We can assume that, at the time Paul wrote, the New Testament church had a clear understanding of what these offices required, how they operated and who filled them. However, with the passing of time, the role and operation of these ministries in the everyday life of the church became less clear.

Thus, for centuries, the offices of pastor and teacher have been familiar ministries in all churches. However, only since the middle of the nineteenth century, with the success of Charles Finney and other “professional” evangelists of that day, has the office of evangelist gained a popular understanding and acceptance.

The offices of apostle and prophet have been more elusive for modern Christians. Many have accepted a belief developed throughout the centuries that the age of the apostles and prophets ended around 96 AD, about the time John, the last apostle, died. Another belief, first stated by St. Augustine (and later retracted), has been widely accepted along with this. It holds that, with the completion of the canon of Scripture, the Lord withdrew miraculous gifts of the Spirit such as tongues, prophecy and healing.

Over time, as the bishops consolidated their power in the church, the office of apostle was almost forgotten. By the second century, apostles and prophets were seen as nothing more than traveling medicine men with little or no influence or authority. In the Didache (11:3) the following rules were laid down for itinerant “apostles and prophets”: “Now, as regards apostles and prophets, act strictly according to the precept of the Gospel. Upon his arrival every apostle must be welcomed as the Lord; but he must not stay except one day. In case of necessity, however, he may stay the next day also; but if he stays three days, he is a false prophet. At his departure the apostle must receive nothing except food to last till the next night’s lodging; but if he asks for money, he is a false prophet.”

Preaching has always been central to the life of church life, and especially following the Reformation of Luther and Calvin. However, preaching can take on a different hue in the Pentecostal revival that has and continues to bring about change to the entire church world-wide.

In his book Preach the Word: a Pentecostal Approach, 2004 Aldwin Ragoonath makes the assertion, “Pentecostal and Charismatic preaching is a type of preaching that is different from all other forms of preaching.” He links this form of preaching back to Jesus and his apostles and in this book seeks to convince the reader of the uniqueness of the kind of preaching instinctive to the Pentecostal world and experience.

Aldwin Ragoonath

His definition of Pentecostal is a classic view: those who have what he calls “a Spirit worldview that includes ‘dreams, visions, revelations, curses demons roaming the world, spiritual guidance, angels guiding us, people speaking in tongues, miracles, exorcisms and things we cannot explain.'” For him it is important that Pentecostals understand the difference this form of preaching is to other forms for it is “through preaching that their doctrines and emphases are communicated.”

The book covers a rather wide selection of topics meant to encourage those of Pentecostal persuasion. He begins with what is called “Theology of Pentecostal Preaching” in which he moves from the preacher and message to the traditional feature—especially of older Pentecostal churches—the altar service.

In his chapter on the History of Pentecostal Preaching, the author takes us back into the lives and sermons of those who were instrumental in the early beginnings of the Pentecostal movement, at the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles of the early 1900s. He provides an analysis of the way Parham and Seymour preached and how they handled the Biblical text in their preaching. As well he provides suggestions on how to go about building a sermon from a text.

In preparation for preaching at healing and deliverance services he offers his logic as to the value of such services along with organization of the services. From there he provides counsel on outlining sermons and their delivery.

Throughout his writing, the author asserts that Pentecostals are not traditionally from educated classes: “Pentecostalism was born from working class people and reflects a simple view of the Word of God.” With this in mind then, his material may best refer to those Pentecostals who preach to people with limited education.

Aldwin Ragoonath has obviously spent much time considering the importance of preaching to those who serve within the Pentecostal and Charismatic community. As a world force, it is important that preachers from this community be equipped so as to impact this wider world with the power of Gospel of our risen Lord.

I am grateful for this opportunity of reading and reviewing Preach the Word.

Reviewed by Brian C. Stiller

Originally published on the Pneuma Foundation (parent organization of PneumaReview.com) website. Later included in the Winter 2024 issue.

Not gifts, not healing, not revival—seek the LORD.

Thus says the Lord to the house of Israel, seek Me and live. But do not seek Bethel, nor enter Gilgal, nor cross over to Beersheba. Seek the Lord, and Live (Amos 5:4-6a).

Definition: To “seek the Lord” means that we move from an approach to God that is centered in ourselves with our own self-interests at the forefront, to an approach that is centered in Him with His interests at the forefront of the relationship. We must no longer relate to God on the basis of what He can do for us, but on the basis of how we can know Him and be more fully conformed to His will and purpose.

Here some practical suggestions for making the transition. Understand that I am not suggesting that we should never ask God for anything. But as a matter of principal, we must change our attitude from one that is ego-centered in me and my needs and desires to one that is centered in the Lord, His kingdom, and His will.

Don’t Seek Gifts, Seek the Giver of Gifts

In the early 1950s a certain pastor attended a William Branham crusade and was awed by the miraculous gifts that he saw demonstrated through Brother Branham. This pastor returned home and announced to his wife and congregation that he was shutting himself away in his office to fast and pray until God gave him a ministry like Brother Branham. He fasted for 84 days and died without hearing anything from God. What was the problem? He was not seeking the Lord. His fasting and praying were self-serving. He was seeking a ministry that he thought would give him personal status and prestige. If the modern charismatic movement is to move to the next level of God’s will and purpose, we must move away from an approach to God that is self-serving to one that gives priority to knowing and serving Him.

The LORD ALMIGHTY sent me this message: Say to all your people and your priests, “During those seventy years of exile, when you fasted and mourned in the summer and at the festival in early autumn, was it really for Me that you were fasting? And even now in your holy festivals, you don’t think about Me but only of pleasing yourselves (Zech. 7:4-6).

Don’t Seek Healing, Seek the Healer

When I was 3 weeks old my 7-year-old brother, nicknamed Pete, was run over by a large farming tractor that also pulled the large discs behind it over him. Unconscious and with blood bubbling from his eyes, nose, mouth and ears, my parents rushed him to the nearest hospital where he was examined by three physicians. They all agreed in their assessment that he would not live more than 10 minutes since he had, at least, a broken rib that had punctured a lung.

Azusa Now 2016

From Pneuma Review Fall 2013.

Alan J. Delotavo, Back to the Original Church: The Secret Behind Church Movements (Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2010), 100 pages, 9781556355660.

Regular and careful Bible readers inevitably piece the Bible story together until they have a sense of the grand sweep of things. We do the same with the history of the church. Sometimes unconsciously, we jump from the Book of Acts directly to Martin Luther, then to Azusa Street, and finally to the present day. Delotavo fills in some of the blanks to draw out a valuable lesson that can only be seen from an overview.

Back to the Original Church is Delotavo’s University of Pretoria ThD thesis in popular form. This conversation about the flow and progress of church history calls us to see church movements as gifts to the wider church restoring something neglected and not stopping points or ends in themselves.

Delotavo provides examples of church movements that attempted to restore an essential part of church life or faith, but which became bogged down to the point of needing their own renewal. The Reformation era focused on the recovery of the gospel in view of accumulated abuses and theological “defects.” This gospel recovery included the teaching of “the priesthood of the believer,” that each Christian had direct access to God without the need of clergy. Delotavo points out that this set up a division between laity and Protestant clergy and also spawned a divisive spirit throughout the Reformation. Further splits occurred till today denominations around the world number into the thousands. The Lutheran church became State church (protected by law and supported by taxes) and fell into the sorry state of doctrinal correctness with experiential coldness. The Reformation had become an end in itself. To recover what was needed, Pietism arose about a century later. This was an attempt to bring vital Christian experience, including conversion, assurance and holiness back into the Lutheran state church. Once more the renewal movement, although truly helping many, lost its way. Splitting many ways, some parts impacted world missions and future movements, other parts become theologically liberal, and still other parts become radical or revolutionary.

Delotavo’s excellent point bogs down, however, in historical omissions and stretches. He jumps directly from the early church to the Reformation period. The era of the main church councils (AD 325—787) he considered a breakdown of Christianity due to political connections to the Roman Empire. The “Dark Ages” or better, the medieval church, is thought to have no value. He sees the church largely pursuing the expansion of Christian civilization at the expense of “genuine experience of salvation.” Delotavo seems to ignore that in the West, the church was living through the crushing of the Roman Empire under “barbarian” invasions; that in the East, Constantinople was rising to power as the new center of the Roman Empire; and that Islam was racing across North Africa, into Spain and southern France. He could have pulled examples of church movements from these periods that prove his point, but he did not. Does he not recognize the value of that period of the church’s life?

The way forward for Delotavo is found in American Evangelicalism. He noted that several awakenings or revivals had occurred in American history from colonial times, each a church movement in itself. By the end of the nineteenth century, modern Liberalism rapidly set in resulting in the backlash of Fundamentalism in the early twentieth century. In its original form, Fundamentalism was truly a church movement to recover much that was being lost; however, it degenerated into anti-intellectualism and a belligerent separatism. In the 1940s, a corrective movement, Evangelicalism, arose to call the church back to theological basics, to academic engagement, and to a loving spirit. Here, Delotavo believes, is the apex of church movements, breaking down all barriers, and penetrating all denominations and traditions. Here is what the church was meant to be at last! Delotavo forgets his own warning: church movements are means to an end (renewal for the entire church) not ends in themselves (the final best expression of the church). Is this the climax of church history?

We must reclaim the spiritual fire we’ve lost. We must also be willing to bury what has become stale and outdated.

Pentecostals from around the world converged on Los Angeles this week to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the revival that launched their movement. About 3,000 people began the party on Saturday by marching through a downtown area carrying flags and banners. They ended their procession in the Little Tokyo neighborhood where Pentecostal pioneer William “Daddy” Seymour held his famous Azusa Street Revival a century ago.

As of yesterday a crowd of 23,000 had gathered at the Los Angeles Convention Center for special revival services. Other Azusa events were scheduled at Fred Price’s Faith Dome, Bishop Charles Blake’s West Angeles Cathedral and at Angelus Temple—the nation’s oldest Pentecostal megachurch.

Azusa is truly a miracle worth celebrating

Seymour’s unscripted, racially mixed prayer meetings, housed in a dilapidated building that was once a livery stable, attracted curious Christians from around the world between 1906 and 1909. Many of those who visited testified of receiving a life-changing “baptism of the Holy Spirit” that was contagious. Pentecostal fervor spread quickly, giving birth to countless new denominations.

What began in that tiny building on Azusa Street (furnished with crude plank benches and a pulpit made of shoeboxes) has grown to be a movement of 500 million Christians who believe that the miracles performed in the book of Acts still happen.

What started in a poor neighborhood has moved uptown. What was once derided as religious fanaticism has become mainstream. We’ve gone from rural clapboard chapels to sophisticated, glass-and-steel megachurches; from sawdust floors to plush carpets; from plank benches to cushioned seats; from tent revivals to climate-controlled television studios. And our pulpits today are made of clear plastic.

I hope this is progress.

As thousands more Pentecostals descend on Los Angeles this weekend, we need more than a festival. We must re-evaluate. What core values from Azusa Street must we reclaim? I can think of a few:

Racial equality. Azusa was an interracial experience. White pastors from Tennessee and North Carolina knelt at the altars in 1906—in an age of racial segregation—and allowed black men and women to lay hands on them and pray. In many of our churches today, the “color line” that Azusa historian Frank Bartleman said was “washed away” at Azusa Street has returned as an ugly stain.

Women’s empowerment.The Pentecostal fervor at Azusa Street dismantled gender prejudice. Some of the 20th century’s greatest women preachers trace their roots to that humble stable, where men and women shared the makeshift pulpit. Today, with all our technological advances, we tend to slam the door on women rather than give them the microphone.

Holiness and humility. Azusa was certainly not a celebrity event. Seymour and the others who frequented the Azusa mission were simple folks who lived in Los Angeles years before Hollywood’s big film studios were built. Today many Pentecostal and charismatic ministries look and smell more like Hollywood than anything holy.