Pentecostalism: More Than a Style of Worship

I used Facebook to ask for input. The question was: "What will it take to restore Pentecostal passion and practice to our churches?"

I was surprised how many of the responses focused on liturgy, orders of service, traditions, and methodologies. For example, Andrew Bracht wrote:

Is the restoration of "Pentecostal passion & practice" what God wants for the A/G? What does that mean? Azuza Street ... is that the way forward or do we have to learn to be missionaries and contextualize our ‘Pentecostal passion & practice’? For instance, how do we encourage people to spend long periods of time at the atlar after service? For Wednesday services that introduces a whole host of issues for children attending school, and dads & moms who get up early. Yet the extended altar services are squarely in the middle of traditional 'Pentecostal practice'. To me the issue is clear...some people won't do that and some people will. For some larger suburban churches that's an impossible choice for their general services, therefore many have opted for home/cell/small groups. Traditional Pentecostal practice (extended group prayer, lingering) can be encouraged and pursued in those contexts to it's fullest extent.

Of course, I did not have traditions or certain liturgies in mind. In fact, I was not thinking of the church service at all.


Much more than a building or activities during certain hours of the week, the Church includes the people of God indwelt by the Spirit of God. Pentecostal practice is not a style of worship or prayer. It is the Spirit of God working in and through His people.


It is my contention that the contemporary church needs to permit the Hoy Spirit to determine the gifts, service, and workings of His people (1 Corinthians 12:4-6).


The work of the Holy Spirit in and through His Church is vital. The Spirit fills His people with love for the lost. He assembles them as an incarnational and serving community. He equips them with the tools needed to minister efficaciously to those who are sick, suffering, oppressed, or demonized.
As the Spirit manifests Himself through signs and wonders, He creates opportunities for evangelism. Commonly called Gifts of the Holy Spirit, these tools or manifestations are special “abilities” or divine enablements graciously given to certain members of the Body of Christ so they may effectively minister to those in need.


That these enablements are of divine origin is clear because they produce what is impossible through natural agency.


Young Pentecostal ministers who want to make a difference in the world must understand that the only effective way to make a lasting impact is by ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit (Zechariah 4:6). Only the Holy Spirit can transform individuals from the inside out. This inward transformation is the first step to solving individual, familial, and societal problems.


Drug addiction is one of society’s most complicated challenges. It is devastating to the addict as well as all those associated with the addict. Addictions are difficult to treat. However, Dr. Roger Thompson (Head of the Criminal Justice Department at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga) found that whereas most secular drug rehabilitation programs only experienced a cure rate of 15% of their graduates, Teen Challenge of Chattanooga, Tennessee had a 67% success rate in helping their graduates live a drug and alcohol free lifestyle. [1]


Indicators of success included a consistent life-style due to a personal commitment to Jesus Christ, stable employment, financial independence, an absence of trouble with the police, an ability to enjoy freedom without supervision, and little need for additional drug treatment once completing the Teen Challenge program. The transforming power of the Holy Spirit made a difference in the success of treating addicts.


Denise, Erin, and Derek are living testimonies to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit delivered them from addiction to drugs and alcohol.


So, let me ask the question in a different way: "What will it take to see the Holy Spirit manifest Himself through signs and wonders in and through His people?"

[1] http://www.teenchallenge.com/main/stats/utreport.htm

Creative Ministerial Training

A few years ago, I conducted a focus group during which I asked students to answer the question: "What can our college do to be more creative in the way it trains ministers and missionaries?"

The respodents were prolific as seen below:

1. Reconnect the classroom to the local church
2. Apprenticeship: A four-year internship in a local church
3. Opportunities to “practice” the ministry
4. Require a senior project such as planting a church
5. Teach critical-thinking and problem solving skills
6. Teach students how to think not always what to think
7. Use debates, forums, discussions and fewer lectures
8. Establish mentoring relationships
9. Professors who model creative teaching techniques
10. Assign activities that require creative thinking
11. Use cutting edge, up-to-date curricular materials
12. Provide training in the use of technology

Bold and courageous, the students invited opportunities to “get dirty for God.” They willingly welcomed the chance to wrestle with mental dilemmas and real-life challenges.

Repeatedly, the students pled for the chance to learn by doing—apprenticeships, internships, projects, social system simulations, presentations, and even debates.

Implications for Ministerial Training

From my dialogue, it became clear that in terms of training students to be leaders in the church, a clear vision, which grows out of an outward-focused passion and compassion, is the “jet fuel” that will help an institution blast its way out of the ruts of tradition and soar into the stratosphere of inspired ministry. It will invigorate the lazy, embolden the fearful, encourage the discouraged, and revitalize the wounded.

It is also clear that affective learning must play a fundamental role alongside the cognitive and the psychomotor.

Erwin Raphael McManus writes, “I know it may sound like heresy, but it is more important to change what people care about than to change what they believe!”[1]

Professors must assist students in discovering the who and why as well as the what and how of ministry. Students must feel compassion for those to whom God is sending them. They must develop a sense of urgency and a genuine passion for the call to minister to the “radically unchurched.” [2] The students must capture an ethos and zealous vision.

To achieve these affective goals, ministerial training must become “discovery learning” so the students will have a sense of ownership and begin to develop essential compassion, passion, and vision. According to Carl Rogers, “The only learning that really sticks is that which is self-discovered.”[3]

Ministerial training must also be inductive in nature—at least initially. Placing students in real-life settings (apprenticeships or internships) or realistic social system simulations prompts them to ask probing questions.

According to Bill McNabb and Steven Mabry, “Research has consistently shown that learners remember answers to questions they themselves ask”[4] This means that professors must raise questions, create dilemmas, and stage scenarios that prompt students to ask questions of their own and then set out to discover answers for themselves.

Rather than teaching ministerial students to color within the lines of the existing church, perhaps professors should be encouraging students to “paint” the church they believe will most effectively evangelize the emerging generation.

[1] Erwin Raphael McManus, An Unstoppable Force: Daring to Become the Church God had in Mind (Loveland, Colo.: Group Publishing, 2001), 111.
[2] Alvin Reid, Radically Unchurched: Who They are and How to Reach Them (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel, 2002), 9.
[3] Bill McNabb and Steven Mabry, Teaching the Bible Creatively (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1990), 29.
[4] Ibid, 83-84.