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189
Toward a
Dialogue The
Pentecostal,
Conciliar
of Conversion:
Evangelical Movements
and
Jeffrey
Gros
The Pentecostal churches
bring unique gifts
to the Christian
family
of churches,
and
reap major
benefits from their collaboration with fellow Christians in witness to the
Gospel
in our world. The
power
of the Holy Spirit,
witnessed to in
deepening
bonds of communion
among Christians of diverse
traditions,
moves all who confess Jesus Christ and respond
to his
saving power
to
pray
and work for that
unity
for which he
prayed.
Christians
may
differ as to what
they
see the
Scripture calling
them to in the
Church,
and what are the essential marks of fellowship
in the
Holy Spirit. However, anyone reading
the
Epistles
of Paul or the Acts of the
Apostles
realizes
that, among the
diversity
of the
gifts
of the
Holy Spirit,
there is to be
peace, harmony
and
unity among
all who confess Christ’s name. Conversion to Jesus Christ means a conversion to the
community
of
faith,
and conversion to the communion Christ wills
implies
a zeal for
unity among
all who confess his name.
The Pentecostal churches in the United States have a rich
history
of ecumenical collaboration with other Christians in the National Association of
Evangelicals,
the Pentecostal
Fellowship
of North America and the
Society
for Pentecostal Studies. More
recently
an openness
has
developed
towards conversations in the Faith and Order movement of the World and National Councils of
Churches,
with the Roman Catholic Church in
dialogues
discussed elsewhere in this issue of PNEQ4A, and with the wider World Council of Churches concerns in the 1991 Canberra
Assembly.
All of these
relationships, beyond
the Pentecostal
family,
or within the Pentecostal
family,
as
exemplified by the new Pentecostal and Charismatic
Fellowship
of North
America,
are signs
of the
Holy Spirit’s
action in intensifying the bonds of communion already present among
all who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. In this
article,
the
present challenge
before
Evangelical
and Pentecostal churches will be
noted,
the contribution of Pentecostals to recent discussions in the Faith and Order movement and the World Council will be
reviewed,
and some
proposals
will be suggested.
Challenges in
the
Evangelical
World
The
Evangelical movement, broadly considered,
and the classical Pentecostal movement in
particular
have been
gifted
with
unique successes from God. The
growth
of the Pentecostal churches around the
world,
from the humble
beginnings
at Azusa
Street,
Los
Angeles
1
190
and
before,
has astounded the Christian
world,
and even Pentecostals themselves. The
emergence
of
major
international denominations from voluntary
mission
collaboration,
the
indigenization
of Pentecostalism in
a
variety
of
cultures,
and a Charismatic movement within most
major Christian
traditions,
will have to be recorded as one of the
unique contributions of the twentieth
century
to Christian
history.
This
rapid growth,
and the
ability
to build on the intense
experience
of the
Holy Spirit
in the
community,
has
brought
with it
challenges
and disappointments.
The movement has become too domesticated for some. For
others, entrepreneurial leadership
has been able to attract attention to
itself,
sometimes
eclipsing
the
objective
content of the Gospel message.
These
challenges,
seen as both
gift
and
burden,
have caused some in the
Evangelical
movement to direct
strong
criticism at the
leadership from within the movement. Such criticism
questions
whether the Evangelical
world has taken
adequate
account of the intellectual imperative
of the
Gospel.’
Further concerns have been raised as to whether the successes of
Evangelicalism
and Pentecostalism have not produced
a lack of attention to
history, accountability
and the discernment that is
imperative
if a
spirituality
is to
develop
to sustain and
challenge
the movement as it becomes more established.2 It has been noted that some of these
challenges
are
particularly applicable
to Pentecostalism at this moment in
history.’
What
might
be some of the elements that can contribute to this
growth
in
maturity
and
learning
in the Pentecostal churches and the Charismatic communities within the classical churches?
Certainly
the
Society
for Pentecostal
Studies,
the
seminary arrangements
within the
variety
of classical Pentecostal churches and the number of Pentecostal scholars who have served their churches
by bringing
their intellectual
gifts
to bear in witness within and
beyond their
churches,
are
primary
contributions to this
process
of maturation. Likewise,
the
willingness
of the
leadership
of the classical Pentecostal churches to
support
their
scholars,
to
encourage
their leaders in their intellectual
pursuits
and their own
engagement
with other
Evangelical Christians in exploration of the best
ways
for their churches
together
to serve their
people
and the
world,
are all testimonies to the seriousness of the Pentecostal movement in
stewarding
the
gifts
that have been
‘ Mark Noll and David Wells, eds., Christian Faith and Practice in the Alodern World (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1988); Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Afind (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994); David Wells, God in the Wasteland (Grand MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Rapids,
Publishing Company, 1994).
2 Alister McGrath,
Evangelicalism
and the Future
of Christianity (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. 1995)..
‘ Walter J. Hollenweger, “The Critical Tradition of Pentecostalism,” Journal Pentecostal
of
Theology 1 (October 1992): 7-17.
2
191
showered on it
by
the
Holy Spirit.
It is
always
a
challenge
for a Christian
community
to maintain its initial zeal for
evangelism,
its enthusiasm for
preaching,
its direct contact with the
Spirit’s gifts
and to develop
an
understanding
and seriousness about the Church and its history,
a critical intellectual sense of the Christian
faith,
and an openness
to others
persons
and cultures.
It is the thesis of this
paper
that the
participation
of the Pentecostal scholars
and,
in the
future,
the
participation
of the church leaders in the wider ecumenical
dialogue
will be a rich source of renewal for the Pentecostal churches as well as the renewal of their
partners
in this pilgrimage.
God is always calling the Christian
community
into a deeper spiritual relationship
with him and to
deeper understandings
of what the Gospel
demands. To be able to
pray,
witness and serve with other Christians in a dialogue of conversion, will
bring
Christians to a deeper love of Christ, and
by
that
deeper
love of Christ an
openness
to a richer understanding
of one another and a more serious
appreciation
of what the
Gospel
commands. One must
say
that individual Pentecostal Christians and Pentecostal scholars have been
pioneers
in these approaches
to common
prayer,
common
explorations
of the Christian faith and common service in the world. Has not the time arrived when the
leadership
can
carry
a greater
role,
with these
pioneers,
in
leading the Pentecostal churches into their
proper place among
the Christian churches of the world?
Such a shift in the
priorities
and
policies
of churches does not come easily.
But it is the thesis of this
essay
that
strong
and sensitive leadership
has
already
made such
openness
and
public
seriousness about Pentecostal witness and
dialogue
easier. The
way
has been cleared for the churches to
go
where individual Christians have laid the groundwork,
in obedience to the
Gospel imperative
to
prayer
and sharing
with others who confess the same Lord. The Pentecostal churches have not suffered as a result of their collaboration in the Pentecostal
Fellowship
of North
America,
or with other Christians in the National Association of
Evangelicals.
Are not these churches now in a position to own the contributions made
by Pentecostals
in the Faith and Order
movement,
in the World Council of Churches and with the Roman Catholic Church?
Pentecostal
Witness in the Conciliar Movement
The World Council of Churches “is a
fellowship
of churches which confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior
according
to the scriptures
and therefore seek to fulfill
together
their common
calling
to the
glory
of the one
God, Father,
Son and
Holy Spirit.”4
The
4 Michael Kinnamon, ed., Signs of the Spirit:
Official Report, Seventh Assembly (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991), 358.
3
192
membership, carrying
Protestantism
National Association of
Evangelicals
Ockenga
and his Pentecostal contemplated
how
important
would become in this
Pentecostal movement has been
engaged
in the World Council since 1961 when the first
churches,
from Latin
America,
became members.
The National Council of Churches in the
USA,
founded from the old Federal Council of Churches in
1950,
has a
quite
different
history
and
the
history
of the
early twentieth-century Fundamentalist-Modernist tensions. These differences within
in the United States necessitated the
emergence
of the
in the 1940s.5 While the inclusion of the Pentecostal churches
among
other
Evangelicals
at that moment in
history
was a
significant
ecumenical initiative on the
part
of Harold
colleagues,
it could not have been
these churches
organization.
In this
section,
we will recall
briefly
the role of the Pentecostal witness at the Canberra
Assembly
of the World
Council,
and the recent
in the Faith and Order movement of the World and National Councils. The role of Pentecostal leaders and scholars in the Theological
Commissions of the World
Evangelical Fellowship
and the National Association of Evangelicals is a contribution that also needs to be recorded as a
major
ecumenical
contribution,
role of Pentecostals
of this
essay.
While Pentecostals
statements within
Holy Spirit-Renew
special group
on “Pentecostal
but is not the
subject
important Pentecostal
Assembly.
There was considerable
have been involved in World Council Assemblies since New Delhi in
1961,
and have contributed to
Evangelical
and about such
Assemblies,
their
presence
at Canberra in 1991 took on a
particular importance.
The theme “Come
the Whole of Creation,” and the establishment of a
and Charismatic
Section III of the
Assembly, “Spirit
of
Unity-Reconcile
made this a
particularly
the witness of the
churches. There was an
Evangelical
gathering,
as to whether a
specifically
for,
since there was a difference participants
section
report
Movements,”
in the
Your
People,”
moment for
response
to the
debate,
around the
edges
of the
Pentecostal
response
was called in tone to most of the Pentecostal
as
compared
with other
Evangelicals.
It was decided that Pentecostal voices had been
adequately
addressed
through
either the
or the
“Evangelical Perspectives.”6
The Pentecostal influence in the Canberra
Assembly
can be seen in a variety
of
areas, touching spirituality, unity, evangelism
and creation.
Evangelical Perspectives,” Rapids.
Bong
1993).
‘ Arthur
Matthews, Standing Up Standing Together:
The
Emergence of
the National Association of Evangelicals (Carol Stream, IL: The National Association of Evangelicals, 1992).
6″A Letter to Churches and Christians Worldwide from Participants Who Share
in Signs of the Spirit, ed. Michael Kinnamon (Grand
MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 1991), 282-286. See also
Rin Ro and Bruce J. Nicholls, eds., Bevond Canberra (Oxford: Regnum/LyrLx.
4
193
However,
there was
specific
attention
given
to the
relationship
of the Pentecostal churches and Charismatic Christians within other
churches, and the World Council of Churches
(WCC)
and its non-Pentecostal member churches. The text of this section
report,
in the first
instance, appears
to
speak
of the Pentecostals as an “other” outside of the circle of
dialogue,
even
though
the subsection was chaired
by
a Pentecostal, Tee
Garlington,
and included as members and consultants several members of Pentecostal churches.
However,
the text
goes
on to balance the
description
of the
relationship
of Pentecostals to the modem ecumenical movement
very judiciously:
Some Pentecostals have
rejected
the traditional churches. Some have
rejected
the ecumenical movement as a human
attempt
to
produce
Christian unity, or because of genuine theological differences on the part of
its members the nature of the Christian faith and how to
express
it in concerning the modern world. But others have sought fellowship with
Christians outside their boundaries, particularly with evangelicals. They
have begun to take interest in questions of visible church unity: traditional
churches have in turn become more open to the spiritual and
insights
that Pentecostals
theological
bring.’
While this observation
accurately
assesses the differences
among Pentecostals,
as an earlier
paragraph
had
assessed,
the
variety
of other Christian’s attitudes toward Pentecostals, the
Assembly
did not leave relationships
there. It went on to note ten recommendations:
1) recovery
of the New Testament sense of the
Holy Spirit’s gifts by
all Christians; 2)
churches
deepen
their
teaching
on the
Trinity
and the Holy Spirit; 3)
WCC
recognizes
Pentecostal churches and congregations
within the rich
diversity
of the
development
of Christian history; 4)
WCC churches
challenged
to
recognize
the
appropriateness, if not the universal
prerequisite,
of the Pentecostal
experience
in the lives of those touched
by it; 5)
WCC foster relations between the Pentecostal movement and other
Christians; 6) study
the
diversity within the Pentecostal
movement, 7)
foster
dialogue
between Third World and North Atlantic
Pentecostals,
with their different ecumenical experiences; 8)
WCC invite Pentecostals into all of its
programs; 9) Pentecostal
theologians
be invited more
deeply
into the Faith and Order movement; and, 10)
WCC
worship
seek to
incorporate
Pentecostal styles
and
leadership.
Since the
Assembly,
the World Council has helped
to
generate
some of these
meetings,
noted in numbers five and six,
and has
attempted
to
incorporate participation
in its
worship
and programs.
Pentecostals themselves will have to
judge
whether the affirmation of the
Assembly,
its recommendations and the follow
up
on recommendations made to the WCC and its member
churches, signify that the witness of Pentecostals at Canberra was effective in
bringing
‘ “Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements,” in Signs of the Spirit, ed. Michael Kinnamon (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans
108.
Publishing Company., 1991),
5
194
the
Gospel
values to which
they testify
into this discussion. The texts seem clear that there has been substantive
change
in the WCC and its program
as a result of this witness.
There are
those, however,
in the Pentecostal
community,
as noted in the
Assembly
section
report,
who feel that these
relationships
are not helpful.
There are those who would
prefer
an isolationist stance. Whether this attitude can be substantiated from a clear
reading
of the Gospel
is a matter of debate. There are
others, however,
who resist collaboration with World Council member churches and the Roman Catholic Church on other
grounds.
Their basis of collaboration with other Christians is not the
Gospel
mandate-as it would be with the WCC-but an “oppositionalism” over
against
what has in the
past
been an
oppressive, establishment,
“liberal” Protestant
Christianity
in the ecumenical
movement,
or a non-Christian Roman Catholicism on the other hand. These Pentecostals would collaborate with those who oppose
the same values
they oppose
in the dominant
culture,
without necessarily placing
common Christian confession at the center. This “co-beligerancy” style
of collaboration is characteristic of a generation of
Evangelical leadership
in the United States. Recent initiatives
by unofficial individuals from the
Evangelical
and Roman Catholic world have raised the debates on this
style
of collaboration to a wider
public audience.’
However,
there are those in the Pentecostal movement who sense a certain limitation in this
approach:
If that
[‘Evangelicals
and Catholics
Together’
as Oden, McGrath and
Packer define it over
against
the World Council of Churches, the
theological dialogues
and the modem ecumenical
movement]
is the
ecumenism which
currently characterizes the Evangelical stance,
recent
Pentecostal activities indicate that many Pentecostals would not choose to
define their attitudes toward ecumenicity in such a limiting way.9
One must be realistic
enough
to
say that,
within the contentious culture of the United
States,
at
least,
Pentecostal voices
may
continue to be divided on this
question
for some time to come. It is important for those outside of the
movement,
as well as its
leadership within,
not to caricature or
attempt
to
co-opt
the movement into one or another position
as
though
it were the
only option open
for the future. However,
the Pentecostal
leadership
would be well
advised, given
the global
character of the Pentecostal and Charismatic
culture,
to find ways
of keeping open discussions with the World Council
churches,
the official Roman Catholic
Church,
as well as its
long
term
Evangelical
8 A Consultation of
Evangelical
Protestant and Roman Catholic
Christians, “Evangelicals
and Catholics,” First Things 43 (May 1994): 15-22.
“Catholic and
1″imothy George,
Evangelicals in the Trenches,” Christianity Today,
16 May
1994, 16-17.
9 David Cole, “Current Pentecostal/Ecumenical Tensions,” lvlidstream 3.1 (April 1995): 138.
6
195
colleagues.’°
The
relationship
with the Roman Catholic
Church, especially
in the Western
Hemisphere,
is also
important
for Pentecostal leadership.
The international
dialogue,
and
relationships
with this Church
through
the
Society
for Pentecostal
Studies,
local Charismatic prayer groups,
and national events are well
developed,
but the leadership
of these churches need to find
ways
of
giving
form to their relationship
as the Pentecostal movement matures. This
bridge
is particularly important
to
build, given
the
Gospel responsibilities
of both Roman Catholics and Pentecostals in Latin America.”
I
In the Faith and Order
movement,
both within the World Council and the National Council of Churches in the United
States,
there has been considerable effective Pentecostal witness. At the recent Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order in Santiago de
Compestela, 1993,
there was
significant
Pentecostal
leadership,
both in the
presentations
and in the discussions. Dr. Simon Chan of
Singapore
made a
major presentation
on the
Trinity.”
Sections on
mission, proselytism
and communion
particularly
benefited
by
Pentecostal
theological
voices. Indeed,
after the
Santiago meeting,
it will be difficult for Pentecostals in the future to disown the World Council and the Faith and Order movement and their
theology,
without
disowning
the contributions of their own churches and movement.
The contribution of the Pentecostal
churches, through representatives of the
Society
for Pentecostal
Studies,
to the Faith and Order movement of the National Council of Churches is even more remarkable. It is in the United States that tensions with the Conciliar movement and
emergent Evangelical
ecumenism have been most evident. Third World
Evangelicals
and Pentecostals are often burdened by
these US
tensions,
when the
polarizations they represent
are not their own.
However,
since the
early
1980s when the
Society
for Pentecostal Studies authorized
representation,
and a
major
consultation at Fuller Theological Seminary published
its
report,
Pentecostal concerns have been
fully integrated along
with other churches in the work of Faith and Order.’3
Special
attention was
given
to the
relationship
of the
‘° Karla Poewe, ed.. Charismatic Christianity as a Global Culture (Columbia. SC: University
”
of Carolina Press, 1994).
Cj. David Stoll, Is Latin America Turning Protestant (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1990). David Martin,
Tongues of
Fire: The
Protestantism in Latin America
Explosion of
(O?cford: Basil Blackwell, 1990).
U.S./Latin American
Bishops, “Fostering
Ecumenism in the U.S.
Hispanic Community,” Origins
24 (March 1995): 658-660.
12Thomas Best and Gunther Gassmann, eds.. On the
Way to Fuller Koinonia World Council of
(Geneva: Churches, 1993). 85-90.
“Kenneth
Houghland.
“Pentecostals and NCC
104 87-89.
Begin Dialogue,” The Christian Century (January 1987): Jeffrey Gros, “Confessing the Apostolic Faith from the
Perspective of the Pentecostal Churches,” PNEUA!A: The Journal
Studies 9 (Spring
of the Pentecostal
Societv for 1987): 5-16: cf
also Jeffrey Gros and
7
196
Pentecostal
churches,
their
unique
ecumenical concerns and the
larger Faith and Order movement. This commitment led to a set of specifically designed
consultations which have
produced
a
volume,
edited
by Melanie
May
and Cecil
Robeck,
which is still
forthcoming.
A second round of
special
consultations is
beginning,
with its first
meeting
in Hartford,
October 1995.
Within the
regular
work of Faith and
Order, especially as it has attempted
to
stage
the voices from the United States churches and their theologians,
Pentecostal
participants
have
played
a
particularly important part.
The
processes
have been
designed
so that the witness of the
Gospel,
as Pentecostals have
experienced
it and their
theologians have been able to formulate and record
it,
has been an essential element in all of the studies undertaken
during
the late 1980s and
early
1990s. This witness has been
particularly
formative in the
study
“Toward the Common
Expression
of the
Apostolic
Faith
Today.”
A study Apostolic Faith in America and a study Black Witness to the Apostolic
Faith
provided
an opportunity for the faith of the Pentecostal denominations and the African American Pentecostal churches to have a
specific
voice.14
Theologically,
these studies allowed for the witness of
churches,
like the Pentecostals who base their claim to biblical authority
and
apostolic continuity
on an
understanding
of the restoration of the
primitive
church,
rather than the
continuity
of formulations of
faith, apostolic ministry
and
episcopal authority.
This ecclesiological self-understanding, though
common to the
Campbellite movement,
the
Anabaptists,
and other American bom
churches,
is quite unknown
among many
of the
ecclesiological
scholars of
Europe
and even in North America.
Giving
witness to this
development
in ecclesiological thinking
about
apostolicity
has been an
important contribution of the Pentecostal churches and their fellow restorationists.
African American Pentecostalism
provides
a
particularly important ecumenical witness because of the
unique
multi-racial
origins
of the American Pentecostal movement and the
developments
that are occurring
within Pentecostal ecumenism since the
founding
of the interracial Pentecostal and Charismatic
Fellowship
of North America. This
history,
and its roots in a non-racial
understanding
of the
Gospel, where differences are washed
away
in the blood of the
Lamb,
is an important
contribution to the ecumenical
understanding
of the faith once delivered to the
apostles.
Joseph Burgess, eds., Building Unity (New York,
NY: Paulist Press,
1989), 484-490.
“Thaddeus
Horgan, ed., Apostolic Faith in America (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing Company, 1988). David T. Shannon and Gayraud Wilmore, eds., Black Witness to the Apostolic Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1988).
8
While
issues
of
pneumatology
197
are
central in
Pentecostal
the
Pentecostal Pentecostals fourth-century apostolic orthodoxy,
understanding
and
theological developments,
the more classical debates around the
procession
of the
Spirit
from the Father and the
history
of the formulations of the
early
creeds have not been
traditionally Pentecostal concerns.
However,
in the discussions of the differences between East and West over the Trinitarian faith and
processions,
voice
played
a
unique
and
important
role.15 Likewise, the
allege,
like
many
other restorationist
creedal formulations
churches,
that the represent
a decline from initial church life to an arid creedal
and the
complexity
of
many
of the
critiques accommodations
this evaluation.’6
The Pentecostal
position evaluation of the Church’s
fervor and
Spirit-driven
dominated
by
a state-controlled Constantinianism. With careful
study
of the fourth
century developments,
the church life of that
period, noting
that monasticism institutionalized
Pentecostals have raised about the
of that
era,
a new
perspective
was able to be
given
to
have been
key
Foundations,””
Peacemaking.”
Church and
Peacemaking: not
only
a witness to Pentecostal
ecclesiology,
the with culture and the ethical
movement
ecclesiology
on restorationist
compromise
positions
that were
part
of the
origins
of the Pentecostal
in the
dialogues
of Faith and Order USA with the apostolic
claims of the Peace Churches. Two consultations have been held: “The
Apostolic
Character of the Church’s Peace Witness: Biblical
and “The
Fragmentation
of the Church and its
Unity
in
The latter consultation included a
paper
on “The
A Pentecostal
Perspective,”
which
provided
and
history,
but also explicated
the
changes
of some of the Pentecostal churches from their
ethical vision as a result of their ecumenical associations in the Evangelical
world.”
A consultation on the
understanding
bom churches has enabled those
churches,
like the
Pentecostals,
original
are
working
out of a restorationist
of
apostolicity
in the American
who ecclesiology
to
clarify together
with
in
dialogue
with
other
indigenous churches,
their self
understanding
churches whose claim to
apostolic continuity
is grounded in a different
theology
of
history
and
development
Publishing Company,
of doctrine. The differences and
18 Murray Perspective.” forthcoming
“Gerald T. Sheppard, “The Nicene Creed, Filioque, and Pentecostal Movements in the United States,” in Spirit of Truth: Ecumenical Perspectives on the Holy eds. Theodore
Spirit,
Stylianopoulos and Mark Heim 171-186.
also
(Brookline: and Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 1986), Cf Joseph Burgess Jeffrey Gros, eds., Consensus Growing
(New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1995), 659-668.
‘6 S. Mark
Heim, ed.,
Faith to Creed
(Grand Rapids,
MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans
1991). Cf also Gros and Burgess, Building Unity, 669-673. “Marlin Miller and Barbara Nelson Gingrich, eds., The Church’s Peace Witness (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans 1994).
W. “The Church Publishing Company, Dempster, and
Peacemaking:
A Pentecostal
To be
published
with the other
papers
of the consultation in a
volume from William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
9
198
similarities of the African American and
Anglo
American Pentecostal churches,
and the
relationship
of the Pentecostal churches to the
Holiness churches enriched the discussion on this
important
issue. Dr. Fred Norris of the
independent
Christian Churches is
editing
a
book, bringing
this conversation
together.
A related set of ecumenical
conversations,
not
sponsored by
the National Council of Churches’ Faith and
Order,
but
dealing
with some similar issues have been
developed by
the Believers’ Church Conference. Of
particular
interest in these discussions have been the conversations about
baptism
and
ministry.’9
These
important specific
studies are all
part
of a confluence of significant reflection, among Christians,
as to what is a necessary basis for
confessing
the common biblical faith
together. Indeed,
it is this study
that has enabled the
Evangelical community
to realize that the Orthodox, Protestant,
Roman Catholic and
Anglican churches,
in the Faith and Order
movement, may very
well be more serious in their confession of the Christian faith than the
partial
visions of
Christianity devised in the
variety
of
Evangelical
movements. While some Pentecostals will resist
using
the Nicene Creed as a
summary
of the biblical
faith, many
will
recognize
in the World Council
study, Confessing
the One
Faith,
the core of the doctrine
they
share in their response
to the
experience
of the
Holy Spirit.”
And Whence the Future?
This
article,
and the others in this
issue,
demonstrate the
major
and pioneering
contributions of Pentecostal thinkers to the Christian
project in our time.
Certainly,
the
maturing
of the Pentecostal churches
through their
relationship
with other
Christians,
in’ the
Evangelical movement, with Charismatic Catholics and
Protestants, among
other
theological scholars and in the Conciliar
movement,
is
only
a
beginning. Pentecostalism will be
enriched,
as will other
Christians, only
if the Pentecostal churches are faithful to their
Spirit-filled fervor,
the spirituality
of their
unique traditions,
the
theological
truth of the
Gospel as
they
see
it,
the zeal for
evangelism
that characterizes their movement,
and the
intensity
of love for other Christians that Christ presses
on us.
However,
the
question
arises now what are the next steps?
As Walter
Hollenweger
has noted the Pentecostal churches and the Charismatic movement are “not
just
a subdivision of Evangelicalism `on fire.’
[They are] inherently
an ecumenical movement.” One of the
19Merle D. Strege, ed., Baptism and Church: A Believers’ Church Vision (Grand Rapids,
MI: Sagamore Books, 1986); and, David B. Eller, Servants of the Word: i.’v/inistry
in the Believers’ Church (Elgin, IL: Brethren Press,
One
1990).
20 Faith and Order Commission, Confessing Faith
(Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1991). Cf
World Evangelical Fellowship, “An Evangelical Response to Confessing
the One Faith,” Theological News 23 (July-September 1990): 8.
10
199
reasons that he adduces for this constriction of vision is that “Pentecostalism has not
yet
found a mode of
cooperation
and communication that
effectively expresses
its
global
coherence and pluralism.” Therefore,
he recommends
global
communication “as one of the main tasks
facing
researchers of Pentecostal
phenomena.
The problem
is how to articulate a theology that
expresses
at once
unity
and diversity
in a
way
which
goes beyond
Western bureaucratic organizational
models and
conceptual patterns
of thought. ,,21
He
goes
on to
suggest, quite concretely,
an
agenda
for intra-Pentecostal and Charismatic
exploration:
From a Pentecostal perspective, it is surely time to organize a transnational
inter-Pentecostal ecumenical debate to discuss, for example, the
issues:
following
the status of ancestors, the of visions and dreams
in
theological place
cognitive theological processes, theory and praxis of oral theology on a
level, and exorcism in the West and in the Third World. Also
discussed should be the
sophisticated
relationship
between alternative medical and .
spiritual healing,
the church as a therapeutic and
and the
liberating community,
consequences of the latter for evangelism.’2
Needless to
say,
this internal
dialogue among
Pentecostal and Charismatic
Christians, by
the
very
nature of the
movement,
will be enriched
by
its wider
engagement
with Christians
facing
the same issues within their own
processes
of inculturation.
I would
like,
as an outsider to the
movement,
to make some bold suggestions
for us
together
as Christians to
.consider, open
to the discernment of the
Holy Spirit leading
us forward in the
Gospel way. Relations
among
Pentecostals and
Evangelicals
have
developed fruitfully
because of
strong leadership.
Could Harold
Ockenga, founding
President of the National Association of
Evangelicals (NAE) in
1942,
have
realized,
when he reached out to the Assemblies of God and other
Pentecostals,
that
someday
this
group
would be the
largest member church of his
fledgling
association? Would the
early
founders of the NAE have as
easily
and
enthusiastically
called a Pentecostal educator,
as Don
Argue
has been
called,
into the
presidency
of that Association? Are not the Pentecostals
ripe
for
taking
risks with others with whom
they
share the name of
Christian,
as
they
have with Evangelicals
in the 1940s?
While it is clear that the Pentecostal witness in the World and National Councils has been
respected
and has transformed the programs
of these
communities,
it is
hardly likely, given
the
history, that
many
Pentecostals in the United States will find a
place
in these councils.
However,
is it not time for some official observer status to be
21 Walter J.
Hollenweger, “The
Pentecostal Elites and the Pentecostal Poor: A Missed Dialogue?,” in Charismatic
Christianity as a
Global Culture, ed. Karla Poewe (Columbia, SC: University of Carolina Press, 1994), 205.
22 Hollenweger, 206-207.
“The Pentecostal Elites and the Pentecostal Poor: A Missed Dialogue?,”
11
200
authorized-not
only permitted-by
Pentecostal church
leadership?
Is it not time for the
leadership
of the various Pentecostal denominations to
give
the
backing
to those successful witnesses to Pentecostal convictions,
who have
brought
their
testimony
to the Faith and Order movement? Cannot more Pentecostal
churches, now, publicly authorize their
representatives
to the international Roman Catholic/Pentecostal dialogue?
These are not decisions to be taken
lightly.
In some Pentecostal churches
they
would
require
a constitutional
change.
On the other
hand,
is the
maturity
and effectiveness of the
theological leadership
both within and in witness
beyond
the Pentecostal churches to be considered more mature and more authentic than the
leadership
of the church itself?
In the United
States,
in particular, where the Roman Catholic Church and the Pentecostals have
deep spiritual
roots
together
in many areas of church life and witness, is it not time that there be a more formal conversation? Will the new Pentecostal and Charismatic
Fellowship
of North America be a vehicle
through
which the
leadership
of its member churches could authorize such a conversation without themselves necessarily having
to take
up
the
responsibility?
Father Peter Hocken of the
Society
for Pentecostal Studies
suggests
that
personal relationships among Evangelicals
and Roman Catholics take
priority
over institutional and
theological
ones.23 However, it seems
important,
for all of our
people,
to show some
leadership
from the side of both of these traditions in
witnessing
to the reconciliation that
is
so central to the message
of Paul and the
prayer
of Christ? Do not Roman Catholic and Pentecostal leaders do well to see that their
people
are
given positive instruction about one
another,
and the formation
necessary
for Christian love and collaboration to enrich our lives
together?
If the Pentecostal
churches,
and even the new
Fellowship among them are so vulnerable that such a direct
dialogue
is impossible, would there not be some other vehicle for such an encounter? Would the theological
commission of the National Association of
Evangelicals
be a
place
where the Pentecostals and other churches could be in formal dialogue
with the US Catholic Church? Has not the time come for Evangelicals
to be
proactive
and see
themselves, through
the
NAE,
as a voice for Christian reconciliation in this land?
There are
certainly
other vehicles for
Evangelical
and Pentecostal collaboration and
dialogue
with Roman
Catholics,
like the Institute for the
Study
of American
Evangelicalism
at
Wheaton,
the
Society
for Pentecostal
Studies,
or the Faith and Order work of National and World Councils.
However,
is it not time to seek the investment of the leadership
of both traditions in enhancing the
quality
of this
relationship in Christ?
Certainly
there is enough history and common Christian faith
‘ Peter
Hocken,
“Ecumenical
Dialogue:
The
Importance
of
Dialogue
with Evangelicals
and Pentecostals,” One in Christ 30 ( 1994): 10?4.
12
201
to build on. We can
only pray
that the Lord of the Church will teach us a
way
to discern what it is that he demands of us in service to his ministry
of reconciliation.
We are at a moment in
history
when Christians are
impelled by
the Holy Spirit
to find their common
ground
in Christ for the
sake of the Gospel
and its service to the salvation of the human
community.
This rapprochement
will entail a
dialogue
of
conversion,
an
opening
of minds and hearts to what the
Holy Spirit
is
doing
in our midst. It will also entail the
healing
of the alienation we have inherited from the
past. As
Pope
John Paul has
encouraged
us:
Christians cannot underestimate the burden of
inherited from the
long-standing misgivings
past and of mutual misunderstandings
and prejudices. Complacency,
indifference and insufficient knowledge of one another often make this situation worse. Consequently, the commitment to ecumenism must be based
upon
the conversion of hearts and upon
prayer,
which will also lead to the
necessary purification of past memories. With the grace of the Holy Spirit, the Lord’s disciples, inspired by love, by the
truth
power of the and
by a sincere desire for mutual forgiveness and reconciliation, are called to re-examine
together their painful past and the hurt which that past regrettably
continues to provoke even today. All
invited by the ever fresh power of the Gospel to
together, they are
acknowledge with sincere and total objectivity the mistakes made and the contingent factors at work at the origins of their deplorable divisions. What is needed is a
a
calm, clear sighted
and truthful vision of things, vision enlivened by divine and
mercy
capable of freeing people’s
minds and of
inspiring
in
everyone a renewed willingness, precisely with a view to the
Gospel to the men and women of
every people and
nation. 24
proclaiming
24 John Paul, “Ut Unum Sint: On Commitment to Ecumenism” Origins 25 (8 June 1995): 49-72, #2.
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