Deep Rivers: A Pentecostal Approach to Disciple-Making

Abstract

The exponential growth worldwide of Pentecostalism during the twentieth century is undeniable. Through its remarkable growth, Pentecostalism has made a robust contribution to Christians’ overall understanding of the nature and power of the Holy Spirit. One area needing further exploration is the theological and biblical roots of Pentecostalism’s teachings on discipleship. This article’s analysis will include considering the work of the Holy Spirit in the process of sanctification, careful considerations of both scriptural and historical backgrounds, and a survey of the landscape of Pentecostal approaches to discipleship. The article aims to outline some fundamental principles and practices of Christian discipleship, as well as to explore how the process of discipleship empowered by the Holy Spirit is at the heart of ever deepening personal and communal transformation.

Introduction

According to The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, the twentieth century witnessed the emergence and phenomenal growth of the Pentecostal, Charismatic, and neo-Charismatic movements. These three waves of Pentecostalism, which constitute one of Christianity’s greatest renewals, have impacted every segment of the church in virtually all countries of the world with new vitality and fervor. Participants in this renewal share exuberant worship, an emphasis on subjective religious experience and spiritual gifts, claims of supernatural miracles, signs, and wonders—including a language of experiential spirituality rather than of theology—and mystical “life in the Spirit,” by which they daily live out the will of God. ¹

How Pentecostals live out their daily lives and engage with God in their religious experience is what this article seeks to understand.

From Joe Handley

A colleague and I were developing a new immersive course on disciple-making and looking for resources to reflect every tradition with which the mission organization I serve as President, Asian Access, cooperates. It was easy finding resources for the most part, as many of the key voices in discipleship serve as Asian Access faculty. The resources these faculty members referenced were immensely helpful in our course preparation.

However, my colleague noticed that we did not have any resources on discipleship from a Pentecostal tradition. Thus started a search in which I asked some of the more renowned Pentecostal theologians and missiologists for sources they would advise. Their feedback confirmed that there was very little available material, which was the impetus for this article. I hope the article serves as a catalyst for further research and resource development for what many believe is the fastest growing segment of the church today. ²

For me personally, composing this article has been a special journey because my life began in a Pentecostal tradition. My parents, plus my uncle and aunt, were all students at LIFE Bible College where Aimee Semple McPherson inspired a remarkable movement of God called the Foursquare Church. ³ I was in a Foursquare congregation until I was nine years old, and my father was a lay pastor in our town. Hence there will always remain a fondness in my heart for my Pentecostal sisters and brothers.

From Asia Williamson

I come from the Methodist Church in England, where the Holiness tradition has deep spiritual roots in the Spirit’s prompting of John Wesley. Wesley famously felt his “heart strangely warmed” at Aldersgate where he sensed a profound awareness of God’s work in his life. ⁴ My late mentor Rob Frost used to tell a story of his conversion and subsequent prayer for the filling of the Holy Spirit; facing often predominantly evangelical audiences he would open his teaching by saying with a smile in his voice: “When I was a young man I remember praying: fill me with your Holy Spirit oh God, but do not make me Pentecostal!” For all the “leg pulling” and light-hearted jokes about Pentecostals, Rob was known as a person of Pentecost, yet something in what he was saying sounded true to many people.

I am not a Pentecostal per a strict definition, though over a number of years during the most formative season of my life I attended a Pentecostal church. If, however, I were to identify myself under any labels I would claim to be an “Evangelical Charismatic” with roots in the Holiness tradition. Pentecostals, of course, do not have a monopoly on the charismatic experience in which all Christians can share, and I have shared in this experience and continue to benefit from doing so. In fact, I cannot possibly imagine a ministry devoid of the power of the Holy Spirit encounter.

It has often bothered me why so many in evangelical circles find the Pentecostal expression of faith inferior, excessive, or even unnecessary. What, then, is the perception that we Evangelicals have about Pentecostalism, and why do we have it? What is the place of the Holy Spirit in discipleship, and how can we participate in Spirit-empowered discipleship? In the last seventeen years I have worked among leaders in the Global South; most of these leaders are Pentecostal, and their faith keeps me and my non-Pentecostal colleagues alive and motivated. It is out of respect for those in the Global South that I explore more questions that seek to provide answers. I write more descriptively than critically, always looking for Pentecostal voices of those who are not afraid of healthy scrutiny and examination of what matters most to all of us: becoming Christ followers.

Historical Overview

The three waves of what we are here calling “Pentecostalism”—Pentecostal, Charismatic, and neo-Charismatic—like estuaries forming a broad river grew in volume over the decades of the twentieth century, though their beginnings can be traced to much earlier sources. These beginnings find their origin in lived experience rather than conceptualized theology. Their waters ever mixing and informing one another, they continue to flood the world today in ever forming and foaming cascades. The waters are a bit murky at times and display unexpected traits, with debris of theological controversies—for example, “Oneness Pentecostalism” ⁵ —and occasional turns but without signs of slowing down.

Historians often trace the origins of Pentecostalism in the United States to a revival that began on January 1, 1901, at Charles F. Parham’s Bethel Bible School in Topeka, Kansas. With the identification of speaking in tongues as the evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit, Parham and his students made a vital theological connection that has remained essential to much of classical Pentecostalism. While the immediate impact of this event was limited, Parham’s ministry gained more acceptance several years later in a revival conducted outside Houston, Texas. From there William J. Seymour, a black Holiness preacher who had become convinced of the truth of Parham’s teaching on Spirit baptism, travelled to Los Angeles, California to preach the new message. ⁶ Pentecostal movements outside North America sprung up as well, either in connection with the US occurrences or independently. ⁷

It has not been uncommon for many that have swum in these waters to resist being affiliated to any particular strand or stream, which makes it hard to define its banks. Wherever it has flowed the Pentecostal wave has swept over or into existing denominations and traditions, quenching people’s thirst for a deeper experience of God in places of spiritual stagnation. Pentecostals do not have a monopoly on Pentecost, but they have elevated certain aspects of the Pentecost experience and made it distinct in its characteristics among other expressions of faith.

According to Prof. David J. Engelsma it happened in two ways: First, it has shifted the center of gravity of the gospel from faith’s reception of the forgiveness of sins on the basis of the cross of Christ to the Christian’s ineffable experience of God and power for ministry, especially witnessing, on the basis of a post-conversion event known as the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. Second, it has radically re-cast and revised the public worship of the church. No longer is the pure preaching of the sound doctrine of Scripture and the proper administration of the sacraments the heart of the service. ⁸

Pentecostalism—Main Characteristics

To claim something as distinctly Pentecostal is difficult because so much of the movement has been shaped by the differing contexts within which it has developed, ⁹ so much so that due to the cultural and theological diversity within the movement, we really need to speak of Pentecostalism (plural) rather than Pentecostalism as a unified group. ¹⁰ Harvey Cox in his article “Jazz and Pentecostalism” compares both, saying that they have much in common, and both have sprung up as grassroots movements, in multi-racial mega cities. Neither is an African invention, though both have now reached Africa and are spreading, and neither would have been possible without the influence of the distinctively African-American experience of resisting oppression through exuberant worship. Additionally, both have an uncanny capacity to combine with indigenous cultural qualities and still retain a recognizable integrity, indeed to enhance it, while at the same time abolishing the distinction between the composer and the performer, the creator and the interpreter. ¹¹

Today, the majority of Pentecostals live in the Global South. They are the ultimate synthesizers of ideas and practices found in older traditions. ¹² Nevertheless there are some distinctive markers of this movement articulated by Walter Hollenwerger and attributed to the Black roots of Azusa Street beginnings: oral liturgy, narrative manner of doing theology, emphasis on the maximum participation of the community, dreams and visions as personal and public expressions of worship, and a praxis epistemology. ¹³

One of the most obvious and uniquely Pentecostal perspectives would be the belief that Spirit baptism is an additional act of grace subsequent to regeneration. Even more distinctive is the belief that this baptism is evidenced by glossolalia, or speaking in tongues. This belief was derived out of a literal reading of Acts 2, 10, and 19. Pentecostals utilized the Latter Rain motif to further articulate their theological identity. ¹⁴

Another aspect that is also of high importance when considering discipleship in Pentecostal tradition is its Christocentric approach. According to Wolfgang Vondey, “the most consistent theological narrative emerging from the history of Pentecostalism is the so-called full gospel. The fivefold pattern of this narrative presents an inclusive framework to explore the central venues of Pentecostal thought and practice.” ¹⁵ The five elements are: Jesus as saviour, baptizer in the Holy Spirit, sanctifier, Healer, and soon to be coming King. ¹⁶

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen states: “Pentecostalism represents—differently from the assumptions of many outside observers—unique Christocentric Spirit movement. The heart of Pentecostal spirituality is thus the encounter with Christ through the Holy Spirit in worship, in healing, in charisma, and so forth.” ¹⁷

Definition of Spirituality and Discipleship

Stephen Land, with a particular emphasis on eschatology and pneumatology, argues that spirituality is the very mode through which Pentecostals express their theology. In Pentecostal tradition, experience is the main vehicle of spirituality. ¹⁸ Pentecostals have always looked at the book of Acts for biblical patterns of the church. ¹⁹

Staying with the illustration about the river mentioned at the beginning, an often-quoted criticism of Pentecostalism is that its banks are very broad and its speed is very fast but its depth (and here referring often to discipleship) is very shallow. Its critics point to shallow theological moorings, preoccupation with the experience of physical manifestations and emotionalism that may even lead to chaos. ²⁰

Spirituality refers to the way our fundamental values, lifestyles, and spiritual practices reflect particular understandings of God, human identity, and the material world as the context for human transformation. ²¹ This spirituality is Christocentric precisely because it is pneumatic; its “fivefold gospel” is focused on Christ because of its starting point in the Holy Spirit. Underlying this correlation is a soteriology which emphasizes salvation as participation in the divine life more than the removal of guilt. ²²

With all this in mind, the following simple definitions prove helpful.

Discipleship

Michael Wilkins, in a biblical theology of discipleship, defines discipleship as “living a fully human life in this world in union with Jesus Christ and growing in conformity to his image.” ²³ Adding to this, Dietrich Bonhoeffer describes discipleship as “self-denial and a complete bond with Jesus” and maintains that “at no point may the disciple’s own desire-driven will take over.” ²⁴

This union with Christ is what is paramount in discipleship. It is, in essence, walking with Jesus in such a way that your life is transformed and continuing to grow. You display the Fruit of the Spirit more and more as you grow in him and you live out his call to serve others and the world in the mission he has called us to.

Spirituality/Spiritual Formation

Dallas Willard takes this concept further by framing discipleship in terms of spirituality. “Spiritual formation refers to the Holy Spirit-driven process of refashioning the inner world of the human self in such a way that it becomes a reflection of the inner being of Christ himself.” ²⁵ In this way, discipleship finds a bridge to the more experiential sides of growth that fit the Pentecostal paradigms. In Willard’s sense, along with others in the spiritual formation focused ministries, practices from various church traditions and biblical passages form the foundation for becoming disciples of Jesus.

Discipleship in the Pentecostal setting needs to make room for and acknowledge the important role experience plays in life. It needs to call out from people their stories of salvation, sanctification, and baptism of the Holy Spirit but do it in such a way as not to buy into what Harvey Cox called a “vacuous cult of experience.” ²⁶

The Depth of Pentecostal Discipleship

While the scarcity of available Pentecostal materials on discipleship has already been noted, one of the books I (Joe) came across while developing the course mentioned above was by Rev. Dr. Young-hoon Lee, the Senior Pastor of one of the most influential churches in the world, Yoido Full Gospel Church in South Korea. Pastor Lee is a friend, and he sent me his book, entitled Following Jesus: Spirituality of Disciples, ²⁷ as a gift for being a member of the annual Asia Leaders’ Summit. The book is a collection of sermons about following Jesus, and it is superb. Following the tradition of his renowned predecessor, Pastor Yonggi Cho, for whom some controversial issues have been raised, the influence of the church and their work in the Pentecostal tradition is profound.

In this book, Pastor Lee lays out the essence of Pentecostal discipleship that deserves further attention due to the depth of theological insight. A theology of discipleship that integrates the classical disciplines of discipleship alongside the depth of prayer life, immense gifts of faith, and as he labels them, spirituality of many facets of discipleship, merits both praise as well as a road map for research within the Pentecostal traditions.

Just recently I learned of a church in Nigeria called Gospel Faith Mission International (GFMI). They have one of the most robust church membership systems I have ever seen. Most churches keep things short and simple but GFMI is impressive. Their training folder is eighty-two pages long! It walks their members through the standard introductory elements of getting to know a church yet builds on them with an in-depth discipleship curriculum to ensure their members are saturating themselves in scripture, are walking with the Lord in their daily lives, and experiencing God in a proactive manner. It is impressive and stands as another excellent example of Pentecostal discipleship. ²⁸

We can learn much from the wisdom, depth of theology, as well as the experiential elements of Pentecostalism for disciple-making.

The Importance of Experience in Pentecostal Discipleship

Daniel Albrecht and Evan Howard talk about Pentecostal spirituality specifically as “the lived experience of God.” Zagwaart ²⁹ adds that “without the experiential aspect of faith, it would soon become a mere philosophy of life.” For Pentecostals, experience of the Spirit is of such significance that it is explicitly and implicitly appealed to as an authoritative resource for shaping spirituality and theology. ³⁰

Karen Murphy, quoting Michael Harper, points out: “Catholicism imprisoned the spirit within the sacraments and structure of the Church, while Protestant theology bound the movement of the Spirit to the Word and the doctrine. Reacting against an institutional and doctrinal bondage of the Spirit, Pentecostals located freedom of the Spirit (and hence authority) in personal experience.” ³¹ This is why Russell P. Spittler notes that, “a quoted aphorism often heard in Pentecostal circles runs this way: ‘The person with an experience is never at the mercy of another person with a doctrine.’” ³² Pentecostals tend to begin with experience, to the extent that Pentecostal theology, “demands more than belief in an experience—it demands the experience of the experience itself.” ³³

Because of the Pentecostal emphasis on experience Schneiders’ ³⁴ definition here is also helpful: Spirituality as a discipline or practice encompasses experience, it seeks to understand how it transforms its subject towards fullness of life in Christ and toward self-transcending life-integration within the Christian community of faith. ³⁵

Experience here is understood as “participation in or encounter with reality.” ³⁶ Therefore, when discussing spirituality in a Pentecostal context we need to ask how Pentecostals encounter reality, interpret it, and are transformed by it. Related to this perception and experience of reality is Pentecostal “hyperawareness of God’s presence in a mystical sensibility for mystics have often developed poetic and imaginative ways of recognizing God’s presence in a myriad of circumstances. This hyperawareness draws from and perpetuates a spiritual sensitivity that God, in particular God’s Spirit, is everywhere and at all times working for the good of the created plan.” ³⁷

Pentecostals tend to emphasize two main experiences, that of conversion and baptism of the Holy Spirit, though some Pentecostals with more Holiness roots will also add sanctification as a significant experience. However, when “one thinks of spiritual formation, one usually has in mind a great deal more than momentary crisis experiences of power for victory in life. One thinks rather of a lifelong growth in the sanctified life through the instruments of core practices (such as proclamation, sacraments, and fellowship) and spiritual disciplines (such as personal prayer, fasting, Scripture reading, and meditation).” ³⁸

Those who inhabit the Pentecostal-charismatic orbit of Christianity operate from distinct fundamental assumptions regarding how the Christian God works in the world, the self’s place in that world, how the two interact and engage, the nature of reality on the whole, and the form of rationality and coherence most suitable for understanding all of these aspects; in short, these fundamental assumptions cover “everything,” and so they collectively constitute a distinguishable worldview. Such is what Cox sensed was at work when the early Pentecostals were living into the fullness of their Spirit baptism. They were not simply having one religious experience among others; rather, they were being fundamentally reoriented and transformed in terms of how they saw and interpreted reality. ³⁹

What, then, are these changes, these fundamental reorientations? They are ‘“radical openness to God” (in which God can do something new or unexpected), an “enchanted” theology of creation and culture (in which the presence of God is at work in all things), a “non-dualistic affirmation of embodiment and materiality” (which would involve the possibility of divine healing), an “affective, narrative epistemology,” and an “eschatological orientation to mission and justice.”

The Empowerment to Witness

The most foundational feature of a Pentecostal approach to the work of the Spirit is summed up with the word “empowerment”: “Whereas for most other Christians the presence of the Spirit is just that, presence, for Pentecostals the presence of the Spirit in their midst implies empowerment.” ⁴⁰

Two themes have been present in the Pentecostal mission work since the first days: an intensive eschatological expectation and reliance upon the Holy Spirit’s power. In the first years of the movement there was even an unwarranted optimism that speaking in tongues (xenolalia), a form of glossolalia in which human languages previously unknown to the speaker could be spoken, would be given by the Holy Spirit to help finish the evangelization of the world before the imminent return of Christ. “So intensely did they expect the Second Coming of Christ that envisioning an additional decade—or even another century—for evangelization would have been inconceivable.” ⁴¹ Pentecostals were generally so busy doing their practical mission and evangelism that they did not bother themselves writing missiological treatises, certainly not academic theological studies. They have been more “doers” than “thinkers.” Instead of theological treatises, they have produced tracts. Rather than reflecting on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, they have relied on the supernatural dynamics of the Spirit. ⁴²

Conclusion

This article seeks a deeper understanding of discipleship in the Pentecostal tradition. It defines some of the main characteristics of the movement often misunderstood and undervalued. It recognizes that there are multiple theological perspectives in the global expressions of Pentecostalism which can be viewed as a strength rather than as a weakness. Especially helpful has been the comparison of Pentecostalism to jazz music. In this way, the streams of influence blend with each other to bring a deeper and fuller understanding of becoming disciples of Christ. We can all learn from the Pentecostal tradition!

The research shows that the river of Pentecostalism runs not only wide but also deep. Its historical roots and theology based in experience continue to shape its identity while baptism in the Holy Spirit continues to be at the heart of what it means to be a Pentecostal. How do we live and engage with the power of the Holy Spirit in our everyday life? What can we learn from Pentecostal approaches to discipleship? These remain important questions as we see its influence grow across the globe and as we serve the Kingdom of God. We encourage further research into the nature of discipleship in the Pentecostal context which ideally will be explored not only academically but also experientially and affectionately.