Let's talk pneumatology

Continuing on with discussion point #1:
The New Kind of Pentecostals are those who do not claim exclusivity of the Holy Spirit to a particular denomination or church.

Let’s talk pneumatology here. There’s no doubt that the Pentecostal movement revived a sense of charismatic pneumatology in the church. Throughout history there has always been a stream of charismatic experience running through the church. It was sometimes ignored or marginalized, but it was there. The global explosion of what we have come to label the Pentecostal movement was certainly unique. It has found expression in “classical Pentecostalism,” charismatic pentecostalism, and other waves and streams around the world that defy definition at the moment.

With the initial Pentecostal movement there was a great sense of excitement. The Spirit was doing something new! There was a new outpouring, and it looked a lot like the book of Acts. People wondered if this was a special outpouring for the “last days.” And it just wasn’t happening the same way in other denominations or traditions of Christianity.

So I think the exclusivity started with trying to make sense of this new movement of the Spirit. Because there was a way in which the Spirit was working that was different. And that made us feel special.

But somewhere along the way, we may have reduced the Spirit’s role to that of charismatic manifestations, and even more specifically, tongues. The pneumatology of Luke-Acts had been sorely neglected, and one of Pentecostalism’s gifts to the larger church has been to explicate Luke’s unique pneumatology. We should be grateful for the biblical scholarship done in this area by many brilliant Pentecostals. But Pentecostal pneumatology, as it has been expressed thus far, is by no means the be all and end all of Christian pneumatology. Believe it or not, the Spirit has been at work in the church between Constantine and Azuza Street!!

It’s time to take the pneumatology we have developed and put it in conversation with other aspects of pneumatology. We didn’t invent it. We have much to learn from many theologians of the church over time. It’s as we interact with the collective mind of the church that we can see some of the weak points in our own pneumatology and develop our own insights further. The Spirit is bigger than us, bigger than tongues, than Pentecostalism. I believe the Spirit speaks through Pentecostalism to the rest of the church, and that the Spirit also speaks TO Pentecostalism through the rest of the church.


What do you think?
In what ways has our pneumatology contributed to the larger picture of what the Spirit is up to in the world?
In what ways has it fallen short?
How can we better interact with the 1900 years of pneumatological thought that came before us?
Has anyone been reading any pneumatology lately (Pentecostal or other) that has inspired them to colour outside the traditional Pentecostal lines?

Everything is Pentecostal.

The New Kind of Pentecostals are: 1.Those who do not claim exclusivity of the Holy Spirit to a particular denomination or church.

I have an incredible dad, he is this short east Indian man who is proud to be Indian...overwhelmingly proud! When I was a teenager he went through a stage where everything was Indian. I would be watching "Much On Demand" after school and he would walk in and say " Did you know music videos were invented in India?" He would smile, shake his head side to side as most Indian people do and then would take a sip of his steaming, hot, homemade Chai before vanishing off to his basement office.

Other times, my father would hear my sister talk about fashion, and without missing a beat, my mom would always bring up her desire to have a nose ring. Mohny Singh's right eyebrow of course would go up and he would then interject into the conversation. "Did you know Indians are the ones that made nose rings fashionable or as they say now...cool?" After his declaration he would go on eating his meal or reading the paper like nothing had even been mentioned. It drove us crazy... still does!!! To my dad though, everything is Indian (or at least was invented there).

I have another family that I am a part of that for years was even more extreme than my dad about where they came from and who they were. This family is called Pentecostalism. When I was 8 my parents started going to a Pentecostal church just outside of Montreal. This was the first experience I had ever had with Christianity (other than going to mass once in a while). At first the whole thing really scared me. People singing songs about blood washing them and something about snow. Folks raising their hands and swaying like they were in a trance of some sort, a preacher spitting and sweating like he was mad at all of us and going to the front to get prayed for and having people shouting "Ba Ram U's" at you. For an 8 year old, the whole thing was pretty intense.

As the years went by though, I started getting used to it. By the time I hit my preteens I was convinced that you weren't a Christian unless you were a Pentecostal. I heard various sermons that would emphasize the importance of being filled and baptized with the Spirit, and unless you spoke in tongues, you were unable to live out a true Christian life. I honestly remember thinking that the majority of Christian rock bands were all Pentecostal and that Catholics weren't going to heaven.

For anyone who grew up in the movement during the 70's 80's and 90's, being Pentecostal was the hippest thing you could do with your life. We were growing, Pentecostal youth ministries across the country were exploding and our Bible Colleges were pumping out huge amounts of young Pentecostal leaders. Things were good. I think they were so good, we let ourselves get a little arrogant. We had this attitude that we were the only real show in town and that if you weren't a part of us you were like second class Christians. For a long time, that ethos rang true in many of the events I attended as I grew up.

When it came to the Holy Spirit, I think many Pentecostals were convinced that we had the market pinned on that one. The attitude was very much "if you don't experience the Spirit like we do, then you didn't really experience the Spirit at all." And for years, me and many of my young friends actually believed that. It was almost like the movement was saying "everything is Pentecostal."

I remember judging the Christianity of many people in my high school as non existent because they were not Pentecostal. I would invite friends that were a part of other denominations to Pentecostal events in our district and at my church hoping that they would truly get "saved" and experience the Pentecostal Spirit! I had no concept that their expression of Christianity was valid and good. Sad really.

My "everything is Pentecostal" attitude really started changing in my second year of Bible college. As students we had to be a part of an outside ministry so as to meet the requirements of our college. Myself and a few good friends decided to be a part of a ministry called "Potter's Place Mission" on the East side of Vancouver. This area is one of the poorest and most drug ridden parts of North America and I was convinced when we signed up that we were going to save the world from themselves.

As we began to get to know many of the ministry staff at the mission, I realized something pretty incredible...none of them were Pentecostal. All of them were a part of interdenominational or main line denominational churches. To be honest it floored me. How could people who weren't Pentecostal and who hadn't experienced the "Pentecostal Spirit" pray with such authority, love so recklessly and be so connected to the Spirit of God?

One time, a person on our team was playing guitar for one of the services we were holding at the mission. He felt in his spirit that there was some kind of demonic force there in the room. He prayed " God, in the name of Jesus if there is anything here that would try to come against what your Spirit is doing in these people, I ask that you would reveal it in Jesus name." All of a sudden a guy jumps up out of his seat, looks my friend right in the eye and gives him the 2 finger salute. He starts screaming these profane sentences at the top of his lungs and disrupts the whole service. All of us Pentecostal guys just stand there in shock. There was no class in our Pentecostal college that got us ready for those situations, we were like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car.

Almost immediately, one of the pastors of the mission recognized the demon possessed guy. He got up and with all the authority in the world starts walking towards him. The possessed man looks at this small Korean pastor, his mouth drops in fear and he books it out of there. The funny part was that the pastor was so intent on casting out this demon he starts running after the man and follows him into the streets of east Vancouver. Brilliant!

That night for me everything changed. This small Korean pastor was not a Pentecostal. He was a part of a mainline denomination who expresses dependency on the Spirit in a very different way than we Pentecostals do and yet...He understood the Pentecostal message better than we did. I realized that night that the body of Christ may be diverse and unique but we are all connected by two main things: Christ's death and resurrection and by the Spirit of Christ. I realized that before I am Pentecostal, I am a Christian who is but one small part of the greater body of Christ. I realized that Pentecostalism is only one outlet of how a person can express their Christianity and that all outlets (denomination allegiances, expressions and distinctives) are all valid and actually showcase the unifying essentials of Christendom.

I always thought that Pentecostalism had chosen me, but over the last few years I've come to the conclusion that Pentecostalism is the outlet I have chosen to express my Christianity. For me, I now know that Pentecostals don't have the market cornered when it comes to the Holy Spirit and to think our pneumatology is crystallized and completed is going to be our very downfall as a fellowship. As a young movement of only 104 years here in North America, we have a lot to discover and learn about the Spirit, and I think we can learn a lot from our brothers and sisters that have chosen different outlets of Christian expression.

When I read this first statement from Dr. Lee, that new Pentecostals are "Those who do not claim exclusivity of the Holy Spirit to a particular denomination or church," I am overcome because for years now, this is exactly how I've been feeling about the whole thing. I know many older leaders will say that we as a movement have never claimed exclusivity to the Holy Spirit. And sure, maybe not officially or maybe not in our doctrinal stances or in denomination statements...but we have and are doing it through the attitude of arrogance we had and exude in some instances. I really believe that to go forward as a movement, we need to make this statement part of our overall ethos. I believe that this is happening and that many Pentecostals feel like this first statement truly reflects their heart, as it should.

Everything in Christendom may not be Pentecostal...but it is still beautiful.

As a Pentecostal what have been your experiences in this specific regard? How do you feel Dr.Lee's first statement reflects where Pentecostalism is going ?