There are many positive characteristics of the Pentecostal movement. J. I. Paker, in Keep in Step with the Spirit, gave 12 positive characteristics of the charismatic movement, providing a good basis for a summary of the key strengths of Pentecostalism. I've taken these and here paraphrased and adapted each from my perspective and for the purpose of providing a short overview of the features of Pentecostalism that we can all learn from.
1. Bible-based
Regardless of the degree to which one individual or another relies upon the Bible, mainstream Pentecostals fiercely believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and sincerely desire to hold to its teaching. Pentecostalism is Trinitarian and holds to all the key elements of the Christian gospel. The stress on the Holy Spirit's ministry does not displace Jesus from centre-stage as God's Son, our redeemer and coming king.
2. Spirit-dependent
Pentecostals stress that the Christian life is supernatural, in that Christ through his Spirit enables believers to do what by nature they could never do themselves. They insist that the Spirit's work did not end at Pentecost. His role is essential in repentance, faith, sanctification and enabling and empowering Christian service.
3. Emotional
Pentecostals believe in the God who can be experienced in his speaking and acting today. They place importance on the emotional element within humanity and Christianity. What makes Pentecostals more demonstrative is not a lack of reverance for God, but a sincere desire to experience God and a passionate love of the Lord Jesus and christian people.
4. Prayerful
Pentecostals are typically devoted to cultivating a constant, wholehearted habit of prayer. Tongues-speaking is often used as a personal prayer language for voicing petitions and praise to God, and generally for long periods at a time. Those who do not pray so much have little right to criticize how Pentecostals pray in this regard.
5. Joyful
Pentecostalism is a movement with celebration at its heart and joy evident in its people. They endeavour to rejoice and praise God at all times and in all places, and their commitment to thanksgiving often shines bright in their behaviour also.
6. Worshipful
Pentecostalism is a movement striving to engage with God, collectively and individually. Their meetings seek to coorporately and actively lift up hearts and minds to God. If raising eyes and hands heavenward helps them do just that, this too should not be disputed. Pentecostals sincerely desire to glorify God in all of their lives, work, rest and play.
7. Ministry-minded
Pentecostalism is renown for its ability to enlist the active service of every part of the church. They deny that preaching alone can grow a church to maturity, but is given to equip every believer to serve the church. Meaningful mutual ministry is the job not only of pastors, leaders and elders, but also of every member of the body of Christ.
8. Evangelistic
From its origin Pentecostalism has been vigorously evangelistic and outreach-orientated. Pentecostals are passionately concerned to share Christ, and their determination, perseverence, faith, boldness, and innovation is exemplary. Massive portions of the world's population today know Christ and would otherwise not if not for the missionary zeal of Pentecostals.
9. Empowering
Pentecostalism has been extremely committed to discipleship and training, and the movement of growing numbers of large communities has maintained its spiritual vitality over the long stretch of time in part thanks to their harnessing the power of small group ministry.
10. Dynamic
Pentecostalism has a long history of empowering leaders who have created a cultural movement of dynamic and innovative leadership. They embrace change to adapt to new trends and create functional church structures. Pentecostalism has been progressive in seeking to stay relevant to contemporary society, demonstrated in their ability to use marketing, technology, music and events management to enhance the appeal of their message.
11. Community minded
Pentecostal communities are more often wholistic in their expression of community life. They are culturally sensitive and express their commitment to the family nucleus, forging new relationships in order to outreach to needy individuals and groups within their neighbourhoods and society.
12. Generous
Sacrificial giving is a predominant aspect of church life and Christian worship in Pentecostalism. Sponteneity, warmth and rich hospitality overflows in relationships with one another. Expectancy to give till it hurts and count the experience as a priviledge is part of what it means to share in true Christian commitment.
Learning from Pentecostalism
None of these strengths are unique to Pentecostalism in practice. Historically, new movements like Pentecostalism emerge as a cultural shift in order to remedy the deficiencies of past movements. Whatever may be said of Pentecostalism, there can be no doubt that any one of its positive characteristics should provide a challenge to many a section or another of the wider church; together they provide a monumental reminder of how far we all have go to live up to all that God would have his Church to be.
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Paker, J. I. Keep in Step with the Spirit. IVP, 1984, p. 183-197.
talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
A journey from self-focussed to Christ-centered spirituality
James Brinkhoff
Early days: Youthful zealAfter turning my life over to Jesus at age 12, I became a closet Christian. I had more concern to fit in with my friends and to avoid being the target of school-yard bullying, than to please my maker. But that all changed when my family moved into an area where I made friends who were zealous Christians (including the author of this blog, Joe Towns). At the same time, we started attending a lively charismatic church. I was suddenly prepared to let everyone know I was a Christian without a care for what my classmates thought of me, because I was “fired up”.
During this extremely zealous phase of my life, my faith could be characterized by three passions:
One, a devotion to receiving special words from God. This was evident both in my interest in the 'prophetic' and in the way I read the Bible. I focussed on verses about mountains, watchtowers and rivers, extracting exciting and esoteric interpretations about what God was going to do in my life. Unfortunately I often missed what the author of the passage (and hence God) actually intended to communicate.Turning point: 'The Spirit' conference
Two, I was constantly chasing after what I considered to be the experience of the presence of God. That's what Christian gatherings were all about to me: excited fervour, out-of-the-body feelings, shaking, being “slain in the Spirit” and new words from God.
Three, I was obsessed with the concept of revival. I led a Christian group at my senior high school, where we spent most of our time calling down and prophesying revival. We felt like we were at the cutting edge. It was all very exciting. I wanted to be a revivalist; I didn't want to see God working in the apparently same old boring everyday small way. I wanted to see something big. And I wanted to be at the forefront of this “new move of God”.
I began studying electronic engineering at the University of Tasmania in 1998. There was a Christian group on campus that was very active and visible. Though they were obviously zealous and evangelistic, the group did not fit my perception of what passionate Christianity should look like. Their meetings seemed cerebral and unspiritual. Too much Bible and not enough experience, I thought. Nevertheless, I attended from time to time.
I was quite amused when I learned the topic for their mid-year conference in my first year was “The Spirit”. I thought to myself, “What a joke! A bunch of unspiritual, head-knowledge based people getting together for a week to study the Spirit. They have no experience of the Spirit!” A similar-minded friend and I decided to attend, with the express purpose of praying that these people would learn what it means to be Spirit-filled. We were hoping God would pour out his Spirit on them, and he would use us to bring this about.
To my shock, I was the one who was changed. I was the one who came away with a new zeal and a heart bursting with a new understanding of what God's will is. God was pleased to enlighten the eyes of my heart, and in a way and with a depth I had never known before. Aside from my conversion, that conference on the Spirit was the biggest event in my Christian life.
It dawned on me that my Christianity, and the three things that characterized it, had not been about Jesus. It had been about my excitement and experience. At this conference, the Spirit turned my gaze away from myself and up to Jesus. He opened my eyes to the wonder of the gospel. I understood – I really grasped deep in my mind and heart for the first time – that the most wonderful event in history was not a revival or a personal experience, but the crucifixion and resurrection of God's Son. I came to understand that this was where my passion must rest – a passion for the good news of a God who saved us who were his enemies, to be his people, eternally.
New understanding: The work of the Spirit in my life
At the conference, we studied systematically and sequentially every verse in the Bible that mentioned the word “spirit”, far in excess of 500 references. To read, for myself, for the first time, God's entire word on the Spirit in only a few days was certainly 'eye opening'. One of the most significant study sessions for me was on Paul's letter to the Ephesians, a book that has the work of the Spirit described again and again, from beginning to end. The letter left five big impressions on me:
One, I came to understand, to really grasp, the cross. I was struck with horror at my sin, and by the wonder that I could be counted among God's children only because of his mercy, not because of my fervour or works. (Ephesians 2:1-10)A refocussed life: Christ-centered spirituality
Two, I learned how the Spirit is behind the process of revelation. He had revealed the truth of the gospel to the apostles, who then passed the message on down to us as Scripture. The Spirit was the one who enabled people to grasp the message of the wonderful depths of God's love and justice revealed at the cross. I understood that God's Spirit was at work to help me understand what his word really means, rather than twisting it to fit my interests and experience. (Ephesians 3:1-21)
Three, I was convicted of my spiritual pride. I came to realise that the Spirit was interested in calling together a people for God, characterized by humility and unity. He is not interested in making zealous revivalist lone rangers. It is the Spirit that has brought us to be God's children, part of the family. There is no room for elitism in the spiritual life. God has given all his people every spiritual blessing in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3-14, 2:18-22, 4:1-6)
Four, I came to understand that walking in the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit is not manifest in strange experience, but rather in putting to death the acts of the sinful nature and living a life pleasing to God. The evidence of being filled with the Spirit is not behaving and feeling drunk (my previous poor reading of Ephesians 5:18), but is rather being wise, being thankful, submitting to others – quite the opposite of drunkenness! (Ephesians 5:15-21)
Five, I came to see that God's will is not something mysterious that hadn't been revealed and had to be prophesied or extracted through strange readings of the Bible. God's will is something that he has already revealed plainly in his word. It involves trusting Christ for forgiveness, putting on the new self, living a life of love, speaking truthfully, working to earn a living. On the flip side, not grieving the Spirit is about putting away lying, deception, elitism and useless talk. (Ephesians 4:17-5:21)
God's Spirit brought me new life, enlightened the eyes of my heart to know and trust Jesus Christ, and the depths of what he achieved at the cross. I stopped separating God's Spirit from God's Word (Ephesians 6:17). He fixed my eyes on Jesus, filling me with praise for the glorious riches and wonderful inheritance the Father has given through the gift of his Son. The Spirit moved me to put to death the acts of the sinful nature and to put on the deeds that please God. The Spirit convicted me of pride and seeking to become a spiritual elitist. He gave me a desire to leave behind esoteric human doctrine and to attain maturity, growing up with the whole body into the head, who is Christ (Ephesians 4:12-16).
By James Brinkhoff talkingpentecostalism.blogspot.com | joe towns: christian discussion on pentecost, charisma, pentecostal and charismatic beliefs, the Bible and Jesus; including the origin and history of pentecostalism, baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, gifts and miracles, divine healing and word of faith, prosperity and wealth, praise and worship, guidance and hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
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