The Spirit and the Prophetic Church, Part 2, by Antipas L. Harris

Matthew Barnett, the founder of the Dream Center, is an ordained minister from the Assemblies of God. However, he pastors the original Foursquare Church—Angelus Temple of Los Angeles. A wide variety of ministries send both human and financial resources to assist in sustaining the ministry at the Los Angeles Dream Center and Angelus Temple. Various Pentecostal-type churches form something like a Pentecostal/charismatic ecumenical network of ministries. For example, Jack Hayford (Ordained in the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel) of the Church on the Way; Morris Cerullo (Ordained Assemblies of God minister) of Morris Cerullo World Evangelism; Paula White (ordained Independent Charismatic minister) of Without Walls Church in Tampa, Florida; Joyce Myers (ordained Independent Charismatic minister) of Life in the Word Ministries in Fenton, Missouri; Tommy Barnett (ordained Assemblies of God Minister) of Phoenix First Assembly in Phoenix, Arizona; T. D. Jakes (ordained United Pentecostal [Oneness] minister) of The Potter’s house in Dallas, Texas; and several others comprise a small ecumenical pool of churches and ministries that form a unified presence of the Body of Christ to support the ministries of the Los Angeles Dream Center.

As a result of the prophetic ministry at the Dream Center, the crime rate in the communities surrounding the ministry has dropped. Only four years after the center was opened, the urban community surrounding it had experienced a dramatic reduction in crime. Prostitution and gang violence dropped by 73% and rape dropped by 53%.⁶³ The Mayor and the City Council recognized Rev. Barnett and the Dream Center for having a direct impact on those figures.⁶⁴

Notably, the Dream Center has a Pentecostal foundation. The founders are ordained Pentecostal pastors. The ministry represents the integration of Christological and Pneumatological categories. The result of such is astoundingly both ecumenically and prophetically. It represents ministry that echoes the potential, which is fundamental to its Pentecostal heritage—a potential that Yong notes in his essay mentioned above.⁶⁵

Summary and Conclusion

In general, scholars such as Yong, Steve Studebaker and others argue that the Pentecostal emphasis on the Holy Spirit provides a pneumatological context for unifying people.⁶⁶ When speaking of ecumenism, however, the key work of the Spirit is to provide a divine unifier for believers from a variety of ethnic, theological and contextual trajectories. This interconnection among believers is underscored by the common denominator, professed faith in Christ. The Pentecostal emphasis on the Holy Spirit, moreover, provides the perfect pneumatological context for ecumenical ministry that continues the ministry that Christ did and taught.

The history of the Pentecostal movement from the 1906 Azusa Street Revival bears record that the Holy Spirit has served a pragmatic role in unifying a diverse people in Christ. Amidst heavy racism, denominationalism, classism and sexism; the move of the Spirit at Azusa Street brought diverse people together as a single Body or one family in Christ. The Spirit as the divine unifying agent in multi-dimensional situations also mobilizes the unified Body of Christ in advancing the mission of God to spread the Good News of hope and existential liberation. This is what Pentecostals mean when we say, “the Spirit makes the difference.” Moreover, a Pentecostal approach to ecumenism offers a boots-on-the-ground approach to discussions on ecumenism—ecumenical prophetic urban ministry. Mere ecumenical theological discourse must move beyond the esoteric discussions of a unified ecclesial identity between Catholics and Protestants and the many Protestant denominational traditions. A unified Body of Christ (the Church) empowered by the Spirit provides the transformational agency necessary to realize the Good News in urban communities.

Tags: Amos Yong, ecumenism, featured, urban church

Category: Ministry, Pneuma Review, Summer 2013