I had never heard of Christine Caine. Now I’ll always remember her, as will thousands more. She was the first woman to address the whole gathered crowd of a few thousand at Empowered21, after eight men had preached. That’s ironic for a movement that affirmed the gifts of women from its beginning more than a century ago, taking at face value Joel’s prophecy repeated in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost.
Christine gave a passionate and prophetic call for the church to be continually changing, even while at its core, it is “the same.” That constant change is driven by God’s continuing call to be sent as witnesses in the world. “We want power,” she told the spiritually hungry Pentecostals gathered before her. “But we don’t know what it’s for.” It’s not for ourselves, not for our own spiritual ecstasy. The power of God’s Spirit is given for us to be witnesses to God’s transforming love. And one can’t change the world without being in the world, instead of running from it. “We’re not here,” Christine Caine proclaimed, “to entertain ourselves.”
You could feel how her words stuck a deep chord within the crowd of those listening. I walked over to sit by a friend who is bishop of a large Pentecostal church. “This is the best word that’s been spoken,” he said to me. And that’s after we had heard eight world famous Pentecostal preachers.
Christine Caine is the co-founder, with her husband, of the A21 Campaign, an anti-human trafficking organization fighting slavery around the world. But she never mentioned her work; this was no self-promotional talk. Her passion is for building up the church as those sent within a lost and broken world. The mission and vision statement of the Reformed Church in America, adopted when I began as its general secretary, kept echoing in my mind: “… a thousand churches in a million ways doing one thing — following Christ in mission in a lost and broken world so loved by God.”
For two days I’ve been experiencing, and reflecting on, the power of Pentecostal worship. The connection between the preacher and the listeners is palpable and intimate. Some preachers here would easily fail a homiletics class at any Reformed seminary. But the purpose is not so much to expound well-reasoned theological truths as to incite an intensity of spiritual experience. Such experience grips one’s whole being, and all the senses — pounding music, singing and shouting, and movement of the whole body, with praying and singing in tongues, creates a synchronized expression of worship and praise.
In Nico Njotorhardjo’s message, for instance — he’s well known in Indonesia and beyond for a healing ministry — more than once he simply broke into song as thousands joined: “His presence is heaven to me.” Claudio Freidzon, pastor of Iglesia Rey de Reyes in Buenos Aires Argentina, at one point simply implored listeners to receive “more, more, more,” urging all to the next step, and next stage, in the filling of the Spirit. But what I’ve come to understand is in this setting those worshipping are longing for, and experiencing, a direct, corporate participation in the presence of the Holy Spirit giving glory to God. And who can argue with that?
Of course some preachers shared more content. And styles differ. E. A. Adeboye, for instance, is the founder and leader of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. Founded in Nigeria, this “denomination” has moved with African migration around the world, including hundreds of congregations in the U.S. His preaching style, however, is straightforward, restrained, clear, and direct. He preached on Matthew 11:28-30: “Come unto me, all you who labor, and I will give you rest …” He stressed the making of disciples, but also testifying to God’s healing power.
In the U.S., his church has built a worship pavilion north of Dallas for $15 million, which holds 10,000. But in Nigeria, each year he convenes the “Holy Ghost Conference.” There, 4 million people come, and a covering has been constructed that is 1-mile long and a half-mile wide to hold them. I am not making this up. Korea has the world’s largest established church. But Nigeria hosts the largest Christian gathering in the world.
More content, however, comes in the countless workshops being held. I was captivated, for instance, to listen to African Pentecostal scholars give papers. Madipoane Masenya, an Old Testament scholar from South Africa, criticized a style of scholarship inherited from the West that she felt was too focused on theory and too little on praxis. She longed to address the issues of gender-based violence, income inequality, and patriarchy in the context of her society, but through engaging Scripture as a Pentecostal scholar.
Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, a leading scholar of African Christianity from Ghana, and now a valued friend who spoke at last Christian Churches Together meeting in the U.S., explained the presence of Africans among those gathered at the time of Pentecost, from the beginning. The Pentecostal movement in Africa today, he argues, is marked by inclusion, promise, and fulfillment. Now it is reaching those in the West where, he feels, the Bible has been “domesticated.”
One major delight was seeing Frank Chikane here. Formerly he served as general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, including during the struggle against apartheid and its aftermath. Then he worked in the Office of the President of South Africa. But now he leads the Apostolic Faith Mission, a thriving Pentecostal denomination. And his workshop focused on what it means to be a missional church. “When the Spirit comes, people go out,” Frank declared.
And that brought me back to Christine Caine’s moving address. It is undeniable that the Holy Spirit is moving in fresh ways today, and the Pentecostal movement’s growth is beginning to feel like a tsunami. But the question, which some here at Empowered21 are beginning to ask is this: What is this for? The answer, it seems to me, is found in the story of that first Pentecost in Jerusalem, and all that followed. It was never about spiritual entertainment; it was always about God’s mission in the world.
Wes Granberg-Michaelson is the author of From Times Square to Timbuktu: The Post-Christian West Meets the Non-Western Church. For 17 years he served as General Secretary of the Reformed Church in America, and has long been active in ecumenical initiatives such as the Global Christian Forum and Christian Churches Together. He’s been associated with the ministry of Sojourners for 40 years.
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