission at 312 Azusa Street in Los Angeles. Its leader, William Seymour, a one-eyed Holiness church pastor and former member of the African Methodist Episcopal church, had been exposed to Parham's teachings at a Bible school in Houston, Texas. Under Seymour's guidance, the old frame building on Azusa Street became a great spiritual centre that for many years attracted rich and poor, blacks and whites, Anglos and Latinos, as well as many preachers whose own ministry had become staid.

Spiritually energized and convinced that they had been charismatically endowed, scores of men and women from Azusa and other Pentecostal churches began extolling the reality of speaking in tongues. Pentecostal Christians were linked only by an amorphous "spiritual union," in part because no thought was given to forming a separate "Pentecostal" branch of the Christian church. As members of the historic Protestant churches embraced Pentecostal beliefs and practices, they did so without any intention of withdrawing from their own churches. They merely wanted to be agents of reform and revival, helping to rid their churches of formalism and worldliness. They strove to transform their congregations into Spirit-filled communities like those described in the New Testament book Acts of the Apostles. Moreover, they fully expected the prophetically promised "latter rain" (from the Book of Joel, an outpouring of the Spirit of God before the final judgment) to fall upon their churches and make them wholly Pentecostal.

In one or two cases churches did sever their mainstream ties and become Pentecostal (e.g., the transformation of the Christian Union to the Church of God, headquartered in Cleveland, Tennessee). But the triumphant conquest of the Protestant churches by Pentecostal ideas during those early years never materialized. In fact, the movement became the object of widespread opposition. Pastors who endorsed Pentecostal practices were relieved of their pulpits; missionaries who were sympathetic toward the charismatic movement lost their financial support; and parishioners speaking in tongues were expelled from their churches. Resolutions were passed and anathemas (the harshest form of excommunication) were pronounced against Pentecostals in traditional churches. Charismatic Christians found it increasingly difficult to practice their faith within the institutional framework of conventional Protestantism; consequently, many Pentecostals withdrew from their churches to form new ones.

By the beginning of World War I, new congregations had emerged as storefront missions, small tabernacles in sparsely populated rural areas, and upper-story lofts in squalid urban neighbourhoods. These modest dwellings, found across North America, housed poor but lively groups of Pentecostal believers under such names as the Pentecostal, Apostolic, Latter Rain, or Full Gospel churches. Although many Pentecostals were wary of administrative institutions and unwilling to subject themselves to external ecclesiastical control, various divisive issues drove them into denominational fellowships.

In 1913 a new doctrine challenged the consensus theology that Pentecostals had inherited from their Protestant forebears. R.E. McAlister, following the formula for baptism found in Acts of the Apostles rather than that in The Gospel According to Matthew, taught that water baptism in the early church was not done according to the familiar Trinitarian formula (i.e., in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit) but in the name of Jesus Christ alone. McAlister's teaching led to the emergence of the Apostolic, or "Jesus Only," movement. Among the Pentecostal churches that adhere to this non-Trinitarian theology are the United Pentecostal Church International and the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith. As the movement spread, however, Trinitarian Pentecostals banded together to prevent the spread of what they considered heresy.

Even before McAlister's teaching, the issue of Holiness divided members of the new faith. Parham, Seymour, and other early Pentecostals came from the Holiness tradition that taught Christians to seek "sanctification." They built upon that heritage and taught that the baptism of the Holy Spirit was for people who had already experienced sanctification. On the other hand, Pentecostals from Baptist backgrounds disagreed and taught that the baptism of the Holy Spirit was for every believer. This doctrinal division drove Pentecostals into two warring camps. The Holiness Pentecostal belief is represented by such groups as the International Pentecostal Holiness Church; among the groups that emerged from a Baptist background are the Christian Church of North America and the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

Although Pentecostal fellowships generally emerged as the result of doctrinal differences, nonreligious factors, such as the outbreak of World War I, also contributed to their development. For example, the majority of Pentecostals were pacifists when the war started, but they and even those who were not pacifists found themselves without a voice in Washington, D.C., on matters of armed service. The Assemblies of God, an organization of independent Trinitarian Pentecostals, was founded in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1914 in response to the need for better relations between the churches and the government. Racial issues also affected the Pentecostal movement. For instance, the Azusa revival was led by an African American minister who welcomed worshipers regardless of their race, and the first formal Pentecostal denomination, the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, was organized as an interracial fellowship (and remained such). This liberal racial attitude bred controversy, however, and as Pentecostalism spread into the Deep South the movement became segregated along the same racial lines as had the older denominations.

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Pentecostalism, charismatic religious movement that gave rise to a number of Protestant churches in the United States in the 20th century and that is unique in its belief that all Christians should seek a postconversion religious experience called baptism with the Holy Spirit. Recalling the Holy

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This video gives a great explanation of the history and main focal points of this religion.

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What are Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches?

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An Introduction to Pentecostalism                     - By Allan Anderson

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An Introduction to Pentecostalism                     - By Allan Anderson

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This book serves as a guide to the fastest growing religion ever. It gives a great understanding of the history and the future of the faith.

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an introduction to pentecostalism: global charismatic christianity (introduction to religion)

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An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity (Introduction to Religion)

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Amazon.com: An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity (Introduction to Religion) (9781107660946): Anderson, Allan Heaton: Books

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Pentecostalism and the Future of the Christian Churches                          -By Richard Shaull and Waldo Cesar

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Pentecostalism and the Future of the Christian Churches                          -By Richard Shaull and Waldo Cesar

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This book talks about the future of the religion and how the fastest growing religion will continue to grow.

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pentecostalism and the future of the christian churches: promises

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christianity - pentecostal & charismatic

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religion / christian living / social issues

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religion / christianity / pentecostal & charismatic

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religion/christian living - social issues

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poverty; pentecostal christianity; global christianity; world christianity; global pentecostalism; pentecostal experience; christianity in brazil; brazilian christianity

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christianity - pentecostal & charismatic

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religion / christian living / social issues

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religion / christianity / pentecostal & charismatic

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religion/christian living - social issues

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Pentecostalism and the Future of the Christian Churches: Promises, Limitations, Challenges

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Pentecostalism and the Future of the Christian Churches: Promises, Limitations, Challenges [Shaull, Richard, Cesar, Waldo] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Pentecostalism and the Future of the Christian Churches: Promises, Limitations, Challenges

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Watching a full Pentecostal worship will be helpful for gaining information and seeing how this religion differs from others.

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This is a quick breakdown of the top ten facts about Pentecostalism

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It's one of the oft-talked about denominations and sometimes draws the most controversy, but Pentecostalism has a long history in Christianity.

While the church has spawned a variety of other belief groups, Pentecostalism is considered a renewal movement in the Christian church.

Here are 10 things to know about the Pentecostal church.

Photo courtesy: Unsplash/Jon Tyson

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10 Things Christians Should Know about the Pentecostal Church

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It's one of the oft-talked about religions and sometimes draws the most controversy, but Pentecostalism has a long history in Christianity. The Pentecostal church is considered a renewal movement in the Christian church. Here are 10 things to know about their beliefs

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This video has some examples of Pentecostal worships and members speaking in tongues.

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WATCH: Mississippi Pastor Speaks In Tongues