Becoming All Things, Spoiling the Egyptians, and Occupying Culture till Christ Comes
This section will briefly apply some of the preceding insights regarding Pentecostalism and postmodernism in a pastoral and practical tone. As an exhaustive analysis is not possible here, I have opted to select a key issue for representative reflections: spirituality. This is not an arbitrary selection. Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen identifies spirituality as the single most important element of Pentecostal self-understanding, as “the core of Pentecostal identity.”47 Interestingly, he notes that, “Pentecostalism emphasizes lived charismatic experience rather than discursive theology.”48 Furthermore, in agreement with Margaret Poloma, it is precisely at the point of experiential spirituality that Pentecostalism resists, adapts, and transcends traditional modernist categories.49
Garnet Parris summarily describes Pentecostal spirituality, emphasizing that a piety of divine immanence penetrating and permeating all of life with “the personal and direct awareness of and experiencing of the Holy Spirit” is especially critical. The significance of experiencing the Holy Spirit of course includes the centrality of the Spirit’s charismatic gifts and the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Parris focuses on Spirit baptism and speaking in tongues for the empowerment of individuals for the edification of the whole church in a context of the priority of worship.50
Sheldrake points out that “postmodernism is not necessarily inimical to Christian spirituality.” In fact, a kind of fascination for the sacred realm often exists. Important for our purposes, Sheldrake explains that, “The most crucial element of a postmodern Christian spirituality is the rejection of modernism’s division between the spiritual and secular sphere.” Postmodern spirituality “tends to cross boundaries and rejects impermeable divisions.” Interestingly, postmodern spirituality also stresses the inability of humanity fully to comprehend God through theology. Accordingly, its relation with Christian mysticism is remarkable.51 Therefore, I suggest spirituality will serve as a viable reference point for relating Pentecostalism and postmodernism. If the core belief and central practice of Pentecostalism connects well to a comparable belief and practice in a Christian postmodernism, then we may assume some positive interaction is possible and desirable at the level of pastoral ministry and practical leadership.
Obvious from the foregoing is that Pentecostal spirituality and postmodern spirituality share certain strong assumptions. For example, both are committed to spiritual experience, and both see spiritual reality as an all-pervasive condition. Additionally, both are suspicious of an over reliance on reason as the final arbiter of religious reality and verity. Finally, both are open to fresh and vital expressions overflowing traditional boundaries. Accordingly, I might suggest that Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians profitably use these points of contact with postmodern culture for increasing their effectiveness in encounters of ecclesial mission. However, I recommend caution regarding communal-individual accountability, always (understandably) an issue for Pentecostals anyway.
A local Pentecostal congregation reaching out to a postmodern community would emphasize personal testimony, prayer, and powerful worship, operation of spiritual gifts, and preaching and teaching facilitating encountering God’s felt presence. Deep intellectual and moral development and discipleship training would take place in this context, coming out of it and extending beyond it into evangelism and outreach. None of this need stop at the church door. In fact, Pentecostals must sustain a strong emphasis on individual and personal spirituality beyond institutions. Furthermore, ministering to the material, physical, and social needs of neighbors is as much a spiritual act as saying prayers and singing praises in church. Righteous and wise leadership would affirm by precept and by example the diversity of their people and the variety of their gifts and calling. Economic status and educational history, gender, ethnic background, and racial identity would not weigh as much as signs of the presence of the Spirit.
If this all sounds somehow familiar, it used to describe a typical Pentecostal congregation. Shepherd notes that for Pentecostal gatherings, “The central focus of the service is not the sermon or the music, but the moving of the Holy Spirit.” He adds that, in such services, “There is an expectation that God will minister in love to the worshiper through the agency of the Holy Spirit.”52 Tragically, many have so succumbed to the paralyzing and sterilizing trends of modernity that there is little to distinguish them. They aim at the merely cognitive, or at best, the aesthetic, but not much that is truly dynamic Perhaps postmodernism can remind Pentecostals of their original beliefs and practices and Pentecostals can invite postmodernists to fulfill their future in the freedom of the Spirit of Christ. In any case, according to Shepherd, fortunately “Pentecostals and neo-Pentecostals are discovering that God can be worshiped in a variety of ways; Christians thereby may live a life energized by the Holy Spirit.”53 This might mean significant elements of the postmodern culture could be important contributors to a context for ongoing Pentecostal revival.
I suggest that in the important intersection point of spirituality, a discerning pastoral and practical application of Pentecostalism to the postmodern community’s beliefs and practices could have a positive face. This would mean, first, that the relationship should be explored and plumbed, and second, that those who do so will likely experience a level of success in reaching non-churched souls not enjoyed by those who adopt more myopic mindsets. Pentecostals tend to join commitment to biblical primitivism with contemporary pragmatism.54 Thus, one may predictably expect in the future for Pentecostal leaders, pastors, and thinkers to interact energetically with postmodern culture to the extent that they can do so with faithfulness to their own uncompromising Christian commitment.
Category: Ministry, Winter 2009
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