Category Archives: Spirituality

Spirituality

The Difference Between Pentecostalism and Christian Pentecostals

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As reflective Pentecostals, we have many concerns about the progress of the movement. We know how much it is growing in the world. We know how many marvelous stories and testimonies we can find in our churches, but also we know about the abuse of power. We know about the general rejection of theology; we know about the unconscious politicization. So when we put all that stuff in balance, we have two options: leave or remain. I have to be honest. I left, a few years ago. Disappointed. Sad.

I couldn’t understand how God was working among people who despise to know him. It took me some years to understand that God works wherever he wants. And also, that the rejection of an intellectual knowledge doesn’t mean rejection of other kinds of knowledge. Then I realized how lost I was. I tried — wrongly — to use all the tools I acquired studying, but I forgot that theology is not merely an intellectual discipline, but a way of life. That is the meaning it had for the first Christians. In other words, I discovered that not only my brothers were unconscious about themselves — so was I. Because I hadn’t understand the core of Pentecostalism. Continue reading The Difference Between Pentecostalism and Christian Pentecostals →

Spirituality

Charismatics Have A Hope the World Doesn’t Have

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lucy peppiattLucy Peppiatt, principal at Westminster Theological Centre, has written an excellent piece on why all Christians should be charismatic and why the risk of “charismania” shouldn’t put us off from seeking the gifts of the Spirit. One of the reasons she gives relates strongly to what I call charismactivism, the fact that Spiritual gifts ought to promote peace, justice and a better world:

I think that most of us feel overwhelmed by the world’s problems. It’s enough to deal with our own and our family’s problems let alone terrorism, unemployment, war, addiction, crime, disease, homelessness, abuse, etc. etc. I’m always astonished and deeply moved by how resilient human beings are in the face of horror, and this seems regardless of whether they have a faith or not. Sometimes humans are just extraordinarily strong. All Christians should carry a hope that good will triumph over evil in the end, because that is the promise of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection.

Continue reading Charismatics Have A Hope the World Doesn’t Have →

Nonviolence, Spirituality

Hijacked Pentecostalism

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by Sam Lee. Originally published at his blog.

Pentecostalism is one of the fastest growing Christian movements in our world today, especially in the global South. Some Christians in the West admire this growth.  Most of them witness the decline of the organized Christianity in their own countries, while Pentecostalism attracts millions of people in the global South.  As I have been observing, the Western Christians often romanticize the growing Pentecostalism in the South!

As a full time Pentecostal (Non-Western) pastor and a sociologist I have several reasons to be concerned about the current condition of Pentecostalism in the South:

There is an emerging radicalism among the Pentecostals in the South. This radicalism does more harm than good, especially in the Non-Western world. Radicalism that is proclaimed from the pulpits of the fundamentalist Pentecostals offers no room for dialogue, and communication with those who are different. Such Pentecostals do not easily accept peoples from other Christian denominations, let alone those from other faiths.

Continue reading Hijacked Pentecostalism →

Racial Justice, Spirituality

Philoxenia: Love of the Stranger

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What is Philoxenia? When I first heard this word, I wondered if I had just stumbled upon a new kind of flower, Philoxenia… sort of like a Xenia or phlox or a Xenia crossed with a phlox to create a whole new flower.  It’s not a flower, it is the Greek word for Hospitality.  It literally means Philo or Love; Xenia or Stranger; put together it means LOVE OF STRANGER. 

Hospitality then is the act of making strangers feel loved, as if they belong, welcome—like family.  Hospitality is another thread that is woven throughout the entire Bible. 

Growing up in the church, hospitality was more about making sure the coffee was on and the donuts and cookies were placed out on the serving table.  We had a hospitality committee, usually made up of women, who made sure there were plenty of good things to eat and coffee to drink—cool-aid for the children and decaf for the senior folks.  And we would gather in the fellowship hall after the morning service to share in a time of “fellowship”.  Because what else would one do in a fellowship hall?  I loved this time because it meant that I could play just a bit longer with my friends before we all went home for Sunday dinner.  Continue reading Philoxenia: Love of the Stranger →

Economic Justice, Gender Equality, Spirituality

The Indian Women’s Rights Activist Who Became a Pentecostal Before Azusa

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Ramabai on an Indian post stamp
Ramabai on an Indian post stamp

One of my favourite Pentecostal saints of all times is Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922), Indian activist, evangelist and holy roller. Over a hundred years before Malala she campaigned for women’s right to education, and she was extremely active in helping the poor and discriminated.

Born in a Brahmite family in what is now the state of Karnataka, she started to study at an early age and learned Sanskrit along with sacred Hinduist texts, astronomy, physiology and more. This was controversial since she lacked a penis, but her father encouraged her as she learned more and more about society, religion and activism.

In 1883 she went to England and taught Sanskrit at an Anglican monastery in Wantage. There she was saved. “I realized,” she later wrote, “after reading the fourth chapter of St. John’s Gospel, that Christ was truly the Divine Saviour he claimed to be, and no one but He could transform and uplift the downtrodden women of India.”

Continue reading The Indian Women’s Rights Activist Who Became a Pentecostal Before Azusa →

Politics, Spirituality

Learning About Peace and Justice from Christian Conservatives

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There is a tendency to take Gospel values and try to lump them into a particular modern political category. It is something I am often guilty of myself. Not too long ago, I was a very politically sectarian individual, and if you did not agree with my specific political ideology, then you must be personally for oppression and/or sin. Lately, I have been reconsidering this stance heavily. I see the Spirit of God telling me that in Christ there is no longer progressive or conservative, left or right.

In Christ, we have a common King and a common Kingdom, and we must unite together behind the Gospel. One can be a loving, Christ-like conservative, and one can be a hateful, unchristian progressive, and vice versa. The Kingdom of God transcends man-made boundaries, as the Apostle Paul said:

For just as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body—though many—are one body, so too is Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews or Greeks or slaves or free, we were all made to drink of the one Spirit. For in fact the body is not a single member, but many (1 Cor. 12:12-14).

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female—for all of you are one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26-28).

Here there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all (Colossians 3:11).

Continue reading Learning About Peace and Justice from Christian Conservatives →

Spirituality

This Year’s Top Articles on PCPJ

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2017 has been an amazing year for Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice. Our website and Facebook page have grown dramatically in viewership, and as 2018 comes along we stand ready to welcome new members, partner with other organizations and reach out to even more people. It’s an exciting journey to be on and I’m grateful to the Lord that I might be a part of it.

We’ve had some excellent quality articles published on this website during 2017. Here are some of the most popular:

Rick Joyner’s Daughter Won’t Have It With Her Father’s Trump Support – Anna Jane Joyner’s video and Facebook comments about her father’s wild speculations on Obama and Black Lives Matter resonated with a large number of people. Hopefully, her words made Rick himself reconsider how his political views add up to the Gospel. Continue reading This Year’s Top Articles on PCPJ →

Spirituality

There’s No Christmas Without Angels

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We have a lot of symbols for Christmas, and honestly I feel that neither jingle bells, snowflakes or Santa Claus are adequate representations of, you know, the birth of God’s Son. Angels, however, are.

Angels play a huge role in the birth of Jesus. Massive, in fact. This is yet another reason I believe that people without charismatic experience or theology won’t get what the Gospel is all about. You cannot have Christmas without angels.

First of all, the angel Gabriel visits Mary to tell her that she will give a virgin birth to the Messiah (Lk 1:26-38). Then, he visits Joseph to ensure him that Mary has not been cheating but that the Holy Spirit has conceived the child (Mt 1:21). As the Son is born in Bethlehem, angels tell some nearby shepherds that the Messiah has been born, and sings a angelic song about glory to God and peace among men (Lk 2:8-15). After the visitation of the wise men (who surprisingly weren’t led by angels but just by a supernatural star and prophetic dreams) an angel tells Joseph that he must take his family to Egypt to escape Herod’s madness (Mt 2:13). And after some time, Joseph gets to know that it’s clear for him to go back to Israel by – you guessed it – an angel (Mt 2:19f.).

Continue reading There’s No Christmas Without Angels →

Spirituality

Worship Leaders’ Christmas Albums Proves How Commercialized Worship Has Become

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Kim Walker-Smith is one of the most inspirational worship leaders I know of. Her personal testimony of visions that Jesus has given her is absolutely amazing. Her voice and musical talent are astounding. And her passion for Jesus is extremely apparent and appealing when she sings songs like How He Loves, Holy Spirit and Freedom Reigns.

And here she is singing about Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer:

The song is from Kim’s 2014 album When Christmas Comes which includes 17 tracks. Most of them are worship songs or hymns like O Holy Night or Away in a Manger, but then there’s also White Christmas, Winter Wonderland and other songs that don’t mention the reason for the season at all. Continue reading Worship Leaders’ Christmas Albums Proves How Commercialized Worship Has Become →

Spirituality

Revival as Social Transformation

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Charismatics like myself love to talk about revival. Revival is usually defined as an “awakening” of the church, when it goes back to it’s original state. If the church doesn’t look like the book of Acts – where a lot of miracles happened, thousands were saved and Christians were living a holy, passionate life – it’s basically sleeping and needs to be revived.

Some years ago, a woman from Switzerland contacted me via this blog and said that she wanted to visit Sweden “and the revival there”. We were honored and welcomed her, but we gently said that it would be wrong to say that it’s a revival in Sweden. Even when a lot of people do get healed here and many are saved when we prophesy for them, revival is the wrong word, at least yet. Revival is something more, revival is social transformation. Continue reading Revival as Social Transformation →