Several years ago a friend of mine decided to move to Argentina. She had grown up in Mar del Plata, but she and her husband had settled in the United States. When her husband died unexpectedly, she decided to move back home and raise her daughter there. She used to write to me quite often when she first moved back, frequently bemoaning the lack of evangelical churches. "The only churches near me," she would say, "are Pentecostal." Things had changed quite a bit since she'd left.
Another friend of mine grew up in Russia. She and her husband, an OT professor at Moody Bible Institute, and their two children live here in the Chicagoland area. Because of her background, she has managed to pick up free-lance Russian/English translation and interpretation work to help support their family. She too laments that so many of the Russian churches and organizations she deals with are Pentecostal.
But Pentecostalism is alive and well in the States, too. Several years ago I wrote a post and quoted Harriet A. Harris in Fundamentalism and Evangelicals to point out the influence Pentecostalism is increasingly having on Evangelicalism here:
“Charismatics challenge traditional fundamentalist thinking about God’s supernatural activity. Traditionally fundamentalists confine miracles to the Bible and regard them as violent divine interventions (Barr 1984: 86). In John Wimber’s words: ‘Christians unconsciously consign the supernatural to an impenetrable upper tier (except for the resurrection, early church miracles, and transcendent moral standards), excluding God’s power from their theology and practice’ (1985: 88). However, increasingly in fundamentalist circles God is regarded as ever-present and active, providing such mundane services as finding parking spaces in the centre of town on a Saturday morning. As Nancy Ammerman (1987: 48-9) found, having spent a year studying a fundamentalist church in New England,
‘Almost anything good or bad can be explained as God’s doing. God keeps the dishes from breaking, locates things that are lost. He supplies friends and offspring. He makes sure cars get fixed at affordable prices. He arranges convenient overtime work schedules and makes hiring and firing more pleasant. He provides clothes and food when they are needed, as well as less essential items like tickets for a rodeo or a pet dog for the children.’”
I bring up these three examples to show that "the winds they are a changin." In fact, according to World Christian Encyclopedia there are now an estimated 500 million followers of Pentecostalism. As recently as 1970, Pentecostals and Charismatics represented only 6% of the world’s so-called Christian population. By 1997 the figure jumped to 27%, or 497 million people, which is more than Protestants and Anglicans combined. Because Pentecostalism has only been around since the early 1900's, this runaway growth is especially phenomenal. Some even wonder if Pentecostalism is Christianity's next reformation.
The Pentecostal movement is not simply a new denomination, though. According to Margaret M. Poloma of the department of sociology of the University of Akron, “The rise of Pentecostalism is more analogous to the rise of Protestantism in Christianity than the birth of a new denomination. It’s an example of the restructuring of Christianity.” Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life concurs: “Pentecostal beliefs and practices are literally reshaping the face of Christianity throughout the developing world.”
A good example of this growth is the Assemblies of God (AG), the largest Pentecostal denomination, which has 2.5 million adherents in the U.S. and 35 million worldwide. From 1987 to 1999, the number of AG churches in the United States increased about 16%; however, much of that growth came from immigrants, particularly Hispanics. Worldwide, the number of AG churches almost doubled within the same time period to more than 212,000.
Indeed, most of Pentecostalism’s growth is occurring in developing countries. One reason for this is its extensive missionary efforts. Because Pentecostals link the outpouring of gifts of the Holy Spirit to the “end times,” there is a real sense of urgency to their missionary activity. One might question why the people in these "foreign lands" are so receptive to the Pentecostal message. One reason may be that since mysticism has long been a way of life in third world countries, Pentecostalism isn't a big leap to them. Add to this what The Pew Forum found in 2006 when they conducted a survey of Pentecostals in 10 countries in Asia, Africa and the Americas. Not only did majorities of Pentecostals in nine of the countries agree that God would grant material prosperity to all believers who have enough faith, but most Pentecostals in all 10 countries said that God would grant good health and relief from sickness to believers who have enough faith. Who wouldn't want that?
So what's the big deal?! There isn't that much difference between what the average Evangelical and Pentecostal believes, is there?
Well, yes and no. Evangelicals believe the essential beliefs of the Christian faith. That would be things like the inerrancy and authority of the Bible, the deity and virgin birth of Jesus Christ along with His death, burial and resurrection, ascension to heaven, and His return. They believe in salvation by faith, eternal security, the resurrection of the body, and the reality of Satan, angels, heaven and hell.
What about Pentecostals, then? They believe the same things that I mentioned above, except that most Pentecostals believe in conditional security instead of eternal security. (This is huge in my book because either Christ's death and resurrection was sufficient or it wasn't!) Pentecostals also place a large emphasis and focus on some things that most Evangelicals would either reject, or downplay. This includes speaking in tongues, seeing visions, miracle healings, prophesying, and things like this. Sometimes pentecostal refers to a specific denomination or church with the word pentecostal in the name. Other times it is an umbrella term that refers to all that hold to the distinctives I mentioned.
There is also an umbrella term called Charismatic. These people may or may not be evangelical. The term generally refers to a movement within the more mainline churches – and even the Roman Catholic Church. They emphasize the “gifts of the Spirit” that Pentecostals do, but many may or may not believe the essential beliefs of the Christian faith. The terms Pentecostal and Charismatic are often used interchangeably.
Another friend of mine grew up in Russia. She and her husband, an OT professor at Moody Bible Institute, and their two children live here in the Chicagoland area. Because of her background, she has managed to pick up free-lance Russian/English translation and interpretation work to help support their family. She too laments that so many of the Russian churches and organizations she deals with are Pentecostal.
But Pentecostalism is alive and well in the States, too. Several years ago I wrote a post and quoted Harriet A. Harris in Fundamentalism and Evangelicals to point out the influence Pentecostalism is increasingly having on Evangelicalism here:
“Charismatics challenge traditional fundamentalist thinking about God’s supernatural activity. Traditionally fundamentalists confine miracles to the Bible and regard them as violent divine interventions (Barr 1984: 86). In John Wimber’s words: ‘Christians unconsciously consign the supernatural to an impenetrable upper tier (except for the resurrection, early church miracles, and transcendent moral standards), excluding God’s power from their theology and practice’ (1985: 88). However, increasingly in fundamentalist circles God is regarded as ever-present and active, providing such mundane services as finding parking spaces in the centre of town on a Saturday morning. As Nancy Ammerman (1987: 48-9) found, having spent a year studying a fundamentalist church in New England,
‘Almost anything good or bad can be explained as God’s doing. God keeps the dishes from breaking, locates things that are lost. He supplies friends and offspring. He makes sure cars get fixed at affordable prices. He arranges convenient overtime work schedules and makes hiring and firing more pleasant. He provides clothes and food when they are needed, as well as less essential items like tickets for a rodeo or a pet dog for the children.’”
I bring up these three examples to show that "the winds they are a changin." In fact, according to World Christian Encyclopedia there are now an estimated 500 million followers of Pentecostalism. As recently as 1970, Pentecostals and Charismatics represented only 6% of the world’s so-called Christian population. By 1997 the figure jumped to 27%, or 497 million people, which is more than Protestants and Anglicans combined. Because Pentecostalism has only been around since the early 1900's, this runaway growth is especially phenomenal. Some even wonder if Pentecostalism is Christianity's next reformation.
The Pentecostal movement is not simply a new denomination, though. According to Margaret M. Poloma of the department of sociology of the University of Akron, “The rise of Pentecostalism is more analogous to the rise of Protestantism in Christianity than the birth of a new denomination. It’s an example of the restructuring of Christianity.” Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life concurs: “Pentecostal beliefs and practices are literally reshaping the face of Christianity throughout the developing world.”
A good example of this growth is the Assemblies of God (AG), the largest Pentecostal denomination, which has 2.5 million adherents in the U.S. and 35 million worldwide. From 1987 to 1999, the number of AG churches in the United States increased about 16%; however, much of that growth came from immigrants, particularly Hispanics. Worldwide, the number of AG churches almost doubled within the same time period to more than 212,000.
Indeed, most of Pentecostalism’s growth is occurring in developing countries. One reason for this is its extensive missionary efforts. Because Pentecostals link the outpouring of gifts of the Holy Spirit to the “end times,” there is a real sense of urgency to their missionary activity. One might question why the people in these "foreign lands" are so receptive to the Pentecostal message. One reason may be that since mysticism has long been a way of life in third world countries, Pentecostalism isn't a big leap to them. Add to this what The Pew Forum found in 2006 when they conducted a survey of Pentecostals in 10 countries in Asia, Africa and the Americas. Not only did majorities of Pentecostals in nine of the countries agree that God would grant material prosperity to all believers who have enough faith, but most Pentecostals in all 10 countries said that God would grant good health and relief from sickness to believers who have enough faith. Who wouldn't want that?
So what's the big deal?! There isn't that much difference between what the average Evangelical and Pentecostal believes, is there?
Well, yes and no. Evangelicals believe the essential beliefs of the Christian faith. That would be things like the inerrancy and authority of the Bible, the deity and virgin birth of Jesus Christ along with His death, burial and resurrection, ascension to heaven, and His return. They believe in salvation by faith, eternal security, the resurrection of the body, and the reality of Satan, angels, heaven and hell.
What about Pentecostals, then? They believe the same things that I mentioned above, except that most Pentecostals believe in conditional security instead of eternal security. (This is huge in my book because either Christ's death and resurrection was sufficient or it wasn't!) Pentecostals also place a large emphasis and focus on some things that most Evangelicals would either reject, or downplay. This includes speaking in tongues, seeing visions, miracle healings, prophesying, and things like this. Sometimes pentecostal refers to a specific denomination or church with the word pentecostal in the name. Other times it is an umbrella term that refers to all that hold to the distinctives I mentioned.
There is also an umbrella term called Charismatic. These people may or may not be evangelical. The term generally refers to a movement within the more mainline churches – and even the Roman Catholic Church. They emphasize the “gifts of the Spirit” that Pentecostals do, but many may or may not believe the essential beliefs of the Christian faith. The terms Pentecostal and Charismatic are often used interchangeably.
