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.

The Hunger for Spirituality

According to Eugene Taylor, “We are witnessing a spiritual awakening unprecedented in modern times…” [1] These are exciting words until one understands that the spiritual awakening being referred to is highly eclectic and “perceptually grounded in what the experiencer believes is a deeper level of the immediate reality…”[2]

Indeed, spirituality is “making a comeback.”[3] Many people appear to be enthusiastically embracing spirituality—although not necessarily within the context of the organized churches.
Psychotherapist David Elkins, in an article titled “Spirituality: It’s What’s Missing in Mental Health,” writes, “… most Americans want spirituality, but perhaps not in religious form. … Many left church and synagogue not because they had lost interest in spirituality, but because organized religion was not meeting their spiritual needs [emphasis added].”[4]

For the participants of this “massive flight from traditional religious institutions into spirituality,”[5] mystical vitality and truth can be found “as much in the Christian Bible as in the Torah, the Koran, the Tao te Ching, or the Bagavad Gita.”[6] Their religious experiences are of the “self-help variety.” [7] They have turned to Eastern practices, new age philosophies, Twelve Step programs, Greek mythology, Jungian psychology, shamanic practices, massage, yoga, “music, poetry, literature, art, nature and intimate relationships.”[8]

A quick survey of the sociological landscape reveals that people are realizing that they have a spiritual side. It is an area of their existence that “neither science nor materialism has satisfied.”[9] So, people are hungry for spirituality. According to John Bowen, “The fact that The Celestine Prophecy, with its strong pro-spirituality, anti-organized religion message, has been on the best-seller lists since mid-1994 indicates the strength of this hunger for spirituality.”[10]

The modern spiritual explorer is offered many options and many spiritual pathways from which to choose. However, not all options are equally valid. Jesus Christ taught that in a world filled with counterfeits there is a definitive, a genuine, an exclusive “road that leads to life” and “only a few find [it]” (Matthew 7:14, NIV).

Ron Dart laments, “We live in an age in which the old paths have been overgrown, the ancient springs have been deserted and the golden string is lost.”[11] In such an age, is it possible to discover an authentic Christian spirituality—the road that leads to life? Dart believes so. He writes, “If we are willing to trek to these ancient springs, we might just find the water we need to nourish us on our own hike through time. … If we pay due attention … we might find the path we need, a path that will guide us to … the source and center of all things.”[12]

[1] Eugene Taylor, “Desperately Seeking Spirituality,” Psychology Today 27, no. 6 (1994): 54.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Carl. F.H. Henry, “Spiritual? Say It Isn’t So!” in Alive to God: Studies in Spirituality, ed. J.I. Packer and Loren Wilkinson (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 8.
[4] David Elkins, “Spirituality: It’s What’s Missing In Mental Health,” Psychology Today 32, no. 5 (1999): 44.
[5] Taylor.
[6] Elkins.
[7] Henry, 9.
[8] Elkins.
[9] John Bowen, “The Spirituality of Jesus and the Dangers of Religion” [article on-line] (Toronto, Ontario Canada: Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship of Canada, 1998, accessed 3 January 2001); available from http://www.dare-connexions.org/spirituality.html#rel%20w%20God; Internet.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ron Dart, “Prophetic Spirituality: Markings for the Journey,” in Alive to God: Studies in Spirituality, ed. J.I. Packer and Loren Wilkinson (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 296.
[12] Ibid.

From the Valley of the Kidney Stone: Recapitulation

Why Then How

I begin all my courses by answering the “why” question before moving on to the others–who, what, when, where, how–especially how. If one adequately answers why, passion will fire the imagination and creative methods and materials will emerge.

Can You Require Appreciation?

Some years ago, I was invited to participate in a summit meeting to revitalize Christian Education in the Assemblies of God (particularly Sunday school). One person suggested requiring all candidates for credentials to complete a course in Christian education. How do you require people to appreciate anything? My response then and now is: “One cannot mandate interest. However, if someone with ‘fire in the belly’ can help pastors see the urgency for discipleship and Bible-based instruction, the pastors will find ways to make it happen in their congregations (SS, small groups, JBQ, Bible Quiz, seminars, retreats, workshops, conferences, church-based Bible institutes, devotional materials, evotionals, podcasts, catechisms, whatever). They may even ask HQ for curricular materials or write their own.”

Where Have the “True Believers” Gone?

Pentecostalism has arrived at that point when visionary leaders (Eric Hoffer would call them “true believers.”) are dying and being replaced by third and fourth generation leaders who inherited their tenets and practices without spilling blood in the crucible of revolution.

Who were the “true believers” who founded the Pentecostal Movement? Many Pentecostal pioneers experienced radical conversion as they responded to the “full gospel” message. The foremost doctrines of the “four square” message were: Salvation in Jesus Christ, Divine Healing through the atonement, the premillennial return of Christ, and the baptism in the Holy Spirit (with the initial evidence of speaking in other tongues. Some added sanctification by faith as a second definite work of grace as a fifth fundamental of the full gospel.

John Wannenmacher of Milwaukee (my former Senior Adults Pastor) used recall how his father Joseph (an early leader in the Assemblies of God) frequently started his sermons focusing on some distinctive topic, but always worked the sermon around to expound the “four cardinal doctrines.”

For pioneers like Joseph P. Wannenmacher becoming a Pentecostal was a decisive step. They tearfully and passionately testified to the validity of the Pentecostal teachings. They boldly battled foes within and without over the distinctives. They were true believers.

Even the second generation of Pentecostals demonstrated passionate loyalty for the movement. Perhaps they personally witnessed or knew of the radical transformation that occurred in the lives of their parents. John Wannenmacher vividly tells the story of the dramatic healing that his Hungarian, violin-playing father experienced in the “faith homes” in Zion, Illinois (started by John Alexander Dowie). Whether he was aware of it or not, each time John preached for me, his sermon became a four pointer—just like his father’s.

From the Valley of the Kidney Stone: Recapitulation

It is a privilege to challenge young pministers to cherish the foundations while being open to anything new God wants to do in and through His Church. While it is an honor, it is not always easy. They frequently say they are “sick of hearing about the good old days.” They want to experience the good days for themselves. Perhaps this is a need for curricular changes—or at least changes in instructional techniques.

Pondering this difficulty while under the influence of powerful painkillers prescribed for a kidney stone, the idea came to me—recapitulation. Although it long had been discredited as ridiculous, unscientific and fraudulent, Ernst Haeckel’s “concept of recapitulation” (also called the “Biogenetic Law”) was still being included in high school biology books as recently as 1999 as a “proof” for the Theory of Evolution. “Recapitulation” taught that at different stages in human embryo development the organs of supposed evolutionary ancestors appear—chicken sac, lizard tail, and fish gills. Simply put, during gestation, every human being allegedly experienced the sweep of supposed evolutionary history.

What does a fraudulent theory have to do with training Pentecostal ministers? It might be possible through social system simulations, drama, discovery-learning and other participatory techniques to help young Pentecostals “experience” the sweep of history and doctrinal development that led up to the urgency for cleansing and empowerment felt by the Pentecostal pioneers.

Through such “recapitulation training,” it might be possible to recapture some of the passion of the true believers.

With Fire in the Belly,

Dr. David Arnett, Professor/Church Planting Pastor

Preaching in the Midst of Cultural Change

Dr. J. David Arnett (c) 2009

The tectonic activity of cultural change is making it necessary for today’s Pentecostal ministers and missionaries to adjust their methods and media to communicate God’s good news about Jesus Christ more effectively—just as the Pentecostal pioneers did.


In an interview for Leadership Journal, Brian McLaren states,

In dealing with postmoderns, you’re dealing with people who do not know the basics of Christianity. If anything, they have a negative idea of what Christianity is. So it makes no sense to them if you come on too strong and quickly ask for a commitment.… For postmodern people, anything presented as an argument is less persuasive because arguments suggest a message of conquest rather than a message of peace. Postmoderns are so assaulted by advertisements and political messages that for a message to be important and true, it must come in a form other than argument. [1]

This postmodern resistance to anything perceived to be argumentative or manipulative is a problem for contemporary ministers educated to preach to those with a modern mindset.


Seminaries and Bible colleges generally train preachers to dissect the Scriptures in search of “principles” to share with their congregations. In this approach, the preacher seeks to ascertain the biblical author’s original intent by analyzing specific biblical passages. With careful hermeneutics (involving grammatical-contextual-historical-syntactical-theological-cultural exegesis), the preacher develops succinct propositions, precepts, or principles to summarize the author’s key concepts. Walter Kaiser calls this process of summarizing authorial intent “principlization.”[2]


To aid in communicating these biblical principles to his or her audience, the preacher restates the timeless truths in contemporary terms. Ramesh Richard refers to the process of restatement as “contemporization.”[3] With the work of principlization and contemporization in hand, the modern preacher designs deductive sermons with carefully crafted, point-making arguments to convince congregants to apply the propositional truths to their lives.


While effective in the past, this paradigm for homiletics faces the challenge of a shifting culture. When contemporary preachers stand before their congregations, they find themselves confronted by people who prefer to receive and process information in different ways.


Some congregants favor sermons based on propositional truths, logically supported, deductively designed, and dogmatically delivered. Other congregants, often younger and influenced by postmodernism, prefer sermons that are image rich, experientially supported, inductively designed, and delivered with authenticity and vulnerability on the part of the preacher.


Many preachers are skillful at preparing and presenting sermons that connect well with the first group of congregants. They have not been as adept at preparing sermons that connect well with the second group—those who are younger and most affected by postmodernity.


A declining trend in church attendance reflects this inability to connect with those who are younger and influenced by postmodernism. According to a 2006 national survey conducted by the Barna Research Group, “Mosaics [individuals born after 1983] are least likely to attend church in a typical weekend (33 percent) versus Baby Busters (43 percent), Baby Boomers (49 percent), and Elders (54 percent).”[4]

George Hunter notes that, of the more than 350,000 churches in the United States, about 80 percent are stagnant. Of the 20 percent that are growing, most increase by biological or transfer growth. Less than one percent of churches are growing by winning the unchurched. [5]


Tom Clegg and Warren Bird estimate that the unchurched population of the U.S. is the largest mission field in the English-speaking world, and the fifth largest globally.[6]

The Church in Western Europe and North America is stagnant or in decline. It is not winning its world and, in some cases, not even holding on to its own. There may be many reasons why the Church is no longer effective at evangelism, but one important reason is that preachers are slow to adjust and become proficient in connecting with and effectively preaching the gospel to those influenced by postmodernism.


[1]Brian McLaren, “How to Evangelize Today,” Leadership Journal (August 2001) Web site; available from http://www.christianitytoday.com/leaders/newsletter/2001/ cln10801.html; accessed 29 June 2006.

[2]Walter C. Kaiser, Toward an Exegetical Theology: Biblical Exegesis for Preaching and Teaching (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1981), 152.

[3] Ramesh Richard, Preparing Expository Sermons (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2001), 19.

[4] George Barna, “Church Attendance,” The Barna Group Web site; available http://www.barna.org/; accessed 13 August 2006.

[5]George Hunter, Church for the Unchurched (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), 20.

[6] Tom Clegg and Warren Bird, Lost in America: How You and Your Church Can Impact the World Next Door (Loveland, Colo.: Group Publishing, 2001), 25.

Communicating Good News Across Cultures

(c) 2009 Dr. J. David Arnett

The Pentecostal Movement places a priority on preaching, evangelization, and missions. Believing the Spirit Baptism empowers one to witness “to the ends of the earth,” the early pioneers of the Pentecostal Movement spread across the globe (Acts 1:8). Without the benefit of cross-cultural studies or language school, the so-called “Missionaries of the One-Way Ticket” endeavored to carry out the missio Dei—the “mission of God.”

Many early Pentecostal ministers and missionaries mistakenly believed that the supernatural ability to speak in other tongues that accompanied their Baptism in the Holy Spirit would enable them to “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere” (Mark 16:15, NLT). A. G. Garr, the first missionary to leave the Azusa Street Revival, “went to India fully expecting to preach in Hindustani. After a few months, he admitted his failure on this point, but nonetheless remained to carry on a successful ministry for several years, preaching to these British subjects in English.” [1]

Though disappointed by their inability to speak the languages of the natives, the early Pentecostal missionaries adjusted their presentations of the sacrosanct message of God to connect effectively with their audiences. They adopted methods and media to aid them in communicating the good news that reconciliation and restored intimacy with the Creator is possible through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Eventually, the Pentecostal missionaries implemented indigenous church principles so that native converts—who obviously understood the local language and cultural context—could even more efficiently share the gospel. Notable authority on Assemblies of God foreign missions, Melvin L. Hodges advocated the application of indigenous principles while at the same time emphasizing that the New Testament Church is established only with the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit. Hodges writes, “Along with the evangelistic and church-planting ministries are those auxiliary activities of reducing languages to written form, the translating of the Scriptures and training of national pastors and evangelists.” [2]

Today, passionate Pentecostal ministers find themselves confronted by a similar dilemma. This time it is not a foreign language in a foreign land, but a “foreign culture” in the neighborhood. This alien culture is the result of the epistemological and cultural upheaval known as postmodernism. According to Diogenes Allen, “A massive intellectual revolution is taking place that is perhaps as great as that which marked off the modern world from the Middle Ages. The foundations of the modern world are collapsing, and we are entering a post-modern world.” [3]

[1] D. William Faupel, “Glossolalia as Foreign Language: An Investigation of the Early Twentieth-Century Pentecostal Claim,” ed. Michael Mattei, 2003; Wesley Center for Applied Theology, Northwest Nazarene University Web site; available from http://wesley.nnu.edu/ WesleyanTheology/theojrnl/31-35/31-1-05.htm#_edn21; accessed 14 February 2004.

[2] Melvin L. Hodges, The Indigenous Church, rev. ed. (Springfield, Mo.: Gospel Publishing House, 1976), 10.

[3] Diogenes Allen, Christian Belief in a Postmodern World (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1989), 2.

The Murderer and Majesty of Christmas

THE TALE OF TWO KINGS

© Dr. J. David Arnett, Pastor
Saturday, December 20, 2008
www.CarpentersHouseChurch.com

Picture Scrooge. He was "“Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dogdays; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas" (Charles Dickens).

With that image in your mind, I set before you, this day, two kings.

One is the embodiment of humanistic genius, humanistic government, and humanistic greed.

The Other is the embodiment of divine logic, divine leadership, and divine love.

The one demanded to be served and many lives were sacrificed to his self-centeredness.

The Other came loving and serving and gave His life as a ransom for many.

The one craved the respect and acceptance of fellow kings.

The Other WAS worshiped by kings—and by scribes and scholars as well as by philosophers, paupers, priests, prophets and prostitutes.

Both claimed to be King of the Jews.

Both asked for loyalty.

The question before you is “Whom will you place on the throne of your heart? The King of Mammon or the King of Glory?”

The polytheistic, pagan religions of the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans had created a void in the ancient world.

It was a void superstition, black magic, and astrology could not fill.

The philosophers ridiculed the puny Roman deities, yet their education and wisdom did not remove the void.

Some desiring something more, sought for a better way to know their Creator.

Among them were Gentiles who attended the Jewish synagogues because they saw there a hope in one, true and holy God.

From these God-fearers came certain Magi (Wise Men) who sought to find a King, sought to find the King of kings!

Some suppose these Wise Men were descendants of the Chaldean wise men of whom Daniel was chief and who therefore might know of the star prophesied in Numbers 24:17.

All we really know is that these men saw a star and somehow God caused them to know it was THE star of One born King of the Jews, a King’s king, One worthy to be worshiped.

The star did not indicate where the King was to be born, so the Magi traveled to Jerusalem, the logical birthplace for the King of the Jews for it was the capital and housed the royal palace.

To their surprise, no one at Jerusalem had discerned the star or had heard of the birth of a new king.

We three kings of Orient are,
Bearing gifts we traverse afar
Field and fountain, moor and mountain,
Following yonder star.
O star of wonder, star of night,
Star with royal beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect light.

("We Three Kings of Orient Are" also known as "The Quest of the Magi" is a Christmas carol written by Reverend John Henry Hopkins, Jr.)

Rumors of distinguished visitors inquiring about the birth of a new king soon reached the paranoid ears of Herod, known as the Great.

Sucking air through pursed lips, Herod listened to the report.

Blood flushed his bloated cheeks.

His pudgy hands jerked into fists.

Those who best knew Herod prepared themselves for the inevitable explosion.

The volcano was about to erupt, spewing burning lava on all those about.

“A new king of the Jews!” he bellowed.

“Here it comes,” thought one servant, as she stepped into a less conspicuous place.

But Herod grew quiet.

His eyes narrowed to fine lines as he squinted at the messenger.

“Go,” he said with a serpentine hiss.

“Go, call the chief priests and scribes. I will speak with them.”

Herod was of mixed blood (half Idumean and half Nabatean Arab); hardly a proper king of the Jews.

Herod had come to the throne due to a favor Rome owed his father, Antipater.

With the assistance of Rome’s legions, he brutally crushed the armies of Antigonus, the last independent Jewish king and high priest.

By persuasive speech, secret intrigue and blood-shed he maintained his position throughout the reigns of Mark Antony and Augustus.

Herod knew that his hold over the Jewish people was tenuous at best.

His mixed blood made him a foreigner in their eyes.

His use of the Roman legions in laying waste to many Jewish cities as he expanded his control over his subjects left widows and weeping mothers and wandering orphans.

His willingness to support heathen cults aroused their suspicion concerning his loyalty to Judaism.

His occasional attendance at the temple ceremonies, his cynical use of the priesthood as a political tool, the looseness of his personal life, and the viciousness displayed in dealing with his rivals caused him to be generally hated by devout Jews.

Paranoia became a way of life for Herod.

He built magnificent fortress palaces at Masada and Herodium.

If he ever fell out of favor with Rome or if the Jews rose up to depose him, he planned to retreat to one of these for protection.

He was determined to see that nothing and no one took his wealth, position and power.

If he couldn’t be loved by the people, then he would be feared by them!

>>No one must threaten his throne!

In an effort to consolidate his hold over the Jewish people, Herod married a Jewish wife, Mariamne, the sister of Aristobulus, the rightful heir to the throne.

But out of jealousy and fear Herod had his popular 17-year-old brother-in-law drowned in his bathtub.

In Herod’s home blood was not thicker than water.

>>No one must threaten his throne!

Later, in a fit of jealousy, Herod had his beloved wife executed and her body preserved in honey.
Remorse so gripped Herod that he became physically and mentally ill.

He lashed out and had his mother-in-law killed.

>>No one must threaten his throne!

When the populace began to acclaim Alexander and Aristobulus (the sons of Herod by the Jewess Mariamne) Herod had them murdered.

No one (including his own sons) must threaten his throne!

Smitten with “intense itching, painful intestinal problems, breathlessness, convulsions in every limb, and gangrene of the genitalia,” haunted by the memory of his murders, Herod came to the realization he had no friends—no one who would grieve at his funeral.

So, he drew up a will ordering that upon his death 3,000 of the most prominent Jewish citizens be taken into the temple and executed.

That way, he reasoned, there would be tears shed on the day of his death!

It did not matter that he was not popular.

He had his possessions.

He had his position.

He had his power.

He was still king!

He still had his throne!

Footsteps brought Herod out of the dungeons of his twisted mind.

It was the priests.

Herod knew these men despised him.

He swore under his breathe.

His nostrils flared.

But as he spoke, honey dripped from his words.

“Ah, gentlemen. I have a theological problem for you. Where do the Scriptures say the Messiah will be born?”

It was an easy question.

Without hesitation, the men responded with a free translation of Micah 5:2, “In Bethlehem in Judea.”

The false friendliness gone, Herod dismissed the priests with a wave of his hand.

“Bring in the Easterners,” he ordered.

Entering the opulence of Herod’s palace, the distinguished guests seemed to take no notice.

They had not come to see treasure.

They had not come to pursue power.

Theirs was a spiritual mission.

They were looking for a King who could satisfy the soul.

For some reason Herod felt uncomfortable in their presence.

He shivered as long-buried feelings tugged at his heart.

Recovering himself, Herod spoke, “Welcome, welcome to my humble abode.”

He swept the room with a grandiose gesture. “What brings you to MY kingdom?”

“A star? Ah, yes, yes. I’ve heard rumors about a star? And you have seen it? Hmm, interesting, interesting. When did you say the star first appeared? And you think this star has something to do with the birth of the Messiah, the King of the Jews? Well, as I’m sure you know, I am a great student of the Scriptures and I believe the prophets predicted that the Messiah would be born in a little village 6 miles southwest of here. Bethlehem, it’s called.”

Leaning forward in his chair, Herod took on a confidential tone, “Go and search diligently for the young Child and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also. I am a religious man you know, yes, religious, religious.”

The Wise Men came to Jerusalem seeking for fulfillment.

They sought a King.

But Herod with all of his wine, women, wealth and power could not satisfy.

In fact, Herod was himself miserable.

He was a phony King of the Jews!

The Wise Men started toward Bethlehem and the star reappeared!

They recognized it at once as the same star they had seen back in their home country.

The star began to move, indicating it was no ordinary star but truly a miraculous token of God’s guidance for seekers.

Steadily, it led them until they came to the very house where the young Child was.

Filled with joy, the Magi presented Him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

By faith, the Magi saw that this Child was THE KING for whom they searched.

He was the promised Messiah.

Deep in their hearts, they knew that He was the Word become flesh and that through Him the world might be saved and satisfied.

In an act of worship, the Wise Men fell down at the feet of the small Child and expressed their heart-felt worship and adoration.

A personal encounter with Jesus invariably transforms the seeker into a true worshiper; to know Him is to love Him!

Though they were intellectuals, though they were wealthy, though they were regal in their own right they humbled themselves before THIS CHILD.

They recognized that the Christ Child was and is the King of kings and the Lord of lords!

And He shall reign for ever and ever!

Having found what they searched for, the Wise Men followed God’s leading and went directly home.

They did not return to Herod.

Herod stormed through the palace.

“I’ll kill those liars. I’ll torture them. I’ll tear the tongues from their deceiving mouths. Who do they think they’re dealing with? I am the King of the Jews! No one can threaten my throne and live!”

Servants and minor officials scattered, trying to escape the gaze of the crazed king.

When he was like this no one was safe.

“Find the commander of my troops! I’ll show them who’s King of the Jews!”

The commander hurried in and saluted smartly.

Herod screeched, “There are spies and traitors in the land! You must deal with them! Take your troops to Bethlehem. Kill every male child two years of age and under. Don’t let any escape. I want them dead. Do you hear? Dead! I am the king. I am the king.”

The commander was a brave man, but he trembled as he said, “Sire, the soldiers will not kill babies.”

“They will do as I say! I am king!”

Screams mingled with the sound of retreating hoof beats, as mothers wept over the butchered bodies of their babies.

Thus, the prophecy of Jeremiah was fulfilled (31:15).

Warned in a dream, the parents of the Child King had escaped to Egypt.

Through the gifts of the Wise Men, God supplied sustenance and safety for the holy family in a foreign land.

Not realizing whom he was dealing with, Herod failed to destroy Jesus the Christ, the True King of the Jews.

However, the story does not end there.

Oh, no! The story never ends with time.

There is always the eternal with which to reckon.

King Jesus grew up to be a great preacher.

In His most famous sermon, He taught that “no one can serve two masters.”

As He said, “for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and riches.”

On another occasion, Jesus asked, “What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”

Herod exchanged his eternal destiny for a few brief moments of prominence, position, prosperity, and power.

On a self-centered sacrificial altar, he slaughtered his spouse, his sons, and his soul to squeeze a scepter, and sit on a throne.

But at death what did he have?

Nothing!! Absolutely nothing!!

At death Hell claimed him as its own!

Thirty one years later, there was another power hungry leader and another group of greedy soldiers ... others who were willing to sell their eternal souls for temporal things.

In a mockery of a trial, Pilate asked Jesus, “Are You the King of the Jews?”

And Jesus answered, “It is true. I am a king. For this cause was I born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

But He added, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

All Pilate could say was, “What is truth?”

Then turning to the murderous, mad mob, Pilate asked, “What shall I do with Jesus, your Messiah?”

“Crucify him!” they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify! His blood be on us and on our children!”

Pilate gave in to the blood-thirsty rabble.

He turned Jesus over to the Roman garrison to be flogged and crucified.

But first they took King Jesus into the fortress, stripped Him, put a scarlet robe on Him, drove a crown of thorns into His head and placed a stick in His hands as a scepter.

They took turns kneeling before him in mockery.

“Hail, King of the Jews!” they yelled.

They spat on Him and beat Him with a rod.

When they tired of their sick game, they led King Jesus through the city streets, out of the city to a place called Skull Hill.

At Calvary, the soldiers crucified Jesus.

Above His head they placed a sign.

It read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”

From the cross, King Jesus shouted, “It is finished!” and dismissed His spirit.

But remember the story does not end with time.

There is the eternal dimension.

Jesus conquered death and Hades!

Within three days, He rose from the grave.

He ascended to the throne room of heaven.

And He has promised to return for those who like the wise men surrender to His Lordship!

WILL YOU SURRENDER TO THE KING OF KINGS?

If not, like Herod of old or Scrooge of Dickens’ “Christmas Carol,” you may die “…a tight-fisted … squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner!”

© Dr. J. David Arnett, Pastor

Saturday, December 20, 2008

All rights reserved.

www.CarpentersHouseChurch.com

www.DavidArnett.com

Who is welcome in your church?

Lynnette lives in Willard. She has been attending Carpenter’s House since the first service on October 5.

She has invited four of the five people who have accepted Christ in the short history of the church

Yesterday, she asked me a thought-provoking question: “What kind of people do you want in this new church?”

When I asked what she meant, she replied, “I have many friends in Willard, but they do not look like you, dress like you, or talk like you. They are drug addicts, Meth addicts, and real sinners. They live together. They have problems with the law. But they are longing for something more. They will come, if I invite them. But I was not sure you wanted them.”

I told her that is why we are in Willard—for the lost.

One of my first sermons in Willard was on the verse: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10).

Please pray for Carpenter's House of Willard, MO. http://www.carpentershousechurch.com/

Return to the Primacy of Scripture

A commitment to the primacy of Scripture characterized the Pentecostal Movement from its beginnings. Founders believed the Scriptures to be the authoritative standard for “beliefs, affections, and actions.” [1]

They regularly confirmed the validity of their spiritual experiences by consulting the Scriptures. According to Russell P. Spittler, Pentecostals attempted to square their spirituality with “biblical precedent and command.” [2]

William Menzies, speaking of the early days of the Assemblies of God, writes:

The modern Pentecostal revival, like other revivals in the past, could have fallen into the abuse of overemphasis on spectacular phenomena that accompany revivals. The baptism in the Spirit and the manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12-14) are experiential in nature. Such experiences were defining of the revival. The Assemblies of God avoided the pitfalls of extremism and unbalanced emphases because of an early commitment to the authority of the Bible as the all-sufficient rule for faith and practice. [3]

For Pentecostals, theology was an attempt to search the Scriptures to understand what the Holy Spirit is doing in and saying to His Church. Pentecostal theology was and continues to be a work in progress. For Pentecostals, theology was not “identified solely or even primarily with systematic treatises, monographs and scholarly apparatus in centers of academia.” [4] According to Steven Land,

In the context of American restoration-revivalism, it was the “black spirituality of the former slaves in the United States” encountering the specific Catholic spirituality of the movement’s “grandfather,” John Wesley, that produced Pentecostalism’s distinctive spirituality. Neither Wesley nor the African-Americans did theology in the traditional scholastic way. Sermons, pamphlets, hymns, testimonies, conferences, spirituals—these were the media of this movement. [5]

However non-traditional the apparatus, Pentecostal media were replete with Scripture.

Likewise, Pentecostal history was filled with systematic Bible teaching, expositional Bible preaching, and sober attempts at practicing Biblical precepts. While sometimes naïve and simplistic and at other times legalistic, early Pentecostals were serious about the Bible.

Is this commitment to the primacy of Scripture attenuating? Should contemporary Pentecostals be concerned by the decline of systematic Bible instruction?

Some local churches are dismissing Sunday school in favor of extended worship services. Others are replacing systematic Bible teaching with topical treatments that draw heavily from the social sciences. Curricula based solely on the social sciences will result in a fuzzy spirituality of human self-help or self-deification.

Pastors are moving from expository to topical preaching. After listening to hundreds (thousands?) of sermons in homiletics classes and elsewhere, I am seriously concerned that Michael Horton is right. In his book, Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church, he asserts that contemporary preachers exclude Christ to proclaim a message of moralism, personal comfort, self-help, self-improvement, and individualistic religion.

Neglect of Biblical content in sermons will result in less than authentic Pentecostal spirituality.

Continuation down this slippery slope will result in congregations singing “worship him, worship him” without knowing “Him.” The pronouns and metaphors of their music will be meaningless.

While not a Pentecostal, Henri J. M. Nouwen issues a warning appropriate for Pentecostals:

Few ministers and priests think theologically. Most of them have been educated in a climate in which the behavioral sciences, such as psychology and sociology, so dominated the educational milieu that little true theology was being learned. Most Christian leaders today raise psychological or sociological questions even though they frame them in scriptural terms. Real theological thinking, which is thinking with the mind of Christ, is hard to find in the practice of the ministry. Without solid theological reflection, future leaders will be little more than pseudo-psychologists, pseudo-sociologists, pseudo-social workers. They will think of themselves as enablers, facilitators, role models, father or mother figures, big brothers or big sisters, and so on, and thus join the countless men and women who make a living trying to help their fellow human beings to cope with the stresses and strains of everyday living. But that has little to do with Christian leadership because the Christian leader thinks, speaks, and acts in the name of Jesus, who came to free humanity from the power of death and open the way to eternal life. [6]

[1] Steven J. Land, Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom (Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press Ltd., 1997), 41.

[2] Russell P. Spittler, “Spirituality, Pentecostal and Charismatic,” in Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, ed. Stanley M. Burgess and Gary B. McGee (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1988), 805.

[3] William W. Menzies, “Lessons From the Past: What Our History Teaches Us,” Enrichment 4, no. 4 (1999), 84.

[4] Land, 35.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Henri J. M. Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1989), 65.

Pentecostals: People of the Presence

One of the most challenging contributions to my recent dialogues on Pentecostalism came from Rick Smith of Abingdon, Illinois. He wrote:

“I recently heard a definition for what it means to be Pentecostal: people of the presence. It's not about style, hype or following the way things used to be. Too often Pentecostals are dwelling on the glory of a past experience and they try to re-create that moment, often mimicking certain people or styles for it to happen again. Rather than seeking God, they are seeking an experience. They are seeking the presents of God rather than the presence of God. Thanks for bringing this subject to light. My prayer is that we will seek His presence and allow the Holy Spirit to saturate and empower us to do the ministry He has called us to do.”

When we seek God's presence and allow the Holy Spirit to saturate and empower us, lives will be transformed--even in the worst of environments.


Samuel Solivan points to the experiences of members of Hispanic Pentecostal churches in the United States, "Even though our communities remain destroyed, and we are forced to live our lives in inhuman living conditions, we still can attest to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives, empowering them to overcome their suffering, misery and despair." [1]

This hopefulness in the midst of suffering is what Solivan calls “orthopathos.” In using this term, he is referring to the power of the Holy Spirit that transforms “pathos” (the emotions of suffering and despair) into hope and wholeness. It is shalom that transcends all understanding (Philippians 4:7).


Solivan sees orthopathos as being the interlocutor between orthodoxy and orthopraxis—the bridge between the proclamation of liberty and the eschatological realization of liberty.


Solivan writes, “To speak to a former addict, prostitute, alcoholic or street person who has been transformed by the power of the Spirit is to speak to someone who knows what orthopathos is all about.” [2]

Gutted, graffiti-defaced project houses stand as monuments to the failure of governmental and social service agencies that did not comprehend that taking a person out of the ghetto does not guarantee transformation. However, it is possible to experience change while still in the hallways of ancient tenement buildings. Even though El Barrio in East Harlem remains a concrete jungle filled with drugs, prostitution, murder, suicide, and suffering, the corítos (small choirs) of the Pentecostal churches sing songs of joy—the songs of Zion in an alien land.


Does Pentecostal spirituality involve emotionalism? Yes, of course. If one understands that emotive responses are normal expressions of an inward joy that flows from a supernatural, wholistic liberation, then tears, laughter, raised hands, and other demonstrations are not bizarre.


At this entry point of the “redemptive lift” process, Hispanic Pentecostals experience liberation from the ghetto while still in the ghetto. The transforming power of the Holy Spirit helps them believe circumstances can change. The Spirit assembles the transformed and believing individuals into an incarnational, serving, and equipped community that can evangelize and work for social justice.


[1] Samuel Solivan, The Spirit, Pathos and Liberation: Toward an Hispanic Pentecostal Theology (Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press Ltd., 1997), 111.


[2] Ibid, 111.

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.

An Unambiguous Pentecostal Theology

(c) 2008 Dr. J. David Arnett

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In addition to a carefully articulated hermeneutic, emerging Pentecostals long for a holistic and systematic Pentecostal orthodoxy—an unambiguous theology—that leads to a Pentecostal orthopathy that will invigorate a twenty first century Pentecostal orthopraxis.
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Holistic qualifies the orthodoxy as a belief system based on more than pneumatology and glossolalia.
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Systematic refers to the orderly assimilation of the truth discovered by the inductive biblical theologian. It is organized to display the progressions and relationships between doctrinal truths.
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Orthopathy is the passion and fire of emotions that flow out of an extreme, transforming encounter with God. It is the affect that reflects the glory of the Lord “as the Spirit of the Lord works within us” (2 Corinthians 3:18, NLT).
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Orthopraxis is the worshipping, holy, compassionate, and evangelistic behavior of one indwelt by and cooperating with the Holy Spirit.
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Pentecostal orthodoxy begins with Jesus Christ. A Pentecostal is a person who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and has surrendered to Him as Savior. When an individual invites Christ into his life, logic indicates that he receives all of God he is going to receive since the Godhead is not divided. In this sense, the Holy Spirit indwells all Christians.
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Regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the believer—by an act of his will—gives the Holy Spirit administrative control over every area of his life. Neo-Pentecostal Dennis Bennett called this “releasing the Holy Spirit.” Without getting into a debate over anthropology (trichotomy versus dichotomy versus monism), it might be said that when “released” the Holy Spirit begins to flow from within a person’s inner being (“heart” in John 7:38, NCV).
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As the Spirit moves outward, He affects the various aspects of a person. The human spirit is invigorated and the spiritual realm becomes perceptible. The emotions are touched. Frequently, the love of God overwhelms the believer. Joy wells up. The mind is affected. Visions, thoughts, or words may fill the Christian’s mind as the Holy Spirit shares the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16; Romans 12:2). Even the body is influenced. Tears may come in response to the powerful emotions. One person may laugh. Another may tremble. Still another may dance. Some individuals may lose muscle tone under the weight of God’s glory and fall prostrate. All of these observable responses to the working of the Holy Spirit are highly individualized. The experiences do not seem to be normative. Rather, they appear to be based on each unique, but culturally conditioned personality.
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However, from biblical and historical precedent, one observable experience does appear to be normative—speaking in other tongues (Acts 2:1-4; 10:44-48; 19:1-7). That the individual has yielded himself to and is cooperating with the Holy Spirit is evidenced initially by speaking in other tongues as the Spirit supernaturally imparts to him the ability.
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Carl Brumback has suggested that the reason speaking in other tongues is the initial physical evidence of the total saturation of a person in the Holy Spirit is because the speech mechanism is that last and most difficult member of the body to surrender and tame (James 3:1-12).
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There should be additional indicators that the individual is participating (note the present tense) with the Spirit. These indicators include increasing levels of intimacy with God, developing righteousness as evidenced in a mortification of the sinful life and production of the fruit of the Spirit, an emboldened passion for the mission Christ gave to the Church and an openness to various manifestations (charismata or pneumatika) of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:8-10, 27-31; Romans 12:6-8; Ephesians 4:11). David Lim calls spirituals gifts “God’s tools to lead us to maturity and ministry.” [1]
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Clearly, Pentecostal spirituality does not begin nor stop with the baptism in the Holy Spirit or with speaking in other tongues. Such spirituality begins at conception when the Spirit places in the human heart a hunger for relationship with the Creator. It continues through conviction, conversion, and ever increasing levels of interaction and intimacy. A person cannot interact with God without being changed. People become like those with whom they associate. This is especially true of spending time with God. Out of intimacy with the Creator, grow new priorities, new perspectives, new passions, new power, and new fruit (Galatians 5:22-23).
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Ultimately, the evidence for spirituality and an intimacy with the Holy Spirit is a life characterized by love (1 Corinthians 13). Such evidentiary love has two dimensions—love of God and love of neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40). According to Richard Foster, “White-hot love of God compels us into compassionate love of neighbor… Love of God makes love of neighbor possible.”[2]
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[1] Lim, David. 1991. Spiritual Gifts: A Fresh Look. Springfield, Mo.: Gospel Publishing House, 19.
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[2] Richard J. Foster, Streams of Living Water: Celebrating the Great Traditions of Christian Faith (San Francisco: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1998), 166-7.