The Spirit and the Prophetic Church, Part 1, by Antipas L. Harris
8 Informed by Walter Brueggemann’s Prophetic Imagination, the “prophetic” means a call to action, a call to connect the world that is to the world as God intends for it to be. Walter Brueggemann, Prophetic Imagination, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001).
9 See, Walter Hollenweger, Pentecostalism: Origins and Developments Worldwide. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1997). Hollenweger argues that the Pentecostal movement was the product of ecumenism. People from Wesleyan-Holiness, Keswick Reformed, African-American, Catholic-Orthodox, and, ecumenical roots came together to seek God for the outpour of the Holy Spirit despite doctrinal and theological differences.
10 Walter J. Hollenweger, “The Pentecostal Movement and the World Council of Churches,” Ecumenical Review 18 (1966), 313.
11 Dale T. Irvin, “‘Drawing All Together into One Bond of Love’: The Ecumenical Vision of William J. Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival,” Journal of Pentecostal Theology, 6 (1995): 23-53.
12 Amos Yong, “Pentecostalism and Ecumenism: Past, Present, and Future,” The Pneuma Review 4:3 (Summer 2001), page 18. Editor’s note: also available online at: http://pneumareview.com/pentecostalism-and-ecumenism-past-present-and-future-part-3-of-5/
13 Most ecumenical theologies tend to address the need for common brother and sisterhood among the faithful. Few of them address the need for an ecumenical theology—a unified body of voice and action on behalf of communities in distress. This essay advances a conversation of ecumenism for a more robust discussion of ecumenical ministry.
Importantly, the 1980 World Council of Churches Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, which took place in Melbourne, Australia, took a serious look at what scholars call “grassroots” ecumenism. The reflected on the theme, “Your kingdom come.” The CWME conference insisted on the particular role of the poor and churches of the poor in God’s mission. Influenced by the Latin American liberation theologies, the delegates highlighted the radical aspects of the kingdom message and the serious challenge it applied to traditional mission theories and mission programs. At the same time, the conference’s section dealing with the church’s witness considered the church as a healing community. The Commission also reflected on how Christ’s choice of vulnerability and the Passion challenged the use of power, in political, church and mission life. Ref. World Council of Churches, “History of World Mission and Evangelism,” http://www.oikoumene.org/en/who-are-we/organization-structure/consultative-bodies/world-mission-and-evangelism/history.html (Accessed 22 January 22, 2012).
14 Walter Brueggemann, Prophetic Imagination, 116.
15 Margaret M. Poloma, “The Pentecostal Movement,” http://hirr.hartsem.edu/research/PentecostalMovemnt.pdf (Accessed, 22 January 2012), 5.
16 Ibid., 6.
17 Ibid., 5.
18 Cecil M. Robeck explains, “Prophecy (for Contemporary Pentecostals) more commonly includes a component of forth telling, or the conveyance of a message with or without the predictive element.” See, Cecil M. Robeck, “Gift of Prophecy” in Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, Stanley M. Burgess and Gary B. McGee (eds.) (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1988),728. Kenneth E. Hagin, Kenneth Copland, Juanita Bynum, Bernard E. Jordan, Marilyn Hickey, Brian Carn, George Bloomer, and others are examples of popular ministers who have influenced certain popular contemporary understandings “prophecy,” “prophet,” and “the office of the prophet” among many Pentecostal/charismatic churches. Hagin defines “prophecy” as “divine utterance in a known tongue.” Most popular influencers of the movement do not define prophecy as having a social activist element as Brueggemann does. See Kenneth E. Hagin, The Gift of Prophecy (Faith Library Publications, 1980).
19 Leonard Lovett, “Ethics in a Prophetic Mode: Reflections of an Afro-Pentecostal Radical” in Afro-Pentecostalism: Black Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in History and Culture, Amos Yong and Estrelda Y. Alexander (editors) (New York: New York University Press, 2011), 153.
20 Ibid.
21 Brueggemann, 116-117.
22 Historic Cradock: Portsmouth, Virginia, http://www.historiccradock.org (Accessed, 10 January 2012).
23 Laura Purvis, “Welcome to Cradock” (2008). http://www.arch.virginia.edu/learningbarge/Community%20History%20Website/Website%20Edit/Cradock/Cradock%20Neighborhood%20Brochure.pdf.pdf (Accessed 10 January 2012).
24 It should be noted that there was not a Pentecostal or Charismatic Church in the history of historic community.
25 Interview, Robert Edwards (former pastor of Cradock Baptist Church from 2004 to 2011), 18 January 2012.
26 The Virginian-Pilot, (Norfolk, VA), June 12, 1992.
27 Interview, Robert Edwards, 18 January 2012.
28 Paul Avis, Reshaping Ecumenical Theology: The Church Made Whole? (T&T Clark International, 2010), 20.
29 Here, I mean the biblical interpretation of the “Church.”
30 The Nature and Mission of the Church (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 2006); P.M. Collins and M.A. Fahey (editors), Receiving ‘The Nature and Mission of the Church’ (‘Ecclesiological Investigations’, 1, London and New York: T&T Clark International, 2008).
31 “Social Explorer” (2007) http://www.socialexplorer.com/pub/ReportData/HtmlResults.aspx?reports (Assessed, 18 January 2012).
32 Cradock has become home for the Bounty Hunter Bloods/Tech Nine Gangsters, a local street gang linked to murders, robberies, shootings and drug dealing in Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Suffolk. See Tim McGlone, “Feds begin roundup of suspected Bloods gang members,” The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk), April 15, 2011.
33 Interview, Robert Edwards (former pastor of Cradock Baptist Church from 2004 to 2011), 18 January 2012.
Category: Ministry, Pneuma Review, Spring 2013
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