Pentecostalism: The Proof is in the Product

(c) 2008 Dr. J. David Arnett

I have a bookshelf filled with computer software. Most of it is rarely used. If the various programs did not live up to the advertising or failed to meet the need for which they were purchased, they were shelved. Only the relevant programs get a good workout. Emerging Pentecostals are asking to see the relevance of Pentecostal distinctives for a needy world. Is it simply emotional hype or does it make a difference for hurting humanity?
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If young Pentecostals are cynical, it is understandable. They grew up in an era characterized by financial and sexual scandals from the church house to the White House. Idiosyncratic evangelists filled the world’s television screens. Divorce rates, even among Christians, skyrocketed during their lifetime. Some were educated in a postmodern, deconstructionist matrix.
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Despite the cynicism, young people are still responding to the love and call of God. They love God and feel love and compassion for their dysfunctional families, friends, communities, and world. They are asking for the tools and the opportunities to make a real difference in the world.
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Not everything in the past was wonderful. There was glory. There was shame. Even the Azusa Street Revival was not perfect. Bigotry, avarice, megalomania, and neuroses plagued the early days of the Pentecostal Movement—just as now.
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Despite the human foibles, God was able to accomplish His purposes of preaching the gospel to the poor, healing the brokenhearted, delivering the captives, recovering sight to the blind, and liberating those treated unfairly (Luke 4:18-19).
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Through a variety of innovative social service ministries, God used early Pentecostals to minister to sinning and suffering humanity. These ministries included rescue missions, homes for unwed mothers, orphanages, Christian schools, feeding programs, literacy training, sponsorship of refugees, aid for disaster victims, and medical programs. They sought to minister to the whole person—body, mind and soul. Food, clothing, and shelter came with intensive Bible study and prayer.
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Admittedly, there has been tension in the ranks over ministries of compassion. The same eschatological urgency that propelled so many into missionary endeavor and evangelism caused some to withdraw from social action. Based on the belief that the end was near, many rejected the reformist methods of the optimistic postmillennialists and concentrated on “snatching brands from the fire.” They let social reforms result from humankind being born again. This attitude is reflected in the words of missionary statesman Melvin Hodges, “There is nothing as important as getting people’s hearts right with God. The center must be put right before the periphery can be corrected. To try to remedy peripheral conditions leaving the heart unchanged is useless and deceiving.” [1]
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This retraction from social action was as much a reaction to the so-called “social gospel” as it was a formally adopted theological position. Conservative Christians considered the social gospel a product of liberal preachers who had strayed from calling people to salvation and had reached for good works as a lame substitute. In reality, the social gospel was a disintegration of the concern that the revivalists and holiness preachers of the mid-nineteenth century had awakened for the afflicted human race. According to Sherwood Wirt “lacking the correction of Scripture and the direction of the Holy Spirit, [the social gospel] ceased to be a healthy expression of the church’s social conscience...”[2]
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The two things that Wirt identifies as important for genuine Christian social action—the direction of the Holy Spirit and the correction of Scripture—are precisely what Pentecostalism is well equipped to supply to a blended ministry of evangelism and compassion. Gordon Fee and Murray Dempster believe that the work that Jesus started when He walked the lanes of ancient Israel has been left to the Church to continue until He returns (Luke 4:18-19; Acts 1:1).
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The anointing and empowering to accomplish this daunting task come from the Spirit with whom Pentecostals have an interactive relationship (Acts 1:4-8). With their high view of Scripture, Pentecostals should be able to develop a solid, Bible-based theology that addresses social action. Dempster believes such a theology must “inspire and direct the church’s moral engagement with society without diminishing the church’s historic commitment to evangelism.”[3]
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[1] Melvin L. Hodges, A Theology of the Church and Its Mission: A Pentecostal Perspective (Springfield, Mo.: Gospel Publishing House, 1977), 102.
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[2] Sherwood E. Wirt, “Social Gospel” in Baker’s Dictionary of Christian Ethics. ed. Carl F.H. Henry (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House Company, 1973), 638.
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[3] Murray W. Dempster, “Evangelism, Social Concern, and the Kingdom of God” in Called and Empowered: Global Mission in Pentecostal Perspective, ed. Murray A. Dempster, Byron D. Klaus and Douglas Petersen (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1991), 22-23.