CWoznicki Think Out Loud

Strange Evangelical Theology

I while ago I had to read Veli-Matti Karkkainen’s In Christology: A Global Introduction for a class. In this book Karkkainen presents brief summaries of various theologian’s Christologies. The theologians he chooses to present run the spectrum of Christian Theology. Karkkainen covers some important historical Christologies, some western Christologies (Rahner/Barth), and some contextual Christologies (Latino/Evangelical/Feminist). Among these contextual theologies Karkainen presents Stanley Grenz as the typical evangelical theologian. He begins by noting that evangelical is an ambiguous term; indeed it is, however there are certain aspects/motifs of that are central to evangelical theology. For instance one might think of the primacy of scripture as one of these aspects. A second aspect that we find in evanelical theology is the belief that there should be some sort of personal response to doctrinal truths. A third aspect of evangelical theology that is important is its emphasis on Soteriology. Because Soteriology is central to evangelical theology, theologians like Grenz often approach topics like “the person of Christ” especially in relation to soteriological issues.

Although evangelical theology follows a pretty “traditional” way of doing theology, it can also have some interesting deviations. For instance one might think of Jonathan Edwards as the model for American Evangelicalism, however there are aspects of his theology that would make some evangelicals cringe. For instance his idealism and his panentheism would probably get him fired from many evangelical seminaries today. This is only one example of a “conservative” evangelical theologian having some strange aspects of his theology. Other Evangelical theologians are committed to strange things like physicalism (think Joel Green). Finally, Grenz himself also makes some strange claims within his theology… so I recommend that you read him yourself, or else I might butcher his position.

All this just goes to show that:

“Evangelical Theology” is a lot more complicated that most of us think.

There are a wide variety of positions out there. And some of those positions are quite strange. So the point is that its actually pretty hard to say what a “Typical Evangelical Theology” looks like, that is unless you look to Grudem! (BLAH!!!!)

Fuller Seminary Announces a New President (Minus the White Smoke)

Sorry Roman Catholics, Fuller Theological Seminary has beat you to the punch. They have announced what many consider to be one of the most important positions for Evangelicals to hold, and no its not the Papacy, its the presidency of Fuller Seminary. After the unanimous election of Mark Labberton as Fuller’s 5th president the seminary quickly put out an official press release. Sadly there was no white smoke when the President was revealed.

Here is the Press Release:

The Fuller Theological Seminary Board of Trustees has announced that Mark Labberton has accepted the call to serve as the seminary’s fifth president, beginning July 1, 2013.

Announcing Labberton’s unanimous election by the trustees, Board Chair Clifford L. Penner said, “Along with my fellow trustees, I am delighted to welcome Mark Labberton to the presidency of Fuller Seminary. We are excited and inspired by the outstanding qualities and accomplishments he brings to this position. He is a scholar and academic leader, pastor for more than 25 years, accomplished author, and leading voice in many international ministries. Mark brings strong spiritual leadership, a wide range of experiences, and the vision to guide Fuller into a new era of global leadership in seminary education. As a Fuller alumnus (MDiv) and professor, he fully comprehends Fuller’s rich and diverse legacy.”

The 5th President of Fuller Theological Seminary: Mark Labberton

“I feel an incredible sense of joy and hope to be given this opportunity,” said Dr. Labberton. “Thanks to Rich Mouw’s generous, gracious, and irenic leadership, Fuller is well positioned to influence how the gospel is communicated, understood, and embodied in the world.”

Some Thoughts on Ephesians Six and the Christian Community

I want to close off our time in Ephesians by pointing out the fact that Paul closes this letter in the same way he started it, by focusing on God’s mighty power.

Ephesians 1:19 and 6:10 form an inclusio, an inclusio is a literary device that makes use of bracketing to clarify the concepts that are included within the “brackets.” In this case the brackets are God’s mighty power. If you take a look at 1:19 and 6:10 in your ESV it doesn’t really jump out as being an inclusio but in the Greek it really does. Ephesians 1:19 highlights God’s power in raising Christ from the dead and seating Christ in the heavenly places above “all rule and authority and power and dominion….” Ephesians 6:10 highlights God’s strength in our lives that enables us to “wrestle” against the “rulers, authorities, against cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 1:19 is about God’s power and how in plays out in redemptive history. Ephesians 6:10 is about God’s power and how it plays out in our lives. Think of it this way… Ephesians 1 is like looking at the big picture, Ephesians 6 is like looking through a microscope into how the Gospel affects our daily lives. But regardless of how you approach it (big picture or small picture) the fact is that the power is God’s. In Ephesians 6 God provides the armor for us. God himself gives us the equipment for battle. But

First we must learn to recognize the attacks that are coming. Second we need to learn how to put on the complete armor that God has given us. Third we need to stand firm and undismayed.

Here are some questions to consider as your read Ephesians 6 this week:

In what way is the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, an offensive weapon in contrast to the other defensive weapons?
The “word” in verse 17 is the same “word” as in 5:26, it is the word of the Gospel through which God accomplishes his powerful, cleansing work in people’s hearts and lives. How can you actively take up this weapon in your life? How can you actively take the weapon of the “gospel” and use it in your faith community?

Why Didn’t the Church Just Stick with the Bible? (Pt. 2)- The Roots of Evangelical Anti- Intellectualism

Yesterday we began our series on the importance of theology with a question that Veli-Matti Karkkainen’s students often ask at the beginning of his theology classes.

“What is the point of these finely nuanced disputes – what difference do they make at all?” “Why didn’t the church just stick with the Bible?”

These questions reveal something about Evangelical attitudes towards theology

Many don’t see theology as being vital to our faith
There is an anti-intellectual/anti-thelogical streak that runs through certain segments of Evangelicalism

Today we turn to what I believe is the root of Evangelical anti-intellectualism… these roots run deep.

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One question that Karkkainen’s quote brings up for me, is

“What is the root of the anti-theological attitudes within certain traditions in the church?”

I believe that Nathan Hatch in The Democratization of American Christianity provides some possible answers to that question. In this book, Nathan Hatch argues that the central force behind evangelicalism has been its democratic or populist orientation. He sees the democratic or populist orientation playing out in various ways. First it is played out in the fact that evangelicals consider individual religious experiences of utmost importance (even more than doctrine). Second there is a lack of a firm distinction between clergy and laity. During the rise of evangelicalism ordinary people began to distrust their established leaders and sought out to shape their own faith according to their own likings and to choose their own leaders. An extreme focus on religious experience and a distrust towards people who were different than the average-joe created a division among Evangelicals (not so much among mainline churches) between the average lay-person and the educated lay-person/minister. Although the democratic impulse in Evangelicalism arose during a time when most people did not go to college and most Christians didn’t even go to High School, think about the 2nd great awakening, the mindset has stuck within our tradition. I think that these two results of the populist orientation of evangelicalism explain why students ask the questions that Karkkainen mentioned. I also believe that this explains why some people are so skeptical of Christians who desire to pursue higher levels of education.

This is not simply a stereotype… early on in my college years I told several people that I wanted to study philosophy. I repeatedly got warned that no good could come from my study of philosophy. People even used the Bible to warn me not to pursue this major. They told me, “Don’t study philosophy! The Bible says it is evil!” and then they quoted Colossians 2:8:

“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition…”

Luckily I did not listen to them. I did not listen to them because I believed that thinking hard about tough issues really does matter to our faith. Yet I faced an uphill battle because my own tradition (Evangelicalism) has its roots in populist movements…. and populist movements never trust those who stick out as being “different” than the rest.

For more on the populist tendencies in Evangelicalism check out The Democratization of American Christianity by Nathan Hatch:

Why Didn’t the Church Just Stick with the Bible? (Pt. 1)- The Importance of Doing Theology

Over the next two days we will be looking at the importance of theology and the roots of anti-theological attitudes within the Evangelical church today.

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In his book on Christology, Veli-Matti Karkkainen mentions some questions that theology students have often asked him on the first day of class:

“What is the point of these finely nuanced disputes – what difference do they make at all?” “Why didn’t the church just stick with the Bible?”[1]

These are questions that I am often faced with myself. Having grown up in a Pentecostal church, theology was often seen as unimportant. Later on in life I moved to a non-denominational mega church that had its roots in the Southern Baptist Denomination. The baptist tradition also had a sort of disdain for “too much theology.” As a person who tends to think deeply about things, I have had to ask myself, “is there a point to what I am doing?” “Should I even be in seminary?” Since both of these traditions (pentecostal & southern baptist) place more of an emphasis on pragmatics than theory I believe that it is important to be able to articulate why theology is actually important.

Part of articulating the importance of theology will be to articulate how our beliefs about the world affect the way we act.

If we don’t actually believe that our beliefs play out in the way we live and act then theology (our beliefs about God) will not be important in the minds of many. For instance, if I believe that rabbits actually eat human flesh rather than grass and carrots, then I will avoid rabbits at all costs, thus I will never visit a petting zoo. Although this is a silly example, it illustrates the important point that:

Our beliefs affect (and maybe even dictate) our action.

When doing theology this principle is important as well. Consider the belief that Scripture is merely human opinion. If one holds this belief then one might come to disregard some of the moral requirements in the Bible as being antiquated, or merely contextual. Or consider the important Christological question regarding the divinity of God: “Is Christ actually divine?” If we cannot articulate the divinity of Christ, then we must ask ourselves “on what basis do we attain salvation?” Denying the divinity of Christ leads to this question because many atonement theories rely upon the divinity of Christ for atonement to be attained. For instance a substitution theory like that of Anselm requires that Jesus be God, namely because only a being of infinite worth could repay God honor for the offense committed against him through sin which dishonors him.

Next time we will take a look at why I believe is the roots of the anti-intellectual/anti-theological attitude among Evangelicals today.

[1] Karkkainen, 61

Some Thoughts on Ephesians Five and the Christian Community

In chapter 4 Paul says to the Ephesians: “So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. ¹⁸They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God…” But Paul goes on to say “That, however, is not the way of life you learned ²¹when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.”

Much like he did in chapter 4, in chapter 5 Paul contrasts a life lived in darkness with a life lived in the light. In verses 8-9 Paul writes “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light ⁹(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)”

Notice what Paul doesn’t do, he doesn’t simply give a list of rules and regulations, he does not simply say “do this” or “avoid that” rather Paul instructs the Ephesians to become what they are already in Christ. Paul gives shows us how we actually grow and change; we grow when we become who we already are in Christ. In order to do this we must constantly be reminding ourselves of our truest and deepest identity. Yet this is not something we do once. In 5:1 Paul says “follow,” the Greek word that is translated as “follow” comes from the word ginomai, this word could also be translated as “be” or “become.” (This is a bit complicated but the actual word is a present middle imperative.) It is an imperative that implies a lifelong process. This emphasizes the fact that our transformation is an ongoing process of following in the footsteps of Christ. We imitate Christ because the truth is we are/are being transformed into his likeness.

If we are going to imitate Christ we must learn what Christ is like. We must learn to see life the way he did, we must learn to see others the way he did, we must learn to see the Kingdom the way he did. Where do we learn these things? In the gospels. The gospels show us who Christ is and what Christ was like. The process of becoming Christ-like involves spending time at the feet of Jesus, literally being disciple by him through the gospels. However we must be careful not to think that we are transforming ourselves into being Christ-like. We must never think that out of our own efforts we can “imitate God” or “follow God’s example.” The fact is that a life lived in imitation of God is only made possible because we are God’s children. As children of God there is “family resemblance….”

I have a Golden Retriever named Dallas, he’s a little over three years old now so he is kind of still a puppy. I remember the day that I got him, it was a Wednesday morning and we were getting him from a friend. My family wanted a boy dog and not a girl dog and he was the only one left, so we walked into their backyard to check the puppies out. I remember walking over to the dog run and seeing an explosion of puppies. As soon as the puppies heard me walking they exploded out of the dog house and ran over to the gate. They all seemed pretty excited, then all of a sudden another puppy runs out of the dog house and jumps on top of all the other puppies. He starts climbing all over the other one, even standing on top of them trying to climb over the fence. This was Dallas. Dallas showed his cards before we even took him, he would be trouble. So after playing with the puppies a little bit we took home the only boy puppy, Dallas. We got home set him up in the kitchen, gave him some water, some toys, and a training pad then put a puppy fence around his area. I walk out of the room and 2 minutes later I hear a loud crash. Somehow this little puppy knocked over a fence made for 75-100 pound dogs. I put the fence back up and lo and behold a few minutes later he is climbing it and has gotten stuck, now Dallas is crying. After that incident we decided fences couldn’t contain Dallas. Then we tried to teach him to go on walks… this too was a disaster. Actually it wasn’t a disaster, Dallas ended up taking us for walks instead. To tell you the truth his dad was actually like this. His dad was an outside dog, but when he got in he wrecked the house. His dad would knock over kids and old people. His dad was impossible to walk. All this to say that Dallas much like his dad is a trainwreck. Two rambunctious Golden Retrievers…. like father like son. I guess its family resemblance.

Dallas is much like his father. As sons and daughters of the God we are much like our Father, not because we try to resemble our dad but simply because we are a part of his family. My dog doesn’t try to resemble his dad, he just looks and acts like him. The same holds true for us, if we are really like our Father we will begin to look like him. This resemblance will certainly come out in the way we do community with one another. There won’t be “obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, but rather thanksgiving” within our communities, not because we have rules against these things but simply because these things are not a part of our true identities.

This week consider the following questions:

In what areas are you growing to resemble your Heavenly Father?
How are you encouraging others to grow to resemble your Father?
What is it about a community that resembles God and lives Christ-like that is so attractive to non-believers?

How is a Missional Community Different from a Bible Study?

The following is an article from Matt Carter. Its found in the Verge 2013 Booklet:

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HOW IS A MISSIONAL COMMUNITY DIFFERENT FROM A BIBLE STUDY? – Matt Carter

FROM COMMUNITY GROUPS TO MISSIONAL COMMUNITIES

Before, we had what was called community groups. The idea behind community groups was that they were these little small groups that met for Bible study. They had some chips and some dips. And we called this community–small group Bible studies with some chips and some dips thrown in. That was a big win for us.

But we began to think differently. What if we challenged, trained and equipped our leaders, who would then in turn train, challenge and equip all our small groups not just to come together on a Tuesday night, eat some snacks, have a Bible study, pray and go home? What if we challenged them not just to do that, but to come together for the purpose of living radically on mission together?

What if we challenged them to come together for the purpose of being the church? What if we challenged them to come together for the purpose of living missionally and living incarnationally together as a group in their neighborhoods, in their workplaces, on their campuses? What would happen if we did that? We might actually make a difference in Austin, Texas in our lifetime.

GROWING RESTLESSNESS IN THE AMERICAN CHURCH

There’s a growing sense of restlessness that I’m seeing in the American church. When my parents went to church, which was every single Sunday of my young life, here’s what their church experience looked like: We would go to the Sunday event. They tithed. They would serve in the nursery once a month. My dad was an usher sometimes, and, about once a month, he’d pass the offering plate. We prayed before meals. My parents would have a couple of quiet times a week.

That was it. That was their definition of Christianity. That was their Christian experience, because in their minds there was a group of people who did the ministry. These were the pastors and the teachers and the evangelists and the missionaries and the music guys. Then there were the people like them who sat in the pews and got fed by the professional Christians who did the ministry.
However, this generation–the 18 to 30 year olds who are coming of age in the church today–they are not wired that way. This generation is not okay with sitting on the sidelines of ministry. They are hardwired to want to be a part of something bigger than themselves.

They are not afraid of challenge. They’re not afraid of getting outside of their comfort zone. They want to experience life for themselves. They want to see the world change, and they want to be a part of it. The reason this generation is leaving the church in droves in this country right now is because the vast majority of churches in this country haven’t figured that out.

MISSIONAL COMMUNITIES- EXPECT GREAT THINGS FROM YOUR PEOPLE

People in church right now, the people God is going to bring to future churches, are capable of doing more than you have ever dreamed they can do if you will just challenge them and give them the chance to do it.

They’re capable because the power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is sitting in that single mom. The power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is sitting in that young married couple. The power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is sitting in that 65-year-old guy who has wasted his life making money for himself. Release people and raise the bar for what it means to live on mission.

When we as a church began to cast this vision for Missional Communities, for groups not just to gather but to live on mission together in the context that God has called them to, we’ve had people respond that want to make a difference for the kingdom. They have raised their hands and said, “I want to get in the fight.”

One family in particular sold their home and moved into an at-risk, under-resourced neighborhood in Austin. They bought several houses around them so that impoverished single moms could have transitional housing. He and his wife started a Missional Community whose purpose is to serve these single mothers, disciple and train these women, and to give these women hope.
They’re not just engaging in social justice or charity. They’re engaging in community development in their neighborhood, and they are changing the world. They’re seeing people come to Christ. They’re making a differ- ence in the city of Austin.

If we had never challenged them, if we had never raised the bar for them, and if we’d never released them, if we’d never given them permission, or told them it’s okay for you to use your finances, your time, and your giftings outside of the four walls of this church, there’s a really good chance this family would have spent the rest of their lives sitting in a chair in our sanctuary listening to sermons, singing songs, passing the offering plate, never knowing the thrill of giving their life away for Jesus Christ.

People are hungrier than you could ever dream to get in the fight. Challenge them, train them, and release them not just to come to church but to be the Church.

Atonement and Epistemology: How T.F. Torrance’s Pneumatology Unites the Two

Over the last several months I have been very interested in T.F. Torrance’s theology. My interest in Torrance began when I took Oliver Crisp’s “Contemporary Theories of Atonement” class and read Torrance’s book “Atonement.” About a month ago I recieved a call for papers from the Evangelical Theological Society, this year’s Western Regional Conference was going to be on “Evangelical Perspectives on the Holy Spirit.” They keynote speak will be Michael Horton. I decided to submit an abstract for the conference, and lo and behold my abstract was accepted! Thus I will be presenting my paper on April 19th at Vanguard University. Here is the abstract I submitted:

Atonement and Epistemology:

How T.F. Torrance’s Pneumatology Unites the Two

Christopher G. Woznicki

Fuller Theological Seminary

Two topics that have dominated much of evangelical theology over the past several years are atonement and epistemology. The discussions have usually revolved around debates over penal substitution, and foundationalism/coherentism respectively. However these discussions have not had much bearing on one another. T.F. Torrance’s pneumatology draws these discussions together. This paper argues that Torrance’s theory of the Holy Spirit’s role in atonement provides us with the tools necessary to form a robust religious epistemology.

According to Torrance all genuine knowledge involves a cognitive union of the mind with its object, this calls for the removal of any estrangement or alienation that may obstruct or distort this union. In Torrance’s schema atonement accomplishes the removal of this estrangement and alienation. Torrance understands atonement as the recreation of the bond of union between God and humanity. The recreation of this bond is accomplished objectively through the hypostatic union but is actualized subjectively for the believer through the work of the Holy Spirit. Thus for Torrance the union which is necessary for knowledge of God is only made possible by the Spirit’s work in the atonement. This has profound implications for the task of doing theology.

Some Thoughts on Ephesians Four and the Christian Community

This week we turn to Ephesians chapter 4. Surprise surprise(!) one of Paul’s central themes in this passage is unity. In chapter 2 Paul began to write about how God has made both Jews and Gentiles one by tearing down the dividing wall of hostility. He did this by abolishing the law of commandments, thus abolishing the one thing that made Jews distinct from the Gentiles. In Chapter 3 Paul tells the Ephesians that their unity, the unity between the Gentiles and the Jews in that church, makes the manifold wisdom of God known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Here in chapter 4 Paul delivers a practical encouragement to believers to abandon darkness inspired ways, which are marked by disunity, and to adopt Spirit inspired ways of living.

As you read this passage (and think about it for discussion) notice how Paul begins and how he ends. Immediately Paul jumps into a discussion of humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another, and love; notice how all of these things are communal activities. You can’t be humble by yourself, you can’t be gentle all alone, and you can’t bear with one another if there isn’t another person to bear with! Paul’s ethical injunctions are all communal! Which makes sense because he is encouraging them to maintain unity in the Spirit. If you drop down the end of Chapter 4 once again you see that Paul is encouraging the Ephesians towards a Spirit-inspired-communal way of life. Being kind to one another, being tenderhearted, and being forgiving, are all things that you can’t do by yourself. You can only do these things in community. Even when he talks about grieving the Holy Spirit (v.30) it is in light of a communal ethics. Corrupting talk, talk which does not build others up in grace, grieves the Holy Spirit. So this “new life” that he talks about in the middle of chapter 4 is one that is fundamentally about living in community. But notice what Paul doesn’t do, he doesn’t simply give them a list of rules to follow. This is not a new form of the law, rather the Ephesians are to live in unity because they have been “renewed in the spirit of their minds.” A life of unity is not merely an external change, its is a change from the inside out. But even beyond the change that occurs within us, Paul grounds this new way of life in the nature of God.

Notice how Paul ends his injunction to put on the new self by reminding them that they were “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” In order to grasp what it means to be created after the likeness of God we need to know what God is like. Paul tells us what God is like in Ephesians 4:4-5. He says that there is one body (a united Church), one faith, and one baptism; but all these things are grounded in the fact that there is one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all. He grounds his injunction to live as a united community in the oneness of God. In other words:

Christian community ethics is grounded in monotheism. When the church lacks unity it calls into the question the proclamation of the oneness of God.

But we must remember that God’s oneness is Trinitarian. As the creeds tell us, God is three persons but one nature. The relationships between the three persons of the one Godhead provide us with a picture of the oneness of the community of believers we call the Church. This is because the Trinity is a community of love. The Father has an eternal and perfect love for the son the Son and the Son has an eternal and perfect love for the Father, and the Holy Spirit shares in the eternal and perfect love between the Father and the Son. Love and oneness are that the core of the life of God. The Church reflects the Trinitarian life of God. Sort of like the Trinity is three persons but one nature, the Church is composed of diverse elements (prophets, apostles, teachers, pastors, etc.) but it is fundamentally one. (A quick side note: how exactly we move from the nature of the Trinity to how the Church should live/be structured is a huge debate. Many books have been written about making the move from Trinitarian Theology to Ecclesiology.) So:

As the church lives in unity it serves as a witness to the Trinitarian God who is one.

Here are some questions to think about as you discuss the passage with one another this week:

What sorts of things threaten unity in your Church community?
How can we maintain and guard this unity we have with other believers?
How can we help grow the unity we have with other believers (both locally and globally)?

Pentecostal Motivations for Mission

Today I want to Blog about something that I find interesting both theologically and practically. Its something that hits close to home: Pentecostalism and Mission. Specifically I want to Inform you about the “Pentecostal Motivations for Mission.” You see, I grew up going to a Pentecostal Church. I spent 17 years in a small hispanic pentecostal (Foursquare) church. The church had about 115 people in it, and I only had 6 or so people who were anywhere near my age. Eventually I moved to another Church, it was a primarily caucasian baptist-like megachurch. After finishing college at UCLA I went to Fuller to learn about mission. Originally I went there to learn about Intercultural Studies, but after a lot of deliberation and prayer I felt that the best thing for what God called me to do was to move over to the school of theology. So the point is, Pentecostalism and mission are two significant themes in my life. (Today I am Reformed but Charistmatic.)

Anyway this blog isn’t about my life story, its a blog about Pentecostalism and mission. So let me begin by telling you why this even matters. Without beating around the bush, one primary reason why it matters is because:

Christianity has had a global shift towards the global South. Christianity in the global South is more Conservative more charismatic than it is in the West.

David Barrett, a missiologist, has pointed out, at the year 2000 between 500 Million and 2 Billion Christians are Pentecostal/Charismatic. As you see, if so many of our brothers and sisters in the Global South are Pentecostal/Charismatic its important to know about them. So whether or not you consider yourself pentecostal or Charismatic you need to know about them.

Let me briefly explain their motivation for mission. Reading from various sources I see three common Pentecostal motivations for mission:

1-Bible, 2-Spirit, 3-Call

Bible: Pentecostals take the Bible Seriously and interpret it at face value. If Jesus says go to the Ends of the earth Pentecostals think it means GO to the ends of the earth. If Jesus says you will heal people and cast out demons it means you will heal people and cast out demons. Another aspect of this is that Acts is seen as a “handbook” for doing mission

Spirit: There is a belief that Every believer has been empowered for ministry. They expected to heal, preach, prophecy in the power of the Spirit. All of these things aid or lead to evangelism and mission.

Call: This is a combination of the previous two. According to most Pentecostals believers, each Christian has been divinely commissioned and empowered to spread the Gospel. There is a sense that the laity are called to do this ministry AND Not its not merely the Pastor’s responsibility. Thus everybody is expected to do their part.

So those are the three main motivations that Pentecostals have for doing mission. Let me Leave you with a story that illustrates these three. Earlier this year I visited a Church in Texas. I went along with them on a short term mission trip. The trip consisted of about 600 college students going to a College Spring Break town to do community service and street Evangelism. (Whether or not this is an appropriate way to do mission in the West is a long convoluted debate that I don’t want to get into in this blog.) Some of these studentswent for fun…but there was certainly a sense of call. I heard many students say things like: “I’m going to sacrifice Spring Break for the sake of mission,” or “I could be doing other things right now but this is more important.” This sense of call was rooted in the Bible. Every morning before going out these students would spend an hour in “quiet time.” These students spent each morning reading their Bible and praying. Then after breakfast they would hear an sermon on why we do mission, and after the sermon they went out and evangelized/served. Finally they fulfilled their Bible given sense of call through the power of the Holy Spirit. The team would ride busses to their daily locations, when they arrived they took a few minutes to pray. In their prayers they asked for prophetic words or images to direct their evangelism. When they were out evangelizing they would share the gospel but they would also pray for physical healing. On one of the days they prayed for a deaf lady and the lady got her hearing back! This pumped everyone up to go out and evangelize even more.

As this story illustrates, the Bible, the Holy Spirit, and a special sense of calling all play a big role in missional motivations among pentecostals, even here in the USA and even among college students like the ones from this church in Texas.