Pomocostals::Pentecostals in a Post-Modern World

I'm not sure I love Jesus

2007-07-02T22:45:00.002-07:00

I love Jesus?

Something sounds weird about that. In church circles, if I say that phrase people say "amen". If I say that out of church, I feel as though I need to follow it up with an explanation. The truth is I don't know if I can say that.

The fact is I have never met the guy. Would love to. I think he's a stud. I love the way he lived his life according to the stories I read. I love his concepts I love his passion and energy. I love him staring down death in the eye and seemingly not flinching. But something sounds intellectually dishonest for me to say I love him. Actually something sounds a little wrong for me to say that. Because, again, I never met him.

I pray to him. I sing about him. I tell stories about him. I used to say that I love him. Now I say that I'm in love with the idea of him. I guess, if we're honest I have a man-crush on him.

Can you looooove someone you never met? If you loooove someone you never met at what point does that person become an imaginary friend? I used to talk to Jesus like he was my imaginary friend. Pretend that he was talking to me and that I could hear him.

Don't get me wrong I think that Jesus is still speaking today. I just happen to think he might not be speaking in the verbal way a human would. He nudges hearts. He inspires to action by his words and actions of many years ago.

It's not about religion, it's about relationship. Hmmm. What kind of relationship is it if only person talks? What's so wrong with religion? Do we just say that because we are afraid that others might not accept us if we are religious? Is it a sales technique?

Why do we have such a need and pressure to say we love him? Why do we pressure others into the same. Some will have trouble with me writing this. The bummer is it's all about semantics. Jesus is a stud.

Drew Marshall is Hilarious

2007-06-17T20:26:00.000-07:00

Spencer Burke on the Church that Consumerism Built--and Why I Fled

2006-05-03T22:49:00.000-07:00

Is the problem that people in the pews keep upping the ante on their demands, or is it that church leaders don’t comprehend the real source of their discontent? Is it that people want too much, or that they just don’t want what the church is currently selling?

LINK

The Post-Charismatic

2006-02-13T21:46:00.000-08:00

Wow, I wish I could write as good as robbymac, who has some writing on the post-charismatic...

It would probably be more accurate to not call these people post-charismatic, but rather post-HYPE. They are tired of hearing great stories about the good old days, jaded from hearing too many prophecies about the great move of God that seems to always be just around the corner, fed up with exaggerated or even fabricated stories of healings and miracles, and disillusioned with a view of spiritual formation that is lived through a weekly crisis moment at the front of the church.

LINK

History of the Altar Call

2005-10-04T12:41:00.000-07:00

http://www.gracesermons.com/hisbygrace/heed.html

Emerging Church Dialogue

2005-09-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

Andrew Jones posted a link to a conversation between an emerging pastor and a pentecostal denomination about the cultural shift that is going on. He told them what people outside the church are saying about people inside the church. Here are some snippets of the conversation.

CHURCH CULTURE - please get out of the “ghetto” you have created of christian everything. (schools, music, clothes, video games, fortune cookies, etc. - it is ridiculous - you are addicted to the culture you created)

The response I received was predictable. Many Student and College Pastors were in agreement. Knodding and smiling, and encouraging. Most of the Lead Pastors were either upset or confused. There were some exceptions, but generally speaking they were pretty defensive.
My fear however is that most pastors dismissed much of what we did today, and said in their heads, “I think I’ll just stay in my comfortable bubble of ministry.”

LINK

History of Pentecostalism

2005-09-20T12:13:00.000-07:00

As we research this new movement of pomocostalism it's important to understand the history of pentecostalism. Here's a link that i've found that i think is pretty unbiased about it's approach to pentecostalism. It's from the university of Virginia. It's difficult to get an accurate assessment of the history of pentecostalism because so much of it is jaded by wanting to make it pretty.

http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/penta.html

Charisma September Issue :: Fire in My Bones

2005-09-14T23:08:00.000-07:00

The September issue of Charisma magazine is about the missing generations in church. Specifically the millenials and generation x. As always, J. Lee Grady writes a phenomenial column introducing the subject matter of the magazine. I respect Grady. He has taken stances which are strong and biblical. I pray for him as he takes on some serious issues. I also disagree with him on issues. But he seems like a good guy.

In his "Fire in my Bones" article, Grady suggests 4 "radical shifts" that the church should make in reaching out to teenagers who are not involved in church. His four ideas are to:

1. Focus youth ministry on relationships
2. Get rid of the hype
3. Banish Legalism
4. Start youth churches.

I was very excited when I read that Grady was going to tackle such a difficult problem. When Grady said that he was going to suggest some "radical ideas", I was excited. However, I was quickly disappointed when it seemed that he was simply propogating a return to a 1970's youth ministry model. I think that Grady's ideas are a good start, but they are far from radical. (I realize that Grady's ideas are more than likely radical to the majority of readers of the magazine...I just wanted him to really rile the folk up...come on man you gots some fire in them thar bones)

One contention that I have with the article is that it infers that "youth ministry" still needs to be a part of the church. I don't know if I agree with this any longer. (I recently left youth ministry after being involved for over 8 years). Youth ministry was an invention of the church in the 20th century. It peaked in the mid nineties. At the beginning of the 20th century there is no way a church would have a "youth pastor" at his church. Now it is almost commonplace to hire a youth pastor. I think that by having youth ministries we may be furthering a generational divide rather than encouraging all age groups to be involved in "church". I don't think youth ministries are bad. But i do think we need to seriously reconsider why churches even have youth ministries in the first place. If sunday school is almost dead? Isn't age segregation the next thing?

Like I said before, I did not think Grady's suggestions were radical enough. Here are some more statements that I think would have spiced up the "radicalness" of it all.

1. Quit equating being "in church" as being "on track" with God.
2. Eliminate the term "Christian" from our vocabulary with teenagers. It no longer means anything.
3. Quit defining spiritual gifts and let them define it for themselves.
4. Allow teenagers to publicly express doubt and engage in conversation in front of others.
5. Eliminate the "get people saved" pressure. Instead focus on serving and listening to others.

Now that I write those statements they don't look that radical. oh well.

Those are my thoughts for right now. I want to talk about Ron Luce's article...hopefully i'll find the time. but if i don't let me just say this...yikes. i'm worried that ron luce is only communicating with the christian teen subculture. That's all. This was written too formal. I'll try and not seem so reviewish in this stuff...and try to talk more like we would if we were doing it over some coffee.

The death of Revival

2005-09-14T22:33:00.000-07:00

Here is an email conversation I had with Earl Creps a while back. His response to my questions are indented and are located within the context of my original email. Earl Creps is the D.Min director at AGTS. He has done a great job of compiling information about the cultural shift that society is undergoing which is called post-modernism. Here is my email conversation with him. The indented sections are Earl's response back to me.

The Most High Earl-

First off, I just want to continue to say thanks for the road you are blazing for young pastors like myself. I finally feel like there is an older emerging pentecostal guy who I can communicate with. I just finished reading your rapport magazine article. In it you wrote that a “longing for revival is a core component of Pentecostalism”. My question is this. Is the quest for “revival” something that will continue to define Pentecostals? I know that in the past Pentecostals have constantly pursued a revived sense of religion. I believe that we may need to stop craving “revival” and start looking for what God is doing “new”. I believe in most people’s context, when they hear the term “revival” they have a predetermined idea of what that looks like. Crying, weeping gnashing of teeth and the such.

Yes. I hear you. "Revival" for a lot of Pentecostals is a template or a
harkening back to a mythical past, rather than a fresh intervention by God in
our lives. Perhaps the darkest side of us is our ability confuse our
personal preferences with a move of God. My feeling is that we need a kind of
revival for which we probably don't have a name yet. On the bright side, I
really like Darrell Guder's book on the continuing conversion of the church, and
his argument that ongoing renewal is really what leaders should always be
looking for. Without it, we are sucked into the culture, be it suburbs or Roman
empire.

I have always loved revival and have continually studied the idea. But is “revival” a term and context that works in a post-modern era? In other words if we revive a Christianity from Azusa Street or Evan Roberts or Charles Finney; how effective will it be in a society that is post-christian? George Washington was a great leader in his time but would he be a great leader today if we revived him? Henry Ford’s innovations revolutionized the industry but if we revived him would he make any impact? I understand that these are mere secular comparisons to a spiritual entity like the church. However, I think sometimes in our quest to revive we miss out on God doing something new. Furthermore, I believe we take the mystery out of the experience when we have a predetermined understanding of what revival will look like when it arrives. When Jewel says that she is “on a quest for knowledge of things larger than herself” I don’t think that she necessarily wants to “arrive” at the holy grail of truth rather she wants to stay in a mode of mystery constantly discovering new things. I think it may be dangerous to end that journey by saying we believe in “reviving” something from years ago.

You're reminding me of Edith Blumhoffer's great question, "restore what?" For
me, the issue is whether our desire is to see Jesus manifest his presence among
us as he did in the early church, regardless of how it looks, or whether we want
to emulate the last time that happened among us. Are we here to live Acts or
Azusa Street?

Of course all of this comes from my context and experience. Also, I am probably doing a typical pomo thing and latching onto key words and missing the general point which is being made. Again, I appreciate your work and am curious to your response. I look forward to one day meeting in person. I know you will be at northwest college in the fall. I will do everything in my power to be there.

You know, I wonder if "revival" rhetoric might have a positive side, too, (I
certainly see its negatives) perhaps the word could mean so many things to so
many different people that it could actually create open-mindedness.
Hmmmmmmm...maybe. (I'm thinking here of certain Korean-American churches where
the people know the pastor is under the anointing because he is whispering.
Meanwhile, in Arkansas, well, you know....)

Is Pentecostalism Dead?

2005-09-14T21:58:00.000-07:00

Yes. But it's a good thing. For too long the Pentecostal church has trained people how to act in church rather than helping them be Christ's disciples in the world. We're going to explore what it means to be a "pentecostal" in a post-modern world. I'm going to do this by interacting with articles from mainstream Charismatic magazines as well as my own insights into the Charismatic and Evangelical movement.

My heart's desire is that the Charismatic movement would continue to emerge and become a missions organization to the united states. However, if this is to happen much of the way we "do" church and even think about God and Jesus must change.

It is my core belief that the church must return to preaching Christ and Him crucified. This must be our central message. Not prosperity. Not speaking in tongues. Not latter rain. Not even salvation from damnation. I know these are radical statements. But I think in order for us to engage our culture and society into conversation about Christ we must return to the discussion of the foolishness of the Cross.

I think it's only appropriate in my first post that I put in a disclaimer. I'm a pomocostal. I believe in Christ. I beleive in the gifts. I believe in speaking in tongues. I do it frequently. I'm an experiental learner. This is why the former charismatic movement struck such a chord with me. Because, I am an experiental learner I will often say things that I don't really believe, but i must say them for me to discover that I don't really believe them. With that being said, I'm sure there will be many times that I will seemingly disagree with myself. I will seemingly contradict myself. Don't worry. I'm just figuring things out. Also, I beg you to realize that you are just figuring things out as well. Hopefully your theology and understanding of God has changed over the years. ESPECiALLY if you consider yourself a "pentecostal" or "charismatic". If it wasn't for a group of crazy holy rollers in Kansas, and Azusa who had a new understanding of God...I probably wouldn't be blogging about this whole deal in the first place. But we are and so I encourage you also to approach your theology with humility understanding that, "we know in part and we prophesy in part."

I look forward to seeing where this is all going to end up. But until then I'm just going to have fun.