What are we doing here?

Hey Pentecostals, welcome to the conversation!

The idea for this blog started with a blog post from Josh Singh. He introduced me (Lindsey) to Samuel Lee, a Pentecostal pastor, thinker and writer currently living in Amsterdam, who is interested, among other things, in reforming Pentecostalism as we know it. (You can read Josh’s original post here.)

Samuel Lee has his own blog, in which he explores some of the issues on the current Pentecostal horizon. On July 1st, 2010, he posted a “possible statement of faith” for a “New Kind of Pentecostalism.” When Josh reposted this list of 16 statements, it really caught my eye.

Here was someone who wasn’t afraid to take a good look at the Pentecostal world we inhabit – the values we hold, the practices we engage in, our patterns of thinking, our cherished statements of fundamental and essential truths, our strengths and our weaknesses – and open it up for critique and dialogue. Granted, many of these statements arise from some of the abuses and extremes of Pentecostal thought, but overall the list provides a positive, balanced approach to reforming the worldwide movement that began just over a century ago.

And I don’t know about you, but I think Pentecostalism could use some reformation. So when I read the list, I immediately wanted to invite a few dozen of my best Pentecostal friends to the closest coffee shop for some discussion. What did they think about the list? Are these concerns valid? Is this the direction we need to go? Is this the equivalent of Luther’s 95 theses and is there a door somewhere we can nail to them to?

With said Pentecostal friends spread out all over the country, the next best thing I could think of was that great virtual Starbucks of the new millennium – the blogging world. Wouldn’t it be great to start a blog series discussing the premise of Lee’s manifesto and each of Lee’s statements? Wouldn’t it be great to invite a few “experts” to weigh in on different areas of Pentecostal thought? Wouldn’t it be great just to have a conversation about where we are now and where we think we might be heading? Wouldn’t it?!?

Josh thought it was a good idea, anyway. We figured we have enough Pentecostal friends and people interested in Pentecostal thought to make for a good discussion. If you agree, grab a cup of coffee and your laptop and meet us here at newpentecostals.blogspot.com.


~lg