TOWARDS A PENTECOSTAL MISSIOLOGY FOR THE MAJORITY WORLD1

Holy Family Parish - Barletta, 30 May 2001.

Asian and Journal of Pentecostal Studies and APTS Press, 2005

“In the year 1901 the latter rain began to fall in different parts of the world,” trumpeted the Missionary Manual of the Assemblies of God published three decades later. More importantly, the evangelistic zeal of “waiting, hungry-hearted people,” who had been baptized in the Holy Spirit, signaled the resumption of “the Lord’s Pentecostal missionary movement.” It had been halted at the end of the first century when the Holy Spirit was “largely rejected and His position as leader usurped by men.” Consequently, Spirit-led missions ceased and the Dark Ages commenced.2 Now, in the remaining days before the imminent return of Christ, Pentecostals would jubilantly carry the apostolic banner down the parade route of modern mission.

Journal of Pentecostal Theology, 2010

This article addresses three historical components of Pentecostal theology that influenced Pentecostal missionary women by examining missions in the first generation after the Pentecostal revival of the early twentieth century. This article presents four case studies of such Pentecostals and their responses to Pentecostal experiences and missionary careers for consideration about what it meant to "Go into all the world" as an early Pentecostal.

Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies and APTS Press, 2005

In the early 1980s, Peter Wagner, a church growth specialist of Fuller Theological Seminary, wrote a book entitled On the Crest of the Wave. 2 Typical of Wagner, this is a practical and easy to read book, with each chapter concluding with a “Do Something Now” list. This “one of Wagner’s casual writings” has proven to be an extremely helpful book, especially among Christians to whom “mission” is a too familiar word to bother looking up in a dictionary, and yet precisely what it means, or what is not meant, is widely unknown. As an Asian Christian, I suppose this is more so among Asian churches. There are several critical and important concepts found in this book that all churches need to heed to.

The purpose of this MTS Thesis is to assist the efforts of North American Pentecostalism by uncovering a theological paradigm of mission that is at once theologically authentic to historic Pentecostalism, as well as missionally effective in engaging a Postmodern culture. To aid with this endeavour certain voices within the Missional movement will be considered to assist in constructing a theological paradigm of mission from which Pentecostalism can engage Western culture. This paradigm will explore the role of three key areas needed to establish an effective missiology: eschatology, epistemology, and community. It will become apparent that the role of eschatology will play a significant role in producing a missionally effective epistemological and communal approach. Chapter three will explore whether Pentecostalism’s current eschatological state is compatible with the eschatological perspective embedded in the theological paradigm of mission espoused in chapter two, while chapter four will move to establish Pentecostalism as appropriately suited eschatologically, epistemologically, and communally for that paradigm. This work will first argue that early Pentecostal eschatology was focused on the Kingdom of God as presently available to believers through the pneumatological inauguration of Pentecost. Second, it will be argued that this produced within Pentecostalism an experiential epistemology driven by narrative and is, therefore, missionally compatible with Postmodern culture. Last, this work will argue that the Pentecostal experience of the Kingdom of God led to a community that embraced the ideals of the Kingdom, thus producing koinonia fellowship. Chapter five will make a concluding case for Pentecostalism to adopt the theological paradigm of mission outlined in chapter two, followed by a praxiological approach that will produce an effective Pentecostal ecclesiology that can missionally engage a Western Postmodern context.

2020

In die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi

Several leaders in the early Pentecostal movement interpreted the outpouring of the Spirit at the Azusa Street Mission and other places as a sign that the Spirit would now unite Christians across the borders of denominations in a new Pentecost that concurs with the events of Acts 2 which led to the formation of the Early Christian Church. They did not actively pursue ecumenism, but expected it as a natural and spontaneous result of the Spirit’s work, carried by their primitivist and restorationist impulses. Instead of the other churches appreciating and accepting Pentecostal experiences as interventions by the Spirit, most main-line churches alienated and rejected Pentecostals as a heretical sect. Within one generation, Pentecostalists entered denominationalism and by the 1940s, in an upward social mobility surge, aligned themselves with some evangelicals with a biblicist-literalist hermeneutics. Today Pentecostalism has accepted that Spirit baptism did not bring the expected unity ...

Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies and APTS Press, 2000

Pentecostal mission has been successful, extremely successful when we look at the numbers. Whatever reservations one might have with regard to the calculations of D. Barrett2 and of others,3 there is no denying the fact that the advance of Pentecostal/Charismatic mission work has been astonishing. “A growth of from zero to 400 mission in ninety years is unprecedented in the whole of church history.”4

International Review of Mission, 1999

A collection of studies on Pentecostal mission as part of the Regnum Edinburgh Centenary Series

Pneuma, 2012

Mission Studies, 1992

THIS IS A PAPER SUBMITTED TO THE PRESBYTERY AND MEMBERSHIP OF THE ALASKA MINISTRY NETWORK ANNUAL CONFERENCE AT THE ONE-HUNDRETH CELEBRATION OF PENTECOSTAL MINISTRY IN ALASKA. The paper looks at the phenomenal growth of Pentecostalism around the world, the reasons for the growth, and asks what should be the model for missions in the future.

Synopsis This article explores the relationship between the post-Pentecost mission of the Spirit and the mission of the church. The interdependence of these missions is theologically investigated, exploring the distinctive and complementary work of Spirit and church, and how each is central to the other's mission. I discuss mission in the way of the Spirit to complement incarnational insights for mission, and summarise the interrelation between these two missions within the missio trinitatis Dei. I conclude by indicating some practical implications that follow from this study.

The event of Pentecost in the book of Acts can be viewed as a continuation of the salvation drama initiated by God; it has some connection with the Jewish feast of Shavuot and the work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. The event is generally understood as the Holy Spirit's outpouring and has great significance for the Christian mission. By means of the literary qualitative research method, this paper defines the Christian mission and traces the event of Pentecost from the Holy Spirit's missional work in the Old Testament, emphasizing the significance of the outpouring in Acts for Christian Mission in Evangelism, Leadership, Character Transformation and Cross-cultural mission. Using the church of Pentecost as an example, the paper concludes that the incident of Pentecost is most significant in the growth of Pentecostal Movements. In addition to the Holy Spirit's work, good education, proper planning and good mission strategies are recommended for effective Christian Mission.