Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement

Global Pentecostalism Global Pentecostalism The New Face of Christian Social Engagement Donald E. Miller Tetsunao Yam...

Author: Donald E. Miller | Tetsunao Yamamori

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Global Pentecostalism

Global Pentecostalism The New Face of Christian Social Engagement Donald E. Miller Tetsunao Yamamori

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley

Los Angeles

London

University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2007 by The Regents of the University of California DVD © 2007 by Donald E. Miller Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Miller, Donald E. (Donald Earl), 1946–. Global Pentecostalism : the new face of Christian social engagement / Donald E. Miller, Tetsunao Yamamori. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn: 978-0-520-25193-9 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn: 978-0-520-25194-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Pentecostalism. I. Yamamori, Tetsunao, 1937–. II. Title. br1644.m55 2007 270.8'3—dc22 2007009539 Manufactured in the United States of America 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on New Leaf EcoBook 50, a 100% recycled Wber of which 50% is de-inked post-consumer waste, processed chlorine-free. EcoBook 50 is acid-free and meets the minimum requirements of ansi /astm d 5634–01 (Permanence of Paper).

To Roberta and Howard

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. Global Pentecostalism An Emergent Force within World Christianity 15 2. Progressive Pentecostals Ministries, Beliefs, and Motivations 39 3. Building a New Generation Programs Serving Children and Youth 68 4. Practicing the Faith Transforming Individuals and Society 99

5. Encounters with the Holy Meeting God in Worship and Prayer 129 6. Born in the Image of God Democracy and Upward Social Mobility 160 7. Organizing the Saints Giving the Ministry to the People 184 8. The Future of Progressive Pentecostalism 211

Appendix: List of Interviews 225 Notes 235 Contents of DVD 245 Index 249

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In the appendix we have listed several hundred people who generously agreed to be interviewed for this project, and without their participation this book could not have been written. In addition, there are numerous other individuals who served as translators, drivers, and logistics coordinators. In particular, we wish to thank staV from Food for the Hungry, who helped to facilitate the research of their president, Tetsunao Yamamori. We are also grateful to the staV of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture, who coped with the frequent absence of their executive director, Donald Miller, while he was traveling around the world for a four-year period. The authors are also grateful to our spouses, Judy Yamamori and Lorna Miller, for their support of this project and other research activities that have taken us away from home. Arpi Miller, currently a graduate student in sociology at UCLA, is responsible for all of the coding of the interview transcripts and Weld notes from the project. The authors are indebted to Howard and Roberta Ahmanson for their generous support of this project, and we also wish to acknowledge the creative ideas of Steve Ferguson, who is a program oYcer for Fieldstead Company. Other individuals who played an important role in suggesting case studies and providing logistical support include Tokunboh Adeyemo, Sossie Amiralian, Andrew Bajenski, Kim-Kwong Chan, Scarlet Chan, Howard ix

x / Acknowledgments

Foltz, Roger Hedlund, Randall Hoag, Amy McClain, Kim Mitchell, Bryant L. Myers, C. Rene Padilla, Caleb Premamandam Rayapati, Xiomara Suarez, Thuan-seng Tan, Debbie S. Toribio, Ted Vail, and C. Peter Wagner. We also wish to thank Chris Smith and Doug Petersen for their careful reading of the manuscript and helpful suggestions. Finally, Dan Leopard undertook the heroic task of editing all of the videotapes of worship services, interviews, and social ministries that were taken during the project. We invite you to view the DVD that accompanies this book, which includes video clips from many of the countries where we did our research.

Introduction

By now it is old news that Pentecostalism is growing exponentially, especially in the Southern Hemisphere.1 However, there is considerable confusion over the use of the term. Journalists and even scholars often refer to Pentecostalism as if it were one phenomenon, whereas in reality it is a complex social movement with many diVerent strains.2 For example, there are the classical Pentecostal denominations, such as the Assemblies of God and Foursquare Gospel Church, and then there is a plethora of indigenous and independent Pentecostal churches. Some of these churches emphasize the Prosperity Gospel of health and wealth, while others focus on evangelism, healing, and ecstatic worship. This book distinguishes between these several competing expressions of Pentecostalism but focuses speciWcally on an emergent element of the movement: namely, Pentecostal churches that have active social ministries. We have struggled with what to call this movement within Pentecostalism. Theologians use labels such as the “integral gospel,” or “holistic Christianity,” to refer to churches that seek a balance between evangelism and 1

2 / Introduction

social ministry.3 We have Wnally decided, however, to create a new term to deWne this movement, which is Progressive Pentecostalism. By employing the adjective progressive, we do not mean to link Pentecostalism to any particular political movement, such as the Progressive Era in America (1890–1920). Rather, we wish to acknowledge by this term that Pentecostalism has often been otherworldly, emphasizing personal salvation to the exclusion of any attempt to transform social reality, whereas the movement we are describing continues to aYrm the apocalyptic return of Christ but also believes that Christians are called to be good neighbors, addressing the social needs of people in their community. For example, Progressive Pentecostals are confronting the AIDS pandemic in Africa, they are educating impoverished children around the world, and they are establishing health clinics and initiating programs for street children. Also included in this book are examples of people and churches that are part of the charismatic movement, as well as Christians who claim to be Spirit-led but may not identify themselves as Pentecostal. We contemplated broadening our label to a more generic term such as Spirit-inspiredChristians, but this seemed too general in scope. Terms have little meaning if they do not involve exclusions of some sort. Consequently, here are limitations to our deWnition of Progressive Pentecostals. We intentionally exclude Pentecostal and charismatic Christians who have aligned themselves with right-wing repressive governments. We also exclude churches from our deWnition of Progressive Pentecostalism that focus exclusively on faith healing or “health and wealth” without connecting their Christian faith to socially beneWcial programs for their community. And, Wnally, we exclude Pentecostal churches that emphasize conversion as their only mission to the community. But these exclusions state the deWnition negatively. Viewed positively, we deWne Progressive Pentecostals as Christians who claim to be inspired by the Holy Spirit and the life of Jesus and seek to holistically address the spiritual, physical, and social needs of people in their community. Typically they are distinguished by their warm and expressive worship, their focus on lay-oriented ministry, their compassionate service to others, and their attention, both as individuals and as a wor-

Introduction / 3

shiping community, to what they perceive to be the leading of the Holy Spirit. While it is true that there have always been Pentecostals who have sought this type of holistic understanding of their faith, we believe that this is a movement that is gaining momentum—especially within the last decade or so. In part because of the upward mobility of some elements of the Pentecostal movement, churches increasingly have the means and connections to establish broad-based social programs—including partnerships with nongovernmental organizations—whereas previous generations of Pentecostals tended be more sectarian, conWning their social welfare eVorts to members of their own community. There may also be a ripple eVect in which Pentecostals are being inXuenced by Evangelicals who are involved in compassionate social service.4 After all, the membrane separating these movements is relatively thin, and many well-educated Pentecostals read widely and voraciously and often mix at conferences and consultations; so it is not surprising that holistic theology is taking hold in both Evangelical and Pentecostal communities simultaneously. One issue that we had to confront in writing this book is the theological challenge of how to describe the constant references by Pentecostals to God, the Holy Spirit, and the divinity of Jesus. Our interviewees view themselves as nothing more than the instruments of God, responding to the leading of the Holy Spirit as they seek to understand the mandates contained in the Bible. Finally, we decided that it would be reductive if we did not capitalize the word Spirit. Who are we to attribute divinity or humanity to the claims of people? Hence, we have taken what sociologists sometimes refer to as a phenomenological approach to the study of religious movements. We have attempted to understand the subjective experience of the people we interviewed and of the collective behavior that we observed. For Pentecostals, the Spirit is present in their worship, their prayer life, and their everyday experience. In their view, ecstatic worship is not the product of the “collective eVervescence” of group ritual; prophecy and speaking in tongues are not self-induced projections; people are not healed as a result of the placebo eVect.

4 / Introduction

In the last chapter we let down our sociological guard and refer to the “S” factor, which is an acknowledgment that there may be “something more” than humanly generated activity in Pentecostalism. Perhaps Pentecostals connect, on occasion, with a reality that is not observable. Perhaps social transformation is not solely explainable by human factors. We are not claiming that there is “something more,” which would turn this into a theological treatise; rather, we are simply not excluding this possibility a priori. But please don’t mistake us for true believers who went native during our several years of research. Rather, we are only trying not to violate the integrity of the research process by excluding certain possibilities connected with a nonphysical realm of reality. We do have a confession to make, however, and that is our genuine appreciation for some of the heroic acts of compassionate service that we witnessed. It is an understatement to say that the world is a very troubled place—Wlled with war, genocide, and indescribable poverty—and it warms our hearts to know that people are giving their lives to others, especially those working in slums, those confronting the scourge of AIDS, and those who are giving children a genuine head start in life. Whatever it is that motivates individuals involved in serving such people, the product is to be applauded. In this regard, we are philosophical pragmatists, with William James being a guiding light in much that we do.5 Given the moribund status of the Social Gospel movement and the declining inXuence of Liberation Theology, there is a breach to be Wlled, and our thesis is that this vacuum might potentially be occupied, at least in part, by Progressive Pentecostals. Progressive Pentecostalism, however, is very diVerent from either the Social Gospel or Liberation Theology. With a few exceptions, it is relatively nonpolitical. Progressive Pentecostals are not trying to reform social structures or challenge government policies so much as they are attempting to build from the ground up an alternative social reality. Marxist commentators will see this as hopelessly naive because Progressive Pentecostals in most cases actually embrace capitalism and attempt to work within the system. In our opinion, however, Pentecostals are actually doing some-

Introduction / 5

thing fairly subversive. They are teaching their members that they are made in the image of God; that all people have dignity and are equal in God’s sight; and that therefore they have rights—whether they are poor, women, or children. These values are fundamental to the creation of a democratic government, and therefore, at the very least Pentecostalism is preparing good citizens who may exercise their vote in ways that reXect egalitarian values. And who knows, perhaps in time they will do more than this. Maybe they will embrace the emphasis on social justice professed by the Hebrew prophets. For now, however, they are typically trying to build the Kingdom of God one person at a time. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The agenda for this book was formulated in an unlikely setting—a restaurant in the Philippines. We had just Wnished an international consultation focused on a volume that one of the coauthors of this book, Tetsunao Yamamori, edited on the church’s response to urban poverty in the developing world.6 As the evening evolved, the conversation turned to a book that Don Miller had recently written on fast-growing nonmainline churches in the United States.7 As good fortune would have it, we were joined at the table by a program oYcer from an innovative foundation.8 It was a marriage made in heaven. Nearly in unison we asked, “Why not study growing churches in the developing world that are involved in signiWcant social ministry?” This project could combine Yamamori’s extensive background as president of Food for the Hungry, an international nongovernmental organization working in dozens of countries around the world, with Miller’s interest in the sociology of religion and his role as director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California. Within a few weeks, four hundred letters had been sent to mission experts, denominational executives, and other informed people asking for nominations of churches to study. Four criteria were listed in the letter to guide selection: congregations to be researched should (1) be fast-growing,

6 / Introduction

(2) be located in the developing world, (3) have active social programs addressing needs in their communities, and (4) be indigenous movements that were self-supporting and not dependent on outside contributions. To our astonishment, nearly 85 percent of the churches that were nominated were Pentecostal or charismatic. In retrospect, this is not surprising. In fact, the thesis of this book is that some of the most innovative social programs in the world are being initiated by fast-growing Pentecostal churches. But at the time, we were captives of our own theological worldviews—Yamamori as a noncharismatic Evangelical and Miller as a liberal Episcopalian of long standing. Our myopia, however, was soon to be shattered. Over the next four years we traveled on a research odyssey that took us to twenty diVerent countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and eastern Europe. Balancing our regular job obligations, we squeezed out two months each spring to travel. During this period each year we visited three or four countries and focused for a week to ten days in each location studying one or more churches. Typically, all arrangements were made in advance by Yamamori’s staV at Food for the Hungry, which included some seventeen hundred employees around the world. Within a few hours after stepping oV the plane, we were interviewing the senior pastor of the designated congregation. The rest of our time in each location was spent meeting with associated clergy, leaders of social programs, and congregation members. Interspersed with these interviews were visits to church-related medical clinics, housing projects for orphans, AIDS education classes, nursery schools, and other programs. We also booked hundreds of hours of worship services, cell group meetings, and other church activities. When we were not interviewing or visiting a project, we were writing up Weld notes. Almost all of the more than 300 interviews were tape-recorded and then transcribed. We also took hundreds of photographs and shot about 70 hours of videotape. By any measure, it was an ambitious undertaking. In spite of the broad character of our research, there were limits to what we tried to accomplish, and a few disclaimers are important from the outset. First, we studied a particular slice of Pentecostalism: namely, churches

Introduction / 7

that Wt our criteria of exhibiting growth, having active social programs, and being self-supporting. With regard to the criterion that churches must be located in the developing world, we fudged a bit, because neither Singapore nor Hong Kong conforms to this deWnition. Excluded from our research were churches in Europe, Australia, the United States, and Canada. Second, this is not a historical overview of Pentecostalism. A number of books with this focus have been published, and by deWnition historical research requires extensive archival research and fairly speciWc parameters.9 In contrast, we chose to paint a broad picture of Progressive Pentecostalism that is somewhat journalistic in character, although backed by a measure of disciplined objectivity and theoretical nuance. And, third, we realized that the moment we left a church or organization our statistics on congregation size and range of programs would be out of date. Rather than try to update these Wgures immediately prior to publication, we settled on the rationalization that the argument of this book does not rest on speciWc numbers. Presumably most of the churches we studied continue to grow and their programming has become more sophisticated although no doubt a few took a nosedive. Hence, our examples and case studies should be viewed as a “slice in time,” with that time period being the Wrst few years of the twenty-Wrst century. A SNAPSHOT OF RESEARCH SITES

Before launching into a description of our Wndings, we want to give some of the Xavor of our research odyssey by describing a few of the churches and programs that we visited. We began our investigations in East Africa. In connection with Kampala Pentecostal Church in Uganda, we visited an exemplary project addressing the AIDS pandemic and attended a concert put on by the youth of the church, which immediately provoked us to buy a video camera—photos simply did not capture the dynamic worship and energy of what we observed. In nearby Kenya we spent time at Nairobi Pentecostal Church and witnessed the proliferation of this church into various satellite campuses. We enjoyed multiple conversations with the

8 / Introduction

pastors and lay leaders at Nairobi Chapel, which properly speaking is not a Pentecostal church but, on the other hand, is a vibrant, Spirit-Wlled congregation involved in important social ministries to the community. We visited several other countries in Africa. In Egypt we were impressed with the work of “Mama Maggie” and her staV and volunteers at Stephen’s Children in the slums of Cairo. At the opposite end of the continent, we traveled extensively with Colleen Walters, who has established a network of nursery schools in the townships of Johannesburg, South Africa, as a ministry of her Assemblies of God Church. And in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, we encountered Florence Muindi, a medical doctor who has created an outstanding program of “health evangelists” who were implementing a public health program in their desperately poor community. In Asia we visited a number of diVerent congregations, located in Thailand, the Philippines, India, China, and Singapore, as well as others in Hong Kong and Macao. Each was radically diVerent. For example, in Singapore we went to City Harvest Church, which seats 4,000 people in an extraordinarily high-tech auditorium—in fact, it may not have a rival in the history of Christendom. This church of 15,000 youths and young adults—where the average age was 26—has an extensive arts program, a world-class tutoring program, and a full-blown program of social ministries. Most of our time in Singapore, however, was spent with church leaders who were among the Wrst to use cell groups as a way to pastor large numbers of people. Many of these pastors are associated with Love Singapore, a ministry that serves people with “no strings attached” (i.e., receiving services from the church does not carry religious obligations)— a requirement of the government as it seeks to maintain a balanced religious ecology. In the Philippines we concentrated on the Jesus Is Lord movement. While it has large outdoor gatherings with thousands of church members, we focused on small churches within the slums that average several hundred people. Among these congregations we Wrst heard testimonies regarding converts’ upward social mobility. We also went to the mass

Introduction / 9

meeting of the charismatic branch of the Roman Catholic Church, El Shaddai, which attracts hundreds of thousands of people, and we visited its medical clinic and interviewed staV involved with other social outreach programs. In India we went to three diVerent areas: Chennai (Madras) in the south, Hyderabad in the center, and Calcutta in the north. In each location we interviewed representatives of large Pentecostal churches, and in several places we also encountered vital charismatic movements of Catholics, including one huge retreat center. One of our most intriguing experiences, however, was in a rural area outside of Hyderabad, where we studied a network of Wfty small churches prospering in a region that is overwhelmingly Hindu. In Calcutta we met a heroic woman and her husband who had started a school for the children of prostitutes, along with a boarding school that caters to abandoned children. In Thailand, we encountered the scourge of prostitution in its rawest forms. One church we studied had set up a home for girls who are at high risk for being sold into sexual slavery by their parents. We also met a remarkable woman who had established a home for abandoned babies whose mothers had the AIDS virus. We also witnessed one of the most fervent prayer meetings of our travels, where those in attendance—mostly young adults—drew other members, one by one, into the middle of a circle and called on God for healing, deliverance from demons, resolution of family problems, and other needs. In Hong Kong we met Jackie Pullinger, who has established an extensive network of drug treatment programs. We interviewed more than a dozen recovering addicts, and they all had the same story to tell about receiving the Holy Spirit on their road to recovery from addiction. There, we also visited an exemplary vocational school in which mentally handicapped people were employed, and we went to a program for the elderly that was run by a local Pentecostal church. One of our most theoretically interesting encounters was with a member of the World Council of Churches who took us to visit several churches on the Chinese mainland, a day’s journey from Hong Kong.

10 / Introduction

In Latin America, we had equally interesting experiences. In Guatemala we attended a Mayan Pentecostal Church in which the entire sermon reinforced the idea that indigenous people have political rights equal to those of the rest of the population. In Caracas, Venezuela, we went to Las Acacias Church, which has one of the most extensive networks of social ministries that we encountered in all of our travels. In Chile we met with Pentecostal church members who had supported a successful strike by mine workers. In Argentina we studied a church whose youth are extensively involved in volunteer social programs, including a ministry to people hospitalized with schizophrenia and other mental disorders. And in Brazil we visited a number of church-based programs addressing poverty, including a Wrst-class medical clinic. We went to Poland and Armenia in an eVort to expose ourselves to two countries that had been under communist domination. The largest Protestant congregation in Armenia is the Word of Life Church, composed primarily of young adults. They are a visionary group, starting churches in Turkey and Georgia, and linked to Pentecostal churches throughout Russia. In Poland we interviewed clergy in a number of Pentecostal churches. One of the most poignant interviews of our travels was with an attractive young woman who had hit absolute bottom as a drug addict and prostitute, and then found her way back to wholeness through her encounter with a group of Pentecostal Christians. The foregoing sketch provides a thumbnail of the hundreds of programs, people, and churches that we visited in four years of research. Lest it seem that we were simply running from one location to another, the typical pattern was to spend a week to ten days in each place, exposing ourselves to every activity occurring during this time period, and to conduct extensive interviews with clergy and lay leaders. Frankly, we were surprised how much we could learn in a relatively short time. To doublecheck our perceptions, we took a whirlwind trip during the fourth year of our research and revisited many of the churches we had previously studied in order to get an idea of how they had changed. Throughout our research process, many of our interviews were some-

Introduction / 11

what formal, occurring in a quiet location with a tape recorder or video camera. But we also did a number of informal interviews over meals or while traveling by car to a destination. While a majority of these interviews were planned, we also had numerous spontaneous conversations with people—sometimes alone and sometimes in groups. Our interviewees were generous in providing us with literature on their programs, audioand videotapes of worship services, organizational charts, and copies of their various publications. While some of our experiences were rather mundane—interviewing people in oYce settings, at hotel restaurants, and the like—there were also poignant and memorable times during these four years. One night we visited a cell group in a very poor barrio high above the downtown district of Caracas. This group of young people was planning to stay the night, praying and singing. About 1 a.m. we decided to head back to our hotel, only to discover that the car that had transported us up the steep streets of this notoriously dangerous barrio had mechanical problems. After some deliberation, we decided to brave it and coast the car downhill, and, miraculously, after several miles the car rolled to a stop in front of a dilapidated taxi, which promptly took us to our hotel. In Johannesburg, we were not as lucky. While changing money, someone lifted our video camera from the trolley holding our luggage. In retrospect, however, this was a positive occurrence, because it prompted us to buy a semiprofessional camera that took much better footage. In Madras, India, we had a taxi driver who refused to look right or left and took us on a harrowing ride that included knocking a young couple oV their motor scooter. In Bangkok the traYc was so bad that we ended up abandoning our taxi and walking to our appointment. These were minor inconveniences, however, compared to the plight of many of the people connected with the churches we studied. Particularly in some parts of Asia and Africa, it is diYcult to describe the daily grind of poverty that people confront. We were privileged to visit believers in some of the shacks that they call home. In these settings we asked about the role of the church in addressing their needs; we visited children in tin school

12 / Introduction

buildings that did little more than shade them from the sun; and we talked to patients in medical clinics that were remarkable for their cleanliness, but otherwise abysmal in terms of amenities. Such poverty sheds a very diVerent light on the role of the church in countries where there are few institutions that provide social services. In retrospect, it is no wonder that Pentecostal churches are innovative in the area of holistic ministry: the Christian faith is put to the test in ways that do not occur with the same frequency in so-called First World countries. Every place we went we asked about the current status of two movements: the missionary-founded churches with ties to the United States and Europe and Liberation Theology. Almost without fail, both movements were seen as declining, as was the Roman Catholic Church—if attendance at Mass is the criterion for commitment. The root problem, said one commentator, is that while Liberation Theology opted for the poor, the poor opted for Pentecostalism. And missionary movements that were not fully indigenous were typically struggling to advance—especially when compared to the cutting-edge ministries of many of the Pentecostal churches that we visited. RESEARCH ASSUMPTIONS

In concluding this introduction, it is appropriate to state some assumptions that guided us from the beginning of our research project. The Wrst is that human beings are meaning-seeking creatures. Religion, in our view, is the attempt to Wnd purpose and personal signiWcance of an ultimate sort. For some individuals, this pursuit becomes the passion of their lives; for others, it is a routine and rather mundane search in which they embrace commonly held standards and mores, including socially deviant commitments associated with a charismatic leader. Another assumption we brought to this project is that religion is not a purely cognitive act. While religion may involve a complex belief system, beliefs are typically associated with a set of practices or rituals that are enacted within a community of likeminded individuals. Therefore, religion is at least as much about commu-

Introduction / 13

nity as it is about the aYrmation of theological propositions. And, furthermore, it often engages the body as much as it does the mind. We embrace the view of Rudolf Otto, that religion sometimes involves encounters with the mysterium tremendum.10 True religion is irreducible. It is not simply a palliative to help us cope with life. Functionally, religion sometimes has a narcotic eVect, dulling the pain of life, as Freud, Marx, and others have argued so articulately. But functional explanations do not account for the whole of religion, however valuable these theories may be in helping us to understand the role religion plays in human life. On occasion, and in some instances, the possibility exists that we are encountering something outside of ourselves. This “something more” is what Christians call God and what Pentecostals identify and interpret as being the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives. While we as authors deWne ourselves as standing within the Christian tradition, this book is not the place to confess our personal faith. Hence, we do not make an argument in these pages regarding the reality of the Holy Spirit, the truth of Christianity, or the validity of supernatural events. Instead, we follow William James in seeking to understand the pragmatic consequence of the practices and beliefs of people who embrace Pentecostal expressions of Christianity.11 William James took religious experience seriously, and we follow in his footsteps, avoiding reductive explanations of supernaturally oriented events. James, for example, did not reduce religious experience to biological or psychological explanations, nor did he argue that our religious experience does not have physiological correlates in the chemistry or electrical activity of the brain. Religious experiences, including mystical encounters associated with visions, trance states, and dreams, may be personally transformative, but they also have their material and physiological basis. Our commitment throughout this research has been to avoid the trap of cynicism, while at the same time maintaining our identity as researchers, setting aside metaphysical assumptions so that we can sympathetically attempt to describe what we have observed. Admittedly, at times our worldview was stretched. It is not every day that one interviews a girl who

14 / Introduction

claims, along with her Hindu neighbors, that she was raised from the dead. Nor is one of us, a liberal Episcopalian, regularly knocked oV his feet by people slain in the spirit falling around him—as occurred in Johannesburg, South Africa. And what is a rationally minded Japanese American to do when people line up before him to be healed in a rural church in India? WATCHING THE DVD

In the back of this book is a DVD that can be played on your computer or DVD player. It contains a number of video clips from our four years of research and is divided into three areas—Worship, Social Ministries, and Interviews—with submenus under each of these three broad categories. In the section on Worship we have selected clips from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and we include images of worship that we observed in each of these geographical areas. The Social Ministries clips show some programs related to children and youth, drugs and addiction, and street children and poverty. As with the clips illustrating worship, in this section we have selected examples from diVerent countries. The Interview section includes clips of clergy describing their philosophy of church planting and growth as well as their theology of social ministry. In addition, we have several statements by people related to religious experience and healing. You may Wnd it useful to watch the DVD before reading further in this book because then you will have visual images of some of the people, places, and experiences that we describe in subsequent chapters. Pentecostalism is not simply a set of beliefs; it is an experience. Hence, it is useful to hear the sound of worship, see Wrsthand the poverty in which Pentecostal churches are often crafting social ministry, and listen to the testimonies of people who claim to be Wlled by the Holy Spirit. All of the camera work was done by Donald Miller, and the video editing and DVD authoring are the heroic work of Dan Leopard. The contents of the DVD appear toward the end of this book (p. 245). Note: the video footage included on the DVD was shot over several years using a variety of cameras. As a consequence, image quality varies from clip to clip.

chapter one

Global Pentecostalism An Emergent Force within World Christianity

When we arrived at 10 a.m., already tens of thousands of people were lining one of the main boulevards of São Paulo, Brazil. Everyone had on a T-shirt or headband bearing a Jesus logo, church identity, or scripture verse. Throughout the crowd were small clusters of youth dancing to Christian rock music or chanting Jesus slogans. The gathering was multiethnic and included numerous families with children as well as some senior citizens. The energy in the air was palpable. It had the feeling of Brazil’s famous Carnival festivals, except people were keeping their libidinal forces in check. The crowd was orderly but ready to start their “March for Jesus.” The previous year, a million and a half people had shown up for this annual gathering of São Paulo’s Pentecostal and Evangelical communities. This year the organizers were hoping for 2 million.1 It was a collective show of Protestantism’s growing presence in this nominally Catholic country. For one day, churches that otherwise competed for clients in São Paulo’s vibrant religious marketplace put their diVerences aside and yielded to the leadership of Renascer em Cristo, a fast-growing NeoPentecostal movement in Brazil. The previous Sunday we had attended worship in the former theater 15

16 / Global Pentecostalism

that Renascer Church now occupies. Both Xoors were packed with upwards of Wve thousand people, and this was only one of multiple worship services that Sunday. On Monday night we returned for the weekly meeting of businessmen and -women. Maybe eight hundred people were present; some were dressed in suits, having come directly from work. Other weeknight meetings focused on healing, deliverance from demonic forces, and youth- and family-oriented gatherings. And throughout the week hundreds of smaller groups met in members’ homes. Most worship services started the same way at Renascer, with thirty minutes of worship music led by a Wrst-class band. Sunday mornings also featured youth choirs, dancing cheerleaders, a rock star that performed during the oVering, and a forty-Wve-minute sermon, followed by another oVering, and then a revved-up band that had people dancing in the aisles as they left the theater. Mind, body, soul, and wallet were all united in this celebration of the Christian faith.2 One evening we skipped the worship service and joined a dozen people who were going to the highway underpasses and skid row area of São Paulo to pass out soup, blankets, and bottles of clean water. There was no preaching, but instead simple mingling with people who were lonely, cold, and hungry. When we interviewed church leaders, they gave us a list of other social ministries of the church. The courts send children to Renascer, which provides them with housing, medical and dental care, psychological counseling, education, and spiritual direction. Renascer also has a home for teenagers, providing similar services. Trained teams go to the jails, providing gynecological and breast examinations for incarcerated women and medical and psychological assistance for men. Church members work with prisoners and their families to prepare them for reentering society and in the favelas (slums) with children and their families. Other programs minister to drug addicts and handicapped people. But back to the parade! Stretching for block upon block were children, teenagers, and adults starting to move along the route. Interspersed between them were dozens of large semitrucks towing trailers that sported live bands with enough amperage in their speakers to curl your hair.

An Emergent Force within World Christianity / 17

Mingling among the crowd were vendors selling hot dogs, kebabs, pizza, and soft drinks. One could also purchase a hat emblazoned with “Jesus” in script or a T-shirt with a favorite Bible quotation. Some people carried Xags announcing their church community. Banners draped on sound trucks promoted an antidrug slogan. These folks did not need drugs to make them ecstatic; they had Jesus and they were proud of it. Finally the parade route ended, and people spilled out into a large park where Christian pop singers performed until the early evening hours. The event culminated in a grand display of Wreworks. THE EMERGENCE OF PENTECOSTALISM

Since its inception in the Wrst century, Christianity has been evolving as a social institution, changing its organizational shape, redeWning its mission, and creating new expressions of worship.3 Perhaps the rate of change is no greater in the twenty-Wrst century than at other periods, but the demographics of Christendom are being turned upside down—quite literally, because the vitality of Christianity is moving from the Northern Hemisphere to south of the equator.4 In addition, the major institutions of Christianity are being reshaped. Catholicism is losing membership to Protestantism across Latin America.5 Mainline denominations are in decline, especially in western Europe.6 Independent churches are challenging establishment religion.7 And ecstatic, vibrant worship is replacing routinized liturgical forms. The major engine driving this transformation is Pentecostalism, an expression of Christianity that dates back to the Wrst century, when the Holy Spirit is reported to have visited a small band of Jesus’ followers who spoke in “other tongues” and subsequently healed the sick, prophesied, and established a network of churches throughout Asia Minor (see Acts 2). As Christianity became established as a national religion under Constantine, and then was organized into a hierarchical structure in subsequent centuries, the ecstatic experience of these early Christians became domesticated, even though sectarian outbreaks and monastic movements chan-


neled the religious zeal of individuals who were not content to work within the institutional forms of oYcial Christendom.8 Modern-day Pentecostalism, however, dates to January 1, 1901, when students at Bethel Bible School in Topeka, Kansas, spoke in tongues under the tutelage of Charles F. Parham.9 A few years later, Parham took his message regarding Spirit baptism to Houston, Texas, where William J. Seymour, a black Holiness preacher, became convinced that the Holy Spirit was still in the business of working supernatural miracles. Seymour then began preaching the same message to a small gathering of people in 1906 in Los Angeles, igniting what became known as the Azusa Street revivals, named after the street where an interracial gathering of people began to replicate the acts of the Wrst-century apostles: speaking in tongues, healing the inWrm, and prophesying. Within a few years, Pentecostal missionaries were traveling around the world, and the Pentecostal movement was launched, although similar manifestations occurred well before the twentieth century in Africa, England, Finland, Russia, India, and Latin America.10 In the 1960s and 1970s, another movement of the Pentecostal spirit emerged in a number of Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant churches, which went under the banner of the “charismatic renewal.”11 Once again, people spoke in tongues, many claimed supernatural healing, and a more intimate form of worship emerged that emphasized prayer and meditative praise choruses. As in the early part of the twentieth century, there was a synchronicity to the movement, with Christians simultaneously witnessing to the power of the Holy Spirit in locations as diverse as Argentina, Singapore, and South Africa. Putting numbers on this emergent expression of Christianity is a diYcult endeavor, as is the process of drawing a hard line between Pentecostals and charismatics. According to the World Encyclopedia of Christianity, approximately a quarter of the world’s Christians Wt this description.12 Remarkably, whereas in 1970 less than 10 percent of Christians identiWed with Pentecostalism, by 2025, fully one-third may be Pentecostal.13 Since


religious trends typically move at a glacial pace, this is a relatively abrupt shift in the character of the Christian community. David Martin, a British sociologist who has written extensively on the topic, estimates Pentecostalism at a quarter of a billion people, a more conservative number than the Wgure of more than 500 million that is frequently cited in the press.14 Martin states that the growth of Pentecostalism is the largest global shift in the religious marketplace over the last forty years. In his view, what is occurring on the ground religiously simply does not correspond to armchair predictions of the end of religion.15 Indeed, the growth of Pentecostalism raises signiWcant questions about the so-called secularization hypothesis. While we are making a number of sweeping generalizations, it is important to qualify that Pentecostalism is not a uniform phenomenon. Like any social movement, it has many diVerent permutations. Internationally, the largest Pentecostal denomination is the Assemblies of God, which can be found in nearly every country in the world and has over 50 million adherents.16 Smaller denominations, such as the Foursquare Church, are also visible in many countries. But there are also hundreds of indigenous Pentecostal denominations that typically are not linked together and in fact sometimes have deep antipathy toward each other because of doctrinal and leadership splits.17 Furthermore, some of the largest Pentecostal churches are not associated with any denomination and are part of the growing movement of independent churches that are “networked” together but do not aspire to be organized along denominational lines.18 The World Christian Encyclopedia estimates that the number of independent churches has more than doubled in the last thirty years.19 Many of these churches see denominational structures hindering their growth, even though they typically sprout daughter churches of their own and hence may be in the early stages of denominational formation. The overall context for understanding Pentecostalism is the demographic shift occurring in Christianity more generally. Philip Jenkins says


that the phrase “a white Christian” may be an oxymoron in the future.20 He projects that by the middle of this century, only one-Wfth of the world’s 3 billion Christians will be non-Hispanic whites.21 The World Christian Encyclopedia presents equally dramatic Wgures: in 1900 Europeans and North Americans constituted 80 percent of the world’s Christians, whereas today 60 percent live in Asia, Africa, or Latin America.22 Thus, since the Southern Hemisphere seems to be fertile soil for growing Pentecostalism, and furthermore, since Christianity is expanding in the developing world while contracting in much of the developed world—with the exception of the United States—it stands to reason that Pentecostalism will be a prominent driver of the demographic transformation that is reshaping Christendom. THREE MYTHS ABOUT PENTECOSTALISM

When we Wrst started this research project, we shared a common set of misconceptions based on stereotypical images of Pentecostals found in Hollywood movies. While there is a grain of truth to each of these perceptions, the reality is much more complex. Pentecostalism is a highly adaptable movement and typically incorporates features of the local cultural context. But even within the same geographical area, diVerent expressions of Pentecostalism are often distinguished more by conXict than collaboration. Hence, all of the following stereotypes bear qualiWcation. First, while Pentecostals believe in the Holy Spirit, worship services are not always populated with people being slain in the spirit, speaking in tongues, prophesying, and having their crutches thrown away by faith healers. While these things happen in some churches, they do not happen on a weekly basis in all Pentecostal churches, and sometimes these activities, when they do occur, are relegated to small group meetings or special occasions. There is a substantial spectrum of Pentecostal churches. For example, many of the Neo-Pentecostal churches that we studied have warm, contemporary, expressive worship, but they are not chaotic, as presented in the movies, with people falling down and rolling in the aisles.


Instead, worship has an upbeat ambience. Sometimes there will be a few minutes of “prayer language” that is carefully orchestrated. At the end of the service people may be invited to come forward for prayer and healing. But irrational exuberance is not the Wrst image that would come to mind in describing these services. Instead, one might be more likely to view this as a hip gathering of people enjoying themselves, in spite of the conservative moral standards they embrace. A second stereotype is that Pentecostals are lower-class, marginalized people for whom religion is an opiate. As with the Wrst stereotype, there is some evidence for this image, but it is not the whole story. True, Pentecostalism was born among lower-class people, and much of its amazing initial growth was due to its connection with impoverished people, including those with animistic religious backgrounds. But over the last few decades in particular, Pentecostalism has attracted a new class of more aZuent and educated people. Indeed, some of these are “homegrown”— their embrace of the Pentecostal ethic and lifestyle has resulted in upward social mobility. So once again, there is a spectrum of Pentecostalism, with many forms of Neo-Pentecostalism representing quite diVerent demographic characteristics than older expressions of classical Pentecostalism. A third stereotype is that Pentecostals are so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good. Historically, Pentecostals have been very otherworldly, with many members waiting expectantly for the imminent return of Christ. In fact, many early Pentecostal missionaries bought one-way tickets to the countries where they were ministering because they believed that Christ would return before they wanted to come home. And only recently have Assemblies of God seminaries and colleges begun to solicit endowments as part of their fund-raising activities. The thought has been, “If Christ is returning tomorrow, why should we be banking large sums of money for the future?” Furthermore, there has been little incentive for churches to address social problems in their communities. Instead, the need was to get people “saved” before Christ returns; otherwise they would be eternally damned to hell. This otherworldly characteristic of Pentecostalism, however, is changing. An emergent group of Pentecostals


is pursuing the integral, or holistic, gospel in response to what it sees as the example of Jesus, who both ministered to people’s physical needs and preached about the coming kingdom of God. In part, we suspect that this change is driven by upward social mobility among Pentecostals who see a reason to make this a better world in which to live. Members with increasing educational levels are applying more sophisticated understandings to social issues, some of which involve structural and systemic interpretations drawn from the Weld of public health. In many ways abiding stereotypes about Pentecostalism make life easy for social scientists as well as journalists. They explain away its growth by saying that religion is based on human need—whether it be economic deprivation, anxiety about death, or the need for security in an unstable world. Karl Marx viewed religion as an “opiate” that took the edge oV the pain of life;23 Sigmund Freud thought religion was a fantasy-escape mechanism employed by weak people in search of security;24 Émile Durkheim believed that religious ritual, especially for “primitive” people, was a way of maintaining collective order.25 All of these theories are rooted in deprivation theories of one sort or another, and in fact, they are helpful in explaining some aspects of the growth of Pentecostalism.26 The question, however, is whether viewing religion from a purely functionalist perspective is adequate. EXPLAINING THE GROWTH OF PENTECOSTALISM

In our review of the literature on Pentecostalism, as well as our own exposure to Pentecostal communities, we see a blend of functional and substantive reasons for the growth of the movement. Some of these explanations Wt neatly in the deprivation box of religion as a compensation for the misery and pain of life. And some invite less-reductive explanatory frameworks. Our view is that both types of explanations have their place. After all, humans are material beings who seek meaning within speciWc cultural contexts, and life is Wlled with problems—especially for the more than 1 billion people who live on less than a dollar a day.


Thus, Pentecostalism often attracts people who are suVering from what sociologists refer to as anomie. They have moved from rural to urban areas. In their birthplace, life was ordered and stable, social norms were clear, relationships were well established, and violations of social norms were dealt with directly through shunning, corporal punishment, or other community-based forms of social sanction. In large urban metropolitan areas the picture is quite diVerent, with loneliness and normlessness being real problems. Employment is often unstable; housing is precarious; and vices, such as gambling, prostitution, drugs, and alcohol, are typically rampant. Within this context, the attraction of Pentecostalism is obvious: it brings order, stability, and hope to people who are living precarious lives. To their credit, Pentecostal churches often function like surrogate extended families. Typically, large churches have cell groups where members are surrounded by people who care for them and their families. Within these churches, it is also possible to have a social role, an identity, as someone who is valued and needed. And some Pentecostal churches, especially large ones, have formal programs to assist people in need. When one is a member of a cohesive church community, the problem of anomie is thus at least partially ameliorated. Typically it is the mother of the family who converts Wrst, followed by the children and then her husband. The church is a type of “enclave” in which social order prevails. If the wife’s husband stops drinking, womanizing, and gambling, immediate social beneWts emerge, both in terms of income for the family and in tangible results such as shared responsibility for child-rearing and less violence within the household, including less spousal abuse. One may continue to be poor, but at least life is more orderly. One is part of a cohesive, caring community; one has roles and responsibilities; and one has a set of beliefs that provide direction and purpose in life.27 Religion, however, oVers more than ordered community for Pentecostal converts. The engine of Pentecostalism is its worship. Whether in a storefront building with bare Xuorescent tubes hanging from the ceiling or in a theater with a sophisticated sound system, the heart of Pentecostalism


is the music. It touches the emotions. It is populist in tone and instrumentation. And the lyrics give voice to feelings—the pain, the joy, the hope for new life. Indeed, it is even diYcult for middle-aged researchers to enter a Pentecostal service without doing a little foot tapping, although we resisted lifting our arms in the air with the rest of the celebrants, or jumping oV the Xoor in time to the music, as we witnessed children doing in a church in Santiago, Chile. Is this psychological compensation? Or is it full-bodied ecstasy, something to which all human beings might aspire? Pentecostal worship, however, is more than music. As previously indicated, healing is often associated with worship. Sometimes it is dramatic and stylized, but more often it is calm, prayerful, and intimate. We have no way of knowing how often, if at all, supernatural healing occurs. Surely sometimes healing is a product of the placebo eVect. But clearly many people have experiences that they interpret as the product of divine intervention. For them this is “proof ” that Christianity is true and that this is the place where they should anchor their spiritual commitment. People are also attracted to Pentecostal churches because of the neighborly love they see expressed, both formally and informally. The new face of Pentecostalism is the social ministries that churches are launching in response to a holistic understanding of the Christian faith. While these acts of mercy and compassion typically are not explicitly intended to attract new converts, they are clearly aVecting the perception of Pentecostal identity. Some groups associated with Pentecostal churches practice “random acts of kindness” toward their neighbors simply because they believe Jesus taught an ethic of unconditional love. Other Pentecostals are more programmatic and strategic in designing social ministries. Either way, many converts may be attracted to joining with people who are living altruistically. Another explanation for Pentecostal growth is that for people from traditional cultures where shamanism is frequently practiced, it resonates culturally, because Pentecostals also believe in the spirit world. Indeed, one can Wnd many functional parallels between Pentecostalism and animism; for example, in both kinds of practice demons are cast out, people are healed, and individuals are spirit possessed. Hence, the Pentecostal world-


view is not all that diVerent from what animistic believers have known, except that there is no longer a need to appease a whole pantheon of spirits through magical means. Indeed, the major diVerence between Pentecostals and people in animistic cultures is that the former aYrm that there is only one spirit, the Holy Spirit. Finally, an argument has been made that Pentecostalism is a direct response to modernity. According to this explanation, the Enlightenment produced a Xat, materialistic worldview. All the magic disappeared. Everything could be explained rationally through empirical veriWcation. While this philosophy produced one scientiWc revolution after another, it also put a squeeze on the human spirit. Pentecostalism, therefore, is a reaction to this worldview. It is resuscitating the “feeling dimension” of human life by introducing the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, into everyday life. While it is possible that Pentecostalism is Wlling what Harvey Cox called the “ecstasy deWcit” in our postmodern world, it is also possible that Pentecostalism is actually a postmodern phenomenon rather than simply a protest against modernity.28 While certain aspects of Pentecostalism may seem primitive to outsiders—a sort of throwback to a premodern worldview—it may actually mesh with a multidimensional post-Enlightenment worldview. Many of the old boundary lines between science and religion are being challenged. Although some may view Pentecostals as demonstrating contradictory qualities as they utilize technology (e.g., in their sound systems) while simultaneously engaging in ecstatic behavior, perhaps these activities are incongruous only for those “modernists” who are prisoners of a twentieth-century view of science and technology. TYPES OF PENTECOSTALISM

The applicability of these explanations for Pentecostal growth becomes more nuanced when set in the context of diVerent strains of Pentecostalism. In other words, not all explanations for the growth of Pentecostalism Wt all expressions of the movement. To this end we have identiWed Wve diVerent organizational types of Pentecostalism along with four diVerent


orientations that cut across these organizational forms. While we have been tempted to make an elaborate Wve-by-four chart, the reality is that these types and emphases are not that clear-cut in practice, and hence we want to avoid the sociological temptation to reify people’s religious practice. For analytical purposes, however, here are some organizational patterns that can be identiWed within the Pentecostal movement. First, one must take into account what scholars have often referred to as classical Pentecostalism, which includes denominations such as the Assemblies of God with 2.6 million members in the United States and 48 million in 191 countries abroad.29 The Assemblies of God denomination traces its roots to the religious revivals of the late 1800s, but, more particularly to the prayer meeting referred to earlier at Bethel Bible College in 1901. As the experience of the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” spread to Missouri and Texas, and then to California and the Azusa Street revivals, considerable momentum built until in 1914 some 300 preachers and laypersons gathered from 20 diVerent states and several countries for a “general council” in Hot Springs, Arkansas. In 1916 the General Council approved the Statement of Fundamental Truths, and this launched a denomination that now has over 12,000 churches in the United States and more than a quarter million churches and stations throughout the rest of the world. Today, the Assemblies of God denomination is joined by the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, the Church of God (Cleveland), the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), and many smaller Pentecostal denominations. A second distinct type of Pentecostalism is indigenous Pentecostal denominations that have no connection with North America. For example, Winners’ Chapel began in Nigeria in 1983, and by 2000 it had spread to thirty-eight African countries. In 2001, this church held the Guinness record for the largest auditorium in the world, with a church in Lagos seating 50,400.30 Another example of an indigenous denomination is the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, founded in Rio de Janeiro. Not only has it spread throughout Brazil, but it has developed an extensive network of churches in many parts of the world, including Africa and North


America.31 These independent denominations tend to develop spontaneously and are not the direct result of colonial missionary activity. In fact, we may be on the verge of witnessing a “reverse” missionary phenomenon, where individuals from indigenous churches in the Southern Hemisphere are coming to secular Western countries in the north to Christianize them. The deWnition of who is pagan has shifted in a relatively short period of time. A third expression of Pentecostalism is independent Neo-Pentecostal churches that may have one or more oVshoots but have not evolved to the organizational state of a denomination and in fact typically resist that formulation. Often they have been founded by entrepreneurs who are dissatisWed for various reasons with the current religious marketplace. Typically the pastors are individuals who grew up in relatively unchurched homes and had dramatic, life-changing religious experiences and subsequently found the available vessels for their vision sterile or unreasonably inXexible. On one hand, these charismatic pastors are not “company men” and typically lack seminary training or other formal theological education. On the other hand, however, they are market-savvy and often grow extremely large churches. In our view, these independent Neo-Pentecostal churches are the cutting edge of the Pentecostal movement: they embrace the reality of the Holy Spirit but package the religion in a way that makes sense to culturally attuned teens and young adults, as well as upwardly mobile people who did not grow up in the Pentecostal tradition. A fourth expression of Pentecostalism is typically identiWed as the charismatic renewal movement, whose origins are often linked to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Van Nuys, California, where in 1960 there was a spontaneous outbreak of speaking in tongues. Within a few years this movement spread to college campuses, including Yale, Dartmouth, and Stanford. By the mid-1960s the movement had spread to parts of the Catholic Church, and in 1969 some 450 Catholic charismatics met together, including 25 to 30 priests. Five years later, 30,000 Catholic charismatics gathered at Notre Dame, followed by 10,000 who met in Rome in 1975.32 Within both Protestant and Catholic settings, the charismatic


movement can be interpreted as a renewal movement that revitalized worship by inviting people into more intimate expressions of prayer and thanksgiving. Running counter to the “God Is Dead” movement of the time, there was a focus on divine intervention through healing and laying on of hands. And, of course, people were speaking in tongues, prophesying, and, on occasion, having demons exorcised. The charismatic renewal movement, however, had a diVerent feel from standard versions of Pentecostalism. For example, in churches associated with the Vineyard Christian Fellowship, Pentecostalism had a laid-back quality that included “soft” Christian rock, warm embraces, and gentle touching—experiences that are quite alien within mass urban culture.33 Finally, it is important to acknowledge that many individuals who may not belong to a Pentecostal or charismatic church nevertheless embrace some of the qualities of this tradition. Hence, we are adding a Wfth category called proto-charismatic Christians. These individuals typically do not have roots in traditional Pentecostalism, and in fact, they may not even identify themselves as charismatics. On the other hand, they aYrm most, if not all, of the experiences that Pentecostal and charismatic Christians believe are central to their lives. Thus, they may speak in tongues but may relegate this activity to times of personal devotion or small group meetings. They may believe in miracles but invoke divine intervention only in relatively quiet ways. They are typically open to the possibility of God speaking to them in dreams and visions, but such communication is not a regular part of their worship experience. Many proto-charismatics identify with a postdenominational expression of Christianity that is completely uninterested in deWning labels. They are simply attempting to follow the example of Jesus and the model of the early Christian church, which they see as being Wlled with manifestations of the Spirit. ORIENTATIONS WITHIN PENTECOSTALISM

Cutting across these Wve diVerent expressions of Pentecostalism are four diVerent emphases, some of which have already been discussed. For exam-


ple, some Pentecostal churches are legalistic and otherworldly. In our discussions with Assemblies of God pastors we found a clear split between those who were fairly legalistic in terms of their stress on the prohibitions surrounding membership (e.g., long-sleeved dresses for women, prohibitions against jewelry, makeup, social dancing, and use of alcoholic beverages) and those who viewed these legalistic practices as a carryover from a former era when Pentecostals were clearly trying to separate themselves from the world and, furthermore, often could not aVord “worldly” possessions. Today, however, there is a progressive element within the Assemblies of God movement and other denominations that is not sectarian in a legalistic sense and instead embraces many elements of contemporary culture, albeit with clear limits regarding promiscuity, corrupt business practices, political compromise, and other behaviors. Second, the fastest-growing movement within Pentecostalism has been called the Prosperity Gospel, or health-and-wealth churches.34 Sometimes this emphasis has permeated churches associated with one of the classical Pentecostal denominations, but more often it is characteristic of independent churches and indigenous denominations. Especially prominent in poor communities, these churches emphasize the miraculous power of God to heal incurable diseases and to bring wealth to those who faithfully support the ministry of the church. On occasion these churches have been inXuenced by televangelists from the United States (e.g., Kenneth Hagin and Benny Hinn), and other times the emphasis on health and wealth seems to have emerged quite spontaneously. To outside observers, these churches often appear to trade in magical thinking and psychological manipulation. On the other hand, they also have the capacity to inspire people with the idea that their lives can be diVerent, and sometimes pastors of these churches are quite practical in telling their members how to save money, start small businesses, and so on. It is also true, however, that the founding pastors of these churches tend to personally enjoy the Prosperity Gospel, sometimes at the expense of their churches’ impoverished members. A third emphasis within Pentecostalism—and the focus of this book—


is what theologians refer to as the “integral,” or “holistic,” gospel. In our view, this movement, which we identify as Progressive Pentecostalism, began to emerge in the 1990s, although it has had a residual presence since the beginning of the Pentecostal movement. But as Pentecostals have become upwardly mobile, better educated, and more aZuent, they have begun viewing the world diVerently. Pentecostals no longer see the world as a place from which to escape—the sectarian view—but instead as a place they want to make better. Reading the Bible from this perspective, Pentecostals have begun to model their behavior after a Jesus who both preached about the coming kingdom and healed people and ministered to their social needs. Consequently, an emerging number of Pentecostals are putting their faith to work in highly practical ways: establishing medical clinics, ministering to orphans, caring for widows; the list goes on and on, and varies from country to country, depending on the social needs that confront Pentecostals in their local context. While Progressive Pentecostals can certainly be found in the classical denominations, they are also frequently represented within independent Neo-Pentecostal churches that typically are as innovative and progressive in their social ministries as they are in their worship and organizational structures. To Wll out our typology, a Wnal emphasis within Pentecostalism might simply be described as routinized Pentecostalism. In this category are churches that have shed their sectarian heritage and have embraced many elements of contemporary culture, including secular music melodies and rhythms, but they still hold on to the idea of Spirit-Wlled worship, although in a somewhat more restrained way.35 People raise their hands in praise, but they seldom are slain in the spirit in public meetings. They believe in the power of prayer, but dramatic healings are a matter of their heritage more than an ongoing reality. Prophecy in public worship is controlled, almost to the point of extinction. And speaking in tongues during worship sounds more like an orchestrated ritual than a spontaneous expression of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, some of these churches conform to the typical megachurch pattern, with multiple programs for youth, singles, divorced parents, and others. But lest one dismiss them as


impotent, these churches have substantial power and vision and may be one of the great resources for the development of Progressive Pentecostalism. Indeed, one might even argue that embrace of social ministry is a natural progression of the routinization process—although this does not completely explain the emergent phenomenon described in this book.

PENTECOSTALISM AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

The central question of this book is whether Pentecostalism in all of its diVerent manifestations can have an impact on the many problems facing our world, and especially developing nations. Our answer to this question is a qualiWed “yes,” acknowledging that some expressions of Pentecostalism may actually retard social transformation. It is highly unlikely, for example, that legalistically oriented Pentecostals will do much more than save their own souls. Perhaps this is too harsh, because they are typically upright citizens, disciplined employees, and honest businesspeople. Often customers prefer them to their competitors because they know that these conservative Christians will not put their thumb on the scale. Furthermore, they may practice informal expressions of charity, being the Wrst to help out a believer in need—or even a non-Christian neighbor. But their focus on the imminent return of Christ typically restricts them from engaging in more programmatic and long-term expressions of Christian social involvement. It is also unlikely that churches emphasizing the Prosperity Gospel of health and wealth will be genuine agents of change within their communities. Too frequently they put most of their energy into producing crusades, tent revivals, and healing meetings and have little time left for addressing the practical social needs of members of their local community. But there is a dimension of the Prosperity Gospel that is often overlooked and might have political implications. Namely, these churches promote worldly success rather than pie-in-the-sky-in-the-sweet-by-and-by. And once people’s expectations have been raised regarding the possibility of a


better life, it may be diYcult to pacify them with oV-the-shelf religious placebos. When their child is not healed or they continue to live in grinding poverty after giving sacriWcially to the church, they may be tempted to turn to political means to alleviate their suVering. The reason that peasants seldom revolt, according to Marxist social theory, is that they have no hope. But if poor people actually believe in the possibility of a better life, they might pursue it politically when religion fails them. Another possibility is that disenchanted members of Prosperity Gospel churches may eventually Wnd their way into Progressive Pentecostal churches that are concretely addressing the social needs of the community. Little research has been done on the number of people dropping out of Prosperity Gospel churches, but there is anecdotal evidence that some members may seek more stable organizational forms. It is also important, however, not to draw too rigid a line between churches promoting the Prosperity Gospel and those that Wt our deWnition of Progressive Pentecostalism. The world is not black and white or either/or. It is a mixture of both elements, and indeed there are some Prosperity Gospel churches that are developing social ministries for their members while they hold healing crusades and promote the notion of an abundant God. Prosperity Gospel preachers often have a very practical side. It serves their interests to help members develop their entrepreneurial talents so that they can contribute more generously to the church. On more than one occasion we observed these pastors telling their members how to multiply their Xocks and how to save money to invest in their small business operations. Many Prosperity Gospel churches see no contradiction between making claims about God’s ability to heal people and bless them Wnancially, and setting up health clinics, developing schools, and the like. We identify at least three ways that Pentecostalism has the potential to be an agent of social transformation. The Wrst follows the argument of Karl Marx, which is that religion has the potential to blunt the pain of poverty and human rights violations by promising people a better life in the hereafter.36 In Marx’s view, people revolt against their oppressors only if they acutely feel the pain of their poverty. If they think that their reward


in heaven is inversely correlated with their suVering here on earth— which is how Marx interpreted the Sermon on the Mount and other teachings of Jesus—then religion will pacify people rather than embolden them to address the source of their oppression. This point was brought home to us by a radical Catholic priest whom we interviewed in India. He had previously been very involved in the charismatic renewal movement but eventually decided that it was incapable of changing the caste system that was imprisoning people in abject poverty generation after generation. He had turned to political organizing as a better means for people to change their life circumstances. A second possibility is that Pentecostalism may have an incremental impact on people’s social welfare. There is substantial evidence for the “social uplift” associated with Pentecostalism, in that Pentecostals have a competitive economic advantage over their neighbors because of their moral proscriptions against alcohol, drugs, gambling, and womanizing (see chapter 6). Without these social evils, believers may produce surplus capital that can then be invested in business enterprises or in the education and welfare of their families. In addition, Pentecostal youths are encouraged to delay their sexual debut, potentially contributing to higher levels of education, especially among young women. Furthermore, the argument has been made that the social networks associated with Pentecostalism create a supportive community that contributes to the social welfare of members. Not only do people help each other when in need, but they also patronize each other’s businesses and loan one another money for pursuit of business opportunities. Hence, Pentecostalism may resonate positively with capitalism, resulting in upward social mobility for at least some of its members. The third potential social impact of Pentecostalism is its focus on human rights. Everyone is made in the image of God, and all people have equal value in God’s sight, according to Pentecostals. At its root, Pentecostalism is a religion of the people: everyone has the right to interpret scripture themselves; they are not dependent on a priestly class. Believers have direct access to God, not needing a mediator, and everyone


has a role within the body of Christ, regardless of social class, race, ethnicity, and family lineage. The social and political implications of these theological views are quite radical. They establish the basis for democratic rule in which all persons are equal, in which each person has a right to cast a vote as a member of the community, and in which established authorities can be questioned as one claims the right to personal interpretation of scripture. Heretofore, some have seized on examples of alliances between politically repressive regimes and Pentecostal and charismatic churches, drawing the implication that Pentecostalism is inherently conservative, but this is not the entire story.37 In fact, we believe that Pentecostalism may potentially be a subversive political force, especially within autocratic governments that centralize authority within a single omnipotent ruler who claims godlike status. In some ways, the preceding three forms of Pentecostal social transformation are all indirect results of the religion. That is, they are not explicit goals of Pentecostalism, but instead function as latent corollaries. In contrast, Progressive Pentecostals view their responsibility toward social problems within their community as a mandate from God. There is nothing latent or indirect about the commandment to love others with the same intensity as you love yourself. Progressive Pentecostals see their social activism as an expression of their identity as Christians. To simply focus on inward purity and proselytizing the unconverted is, in their view, a truncated version of the Christian gospel.

THE SECULARIZATION THESIS AND PENTECOSTALISM

In the course of conducting our research, we were frequently put on the defensive by friends as well as colleagues in the academy who wondered why we would spend several years of our lives visiting Pentecostal churches. Sometimes they would make awkward references to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, assuming that Pentecostalism and fundamentalist Islam must have the same social roots. Other times they would ask us


for a deWnition, never having heard of Pentecostalism, and the moment we said something about faith healing or speaking in tongues it was clear that they saw Pentecostalism as a socially regressive phenomenon. In fact, our liberal Protestant friends were the worst. All they could think of was sex: in their view, it was Pentecostal and charismatic Christians from the developing world who were dividing their denominations on issues such as the ordination of gay clergy. At this point in the conversation, it seemed hopeless to point out that Pentecostals are often more progressive than liberal Protestants—especially when it comes to organizational structures and contemporary forms of worship. Although it may sound judgmental, we came to wonder if many of our friends were prisoners of a modernist worldview that limits their understanding of postmodern ways of viewing reality. Most sociologists writing in the last half of the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth century believed that religion was on its last legs.38 This notion continued relatively unchallenged until the last third of the twentieth century. The premise was based on the Enlightenment doctrine that science would replace religion, since it was clearly superior to the mythologically based irrationalism of religion, which solved problems through magical and illusory projections of human attributes onto hypothesized gods. Another aspect of the secularization argument was that religion would become increasingly individualized, relegated to the private sphere of life, thus having little inXuence on the public domain. Hence, people might hold on to religion for personal rites of passage related to birth, death, and even marriage, but according to the secularization hypothesis it would certainly have no inXuence on public policy or moral principles governing business, medical research, and other areas in the public realm. Mystical and transcendent experiences would be the exclusive province of desert saints untouched by modernity.39 In the latter part of the twentieth century, however, sociologists started to notice that religion had not disappeared—even though it had marginal importance in some western European countries. Instead, there was the sprouting of new religious movements in some of the most technologically


sophisticated nations. Church attendance rates in the United States remained rock solid. But more surprisingly, political movements were under way to reestablish the connection between government and religion, public policy and moral values, including those that were spiritually informed.40 And large portions of the world seemed to be getting more serious about the importance of religion. Ironically, the most secularized denominations—liberal Protestants and Reform Jews—were declining while their more conservative counterparts—those who believed in the supernatural—were the ones that were growing.41 Not surprisingly, a new theoretical paradigm emerged that attempted to account for the relative prosperity of religion. Under the old paradigm of secularization, religious pluralism led to skepticism, because who could possibly believe in an ultimate truth when there were so many diVerent claimants to it? Under the new paradigm, religious competition creates niche markets, religious monopolies are challenged by hardworking and innovative religious entrepreneurs who operate outside of the mainstream religious traditions, and homogenized religious products (one size Wts all) fail to command much interest. Indeed, new-paradigm theorists argued that the religious marketplace actually creates better religious products or, at minimum, religious oVerings that better meet people’s needs,42 which does not necessarily mean that religion is simply pandering to base desire. While this might be the case in some instances, many recognize that religious belief and practice have the potential to tap into the most profound desires for human meaning—which for some people may involve service to others, the pursuit of social justice, and the possibility of unconditional love. Within this context of the new religious marketplace, Pentecostalism has experienced a resurgence of growth, contrary to all of the standard secularization theories. One might expect the lower classes to be attracted to ecstatic religion, but why is Pentecostalism growing among the middle class? Supernatural healing, according to secularization theory, will be replaced by medical science; but instead people are Xocking to healing


services, just as they are embracing various forms of alternative medicine. Furthermore, secularization theory predicts increased private religious experience, but the fastest-growing churches are Wlled with people having collective religious experiences. And multiplication of brands has not hurt the growth of Pentecostalism—it seems to have enhanced it, developing niche markets that mainline Protestantism and Catholicism have been missing. In our view, the emergence of Progressive Pentecostals is simply one more nail in the coYn of secularization theory. How is it possible for Pentecostals, purveyors of a supposedly otherworldly religion, to be involved in community development, while at the same time maintaining the reality of the supernatural? Why are Pentecostals not simply saving their own souls, holed up in their sectarian enclaves awaiting the end of the world? One possible answer to these questions is that Progressive Pentecostalism is simply an evolutionary way station on the way to routinization. That is, if one can no longer believe in some of the “magic” associated with traditional Pentecostalism, then the logical step if one wants to stay connected with this tradition is to roll up one’s sleeves and Wgure out ways to feed, clothe, shelter, and heal people using modern means. But this explanation is cynical; it simply does not reXect the way Progressive Pentecostals think about their moral obligations as Christians. They frequently cite scripture to justify their actions—so they must be continuing to read their Bibles. They surround their activities with prayer, which is something that secularized Pentecostals might easily skip in the rush to do the work of ministry. And in their strongest argument against the secularization hypothesis, they frequently say that the Holy Spirit speaks directly to them about their social involvements in the community. Therefore, the most economical explanation may simply be that social theorists should include some reference to the spiritual realm in their attempts to understand social movements. Perhaps the demographer’s toolbox, loaded with the variables of race, class, ethnicity, and social location, is inadequate. The primary


motivator for those joining Pentecostal churches, based on our interviews, seems some type of encounter with the sacred, with all of these other elements simply contextual variables. We, of course, could not express such bold ideas to our colleagues in the hallways of the academy. Tenure may protect the positions of some of us who hold unpopular ideas, but old-fashioned shunning can still make a situation untenable. So at this point in our discourse, let us simply raise the question of whether the realm of the Spirit should be taken seriously in trying to understand what motivates people. In studying a religious movement that places the Holy Spirit at its center, we must include some reference to the transcendent in our analysis. We are not, however, going to isolate the Spirit in the following chapters as the major explanatory variable. We simply will include this factor along with the others that should be taken into account to understand something as complicated as religion.

c h a p t e r t wo

Progressive Pentecostals Ministries, Beliefs, and Motivations

Florence Muindi is a medical doctor working in a very poor village in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The four hundred families who live in this village support themselves by collecting food at the nearby city dump, begging in the city center, or relying on charity. When Florence Wrst joined forces with Addis Kidan Baptist Church, over 80 percent of the children in the village had medical problems, ranging from intestinal worms to scabies and eye infections. Florence quickly realized that if she established a clinic, she could be treating these ailments forever, because they were symptoms of poor hygiene and sanitation. Drawing on her background in public health, she trained a group of “health evangelists” who worked with a locally elected advisory council, and within a year there was a substantial improvement in the health of the children in the community. The health evangelists made regular visits to each home and worked with parents to create a more sanitary environment. In the process, the community was also becoming more cohesive, its members working together to solve their collective problems. Addis Kidan Baptist Church is typical of many Pentecostal congregations that are moving beyond a charity model of social engagement and into a community-organizing and development program. In addition to 39

40 / Progressive Pentecostals

dealing with health issues, the church was brokering microenterprise loans so that residents could be self-supporting and working with an outside nongovernmental organization (NGO) to educate children. In our interviews with them, the health evangelists stressed that it is impossible to separate their Christian commitment from their social engagement with the community. They want to be known by their love for others, rather than by their words. Jesus came to heal the sick, to minister to the prostitutes, and to give sight to the blind, they said. The task of the Christian, in their opinion, is to transform people holistically, ministering to their physical as well as spiritual needs. They believe their role is to be Christ’s agent in the world, following the example that he established during his ministry on earth. When we asked Florence Muindi why she was working in this ministry, she reXected back on an experience she had in 1984 during the Ethiopian famine. While praying one day as an undergraduate at a Kenyan university, she had a vision of three diVerent people, none of whom she was able to help. The Wrst person was someone dying of starvation, the second person was extremely ill and near death, and the third person was dumb, unable to speak. Gripped by the photos she was seeing on television of starvation in Ethiopia, she felt compelled to apply to medical school, and to her surprise she was accepted. When Florence Wnished her residency, she went to England for a master’s degree in public health. But during these nine years of medical training, she continued to think about the commitment she had made to serve her Ethiopian neighbors. ReXecting theologically about her current engagement with disenfranchised people, Florence said, “We are the hands of Jesus Christ.” In her view, Christians are God’s instrument in the world; this is the way he relates to the poor and needy, she said. But the picture is more complex. It is through poor and disenfranchised people that we encounter Jesus. Paraphrasing Matthew 25:40, Florence said, “Whatever you do to any of these little ones, you do it unto me,” meaning that Jesus is present—literally or symbolically, depending on one’s theology—in the poor and marginalized. Summing up her views, Florence stated, “The church is the

Ministries, Beliefs, and Motivations / 41

representative of Christ in a suVering world.” In her view, Christians have no choice but to serve the poor if they are to follow Jesus’ example of having compassion for those who are disenfranchised in society. When we quizzed Florence on why she thought the church was the appropriate institution for expressing her medical skills, she said that she had turned down a lucrative job oVer from the United Nations. While secular NGOs may have their place, she said that they come and go, whereas churches are stable institutions with deep roots in the community. In contrast, a secular NGO is typically an outside institution, imposing an external agenda, and it is often controlled by people who do not live in the community. Given her public health model of community organizing and empowerment, she believes that churches are well positioned to eVect long-term change in the community. But more important, it is the job of the church, she says, to be “Christ’s hands and feet in the world.” TYPES OF HOLISTIC MINISTRY

Florence Muindi embodies a number of elements that we encountered among Pentecostals who are engaged in social transformation. For example, she experienced an epiphany, or what theologians might identify as a “call,” which she interpreted as coming from God and which redirected her life. For Florence, this epiphany occurred in a dream state, although other individuals we interviewed often had less dramatic encounters with the divine. She also responded to a speciWc need (i.e., hunger in Ethiopia), and this issue dictated the medical skills required to be an eVective vessel of the holy. Florence diVers from many Pentecostals in that she quickly moved from a model of individual care to a community-based ministry of social intervention. A number of Pentecostals involved in social ministry are engaged primarily in emergency relief—assisting people with food, clothing, and shelter. By applying a public health model to her ministry, Florence transformed an entire community, which reXected her conviction that putting bandages on structural problems such as poor hygiene is a never-ending task. Thus far, she has not entered the political realm of


attempting to eliminate the causes of poverty by changing social policy. This approach is relatively rare among Pentecostals, although we did encounter a few clergy who are mobilizing their congregations to Wght political corruption as well as to confront economic structures that create poverty. In the course of our research we encountered numerous expressions of social ministry among Pentecostals, and in this chapter we describe some of these ministries as well as identify some conceptual categories that illuminate this increasing trend among Pentecostals. The types of social ministries we encountered in our research include the following: feeding, clothing, and sheltering people; drug rehabilitation programs; HIV/AIDS prevention and medical care; microenterprise loans; job training; visiting people in prison, as well as providing support systems for their families; family reuniWcation, including divorce intervention and bridging programs between teenagers and their parents; pregnancy counseling; ministries to prostitutes; medical and dental services; services to the elderly, the handicapped, and single parents; educational programs for children, ranging from establishing nursery schools on church sites to providing school fees for children and youth; residential programs for street children and orphans; and counteracting racial prejudice and other forms of discrimination. Some churches that we studied had only one or two of these social programs, while others had a nearly comprehensive menu of them. This rather dizzying array of programs can be ordered under the following eight types of services, programs, and ministries:1 1. Mercy ministries (providing food, clothing, shelter) 2. Emergency services (responding to Xoods, famine, earthquakes) 3. Education (providing day care, schools, tuition assistance) 4. Counseling services (helping with addiction, divorce, depression) 5. Medical assistance (establishing health clinics, dental clinics, psychological services) 6. Economic development (providing microenterprise loans, job training, aVordable housing)


7. The arts (training in music, dance, drama) 8. Policy change (opposing corruption, monitoring elections, advocating a living wage) At one end of the spectrum are programs that focus on relief, while at the other end are programs intended to eVect systemic change. Crossing this spectrum is another polarity—namely, programs that minister primarily to individuals versus those that seek to change the conditions of an entire population of people with shared characteristics. To illustrate this gradient, we turn once again to examples from our research, beginning Wrst with individual acts of charity and then examining cases of community development that are more systemic. RELIEF AND INDIVIDUAL CHARITY

By suggesting that there is a continuum among Pentecostals from individual charity to community transformation, we do not want to denigrate the value of individual acts of mercy. As previously stated, many Pentecostal churches focus their energy primarily on direct social services, such as feeding people, clothing them, and responding to emergency situations, such as Xoods, earthquakes, and other crises. And surely this level of engagement is needed. What seems somewhat contradictory for many Progressive Pentecostals is oVering services with an ulterior motive: namely, providing food or shelter only after recipients listen to a sermon or some other presentation encouraging conversion. After attending a number of worship services in the large theater where Renascer Church gathers nightly in São Paulo, Brazil, we decided to investigate one of their social ministries. Renascer owns a number of buses, and every evening, as well as many times at noon, volunteers from the church are taken into the poorest neighborhoods of the city to feed people. Walking several blocks from the church with about a dozen members, we climbed into a somewhat aging bus that had been reconWgured inside with stools where people could sit around a counter, with the back section of the


bus being for food preparation and storage. By the time we arrived, someone had already placed a huge pot of hot soup on the bus Xoor with a lid on it. Cluttering the remaining Xoor space were boxes of blankets and plastic containers of water. The banter among the volunteers was friendly as the bus pulled away from the curb and headed into a commercial part of São Paulo. In about Wfteen minutes we noticed that we were in the wholesale fruit and vegetable quarter. Even though it was dark, people were bustling about, stacking produce for delivery the next day. However, on side streets we started to see dozens of men sitting or lying on the sidewalk. Many of them had cardboard boxes pulled up around them for protection. It was deWnitely the sort of area one would hesitate to enter during the day, and certainly not at night. When we reached the densest population of homeless persons, the bus lurched to a stop and Cecilia, one of the volunteers, hopped out, Bible in hand. Almost immediately, four or Wve people gathered around her, and she read a brief passage of scripture and said a few encouraging words to them. Then the bus window above us opened, and the volunteers began handing down plastic cups of soupy stew, which we then passed out to a growing queue of men, as well as a few women who also lived on the streets. Rather than feeling threatened by the growing crowd, people were generally respectful, and some were very gracious. It was obvious that this act of compassion happened on a regular basis, and once the soup was distributed, the volunteers engaged in conversation with the residents. There was no preaching; instead, the volunteers showed consideration for their patrons. Then people started asking for water, and it became apparent that clean drinking water is a scarce commodity on skid row, and so the empty Coke bottles that we had Wlled with water were welcomed. After a half hour or so, we started passing out military-type wool blankets we had brought with us. As we were leaving, we noticed men retreating into their cardboard boxes, but wrapping themselves up for the night in the blankets that we had left. From this skid row location, we drove a few miles to a bridge overpass, where there were a number of women and children. Some of these fami-


lies looked like this was their permanent residence. They had bedding piled up, along with chairs, makeshift tables, and clothing. The volunteers who had been serving food from inside the bus during the last stop now ventured outside, and the same routine repeated itself. First, soup was passed out and then blankets. We noticed one of the volunteers praying with several of the people who gathered around her, but again there was no preaching. During this time, we played with a one-year-old baby that a mother had dressed warmly. This family had migrated from a rural area to the city and was seeking work. In addition, the bridge overpass also seemed to be a gathering place for people with drug or emotional problems. One woman, in particular, was actively hallucinating. On our way back to the church, the volunteer in charge of this group, a young man in his thirties, totaled up on a report form the number of cups of soup that had been distributed, along with bottles of water and blankets. The volunteers talked informally among themselves. There was no selfcongratulation about their virtuousness; rather, it seemed that this was a natural expression of their Christian commitment. The ministry was done without fanfare, absent media or observing politicians. In talking later with a paid staV member, we were told that the church feeds about 2,500 people every night. Some of the funding for this ministry comes directly from oVerings, but people also bring fruit, rice, beans, and other staple items to the church for distribution to the poor. Many of the Pentecostal churches we studied are involved in feeding people. In Santiago, Chile, we visited a lunch program sponsored by Resurrection 2000 that serves a sit-down meal for 200 to 250 people every day except Sunday. The one stipulation is that adults need to bring a child with them. The dining room is attached to a modest-sized church and seats about 75 people, with feeding shifts occurring regularly over the lunch hour. We talked informally with the heads of several families who were there. One was an unemployed carpenter, and another was a farmhand who was out of work. Anyone in need, regardless of church membership, can come to eat. Furthermore, there is no preaching at the luncheon. Funds for the ministry are raised through radio appeals by Resurrection


2000, but members also bring food for distribution, including 40 percent of the “Wrst fruits” from their labor. Other churches have food pantries. For example, a Pentecostal church in Nairobi, Kenya, has a steady supply of maize meal and beans to distribute. People from the city slums know they can get assistance from the food pantry if they run out of food. The church does not give out money because members want to ensure that funds are not used for alcohol or drugs. Clothing is distributed from a stockpile donated by church members. And sometimes rent assistance is provided when recipients are at risk of eviction. A few of the churches we visited mixed charity with preaching. For example, at Brasil para Cristo in São Paulo, people were told up front that they would not have to pay for the food that would be distributed. However, they had to invest a day at the church in programmed activities, which included a worship service. Eight women gave their testimonies at the worship service, which was interspersed with praise choruses led by a nurse who volunteers at the feeding program on her day oV. The pastor told us without Xinching that people are fed in order to evangelize them. At the same time, the intentions were sincere; volunteers believe that the route out of poverty is through faith in Jesus. Some of the food distribution programs are extensive and highly routinized within Pentecostal churches. For example, we visited one of the sites of Hands of Compassion, associated with Rhema Church in Johannesburg, South Africa. This church made a strong eVort to become racially integrated after apartheid and is now 50 percent black and 50 percent white. Distributed throughout South Africa, Hands of Compassion has 82 soup kitchens and feeds about 200,000 people a month. The farm we visited is in a beautifully scenic area and serves as a halfway house for recovering addicts. People can stay there six months, at which point the staV help them Wnd a job. They also distribute a lot of food to people in the surrounding area, including bread from their bakery, chickens from the farm, and millet meal. They intentionally do not provide people’s full needs, because otherwise they would create dependency, they said. However, malnourishment is a real problem for many people, and church members see it as their


Christian responsibility to serve those in need, even though they usually subject people to an hour of preaching before food is distributed. Another form of compassion ministry that we encountered is response to natural disasters. For example, shortly before we went to Caracas for the Wrst time, a Xood there had claimed the lives of thousands of people and left as many as 300,000 homeless. We were taken by members of a Pentecostal church to visit families who were living temporarily in a sports stadium. Survivors had created makeshift housing among the bleachers and in the hallways. It was not very homey, but at least there was a roof over the residents’ heads. The church provided vacation Bible school programs for the children and oVered food to survivors. The ultimate expression of mercy ministry is often associated with Mother Teresa, and even though it does not Wt the Pentecostal classiWcation, we seized the opportunity to visit the House of the Dying in Calcutta, where men and women, many mere skin and bones, are brought for care. On the way into the building we noticed the blackboard registering the number of people who had been admitted that day, the number who had been discharged, and the number who had died, indicating the human pain and suVering that the nuns deal with on a daily basis. When we interviewed Sisters Jovita and Christy at the main Mother House, we were told that the goal is to help people to die with dignity, to “give them the best for their last moment,” recognizing that the problem of poverty is too overwhelming for a group of nuns to be able to eVect systemic change. At the same time, they oVer medication and transfer to hospitals if recipients have a chance for survival. Also, the nuns seek to rehabilitate lepers by teaching them trades so that they can be self-suYcient. When we asked Sisters Jovita and Christy why they had dedicated themselves to this form of service, they both said that it is the love of God that compels them. And for those volunteering, including non-Christians, the nuns said that they, too, were in search of God. We mention Mother Teresa’s program because it has been the subject of substantial criticism. Naysayers argue that this approach does nothing to change the conditions of poverty; indeed, it may even perpetuate poverty by caring for the casualties of systemic violence. Clearly, the same argu-


ment can be made regarding Pentecostal programs that focus on individualistic forms of charity. They bind up the wounds of the victims so that corrupt politicians or multinational corporations can continue exploiting the most vulnerable in society.2 On the other hand, there is certainly a role for compassionate intervention in the lives of people who are hungry and sick, although every eVort should obviously be made to avoid long-term dependency that saps people of their dignity and initiative. DEVELOPMENT VERSUS ASSISTANCE

Although many of the social ministries of Pentecostal churches can be classiWed as charitable assistance, there is a strong movement among some churches to explore development-oriented social ministries and in some cases even to pursue community organizing, as we saw with Florence Muindi’s work in Ethiopia. For example, we visited a charismatic Baptist church in Argentina that was in the process of completely rethinking its social outreach. For some years this church had funded a clinic that was very successful and well regarded in the community. But the pastor said that a new model of social ministry was necessary, given the eVects of globalization. He emphatically declared that what the poor need is not assistance, but jobs. Within this congregation were a number of unemployed people, and the church leadership had recently decided to start within the church’s own ranks, testing what the pastor called a new paradigm of social ministry that focused on economic development rather than individual social assistance. In Calcutta we confronted the same issue at a large Assemblies of God church. Every day church members were feeding 12,500 people at a location across the street from the church. While this was a heroic task, a young lawyer associated with the church said that they are rightly accused of creating a culture of poverty around the church—of actually being a magnet that draws people to this location, since year after year these people depend on this noonday handout as their primary nutritional sustenance. Nevertheless, to contemplate stopping this act of charity was nearly


unthinkable, although church leaders were aware that they had created an unhealthy situation. In this same church, another interesting conversation was brewing. The church had become very involved with a group of prostitutes in a nearby red-light district. For a while, well-meaning NGOs had been buying the freedom of these girls, but then they realized that they were actually fueling the trade by driving up the amount of money being paid to parents in Thailand and thereby making the sale of daughters into prostitution even more attractive. Therefore, various NGOs banded together and decided to cease this practice. Nevertheless, the problem remained that these young girls had no power to escape their circumstances. In response to this dilemma, several individuals who were working in this church-related ministry were toying with the idea of helping the prostitutes to unionize. While this might seem like sanctioning prostitution, there was a growing recognition that organizing sex workers might be the only way to give these young girls power over their circumstances. Conventional notions of charity were also challenged in Kenya, where we interviewed a pastor who had started a church near a slum outside of Nairobi. In an act of compassion, he had taken several young boys from the slum into his home. Recently, however, he had been wondering if he and his wife were not making it likely that these youth would be dependent on them in adulthood, because they were losing their capacity to survive in a slum environment, and the pastor and his wife could not support these youths indeWnitely. So this idealistic couple was contemplating establishing a program within the slum that would teach youth how to cope in this circumstance, however bleak it was compared to the relative luxury of the couple’s home. Similarly, we interviewed a senior pastor of a large Pentecostal church in Nairobi, which was undergoing a parallel change in thinking. For a while, the church had been trying to rescue kids who were in terrible home situations by allowing them to live in an idyllic farming compound the church had created. However, given the immensity of the problems related to AIDS and economic disadvantage, church members were now thinking that they should try to keep these kids in their homes and assist


the families with school fees and the cost of books and uniforms. Then, as the church’s resources allowed, they would try to work with the parents in starting small businesses that might help these kids to be self-suYcient. Even in the case of sanitation projects, we encountered church leaders who were moving away from the idea of teams of outsiders building latrines or various water projects. The reasoning was that if someone from outside builds a latrine, then local residents will think that outsiders should also clean it. However, if the residents build it, then they will maintain it. The same suspicion of dependency was also expressed regarding church Wnances. We encountered an attitude among church leaders, especially in Africa, that viewed outside assistance with some suspicion. Given the legacy of colonialism, churches fear that money from the West often causes more problems than it solves. One pastor said rather poignantly that this was even true with local support of new congregations. “Once you Xood in money, you destroy the capacity of people to think creatively and to look for answers within their situation,” he said. Hence, even an indigenous church involved in extensive church-planting eVorts was careful about how much assistance was given to new pastors. While the church might help with some capital building expenses, the local congregation needed to pay the pastor’s salary and within a year or two assume the full cost of the ministry. In spite of these reservations related to the danger of creating dependent relationships, there are opportunities for Progressive Pentecostal churches to extend their outreach by establishing creative partnerships with NGOs, so long as they remain internally strong and self-suYcient as a congregation. PARTNERSHIPS WITH NGOS AND GOVERNMENT

A number of Pentecostal churches we studied are partnering with NGOs, such as Compassion International, World Vision, World Relief, and Food for the Hungry. Typically the NGO raises money through child sponsorships but then utilizes these funds for the welfare of the entire community,


recognizing that the health of a child is dependent on the overall wellbeing of the support structures within which a child lives. We also encountered many Pentecostal churches that were setting up microenterprises, particularly in partnership with an NGO. A number of NGOs prefer to work through churches rather than establish their own programs. They realize that churches are anchor institutions within the community, that churches know people’s needs and are not easily fooled by fraudulent requests for assistance, and that churches have buildings and facilities that cut down on infrastructure costs. In some cases, NGOs work under government licenses that do not allow them to proselytize; hence, all of the funds that they supply to a church must go for humanitarian purposes. However, this stipulation does not mean that the church cannot provide religious education to the children it supports through the NGO; rather, it simply means that outside money cannot be used for this purpose. At the same time, there are often indirect beneWts to the church from the NGO. Obviously the church is perceived in the community as providing a social service, even though the funding is from outside the church. Also, the NGO often provides leadership training for staV who are administering the grant, and this training has a ripple eVect within the congregation as new ideas and procedures are introduced to the leadership. In the process of working with NGOs, local churches are often required to interface with government oYces. The result is that these churches become engaged in civic aVairs, and in addition to their public witness, they have the potential to inXuence public oYcials in the process of carrying out their mission in partnership with an NGO. In some countries, such as Hong Kong and Singapore, churches actually bid for government contracts to provide services to people with handicaps, the elderly, the drug addicted, and so on. In the case of one program we visited in Hong Kong, the church was providing 20 percent of the funding for a program ministering to elderly persons, and the government was paying 80 percent. And in the case of a center for the handicapped that the church operates, the government was paying 100 percent of the costs.


In Singapore, the government does not believe in state-supported social welfare. Social welfare is thought to be the job of religion. However, the state will help religious institutions accomplish the goals of social welfare, so long as the service delivery is not overtly evangelistic. Consequently, most of the churches doing social welfare work have separately incorporated their social service ministries so that they do not bear the name of the church, even though the motives may be religiously based for those performing the service. Interestingly, in Hong Kong the government has made houses available for the drug treatment program run by St. Stephen’s Society, simply because this organization has gained a reputation for being the most eVective program in the city—even though its methods are overtly religious. In programs in Kenya and Uganda that are assisting street children, the church operates independent of government funding, but it also works closely with government oYcials on legal issues. In order to ensure that the church will not be accused of stealing children from the streets, program administrators ask government oYcials to release the youths to the church’s custody, with full knowledge that they will be raised within a Christian environment. On more than one occasion, we heard people in these church-based settings state that they were giving a level of care to these children that seldom could occur within a program funded by a secular NGO. In fact, a frequently heard criticism is that while NGOs create programs that look good to donors, they often lack sensitivity to local customs, and they also are typically not committed for the long term. The more cynical critics said that too often the foreign staV of these NGOs drive around in late model cars and SUVs; they build fancy buildings, but the focus is on building “structures” rather than relationships. Indeed, sometimes these NGOs even have a deleterious impact on the local church, because they bring more money into the partnership than the church has the capacity to absorb, creating the occasion for Wnancial mismanagement. An alternative means of supporting social ministry is through creating for-proWt businesses. In Santiago, Chile, for example, a church established


an attractive restaurant that is staVed by volunteer workers. It does a good business with local customers who know that when they eat lunch there, the proWts are going to support a shelter for abused women. A more farreaching business is one that we encountered in Singapore, in which a group of highly educated Christians had formed a consulting Wrm which over the last decade had given nearly $400,000 to various mission projects. Their strategy has been to establish franchise businesses in places such as Cambodia, where they hire local residents and operate on a strict code of ethics that communicates their Christian values. In spite of the programmatic examples we have oVered, much of the social ministry in Pentecostal churches is done at an informal level in cell groups that are distributed throughout the neighborhood. Churches that have organized their membership this way expect that each cell group will be involved in a speciWc social ministry. Sometimes their activity is as simple as going around the neighborhood and doing good deeds, such as washing people’s windows or cars or engaging in some other useful activity without charge or expectation of return. Other cell groups make a point of adopting a speciWc ministry, such as an orphanage or medical clinic. And still other cell groups have established a reputation within their apartment complexes such that the residents know that this group of Christians will help them in emergency situations. ADDITIONAL DISTINCTIONS

Cutting across the various distinctions we have made thus far in this chapter are three other important variables that inXuence the nature and character of the social ministries of Progressive Pentecostals: (1) the size of the congregation, (2) the theological views of the pastor and people, and (3) the social and political context of the country in which the social ministry is being implemented. Religious ideas never stand alone; they are always inXuenced by their social location, including the character of the organization that is promulgating them. The size of the congregation is an obvious variable and warrants little


comment except to say that small congregations are limited by funding, available clergy, and lay leadership to implement and manage programs. Therefore, it is not surprising that larger churches are able to oVer a more comprehensive menu of ministries. The theological variable is much more complex and depends on the sectarian bent of the congregation. If it is otherworldly—simply waiting for the return of Christ as the time when all will be made right on this earth—then members are most likely to narrow their circle of care and concern to those who are internal to the congregation, and furthermore, they typically have very little engagement with public policy and social welfare issues, except to maintain their right to worship collectively, and even then, they may interpret persecution as divinely ordained.3 In terms of social and political context, we found considerable variability regarding the types of social ministries pursued in diVerent countries. For example, when Christians are a distinct minority, there may be constraints on what they are permitted to do and how much mixing there can be of religion with the delivery of social services. On the other hand, in countries that are predominantly Christian, the conXict may be between diVerent elements of the Christian tradition, with the government, for example, giving preference to Catholic-based programs over those run by the so-called sects (i.e., the Pentecostals). In contrast, in countries where there is considerable religious freedom, such as Kenya and Uganda, church members have relative freedom to critique government corruption because Christians are in the majority. But in India there are areas where Christians must be careful about engaging in any type of political activity that might inXame the Hindu or Muslim population. When we were in Ethiopia, Christians had been challenged by Islam. A group of Christians wanted to rent the football stadium in Addis Ababa, but when they asked the price, they were told it would be 100,000 birr (nearly $12,000) for one day, even though a group of Muslims had recently used the stadium without any charge. And sometimes the conXict is not between people of diVerent faiths, but instead various branches of the Christian tradition. For example, Pentecostals have faced political chal-


lenges in Armenia, where Orthodox Christianity accounts for over 90 percent of the population. MEETING THE NEEDS OF THE COMMUNITY

In every country we visited, there seemed to be a cluster of social issues that were high on the priority of congregations that were involved in social ministry. For example, in Uganda the dominant concern seemed to be coping with the AIDS crisis; in the Philippines the consuming issue was poverty; in South Africa it was the legacy of racism, mixed with the AIDS pandemic and poverty; in Bangkok many ministries focused on prostitution; in Argentina and Chile a number of programs deal with domestic violence and family-related issues; and in India the focus was on the pervasive problems related to poverty, especially medical issues. Clearly these generalizations are not intended to stereotype the social ministries within these countries; rather, the intent is to suggest that Pentecostal churches are sensitive to their local needs and environments in starting social programs. To cite a speciWc example, we were surprised that a Pentecostal church in Chile had been an innovator in creating a Youth Encounter program, which is intended to connect teens with their parents. This same church was also strongly supportive of Marriage Encounter weekends. But then we were informed that Santiago ranks third in the world in terms of the frequency of domestic violence, and it made sense that issues of family cohesion were on the forefront of this church’s agenda. Similarly, it was not surprising that many of the churches in Ethiopia were addressing hungerrelated issues; at the time we were visiting, there were 8 million people on the verge of starvation. In a number of cases, it is clear that the social ministry outreach of the church can have a positive eVect on the way Pentecostalism is perceived, especially if the ministry is addressing actual needs in the community. For example, in a barrio near Caracas, Venezuela, there is a church that a few years prior to our visit was struggling, with only a dozen members. The


community, which was predominantly Catholic, rejected this Pentecostal congregation. In fact, at one point the pastor had a gun put to his head and the trigger pulled; fortunately there were no shells in the chamber. In addition, youth would regularly throw stones at the church building. But then the pastor decided to reach out to the community, rather than simply preach to the converted. He created a basketball court for the kids. He organized a program to vaccinate children in the area and oVered other forms of medical assistance, including birth-control counseling. The church started a food distribution program, provided marriage counseling, showed movies to the kids on the streets, and joined in sponsoring city celebrations. In addition, the church established a program to help children oYcially register with the government, which otherwise is a several-day process that takes parents away from their work. And, perhaps most dramatic, it started an NGO that assists people with getting home improvement loans, which in turn put church leadership in contact with civil engineers, architects, and government oYcials. After oVering this litany of social services, the pastor told us that he recognized that street preaching is not particularly eVective—at least when compared with serving the community in a spirit of Christian love. Another pastor in Caracas who ministers in an equally violent barrio oVered a rather humorous example of the value of being well regarded by the community. He returned late one evening from taking some of the youth in the area to a park, and he was sound asleep when he was awakened by someone holding a pistol to his head. The intruder told him to get his church keys and open the door, whereupon the thief took the guitar and ampliWer used for worship services and disappeared in the dark. Somewhat dazed by the experience, the pastor was standing outside the church when a posse of Wve young hoodlums from the neighborhood, each with a pistol tucked in his pocket, appeared on the street corner with the stolen goods. They had spotted the thief with the guitar and ampliWer and asked him where he had gotten them; when he replied that it was from the church, the thugs commandeered the loot and returned it to the pastor, whom they respected for his work in the community.


THE MOTIVATION FOR SERVICE

The idea suggested by Florence Muindi of being “Christ’s hands” in the world is a common theme in our interviews and is often linked to the suggestion that one encounters Jesus in everyday life by serving the poor and dispossessed of society. We discovered an excellent example of this view in Cairo, Egypt. Maggie Gobran has developed a remarkable program for children and youth in the slums where people make their living by sorting garbage. Maggie was born into a wealthy family in Cairo and married a professor at one of Egypt’s best universities. As part of her charity work as a member of Cairo’s upper class, she ventured into the poor districts of the city once or twice a year, and on one of these occasions she came across a woman, wrapped in a blanket, who was supporting her family as a street vendor. Maggie approached the woman and engaged her in conversation. When the woman left to tend her other children, her daughter remained to carry on the family business, and Maggie, taking pity on the child, oVered to buy her a new pair of shoes. The girl replied, however, that she would rather her mother have the shoes, since she had nothing to protect her feet from the cold. As Maggie looked at the girl, she said that she saw the eyes of Jesus staring back at her. And in that instant she realized that not only could this girl be her own daughter but, except for the accident of birth, she could be this woman. In the epiphany of that moment Maggie says that her identity as a Christian was transformed. Namely, she understood that the way to touch Jesus is by ministering to the poor. Mama Maggie, as the children call her, has given up the aZuent lifestyle that she once led. When we interviewed her, she had a network of thirty-two nursery schools and also ran camps for youth. On a weekly basis the families of all her children are visited as a way to intervene in the lives of both parents and oVspring. What was remarkable about Maggie’s staV is that they all seemed to share Maggie’s perception that the way to encounter Jesus is to embrace one of these children whose eyes, in their view, mediate the presence of Christ.


While images such as these may seem mystical, there is something very earthy about viewing one’s relationship with God as being mediated through the poor and disenfranchised of society. A scripture passage that Pentecostals frequently cite to explain the rationale for Christians serving poor and disenfranchised people is Matthew 25:31–40. In a collection of parable-like statements related to the kingdom of heaven, Jesus is reported to have said that when the Son of Man comes in his glory he will sit on the throne and gather all the nations before him, separating the sheep from the goats. The criteria for selecting who is righteous, says Jesus, will be their actions regarding the poor: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me” (Matt. 25:35). In this parable the righteous persons ask when did they do these things, and the reply is this: “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these . . . you did it to me,” making the equation between serving the disenfranchised of society and serving God. A variety of other biblical passages were also cited during our interviews that justify being engaged with marginal members of society. For example, it was frequently noted that Jesus mixed with prostitutes and sinners more than he did with people from the higher classes of society. Interviewees also said that Jesus combined his teaching about the kingdom of God with acts of compassion, such as healing the sick. And they also cited Jesus’ most famous parable, the story of the Good Samaritan, which advocates crossing religious and cultural lines to care for those in need (Luke 10:30–37). In addition, the story of Jesus feeding the Wve thousand was frequently mentioned in our interviews, with the note that Jesus did not just preach to people but also gave them food (Mark 6:32–44). Interviewees also noted that members of the early church were chastised for ignoring the widows in their midst (Acts 6:1). In addition, the Hebrew scriptures were sometimes referenced in our interviews, including the prophetic tradition and the fact that rituals have little meaning if they are not buttressed by service to the poor and needy in the community.


HOLISTIC MINISTRY

Whereas an older generation of sectarian Pentecostals tended to focus on personal purity, Progressive Pentecostals do not separate Christians from the world of everyday trade and commerce in an artiWcial attempt to maintain their holiness. Instead, they seek to model their behavior after the lifestyle of Jesus, who constantly blurred the line between the sacred and profane worlds, mixing with sinners and those in need as much, or more, than he did with religious leaders and those concerned about their external righteousness. A pastor we interviewed in Ethiopia said that his change in thinking occurred when he started reading the Bible in a new way. So long as he was simply waiting for the return of Christ, there was no motivation to eVect change within the community surrounding his church. But then he started looking at Jesus’ life and how he related to people, and he saw that service to those around him was inextricably linked to Jesus’ proclamation of a coming kingdom. Indeed, a hallmark of Jesus’ ministry, he said, was compassion for the poor and marginalized in society, including interacting with tax collectors and sinners. The terms holistic ministry and integral ministry have evolved in response to the idea that evangelism should never be divorced from meeting the needs of the whole individual. In fact, in places such as Singapore, the mantra we heard repeatedly is that Christians should serve the community “with no strings attached.” In Singapore, this policy of the Christian churches Wts with the government’s commitment to religious pluralism, but it also reXects a deeper theological truth that God’s love is to be expressed unconditionally. We were told that providing service to someone who is in need with the expectation that the recipient will reciprocate by conversion or some other act of repayment is a violation of the spirit of the Christian gospel in which God’s grace is unconditional, provided without any reference to our good works. In fact, a number of individuals we interviewed said that Jesus met people’s physical needs before addressing their spiritual needs.


A pastor in Singapore related an experience that was a turning point in his attitude regarding placing conditions on God’s love. A man came to him with great concern about the medical condition of one of his children. This pastor told him that if he were to become a Christian, then the pastor would pray for the boy’s healing. That night, however, the pastor could not sleep. He said that the Holy Spirit told him in no uncertain terms that it was wrong to associate God’s love with any conditions. So the next day he had lunch with this man and apologized, saying, “I have wronged you by telling you God will only heal your son if you become a Christian. I want to tell you today, God will hear you, heal your son, and listen to you because he loves you. Later on, whether you want to become a Christian or not, that’s another thing.” A pastor in Nairobi, Kenya, used the analogy of an airplane to explain the concept of holistic ministry. He said that a plane requires two wings to Xy. One wing is not more important than the other. Likewise, preaching the message of salvation should not take precedence over acts of compassion to people in need. In fact, he said that on occasion he has been so overwhelmed by the poverty around him that he has felt compelled to respond to the physical needs of people before even thinking about preaching to them. On the other hand, he does not believe that the church should become just another social service agency. A pastor in Caracas, Venezuela, said that initially there was some resistance among Pentecostals to becoming involved in holistic ministry, because a social service orientation was identiWed in the minds of many Pentecostals with the theological liberalism of the Social Gospel movement. However, this pastor said that he felt compelled by the example of Jesus to meet the needs of people he encountered, and today his church has an extensive network of social services, which he says has fueled the growth of the congregation because of the church’s reputation that it cares for people in need. A layman associated with this church said that he noticed a substantial diVerence in the way newcomers view his church compared to other Pentecostal churches. At Wrst, he said, they doubted that it was a Pente-


costal church because the perception of traditional Pentecostalism is that female members are prohibited from wearing makeup, having short hair, and so forth. In place of these legalistic identity markers, the church is focused on meeting people’s physical and psychological needs, rather than simply emphasizing their spiritual needs. He said that this is a 180-degree turn from what the church was like in the 1960s and 1970s. This layman says that church members and staV no longer are interested in simply saving someone’s soul. They provide spiritual teaching, but they don’t send people away with an empty stomach. Furthermore, they oVer their social services to believers and nonbelievers alike. To discriminate on the basis of religious aYliation would be to violate the unconditional character of Christian compassion, he said. Many drug rehabilitation ministries practice a form of radical unconditional love. For example, a ministry to drug addicts in Hong Kong seeks to Wll addicts’ emptiness and lack of self-worth by being with individuals twenty-four hours a day as they come oV drugs. They are fed, massaged, and coddled for the Wrst weeks of withdrawal. They then live in a structured environment for a year or two, but during this time they are accepted back into the community if they fail to maintain their sobriety. This act of acceptance is important, say staV associated with this program, because the typical response of their fathers was to punish every infraction, or sometimes to simply beat them randomly as a way of covering their own feelings of powerlessness. Jackie Pullinger, who heads St. Stephen’s Society, refuses to refer to recovering addicts as clients or patients. They are simply “friends,” because any other label continues to dehumanize them. If there is an undisclosed motive for Christians’ engaging in unconditional love, it is not evangelism, although this may be an indirect consequence, but rather the biblical injunction that Christians should be known by their love. A pastor in Bangkok said that if Christians could establish this sort of reputation, then even civil authorities would take notice of them. Christians, in his view, should be the Wrst individuals people turn to when they have a need, and this sort of reputation, in his view, will go a long way toward blunting religious persecution, which is a possibility in a


Buddhist country. A China scholar we interviewed made a similar argument. In the mid-1980s, the Christian church began to establish medical clinics and day care centers for children and to engage in various types of relief work. In the eyes of the Chinese government these eVorts created a good reputation for Christians and were interpreted as a patriotic act. THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION OF LIFE

The assumption underlying holistic ministry is that it is impossible to divorce moral and spiritual needs from physical and economic needs. The two are inextricably linked. As already indicated, many Pentecostals we interviewed said it is wrong to preach to people about the state of their soul when they are hungry, homeless, or ill. These same individuals argue, however, that simply meeting people’s physical needs seldom provides a long-term solution to their problems. When the food or medicine stops, they often are back in the same condition as when the charity was Wrst being oVered. What is needed is a more profound transformation of character, which in turn enables people to move forward in life without the burden of inhibiting patterns of behavior. In the view of many Pentecostals we interviewed, the spiritual dimension operates on several levels. One of the most important has to do with self-esteem—seeing oneself as having value. For example, a former drug addict said that he had gone through detoxiWcation on several occasions, but he continued to lack self-worth and shortly after detoxing would go back on heroin as a way of covering up the internal emptiness that he felt. It was only when he accepted Jesus and was surrounded by a group of caring people who aYrmed that he was loved by God and was valued as a child of God that he was able to stay oV drugs. Echoing this view, an individual working in St. Stephen’s ministry in Hong Kong said that it is a relatively simple process to get someone oV drugs. The long-term problem is to Wll the void that made the individual vulnerable to drugs, and in his mind the solution is spiritual, although it often still requires years of helping former addicts rebuild their lives after they detox.


A former social worker in India argued a related point: after Wfteen years of helping people with their social needs, he realized that this was not enough. Material development, he said, is important, but it is not suYcient. People need an internal transformation that realigns their moral compass. When this occurs, there is a lifestyle change that, over time, provides the basis for potential upward social mobility. Economic development programs are not unimportant, he said, but they are not suYcient in his view. Likewise, he said, a programmatic focus on conversion is also not adequate to help people make their way out of poverty. Rather, a holistic understanding of personal and social transformation is more likely to succeed. In Manila we heard this holistic approach described as being eVective not only for adults but also for impoverished children. Churches working in cooperation with an international NGO typically feed children and provide them with education and medical assistance, as well as oVering spiritual instruction. The longtime director of one of these programs told us that her experience is that children who commit their lives to God tend to grow into more productive adults than those who simply take advantage of the social services the program oVers. While this may be viewed as anecdotal evidence, it is the guiding philosophy for many of the faith-based programs we studied. Mama Maggie, for example, said that her ministry gives considerable attention to the psychological needs of children who grow up in the slums of Cairo, but within a religious framework. Many of the girls have been sexually abused, and many of the boys feel that they have no value beyond physical labor to assist the family income. Hence, Maggie and her staV spend considerable time telling these children that they have value because they are children of God who are made in his image. At the same time, workers attend to children’s physical needs, feeding them three meals a day, teaching them how to bathe, having them checked by doctors, and giving them time to play. This philosophy of integral ministry is based on a holistic view of human beings—that they are mind, body, and spirit. Maintaining this balanced perspective, however, is not always easy. A medical doctor, for


example, said that it is sometimes diYcult to see beyond people’s physical needs—to see that they have a spirit resident within them—because in areas of mass poverty medical needs are so apparent. The reverse is also true: Pentecostals sometimes dichotomize body and spirit, giving priority to the spiritual dimension. The hallmark of Progressive Pentecostals, however, is precisely their attempt to maintain a holistic view of the people served in their various social ministries. SOME EXAMPLES OF HOLISTIC MINISTRY

In Soweto, outside of Johannesburg, South Africa, we visited a growing Assemblies of God church with about three hundred members. The worship was extraordinarily warm and vibrant, and people of all ages were present. What attracted us to this congregation, however, was not the worship but the pastor’s commitment to serving his community. The pastor told us that he had done a survey of his congregation and found that only 30 percent were employed. He estimated that 40 percent of the adult population surrounding the church would test HIV-positive. Among his own members, he estimated that 10 to 15 percent were infected with the AIDS virus. In fact, the previous year he had buried more congregation members than he had married. Currently, the church was directly facing the AIDS crisis, in part because the daughter of one of the elders had been infected by her husband, and as a consequence the leadership of the church had decided to move from avoidance to confrontation with this scourge that was killing so many of their people. The pastor said that much of his time is spent counseling people as he helps guide them through the steps of denial, anger, worry (about the consequences for their children), and then acceptance of these individuals by their families. From the pulpit he teaches his people about the risks of extramarital sex, but equally important, he tells members of his congregation that they should not reject those with AIDS. For example, one of his staV members regularly goes into the homes of infected people and instructs family members on how to care for the dying. The pastor sees the


church’s role as being a caregiver, and so he and other church members wash the bodies of people who are sick—some of whom were previously living in their own excrement because they had been abandoned by their next of kin. Modeling his ministry after Jesus’ concern for lepers, he sees this disease as an opportunity to express the Christian ethic of compassion and love. In the course of our conversation, he quoted a passage from the book of James, that “faith without works is dead,” as justiWcation for his commitment to holistic ministry (James 2:14–26). The pastor’s ministry does not stop with caring for AIDS victims. On the back portion of the church property we noticed two shipping vans. Inside were bunks where eighteen men were living. We also saw a tractor and other equipment, and it turned out that he was providing workers for a street-cleaning business. He had established sewing classes for women who were using machines that the church had purchased. In addition, there were ongoing baking classes at the church. In fact, with this pastor we visited a woman in a tin shack who was supporting herself by making cakes that she sold at a local school. The church was also involved in acts of charity. The pastor had become the guardian for a young man who was on parole for stealing. The church was helping another girl with tuition for computer classes. The pastor’s dream was to start an orphanage for children in the community, because it was clear that the extended family networks in his community were overburdened and incapable of caring for additional children whose parents were dying of AIDS. He wanted to start a nursery school but was encountering diYculty in securing a plot of land. In short, this small congregation was active on multiple fronts, dealing with needs internal to the membership, but it was a beacon of hope within the neighborhood. In a period of a few years, this church had grown from a handful of members to about three hundred people, largely because of its ministry to the community. At the other end of the size spectrum is City Harvest, a thriving church Wlled with young adults in Singapore. When we visited, City Harvest had a social service ministry with 25 staV members, 580 volunteers, and a quar-


ter-million-dollar budget. The church also had a wide range of programs, including a prison ministry and services for the elderly, the terminally ill, the mentally disabled, HIV patients, and so on. It also had one of the best tutoring programs for youth in Singapore. Much of its work was being done one-on-one, helping people with their shopping, taking them to medical appointments, assisting with housekeeping, and befriending the lonely. This ministry is viewed as a high priority for the church and is run out of a plush oYce building in the heart of Singapore’s commercial district. ASSESSMENT OF THE ROLE OF PENTECOSTALISM

While many Pentecostal churches are having a substantial impact on their communities, some qualiWcations are also in order. The Wrst is that they are not the only ones involved in social ministry. When we asked Pentecostals who was doing the best work in the city, they often pointed to the Catholics. In Johannesburg, we were told, for example, that the Catholic Church was doing an excellent job of disseminating information about the cause of AIDS and how to prevent it. We were also impressed by some of the social outreach programs of Anglican churches in Africa. For example, All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi had a strong reputation among government oYcials for standing against police brutality. The Seventh Day Adventists are also respected for their well-developed programs, especially their medical assistance. In many ways, Pentecostals are the “new kids” on the block. In the last decade, they have started to move out of their otherworldly bunkers and into the world. This is an emergent phenomenon. Not all Pentecostals are engaging their communities in acts of compassion and service. There are many Pentecostal churches that are mired in legalism and prefer to pray for the salvation of the world rather than to transform it through their actions. On the other hand, some of the more creative programs that have evolved in the last decade have been implemented by Pentecostal churches.


The major challenge for Pentecostals is whether they can move beyond an individualistic model of social service. One driver in this direction is faith-based NGOs, with many of them believing that the best way to give a child a future is to create a healthy community. Hence, while these NGOs may raise money through individual child sponsorships, they understand that the key to providing children with a viable future is to create food self-suYciency in the community, to promote social systems that attack sources of infection and disease, and to combat cultural practices, such as female circumcision, that dehumanize individuals. Individual charity is noble, but it needs to be married to an understanding of how social systems work. As Pentecostal churches partner with these faith-based NGOs, and as the educational level of lay leaders and clergy increases, the sophistication of their social ministries may also increase, including the possibility of addressing political and policy impediments to human well-being. At present, Progressive Pentecostals are not particularly “progressive” in the political meaning of that term. However, as we have seen, some Pentecostals are beginning to incorporate public health models into their understanding of community well-being. They are also beginning to understand that individualistic approaches to intractable problems such as AIDS, or the burgeoning number of street children, are almost counterproductive—the magnitude of the problem is simply too great. Perhaps the question facing Progressive Pentecostals is whether they can creatively incorporate ideas from other religious traditions—including the Anglican and Catholic capacity to think institutionally—without losing the Wre that drives their compassion.

chapter three

Building a New Generation Programs Serving Children and Youth

The AIDS crisis in Uganda has created 2 million orphans. Initially, these children were being adopted into extended families, often by an aunt or grandparents. But more recently, even though the infection rate has dropped substantially in Uganda, many families have become saturated with orphans they have already adopted. They simply cannot absorb another person into their household, and consequently the rate of children being abandoned or living on the streets has become a real problem—not only in Uganda but in many countries in Africa.1 Responding to this problem, Kampala Pentecostal Church initiated an innovative response. It started building small villages with newly constructed homes that can accommodate eight children, plus a single mom who has dedicated herself to raising a family of orphans. Children enter these homes as young as two years of age and as old as twelve, but within any given family there may be a wide distribution of ages, just as there would be in any nuclear family. Given that the program started in 1992, there are now children from this program who soon will be marrying, and before long their adopted mom will be blessed with grandchildren. Kampala Pentecostal Church did not opt to build an orphanage, a

68

Programs Serving Children and Youth / 69

rather Western idea; rather, church members have created a series of villages. In fact, of the three villages that we visited, the one currently under construction was conceptually the most evolved. They had already built 25 homes and had 200 children in residence, and the houses were arranged in circular clusters of eight homes, with the doors facing inward toward a large central lawn. They had also opened a school (grades K–5) and had constructed houses for teachers to live on campus. In addition, they had dug a well that was serving not only their residents but also people in the surrounding area. Since every household is headed by a widowed or divorced woman, the church members decided that the children needed men in their lives as role models. So a program called Father’s Heart Ministry was started. Every family has a “father” who visits at least once a week for two to three hours, typically on Saturday. These fathers meet together during the week to share issues that are arising in their parenting role, and they pray together for speciWc children and their needs. Their task within the household is what any resident father would do: they talk with the kids, encourage them in their schoolwork, discipline them if they are unruly, and most important, help these children think about their future. The goal is to link every child to a surrogate father from the church, rather than simply establish one father per household. These men named their ministry Father’s Heart because, according to the leader of this program, “God is father to the fatherless,” and they see themselves as God’s instruments in this world (see Ps. 68:5–6 and James 1:27). A strong support system stands behind these families. Once a week a doctor holds a clinic on the premises. For every nine houses there is a supervising mother, because the moms in these households need more than Wnancial assistance and the weekly day oV. They need support and counsel as they raise their families. There is also a social worker who interfaces with the local government so that issues of legal guardianship are properly addressed. Many of these kids arrive in their new home traumatized: in addition to being physically malnourished, many of them are

70 / Building a New Generation

withdrawn, angry, and bitter. They may still be grieving over the deaths of their parents; furthermore, some have been terribly abused, and they often feel rejected. The formula for healing these children is quite simple: unconditional love oVered within a structured environment. In our interviews we heard numerous accounts of children who had arrived as mere skin and bones and were completely withdrawn. These same children, many of whom we met, were now plump and all smiles. Their transformation is clearly the reward that is experienced by all the diVerent people who interact with them on a regular basis. This is a life-giving ministry, mirroring the heart of the Christian gospel as perceived by the members of Kampala Pentecostal Church. The senior pastor of this church, Gary Skinner, happens to be white— although with a black person’s soul, say his staV. Pastor Skinner and his wife spend four months each year traveling with a group of eighteen orphans who perform in Canada, the United States, and Europe. It is obviously expensive to run the orphan program, so each child has one or more sponsors. On a monthly basis there is some form of communication with the sponsors, including a quarterly newsletter. In the countries where there are a number of sponsors, there is a local oYce, and monthly reports on Wnances are submitted from Uganda. There is also a governance board that reports directly to the board of Kampala Pentecostal Church. In visiting a number of the children’s homes, the predominant feeling one has is that these children do not look like orphans. They have a mom, they have brothers and sisters, they have a dad who visits them weekly and prays for them daily, and they have a sense that a church community of some ten thousand members stands behind them. Furthermore, they have experiences that other children of their same social class do not have. They communicate with people in other parts of the world. On occasion, their sponsors come to their village and assist with the construction of new houses and facilities. And a few of the children get to travel to North America and elsewhere to perform in diVerent churches and various public venues.


STREET CHILDREN IN KENYA

In nearby Kenya, there is another large church, Nairobi Pentecostal, which is also addressing the problem of child poverty and abandonment. The AIDS crisis has hit this country with equal vengeance, and unfortunately the government has not been as aggressive in heading oV the infection rate, and so the city of Nairobi has an ever-increasing population of street children. In response, Nairobi Pentecostal Church has established a showcase program, located about an hour away from Nairobi in a rural setting, that targets abandoned and abused children. The church has invested in building dormitories, classroom space, workshops for vocational training, a medical clinic, and a chapel and meeting space where residents eat. There is no running water except what comes out of a large tank that also supplies irrigation for the farm that surrounds the buildings. Fresh vegetables are grown on the farm, and the children have a large chicken coop that supplies eggs for the entire center, and then some. More than a hundred abandoned and abused children, ranging from three to eighteen years of age, reside at the facility. Many of these children were living on the streets in packs before the church’s social worker befriended them and secured permission from the government for permanent guardianship. Lacking parenting, these children often need to be socialized into the meaning of civilized interaction and discourse. Consequently, they rise at 5:30 a.m., and before going to school they have personal devotions and attend chapel. Individual duties around the center are supervised by captains whom they have elected from within their own ranks. The children then go to local public schools, although some of the older children are involved in vocational classes where they are learning a trade. For example, we visited with a group of older boys and several girls who were studying auto mechanics. They were supervised by a master mechanic, and when they Wnish their several-year course and pass a licensing examination, they are ready to get a job. In addition, the center has a well-equipped woodshop, and students learn mathematics and furniture design as they produce tables, chairs, and cabinets. The school also teaches


sewing and clothing design to young women who are supervised by a master seamstress. Since the real key to getting a job is ownership of one’s own tools, Nairobi Pentecostal tries to get sponsors who will equip youth in this program. Interacting with these children and young adults was inspiring. One of the “captains,” a fourteen-year-old girl, said that she wanted to be an airline pilot. When we visited the center several years later, we discovered that she had not accomplished this goal, but she had successfully passed her auto mechanics examination. Several children volunteered to play musical instruments for us, and we were told by the head of the school that some of these kids have a deWnite aptitude for music. The children were also keen to take us down to the chicken coop and show us how productive their hens were at laying eggs. And like all children, they clowned around, wanting to be videotaped. Seeing these children in such an idyllic setting, and contrasting it with the animal-like existence that they had before being recruited, made it clear why this was the favorite project of the pastor’s wife. There was also an obvious joy and sense of fulWllment expressed by the people who were working with these children, even though they said that it requires a lot of patience to mentor these children, some of whom, at least initially, want to return to the streets, since they are not used to the demands of a disciplined life. Operating this center is also an expensive proposition, because there is not only the cost of feeding, clothing, and educating these children, but also a substantial investment in providing social services, including addressing health needs. Given the overwhelming demand by a growing number of street children, the church is strategizing on how to support families so that children will remain in their homes, rather than needing to create a total environment for them away from their biological parents. CARING FOR CHILDREN IN INDIA

The challenge of street children is obviously not unique to Kenya. In fact, the situation confronting many children in India is almost overwhelming.


Entire families are sleeping on the streets, they wash their clothes at the water taps on the sidewalk, children run naked, and begging is pervasive. In fact, some parents intentionally maim their children so that passersby will take pity on them. Walking the streets and peering into the homes of people who have shelter reveals that many families are living in one or two rooms, requiring them to use the sidewalk for everyday tasks such as cooking and washing. TraYc moves, but it is a teaming mass of rickshaws, motor scooters, aging buses, and taxis. The pollution is stiXing, and the heat in April is suVocating, unless one is cooled by one of the prevalent ceiling fans. In this country of over a billion people, Christians make up only 2 to 3 percent of the population, split almost equally between Protestants and Catholics. One of the most impressive programs we visited in Calcutta was run by a husband and wife team, Vijayan and Premila Pavamani, who described themselves as Baptist Pentecostals. Premila has established a program for the children of prostitutes. Since the women work primarily in the evening hours, their children are left to fend for themselves. The day we visited their program, several hundred children were gathered in groups, singing, listening to Bible stories, and doing crafts. One would never have guessed that their mothers were commercial sex workers. This program was started by the Pavamanis when they ran a small ad oVering counseling. The next day they were overwhelmed with people. Initially, they simply listened to individuals talk about their marriage problems, Wnances, and so on. Today, they operate a school, a drug rehabilitation program, and a facility for street children. Premila confessed that she would never have chosen this lifestyle; it seems that it chose her. She simply could not reject the children she saw daily on the street, irrespective of the trade of their mothers. Two of the young people we visited at the residential facility, teenage brothers, told us that they had become separated from their parents at a nearby railroad station—or perhaps they had been abandoned there. For a while they lived at the station with other children they met, sharing food and any shelter they could Wnd. Then they were invited to come and live


in the orphanage started by the Pavamanis. One of the boys, wearing a neatly pressed white shirt, told us that he wanted to be a doctor. The other teen said that he wanted to be a minister. When asked why these were the vocations they had chosen, the response was obvious: it was these two professions that had nurtured them into life and young adulthood. The diVerence between these two boys and many children we saw on the street is that these youths had been nurtured by a loving community of caring adults, making the point that everyone has potential, but it must be developed. The Assemblies of God churches, also represented in Calcutta, are heavily involved in education at the primary and high school levels. At the time of our interview, the denomination was providing education for 16,800 individuals, most of whom were Hindus. Each child receives textbooks, exercise books, school uniforms, footwear, a hot lunch daily, medical care, and sometimes warm clothes during the winter. Sponsors give Wfteen to twenty dollars per month to support ninety-one Assemblies of God schools in seven states in India. Many of these sponsors correspond regularly with the children they are supporting, and sometimes they even continue support for the child’s college education. While most sponsors are individuals, there is one church in the United States that is sponsoring 150 children. Many of the sponsors are members of Assemblies of God churches in the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, and England, but some sponsors who donate on a regular basis are from other religious backgrounds as well. In Calcutta, Assemblies of God churches are concerned not only about children’s education. A 173-bed hospital was started there by the founder of a large Assemblies of God church in Calcutta. In a given year, the hospital sees 70,000 outpatients, with about 30 percent of these patients receiving highly subsidized care. The hospital director estimated that only15 percent of the patients are Christians. The rest are Hindus or Muslims. The hospital also has a nursing school that graduates twenty nurses a year. Hence, while the Assemblies of God have invested heavily in children’s education, they are also highly committed, at least in Calcutta, to health services.


PRESCHOOLS IN JOHANNESBURG TOWNSHIPS

When the new pastor arrived at Highway Assembly of God Church in Johannesburg, South Africa, the membership of the church, which is located in an aZuent suburb, was almost entirely white, even though nearly every member had a black domestic worker living at home, often with one or more children. The stranglehold of apartheid was lifting, and Pastor GeoV Brand felt strongly that the church had a social responsibility to serve the community—the entire community, which included the marginalized population of domestic workers and their children. As always, vision by itself was not enough. The person to give legs to this idea was Colleen Walters, a transplant from a Presbyterian church, who was trained as a high school teacher, but perhaps even more important, she had a severely handicapped daughter who had sensitized her to children’s need for stimulation in their early years. When Pastor Brand and Colleen started to look outside their own white enclave, this is what they confronted. The situation of apartheid had created a culture in which forty to Wfty young black children are often looked after by a granny in a ten-by-sixteen-foot room while their mothers work. In order to maintain order, each child is assigned a place on the Xoor. The children can talk, but not move about and play, or else they risk being struck by the stick of the granny, who sits at the doorway. We visited one of these child care facilities. The children were in neat uniforms, housed in a dark room without electricity. Indeed, the children were very orderly, sitting on the Xoor. When they Wled out to meet these strangers from the West, they blinked in the sunlight. There was no play equipment outside, and there was nothing to stimulate them inside. Only 2 percent of the black children had access to preschools when Colleen Walters started her Wrst preschool. White children were much more fortunate, but development of their perceptual motor skills was also very limited. They spent much of their time in front of televisions, their physical skills were undeveloped, and they were poor listeners, being saturated with images but not the content that would create a perceptual base


for later learning. Hence, both categories of children were starting school unprepared. After studying the situation of both black and white children, Colleen proposed to her pastor that Highway Assembly of God Church start a nursery school that would be half black and half white, combining in one integrated setting the children resident in the neighborhood, which of course included many children of domestic workers. Colleen’s husband agreed to a six-month trial experiment in which she would work without pay, and so in 1995 the doors of the Wrst preschool opened in a house next to the church. When we visited the church Wve years later, Colleen’s vision had expanded. Through the network of black Assemblies of God churches, she had started eighteen Safe and Sound preschools in nearby townships and informal settlements. The informal settlements are squatter camps of families who are extremely poor. There is no running water or sewer system, only portable toilets. The housing is shacklike structures. The roads are typically unpaved. In contrast, the townships have basic utilities, but the houses are small, population density is very high, and crime is rampant. In both contexts, education is marginal at best, and there are virtually no preschools. If young children are not minded by a granny, then they are required to sit on a mat in front of a shop where their parents are employed, or else they are left with relatives, where abuse, sexual and physical, is not uncommon. Hence, the idea of a Safe and Sound preschool is attractive to parents. The women operating these preschools in the townships and informal settlements view this as a business; 50–100 rand ($7–15) is paid monthly by parents for each child. The director of each school must meet three criteria: (1) they need to have passed a Standard 8 level of education; (2) they must have a love for children; and (3) they have to be able to read and write in English. In addition, they have to attend a two-month training course at the Safe and Sound preschool at Highway Assembly of God Church. During these two months at the “Urban University,” students spend Wve hours each morning working in the preschool, rotating through various jobs. In the afternoon, they receive theory-rich instruction dealing with


early childhood development and administration. After this training program, they start a preschool in their township or informal settlement, often beginning in their own yard, although sometimes they collaborate with local oYcials and utilize a vacant building, or they may meet in a church or public hall. The instructional method is based on the developmental theories of Jean Piaget and the idea that children learn through play. There is a strong emphasis on perceptual learning, with children rotating during the day through various play stations that are intended to develop motor skills related to perception. The play is very tactile; children aren’t taught letters, math, or reading except as it emerges in the act of play. The problem, of course, is that professionally made puzzles, blocks, and teaching materials, such as those used in Montessori preschools, are expensive, and so Colleen has developed her own instructional kit for about one hundred dollars, which includes scissors, brushes, string, rope, a ball, and so forth; she then negotiates, sometimes with the assistance of local preschool leaders, to secure donated materials from lumberyards, paper stores, and the like. For example, we observed a training program for new teachers in which long strips of paper were being laid on the Xoor in the shape of letters of the alphabet, and teachers were then walking on the paper as they spelled out diVerent words. Clearly, perceptual skills were being connected to motor skills in this exercise. A stone’s throw from where these new teachers were being trained was Highway’s preschool, where the teachers had spent the morning. The place was abuzz with activity. Some children were playing in a trough of water with measuring cups and spoons; others were painting on easels. At tables, children were putting together puzzles or matching shapes with cutouts on a board. Other children were climbing on rope ladders or walking on balance beams. In every activity, black and white children were thoroughly mixed. Although the education of many of the black children was subsidized through scholarships, the children did not know that and instead were creating the basis for integrated work and social life in the future. Colleen said that the preschools test the children before they grad-


uate, and there is no racial distinction in terms of outcome. Clearly the distinction between children has to do with opportunity, not genes. When we visited some of the Safe and Sound preschools in the townships and informal settlements, children were equally busy learning perceptual skills. A problem that developed at one of the preschools is that parents were complaining that their children were coming home dirty. Parents were used to children returning from the granny with their clothes as clean as when they left home. But now their children were getting paint on their clothes, they were sometimes streaked with modeling clay, and they showed signs of working up a sweat on the playground. Clearly the parents did not understand the philosophy of learning through doing. So one Saturday we joined Colleen as she did a parent-training program in an informal settlement. Rather than talking to the parents, she involved them in the same types of activities their children were experiencing, and before long these parents realized why their children were coming home dirty; it was because they were learning by doing. Colleen said that the children who attend their preschools typically start to excel by the third grade in public schools. Why? Because they have problemsolving skills that were developed through the perceptual and motor activities that are the foundation of their preschool education. The women operating these schools have also developed. They see themselves as community builders. They are self-employed, they have learned to negotiate with local leaders and politicians, and they have developed business skills, collecting tuition from parents, buying food in bulk to feed their children, and so on. Colleen says that she sees their conWdence increase, even during the training period, because often women in South African culture are not encouraged to oVer their opinions or develop budgets or otherwise think of themselves as entrepreneurs. But, in fact, that is what they are: community-building entrepreneurs. Colleen visits each school on a regular basis to make certain that standards are being maintained and to help the staV solve problems. She has learned over the years that women starting businesses can upset the power


balance within the community, and so she always works from the top down, involving people within the local governance structure. She has also learned that her community-building entrepreneurs need to be reminded of the philosophy of education that they learned during training. Hence, she tries to visit each preschool on a monthly basis, as well as hold regular training sessions that bring together all of the teachers. While many of the teachers are associated with an Assemblies of God church, not all of them are. Colleen’s strategy of evangelism springs from her educational philosophy: namely, people learn from doing, and she trusts the Spirit to inspire these women as she practices the Christian life in their presence. Nor is there any prerequisite that the children be associated with a worshiping community. They are all of equal worth in God’s sight, she believes. Colleen’s own vision is that the concept of Safe and Sound preschools will spread across Africa, perhaps through the network of Assemblies of God churches. Since each school is Wnancially independent, the model is replicable, with strong preschools becoming the hub for the development of surrounding schools. Before Safe and Sound was started, Colleen said that if Highway Assembly of God Church were to have closed its doors, the only people to miss it would be the members of the church. Today, the church is thoroughly integrated into the community. Through Safe and Sound it has formed a relationship with people in a number of diVerent black townships and informal settlements. Furthermore, it is introducing to the Wfteen hundred black Assemblies of God churches in South Africa a vision of community engagement that stretches their understanding of the Christian’s responsibility in the world, since many of these churches’ pastors are very conservative, focusing primarily on personal salvation without regard to community development. In addition, Safe and Sound is providing employment for dozens of women, while at the same time it is developing their community-builder skills and conWdence. And, of course, the program is creating the educational foundation for hundreds of children to be transformative agents in South African society.


EDUCATING “DUMP” CHILDREN IN CAIRO

The stench of the garbage hit us as we started into the residential neighborhood where thousands of people make their living by recycling garbage, separating out the paper, plastic, and metal that has been gathered throughout the city of Cairo. Our mission was to visit several of the families that Stephen’s Children staV meet with weekly. Garbage was strewn everywhere underfoot as we made our way down the dirt street. As we entered the homes of one of their children, we could see pigs fenced oV a dozen or so feet from this two-room shack. Ducks were pooping and feeding in the small courtyard that separated their house from the pigs. Mama Maggie, the founder of Stephen’s Children, greeted the family and asked the father, a thin, anemic-appearing man, to introduce his children. When he did not give their names, Mama Maggie encouraged him to identify them one by one, and especially the girls, who are often devalued in the culture. The children, as in all cultures, were eager to be engaged and enjoyed the personalized interaction with these strangers and their camera. Captured on videotape are faces that were stained with dirt. There is no running water in these houses, and so bathing is infrequent at best. We winced as one of the little girls picked up a piece of string from the dirty Xoor and started running it through her mouth. After singing a few songs with the six children in this family, Mama Maggie taught them a Bible verse. Most of the neighbors, including this family, are Coptic Christians, but they have little connection with a church or the traditions of this ancient faith. The previous day we had attended a meeting with some of the Wve hundred staV members who work, many as volunteers, for Stephen’s Children. Most of them are young adults who have recently Wnished school and are dedicating themselves for a several-year period to serve the poorest of the poor in Cairo. This particular meeting preceded the launch of one of their camps, where they invite children from the families they work with to three days of play, small-group sharing, and worship and instruction. During this time the children receive a medical checkup; they are given a


toothbrush; they learn the importance of hygiene, including washing their face every morning and evening; and they eat three meals a day. Initially, some of the children hide food in their clothes and bed because they can’t believe that the next day they will sit down again at a table Wlled with bread, fruits, vegetables, and meat. They also are amazed at having their own bed to sleep in, since entire families often share a single room, sleeping side by side at night. The opening meeting with the children prior to camp is often a bit chaotic; they are not used to sitting still for very long and paying attention to a speaker. But they soon become fascinated with the birthday celebration that occurs at one of the Wrst morning meetings. Each child with a birthday that week is called forward and given a candle to hold. They are told how valuable they are, that Jesus wants to burn brightly in their lives, just like the candle they are holding. Later in the day they gather in small groups and are invited to talk collectively about their lives, their hopes, their dreams. In one of the camps of teenage girls, we were told that 50 of the 110 girls confessed in these group discussions that they had been physically or sexually abused. Watching from afar, we could see the intensity of the interaction, and Mama Maggie said that often these meetings are Wlled with tears as girls talk about hidden secrets in their lives. In the large group meeting, the central message was that every individual is loved by God and therefore has value. The implication of this message is that girls have rights; they can stand up to men and neighborhood boys who want to abuse them. The idea that their bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit is a new concept to them. Likewise, in the boys’ camp children are also told that they have self-worth. They are taught what it means to respect girls, that manhood carries responsibilities with it. The testimony regarding what can be accomplished in three days was stated by one of the bus drivers, who said that he couldn’t believe the diVerence between how these children acted when he picked them up at the beginning of the camp and when he took them home. Many parents say that new patterns of behavior are developed at the camp, and consequently, they welcome the opportunity to send their other children to


future camps. However, miracles can’t be expected from a three-day retreat, and that is why regular follow-up by staV members is important, along with the repeated opportunity to attend camp every six months, in addition to special one-day outings. It is important for these children and youth to be reminded of the vows taken during the camp; they need to be encouraged to keep imagining an alternative future to life in the dump; and in part, these goals are accomplished by encouraging these kids to memorize scripture and regularly pray and worship together. Initially, Stephen’s Children was focused on teenage youth, but rather quickly Mama Maggie realized that patterns are deeply set by this age; so she is now committed to early childhood development through an expanding network of preschool centers. The inspiration for the Wrst school followed the awareness that Muslim children had access to schools where they could learn the Koran, but Coptic children who were living in the slums had no access to Christian instruction. When we visited Cairo the second time, Stephen’s Children had thirty-two government-licensed preschools, each averaging about one hundred children ranging between two-and-a-half and six years of age. The goal is to start Wve new schools a year, which is obviously a monumental task, since buildings have to be constructed or renovated, new licenses always have to be secured, and staV have to be trained—along with the obvious task of raising Wnances for these expanded activities. Mama Maggie is supported in this work by an excellent board of directors, comprising professional people living in Cairo. Mama Maggie’s husband, who is a professor at the American University of Cairo and a businessman, gives two and a half days a week to the ministry. Punctuated by hours of prayer, Mama Maggie has put in place a sophisticated structure of oversight, evaluation, and review of these activities. The strategy underlying the nursery schools is that they provide a point of access in the lives of thousands of families. In addition to the staV’s weekly home visits, the schools are serving as community centers. Mothers come to the preschools once a month, or sometimes more often, for parent education classes. Therefore the schools are gradually becoming a hub of Christian instruction for the entire family, although it is not legal for them


to double as churches. The miracle in Mama Maggie’s mind is that the government, through the licensing of these preschools, has oYcially recognized the right of the Coptic population to receive religious education. All of these schools are located in the immediate vicinity of the dumps. When one walks into a school and sees children—neatly dressed, their faces scrubbed clean, their teeth brushed—energetically engaged in creative play or instruction, it is diYcult to believe that these are the same children we visited in their homes, awash with garbage, pigs, ducks, and dirt. If, indeed, the Wrst Wve years are the most important, then these children are being given a deWnite head start in life. Preschools are not the only activity of Stephen’s Children. Several years ago Mama Maggie realized that not every child has the privilege of going to school. She was encountering youth whose parents were forcing them to be street vendors or to work for meager wages in shops and factories. Recognizing that employment was a real need for these youth, she created several vocational schools where the boys are being apprenticed as cobblers and the girls are learning to be seamstresses and to use knitting machines. Each year these vocational schools produce Wve thousands pairs of shoes and an equal number of sweaters, which are then distributed at Christmas to the families being visited weekly by the staV of Stephen’s Children. The atmosphere of the vocational school we visited was like a small workshop. There were diVerent size lasts for diVerent size shoes. Some boys were cutting out leather; others were stitching and some were sewing. The girls were equally busy operating knitting machines, hand sewing the arms of sweaters to the bodies, and giggling as we videotaped their expert handiwork. There were several instructors who were working alongside the young people, and in our brief visit to one of these facilities we were impressed by the quality of the products as well as the happy atmosphere of the workplace. In addition to producing shoes and sweaters, a portion of each day is also devoted to study and Christian instruction. If children have to work to earn a living, this is a very healthy environment. Furthermore, their products are going to assist other children and families, resulting in meaningful rather than exploitative labor.


RAISING YOUNG ADULTS IN CARACAS

Seven thousand miles away, in Caracas, Venezuela, a Wfty-year-old woman has turned the death of her son into a life-giving opportunity for several dozen teenagers and young adults. From our hotel room we took the metro train to the end of the line, where we were met by a young woman who had agreed to serve as our translator, as well as to drive us up the mountain to the home of Sister Marlena. In many ways, the barrios that Wll the hillsides are picturesque. But up close one sees another reality. In many areas the land is shifting, and in some places landslides have made houses uninhabitable. Compared to the slums of Bangkok, the houses here are relatively sturdy, many built out of concrete and block. But the interior is crowded, and many of the conditions that characterize barrios worldwide are also present here: high rates of alcoholism, spousal abuse, early pregnancy, practice of traditional religion—Santeria in this case—and unemployment. After about twenty minutes of travel up a series of winding roads, we came to a narrow lane and parked our car at a spot that was barely passable by other vehicles. After Wfteen yards of walking between houses that bordered the path, we could hear singing. As we entered the house, there was a small living/dining room that had a few chairs, a television, and a table with refreshments. Immediately to our right was a room, perhaps twelve feet square, that was crowded with twenty-Wve or so teenagers who were dancing and singing gospel songs. At one end of the room was a makeshift podium, draped with a simple cloth. On the steps going up to the worship space someone was beating out a rhythm on an overturned metal tin. Otherwise, there was no accompaniment. But that didn’t seem to matter, especially since there was no room anyway for musical instruments. We were late arriving and before long one of the young women moved to the pulpit with Bible in hand. Everyone sat down, jammed against each other on the Xoor. She took out several pages of notes and proceeded to read scripture, cross-reference Bible passages, and talk about the lifestyle beWtting a Christian. When she Wnished, it was time for refreshments and


a break. This was our opportunity to ask these young adults why they were spending Friday night here, rather than partying—although this gathering was anything but a somber act of religious piety. As soon as we pulled out our video camera, we had a queue of eager respondents. Everyone had a diVerent story to tell, but there were also some common themes. Most of these youth came from a nominal Catholic background. Several of them said that family members practiced Santeria and regularly invited spirits to control them and speak through them. A pervasive theme was childhoods characterized by alcoholic fathers and dysfunctional families. One beautiful girl about Wfteen years of age said that her uncle had tried to sexually abuse her, and she described a long period of depression. Another girl said that she lived for wild parties, stating that her home life was totally unfulWlling. Several boys told us that drugs, sex, and gang activities were a normal element of life in the barrio. And then they met Sister Marlena. To a person these young adults said she had brought order to their lives. How? By opening up to them an alternative way of life, rooted in biblical principles, but punctuated by ecstatic worship. Included in the mix was Wednesday prayer and fasting, as well as monthly all-night prayer meetings. If the formula had been total renunciation of the Xesh, then it is unlikely that these young adults would have gathered around this mother Wgure. But there was plenty of ecstatic dancing and periods of speaking in tongues to balance the austerity. Our round of interviews ended when the refreshments ran out and spontaneously someone started singing again. By this time it was midnight, although clearly the night was still young, because now the praise volume was turned up a couple of notches, and with it the dancing got more physical. Sometimes the movement included hand motions that accompanied the lyrics, such as throwing Satan out of their lives. Other times it was clear that these young adults were literalizing the biblical admonition of making a joyful noise unto the Lord. Finally, about 1 a.m., the researchers were worn out and ready to head back to the comfort of their hotel. As we headed down the mountain, and in subsequent conver-


sations, including an in-depth interview with Sister Marlena, we came to some conclusions that were reinforced when we returned a year later to do a more detailed observation of this group. First, part of the attraction of these young adults to Sister Marlena is that they desperately need a mother Wgure in their lives. Many of them referred to the fact that she disciplined them, but in the next breath they would say how she constantly is there for them, accepting them, loving them, and giving them counsel. In short, religion was providing the ageold function of ordering human experience: giving direction to people, establishing boundaries, and providing renewal mechanisms for people when they fail.2 Second, this small worshiping community functioned like an extended family, providing these young adults with an intense experience of community. If Sister Marlena was a surrogate mother, then the group of believers was the equivalent of a gang, in that it provided intense interactions and relationships, anchored in a strict code of behavior. The diVerence between this group and a criminal gang was the ethical content. Rather than focusing on territorial boundaries, these Christians practiced a strict ethic of love and compassion for each other. While the members avoided inviting newcomers to their all-night prayer vigils, fearing that it might scare them oV, new people regularly joined their ranks because the group provided an alternative to the chaos that characterized many of their lives. Third, many of the young adults we interviewed referred to a reality that goes beyond the social and psychological variables referred to thus far. Namely, they had an encounter with Jesus—often mediated by what they described, according to their worldview, as the Holy Spirit—that transformed their lives. In a few instances, these encounters came in the form of visions and dreams; other respondents simply referred to the presence of Christ. Whatever the ontological reality of these encounters, the aVective role they played is palpable. If one were to remove this element, it is doubtful that many individuals would have made the dramatic lifestyle changes they did.


Fourth, this community is eVective in transforming the libidinal energies of teens and young adults into the act of worship. To the outside observer, there was a decidedly sensual element to the worship occurring in this twelve-foot-square sanctuary. On the other hand, during break time the participants talked to us about how this group assisted them in resisting the temptation of premarital sex. Indeed, religion seemed to be bringing order to their lives at the very time that it was allowing for ecstatic release—which may, indeed, be the unique genius of Pentecostalism. Fifth, the long-term consequence of these young adults participating in this worshiping community is that many of them experience upward social mobility when compared to their peers living in the barrio. For one thing, they are not spending 20 to 30 percent of their income on alcohol, thus allowing for investment of this “surplus capital” in housing, education, and business activities. Furthermore, the women are typically delaying pregnancy, which enables them to pursue more education than they otherwise might receive. In addition, the ideology of Pentecostalism often mediates goal-oriented behavior, which, when not servicing activities related to proselytizing, may be directed to instrumental goals associated with activities promoting upward social mobility. Finally, this small band of believers gathers together because of the life and witness of Sister Marlena. She is someone who came to Pentecostal Christianity at a diYcult time in her life. Her Wrst husband was an abusive alcoholic. She suVered the trauma of losing one of her sons to gang violence. But a Pentecostal church in Caracas became an anchor in her life. After a period of prayer and fasting, she founded a mission that resulted in a house full of additional children. In many ways, her own history of brokenness is the basis for her being an instrument of new life for the dozens of young adults who crowd into her home on an almost daily basis. Meanwhile, she remains part of a larger worshiping community in Caracas that many of these young adults have also joined, which networks them with a more extensive body of Christians. Many of the examples given in the preceding pages have been exceptional, one-of-a-kind ministries. In our research we also encountered


youth-oriented Pentecostal churches that are having a transformative impact in their communities. To illustrate the range of possibilities, we will cite examples from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. In addition, we had the opportunity to witness a collaboration among churches, including Pentecostal congregations, that was focused on children’s rights.

TEENS SERVING THE COMMUNITY IN BUENOS AIRES

The Church of the Open Door in Buenos Aires is growing rapidly, fueled by 350 youth and young adults who attend on a weekly basis. Five years prior to our visit, there were only ninety teens and young adults. What led to this dramatic increase? Undoubtedly there were many factors, including the gymnasium structure in which the church meets, contemporary worship music, and the Saturday evening programming that ends about one in the morning and provides an alternative to the disco culture that engages so many youth. But at the heart of this growth is an ethic of service, which members say Jesus embodied in his life as well as in his teaching. While Saturday night is a time to celebrate—as well as study the Bible and pray together—every teen and young adult is also invited to participate in one of twenty diVerent service activities during the week. Some of these services are inwardly directed, so there are youth in charge of worship, preparing the facility, cooking, and cleaning up. But a number of teens are passing out soup to homeless people once a week. Other youth are visiting the elderly. Another group joins weekly with church leaders to take mental patients from the local psychiatric hospital on outings. And then there are youth who are serving other kids, including journeying to one of the border areas of Argentina, where the church has adopted several schools. The Saturday night we visited the church, a group of teens and young adults had just returned from a weeklong trip in which they built a basketball court for a neighborhood that had no recreation facilities for its youth. In addition to mixing cement and putting up two basketball stan-


dards and hoops, they spent time interacting with the kids of the neighborhood. After a lively time of singing this Saturday evening, the group went to the podium to share their experiences of the week. They showed a crudely edited video that they had made and talked about individual children they had encountered. The most striking account was of a young boy who lived with his alcoholic father. At the beginning of the week, he communicated by barking like a dog—because that seemingly was the peer group with whom he associated. But by the end of the week he was starting to smile and talk, entering the world of civilized discourse. Whatever good this group had done for this boy, the more profound change was in the youths who had reached out to him in love. After the service ended and people were drinking Cokes and eating cookies, we gathered a small group of young people around us. They were eager to talk about their service commitments. Clearly a connection had been made between the Bible study they do on Saturday night and the service activities they are doing the rest of the week. One young man said rather graphically that if God is to Wll you up with his love, then you have to empty yourself by loving other people. Repeatedly they recited the mantra that Jesus came to serve, not to be served, and as followers of Jesus they were to emulate his example. What impressed us was the exuberant quality of their testimonies. Clearly they were enjoying being disciples of Jesus. In the very act of giving their lives away to others, they were Wnding new purpose in their own lives. The cycle of utilitarian individualism that is so prominent in contemporary society was being broken; in its place a communitarian ethic was being born that drew on the symbol of Jesus the Servant of Others.3 This new ethic was not being created out of a vacuum, however. Many of the youth had participated in a weekend experience dedicated to healing the breach between themselves and their parents. We promised not to give away the details of this weekend, because it entails a surprise ending. But this much we are at liberty to summarize, which is that this weekend encounter was borrowed from a Catholic church in Chile that sent a delegation to Buenos Aires to structure the Wrst encounter between young


adults and their parents. In subsequent weekends they invite 170 young people to participate at a time, but surround them with double that many volunteer youth. Even though this is a church-sponsored activity, the volunteers view it as a service to the community and avoid overt proselytizing. Instead, the 350 volunteers seek to embody their beliefs in action as they serve the participants. In small groups they identify the tensions in their relationships with parents and work on strategies for addressing them. Many of the teens and young adults we interviewed said that their lives had been transformed by this weekend, creating a basis for being a better exemplar of the Jesus ethic as a result of healing one of the fundamental relationships in their personal lives—that between parent and child. RITES OF PASSAGE IN NAIROBI

Because of urbanization, many rites of passage have disappeared that used to assist children in Africa in making the transition from childhood to adulthood. For example, it is no longer possible for a young man to demonstrate his prowess by killing a lion. Furthermore, female genital mutilation is rightly viewed as morally repugnant. But when these rites of passage disappear, what markers exist—both for individuals as well as their parents—to signal to the community that this boy or girl is now ready to take on new roles and responsibilities and that he or she is no longer to be treated as a child? Modern urban society has clearly done a poor job of evolving substitute rituals, although in Western societies the driver’s license, perhaps, is the nearest equivalent. Nairobi Chapel in Kenya decided to take up this challenge and selfconsciously design transitional rituals for both boys and girls. As their youth approach age thirteen, a year of instruction is implemented that focuses on matters of sexuality, the responsibilities inherent in being able to procreate, the duties associated with being a man or woman, the way adults should treat and relate to members of the opposite sex, and so on. At the end of the year, the parents of these children come together and design separate rituals for boys and girls. For example, the boys have been sub-


jected to a weekend where they live alone in the bush. The leaders of this rite keep track of these youth, but these boys also are faced with darkness and wild animals as they sleep out in the open by themselves. At the end of the experience, they are joined by their parents and a contract is drawn up regarding their duties now that they have transitioned into adulthood (what new rights they will have and what new responsibilities are appropriate to a man rather than a boy). Then the church has a celebratory event in which members of the community gather to commemorate this transition into adulthood. A diVerent but structurally similar ritual is available to young women, as an alternative to the cultural tradition of female circumcision, which formerly was the rite of passage for women.

CITY HARVEST IN SINGAPORE: A YOUTH-BASED MEGACHURCH

There is nothing comparable, perhaps anywhere in the world, to City Harvest in Singapore. Our statistics are undoubtedly out of date, but when we visited the church it had 13,000 members; the average age among the membership was 26 years old. They meet in a building, paid for primarily by members, that cost $47 million. It has four Xoors below ground level and four above. The outside is titanium, and from all appearances it could be a theater or fancy oYce building. As one enters, high-tech video monitors play the latest hit album of the senior pastor’s wife. On the roof of the complex is a garden with mist spraying to cool the temperature, as well as a pool for baptisms. The building also hosts a coVee shop that makes Starbucks seem a little dated. Located oV the coVee shop is a $1.5 million recording studio, complete with banks of television monitors and the latest video equipment. And then there is the worship space. The Wrst time we visited City Harvest it was meeting in a theater. Multiple services were preceded with kids queuing for up to an hour waiting for the previous service to end. The current auditorium is designed in a large semicircle with tiered theater seats. The wall behind the stage is dominated by a huge television screen with picture-perfect resolution.


Scattered throughout the auditorium are television cameras, plus a remote camera on a crane that can pan the entire audience. The sound system is the equal of that in any rock concert venue. And everything is perfectly organized. There is a clear chain of command that involves greeters and church members who usher you to your seat. Everyone is given an outline with the main points of the sermon. But the sermon is preceded by ramped-up singing, a skit performed by church members who are semiprofessional actors, a clip from the recently released video of the pastor’s wife, and some lively interaction with the people around you. The sermon we heard was very practical: be sensitive and kind, be supportive of others, be sympathetic to those in need, and be spontaneous as you show Christ’s love. At one point, the members of the audience were invited to pair up and talk with each other about one of the sermon points. The audience was also invited to hug and even kiss the friends around you. In a highly competitive cultural environment such as Singapore, this expression of aVection and care is a welcome antidote to commercial interactions. In an interview later in the week, we explored with one of the pastors the structure of an organization that allows a group of teens and young adults to support a program of this scope. At the heart of the ministry are 700 cell groups. Approximately half of these are youth cells, and the other half are adult groups. Cell leaders meet weekly for training. A sermon is given, and their task is to take the core of the sermon and personalize it for a twenty-minute presentation to their cell group members. In the cell group meeting, the sermon is prefaced by a welcoming ice breaker; then there is singing of praise choruses, the sermon, and Wnally a period of prayer. There are typically eight people in a cell. If the group reaches thirty, it splits. This split, of course, allows for other leaders to develop skills, and there is always an understudy in every group. On a seasonal basis, there are also four diVerent teaching series that members graduate through. “Getting Started” is for new members and is followed by a series on the “Christian Lifestyle” and then a series on “Laying the Foundation” and, Wnally, a series on “Victorious Living.”


Initially the church was criticized by parents whose children were ignoring their studies because of all the activity surrounding City Harvest. This problem was dealt with by demanding that students spend twenty hours a week studying outside of school in order to come to a cell group meeting. In addition, the church set up the best tutoring program in all of Singapore, and this, in turn, started attracting youth to the church, because members were known for the good grades they were getting. In Singapore, which is one of the most competitive educational environments in the world, there is clearly a cultural Wt between the philosophy of the church and the social ethic of the people. Lest all of this emphasis on education and high-tech worship services seem too self-indulgent, the church has a full-blown program of social services to the community. In fact, we were astounded when we arrived at the street address where their social service programs are coordinated. It was housed in a pricey downtown oYce high-rise building. The City Harvest Community Service Association had 25 paid staV members and 580 volunteers who were seeing 4,600 clients a year. In addition to programs for prison inmates, the terminally ill—many of whom are HIVpositive—and the previously mentioned tutoring program for youth, they have very developed programs serving the elderly and the mentally disabled. For the elderly population, volunteers try to visit each person twice a week. In addition to befriending them, volunteers do housekeeping, go grocery shopping, take them to medical appointments, and go with them on outings and recreational activities. In addition, the church forms support groups for the elderly and oVers them the option of joining cell groups. The program for the mentally disabled is equally well developed. One other unique element of this church is that it puts considerable emphasis on the arts. In addition to the focus on music, it also has a highly developed drama focus, as well as a program in the graphic arts. In the words of the staV member leading their art college, “Art is an expression of divinity and humanity.” This staV member was recruited from Australia because of his leadership in blending worship and the arts. Based on the idea that artistic expression can be a form of worship—utilizing one’s


whole body in responding to God’s creation—City Harvest seeks excellence in drama and dance just as it does in every other aspect of church programming. Church leaders believe that they can make a substantive contribution to Singaporean culture, which they say has tended to emphasize technological sophistication to the detriment of the arts.

STANDING UP FOR CHILDREN’S RIGHTS IN MANILA

Manila is a city of many contrasts: fancy hotels and many American fastfood outlets, ranging from MacDonald’s to Kentucky Fried Chicken. But there are also thousands of people making their homes in makeshift houses that spill out onto the sidewalk, where they cook, wash dishes, do laundry, and bathe. Everywhere one turns there are “Jeepneys” crowded with passengers, along with motorcycles and scooters whose riders have towels wrapped around their heads to keep out the suVocating pollution. At nearly every signal light panhandlers come up to the car wanting to sell bottled water or various trinkets. It is a social environment in which prostitution is a very tempting occupation as an alternative to street peddling. Many youth are addicted to glue, or “rugby,” which they sniV. Child labor is extremely common, including children as young as Wve or six, who are pressured by their parents to contribute to the family income. And sexual abuse of children is rampant, often by members of their own extended family. On one of our several trips we happened to be in Manila during Child Advocacy Week. In the morning we interviewed the head of a religious nongovernmental organization (NGO) that was intervening in the lives of several thousand children, assisting families with food, paying educational fees, and providing a modicum of health care. This NGO was also collaborating with a group of churches, including Pentecostal churches, on a performance that a hundred or more children were preparing for parents and city oYcials. That afternoon we went to the dress rehearsal and interviewed some of the parents, children, and leaders. And the following day


we joined with hundreds of parents and a handful of civic leaders to watch the performance. The young man coaching these children and youth was himself a former street child who now was pursuing a postgraduate degree in dramatic arts from a school in London. For weeks he had worked with these kids to write short dramas that reXected issues that confront them on a daily basis: the temptation to join gangs and sniV solvents, coping with sexual advances by older boys and men, dealing with violent and drunken fathers, and so on. The younger children sang and danced, leaving the short skits to the teenagers. At the end of nearly two hours of various performances, juice and crackers were passed out and a short Eucharist was held. Clearly, young women left the weeks of preparation for this performance with a new understanding of their dignity as human beings—that they had the right to resist exploitation by men. They had experienced a taste of an alternative to the world of pimps and gang lords who constantly recruit them. Parents, and especially the mothers who were present, heard their children make a plea to think about the importance of education and to be self-conscious about various forms of abuse that children suVer. And the possibility exists that city oYcials who were present at the performance will seek legislation to protect the rights of children. This collaboration of churches and an NGO was unique on several accounts. First, while child labor and various forms of exploitation of children and youth are very common in cities throughout the developing world, faith-based groups often do not join with international human rights organizations to hold public oYcials accountable. Instead, they work within their own enclaves at a much more individualistic level. Second, the performance was unique in that it involved children using the dramatic arts as a vehicle to express their feelings. And third, this event involved a collaboration of churches, some Pentecostal, some Catholic, and some mainline Protestant. Clearly this collective focus on Child Advocacy Week is a model that has the potential to ripple across the globe as people of faith confront systemic evils.


ELEMENTARY AND PRIMARY SCHOOLS

A number of the churches we visited—ranging from those in Africa to Asia and Latin America—have established elementary and secondary schools. Typically these schools meet on church premises. The teachers are selected because of their religious commitment as well as their educational qualiWcations. The goal is to integrate Christianity into the curriculum, whether the subject is science or the arts. In some countries these schools are a genuine alternative to government-run institutions, which may have as many as a hundred children per classroom. Children are treated as individuals in church-run schools, which was illustrated by a Deliverance Church school in Uganda, where more than one child was wearing a T-shirt that said, “Please give me a hug.” In many Pentecostal-sponsored schools there is also a very high educational standard. For example, Kampala Pentecostal Church wants to build the best primary and secondary school in the nation, so that it will serve as a standard of excellence to be followed in the public sector. Moral education is also an integral element of the curriculum and is modeled in the way that teachers relate to children and youth and the integrity of the administration. Overt moral rhetoric is also integrated into chapel services, Bible study classes, and explanation of school rules. Sprinkled through our interviews are remarkable stories of children who entered school as very troubled kids and underwent substantial transformation. The long-term goal of these schools is that they will produce leaders who can occupy public oYce as well as be a moral presence in corporate life. A number of the churches that do not have formal schools have afterschool programs for youth. Typically these are open to the entire community and combine sports activities with tutoring opportunities and study halls. In Bangkok, the pastor of a charismatic Anglican church told us that the secret to their program is very simple: they loved kids unconditionally. He said that this indirect approach to character development


recently bore fruit when a group of kids spontaneously came to him and confessed that they had been stealing from the local Seven-Eleven store. CONCLUDING REFLECTION

Recent research has pointed to the important role played by what have been called “authoritative communities” in the lives of children.4 According to these studies, individuals who grow up outside the boundaries of parental authority and the moral demands of structured communities actually develop diVerent neural pathways in the brain when compared with children who are reared in loving environments that provide age-appropriate moral guidance. Each of the programs we visited focused on building character by surrounding children with loving aYrmation while communicating to them that there are values that supersede individual want and desire. Children who are left to fend on their own are a serious liability to society. Not only may they engage in self-destructive behavior (e.g., glue sniYng and drug use), but they are at an increased risk of pursuing predatory behavior that makes civil society impossible. To end the chapter on this negative note would be unfortunate, however. The ministry of Pentecostal churches is by no means exclusively focused on at-risk children. These churches are also brimming over with children and youth who live in functional families. For these children, the task of the church is to communicate a vision of human possibility and then serve as a vehicle for implementing this vision. In reXecting back on the various types of social ministries described in this chapter, it is apparent that programs serving youth incorporate many of the emphases we listed. Education is certainly at the heart of many of these programs, but counseling, medical assistance, and exposure to the arts are also incorporated in what Pentecostal churches are doing. Furthermore, many of these programs, while directed toward individuals, are intended to have a much broader impact on the community and in fact may even incorporate community-organizing models rather than relying


primarily on individualistic interventions. Hence, these churches are not simply practicing charity or humanitarian relief in the traditional ways that Pentecostals often embody the Christian ethic. They are, in some instances, actually attacking systemic issues by insisting that children have rights, that they should be treated with dignity, and that the church has obligations to create a community environment that gives them a Wghting chance in life.

chapter four

Practicing the Faith Transforming Individuals and Society

On the plane to Hong Kong we started reading a short book entitled Chasing the Dragon, by Jackie Pullinger.1 It is a story of her experience working in the Walled City in Hong Kong with heroin addicts. When she arrived in 1966, thousands of pimps, prostitutes, and addicts lived in a conWned space that was so dangerous that the police had abandoned patrolling it. The territory was instead ruled by the Triads, a gang noted for its violent methods of controlling life in the Walled City. Heroin and opium dens were everywhere. In them, men were lying on grates so that their body Xuids would drain onto the concrete Xoor. Many people were walking skeletons. Their only desire was for another Wx. Food, hygiene, and relationships with friends and family were strictly optional. When we Wnished reading Pullinger’s book, we decided it was either a pack of lies calculated to raise money for St. Stephen’s Society, the network of residential treatment centers that had evolved over the years, or, if it was a true story, then it deserved intensive investigation. So one afternoon we walked a few blocks from our hotel, away from the press of people on sidewalks bordered by luxury stores and high-rise oYce structures, to an area with small shops and workspaces. A few blocks past the casket shop and funeral Xorist we went upstairs to an inconspicuous oYce marked St. 99

100 / Practicing the Faith

Stephen’s. We introduced ourselves and said that we would like to make an appointment with Jackie Pullinger. As good fortune would have it, she was there and came out to greet us. For forty-Wve minutes we visited informally. Every time we mentioned “her ministry,” she would correct us. She resisted all categorizations of St. Stephen’s Society as an organization. There was no fund-raising strategy. There was no budget that we could discern. They did no strategic planning. Instead, she said, they were guided daily by the Holy Spirit; they knew that God would provide for their needs if they were doing his work. Jackie also resisted the idea that this was a church. No, it was a collection of broken people who tried to love each other as God gave them strength. The closest we could come to an organizational identiWcation was that there was kinship between this work and the Vineyard Christian Fellowship. SpeciWcally, St. Stephen’s had translated and adapted many Vineyard choruses for their worship, and they also seemed to resonate with John Wimber’s openness to the healing power of the Holy Spirit.2 Sensing our incomprehension, Jackie invited us to hang around and attend the weekly addicts’ meeting. These were all individuals, she said, who through word of mouth had found out about St. Stephen’s. Typically a formerly drug-addicted friend had told them of his or her transformation. Getting oV drugs for a few weeks or even a month is not that unusual, because most addicts are frequently arrested and go through detoxiWcation in prison. The challenge is staying oV drugs. The remarkable thing in the testimony of these ex-addicts, however, was that they often reported the withdrawal process to be painless, or nearly painless, which is completely diVerent from the wrenching process that addicts typically experience in prison or even in a hospital. Jackie explained the process to us. A newcomer oV the streets meets with an ex-addict who has become a Christian. They talk for a few minutes, and then the ex-addict begins praying for her or his new friend. The former addict does not attempt to rationally explain the Christian gospel, since in their dazed state of consciousness these addicts have little ability to think clearly. Instead, a seemingly supernatural presence descends on the

Transforming Individuals and Society / 101

addict and he or she begins speaking in tongues, unaware of what he is saying but Wlled with the power of the Holy Spirit. Knowledge of what is happening comes later, if the addict chooses to stick around and join one of the residential treatment programs. But there is no pressure, and there are no forms to Wll out. So at 5 p.m. we entered a room that had about a hundred men sitting in a semicircle. In the middle of the circle were two individuals seated on low stools who were playing the guitar. For nearly an hour we sang Vineyardstyle choruses. They were very simple and very repetitive and addressed God directly, rather than singing about God and the Christian message. After every few songs, someone would have a “word of knowledge” for the group, which typically was a biblically based reXection on God’s love, care, forgiveness, and concern for those attending. Jackie translated these comments into English for our sake, but otherwise everything was done in Chinese. During the course of this Wrst hour, some of the leaders went to various individuals and placed a hand on their chest, shoulder, or stomach and prayed individually for them. Everything was very low key—almost quiet. Occasionally someone would raise his hands during the worship in praise, and others would stretch out their hands, palms up, in an act of surrender—or perhaps as an invitation for the Holy Spirit to enter their body. Finally Jackie stood up and opened her Bible. She read a few verses, Wrst from the Old Testament and then from the gospel of John. Every few lines she stopped and asked the men questions. What was being said? What did it mean to them personally? Each person had been given a Bible, so they would reread the verse and oVer an explanation. Jackie seemed to pick on the newcomers, and although some appeared a little dazed, they also seemed to enjoy the attention being paid to them. These didactic exchanges were often punctuated by humor. There was no hellWre and brimstone preaching. The mood was very quiet and casual. Later we were told that many of these men have been beaten up all their lives, especially early in their lives by their fathers. What they crave is love, even if they don’t know how to give it. They have turned to drugs as a way of dulling their internal pain. For someone to express interest in them, relating to


them in a nonexploitative manner, is truly exceptional; they were not used to being treated with respect and dignity. Jackie and her staV have no illusions about the diYculty of living a drug-free life. Our question about their “success” rate was met with mild irritation. We obviously did not understand their mentality. Not only do they not have budgets or strategic plans, but they don’t keep records of this sort. Their job is to love people, not to write annual reports for funding agencies. But they do have a system to assist addicts, which has evolved over the years, and we were invited to visit their drug rehabilitation facilities—both for men and for women. Before entering one of the treatment centers, the individual often “shoots up” one last time, arriving in a somewhat sedated state of consciousness. A male newcomer is immediately put in what is designated as the “new boys’ room” for the next nine or ten days. Then for twenty-four hours a day someone is with them. Initially, this helper may simply pray quietly for the individual as he sleeps. Then the helper will oVer to massage his body, bring him food, and otherwise pamper him, but the individual receives no sedatives to ease the withdrawal process. As he gains strength and alertness, he is free to roam around the facility, always in pajamas—which marks him as a newcomer—which has some advantages, since everyone present knows what he is going through because they have been there themselves. At the end of ten days, the individual joins a residential group of men and follows the regimen of the house. Depending on the facility, up to 20 men may live together, and in one center we visited over 150 men lived in what used to be a police recreation facility overlooking the ocean. The setting was nearly idyllic. There are separate homes where the men live, a basketball court, volleyball court, and gardenlike areas to walk. The men can also walk down to the ocean and go Wshing or canoeing. This is not a facility where an individual stays for a few months and then is out on the street again. Rather, men may stay a year or more. If they fall oV the wagon and go back on drugs, they are welcomed back without condemnation, although there are strict rules against drug or alcohol use at


the residential facilities. The staV at St. Stephen’s know that it takes time to rebuild one’s life. Addicts, we were told, get Wxated at an emotional development stage that corresponds to when they start taking drugs. Hence, if they are thirty years of age and started using heroin at age Wfteen, then developmentally they are still a teenager. Consequently, they are not ready to marry and raise children. They need to grow up, and a good way to do this is by living in a communal setting with a diverse group of men. In addition to the former police recreation center, we also visited a large two-story home for teens and young adults that is situated in an equally beautiful setting on the ocean. When we arrived, several dozen young men were sitting around playing the guitar. Our translator was one of their teachers, a young woman whom they obviously adored. On our request they volunteered, one by one, to join us outdoors for a video interview. In some ways, the stories were remarkably similar. Almost to a person they had grown up in abusive or troubled homes. They had gotten into drugs at a fairly young age as an escape from their problems. Before long they were stealing from their parents, stores, and strangers. This pattern of behavior alienated them from every support structure, except for gangs, which some of them joined. Once they were on heroin, there was no escape. The demand for the drug increased with each use. The daily cost went up, as did their criminal behavior. Before long they had dropped out of school and were living a vagrant lifestyle, and their bodies had become dissipated. We heard a similar story when we visited a set of apartments for teenage girls and young women. The major variation in their accounts was that they supported themselves through prostitution. Some of these girls were very beautiful and were able to demand high prices for their services. But inevitably they became enslaved to pimps, who abused and controlled them. Several of the girls cried at various points in their accounts; addiction had cost them their dignity. But they were now struggling to piece their lives back together. Many were back in school. Others had babies for whom they were caring. One young mother had lost a leg from drug injection sites that had become infected. The staV told us they had learned through experience that it did not work well to have large


numbers of teenage girls living in a single facility, so instead they had a network of apartments where girls live with a housemother or houseparents. The two elements that seemed pervasive in the four facilities we visited were unconditional love and what was described as supernatural intervention. In worship these dual elements were expressed very directly through physical touch. Someone would put an arm around the addict or place a hand on him or her and quietly pray as the others sang. It was not unusual for the individual to cry, shake, or speak in tongues. Something was happening to these individuals at the deepest level of their being. In our interviews with them, they claimed that the Holy Spirit had entered their bodies and a process of spiritual transformation was initiated. They confessed that they didn’t know what was happening when they Wrst spoke in tongues, but the fact that they came oV drugs with little or no pain was so unusual that they acknowledged that a divine power was at work. Furthermore, many of them said that they subsequently lost their desire for drugs. Within this family of Jesus followers, they were able to face themselves, confess to God and the community the damage that they had done to others, and begin the diYcult process of rebuilding their lives. The Christian story made sense to them. Even though they had miserably failed in their lives, their wrongdoing was forgiven on account of Jesus’ death on the cross. They had self-worth as children of God, and on a daily basis they reported seeing the Holy Spirit leading and teaching them. StaV members at these centers were a diverse lot. Some of them were ex-addicts who had evolved into real leaders. We did a long interview with an athletic man who had been in and out of hospitals and prisons countless times. In fact, a doctor had told him that he might as well commit suicide, which he then tried by jumping out of a hospital window. But at his lowest moment he wandered into Jackie’s center in the Walled City, and there he encountered a love that he said he had never experienced, and his life was completely transformed, even though it took him years to learn the rudiments of responsible adulthood. He said his Wrst instinct was to solve every problem through violence, because Wghting was how he had survived all his life. Now as director of one of the centers, he mediates


conXict by holding down a person who tries to strike someone else. He knows the mentality of these men, because they are a mirror image of who he was. We also met some of the other staV—a woman from South Africa and a couple from a beach city in California. They had read Chasing the Dragon and had decided that they wanted to put into practice the Jesus ethic of ministering to the poor, the sick, and the hopeless, mediating what they perceived to be God’s unconditional love. A CASE STUDY FROM POLAND

While grabbing a quick lunch in a restaurant in a major city in Poland, we struck up a conversation with our translator, SoWa (not her real name). She was extremely Xuent in English and, in response to our query, said that she had lived in New York City for a while. We asked when she had returned to Warsaw, and the following remarkable story unfolded, corresponding at many points with accounts that we had heard in Hong Kong. SoWa said that at age fourteen she was sexually abused by an older woman. This experience left her confused and angry, and she dealt with the problem by taking heroin. From the moment she tried the drug she fell in love with it. Heroin took away her emotional pain, she felt selfconWdent, and she lost her shyness and inhibition. She also started drinking a lot, dropped out of school, and moved in with a man who was fourteen years her senior. SoWa said, “I was very promiscuous because I always wanted attention from men because my father never gave it to me, and it was the only way for me to get attention.” While SoWa was still a teenager, her mother moved to New York City. Sick of the life she was leading, SoWa decided to follow her. For a while she stopped drinking. She learned English. And she was even renting her own apartment. But then she said the internal emptiness set in once again. “I just needed a relationship, with anyone. I just needed someone who could understand me, and who I could be intimate with.” She said that she started going to clubs and was working as a waitress and bartender when she met a man and asked him to move in with her. He was using cocaine.


SoWa said that she started using it also. From this point her life started another downward spiral. She began using heroin again, and the drug habit took over her life. “I lost my job, I lost my bank account, my apartment, everything; and I ended up on the streets of New York. When you are on the street, you have to do things to survive, so I got involved in a gang and I met some drug dealers. I was a prostitute. I was working for pimps. I was working for drug dealers. I was in jail seven times.” SoWa said that she wanted to stop using drugs but knew it was impossible. “Every time I would go to jail I knew the minute I was arrested, as soon as I came out I would use it again. I had absolutely no motivation to stop.” Then one day when she was selling drugs in Harlem, a car pulled up and a woman rolled down the window. SoWa thought she was an undercover police oYcer and that she was going to be arrested again. But instead the people in the car oVered to help her, to give her food and a place to sleep. “I just started cursing. I told them to leave me alone. I told them that if they wanted to help me, they could give me ten dollars for another Wx, because there is absolutely no hope.” However, they didn’t give up. They kept stopping by to talk with SoWa, sometimes chatting and other times giving her some food or clothing. “After about four months I started thinking that maybe there is a chance for me; maybe I can start all over again. I didn’t know how, because I knew how far I was gone, and it was a very scary thought at Wrst. But I decided to give it a shot.” SoWa was taken to a Christian rehabilitation center aYliated with Teen Challenge. Before arriving, she said that she got herself a Wx, because she was really scared of her decision. “So when I got there, I was high, and then the next three days I was just kicking heroin cold turkey, and there were people there that were praying for me, and I remember I just couldn’t understand how you could pray for someone like me, but they did and they just showed me so much love and so much attention.” Once she was sober, she started attending Bible study classes and went to diVerent counseling sessions. “The Wrst verse from the Bible that they gave me to read was 2 Corinthians 5:17: ‘Whoever is in Christ is a new creation. Old things


have passed away and everything has become new.’” She said, “It was just too good to be true for me, but I believed in that verse, and I accepted the Lord in my heart, and it was something that I was dreaming about, but I just didn’t know how to get it, and there was the answer.” For a number of months SoWa lived in this Christian rehabilitation center. Every day from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. the residents were at work rebuilding their lives. They had a routine of chores, morning devotions, counseling, work duties, and worship. One evening the head of the center, who SoWa said had the gift of baptizing people in the Holy Spirit, took her to the basement and said, “Just imagine that you are a can of Coke that is shaken really hard and it is just about to explode. Don’t hold yourself back.” And SoWa said that the leader started praying with her and she spoke in tongues, and she was baptized in water a few weeks later. In her account SoWa kept returning to the unconditional love that she experienced at the center. The emptiness that she had felt for so long was being Wlled with an understanding that she had value because she was a child of God. As we talked to her about the ongoing healing process, now three years since her conversion, SoWa said that every morning she wakes up and thinks of God’s mercy, that regardless of her failures she is loved. And this gives her the strength to move forward. While she was in the rehabilitation center, she heard the song “Amazing Grace,” and for three days she said she cried, because the lyrics encapsulated her experience. She had been lost and God had found her—in his mercy, she said. SoWa is not an exceptional case. In addition to Hong Kong, we visited rehabilitation centers in Calcutta, Caracas, and Buenos Aires. Jackie Pullinger’s approach in Hong Kong was the most radical, with newcomers speaking in tongues before they even got oV drugs. It was also the largest program, with three hundred people living in residential facilities. The other programs were smaller and often less comprehensive. Nevertheless, drug rehabilitation is clearly a major initiative of some Pentecostal churches, with Teen Challenge being the largest international faith-based organization that has a strong charismatic emphasis.


THEORETICAL INTERLUDE

What analytical sense can one make of “Holy Spirit” intervention in the lives of drug addicts? And does it make any sense to run an organization without a strategic plan, budget, or fund-raising staV? There are two ways to answer these questions. The Wrst Wts neatly within a social science perspective and is not particularly mysterious. The second is much more complicated because it invites the analyst into the worldview of the organization’s leaders, which is admittedly theological. From a psychological standpoint it is clear that many individuals who pursue heroin are drawn to the drug because it momentarily addresses the pain in their lives caused by dysfunctional families and other types of trauma and abuse. Addicts often want to get oV the drug, but detox in prison or other facilities does not Wll the void in their lives, and consequently, they inevitably relapse once they are outside a controlled environment. St. Stephen’s Society takes a radically diVerent approach. It oVers individuals the one thing they have never before had in their lives— unconditional love. In a structured environment of caregiving and respect, individuals are given the opportunity to gradually rebuild their lives. Some individuals seize this opportunity and others do not; clearly this is not a formula that works for everyone. From a social science perspective, one can understand some of the speciWc practices that are followed within faith-based programs such as St. Stephen’s Society. For example, they appropriate ritual practices in which addicts experience human touch that, in many cases, they have never before encountered. Individuals reach out to these addicts by putting an arm around them during worship. The soft-rock Christian melodies being sung by the rest of the congregants set a nurturing tone for healing and confession. And addicts have a lot to confess; they have inevitably alienated nearly everyone in their path, especially family members. They also tend to have very low self-esteem: they have stolen from friends and society, women have often turned to prostitution to support their habit, they know that many people think they might be better oV dead. And so the Christian


message has a considerable amount to recommend to them because herein they Wnd a message of forgiveness, transformation, and hope. They take great solace in the fact that Jesus died for sinners like themselves and that resurrection is possible after death, since many of them feel that, in fact, they are as good as dead. Where social science explanations tend toward reductionism is in their interpretation of the central element that ex-addicts say healed them: namely, the intervention of God, or the Holy Spirit. What is occurring when addicts spontaneously speak in tongues prior to their Wrst meeting at St. Stephen’s Society? If this were occurring during the meeting that follows, then one might argue that addicts are modeling behavior that they have observed around them. But this is not the case. They have had no prior experience with charismatic worship. And why do many addicts suVer little or no withdrawal when they are coming oV drugs at St. Stephen’s? Is there something supernatural occurring or does surrounding someone with constant loving attention trigger a neurological response that blocks the pain associated with withdrawal? Clearly insiders believe that it is the power of the Holy Spirit intervening in their lives. Should this religious explanation be denied a priori because it does not Wt within the naturalistic theories of twenty-Wrst-century social science? The obvious choices are to dismiss what Pentecostals say about themselves as pure illusion, to reframe their experience within naturalistic categories such as autosuggestion or self-fulWlling prophecies, or to acknowledge that there may be realms of experience that need to be incorporated within our theories of human behavior. We will return to these questions in the last chapter, but it is important at this point to register that there are tensions between current social science theory and the experience of Pentecostals. We may also need to revise some of our theories of organizations. Jackie Pullinger deWes all the conventions of best business practices. She believes that God will supply all of the needs of St. Stephen’s Society, and therefore she does not have a fund-raising staV, nor does she make business plans. At one level she styles herself after the charismatic founder of Christianity, who never took up oVerings or asked people to sign annual pledge cards.


But Pullinger is not unique in talking about “living by faith.” This is a very common expression among Pentecostals who believe that God supplies their needs. When the Wnances run low, they ask themselves whether they are in the center of God’s will. When the money is Xowing, they thank God for being allowed to be his vessel in the world. The cynic would say that these are convenient means of self-rationalization and that a lot more marketing and strategic planning is going on than Jackie Pullinger and Pentecostals like to admit. MENTAL HEALTH AND PRISON MINISTRY IN BUENOS AIRES

Like many social programs, the Christian Assistance Service for Prisoners and the Mentally Ill emerged from the founder’s own experience. Daniel RuYnatti spent Wve years in the mental ward of a jail in Buenos Aires, where he was classiWed by psychiatrists as a paranoid schizophrenic. While serving time for armed robbery—which included a threat to blow up a bank—Daniel had a remarkable conversion experience. A blind cell mate asked him to read the Bible to him. So Daniel started in Genesis and read Wfty-eight pages out loud every day. On the fourth day, Daniel said that he felt the presence of God in the room. He was reading Deuteronomy 13, regarding worshiping false idols. He felt that he had to make a choice between the life he had been leading and following the God described by the Hebrew prophets. The blind cell mate tired of Daniel’s reading, so Daniel continued reading to himself for another sixteen days until he Wnished the New Testament. During this period Daniel said that he experienced an “indescribable joy.” He quit smoking during this time, and also quit the medications he was taking. Internally, he said, he could feel that he was becoming a “new man” as he bathed himself, put on clean clothes, and took a series of vows in response to the biblical passages he was reading. Within a short time, Daniel began preaching to his fellow inmates. In addition, he and other converts began cleaning the jail and caring for prisoners who were weak or sick. Within a month, Daniel said that half of the


prisoners were either attending his meetings or had become converts. The authorities running the jail collaborated with Daniel, because the level of violence within the prison had declined, including rape of fellow prisoners. This ministry continued for the next two years while Daniel was serving the remainder of his sentence. Six months after he was released from prison, he was allowed to return to the jail to continue his ministry. The consulting psychiatrists, he said, were amazed by the transformation in his character, but the fact that his schizophrenic tendencies had disappeared was even more surprising, since more than a dozen diVerent doctors had dealt with him during his imprisonment. When we interviewed Daniel, it had been Wfteen years since he left prison. As he worked together with his wife, Maria Elena, the program blossomed into a multifaceted ministry that includes working with women prisoners who give birth to children while in jail. They have an extensive program with mental patients—both those who are hospitalized as well as prisoners who are in jail, and they help transition prisoners and mental patients back into society once they are released. In addition to working one-on-one with prisoners and mental patients, religious services are held in the jails. Every week they also take mental patients from the hospitals on picnics. They also have set up workshops in the jails to teach people job skills so that they will be more likely to Wnd employment when they are discharged. Daniel said that his approach with prisoners is to tell his own story of why he was imprisoned. This gives them hope that they can also pursue an alternative life path. With mental patients, he does not oVer them false hope that their symptoms will disappear. He sees his own healing as a supernatural act that may not occur for other people suVering from schizophrenia. Nevertheless, he said, he is constantly empowered in his work by a conviction that God intervened in his life for a purpose. Like many of the other heroic individuals we encountered during the course of our research, there is a dimension to his commitment that is not comprehensible by the normal categories of ego satisfaction and personal ambition. He feels that he has a mission, a calling that is larger than himself.


Volunteers from the Church of the Open Door, which Daniel and his wife attend, are very supportive of their ministry, and a number of pastors from other churches are now involved in the ministry, as well as twentyWve young adults from the Church of the Open Door. Although Daniel and Maria Elena’s was the most exceptional prison ministry we encountered, other Pentecostal churches also work with prison populations, including a program in São Paulo that is serving street kids who have been incarcerated for petty crimes. In some ways we were slightly surprised, however, that we did not encounter more Pentecostal churches working with prison populations, given the frequently cited biblical mandates to care for orphans, widows, and prisoners. CARING FOR HIV-POSITIVE BABIES IN BANGKOK

Located in a very pleasant neighborhood in Bangkok is a two-story house that is home for a number of babies born to mothers who were infected with the AIDS virus. The bottom Xoor of the home has been turned into a nursery. At one end of the living room are mattresses on the Xoor where, when we visited, nurses were playing with the children, changing their diapers, and feeding them. Playing softly in the background was Christian music, Thai in Xavor, but nevertheless recognizable as a close cousin to what one might hear in a typical Pentecostal or Evangelical church in the United States. When we visited, three of the babies had full-blown AIDS and were receiving a “triple cocktail” of antiretroviral drugs. Most of the babies were exceptionally alert, attempting to evoke a smile from the strangers who had entered their home. By any account, this was a very happy place. The ratio of staV to babies was one to two. The babies were constantly being touched, rocked, and stimulated by their Thai nurses. On the walls of the bedroom upstairs there were hand-painted scenes from the story of the Xood and Noah’s ark. At every turn one could feel the love and compassion of the program’s founder, Linda Kevorkian. We heard of Linda Kevorkian quite by accident when we were doing


another interview in Bangkok, and reference was made to the fact that one of us had an Armenian wife. Since there are only Wfty Armenians in all of Bangkok, we were told that we must meet Bob Kevorkian, whose company, K-Tech, constructs oYce buildings and bridges and does other large construction projects in Thailand. The next night we were invited to join Linda and Bob at a fancy steak house where we met Kwan, the Wrst child that entered Linda’s home for babies. While Kwan climbed around on Bob’s massive chest, we consumed a Texas-style slab of beef and Linda told us about her orphanage. Linda had thirteen babies whose mothers had abandoned their children at birth, assuming that they were HIV-positive. Most of the women, said Linda, were not prostitutes; instead, they had been infected by their husbands. Linda’s baby house was a way station for these infants as she sought to Wnd families who wanted to adopt them. This was the happy part of the job; the sad element was that the children with AIDS would probably not make it past their Wfth birthday and therefore were not good candidates for adoption. One might ask why a wealthy woman with grown children would want to get into the baby business. The next day we heard the story in Linda’s oYce at the orphanage. She became a Christian in midlife and a few years later was exercising on her walking machine when, in her words, “The Lord dropped into my spirit the word ‘orphanage’ . . . [and] I thought, where did that come from?” Not certain what to make of this incident, she uttered the prayer, “Well Lord, if it is from you, let it grow,” rationalizing that if it was not from God, then she would simply forget about the incident. Meanwhile, however, she shared her experience with her husband, who seemed excited about the idea and started telling other people. This led to her Wrst donation, which was followed by a contact with a woman who in the course of the conversation oVered to give her land on which to build the orphanage. Linda was so shocked by what was occurring that she Wgured God must be commissioning her to begin a new career in her Wfties. Linda’s husband continues to be supportive of her new mission in life.


He raises much of the money to support the orphanage through his business contacts, and in fact the Wrst thing one sees on entering K-Tech is an announcement of Nor Giank, the Armenian name Linda gave to the orphanage, which means “New Life.” When we visited the orphanage, staV members were considering expanding the ministry because of the increasing number of babies being birthed by HIV-positive mothers. Their strategy, however, was to go slow, to learn from the experience of others, before building a larger facility. Bob’s business acumen was thoroughly integrated with Linda’s passion for these kids, who she said always win her heart when she takes them for AIDS testing at about six months of age. Indeed, even though Bob and Linda’s own children are grown, they were considering adopting little Kwan, whom we had met the Wrst night at dinner. The story of Linda Kevorkian is instructive because it Wts with a recurring script in our interviews. An individual has a religious encounter that leads her or him on a new life course. Sometimes this encounter is enshrouded with drug abuse and the “dark night of the soul,” but it can also happen on an exercise machine. To the individuals concerned, these encounters are viewed as coming from outside themselves; they are transcendent experiences. In the case of Pentecostals, the attribution is typically to the Holy Spirit and the framework of interpretation is the Christian worldview in which God is orchestrating a master plan that is foiled only by human disobedience. Whatever may be occurring supernaturally—a question that we cannot answer in this book—the Pentecostal Christian framework that aYrms the Holy Spirit’s intervention in their lives contributes to many individuals engaging in heroic and self-sacriWcial commitments. CHURCH-RELATED MEDICAL CLINICS

We had just Wnished an hour-long interview with Pastor Oscar Muriu regarding Nairobi Chapel’s strategy for starting new congregations when he suggested that we climb into his four-wheel-drive vehicle and visit one


of the medical clinics the chapel had started in a nearby slum. As we drove outside of the downtown area, it became apparent why we needed a fourwheel-drive car: the streets were deeply rutted, and if a rainstorm hit, it would have been impossible to make any headway on the unpaved claylike streets. After a half-hour drive, we pulled up in front of a small church building, where we could hear children singing. After listening for a few minutes, we went behind the sanctuary where the children were worshiping and entered a room Wlled with sewing machines. Women were learning to design patterns, and then they were sewing clothes—not on fabric but on brown paper—since they obviously could not aVord cloth for their experimentation. We then made our way out to the front of the church and into a separate building, which was the medical clinic. It was a very simple structure containing three examination rooms, a small pharmacy, and an entryway where blood pressure and weight were recorded onto medical records that were kept in open Wles. This clinic and the other ones operated by Nairobi Chapel have a minimalist philosophy of treatment. They are not capable of doing any blood chemistry; in fact, they do not even stitch up wounds. Someone who needs these services can go to a public hospital. Instead, the clinics diagnose illnesses the old-fashioned way—by looking at symptoms and then prescribing generic drugs that cost on average about Wfty cents a prescription. This way the clinic is aVordable for the local residents who are treated for infections, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and other common problems. Max, a physician and member of Nairobi Chapel, supervises the various clinics, ensuring quality control and keeping them stocked with medicine. On the day we visited, we met an Indian medical student from Harvard University who was spending a month in Nairobi, assisted by three local nurses and someone to sweep and clean the facility. We left the clinic feeling very impressed by what could be accomplished with sixty generic drugs and a medical staV that diagnosed illnesses without millions of dollars’ worth of expensive equipment. Later in our trip we visited another medical facility, this time in nearby Uganda. It was founded by the Deliverance Church and was appropriately


named Joy Medical Clinic. StaVed by two doctors and Wve nurses, it was capable of more sophisticated diagnoses. In addition to testing for malaria—which is often deadly if left untreated—tests were administered for cholera, HIV, various STDs, and so on. The clinic also gives immunizations for polio and other childhood diseases. In a typical day the staV may see a hundred patients, although the number varies depending on whether it is malaria season or not. The charge is about one dollar for a visit, in addition to the cost of medicine, which for malaria is about four dollars. This clinic, like the others we visited, does not discriminate on the basis of religion. It is open to all people regardless of religious orientation, including Muslims who live in the immediate vicinity. While staV members are Christian, the gospel is not served out in a heavy-handed manner. When appropriate, staV members may share their faith, but they are basically in the job of dealing with individuals’ immediate physical problems. In China we visited a very well-equipped medical clinic that is operated by a Christian pediatrician of some repute. The clinic has two tracks: one doctor practices Chinese medicine, and the other follows Western medical practices, with patients making their choice regarding the mode of treatment. Although patients know that the clinic is operated by Christians, the staV are careful not to proselytize; rather, the witness is indirect—people know that the doctors are honest and, furthermore, that their fees are somewhat lower than the typical clinic. In this clinic and several others we visited, we raised the issue of supernatural healing versus medical intervention. In every case doctors recognized the value of proper medication and drug treatment, although they did not discount the possibility of supernatural healing. Nevertheless, they believed that God works through them as physicians and did not attribute illness to divine punishment. In their view, God sometimes heals people supernaturally, but he also works through medical science. One of the most sophisticated clinics we visited was in São Paulo, Brazil, and was operated by Communidade da Graca Church. On the bottom Xoor were a reception area and doctors’ oYces. On the second Xoor were a dental clinic, oYces for psychologists, and various administrative


oYces. The clinic charges a small amount, but it targets low-income people in the neighborhood of the church. On the other end of the medical spectrum, we saw very informal expressions of health care in various countries. For example, in a very poor slum in Manila, medical clinics were held twice a year in which children were Wtted with eyeglasses and various referrals were made to Christian physicians in the area. In Bangkok a Pentecostal church has a clinic every Sunday afternoon that is open to church members as well as nonmembers. Doctors and nurses who are part of this large church volunteer their services. In a network of Pentecostal churches in the Philippines, they have created a “medical mission” of doctors and nurses who visit church districts throughout the country. Included in their ranks are a number of specialists to whom they can make referrals. CARING FOR PEOPLE WITH AIDS

Many people dying of AIDS in Africa have been abandoned by their families for fear of contamination by the deadly human immunodeWciency virus (HIV). Patrick, a former police oYcer in Kampala, Uganda, is typical. When the AIDS-intervention team from a local Pentecostal church found him, he was lying in his own excrement in a windowless grassthatched hut, with four goats and several chickens for company. Only his mother still visited him. His wife and children had abandoned him, knowing that he had AIDS and being unsure of how the disease was transmitted. The church members, however, had gone through a six-month course that taught them how one becomes infected by the virus and how to care for people who are dying of AIDS. The neighbors and even Patrick’s family were very attentive when church members cleaned his stinking bed, started bringing him food on a regular basis, and gave him some inexpensive medication. In a short period, Patrick died, but he did so with dignity, and church members’ intervention in his life created an opportunity to educate neighbors about AIDS and how it can be avoided, or at least coped with, should a family member be stricken. When we Wrst visited Sam Mugote, a pastor in the


Deliverance Church, he and several associates had already trained small groups of 10–15 people in a hundred diVerent churches, and Sam estimated that they had ministered to 7,000 people who had died of AIDS. This work was being carried out with assistance from several international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), but it was very much an indigenous eVort by people who believed that Jesus’ compassionate treatment of lepers in his day established a strong example for the responsibility of Christians in confronting a plague that every fourteen seconds is leaving a child orphaned. During our several trips to Uganda, everyone we met had a close family member who had died of AIDS. Our driver, for example, told us that his wife had died, and he was taking care of their two children as well as assuming Wnancial responsibility for the welfare of several of his sister’s children. In spite of Uganda’s great success in confronting AIDS, the disease has had a huge impact on the population. There are whole villages where people of child-bearing and child-rearing age are absent. Children are being cared for by grandparents; their parents are dead, and the extended family network of uncles and aunts is either nonexistent or too overwhelmed to take responsibility for another child. The least vulnerable population is children Wve to fourteen years of age. Young adults often engage in promiscuous sex shortly after they reach puberty. Babies that are born HIV-positive often die by age three or four. In addition, sex is sometimes forced on virgins by older men, including girls’ own teachers. And while there are substantial eVorts to dispel the myth that having sex with a virgin cures one with AIDS, nevertheless young girls are often targeted for nonconsensual sex. In an interview with representatives of World Relief in Nairobi, Kenya, a number of generalizations were made regarding the challenges confronting the Christian church. Some of these are cultural, such as the tradition that the brother of a dead man must take his brother’s wife as his own, thereby becoming infected by her—if he is not already infected himself. Sex with prostitutes is also common for many men who, in turn, infect their wives. In fact, it is well known that HIV/AIDS rates are much


higher along trucking routes and in areas where men leave their families behind in rural areas in order to work in mines or urban areas. In some ways, Pentecostals have been slow to address the AIDS crisis. Their initial tendency was to see AIDS as the result of sinful behavior, and therefore people suVering with the disease were being justly punished by God. As the pandemic exploded, however, this theory did not explain the fact that infants were dying of AIDS, along with wives who were being infected by their husbands. And as the number of infected church members began to rise, the tactics of Pentecostal pastors began to change— even though there are still large numbers of legalistic Pentecostals who insist on “blaming the victims.” Numerous people told us that Catholics are doing the best job of addressing the AIDS pandemic. In one church in Johannesburg, South Africa, we asked if priests are recommending condom use and were told that the AIDS program is being run by laypersons, so as to avoid conXicts with the church hierarchy. Pentecostals, however, are beginning to address the issue within their congregations. For example, a pastor in a church in Nairobi Wnally invited a medical doctor to preach on the topic. After the service, sixty members of the congregation came to him in private to disclose their condition or to share that someone in their family was infected. Clearly AIDS is posing an enormous challenge to churches in Africa. The pastor of another large church said that he sometimes does three funerals a week for people who have died of AIDS. Given the lack of antiretroviral medications in many developing countries, there is a strong temptation for people to be attracted to healing services where supernatural healing is promised. One pastor, however, told us that these healing services actually boomerang on the church, because when people are not healed, they become disillusioned with God and turn their backs on Christianity. A much better strategy, he said, is to confront the problem without judgment, minister to those who are sick, and educate people on how to avoid contracting the disease. While a few Pentecostal churches advocate condom use, particularly if a spouse is infected, all the pastors we interviewed hold up the biblical


principle of abstinence or marital Wdelity as the ideal for their members. Nevertheless, if a person is infected—whatever the cause—the task of the church, many said, is to love people unconditionally, modeling Jesus’ example. They see the AIDS issue confronting the church as an unparalleled opportunity to bear witness to the compassion of Jesus. The Wrst step in the intervention process is simply helping people move beyond denial so that they acknowledge they are infected. This requires that pastors educate their members so that they do not blame innocent victims, but also that they oVer compassionate care regardless of whether one is blameworthy. This compassionate attitude gives them credibility to teach abstinence for single people and faithfulness within marriage. In the near term, it is unlikely that many Pentecostals pastors will advocate condom use, since it is viewed as a license for promiscuous behavior. Since AIDS education is a necessary but insuYcient response by the church, it was heartening to encounter people such as Jane Wathome, who simply rolled up her sleeves and went to work addressing the AIDS crisis in a slum near Nairobi. In a period of several years, Jane’s ministry, Beacon of Hope, has developed a number of programs, including an extensive carpet-weaving business for women who are HIV-positive or are at risk of getting AIDS. Beacon of Hope has also developed a day care center for children, as well as a vocational training program for youth and an AIDS awareness program for young adults. On the same site as these services is a clinic that provides AIDS testing and volunteer counseling. And in partnership with local churches, Beacon of Hope oVers biblical counseling sessions on how a person of faith can live with AIDS. The Shepherd’s Home in Nairobi is another heroic response to the AIDS crisis. Macmillan and Nelly Kiiru have grown children and might logically be thinking of retirement, but instead they decided to bring twenty orphaned girls into their home. They built a dormitory-style set of rooms onto the back of their residence, and the girls share this couple’s kitchen and living room. Macmillan and Nelly try to keep the girls connected with their extended family networks, and so during vacation peri-


ods from school these orphans return to live with their grandmothers or aunts and uncles. It is tragic, of course, that Macmillan and Nelly do not feel they can adopt the girls’ siblings without being overrun with more children than they can handle. Given the burden of caring for orphans, there is a substantial role for NGOs to partner with churches and individuals who want to engage the AIDS crisis. Printing educational material is expensive, and there is no need for individual congregations to create their own educational curriculum. Furthermore, NGOs can assist churches and individuals with food, payment of school fees, and clothing for orphaned children. Very few organizations, however, are facing the looming problem of the elderly. Not only are grandmothers oftentimes saddled with the responsibility of caring for grandchildren when the parents have died, but these very grandmothers have lost their source of Wnancial security with the deaths of their children. Hence, the AIDS pandemic is presenting a challenge to the Pentecostal church on multiple levels. MINISTERING TO SEX WORKERS

In both Bangkok and Calcutta we heard very similar accounts from Pentecostal church leaders who had started ministries with sex workers. The parents of girls who are twelve to thirteen years of age are approached by agents who oVer to give them a cash advance on the labor of their daughters, who will be employed in one of the large urban cities. The exact nature of the employment is typically vague, but parents in these rural areas assume that their daughter will be working as a housemaid or in a restaurant. For the pretty girls, the payments can be quite large— enough for the parents to buy a new house or purchase luxury goods. The girls themselves have little idea of what awaits them until they arrive in the red-light district of Bangkok or Calcutta. Almost immediately they are put to work in a brothel, but typically they are Wrst raped, beaten, and deprived of food and water until their will is broken. If their parents were paid 5,000


baht, they are told that for the Wrst few months they will work without any compensation while the loan to the agent is being paid back. Thereafter, they may receive 50 percent of the earnings from every customer they entertain. Young and bewildered in a strange city, these young women Wnd that it is not easy to escape. Where would they go and to whom would they turn? Furthermore, they are typically carefully guarded by the brothel owners, who have purchased them from the agents, and, as one might expect, the police are well paid by the networks that operate these brothels. We found that churches have adopted a variety of diVerent strategies to address the exploitation of these girls. In Bangkok we visited several homes for girls who either had been rescued from prostitution or had come from poor rural families and were likely targets to be sold into the sex slave market. Hope of Bangkok Church established a residential school that was built in partnership with the Swedish Pentecostal Church. It is a splendid structure, and the Wfty or so girls that we met seemed vibrant and happy and thoroughly enjoyed themselves as they sang and interacted with us on a friendly, informal level. In Bangkok we visited a smaller-scale program sponsored by the Jaisamarn Church that also had a Scandinavian connection. The girls had become masters at doing artiWcial Xower arrangements that were then sold in churches in Sweden. We were told by the leaders of this organization that young girls are valued as prostitutes because they are less likely to have AIDS. We were also informed that a vicious syndrome was evolving in some of the poor rural areas, where the parents of these girls become the envy of their neighbors because of the nice homes they are building and consequently their fellow villagers become all the more inclined to accept agents’ cash oVers for their daughters. In Hong Kong we found a somewhat diVerent set of circumstances. Many of the prostitutes were addicted to heroin, and selling their bodies was simply a way of supporting their habit. In addition, we were told that there was a fairly vibrant sex trade surrounding the karaoke bars among young women who made considerable money on one-night stands with


customers. In fact, some of the girls were able to make thousands of dollars a week, but this style of life often led them into drug use. In impoverished areas, especially in Africa, women sometimes become commercial sex workers because there is little other employment. Given this reality, we were impressed by an NGO in Tanzania that had built a Wsh farm for women in a mining district as a way of providing alternative employment. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The emerging rhetoric heard in Progressive Pentecostal churches is that it is better to teach someone how to Wsh rather than simply give them a Wsh to eat. The problem with charity is that it is a never-ending task. But truly teaching someone how to Wsh is a major undertaking. It requires specialized skills and deep pockets. Furthermore, it is diYcult even for megachurches to truly impact the structural factors that create poverty. Consequently, churches that are dedicated to economic development rather than short-term charity are increasingly partnering with NGOs that have the experience and resources to make a substantial diVerence in a community. Relationships between churches and NGOs take many forms depending on the NGO and the capacity of the congregation. For example, some NGOs target education and are partnering with churches to fund schools, especially for primary-age children. Other NGOs fund medical clinics, agricultural development, well construction, and so on. In addition, a number of NGOs are very sophisticated in oVering microloans, sometimes in collaborative partnerships with churches. The other form of funding from NGOs is direct investment in church-sponsored income-generating businesses that focus on poverty reduction within a community. One NGO that we studied rather intensively is World Vision Tanzania (WVT), which works with churches as well as other organizations within a community. Drawing on World Vision’s vast international experience, WVT follows a protocol that has evolved over a number of years. First, senior staV members identify a particular geographical area where they


intend to establish an area development project. Then for a two-year period they send a World Vision employee to mingle with the community, to get to know people, to identify community leaders, and to understand the assets and needs of the community. At the end of this period, a community council is elected that becomes the interface between World Vision and the local community. The World Vision staV member works with this council as it assesses its assets and needs and writes funding proposals. Inevitably various churches, as well as congregations from other faith traditions such as Muslims and Buddhists, are represented in the evolving partnership with World Vision. In no instance will World Vision fund an entire project; instead, projects must always be done in partnership with the local community. Typical grants to local area development projects include funds to build medical clinics and schools, purchase plows, drill wells, and establish various microloan-generated businesses. The idea of microloans, developed in Bangladesh through the Gramine Bank, has now rippled around the developing world.3 The general principle of microloans is that they are small in amount (initially ten to Wfty dollars, depending on the country) and are guaranteed by a small group of fellow loan recipients. Women have emerged to be the most faithful stewards of their money, with loan default rates averaging under 3 percent. (Men are more likely to squander their loan on alcohol or promiscuous behavior.) Once the loan is repaid—typically within a year—the recipient is then eligible to apply for a slightly higher amount, with the goal being the development of a successful and multiplying business. A church working with an established NGO can rely on the expertise of this organization as well as the fact that the NGO is in the business of doing community development. The other potential beneWt is that the NGO is often the catalyst for churches working together on a community development project. Hence, in Tanzania it is typical for Pentecostals, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, Anglicans, and even Muslims to collaborate. In this process they learn to respect each other as well as to think holistically about the needs and assets of their community.


POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT

Pentecostal churches historically have avoided engaging the political realm, in part, because “the world” is viewed as corrupt and, furthermore, Christ is returning soon, so why should one devote time to transforming social and political structures? The more urgent mandate is to “save souls” so they will not suVer eternal damnation. Indeed, this is still the position of the more traditional Pentecostals. It is also true that this legacy casts a shadow over the movement of what we are calling Progressive Pentecostals. Hence, there are only a few instances where churches we studied were overtly political in their social ministries, even though pastors would frequently allude to justice-related issues. The hesitancy to organize politically is not the result of indiVerence to political corruption or lack of desire to create a functional civil society. But the strategy for achieving a just political order is quite diVerent from the practice followed by advocates of Liberation Theology or members of liberal denominations. The fundamental task is to nurture a new generation of Christians who will run for public oYce and seek employment in the public sector, and because they are committed to the Christian ethic and are rooted in a worshiping community, they will promote just social policies and address the problem of political corruption. While this may seem like a slow path to social transformation, in fact it may pay long-term dividends for the Pentecostal movement. One church that we visited in East Africa was setting up a mentorship program in which budding young politicians would team up with more senior Christian politicians who would guide them in understanding political compromise, the use of power, and the ways in which an oYceholder can maintain integrity. In the same city we visited a gathering of church leaders from various elements of the Christian tradition, including Pentecostals, who were writing a declaration on government corruption. This was a strategy meeting to make certain that politicians knew that various practices had to change or politicians would lose the collective votes of


the church members represented by this coalition of clergy. At a more subtle level we often heard pastors preaching about equality among peoples, that God does not distinguish on the basis of race, Wnancial status, or personal heritage. Clearly this message is the basis for a working democracy in which everyone has a right to vote and express his or her opinion. One of the more dramatic stories we heard of political engagement was in the Philippines during the rebellion against Ferdinand Marcos in the mid-1980s. Religious folks of every stripe gathered in the demonstrations against this corrupt government, including Evangelicals and Pentecostals. The head of a Christian research organization in Manila told us that this was the turning point for conservative Protestants. They started to see that it was not biblical to make a radical separation between the sacred and the profane, this world and the life hereafter. Political circumstances motivated them to read their Bible through a diVerent lens. Caught up in the fervor of the demonstrations, they went searching in their Bibles for verses that justiWed their political activity. In Santiago, Chile, we spent time in a Pentecostal church where the senior pastor was actively running for president. He seemed to realize that he would get less than 5 percent of the votes, but nevertheless he felt that he had a political message to share and this was one way to do it. In Asia we studied a church where the senior pastor had publicly backed a politician who lost and was of questionable character. This association had very negative implications for the church, and most members were feeling alienated by their pastor’s overt political role. In a few instances we witnessed a candidate who was a church member being called forward during a worship service to be publicly blessed, but this did not imply that members were morally obligated to vote for this individual. It was rather an aYrmation that some people may be called by God into political oYce. CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS

Pentecostal churches occupy many diVerent points on the scale of social involvement. Legalistic churches tend to be highly sectarian, maintaining


a wall of separation between themselves and the world. Within these churches the emphasis is on personal purity. Involvement in the world is a distraction from self-perfection, and furthermore, crossing the divide into the profane world runs the risk of contamination. These Pentecostals tend to spiritualize all social problems, seeing them as the result of demonic forces at work in the world. Poverty, illness, and unjust political policies are due to moral failures, in their view, and the only solution is personal repentance and supernatural intervention; social transformation will occur only when Christ returns and establishes his earthly kingdom. The argument of this book, however, is based on the emergence of another group of Pentecostals. Members of this group fully embrace the Pentecostal tradition of the power of the Holy Spirit and the emphasis on personal transformation, but they also engage the world around them. This emergent group reXects the maturation of the Pentecostal movement. It is no longer a backwater phenomenon of primarily lower-class people who need to create prohibitions against the material world that they cannot aVord to embrace. Within the ranks of Progressive Pentecostals are many individuals who are middle class, upwardly mobile, and highly educated. These individuals are engaging in social analysis that reXects their class. They are not afraid of interaction with the world, because this is the sphere in which they operate on a daily basis in their employment. The attraction of Christianity is not simply the promise of a passport to heaven, where they can escape the travails of this world; rather, they are reexamining the life of Jesus and seeing that his teaching was often manifested in his healing ministry and compassion for the poor, prostitutes, and children. And some of these Pentecostal church members are even discovering the prophetic tradition of the Old Testament in which the pursuit of justice is seen as a prerequisite to the practice of worship. What is remarkable about this new strain of Pentecostalism is the heroic intensity of the ministries, which have not yet evolved into tired bureaucracies. The founders of these programs are driven by a sense of calling, a feeling of thankfulness for how God has intervened in their personal lives, and they are constantly reinventing their programs in response


to what they perceive to be the leading of the Holy Spirit. Because this expression of Pentecostalism is relatively new, many of the programs are somewhat vulnerable in that they are highly dependent on the creative drive of the founding leader. Some of these programs also experience the inevitable growing pains associated with organizational routinization. What impressed us continually, however, was the simultaneous emphasis on risk taking and humility. Many of the people who founded these programs were not trained to run major organizations. Nor was there any blueprint when they responded to what they viewed to be God’s calling on their life. Instead, they launched out, inevitably making mistakes and running into roadblocks—something that we did not take time to discuss in this chapter—and then humbly regrouped and began again. In fact, some of the people we interviewed even commented on how these failures pruned their egos and reminded them that this was not their project or program; rather it depended on a power higher than themselves.

chapter five

Encounters with the Holy Meeting God in Worship and Prayer

We had a leisurely dinner with a family on the outskirts of Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. It required a four-wheel-drive vehicle to reach their home, but the house was spacious and the couple who had invited us, employees of a faith-based nongovernmental organization (NGO), were extremely gracious. When the electricity suddenly quit, our host started up the generator and we continued to enjoy our meal. Around 10:30 p.m., we indicated that it was time to get back to work. Kampala Pentecostal Church was having an all-night prayer meeting, and we had decided to attend. This was the same church where we had previously gone to a dynamic worship service for youth, where many of the teens danced in the aisles to the pulsating rhythm of a hundred-member choir and a professional band. This is also the church that is heavily involved in ministry to AIDS orphans. Our dinner host pulled up to the former-theater-now-church building and dropped us oV. The service had already started, and we decided to head for the empty balcony where we could be silent observers. The lower Xoor was perhaps one-third full of young adults who were informally dressed. There was someone at the podium speaking, and in the background a young man was improvising on an electronic keyboard. The 129

130 / Encounters with the Holy

speaker was emphasizing the need for personal purity. “Stealing one shilling is the same as stealing one billion,” he said. “We must give everything to God. Our hearts, our minds, our talents—we should not hold back anything.” Then he began to pray, and the entire audience spontaneously joined him. People began pacing back and forth within the conWnes of their pew, crying out to God. Others walked in the aisles. One young man was gesturing in the air with his hands as he prayed. The sincerity and authenticity of the several hundred worshippers was palpable as heart, mind, and body coalesced into one concerted eVort to connect the human with the divine. When our dinner host was informed that we wanted to attend this prayer meeting, he quipped that it was a cheap form of entertainment. But observing these young adults at prayer, it seemed like anything but entertainment. Quite the opposite—they were working on their lives, beseeching God to cleanse them of sin and impurity. What we were observing was quite diVerent from dancing-until-you-drop at the local disco and then having sex with the girl you picked up that night. In addition to examining their own hearts, these individuals were praying for their families, their neighbors, and their government. They wanted to bring the kingdom of God to earth, and the starting point for this transformation was cleansing the sin in their own lives. Only then would they be equipped to work on the corruption around them. After some minutes, the intensity of the praying lowered a few decibels, and a young woman stepped to the podium and read from the scriptures. What followed was a highly democratic process in which people from the congregation came forward to testify or to oVer a “word of knowledge.” Dozens of people participated as they were moved by the Spirit. For example, one woman took the microphone and, quite literally, spoke on behalf of God, saying, “Do not be afraid of the sin you fear,” and other words of comfort and instruction. Interspersed between these commentaries the leader said, “Be magniWed, oh God. . . . We worship you, we lift you up. . . . We give our hands to you, oh God. . . . We oVer you our lips . . . take our feet . . . take the fears about our future, our money.” The overarching point

Meeting God in Worship and Prayer / 131

of the prayer meeting was clearly expressed in his statement “Give yourself completely to God. . . . There is no shame in it,” and the leader’s assurance that if you lack peace, it will be forthcoming if you completely surrender to God. Punctuating the prayers and commentary was the sound of people speaking in tongues. Often they would slip into this prayer language after praising God in English. It was an eVortless transition and in the moment seemed very natural. When words could no longer express what they were feeling, they moved into an alternative discourse, one that was not bound by ordinary syntax. When taken collectively, there was something rather melodic about hundreds of people praying in the Spirit. Any tendency toward cynicism by the two observers sitting in the balcony was countered by the realization that, indeed, words are sometimes inadequate to express human yearnings. As we sat there observing this divine-human encounter, it became obvious that there was a rhythm to the evening. The night had begun with a focus on puriWcation. Then it transitioned into a mixture of praise and petition, followed by a period of thanksgiving for all that God had done in the participants’ lives. At this point, however, the music became more upbeat. There were three backup singers in addition to the person leading worship, a drummer, and the young man on keyboards. Some of the music had clearly been imported from the United States; other songs were indigenous to Uganda and perhaps to this congregation. Some songs had a romantic quality: Jesus was both lover and beloved. These were not songs about God or Jesus; rather, the worshippers were singing directly to God. The assumption was that God was present, enabling direct communication with the transcendent. God was not a concept or a being who dwells somewhere in the stratosphere. He was there in the midst of these people. If the idea of the Holy Spirit had not already evolved in Christian history, the impulse for such a notion would have been born that night in this prayer meeting. The worship leader was now on his knees in prayer. The three backup singers were quietly blending their voices with the keyboard. For the moment, the drummer was silent. And we began thinking: is there a con-


nection between this form of worship and the creation of a civil society? What if senators and presidents bowed before God the way these people were doing, confessing their sins, calling on God for help and inspiration to perform their civic duties? Simultaneously, another thought came barging into our consciousness: was this some form of mindless catharsis? Would people leave this meeting better able to serve humanity than when they entered? Or was this simply an exercise in group delusion? One thing was clear, however. Worshiping in this style was a collaborative process. Regardless of one’s station in life, everyone was equal before God and had a right to speak publicly. It was now well after midnight. The spectators in the balcony were thinking about their hotel rooms at the Sheraton a few blocks away, even though the leader had just said, “We are here tonight because we want you [God] to meet us.” So we sat through the next brief sermon, from Exodus 33, the point of which was that we are not here on earth to simply mark time. Rather, we all have a purpose in life. At one point the man preaching asked pointedly, “Do you know your gifting?” By this he meant that everyone has been given a gift by God and the task of the believer is to exercise that gift. The gift is not only an obligation, he said; it is an opportunity to be Wlled with joy as you do what God intends you to do. At this moment we slipped out of our seats and down the back staircase, just as the congregants were getting to their feet, asking God to tell them what their gifts are. What is their task in this world? Who does God intend them to be? WAS ÉMILE DURKHEIM RIGHT?

In some ways, this could be the lead chapter of this book, since we believe that the root of Pentecostal social engagement is the experience of collective worship. It is the divine-human encounter that empowers people to help their immediate neighbor as well as engage in various communitybuilding activities. It is also this encounter that humbles people, enabling them to be, in the view of believers, the “servant of others.” As was evident in the previous example, Pentecostals believe that purging oneself of selWsh


and sinful ambitions is the Wrst step in listening to what God intends for one’s life. Second, worship has the potential to energize people. Rather than following their own self-interest, believers view themselves as agents of God, carrying out his will and desire for their lives. And, third, worship is a communal activity. FulWlling one’s call does not depend on heroic individualism; one is part of a community—an organ within the collective “body” of Christ. The classic formulation of the connection between religion and the community was posed by French sociologist Émile Durkheim.1 In his view, every group of people requires ritual activities to hold the community together. He believed that the relationship between the community and religion was seen most clearly in primitive societies, where ritual activities are a way of celebrating the collectively held values of the community. Durkheim said that these collective values or sentiments are embodied in a sacred symbol that represents the group as a whole. In various ritual activities this symbol is worshiped, but of course, what is viewed as sacred is not the symbol itself but the collective values of the group that it represents. Therefore, the social function of religious ritual is to reinforce in group members’ minds the values that unite them. In especially wellperformed rituals, group members experience what Durkheim called “collective eVervescence,” in which their individuality falls away and they feel such union with the group that they come to believe that, indeed, there is “something more” than the sum of the individuals who are present. This “something more” is interpreted as God or the divine, although in reality Durkheim posited that it is merely the collective values of the group. While Durkheim was an agnostic, he nevertheless felt that religion had an important function to play—especially in primitive societies—but even to some extent in advanced secular societies, because there will never be a society, he said, that does not have some need for the ritual act of moral remaking.2 He disagreed strenuously with theorists who said that there was no reality to religion. But he asserted that this reality is not what religious people think it is. The sacred for Durkheim is utterly human; it is the collective sentiments that bind a group together. Therefore, religion


has a functional reality, and it is important even if it does not have a metaphysical basis. Pentecostals, of course, would view Durkheim’s theory as highly reductive.3 Nevertheless, several of his insights regarding the role of ritual are illuminating. For example, there is no reason to ignore the human dimension of people worshiping together. There is group energy in people singing, whether it is in church or at a fraternity party. There is also no doubt but what collective worship serves to reinforce shared values. Collective ritual, whether political or religious, serves what Durkheim called the process of “moral remaking”—that is, collective values are upheld and celebrated in ritual activities. There is no particular reason to draw a hard line between the sacred and profane in our attempts to explain the role of ritual. The human element is always intertwined with things sacred. To suggest that there are human dynamics involved in the feeling of “collective eVervescence” common in Pentecostal worship is entirely appropriate, but Pentecostals would argue that this does not preclude the possibility that the Holy Spirit is also present. Indeed, a fundamental principle of Christianity is that the divine is manifest in human form, with Jesus being the prime example. What would violate Pentecostal teaching is to argue that worship is only a human phenomenon, which, of course, is Durkheim’s position. With these qualiWcations in mind, we turn our attention to describing the various elements of Pentecostal worship, beginning Wrst with the physical structures in which worship is held and then describing the role of music and prayer and the experience of healing, deliverance (exorcism), and being slain in the spirit. All of these elements work together in a careful, orchestrated manner that connects mind and body with faith-based community service. PHYSICAL SPACE

Making generalizations about the worship spaces of Pentecostal churches is diYcult, because they come in many diVerence sizes and textures.


Without doubt, the most extravagant church we visited was City Harvest in Singapore, which cost $47 million and resembled an upscale shopping complex, complete with its Sacred Grounds café, $2 million projection screen, auditorium with theater-style seating, and elaborate video production studio. This was one of the fanciest worship venues that we encountered, as well as one of the largest. However, a favorite purchase for growing churches appeared to be movie theaters whose business was lagging. The seating, stage, and restrooms were already in place. All church members needed to add were Sunday school classrooms and some oYce space. In fact, sometimes the oYce space was rented in a separate building nearby, and since many of these churches operate cell groups that meet in homes, it was not that important to build a massive educational complex. Although we visited plenty of humble churches that seated a hundred or less, we also attended a number of Pentecostal churches that resembled megachurches that one might Wnd in the United States. In São Paul, Brazil, for example, we attended services at the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, which occupied an entire city block and could be seen for miles around. The building was one huge box without supporting columns, and across the ceiling was an illuminated plastic cross. Grand stairs led from the street up to the auditorium, and a sloping Xoor with theater-style seats led to the stage, which contained an organ on the left, a communion table on the right (holding a Jewish candelabra), a podium in the middle, and a huge papier-mâché candelabra at the back of the stage. In the rear of the building was a nicely appointed bookstore where one could buy videotapes in several languages, along with Christian books and other items. Everything was neat, clean, shiny, and a bit plastic in appearance. It is doubtful that middle- or upper-middle-class people would Wnd it very attractive, but that was not this church’s constituency. We attended a variety of other megachurches that had been especially constructed for the purpose. They were typically very functional buildings that were notable for their plain appearance and simplicity of construction. While banners might be attached to the walls, they were bereft of stained glass, icons, or other religious art. They often, however, had excellent


sound systems and ample room for a fully appointed band. EYciency was the hallmark of these churches, not aesthetics. There was also considerable innovation in some of the construction we observed. For example, a church in Buenos Aires has taken over a shopping mall. Worship takes place on the ground Xoor, and ringing the worship space on the second Xoor are small shops and food concessions that provide a perfect place to get a snack during the long worship service. In Armenia we attended worship in a former Soviet sports palace that accommodated Wfteen hundred or so young adults who gather there every Sunday. Lenin would surely turn over in his grave if he witnessed the rock worship music that nearly lifted the roof oV the place. The vibrancy of worship, however, seems to have little to do with the actual physical space in which it occurs. In Chennai (Madras), India, we worshiped in a large building with a tin roof and open windows, where we were nearly deafened when the rain poured down in buckets. In China we sat outside in a courtyard near the church building that the congregation had outgrown. In South Africa we worshiped in a large portable tent. In Ethiopia we worshiped sitting on benches in an open-air structure with a thatched roof over our heads, but no walls. And in India, outside of Hyderabad, we worshiped in a small church that the pastor, who was a mason, had built with his own hands, and the overXow crowd sat in the courtyard that adjoined his house. Worship is an internal experience for Pentecostals. It does not require a lot of external props. Hence, little attention seemed to be given to creating a mood through religious art or architecture. Music is important, but it is the music that the people make together. The building, if it exists, is merely the shell where the Holy Spirit reportedly comes to dwell. MAKING A JOYFUL NOISE UNTO THE LORD

We arrived at Resurrection 2000 Church in Santiago, Chile, having already visited its feeding program for the poor in the community. The building was a converted theater, and in place of movie listings, the lighted


billboard simply announced the name of the church and the times of the services. We respectfully asked if it would be okay to videotape the service, and one of the assistant pastors indicated a prominent place for our tripod near the stage. The service started moments later, led by the senior pastor’s daughter, who directed a combined youth and adult choir that Xanked the band on either side. The theater was full, including the balcony, and people were on their feet, singing in rhythm with the beat of the music. Several kids in the audience immediately caught our attention. They were acting out motions to the lyrics and, quite literally, were jumping oV the Xoor in joy during the songs. We were also fascinated by the intensity of the teenagers in the choir. The boys were dressed neatly in white shirts and ties, and the girls had on silky blouses and matching skirts. They were vibrant, good-looking kids whose joy radiated out to the audience, who in turn joined them in pulsating songs of praise. The music was very Latin, but it also had a “pop” quality that resonated with the social class of the people. There were no hymnals or sheet music. All one had to do was “feel” the music; the lyrics were simple one-liners that even visitors could pick up after only a few bars. The musical instrumentation varied as we went from country to country and from large to small churches. In India we sat on mats on the Xoor in a small church, and several drummers provided the only accompaniment. Other places, especially in small-group settings, the human voice was the primary instrument. But one could also see the eVects of globalization. Most churches had electric guitars, a good drum set, a keyboard, and instruments supplied by whatever local talent was available. Sometimes it was a sax player, other times a Xutist, violinist, or someone on horns or various reed instruments. The skill level varied, but often the musicians were quite professional. If they were not playing in church, one could imagine them performing in a local nightclub. In fact, several individuals we interviewed said their service to the church was to be part of the worship team, and otherwise they made their living as professional musicians. Labeling these musicians as “performers” misses the spirit of what


occurs in worship. The goal is to invite God into their presence in such an intimate way that people literally feel the Holy Spirit touching them. Hence, this is not a concert in which music is played for an audience; rather, the task of the worship team is to create a space where people can experience the joy of being in God’s presence. Illustrating this point, a pastor we interviewed in Manila said, “We believe that every Sunday service should be a festival, a joyous celebration.” Responding more personally, a former drug addict in Hong Kong said that in worship you don’t simply sing about God and Jesus, you “touch” God. She said that sometimes she cries for no apparent reason in worship; she is simply enjoying the feeling of being in God’s presence. Pentecostal worship is not a matter, then, of mere cognitive assent to theological propositions. It is an experience of allowing oneself to feel the presence of God, and for this reason worship is a full-bodied expression. People raise their hands in praise. Their bodies sway in rhythm to the music. Some people dance. In Johannesburg we visited a tent revival where dozens of women formed a long chain, with hands on each other’s hips, and boogied outside the tent and back down the aisle, all the while singing a praise song along with the rest of the congregation. As previously reported, in Caracas we watched a group of young adults worship in an orgiastic manner that combined sensuous movement of the body with praise lyrics to Jesus. When we inquired of various people about the physicality of worship, we were reminded that David danced before God and that the Hebraic understanding of worship did not employ the mind-body split that is so typical of many traditional forms of Protestantism. THE STRUCTURE OF PENTECOSTAL WORSHIP

Pentecostal worship tends to follow a deWnite rhythm. The beginning songs are usually upbeat and energetic. They get people on their feet. The progression is then typically toward more contemplative songs. Rather than festive and celebratory, these songs are prayerful and reXective, inviting the Holy Spirit into one’s life. Even from an outsider’s vantage point,


there is often a “sweetness” in the air during these periods. These are moments in which the people are communicating with their God, and they are waiting in expectation for him to speak to them, privately and personally. The time varies, but after a half hour or forty-Wve minutes, a worship leader will invite the people to join him in prayer. Sometimes there is an interlude of speaking in tongues at this point, and then there will be more songs, an oVering, reading of scripture, the sermon, an invitation for people to come forward for healing or salvation, and then the band reappears and the people once again join their voices in celebratory praise. Viewed analytically, the goal of worship is to take one from the profane world of everyday life into a sacred moment where one can touch God, and then back out to the profane world of work and institutional maintenance and construction.4 What is remarkable to the outsider is how quickly these movements can occur. Individuals appear to come to worship with expectant hearts, ready for those triggers that will transport them into another state of consciousness. Although the depth of experience obviously varies from time to time, the goal of worship leaders is to assist people to momentarily put aside the tensions of daily living and exist, even if Xeetingly, in an egoless state of vulnerability in which the transcendent (God) can break into their lives. Some individuals report these moments as times of sacred lovemaking. For others, the Holy Spirit speaks to them, encouraging them, but also sometimes chastening them. In our interviews with worship leaders, it was clear that a great deal of thought and preparation go into worship, even though the act of worship itself may have an air of spontaneity and informality. One principle that was repeated in our interviews is that worship must be in the language of the people. In Brazil, this means that music with an Afro-Latin rhythm is often the idiom of worship; in fact, we visited one church that included two Carnival songs in worship, although the lyrics had been changed. In Singapore, the worship music had a strong Western contemporary feel. In India, the beat was totally diVerent and to our Western ears seemed very strange. In Nairobi a very thoughtful worship leader said that his church


no longer uses hymns from the nineteenth century, which seem utterly foreign to most people. Instead, the musicians at this church write much of their own worship music, which is a curious blend of English and Swahili, because that is how they talk among themselves. Furthermore, the rhythm of their worship songs, he said, typically incorporates traditional African beats, but it is appropriate for Western musical inXuences to also make their way into worship, since that is what people experience in urban Nairobi. The issue of cultural Wt between music idiom and people was illustrated in nearby Kampala. One Sunday we attended morning worship in the Anglican cathedral. The church had a gothic quality, and the worship was very traditional. While a number of young adults were present, our host said that we should return later that afternoon and observe their “alternative” service for youth. It was held in a small building oV to the left of the main sanctuary. Perhaps seventy young adults in their twenties were present. The front row of chairs was reserved for the drummers. A young woman forcefully led the group singing. There was no other accompaniment. But the Spirit was very present as individuals stood and gave testimonies between songs, asking the group to pray for their personal needs. Clearly this idiom communicated to them in ways that formal Anglican hymns and liturgy did not. In less dramatic form, churches that have multiple services on Sunday morning often tweak the music to appeal to those attending a speciWc service. Hence, a church in Nairobi had an 8:30 a.m. service that catered to university students in which the worship songs were upbeat and catchy. The 10:00 a.m. service was for families, and since the parents were older, the music was more traditional and formal. The noon service appealed to young professionals and was more laid-back and casual. This church had developed diVerent worship teams for each service, with age-appropriate music. Sometimes the same music was played at these various services, but the tempo diVered depending on the congregation. In observing worship on three diVerent continents, one is reminded that we live in a globalized world. Songs written in Australia and the


United States pop up all over the world, both in English and in translation. Currently, it does not appear that music is Xowing back the other direction with the same frequency, but perhaps this will occur in time. Many of the large churches write their own music, press their own CDs, and within weeks new music is being passed around the world. One phenomenon that has occurred in the United States is that secular corporations have realized that there is money to be made from the Christian market. The result is that major labels are pushing individual Christian music “stars,” but one consequence of this marketing tactic is that the music often has a performance orientation that fails to embody the religious experience that makes it authentic. CONNECTING MIND AND BODY

Dance was an integral element of worship in many of the churches we visited. For example, at Renascer Church in São Paulo, plywood boards had been placed on the carpeted stage so that young girls could do tap dancing and cheer routines during the service, and in Caracas a group of young women danced in the center aisle during portions of the worship. However, most of the dancing was informal. People were moved by the Spirit to express themselves physically as well as cognitively. A worship leader in Nairobi said that in his tribal language the words for song and dance are identical. In his view, it is unimaginable that one would sing and not dance at the same time. This same individual said, “The body is an extension of the heart.” Hence, if one is feeling something, why not express it physically? In many of the churches we visited, physical movement during worship is more common than standing frozen in place. The music tends to move you; it is hard to remain immobilized as the divides between heart and mind, body and spirit dissolve. In fact, as we observed people come in to worship, we realized that many of them could scarcely wait for the music to start and for the oYcially sanctioned moment in which they could “let go” and enjoy the Spirit. Deep within all of us is undoubtedly a desire to


be free, unguarded, and open with our emotions, since the responsibilities of ordinary life tend to require a certain degree of restraint. Worship for Pentecostals creates these moments on a regular basis, moments in which permission is given to step outside the boundaries of the usual polarities. The lid can be taken oV our repressive tendencies; public worship is a safe place to realize the unity of mind, body, and spirit. Emotions can Xow, and in fact tears of joy, tears of sorrow, and tears of healing often intermingle in Pentecostal worship. In this blending, there is a momentary forgetfulness about the body, so that it is no wonder that people dance, fall down prostrate before God, and lift their hands high in celebration. The energy released during worship is closely akin to what psychiatrists refer to as the libidinal force of life. It can be used in service of great evil, but it also is a resource that can be channeled for good. Critics of the religious life who see worship only in terms of psychic compensation do not understand that worship may also be generative—creating the wellsprings out of which energized commitment to social service Xows. Very few social scientists, however, understand this connection. Like Durkheim, they tend to see religion in purely functional terms or, like Freud and his ilk, in negative, repressive ways.5 But the joy and exuberance that Pentecostal worship sometimes generates may also have a renewing and energizing eVect on individuals that potentially translates into compassionate service to others. While Pentecostalism is frequently understood by outsiders as a reversion to primitivism—and from a Western perspective that honors mindbody dualism, this interpretation makes sense—it is also possible to reverse the picture and argue that Pentecostalism is ironically postmodern rather than primitive. It encourages people to merge mind and body into a uniWed expression that honors emotional and physical expressions as integral elements of worship. From this perspective, what looks old-fashioned is worship that is located primarily in the head and does not involve all the senses. Joyous ecstasy is fully compatible with contemporary life and in fact adds a dimension to life that often does not exist in a modern, secular, truncated worldview.


Theologian Harvey Cox says that part of the appeal of Pentecostalism is that it Wlls the void of the ecstasy deWcit that characterizes contemporary life.6 Unlike many forms of New Age religion, which are individualistic, Pentecostalism is simultaneously a communal experience and an individual encounter with the spiritual dimension. A pastor we interviewed in India said that the turning point in his spiritual journey occurred during a worship service in which he was searching for guidance on a diYcult decision, and suddenly “I felt a great joy Xooding my soul.” He said that this experience has not left him. To this day he feels what he called the “freshness of joy” that he attributes to God. A sociologist we interviewed in Latin America said that Pentecostalism is a “warm” religion, whereas Roman Catholicism, in his view, is a “cold religion.” Inherent in this distinction is the idea that Catholic liturgy is served up to people through a hierarchical structure, whereas Pentecostalism is highly participative. While there is order and structure to Pentecostal worship, the people are full participants in creating a sacred drama. Contact between people is not limited to the “kiss of peace” that is common in Catholic and Anglican churches, nor is physical movement orchestrated by printed instructions regarding when one should sit, kneel, or stand. There is spontaneity in worship that calls out to the kinesthetic senses for participation. And perhaps it is precisely this warmth that attracts people away from Catholicism and into Pentecostalism, especially within the Latin American context. We were regularly reminded in our research of the importance of physical touch for Pentecostals. When people come forward for prayer during a service, the pastor or lay ministers will often place their hands on the person’s head, shoulder, or arm. When congregation members make a confession of faith or ask for healing, the person ministering to them will inevitably touch them, sometimes stroking their arm or back. This is the way that family members related to each other in yesteryear. And the Pentecostal church appears to be a family of believers who love and support each other, not a corporate institution where professional distance is the norm. The physicality of Pentecostalism is also sometimes observed in various


special rituals. For example, some Pentecostal churches practice actual foot washing as part of their celebration of the Eucharist, and instead of a wafer dipped in wine they will enjoy a meal together. Baptism is also sometimes extremely physical. We were midway through a worship service in a rural part of India when the pastor paused and asked if anyone would like to be baptized that day. Seven or eight people raised their hands. And so, without missing a beat, the entire congregation processed out the door of this small church, went down the road a few hundred yards, and into a rice Weld, where there was an irrigation cistern. The concrete box of the cistern was just the right depth for the minister in full dress to step waist deep into the water, followed by the new Christians who wanted to signal their conversion to the rest of the believers. As each person was fully immersed in the water, the congregants sang the refrain of a chorus. And when the dunking was Wnished, we Wled back into the church to complete the worship service, with the warm wind drying our clothes as we walked. THE PENTECOSTAL EXPERIENCE OF PRAYER

Prayer is such a regular part of Pentecostal worship that it is diYcult to single out particular moments for description, but a few images immediately come to mind. For example, we attended an evening worship service of young adults in Bangkok, Thailand. Perhaps forty people were present, and after singing for a while, they put an empty chair in the middle of the group. One by one individuals volunteered to sit in the chair and have other members pray for them, touching a knee or shoulder. Early in the prayer session, someone left for a few minutes and returned with a roll of toilet paper, which was used for wiping away the tears of the person being prayed over. In Addis Abba, Ethiopia, we went to a growing Assembly of God Church that met in a public auditorium. Outside the auditorium were tents used as Sunday school classrooms. One tent, however, was dedicated as the prayer room, and throughout the worship service a group of people fervently prayed for the salvation and healing of those inside the auditorium. In São Paulo we attended the Sunday evening service of a


modest church. It was relatively formal and traditional, but at one point in the service the senior and assistant pastors walked around the audience and laid their hands on the heads of various people and prayed for them. The woman sitting in front of us was on the Xoor, crying out to God. Her small son was next to her, acting as if nothing unusual was happening. In Singapore, we attended a gathering of pastors who were about to launch a new ministry for the city. After the usual singing, the pastor leading the service asked everyone to pair oV into teams to pray. Some got on their knees; others stood, sometimes with a hand on another person’s shoulder. Prayers were very fervent and sometimes emotional as these pastors cried out to God for the spiritual transformation of the city. What occurs in these moments of prayer? William James states in his classic analysis of the religious life that prayer is the soul of every religion, and we are inclined to agree with him.7 Prayer is a very complex phenomenon, however. At one level it is an individual’s attempt to communicate with the divine. Some prayers are Wlled with thanksgiving; others are petitions. Unlike the beautifully scripted prayers of the Anglicans, Catholics, and others who have compiled prayers in books that are appropriate to every season of the calendar year as well as every moment of the liturgy, there is something primitive and personal about the prayers of Pentecostals. They tend to Xow from the heart, expressing spontaneous feelings of praise as well as the deepest anguish of the heart. Sometimes these prayers are focused on an individual’s needs, other times on those of loved ones, the congregation, the community, or the world. And, not infrequently, prayer is a potpourri of needs and thanksgiving, personal and public. While the subject of prayer is God, there is often an audience—especially in corporate worship. Hence, prayer becomes an occasion for collective experience, with the needs of individuals being raised up for the entire community’s consideration, and thanks being oVered for common celebration. Sometimes individuals seem to forget that they are praying to God and instead brief sermons get inserted in the guise of prayer. Hence, prayer is a means of externalizing concern for others as well as communi-


cating theological reXections to members of the community. At a purely personal level, prayer may also have a cathartic function, enabling individuals to voice feelings and concerns that otherwise would not Wnd an audience, either human or divine. This cathartic role of prayer is not simply an emotional outlet, however. It also has a potential empowering quality. By sharing their burdens with others, individuals often gain new strength and energy to deal with the problems of life. The shared burden is no longer their personal problem; their concerns have been oZoaded to God and, less directly, to the community. For Pentecostals who believe that they are God’s hands and feet in the world, clearly the body of believers is not oV the hook; they must exercise their faith, which means that they pray for the sick, take them to the hospital, and act as responsible members of the body of believers. But at another level, the results are perceived to be up to God; humans are merely God’s agents in the world. Hence, once you have entrusted your concerns to God, you are liberated to cheerfully pursue the tasks of daily life— unless, of course, the Holy Spirit instructs you to be God’s instrument in the world. GLOSSOLALIA, OR SPEAKING IN TONGUES

Human words are not always suYcient to communicate the deepest expressions of the human heart, whether they are praise or petitions. It is at this point that the strange phenomenon of speaking in tongues comes into play. In its earliest manifestation in the Wrst century, the followers of Jesus, on the day of Pentecost, spoke in foreign languages that they did not know. On occasion, the same claim is made today. More common, however, are speech patterns that are unique to each individual and that seem to Xow out of the private places of the inner spirit. Sometimes there will be translation of the tongue for the ediWcation of the larger community; more often there is speaking in tongues or singing in the spirit that is done collectively, each person in his or her own key, but when combined, the phenomenon often has a somewhat harmonious quality.


However strange this prayer language may seem to the uninitiated, which includes the two researchers for this project, in the context of worship it seems altogether natural—that is, after one has observed the phenomenon a few dozen times. Worship is a moment for Wnite human beings to communicate with the inWnite. Language, of whatever tongue, is obviously a human construction and has built-in limitations. Singing or speaking “in the Spirit” is a means of breaking out of these limits as one attempts to communicate directly and personally with what is perceived as the inWnite source of all being. The hum of people speaking in tongues during these interludes in the worship service can be rather melodic and is often accompanied by a keyboard or members of the worship team who are playing or singing (sometimes in tongues) quietly in the background. For people accustomed to rational, linear thought patterns, speaking in tongues may make little sense, because the phenomenon is decidedly nonrational—although not necessarily irrational. Obviously human experience is Wlled with numerous nonrational activities such as laughing, crying, or dreaming, yet we would scarcely think of removing these experiences from the human repertoire. They are forms of expression and communication that bubble up out of the inner depths, and speaking in tongues would appear, even to two jaded sociologists, to be a similar phenomenon. Pentecostals obviously place the phenomenon within a theological framework of the Holy Spirit speaking through them, and we do not dismiss this layer of interpretation, although our framework of analysis limits us to what we have observed at the human level. In concluding this section, one caveat is in order. When we Wrst started this project, we expected to run into speaking in tongues at every event. In fact, this was not the case. In some Pentecostal worship services, there were no expressions of this “gift of the Spirit.” Speaking in tongues was seen as a private “gift,” something that you did in your own personal prayer time. Other churches limit speaking in tongues to particular services, such as evening prayer services. And in a few cases we were told that the absence of speaking in tongues could be chalked up to marketing: church leaders did not want to scare away people who were visiting for the Wrst time.


DIVINE ENCOUNTERS

The Xip side of humans trying to communicate with God is God communicating with humans or, to be more modest, human beings claiming that God has communicated with them. At the larger, interpretive level, Pentecostals claim the Bible to be the authoritative word of God and the primary source of God’s communication with humanity. This view, of course, is common to most Christian groups, although Anglicans, for example, give almost equal footing to reason and tradition. Where Christians diVer is on the hermeneutical question of how literally or metaphorically the Bible is to be understood, with Pentecostals leaning strongly on the side of biblical literalism. While Pentecostals do not dismiss the role of human reason, they privilege the narratives regarding God’s supernatural intervention in the world and minimize the importance of tradition, except as it is informed by scripture, insisting that the model of Wrst-century Christianity is normative above all other periods of Christian history. With this context in mind, we turn to divine-human encounters. As we have already described, corporate worship is the primary place where, week after week, the Holy Spirit is invited into the midst of the people. However, Pentecostals believe that God may also communicate with his creation during special moments that are more private, such as in dreams, visions, and more subtle feelings that individuals have regarding God’s leading. The most frequent phraseology we heard is that “God keeps speaking to me” about a particular issue, or “the Lord laid a burden on my heart.” The Wrst intervention often comes as an idea that one is being “called” to a particular ministry or to pursue a particular action. Occasionally individuals have a vivid dream that invites a clear interpretation; less frequently, individuals hear a voice, sometimes audibly but, when we probed, more often metaphorically, that gives them direction in their lives. The task confronting the individual is then to “yield to the Spirit,” which often involves a considerable amount of tension, struggle, and debate. In fact, some individuals described this process in militaristic terms as “spiritual warfare,” in which their initial impulse was to follow their


own path, but when this led to disappointments and unhappiness, they “searched God’s heart” for the direction he intended. Absent from the conversation of the Pentecostals we interviewed was therapeutic rhetoric regarding Wnding one’s personal path to self-realization and happiness. The notion of fulWllment was framed entirely diVerently. True happiness is to be found in following God’s will. When one’s priorities are aligned with God’s intentions, then worldly signs of success fade into insigniWcance. In their place is a sense of profound peace and sometimes a nearly giddy happiness. Obviously these feelings, however, do not occur in a vacuum, and this is the reason that active participation in corporate worship is viewed as important. It is here that one becomes renewed in the spirit, and it is here that one experiences the joy of working with others on the common project of ushering in the “Kingdom of God.” OTHER GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT

Pentecostal churches vary widely on the degree to which various “gifts of the spirit” are exercised during Sunday worship. During our research, occasionally someone would stand and give a prophecy during the middle of the service, typically in tongues, and then an interpretation would follow. These prophecies were usually rather general and could be interpreted in a variety of ways. A more common phenomenon was healing. The pastor would ask individuals to come forward for prayer. He would then inquire about their speciWc need and place his hands on them, asking God to cure their inWrmity. In most instances there was little drama associated with these prayers. People were not Xinging away crutches or instantly receiving sight if they were blind. In fact, the requests were typically more mundane and sometimes referred to relationships rather than physical healing. Other times the concerns had to do with immediate needs. For example, in rural India a man had dug a well and there was no water; he requested prayer that he would locate water on his next attempt. On the other hand, there is a considerable desire for supernatural inter-


vention, especially in areas where medical services are minimal. For example, we attended a special healing service outside of Hyderabad, India, that was conducted by a layman who was viewed as having special God-given powers. A thousand or more people had gathered in an open-air building that provided a roof to shield them from the sun , but there were no exterior walls. This healer was dressed in white. He seemed rather weak from fasting in preparation for this service. When we interviewed him after the service, he told us several stories of being healed personally, and it seems that almost accidentally he discovered that God would use him as an agent to heal others. While he described a variety of supernatural healings that had occurred because of his ministry—including one person who had been raised from the dead—it was obvious that there was strong interaction between the crowd that had gathered in expectation of the miraculous and any personal abilities that he had to serve as a conduit for healing. During the service people lined up by the hundreds for him to pray for them, each receiving only ten or Wfteen seconds of attention. At the end of the service, people pressed around him, wanting simply to be touched. As time elapsed, it was clear that he was becoming weaker and weaker, and Wnally he had to sit down. The press of the people around him was unrelenting, and after several hours his attendants simply had to tell people to go home. As we were leaving our interview with this healer, people were still mingling around. Our host was a local person, but for some reason he stood out in the crowd, and people started lining up in front of him for prayer. Unable to turn the people away, he also prayed for their inWrmities, one by one. As we were driving away from the meeting, we talked with him about his interpretation of what we had just witnessed. Our host’s religious background was Plymouth Brethren, which is decidedly noncharismatic. We asked how he could lay hands on people and pray for them, and his answer was that his experience of dealing with people in this way had transformed his theology. He had witnessed people being healed in the same manner as was described in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles


and was thereby forced to drop his dispensational views that healing was only for the Wrst-century church. Several days later we were visiting various churches that this same man was overseeing, and we asked him about the statement made by one of the pastors that a member of his church had been raised from the dead. He said that we should visit this woman and make our own judgment. So the next Sunday after the service we drove in his four-wheel-drive vehicle to her village. The road to her house was wide enough for only one vehicle at a time, and we got stuck behind a tractor pulling a wagon. When we Wnally arrived, we must have been something of a spectacle, since Westerners are seldom seen in the area. The woman emerged from her house with several young children in tow, and her husband joined her shortly. Within minutes, a number of neighbors had also joined the conversation, including an individual who appeared to be a village elder. The woman had no problem with being videotaped, although she confessed that since she had died, she actually did not have a clear memory of what had occurred. Over the next half hour we pieced together the story from various individuals who were witnesses to the event. Apparently, the pastor from the local Pentecostal church several years earlier was making his rounds through various villages, visiting with people and praying for people in need. This woman, then a teenager, was viewed as demon-possessed. The pastor prayed for her, cast out her demons, and then went on his way. On his return through the village, he was accosted by the residents, who said that he had killed the girl. In fact, the village doctor had already arrived, pronounced her dead, and preparations were under way to bury her. Fearing for his life, the pastor and his companion began praying over her. Several hours later, she started showing signs of life and sat up, asking for a glass of water. The Hindu village elder, who was listening to this account, agreed that she had indeed died and then come back to life. Our immediate interpretation of this “resurrection” was that the girl perhaps was in an epileptic coma and came back to consciousness after an extended period of time, which happened to cor-


respond with the pastor’s prayer. This theory held until we talked to a respected physician in the United States, who had considerable experience working in developing countries, and he said that even an uncredentialed village doctor can tell whether someone is breathing or has a pulse. Several other places in India we heard additional stories of people being raised from the dead. We interviewed a senior religious Wgure who said that he had prayed for a girl who not only was dead but actually had worms coming out of her nose. After praying for this girl for approximately a half hour, she gained consciousness and told him that she had been in another world where people were wearing white clothes. She also said that she could see a location Wlled with Wre (presumably hell), and an angel spoke to her and told her that there is someone on earth weeping for her (presumably the pastor praying over her dead body). This “resurrection” raised considerable attention in the community and was written up in the local papers, resulting in this pastor being visited by various government oYcials. In addition to these dramatic accounts of resurrection, we also encountered various accounts of people being in accidents or suVering from aneurysms that resulted in comas and who then regained consciousness. For example, in Poland we interviewed a woman who told us a very moving story about her husband, who had been hit by a car and was in a coma for three days. The doctors said that he would remain in a vegetative state. Nevertheless, she prayed for him faithfully, and he made a full recovery. “Now,” she said, “she looks at each day as a gift from God.” In this and other cases, the result was viewed as supernatural intervention by God, accompanied by testimony that the doctors could not explain the individual’s recovery. In India, in particular, healing was viewed as commonplace among the Christians we interviewed. One of the most sophisticated interpretations of healing was oVered by an individual in Hong Kong with a doctorate in theology from a wellregarded Canadian university. Not only had he witnessed physical healing by religious leaders, but he had himself been the instrument of healing, even though he did not know that he had this gift. For example, he cited


the case of praying for a woman with a serious jaw infection. She was healed instantly after his prayer, and the miracle was conWrmed by a dentist who was traveling with him. What was fascinating about his various accounts is that he clearly viewed some healing as psychosomatic, and other reported healings he attributed to exaggerated rumors. At the same time, he avoided either-or interpretations and argued that there is no reason to say that all healings are the result of supernatural intervention or that they can all be explained scientiWcally. As in the case of our host from India, his experience had transformed his theology, although he was much more willing to Wnd naturalistic explanations for healings, including the power of suggestion, which potentially strengthens the immune system. In our own view, there is considerable wisdom in the perspective taken by our acquaintance from Hong Kong. Clearly some accounts of healing that we heard could have been the result of spontaneous remission of disease, individuals who were in epileptic comas, or circumstantial evidence that got exaggerated over time. At the same time, however, there may be mind-body interactions that religious intervention facilitates. Believers inevitably view these occurrences as supernatural intervention, and our position is that social scientists are in no position to refute these claims a priori, although a healthy dose of skepticism is undoubtedly methodologically appropriate. On the other hand, skepticism that is simply born out of ideological bias is completely inappropriate, and we have attempted not to reject claims out of hand that the deaf hear, the blind see, and cancers are cured, and on occasion that something really remarkable may occur, such as people being raised from the dead. At the same time, there is a certain amount of showmanship that seems to be part of the drama of healing. For example, we watched with interest in São Paulo at the Universal Church when approximately twenty people came forward to give testimonies about healings that they had just received. One lady was asked to demonstrate her healing by raising her leg several feet oV the ground. With some eVort, this overweight woman got her leg about two feet oV the Xoor. The audience responded warmly to this accomplishment, and we were intrigued that among the various


witnesses there was good-natured joking and joshing about their healings. In short, it is a mistake to make too large a juncture between the sacred and the profane because, in fact, the line is not all that hard in the world of the Pentecostal community.

DELIVERANCE AND POSSESSION BY THE HOLY SPIRIT

As individuals who take the Bible seriously, Pentecostals not only follow the example of Jesus in healing people, but also cast out demons. Although we encountered this phenomenon in nearly every country we visited, the existence of demons seemed to be especially acknowledged in Brazil, where Pentecostal pastors knew the names of the twenty or thirty demons that most commonly possess people. In the International Church in São Paulo, we attended the Tuesday evening worship, which is specially designated as the time for deliverance to take place. The Wrst part of the worship service was very conventional. There was a period of praise singing and then a sermon. Near the end of the sermon the pastor turned his attention to delivering people from the demonic forces controlling their lives. His voice got very loud and commanding, and he started naming one demon at a time, ordering it to leave its victim. Simultaneously, a young girl was playing very discordant music on the keyboard, which appeared to create an atmosphere for manifestations of the demonic. Within a few minutes, a middle-aged woman began to exhibit signs of possession, shrieking and shaking. A young pastor stepped into the line of duty and took her head in his arms, holding her while she writhed about. In this process her glasses went Xying oV, which the senior pastor retrieved. Meanwhile, several women lay pastors paced around the auditorium and blessed people. The senior pastor, who had the microphone, said with reference to each person who was manifesting the demonic: “In the name of Jesus, I command you to leave. You do not have authority over these people’s lives. They belong to Jesus.” After Wfteen minutes or so, the discordant music turned harmonious, the pastor modulated from a command-


ing tone to a gentle and loving one, and the people raised their voices in song, praising God who, they claimed, is in control of the universe. The worship service was not quite complete, however. Everyone in the audience was given a white cloth the size of a handkerchief. On it was a spot of anointed oil. Each person in attendance was instructed to write on this cloth during the week a “curse” that was dragging them down in their Christian life. Attendees were told to return these handkerchiefs the following Tuesday, and together they would burn them, and with this sacriWce would go the curse that was inhibiting them. While the act of burning the handkerchiefs could easily be viewed as a symbolic act of cleansing, it raises the interesting distinction between demons that are believed to literally exist and demonic “curses” that might be viewed metaphorically. For example, individuals we interviewed sometimes described the need for people to be delivered from the trauma of rape or child abuse. It is questionable whether this type of trauma is identiWed in the mind of believers with actual demons; rather, the need for deliverance refers to an incident in a person’s life that is controlling them, much like a demon might have power over an individual’s emotions and ability to function. A pastor in Bangkok made a clear distinction between these two types of deliverance by labeling psychological wounds as requiring “inner healing,” while at the same time insisting that there are literal demons that possess people. In fact, this pastor along with other individuals we interviewed in Thailand said that Buddhist converts typically need to be delivered from literal demons that had entered them because of their idol worship (i.e., oVering of prayers to the Buddha). Interpreting Demonic Possession

Those of us with a Western perspective are prone to dismiss the reality of demons. When individuals exhibit signs of possession, our Wrst impulse is to inquire whether this might not be an epileptic Wt or a hysteric episode. Even if one is sympathetic to the spiritual realm, it is easy to postulate that spiritual and medical diagnoses may get conXated. The pragmatic ques-


tion is whether there may be some utility to the ritual practice of deliverance or whether it is a harmful and destructive activity. The answer to this question undoubtedly must be given within the cultural context in which deliverance occurs. For example, while it is doubtful that deliverance can have a positive beneWt for an epileptic, it might be eVective for someone suVering from psychologically induced traumas—or at least as eVective as some forms of Western psychotherapy, which, when spontaneous remission is excluded, have relatively low cure rates. Raising these questions, however appropriate, does not really tackle the question of whether the demons that Pentecostals exorcise are real as opposed to metaphorical. Clearly we are not going to answer this question, but we can at least throw a little doubt on the reductive explanations given by many social scientists. This issue was forcefully raised for us when we interviewed a pastor in a Baptist church in East Africa. He said that two diVerent congregations had formed in this church: one comprising relatively poor people who believed in a spirit world and the other mostly English speakers who were much more secular in their orientation. In some ways, this pastor was the perfect interpreter for us, because he understood both worldviews. What was disarming were his accounts of supernatural phenomena that he had observed and that he simply could not explain through his Western categories. For example, he had observed a particularly diYcult deliverance of a woman who was well known as a medium and who skidded across the Xoor of the church in a prone position, apparently being propelled by some supernatural force. In contrast, in our own observation of deliverances, there was much that could be explained naturally—in fact, much of the behavior seemed as if it could have been learned and then channeled in rather prescribed, culturally speciWc ways. On the other hand, we interviewed a number of educated people who believed in literal demons because they had observed manifestations that simply did not Wt secular categories of explanation. Furthermore, they had seen the “before” and “after” results of people being delivered from demons. Hence, either deliverance is a much more advanced form of psychotherapy than Western psychologists have discovered or else


it is a ritual activity that, at least on one occasion, literally does what it purports to do. Possession by the Holy Spirit

Theologically, the opposite of deliverance from demons is possession by the Holy Spirit. One of the more vivid memories we have is worship in a school classroom on a Sunday morning near Johannesburg. This was a wonderfully friendly and inviting congregation of about one hundred people of all ages. We were given seats of honor in the front row and told that taking photos and videotaping were completely appropriate. At the end of this rather celebrative service, people were invited to come forward for special prayer. While the congregants sang, the ministers laid hands on the individuals who were now crowded between us and the front of the room. Within minutes, people were going down under the power of the Holy Spirit. We became literal “participant observers” a few moments later, when a husky fellow who was about six-foot-two knocked one of us oV his feet as the fellow was slain in the spirit. In all, about a dozen people were lying prone before the service ended. We had an equally dramatic experience in Santiago in the Resurrection 2000 Church. We had respectfully maintained our spot in a side aisle while videotaping, but then one of the pastors pulled us up onto the stage. He indicated that the “good stuV ” was about to happen and indeed it did. With the band playing and the choir singing, the pastor invited people to the front of the auditorium for prayer. As he touched people, they went down under the power of the Spirit. But not everyone, only those who were ready to receive the Holy Spirit had their knees buckle as they fell backward into the arms of a person waiting to catch them. Clearly this was a regular occurrence because the ushers were ready with cloths to drape over the legs of the women. Those who had not succumbed to the power of the Spirit bowed their heads prayerfully. One woman was shaking as if she was having a seizure but was exuding a pleasant smile on her face as she slowly twirled in circles. As nearly as we could tell, the Spirit de-


scended on men and women alike, even including some children who had come forward to receive the blessing. CONCLUSION

The subject matter of this chapter is potentially troubling to people who live out their existence within the shelter of the academy, where everything but faculty politics operates on assumptions of rationality and empirical veriWability. As has been obvious from the ambivalent way we have treated the subject matter of this chapter, we certainly have not gone native. At every turn we have attempted to balance Pentecostals’ supernatural explanations with naturalistic explanations of healing, speaking in tongues, deliverance, and so on. But simply setting out alternative explanations seems rather timid. A more radical suggestion is to say that these are not alternative explanations, but maybe they are complementary explanations. Perhaps Xesh and spirit are intermingled. As stated previously, this is a very Christian idea—that God made himself manifest in human form. If this is the case, it would be a little surprising for supernatural intervention not to be wrapped up in profane clothing. In a recent book, sociologist Christian Smith runs through a series of competing explanations in the social sciences, noting the limitations of each, and then says, “Here, by contrast, is a theory that would be truly controversial, daring, and radical: human religions have existed and do exist everywhere because a God really does actually exist, and many humans—especially those not blinded by the reigning narratives of modern science and academia—feel a recurrent and deeply compelling ‘built-in’ desire to know and worship, in their various ways, the God who is there.”8 He goes on to say, “Try publishing that, and we will Wnd out who is controversial and daring.” In his opinion, this theory is not empirically veriWable, but it is parsimonious, explaining a lot of things that standard social science theories do not explain. In some ways we Wnd Smith’s challenge tempting. While some Pentecostal experiences lend themselves quite nicely to functional explanations, it often seems like one is running up against a wall in trying to


understand people’s deeper motivations by simply appealing to rational choice models, deprivation theories, and the like. Perhaps some of the time, and for some people, there is “something more” at play in their experience. If one were to accept this hypothesis, it certainly would not mean that one is ruling out all the variables that social scientists enjoy manipulating, such as social class, geography, race and ethnicity, and so on. Obviously these variables provide the context within which religious pursuit occurs. Rather, one is simply adding a variable, the realm of the Spirit, to one’s theoretical tool kit. When one does this, another set of sociological categories related to routinization and bureaucratization also become interesting, because they have implications for how one potentially accesses the sacred. Some institutional forms seem entirely self-serving for the leaders in charge, while other social forms seem more open, inspiring more direct ways of connecting to the Spirit that reportedly animates religion.

chapter six

Born in the Image of God Democracy and Upward Social Mobility

Making our way through very crowded traYc in metropolitan Manila, we Wnally arrived in Tondo, a slum Wlled with small shops, people living on the streets, and individuals hawking trinkets or bottles of cold water at every turn. A few days previously, we had attended a gathering of Wve thousand people in an outdoor Weld, and now we wanted to visit one of the congregations that make up the Jesus Is Lord movement. The physical structure of the church in Tondo was very modest. It was made out of corrugated metal and had a concrete Xoor that was Wlled with folding chairs. In the front of the room was a stage and very colorful lettering that announced “Jesus Is Lord.” In the back of the building was a small oYce for the pastor that was partitioned oV from the worship space, and it was there that we interviewed one of the elders of the church. This elder was a very modest and unassuming man in his midforties. As we sat knee to knee with him in this small oYce, he told us his story. He and his wife used to live a few blocks from the church, and he supported his family by selling cigarettes and small items from a three-foot-square table. He turned a minimal proWt on these products, but nevertheless he would often spend a third of his earnings each week on alcohol, or sometimes he would have a particularly bad gambling night and he spent even 160

Democracy and Upward Social Mobility / 161

more. Then one evening his wife persuaded him to attend the Jesus Is Lord Church. The warmth and gentleness of the people were very attractive to him, and he heard a message about the possibility of radically changing his life by accepting Jesus as his savior. Although he had been born into a Catholic family, he decided to follow in his wife’s footsteps and knelt in prayer, confessing his sins and asking Jesus to enter his life. This man immediately stopped drinking and gambling, and within a few weeks he found that he had to expand the size of the table where he was selling his goods, because he could not accommodate everything he was now buying with his proWts—even though they were still rather modest. Within a year he started renting a small shop, where he expanded his inventory. He was taking better care of his family, and at the same time he was continually investing his proWts back into his business. Today he owns several convenience stores in Manila, he has built two houses that he rents to tenants, and he owns a car. Although he no longer lives in Tondo, he decided to continue attending the church where he had his conversion experience, because he believes that he owes something to this community that gave him a new start in life. In Caracas, Venezuela, we encountered the same potential for economic advancement, but this time among the young adults associated with Sister Marlena’s ministry, which we described in chapter 3. Many of these kids came from dysfunctional homes, a number of them were involved with Santeria and various forms of spirit worship, and they typically engaged in sexual relations at a very young age. One evening we asked these kids to tell us, one by one, the story of their conversion and how their lives had changed. The dominant theme had to do with leading a more disciplined life, which typically involved giving up alcohol, partying, and casual sex, and as a consequence these young people became more serious about their schooling. Many of them were just beginning to enter the workforce, and some were in the early stages of attending college or vocational schools, so it is diYcult to quantify the economic consequences of their conversion experiences. Nevertheless, there is little question but what they had a competitive advantage when compared with

162 / Born in the Image of God

their peer group, many of whom were spending their time and money in less productive activities. UPDATING THE PROTESTANT ETHIC THESIS

Of course, we are not the Wrst to think about the relationship between religion and economics. Max Weber, an inXuential German sociologist, prepared the way in his classic volume The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism;1 and a brief explanation of his ideas will help frame our discussion of the connection between Pentecostalism and capitalism. Writing in the early part of the twentieth century, Weber made a puzzling observation, which was that Protestants were more likely to be in managerial positions while Catholics tended to dominate the working-class trades. He wondered why this was so and speculated that religion might have something to do with the diVerent economic track records. In setting up his argument, Weber made a distinction between two diVerent types of ethics—what he called the “traditional ethic” and the “capitalist ethic.” To illustrate this diVerence, he used the example of a man who was paid piecework to mow a Weld. Weber said that someone practicing a traditional ethic would mow as much of the Weld as was necessary to take care of the immediate needs of his family, and then he would head to the local tavern for a few pints of ale with his friends. In contrast, someone operating under the ethic of capitalism might work until late in the evening, because this would be an opportunity to put away money so that he could own the Weld rather than be hired to mow it. Weber’s model for the capitalist ethic was Benjamin Franklin, who embodied the Protestant work ethic, which asserts that “time is money,” that a disciplined lifestyle is a moral obligation, and that one works in excess of what is necessary to meet one’s immediate needs. In trying to account for the development of capitalism, Weber postulated that religion may have played an important role and seized on two key concepts that emerged out of the Protestant Reformation. The Wrst was Martin Luther’s (1483–1546) notion of the “calling,” which is that all


professions are of value, whether they are religious or secular. Being a priest or minister is no more important in God’s sight than being a postal worker or a farmhand. The task is to ascertain what God has called one to do, and then be faithful to that calling. While this may not seem like such a radical idea, the consequence of this theological doctrine is that it sacralized the pursuit of worldly professions—so long as God calls one to pursue this line of work. Therefore, being a businessperson could be a sacred calling and had no less intrinsic value than being a priest. Weber’s second theological idea was proposed by John Calvin (1509– 1564), a theologian who systematized many of the ideas that originated with Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. In an attempt to blunt the corruption that had emerged within Catholicism—for example, monetary penance to elevate one’s place in heaven—the notion emerged among Protestant reformers that salvation is entirely a matter of God’s grace. According to this view, there is nothing one can do to earn one’s way into heaven by personal merit. In fact, John Calvin interpreted a passage in the New Testament book of Romans to mean that God not only has foreknowledge of who will go to heaven but actually predestines some people to eternal life, and by implication, other people are condemned to eternal damnation.2 Weber reasoned that this doctrine of predestination, which was widely accepted by Calvinist reformers, would create a degree of anxiety among the faithful, raising the question of where one was going to spend eternity. Weber’s view was that anxious Christians would go to their ministers, who would then oVer the following sound advice: God is sovereign; there is nothing that one can do to earn one’s salvation; it is an act of God’s grace. However, individuals whom God has chosen will exhibit the signs of election, or predestination. Hence, the way to deal with anxiety over whether one is going to heaven or not is to show evidence of election by the way one lives. Thus, even if one is not actually able to earn one’s way into heaven by living an upright life, nevertheless these signs of election will reduce anxiety over the prospect of spending eternity burning in hell. So what does religion have to do with economics? Weber’s answer was


that since clergy linked honest and disciplined living with signs of election, church members would avoid frivolous behavior associated with tavern life, such as drinking, womanizing, and gambling. The “elect” would surely spend their time working diligently at whatever task God has called them to, exhibiting the classic signs of the Protestant work ethic exempliWed by Benjamin Franklin. And as a result, individuals who embrace the Puritan work ethic end up accumulating more money than they can spend, since they are prohibited from indulging in frivolous pleasures. So what were they to do with this money? They invest their excess proWts back into their business activities, which of course is the essence of capitalism.

THE PENTECOSTAL ETHIC AND THE SPIRIT OF CAPITALISM

While Pentecostals do not emphasize the Calvinist doctrine of predestination—in fact, Pentecostals tend to be associated with Arminian theology (named after Jacobus Arminius, 1560–1609), which disagrees with Calvinism on many points—their code of ethics is very similar to that described by Max Weber. For Pentecostals, being a “new creature in Christ” means that one does not drink alcohol, gamble, engage in illicit sex, or waste one’s time and money on frivolous activities. Stated positively, one is honest and transparent in all personal and business relations, one works diligently at whatever God commands one to do, one is a responsible parent and loving spouse, and one acts compassionately toward all people, both within the Christian fold and outside of it, attempting to follow the example of Jesus. While the emphasis on predestination is absent in Pentecostalism, the lifestyle of Pentecostals does not diVer substantially from Weber’s description of the Puritans. Consequently, Pentecostal converts who are not wasting their money on alcohol, drugs, and partying now have surplus capital that they can invest into their businesses or the education of family members. Furthermore, their businesses gain a reputation for honest


transactions, and this in itself leads to a greater volume of exchange, since customers know that they will not be cheated. Or if they are not selfemployed, these hardworking people are promoted in their workplace faster than their more self-indulgent colleagues. Hence, the Pentecostal ethic is very similar to the Protestant ethic—namely, it produces people who are honest, disciplined, transparent in their business dealings, people who view their vocation, humble or elevated, as a calling by God that warrants commitment.3

SOME EXAMPLES OF UPWARD ECONOMIC MOBILITY

In order to illustrate the relevance of Pentecostal conversion to economic advancement, let us look at several examples from interviews we conducted in Nairobi, Kenya. Brought up by a single mom in a slum near Nairobi, John (not his real name) was very athletic and made his living doing exhibition boxing and tae kwon do. This line of work left him a lot of time to frequent bars and discos. He said, “I got involved with drugs, and the habit got strong. I smoked ‘bhang’ and eventually was turning very violent. My friends and I used to sometimes spend all weekend roaming from bar to bar, from disco to disco or nightclub. We hardly paid fees to enter those spots. As a sports person I had the habit of knocking the patrons down, and all my friends and I would enter by force. I had no vision for life or for the future, and I spent much of my money on alcohol and drugs.” At one point, however, he said that he began feeling that his life was meaningless. “I began to think about God and how he could get me out of my situation, and there was a deep need in me to reach out to him.” John credits his mother’s prayers for leading him to a Christian commitment. He said that his friends initially thought his conversion would not last, but in his words, “I became a new creation and this was conWrmed by Corinthians 5:17, ‘that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.’ I noticed that my mind was changing for the better, and I began to think


wholesomely, more soberly, and creatively. I realized life had value and began to have clear reasons for living. I had a vision for life now.” He joined his church’s choir, learned to pray, and started giving money to the church. He said, “Giving my life to Christ brought me into a new sober social environment, even though my physical environment did not change immediately. . . . I stopped drugs and drinking and going to discos. I stopped sleeping around with women and trusted God to keep me pure.” He opened a small kiosk but could barely make a living. His wife, however, started a hairdressing salon. John also learned the trade and said, “In fact, my being there attracted a lot of customers who wanted to have their hair done by me. The business grew, and we were earning about Wve thousand [Kenyan] shillings per day. We invested the money wisely and hired a second staV member for hairdressing.” John then added an export business and car sales business to his list of entrepreneurial activities. Parenthetically, he added: “All my businesses have been blessed because of tithing. In addition, I believe in hard work. The Word of God tells me whatever your hands Wnd to do, do it with all your strength.” A second example: Stephen (not his real name) came from a poor rural area in Kenya. His father was an alcoholic, and Stephen dropped out of school early because he was not doing well, and furthermore his parents could not aVord to pay his school fees. For a while he worked as a peasant farmer but grew dissatisWed with this job and moved to Nairobi, where he worked as a day laborer in various construction sites. During this period he was involved in petty theft and moved from job to job with little economic security. Then one day he encountered a Pentecostal church and said that he gave his heart to Christ and realized a substantial life change was in order. “First I realized I could not continue with the kind of life I was leading. It was not easy because my work environment, especially within the construction companies, was one where we used to steal.” But he said that after his conversion he received “true joy and peace from God,” and in addition, “the Lord worked on my temper. I also lost the desire to smoke.” Several years after his conversion, Stephen opened a small kiosk business. “It attracted so many customers, and my goods were going very fast


so that I restocked frequently.” Five years later, he utilized his skill at running a kiosk to start a wholesale business, in which he sold goods to other vendors. By this time he had married, and his wife worked with him. “The business could now generate seven thousand [Kenyan] shillings a day in proWt. From the business proceeds we were able to save enough to buy a plot in a better residential area. We constructed our own house. My business continued to grow, and we invested further.” In fact, Stephen’s wife started a tailoring business, which further added to his family’s Wnances. Together, Stephen and his wife have been able to educate their three children, who now are in high school. Stephen also paid for the education of his younger siblings, including one who is pursuing a university degree. And he built a house for his parents in the rural area where he grew up. ReXecting on his gifts to the church, Stephen said: “When I joined the church, we were taught about tithing, and I truly believe it has been a source of my blessing. I tithe regularly out of my heart to the Lord, because I believe he is the one who has brought me to where I am now, and he is the giver of all that I have.” He also believes in tithing his time and consequently spends a portion of every week assisting at the church in various ways. Although these examples could be further elaborated, let us look Wnally at an example of someone from a middle-class background. Martin (not his real name) said that in college his heart got “hardened” toward God as he got involved in the political activism that was rife on his campus. “We were radical in our persuasion, with frequent rioting and running battles in the streets with the police. We strongly believed we were Wghting for the cause of the poor.” After graduation, Martin became disillusioned with his Marxist-Leninist fellow students, who seemed to immediately cave in to the capitalist system. He said, “This was betrayal of the highest caliber. I was disappointed and wondered whether my earlier persuasions were an illusion.” Rather than enter the teaching profession for which he was trained, Martin started working for a large corporation and said, “I began to live a carefree life, drank a lot, and lazed around bars.” Several years later, he said that he became extremely sick and was admitted to the hos-


pital. During this time his wife, who was a “born-again” Christian, showed him a great deal of love. “The commitment of my wife, her love, and the genuine support of her friends amazed me. I had never seen this love, not among my friends and social buddies in the bars. In fact, none of my friends ever came to see me in hospital.” As a result of her witness, Martin asked his wife to invite the pastor to visit with him when he returned home from the hospital. “I had decided to give my life to God. The pastor came and led me to the Lord Jesus.” Very quickly his life changed, he said. “I stopped going out drinking. I no longer stole from my wife’s bag. Instead I became more transparent about my Wnances with my wife. I learned to manage my Wnances, whether much or little. I gained a discipline that I had lacked all my life.” He also started to alter his Wnancial aVairs. “It was now possible to save money and invest into some worthwhile causes. I began to view money diVerently— not as something to squander for my leisure, but as an entrustment given to me by God to serve the family and help others in need. I learned to give to God’s work too.” Martin’s fortunes at work began to change also. He switched jobs and became a teacher, the profession for which he had been trained. “My boss noticed that I could be trusted with more work, responsibility with students,” and he was quickly promoted. He also started to prosper outside of his job. “I got very organized in my Wnancial matters. I was able to use money wisely and do savings. I have learned to invest too. I put up some rental houses in my home area, which my wife now manages.” He then started a taxi business. In contrast to his previous lifestyle, he said: “I no longer rely on my friends to keep Wnancing my needs . . . [which] was a habit very common among those who drink a lot. They have to keep borrowing from one another and accumulate debts to keep up. I have learned that God is trustworthy, even in Wnancial matters.” EXPANDING THE ARGUMENT

In the examples just given, there is a clear connection between upward social mobility and living a disciplined, honest life. As individuals give up


squandering time and money, the opportunity for economic advancement is enhanced. It is important to note, however, that the goal of conversion is not Wnancial; rather, Wnancial gain is an unintended consequence of a changed life. As individuals become more disciplined in their spiritual lives, they establish patterns that contribute to their work life and business activities. This new ethic, however, does not exist in a vacuum; it is supported by a number of associated factors that strengthen the link between Pentecostalism and economic advancement. First, one thing that keeps poor people stuck in their circumstances is their lack of a sense of self-worth. They have no conWdence that they can move up the economic ladder, because they are constantly told they are a failure. But Pentecostal theology deals directly with the issue of personal self-worth. As a child of God, one has value. In fact, Pentecostals claim that everyone has equal worth in God’s eyes because all human beings are made in his image. It doesn’t matter if you were born into lowly circumstances or if you have lived a disreputable lifestyle. God loves you, there is a purpose in living, and through God all things are possible. For people with low self-esteem, this is a remarkable aYrmation. It potentially gives them hope and the motivation to change their circumstances. Second, Weber ignored the powerful role that worship can play for individuals who are struggling with life’s problems. At one level, conversion is a very individual phenomenon, but the strength of Pentecostalism is that individuals are supported by a vibrant and expressive community of fellow believers. Facilitated by music, testimonies, and stirring oratory from the pulpit, the isolated individual Wnds a new identity, a group identity, as worshippers become “one with Christ.” In this group identity, there is new strength—a strength that many individuals who are seeking to survive alone in mass urban culture seldom experience. Third, Weber’s focus on individual transformation failed to recognize that a close-knit religious community can be a safety net for individuals— especially in countries where government services are limited. Inevitably, individuals lose jobs, families experience medical crises, and everyone needs emotional support. Pentecostal churches constitute an extended


family network of support. In larger churches, this safety net is often created through cell groups or some other network of small group meetings to which every member belongs. If the church is small, the pastor may double as the community social worker, negotiating for help from fellow members when someone in the church is in need. Fourth, many large Pentecostal churches have well-developed social services and educational facilities that give their members a competitive advantage over nonmembers. In some instances, these services are funded by outside nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); in other cases, churches simply harness the leadership and Wnancial resources of members of the congregation. Hence, if a church-related school has classrooms with thirty students, and the government school has two to three times as many students per classroom, it is clear who is likely to receive the better education. Likewise, resident in the congregation may be doctors, dentists, optometrists, and nurses who provide advice and service to church members. Fifth, other aspects of Pentecostalism, more subtle and diYcult to describe, are nevertheless relevant to the discussion of Pentecostalism and economics. For example, spirit possession is an issue in many developing countries. However one explains this phenomenon, the result is that individuals are subject to irrational forces in their lives. Pentecostalism deals directly with this problem by casting out these “demons,” and whether one views the demonic in literal or metaphorical ways is scarcely relevant to this discussion. The point is that individuals are ritually assisted in gaining control over their lives. Rather than being possessed by multiple spirits that pull them this way and that, they subsequently are guided by only one spirit—namely, the Holy Spirit. And this spirit is aligned with the disciplined ethic of the community. Hence, many of the testimonies we heard from converts involved “deliverance” from demonic forces, followed by establishing more rational ways of conducting their lives, and when taken in combination with other elements of Pentecostalism, “deliverance” potentially contributes to upward mobility because it enables a person to be more goal-oriented and less controlled by irrational forces.


Sixth, we believe there is a connection between skills learned in Pentecostal churches related to evangelism and the development of skills necessary to running an entrepreneurial business. Growing Pentecostal churches are regularly marketing their message, setting up new franchises (i.e., daughter churches), and managing customer satisfaction. In addition, many times the pastors of these large churches are relatively sophisticated about organizational development, Wnancial accounting, and the like. Furthermore, they are often connected through the Internet and various publications that distribute “best practice” models, they attend conferences, and often they are reading the latest management books from the West. Hence, it is highly likely that these skills are transferred to individuals within the congregation, who then apply them within their employment activities. Hence, skills from the religious realm are being transferred to the business sphere. Seventh, we believe that the discipline associated with various spiritual practices—including the rigors of fasting, all-night prayer, repressing libidinal urges, and so forth—is inevitably applied to one’s secular work life. While this list could be extended, the fundamental point is that there may be multiple points of convergence between Pentecostalism and economic upward mobility. It is too simple to cite only the obvious connections between the work ethic associated with capitalism and the personal ethic followed by Pentecostal converts. It is the constellation of factors connected with Pentecostal worship and practice that illuminates the interaction between religion and economics. JOYOUS INNER-WORLDLY ASCETIC MYSTICS

In Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, the overriding image is of a Puritan dedicated to his job, toiling late in the evening and on weekends, accumulating money, reinvesting it, and not having much fun in the process. Our experience of being around Pentecostals is quite diVerent from Weber’s description of the Puritan. While Pentecostals follow a rather strict ethic, they are having a good time doing it. Their music


is joyous, people do a lot of hugging, and they are anything but emotionally repressed. The warmth of their community life compensates for the denial associated with their moral discipline. Indeed, it is the joyous asceticism of Pentecostals that sets them apart from the dour Puritans that Weber described. Their ecstatic worship energizes them, and their openness to visions from the Holy Spirit enables them to think outside the box. In fact, while they may not be political revolutionaries, they often think in visionary ways as expressed in the megachurches that they build, the networks of franchise daughter churches that they birth, and their grandiose vision to save the world for Jesus. In his attempt to understand the variations of religious practice worldwide, Weber created a very useful typology that distinguishes between mystical and ascetic religions on the one hand, and otherworldly versus inner-worldly religious orientations on the other hand.4 Conceptually, this results in the four-part typology of (1) Otherworldly Mystics, (2) Otherworldly Ascetics, (3) Inner-Worldly Mystics, and (4) InnerWorldly Ascetics. In Weber’s view, Puritans were Inner-Worldly Ascetics, which is why there was such an “elective aYnity” between their lifestyle and capitalism. Attempting to classify Pentecostals within Weber’s typology is a useful exercise because it allows one to diVerentiate various strains of Pentecostalism. For example, the earliest expressions of Pentecostalism were rather mystical and otherworldly. However, as Pentecostalism routinized organizationally, it moved in a somewhat more ascetic direction, especially as classical Pentecostal denominations such as the Assemblies of God became legalistic and put organizational restraints on the free expression of the Holy Spirit. Prosperity Gospel Pentecostals, in contrast, tend to be more inner-worldly, wanting their payoV now rather than postponing it until the next life. In addition, they imbibe a strong element of mysticism in their belief in the supernatural—especially related to healing and divine intervention. Progressive Pentecostals, described in the previous chapters, are notable because they tend to span a number of these categories— which may be part of the secret of their success. They are mystical as mea-


sured by their reliance on the Holy Spirit. At the same time, they promote an ascetic lifestyle that is both otherworldly, in terms of believing strongly in an afterlife, and inner-worldly, in that they model themselves after Jesus’ ministry of healing people. Although it is a bit of a mouthful, we believe Progressive Pentecostals might be identiWed as Joyous InnerWorldly Mystics who nevertheless practice a rather ascetic lifestyle. They believe in the Holy Spirit, but they are not so heavenly minded that they don’t have their feet Wrmly planted on this earth. Their moral lives are disciplined, and they actually are ascetic in a rather puritanical way. And yet they are joyous in their worship, both corporate and personal, with all their senses functioning in their worship. Perhaps we are being too expansive, but it seems to us that Progressive Pentecostals beneWt from the strengths of multiple strains within Weber’s typology. PENTECOSTALS AND SOCIAL CLASS

Thus far we have focused on the potential upward mobility of individual converts to Pentecostalism. But it is also important to ask whether Pentecostalism can fuel the upward mobility of entire social classes. Historically, there has been an elective aYnity between poor people and Pentecostalism. More recently, an increasing number of Pentecostals are from the middle class, and we oVer two possible explanations for this phenomenon—both of which may be true. First, lower-class Pentecostals have experienced upward mobility as a result of the various factors that we have described, and, second, Pentecostalism has reinvented itself in such a way that it attracts middle-class people—for example, by shedding some of the legalistic prohibitions related to dress and cosmetics and embracing contemporary musical idioms, especially in Neo-Pentecostal churches. Our suspicion is that both phenomena have been occurring, but let’s start with an example of the attraction of Pentecostalism to lower-class people and how it is potentially liberating for them. In Madras, India, we were invited to attend a 6 a.m. prayer meeting. Our expectation was that there would be a few dozen people present, but


instead there were several thousand. The men sat on the right side of the room, and across the aisle the women were seated, cross-legged on the Xoor, each with a Bible and a notebook beside her. Although the saris and clothing were very colorful, those attending were obviously poor. Their studiousness was remarkable, however. During the long Bible study, people paid rapt attention, taking notes and carefully marking verses in their Bibles. As we reviewed this experience with some of the church leaders, it became apparent that the reason these people came to a 6 a.m. service was so they could then go to work. But when we probed further as to why they had converted to Christianity, which sometimes involves substantial persecution by Hindu neighbors, one reason that surfaced is that Christianity is an egalitarian religion compared to the stratiWed caste system of Hindu society. Members from the Dalit caste have as much value in the eyes of God as do people born into the Brahmin caste. Hence, although there may be persecution associated with their conversion, Pentecostalism is attractive to people from lower castes because it provides them with a sense of dignity and hope that does not exist within Hinduism. In our research, the emphasis on dignity and self-esteem in Pentecostal churches was not limited to India. We attended a worship service in Guatemala that included indigenous (Indian) people, all wearing incredibly beautiful shawls, and the preacher kept emphasizing over and over again that they had rights, political rights that were equal to the rest of the population. Clearly this was an attractive message to people who had been subject to civil war. We encountered the same emphasis in a church in São Paulo, which was ministering to poor people, where members sang a song about having value—that they were humans, created by God, and therefore were “somebody” rather than “nobody.” In Cairo, Egypt, the primary challenge facing Mama Maggie was that people living in the dumps assumed that this was their fate in life—that they had no other destiny— and her strategy was to show people through the nursery schools, camps, and the Christian gospel that there are alternative ways to live. And we interviewed the director of a large association of churches in East Africa who said that the attraction of Pentecostalism was that it gave people hope.


In fact, he said that poor people don’t mind if their pastors live in nice houses and drive fancy cars, because they identify with their ministers’ upward mobility. He argued that everyone wants to feel that they are someone—that they have worth and value—and the reason that Pentecostalism is growing is because it responds directly to this desire. In his words, “for people who have been oppressed for a long time, for people who have been suppressed, people who have been treaded upon, for people that have been marginalized, for people who are asking the question, ‘Who are we, by the way?’ and here comes a gospel that says, ‘You are somebody, you are kings and princes and princesses.’” This, in his view, is the reason that Pentecostalism is the fastest-growing movement in Africa. In São Paulo, a pastor of the Universal Church—the largest Pentecostal denomination in Brazil—asked everyone who was experiencing problems in their life to come forward. Perhaps a quarter of the congregation went to the front. In a very gentle voice the pastor acknowledged that life is Wlled with problems, and that this is unavoidable, but God will care for his people. He then prayed, assuring participants that God will enable them to overcome their diYculties. However one interprets such ritual moments—as magical thinking or wise counsel—it was clear that these believers were strengthened in their resolve to move forward in life. THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL

One of the fastest-growing segments of Pentecostalism is churches that teach the Prosperity Gospel or, more disparagingly, “health and wealth.” Inspired by Oral Roberts, Kenneth Hagin, Frederick Price, and others, this element of the Pentecostal movement has an obvious appeal to poor people who want to change their economic status in life and who are in need of physical healing.5 Unfortunately, this expression of Pentecostalism is rife with the exploitation of poor people who give money with the expectation that they will be blessed a hundredfold. It also often exploits people who are desperately ill and are willing to grasp after anything that promises relief from suVering. Even though we did not focus our research on


these groups, we attended some of their meetings. To an outsider, the manipulation is obvious. People in need were emotionally aroused by music, the rhetoric of the preacher, and the “collective eVervescence” of crowd behavior. In great numbers people came forward to be touched and prayed over. For example, in Caracas, Venezuela, we observed a pastor getting people to agree to larger and larger gifts to the church, promising them direct Wnancial beneWts for their expression of faith. In India we watched a crowd press around a white-robed lay minister who was known for his healing powers. And in the Philippines we witnessed a huge outdoor gathering of people lifting their purses to be blessed, along with water bottles and other household items that they held up for mass consecration. All of these experiences seemed a bit magical, especially in contrast with the approach of the Progressive Pentecostal churches that we observed. Undoubtedly some people are healed in Prosperity Gospel churches, whether by supernatural intervention or the power of the placebo eVect. We also heard consistent testimonies of people blessed Wnancially as a result of their faithful tithing. So what should an outside observer make of these claims? Presumably one might ask whether the act of tithing resulted directly in an individual’s prosperity or whether leading a disciplined life enabled that individual to have surplus capital, from which he or she could pay tithes. Correlation is often mistaken for causation, even among social scientists. At the same time, one observer we interviewed in Manila was far from cynical in her analysis of the Prosperity Gospel, even though she was not a Pentecostal herself. In her opinion, the biggest problem that poor people face is that they have no hope for future advancement. Prosperity Gospel preachers provoke people to think in new ways, and while members may be disappointed if they are expecting a quick Wx, they may also start organizing their lives in ways that allow for upward social mobility. Furthermore, some of these Prosperity Gospel preachers actually oVer sound advice regarding lifestyle change, budgeting, family planning, and business investment. For example, one preacher told the women in the con-


gregation that they should all start raising a Xock of chickens, and rather than eating these chickens, they should allow the Xock to keep multiplying until they developed a small business. Hence, while some Prosperity Gospel preachers may rely more on magic than sound theology, there may be a latent eVect in which individuals start thinking diVerently about their lives and therefore may pursue courses of action that result in upward social mobility.

THE FIT BETWEEN PENTECOSTALISM AND DEMOCRACY

As we have suggested repeatedly in this book, Pentecostalism is a complex phenomenon with many diVerent strains, and it is true that one element of Pentecostalism has taken a decidedly right-wing political turn. In the United States, there has been an alliance between various Pentecostal leaders and the most conservative elements of the Republican Party. In Chile, some Pentecostal leaders supported military dictator Augusto Pinochet. Likewise, there have been alliances in Guatemala between Pentecostal leaders and the oppressive regime of Ríos Montt. As a result, the media often cast Pentecostals as antidemocratic and aligned with repressive governments. Typically ignored, however, is another side of Pentecostalism— its profoundly democratic spirit.6 One of the root ideas of Pentecostalism is the priesthood of all believers. Everyone is of equal value in God’s sight. While church organizations may have an organizational hierarchy in which members have diVerent callings, everyone has equal access to God. Anyone can pray to God in public; the Holy Spirit is available to everyone in equal measure. In fact, Pentecostalism has been one of the more egalitarian movements within Christianity. Pentecostal congregations were racially integrated in the early days of Azusa Street.7 Women have had access to leadership, including the right to serve as clergy.8 And, in principle, the lowliest members of the congregation can prophesy or receive a word of knowledge from the Holy Spirit. This spirit of egalitarianism not only has economic consequences that


empower members and challenge caste-bound political systems, but also has implications for the development of democracies. The idea that everyone has the right to vote rests on the assumption that all people are equal regardless of race, income, or social background. Since everyone is equal in God’s sight, the vote of the poor should count the same as the vote of the wealthy. In other words, there may be a parallel between the right to full participation by Christians in Pentecostal worship and the right of all citizens to participate in the democratic process. Therefore, totalitarian politicians may rightly fear Pentecostals if they are not successful in co-opting their leaders, because the ideology of Pentecostalism is antiauthoritarian at its root. Indeed, one reason there are so many splits and factions within Pentecostal circles is because everyone thinks he or she has as much right to hear from God as the appointed leader. Therefore, politicians who act as if they are above the law are subject to the same criticism as clergy who claim a higher authority than the people. In many ways Pentecostalism is a populist religion. Anyone can be called by God to be a pastor. In fact, except in the more routinized denominations, formal seminary training is not required. This same populism can transfer into the political arena, resulting in distrust of the elite, and certainly of the wealthy. Pentecostalism is the people’s religion, and therefore it is a modest leap to aYrm that government is subject to the will of the people. Thus, in addition to the elective aYnity that exists between Pentecostalism and capitalism, we are suggesting that there may also be a connection between Pentecostalism and democracy. In other words, Pentecostalism may be cultivating the soil for the birth of democracy, or perhaps the reform of democracy, in many developing countries. Pentecostal churches potentially function as miniature schools for democracy, especially if they stay true to the idea of the priesthood of all believers and the equality of all persons before God. Lest we seem too sanguine about the relationship between Pentecostalism, democracy, and capitalism, it is worthwhile to pause and note the criticism against this linkage that Karl Marx and his various disciples would level. Stated bluntly, Marxists might see the connection between


Pentecostalism and capitalism as simply a rearrangement of the deck chairs on the sinking Titanic. Christians who practice the Pentecostal ethic may have a competitive advantage compared with their more indulgent counterparts, but Pentecostalism does nothing to address fundamental structural issues of justice. Likewise, Marxists would undoubtedly be suspicious of the postulated connection between Pentecostalism and democracy. For Marxists, the democracy coming from religious people would be tepid at best. How could drugged people feel the pain of their oppressed condition in suYcient measure to demand their rights? THE MARXIST CRITIQUE

Karl Marx’s theory of religion is relatively straightforward and is a logical extension of his social theory.9 In brief, Marx argues that there are two primary classes in society, the proletariat (working class) and the bourgeoisie (business owners). The relationship between these two classes is one of exploitation, in which the bourgeoisie proWt by paying the working class survival wages and then pocketing the diVerence between the cost of production and the market value of the products. Religion functions diVerently for these two classes. For the proletariat, the role of religion is to pacify the masses and keep them from revolting against a system that exploits them. It is a drug that dulls the pain of poverty. Religion oVers consolation by promising heavenly rewards that are inversely proportionate to the tribulations in this world. Thus, those who are “poor in spirit” will reap heavenly rewards in the next life, which keeps them plodding away at their alienated labor. For the bourgeoisie, religion provides an ideology that justiWes their position of privilege by claiming that God establishes the social order and it is their job to control the unruly masses. Hence it is to their beneWt to fund the priestly class, because they are the “drug pushers,” so to speak, who keep the proletariat sedated. And if, on occasion, the bourgeoisie should feel a pang of conscience regarding their exploitation, then their womenfolk can create a few charities to deal with the suVering of the poor, thus buying oV the guilt


of their exploitative husbands. When Marx refers to religion as an opiate, he understands why this sedation is attractive, given the life conditions of people in poverty. But, in his view, the problem with religion is that it enslaves poor people. Hence, the reason for abolishing religion is not simply that it is not true, but that it keeps people from revolting against the oppressive system that produces the conditions of poverty. By removing the drug of religion, people will feel their pain so acutely that they will have no option but to seek a more just society. FATHER XAVIER’S VIEW ON SOCIAL JUSTICE

One of the more remarkable interviews we conducted was in the home of a Catholic priest, Father Xavier. He started out his clerical duties as an assistant priest in a poor parish in Chennai (Madras). He said that he was not aware of the eVects of the caste system until he worked in this rural area and saw what it meant to be an “untouchable” person. He said that members of his church literally had nothing but their dignity, and that was constantly being assaulted by ruthless politicians who treated them as less than human. It was in this context that the teachings of one of his seminary professors, a Liberation theologian, began to make sense. He said he was very deeply aVected by the idea that Jesus came to earth to liberate the unfortunate, among them the lame, the workers who could not repay their loans, the prostitutes, and the children who had no future because of the caste into which they had been born. In Father Xavier’s view, it is relatively easy to be a Christian but much more diYcult to follow Christ, because the latter path, in his view, is to be willing to die for those who are voiceless and oppressed. While one might say that his inspiration came from Marx and his followers, Father Xavier said that he had been inXuenced by their thought, but the real inspiration was from studying the life of Jesus, who he said stood for the poor and disenfranchised of society. When he became stalemated in his organizing eVorts, Father Xavier went to law school at the urging of his bishop. This training, he said, gave him the tools he needed


to stand for human rights, minority rights, and environmental protection. But the real strength undergirding political action is people gathering themselves into a collective movement and demanding their rights, which is why he helped form the Working People’s Liberation Movement. In one of the movement’s early actions, Father Xavier organized two hundred women to bring their empty water pots to a government oYce and demand a well in their village. They were brutalized—some were even sent to the hospital—but they eventually won their battle. He also organized farmers, some Wve thousand strong, to demand their rights, and this was followed by mobilizing Wshermen in a similar public action, and then children and nuns, who fought for changes in the education system. In Father Xavier’s words, “If one person has aVected me, it is Jesus Christ.” Father Xavier said that he has read many left-leaning social theorists, but they merely provide tools of analysis—tools that he constantly is checking against the experience of the people with whom he works and lives. He sees himself standing in the prophetic tradition of Jesus, seeking to bring the kingdom of God to this world. He is aware that he may lose his life in the process, but he has faith that justice will prevail. In his view, there are two types of power: the power of oppressive rulers and the power of the people. He said that the power of the the people in the long term is stronger than that of those who hold political power, because the poor have nothing to lose. Once they enter the struggle for their rights, said Father Xavier, “the power within them is unleashed—it takes oV.” And that is what he is giving his life to do. Early in his career as a priest, Father Xavier said, he was quite involved with the Catholic charismatic movement. He said that he believes in prayer, speaking in tongues, and healing. There is nothing wrong with them in his view. The problem, he said, is that charismatic Christians focus on the individual and ignore the fact that these individuals live within a community that, in turn, is part of a larger society. The result is that they never get to the root of the problem, which in his view is structural. Consequently, religion may in fact function as an “opiate” at the individual level. But this is not Father Xavier’s view of how religion should work. He has


decided to focus on the collective organization of poor people because he believes that it has the power to alter the social structures that imprison people. Father Xavier thinks that charismatic Christians are too focused on seeing individual lifestyle changes. In his view, “a man of faith, a disciple of Christ, must dedicate himself to social transformation—to cultural transformation.” This does not mean that one does not pray. “I deeply believe in prayer. You must pray. You can pray in any style—contemplative prayer, shouting, yelling, dancing—so long as you pray.” But this prayer must be understood within a holistic interpretation of the Bible, not what he calls the biblicist view, in which you take one verse and interpret it by itself. To do this misses the liberating message of the gospels. CONCLUSION

Father Xavier’s critique of charismatic Catholics in India is applicable to the larger world of Pentecostal religion, including many Progressive Pentecostals, who tend to focus on solving the problem of poverty one person at a time. One of the major diVerences between Liberation Theology and Pentecostalism is that Pentecostalism is saddled with an eschatology that foresees the imminent return of Christ, which militates against longterm social and economic struggle. A second diVerence is that Pentecostalism tends to focus more on the life and teachings of Jesus rather than on the story of the exodus from Egypt (a favorite text of Liberation theologians). When we Wnished our conversation with Father Xavier, he gave us a poster of Jesus that resembled Che Guevara more than the meek and mild Jesus of various nineteenth-century artists. When one surveys the challenges facing human beings in the twentyWrst century, there are some that appear to be a good Wt with Pentecostalism and others that seem more remote. For example, there are aspects of the AIDS pandemic in which the battle needs to be won one person at a time. Sidestepping the controversy over advocacy of condoms, there is little question but what abstinence prior to marriage and faithfulness within a committed relationship would go a long way toward stopping the spread


of AIDS—even though there are obviously long-term problems associated with caring for orphans, ministering to those who are sick, and dealing with the inevitability that not everyone in a relationship will follow the sexual norms advocated by Pentecostal churches. The problem of poverty, on the other hand, is often systemic and structural. Clearly some Pentecostals, as we have indicated in this chapter, may individually fare well within the capitalist system, but the larger problem of poverty can be addressed only through policy changes at multiple levels of governance— including policies regulating international business and trade. Therefore, Liberation Theology’s focus on structural evil appropriately challenges Pentecostals to move beyond individualistic emphases on moral perfection to understand the importance of structural factors in limiting the quality of human life. To date, Pentecostals seldom challenge the equity of the Wnancial arrangements within global capitalism. Instead, they have been willing to work at pecking their way up the ladder of the capitalist economic system, even if the overarching eVect of that system is to keep large numbers of people in poverty. Consequently, our argument about the synergy between Pentecostalism and capitalism may be accurate, with many converts experiencing upward social mobility. But what is left out of this equation is an important element of the Judeo-Christian tradition—namely, the biblical emphasis on social justice.

chapter seven

Organizing the Saints Giving the Ministry to the People

Many of the churches we studied were either Wrst-generation congregations or had only a handful of members when the current pastor assumed leadership. Within a decade they had grown exponentially, often developing into megachurches with several thousand members. The senior pastor was typically a dynamic, charismatic, and even authoritarian leader whose values infused every aspect of church life. At the same time, these congregations typically aYrmed the priesthood of all believers and the principle that the work of ministry is to be done by the laity. On the surface, this seems like a contradiction. How can strong leadership at the top Wt with highly active lay leadership? To unravel this puzzle, we turn to our interviews with the staV members and lay leaders of these congregations for an answer. Inevitably the pastors of these highly successful congregations were referred to as visionary, creative, and conWdent about what God was telling them to do. A pastor in a large church in Singapore said that “God raises up leaders, not committees.” In contrast to Pentecostal churches, he said, mainline churches have a committee for everything and people endlessly debate the most trivial issues, often exhausting themselves in meetings that generate more conXict than real work. The churches we studied tend to 184

Giving the Ministry to the People / 185

empower people to move right into ministry by enacting the vision presented by the senior pastor. If someone does not like the direction the church is moving, he or she is shown the door. It is not unusual for pastors of these large churches to be quite authoritarian. “Either you follow me or leave” is the way it often works, said one pastor observing the success of charismatic churches in Singapore. However, the reason people stay involved is because they believe their pastor is responding to a God-given vision. Those who are disgruntled leave; there is no attempt to Wt everyone under the tent. In large metropolitan areas such as the ones we studied, people have lots of options, including other Pentecostal churches. So there is little virtue in trying to make everyone happy through elaborate consensual processes. Indeed, the perception is that the work of ministry is a lot more eYcient if everyone shares the vision and the complainers Wnd their place in a church that is more to their liking. While there is a natural inclination to favor democratic processes, especially among Westerners, there are also some virtues to benevolent autocratic rule. Senior pastors are able to make decisions very quickly if they do not have to submit every idea to a board or congregational committee. They can simply say, “God told me to do this,” or the more scaled-down version of the same thing: “I feel that the Lord is directing us as a church to do so and so.” This gives these churches a competitive advantage over congregations that are mired in bureaucracy, waiting for lay committees to listen to everyone’s concerns—many of which are oV point. Successful pastors do not micromanage, however. Once they cast the vision, it is up to the laity to implement it. While the senior pastor is often the creative visionary, the laity typically know best how to realize the vision. Obviously senior pastors do not operate in a vacuum; they know their Xocks’ needs. Many are very approachable; they are just one of the “folks.” Indeed, the success of Pentecostal pastors is that they typically “smell like the sheep,” said one observer. That is to say, they are products of the social context in which the church is located. Unless seminary or higher education has blunted their sensitivities, they understand the desires, hopes, and

186 / Organizing the Saints

dreams not only of their members, but of the community to which the church is ministering. This is what makes the ideas of visionary pastors fresh and cutting-edge. They have not come to this vision simply by reading books or implementing someone else’s ideas; they are responding directly to the needs of the people. Indeed, the source of these pastors’ innovations is typically their own experience. Many of them have had radical conversion experiences. Transformation is not an abstract concept; they have experienced it personally. One pastor, for example, said that after he was “saved” he spent every waking moment reading the Bible for months, even in the bathroom. Not unlike St. Paul after his conversion, these pastors have gone through a complete change of worldview. They have developed patterns of seeking God on a daily basis, asking the Holy Spirit to inspire their ministry. Out of these reXective moments come big ideas, even seemingly impossible ideas that defy practical implementation. No committee would dream up many of the visions that these pastors proclaim to their congregations; there would be too many naysayers pointing to the diYculties of implementation. PASTORAL LEADERSHIP

Many successful Pentecostal churches have a relatively Xat organizational structure. The senior pastor is the creative visionary. There may be a cadre of associate pastors or staV members, but they typically are homegrown products of the church and are well inculcated into the workings of the congregation. In fact, the most successful churches seldom hire from outside their own ranks. These associate pastors have been mentored by the senior pastor and share the same vision or else they would have left a long time ago. The role of the associate pastors, however, is not to do the ministry of the church, but to enable others to do this work. They are not “ministers” so much as they are trainers and “equippers” of the laity. In these large churches, it simply would not be possible to hire enough staV to


serve all of the people. If the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers did not already exist, it would have to be invented out of necessity. Some of the wisest senior pastors we interviewed had made replication and expansion of their ministries their primary goal rather than making themselves indispensable. For example, the senior pastor of a growing church in Nairobi decided to preach only half the time so that people he was mentoring would have an opportunity to develop their preaching skills. He did not measure his success by his own self-importance and indispensability; rather, his mission was to nurture the gifts of others, to train people who could take his place and who could replicate his ministry by planting other churches. At one level, pastors with excessive charisma actually create a dilemma for themselves and their congregants, because their followers are attracted to the individual rather than to the vision of the church. We interviewed a pastor in Kenya who clearly had the ability to start churches and grow them to substantial size in a short time. Listening to him preach, we could see that part of the attraction was his ability in the pulpit. However, rather than simply trade on his personal talent, he made a point of starting churches and then handing them on to other people after a few years. The temptation, of course, would be for successful pastors to relax into a comfort zone of respectability or to revel in the cult status of being an icon. While this sometimes happens, the distinction of many of the pastors we interviewed is that they march to the beat of a diVerent drummer. Nevertheless, in the early stages of some ministries, there is a cultlike attachment to the founding pastor. One commentator said about a successful young minister that for many of his members the question would not be whether to jump at his requests, but instead to ask “How high?” Particularly for young converts and perhaps for a younger generation of followers, this attraction is understandable. However, this style of leadership has many potential pathologies, both for the individual leader who starts to mistake ambitions for the will of God, but also for the congregation whose growth is stunted so long as membership is based on attraction


to a person rather than to a transcendent vision. Hence, the long-term challenge of leaders with intense personal charisma is to continue as a visionary leader while simultaneously giving the ministry to the people to embrace as their own. GIVING THE MINISTRY TO THE PEOPLE

Two metaphors illustrate the diVerent ways churches are organized. The image associated with the Catholic Church and many mainline Protestant churches is that of a pyramid: the pope, archbishop, or presiding bishop (depending on the tradition) is at the top of the pyramid, and then there are progressive levels of authority as the pyramid broadens, with the people (or masses) at the bottom, constituting the vast majority of individuals associated with the organization. Clearly this is a hierarchical image, and it is easy to understand lines of accountability. This organization is very linear in structure and does not invite circles of interlinking role relationships. The alternative metaphor, which illustrates the organization of many growing Pentecostal churches, is an organic image of a living entity with many diVerent interrelated connections that are constantly in Xux. Each interdependent part is necessary to the functioning of the organism. No one part is more important than any other, but if one organ fails, the entire organism can die. This analogy is referred to by St. Paul in his Wrst letter to the church at Corinth and is frequently cited by Pentecostal pastors and other representatives of what is sometimes called the “emergent church.”1 St. Paul describes the church as a body, with Christ being the head: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to


another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. (1 Cor. 12:4–11)

St. Paul goes on to say that the church is a body with many diVerent members. The hand is not more important than the foot, nor the eye more important than the ear. In fact, Paul says that the parts that seem to be the weaker are indispensable and that God values them at least as much as the more visible elements of the body. After making a list of all the various gifts of the spirit and their accompanying roles—apostle, prophet, teacher, miracle worker, healer, and so on—he says that there is only one overriding responsibility for the Christian, and that is to express love. The driving organizational principle of the churches we studied is to assist people in identifying their gifts and then to use them for the common good. There is no room for “benchwarmers.” Everyone has something to contribute. The task of clergy is to function as “enablers,” helping people to discover their gifts and then to nurture them in practice. The view of Pentecostals is this: no one in the body of Christ is without a gift, and healthy churches are those in which all members exercise their gifts—not for themselves, but for the common good. Gifts, however, need to be developed, and this requires mentoring, training, and study. But there is also a philosophy of practice associated with these churches: namely, gifts are developed as they are exercised and used. And a healthy church is one in which everyone is performing his or her function. For example, a layman in Manila joked with us that he was a “chairman”—his task is to put out the chairs in their open-air meeting space where Wve thousand people congregate, and then he stores the chairs after the meeting ends so that the space can be used by a school during the rest of the week. The more vibrant the church, the more likely it is that everyone has some job or role. Thus, some are ushering, others are controlling the sound


system, while others are singing in one of the church’s choirs, or else they are running the church’s various social ministries, visiting the sick, educating children, cleaning the church, gardening, among other activities. The implication of all this activity is that people feel invested in the church. Participation breeds ownership. One of the more extreme examples of people exercising their gifts was described by Jackie Pullinger in Hong Kong. Drug addicts often come to their Wrst meeting under the inXuence of heroin. Even while the addicts are in this state, Pullinger teaches them how to pray for each other. And before long they are reportedly witnessing miraculous healing; they are prophesying and otherwise exercising the gifts of the Spirit—even before they know the gifts that are described by Paul in 1 Corinthians. In Pullinger’s view, the Holy Spirit often takes the lead; book knowledge can follow. In hierarchical organizations, it is very typical that a cadre of leaders at the top serves interminably in their positions, blocking upward mobility for others. In organically run, growing organizations, new oVspring are constantly being born. Since the organism is growing in size, it requires the multiplication of cells and the development of people to assume new roles. Without organizational growth, people in leadership tend to become rigid and protective of their turf. But in expanding organizations, there is always the possibility of individual development. In some ways the organizational structure of these churches resembles that of some of the cutting-edge technology companies that prize a culture of innovation. In such companies, external appearance is considered unimportant. Dress is casual, titles are seldom Xaunted, workspaces are often communal, and teams are formed on an ad hoc basis and are then abandoned when they have accomplished the tasks for which they were formed. The same is true in many innovative churches. Collaboration is more important than hierarchy. While there is typically a trendsetter (i.e., the founding pastor), the work of ministry is often highly collaborative. No one is particularly concerned about degrees, titles, or external appearance. Small teams of people tackle speciWc issues based on their “gifts”—not their pecking order in the hierarchy. Clergy are available to enable the


laity to do their work, but a considerable degree of trust is involved in how the work gets done. In performing the work of ministry, transparency and humility are important values. Having a title or degree is not important. It is the integrity of the work that is valued. Ego satisfaction is not the driving goal; rather, the question is whether the Holy Spirit is present in the work. Jackie Pullinger, for example, refuses to refer to what she does as her ministry. Instead, she says that she simply tries to love people unconditionally, echoing the previously cited emphasis on love mentioned in St. Paul’s description of the gifts of the Spirit. Even heroin addicts are her friends and are to be treated with the same respect that one would treat a family member. She doesn’t keep statistics on “successes” and “failures.” To do so would require an organizational bureaucracy and furthermore would, in her view, objectify people. Taking a cue from Jesus, who healed the blind man by mixing dirt with water and applying it to his eyes, she views herself and her fellow Christians as “mud-spitters.” Pullinger and those who work with her pray for people, love them unconditionally, and then leave the rest to God. CELL GROUPS

Many of the most vital and growing Pentecostal churches we studied have adopted a cell group model for organizing their members. In part, this model was adopted out of self-defense. When we asked one pastor why his church had a cell group approach to ministry, he answered: “Because our pastors were working from 8 a.m. until midnight every day.” With thousands of members, it would require an inordinate number of clergy to serve the needs and demands of the congregation, whereas the cell group model puts the ministry in the hands of the people and the clergy are simply enablers and overseers. Nonetheless, churches that are halfhearted in their implementation of cell groups usually fail. The church either reorganizes completely around the cell group model, in which every member is expected to participate in a cell group, or it stays with the committee


model, with lots of supervising clergy. Mixed methods do not seem to survive well. Success requires wholehearted embrace of cell groups as a decentralized means of organizing the ministry of the church. Without this commitment, a paradigm clash occurs that parallels using mixed metaphors, although in this instance the conXict is actual: organic forms of organizational structure simply do not Wt well with hierarchical models of management. Although there are various models of how cell groups function, they typically have the following characteristics. The ideal number of people is 7–10 in a group. When the cell group grows to 15 people, it is time to split and form a new group. Most cell groups have a leader and an understudy. When the cell group divides (obviously an organic notion), the understudy takes one group and the leader continues with the remaining group. New understudies are chosen with the idea that the multiplication process will continue, and in fact some cell groups always have a couple of interns that graduate into the position of understudy or assistant leader. The congregation is divided geographically into diVerent zones or sectors with pastors (or sometimes lay leaders) overseeing each of these regions. On a regular basis the overseer meets with the leaders of each cell group. In some congregations considerable autonomy is given to the cell group leaders, and the purpose of the collective meetings of group leaders is simply to troubleshoot any problems that arise. In other congregations, group leaders meet together in a mentored relationship with an associate pastor, who instructs them on the teaching or Bible study for the week. The actual cell group meetings typically occur in someone’s home, not at the church. The composition of cell groups is usually fairly homogeneous, comprising church members living in a particular neighborhood. Alternatively, there may be cell groups organized around work or professional interests. In a few instances, we encountered multigenerational cell groups that involved families, although the typical cell group meeting is composed of adults, even though members of the cell group may go on family outings because of the friendships that have been formed in the group.


The cell group meeting typically has the following components, and often in this order. First, informal conversation commences as people arrive. Sometimes an icebreaker or game is used to facilitate interaction, especially if group members don’t know each other well. A short period of singing or worship, sometimes accompanied by a guitar or other instrument, follows. Then the group facilitator leads a Bible study. Occasionally the leader actually makes a formal presentation, but more typically opening remarks are followed by group discussion of a passage of scripture, often applying it to issues that members are currently facing. After thirty minutes or so, the leader asks for prayer requests, as well as things for which individuals would like to give praise. Typically discussions are very intimate and personal, covering dilemmas members are facing, family problems, issues at work, illness, and other matters of concern. In some groups, members may actually gather around and lay hands on someone seeking prayer for healing. Otherwise, spontaneous prayers are oVered. After an hour or so, the formal meeting is over and refreshments are served. These meetings seldom last more than two hours, and sometimes there is an agreement to break after an hour so that group members can return to their families, their studies, and other obligations. In congregations that have radically embraced the cell group philosophy, many of the ministries of the church are incorporated into the cell group structure. Rather than have a group of pastors that visit the sick and minister to people with personal needs, these functions are incorporated into the ongoing activities of the cell group itself. Cell group members care for each other by praying for one another, and if a member has a speciWc need, the group is a resource to the individual, operating much like extended families once functioned—bearing each other’s emotional burdens, helping with short-term problems, and so on. Cell groups also frequently see themselves as having a social function within their neighborhood. They may tackle a particular need within their community, bearing witness to the Christian ethic of love. Sometimes they simply do “random acts of kindness” within the community that are not deemed to have any particular strategic value.


While cell groups seldom exist for the primary purpose of evangelism, nevertheless evangelism is often a by-product of caring for one’s neighbors. Individuals outside the church are attracted to the warmth and embrace of the cell group. They observe a meeting or two, begin to study the Bible, oVer a request for prayer, and if the prayer is answered, they are often hooked. Thus, cell groups become an extension of the church. It is the church without walls, involved in relationships with people who might never darken the door of a church because of the stereotypes they associate with religion. However, entering someone’s home is a natural thing to do, especially if one is being warmly embraced. Because ministry occurs in the cell groups, Sunday morning worship is a celebration service. It is a time when the entire family gets together in all of its diversity. Sunday is no longer the primary focus of the Christian life, however; the real ministry is being done in the cell groups, and Sunday is simply a time to celebrate what members perceive as God’s involvement in the individual members’ lives. Sunday is also a time to hear the larger vision of the church reiterated. It is a time for reinforcing the collective values of the church, for deWning the DNA that is replicated in each cell. For members, the church is one body, and it is important to catalyze group identity on a regular basis; otherwise, the various cells of the body would lose their sense of connection to the whole. In assessing why cell groups are being embraced by so many growing Pentecostal churches, several factors can be identiWed. As already mentioned, the Wrst is that the cell group structure is a way of coping with growth. It decentralizes the task of ministry to the laity, thus relieving the clergy of the burden of ministering to thousands of people. Second, it is a laboratory for developing leadership. Rather than concentrating leadership in the hands of a few people at the top of the pyramid, the cell group structure allows every seventh or eighth person in the congregation to have some direct leadership role, and furthermore, in a growing church there is always upward mobility as cell groups divide and new leaders are brought on board. This is a far cry from the stagnant (and usually aging) leadership that dominates most pyramid-structured organizations. Third, cell groups


are an important laboratory for forming Christian identity. Everyone is invited to speak, whether giving witness to something that members perceive Christ is doing in their lives, their interpretation of a scripture passage, or practicing a particular gift that they believe the Holy Spirit has given to them. Fourth, cell groups respond to a problem confronting almost everyone who lives in an urban, postmodern environment— namely, the lack of community, the uncertainty caused by competing worldviews and truth claims, and the anomie of living in a competitive, individualistic environment. Properly functioning cell groups become like extended families. Not only is the cell group a place of emotional and sometimes physical support, it is a moral community of signiWcant others that places demands on its members. And Wnally, related to this point, cell groups meet people’s direct needs for love, care, and concern. They are places where people can be touched, hugged, and valued, a precious commodity in today’s culture. Likewise, cell groups are places where people can oVer nonexploitative love to others, an equally diYcult thing to share in a sensate culture. THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION

We were surprised by how many of the highly successful pastors did not have seminary degrees. Some of them were well educated, but not in theological studies. Their primary theological education was the result of reading the Bible, being mentored by clergy whom they respected, and by voracious reading that helped them with their ministry, including secular books on leadership. We also encountered a number of pastors of large churches that had very little formal education and only limited exposure to some form of Bible school. For example, on our Wrst trip to Manila we were invited to join a meeting of young pastors associated with the Jesus Is Lord movement. They went around the circle introducing themselves, casually mentioning that they had 800 members, 1,200 members, 2,000 members, and so on. Typically they had been pastors for only six or seven years. Almost to a person, they came into ministry after a radical conver-


sion experience. They started reading the Bible day and night and were thrust into leadership when new converts were attracted to their witnessing and teaching. Their pastoral skills developed as they confronted various problems and went to the leadership of the Jesus Is Lord movement for advice. While they received some education from this movement in the form of short courses, they also learned by comparing notes with each other and searching through the Bible for answers. For a number of pastors in developing countries, it simply is not feasible to consider three years of seminary education. Who would pay their tuition? Who would feed their families? And furthermore, who would pastor the churches that were already Xourishing under their leadership? Short courses in theology, practical ministry, and biblical studies make more sense. While it might be nice to know the history of the development of the Christian church, the evolution of diVerent schools of theological doctrine, and theories of hermeneutics and apologetics, for the moment all these leaders want to do is proclaim how and why their lives were transformed and the applicability of their experience to other people’s lives. They are writing history, not studying it. Several senior pastors told us that the danger of sending their younger clergy away to seminary, even if they could aVord it, is that they lose identiWcation with the people to whom they will minister. Their peer group becomes other clergy. Their language and vocabulary change. They lose the ability to communicate with the very people to whom they believe God called them to minister. Therefore, in many growing Pentecostal churches, senior clergy elect to mentor young pastors who are in the process of doing ministry. They would rather create a learning culture within the church or movement than export people to be trained in seminary settings over which they have little control and which, indeed, they may not respect. Social class factors, however, should be taken into account in the analysis of the role of formal theological training. More aZuent and welleducated congregations tend to demand more theological sophistication of their pastors, while less-educated congregants are often more interested in


witnessing the “fruits” of Christianity—especially love, care, and the hope of a better life. CHURCH PLANTING AND EVANGELISM

There are numerous strategies for planting new churches. One approach is for the mother church to regularly invite clusters of members to start a new church in their neighborhood. Sometimes these new churches are launched by sending an associate pastor from the mother church to shepherd this new Xock. By releasing a small group of members in this way, the congregation already has a Wnancial base as well as trained leaders. An additional beneWt of this method is that it creates a vacuum of leadership within the mother congregation, which existing members can Wll, including pastoral roles, thus creating mobility within the leadership structure. On occasion, however, the mother church becomes decimated, and it needs to take a breather as it rebuilds. Indeed, this was the case in a huge Universal Church in São Paulo. When we visited the church it was only about one-third full—not because of attrition or disenchanted members, but because of the number of churches that had been started out of this congregation. Another strategy of church planting is what is often referred to as “friendship evangelism.” On two diVerent occasions we visited a network of sixty churches near Hyderabad, India. In this Hindu-dominated region, Christianity is unknown, and so the evangelist church planters initially spend time simply getting to know people. When they encounter someone with a need, they pray for that person. Inevitably it seems, individuals are healed and word spreads throughout the community. The evangelist church planter then starts a Bible study for interested Hindus. Little by little, a congregation forms, both in response to learning the narrative of Christianity but also through additional answers to prayers. One interpretation that was oVered to us about the role of the miraculous is that God uses “signs and wonders” among illiterate people who may not be able to read or otherwise intellectually engage the Christian story.


Sometimes church planting is highly strategic. For example, a wellmentored understudy in a large church identiWes a place where he thinks a church is needed and proceeds to do an actual survey of the needs of the community, going door-to-door and talking with people. The ministry of the church is then designed to meet these needs. People are attracted to the church, not because of the healing that is occurring, but because the church is directly addressing issues they are confronting. In fact, one church-planting pastor said, “Aim for the pain.” He was not cynically implying that one trade on the misfortune of people. Rather, the model is that of the good Samaritan—to minister to people in need, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or religious commitments. During our interviews considerable skepticism was voiced about some of the traditional means of church planting and evangelism, such as tent crusades. One critic in Johannesburg, South Africa, said that crusades simply result in a recirculation of the saints, with people being “born again” into someone else’s church. A kinder interpretation was issued by a senior pastor in Caracas, Venezuela, who said that the primary purpose of crusades is for Christians to celebrate their identity and, on occasion, their unity. The basis of all conversions, argued many individuals, is the development of a personal relationship between a believing Christian and a nonbeliever. Therefore, any attempt at church planting through conversion requires that Christians have close associations with those outside the fold. Living a ghettoized, hothouse existence in which one associates primarily with fellow Christians leads to the eventual suVocation or inbreeding of the church. On several occasions we encountered churches in colonized parts of the world that were making plans to plant new churches in the developed world. In most cases these emergent churches followed emigrants who had gone to Canada, the United States, or Europe. But in one instance, a church in East Africa was boldly planning a new congregation in Australia among non-African immigrants. The phenomenon of a “reverse missionary movement” from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere is an intriguing development. Whether it takes wings will


depend entirely on how moribund churches in the West become and whether churches in developing countries continue to express the vitality that has marked them for the last several decades. RESISTING COLONIAL DOMINATION

The most successful congregations we studied were not dependent on foreign funding, nor were they led by missionaries from the United States or Europe. In fact, we heard frequently that this type of colonial inXuence eviscerates the church rather than strengthens it. External funding breeds dependency; it keeps the church in a weakened state so it cannot stand on its own. Likewise, outside leaders—whose power is frequently associated with the fact that they have access to money—tend to emasculate indigenous leaders, putting them in secondary roles. Nicholas Bhengu, the founder of the Back to God movement in South Africa, said that on a trip to the United States, God told him, “Don’t get the money from your church here [the Assemblies of God]. Go back home and get it from the women in your church. Teach them four things: to do something with their hands, to take good care of their families, to lead their husbands to the Lord, and to tithe.” In many ways, Bhengu was one of the early proponents of the Black Consciousness movement. When we were in South Africa, the women in the black Assemblies of God churches had collected more than $700,000 at their annual meeting, which is the legacy of Bhengu’s teaching about self-suYciency. The black church leaders we interviewed acknowledged that foreign missionaries brought Christianity to Africa, and for this they are grateful. But those missionaries are no longer necessary. In fact, outside funding sometimes invites corruption. One church leader in Johannesburg said that if Westerners want to make a substantial donation to a church in South Africa, then let them send someone with the money to ensure that it is used for the intended purpose. His rule of thumb is that the external budget of an indigenous organization should never be more than a quarter of its total income. While it is very useful for churches to partner with


a nongovernmental organization in building schools and educating children, or providing microloans through revolving credit programs, churches should be able to fund the salaries of their pastors as well as build their own houses of worship. If they cannot do this, then the members do not have real ownership of the organization; they are in a dependent relationship in which the funder can dictate policy. In the opinion of our interviewees, this is not a situation in which visionary leadership can be exercised. Church leaders also cautioned about congregations from the West sending mission groups to evangelize or engage in work projects. Makeshift work of painting or building houses perhaps gives these visitors a sense of purpose, but it is also taking work away from local people, and the money spent on international travel is completely disproportionate to the monetary value of what these workers contribute. Therefore, these mission trips have to be seen in an entirely diVerent light. The people profiting from the excursion are the foreigners. They are learning about another culture, and hopefully they are not doing too much damage in the process. The truly successful visits are those that result in a genuine partnership between congregations, where there is mutuality in the exchange rather than a one-way transfer. In our interviews we encountered two additional unintended consequences of missionary activity. We were told that missionaries had “lubricated” the brain drain of people leaving developing countries for permanent residence in the United States. For example, missionaries sometimes facilitate the possibility of people studying in the United States or Europe, and once there students often marry local residents or Wgure out ways to stay. The other sometimes negative consequence of missionary activity is that, particularly in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, foreign missionaries built hospitals and schools parallel in size and maintenance costs to the same institutions in their home country. When these missionaries departed, or funds dried up, the local population was sometimes left with a building and program that they could not aVord to maintain. The implication of the focus on self-suYciency is not that the West


should ignore developing countries. Quite the contrary; the point, instead, is that Westerners should be sensitive to their impact and focus on partnerships and collaborations rather than domination, however well intentioned their agenda may be from a Western perspective. This point was brought home in a visit to an Assemblies of God church in India. Occupying the pulpit was a white missionary in a very well established church. The songs were all imports from the West. The building was spacious but funded by outside sources. Perhaps there was a place for this missionary twenty years ago, when he and his family came to India. But why had leadership not been passed to a local pastor? Why was he the only one wearing a tie and jacket? Why was his wife, also prominent on the platform, not wearing a sari as all the other women were? The scene felt anachronistic, like it belonged to an era that had passed decades ago. In contrast, we saw exemplary models of leadership transfer in both Kenya and Uganda, where missionaries from the West had turned leadership over to local leaders and the churches were thriving. MARKETING THE GOSPEL

Understanding why some churches grow and other churches decline or stagnate requires a complex analysis, and there is no simple answer in spite of the claims by church growth consultants who think they have the key ingredient. Approached from a purely secular viewpoint, religion is a commodity that requires customers. If the product is not desirable, or if there is a better product, then one can predict a decline in attendance. Likewise, one might predict that churches that are innovative and are constantly adjusting the message and its packaging to the needs of the market will grow. Religion, however, is a tricky product. It has value only if it is perceived to be “real”—that is, not some artiWcial concoction. If people are simply looking for entertainment, they will elect to go to a club or concert. Similarly, if they simply want psychotherapy, then they will seek out a good psychologist. So however useful the market analogy may be, the reason religion works is that it is perceived to mediate truth of an ultimate


sort. If it does not do this, then the commitment to a church (or any religious institution for that matter) will be short-lived, however Xashy and culturally progressive it may be. Given this framework, why are many Pentecostal churches growing faster than many mainline denominational churches, including Roman Catholic churches? And why are some Pentecostal churches growing faster than others, recognizing that of course there are Pentecostal churches that are declining, just as there are some Catholic and mainline churches that are growing? Unfortunately, there is no neat formula that can be generalized to cover all instances. Religion is more complex that selling soap or marketing hamburgers. In our research experience, however, churches that are declining are often those that have become legalistic and have substituted a set of moral prescriptions regarding dress and personal adornment for life-changing encounters with the holy; or stated diVerently, declining churches typically have become bureaucratic and routinized, deadening the possibility of lifeaYrming connections with the sacred. Naked religious experience, however, is not the sureWre formula for attracting people to church. Religion needs to Wt the consciousness of the potential audience, which is inevitably a function of social class, cultural background, and so on. Hence, primitive expressions of divine healing may have a great deal of resonance for relatively uneducated people from traditional backgrounds. On the other hand, middle-class professionals may prefer their religion somewhat toned down, but not necessarily encased in liturgical stone. There are also important generational issues to be considered. Teenagers may like their music with the amp meter reading in the red, whereas those in their thirties may be entering a more “mellow” stage, and meanwhile, the parents of these teens may be stuck in a musical genre that is several decades behind what is currently being played on the pop charts. The religious point is that worship may occur in a variety of musical idioms, but growing Pentecostal churches match the tempo and genre to their niche market. And this will not be done by some maestro who orchestrates from atop the organizational pyramid. Rather, teens must identify their own band leaders and


write their own music. And their parents need to engage a music director who reXects their mentality. Based on our observation, the important thing, however, is that the music actually mediates the sacred, realizing that Jesus melodies and sacred music have been played in many diVerent keys for a very long time. The only diVerence now is that megachurches have the potential to display multiple musical genres on the same Sunday morning—or perhaps on Friday and Saturday nights as well—because of the size and the budget of the congregation. MUSIC AND MEDIA

In assessing church growth, it is diYcult to underestimate the importance of culturally resonant music, while at the same time acknowledging that music is not an end in itself, nor is it suYcient to Wll a church Sunday after Sunday with committed people. As we traveled from continent to continent, the impact of globalization was obvious. Middle-class teens and young adults tend to dance to the same type of music, although with diVerent local accents. Hence, Brazil may have an Afro-Latin beat to its music, while Singapore may have a harder-edge Western feel, and Kenya may mix in tribal drumming. Churches that do not have high-quality bands—or that have no band at all—are at a competitive disadvantage. Young adults in urban settings, whether in Africa, Asia, or Latin America, are making choices about whether they will be religious and, if so, where they will pursue their quest for meaning. But building a strong youthoriented church is not as easy as hiring a good band. If any age cohort has its lie detectors operating, it is this generation. A good performance is not the same as authentic religion. Therefore, there is a burden on band members to embody the sort of religiosity that individuals in the audience are seeking, as well as play a mean guitar. For Pentecostal churches, this is not an easy task, because it often requires growing these musicians from conversion to leadership positions. To our surprise, we encountered only a few churches that were using television or radio to communicate their message. For example, in


Santiago, Chile, we visited a church that had an extensive television ministry, and it appeared that the charismatically oriented pastor, who also was running for political oYce, was uniquely gifted in communicating through this medium. However, a sedentary audience does not Wt the culture of growing Pentecostal churches, and that may be why we did not encounter the use of the media more frequently. In Pentecostal churches everyone has a gift to exercise within the body of believers. As evidence of this, some of the fastest-growing churches, as previously mentioned, were those that grew by giving members away to launch a new congregation. This created opportunities for new people to step into the leadership vacuum and be engaged in the work of ministry. As we have already stated, these churches tended to measure success by the number of churches they had started rather than by the size of the mother congregation. THE ROLE OF RELIGIOUS OPPRESSION

A variety of cultural and historical factors aVect whether churches are growing, are steady state, or are declining. For example, we visited a very vibrant Pentecostal church in the Republic of Armenia. This country was dominated by seventy years of communism, and during this period the Armenian Apostolic Church was a literal shell of what it had been prior to the 1920s. Consequently, there was an ideological vacuum when the Soviet Union collapsed. Many people were searching for an alternative meaning system to structure their lives. It was in this context that the founder of the Word of Life Church in Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia, had a radical conversion experience that he forcefully communicated, and in response several thousand young adults joined this movement, the largest Protestant church in the entire country. Meanwhile, the Armenian Apostolic Church is barely waking up from its slumbers and is no match for this nimble movement for whom radical commitment to Jesus has taken the place of the Communist Manifesto. A similar dynamic characterized the Pentecostal church in Poland. Its big growth spurt occurred during the greatest period of political change, from 1989 to 1994, again


illustrating the point that religion often Wnds fertile Welds for growth during periods of social change. While religious oppression may play some role in stunting the spread of Pentecostalism, it may also provide a key ingredient that correlates with commitment. The formulation is simple: the more one gives up for one’s religion, the stronger one’s commitment to it. In all market analyses there is the issue of “free riders” (i.e., those who are beneWting from the system without paying their dues). In a country where individuals suVer oppression for their faith (e.g., shunning, beatings, and even death), free riders are eliminated rather quickly. In contrast, churches in countries with religious freedom have to work harder to create systems of commitment that eliminate the deadwood; otherwise they become dysfunctional as they seek to cope with an overload of people who are exploiting the institution. THE ROLE OF COMPETITION

In many countries Pentecostal churches are labeled as sects—especially by the Catholic hierarchy. This label is meant to be a derogatory term indicating that Pentecostals are not part of mainstream Christianity. Considerable sociological theory indicates that sects often grow at a much faster rate than more routinized and bureaucratized religions.2 In fact, where a religion exercises a monopoly over a region—meaning it is the only option available to people—the priestly class tends to become lazy; there is no demand for innovation because there is no competition, and the quality of care and service diminishes.3 The opposite occurs in a free market where there is considerable competition. The more crowded the religious marketplace, the better the product must be for the church to stay competitive. This principle applies even to cities were there are a number of competing Pentecostal churches. In many instances, the older, less innovative churches become self-satisWed and enter a period of stultiWcation. By the time they wake up to what is occurring, their congregation has aged, their numbers have diminished, and a host of new competitors have captured their potential constituency. Indeed, this is why many of the most


vital churches we studied might properly be called Neo-Pentecostal churches, because their founders grew tired of the constraints placed on their innovation within the established denominations and simply went out and started their own churches, putting in place ideas that seemed too progressive within the structures that, in some instances, were the very place where they had experienced their own conversion. Competing Pentecostal churches can continue to grow so long as they are not simply cannibalizing each other. For churches in Latin America, the market for Pentecostals is typically nonpracticing Catholics. These people have usually been baptized as infants, but their only acquaintance with the church is an occasional holiday celebration, such as Easter or Christmas, or using the church for a rite of passage such as a wedding or funeral. Otherwise, the church has little meaning for them. Given the traditionalism of many Catholic churches, the appeal of a hip Pentecostal church with a cutting-edge band, intimate small groups, and an active social ministry is obvious. In countries where the majority population is Hindu, Buddhist, or Muslim, the competition for converts may be more circumscribed. For example, members of a growing church in Bangkok were very hesitant to give us statistics regarding their growth because they didn’t want the government to control their activities, since many of their converts were from Buddhist backgrounds. The least open markets appear to be in countries with strong Muslim populations. For example, in Cairo it was very important that evangelism occur only within the Coptic community, which includes many nominal Christians who are Coptic by birth, although not practicing Christians. In cities where there are numerous Pentecostal churches competing with each other, what often occurs is that churches carve out speciWc niches related to age group, social class, and so on. While there may be a point at which the market gets saturated and congregational size diminishes because there are too many brands competing with each other, the beneWt of competition is that each congregation must pursue excellence within its market niche or it cannot pay its bills for lack of an adequate number of tithing members—which is a substantial incentive to keep growing.


In Argentina we encountered discussion about the fact that Pentecostalism was entering a plateau phase after decades of growth. However, this perception was an exception. Almost every other place we traveled expressed a spirit of expansiveness. And if one reads the Catholic press, the paranoia about “sheep stealers” is present in many Latin and Central American countries, where in some instances 30 percent or more of the population has become Protestant in recent years, many of these being Pentecostals. Major realignments in religious demography do not occur very frequently, but they do occur, and, to continue with a market analogy, all one needs to reference is the changing fortunes of U.S. automakers and the transfer of production to Asia. GLOBAL CHURCH NETWORKS

Many of the most progressive Pentecostal churches are not part of a formal denomination. Instead, they tend to associate with networks of likeminded church leaders. Because of the Internet, the ease of international travel, and the ability to speak across continents very inexpensively, many of these networks are global and transnational. Ideas travel very quickly across these networks, with new ministry forms arising in Singapore being implemented in Argentina within weeks, if not days. These networks also provide a support system for clergy who face many of the same problems and who need counsel from pastors who can share their experience in addressing issues confronting a growing church. Many of these networks have been organized by a respected senior pastor who may host annual conferences where systematic training can occur. The Global Leadership Network, led by Naomi Dowdy in Singapore, is a good example of a network that hosts an annual conference that teaches the methodology for creating a cell group structure within a church. Pastors from Argentina to Australia, Barbados to Bulgaria, and Cambodia to Canada are part of this network and travel to conferences led by Dowdy and her staV at Trinity Christian Centre. To their credit, the leaders of many of these rapidly growing churches


realize that since they are not part of a denomination, there is a need for accountability. In some instances, the accountability is to the senior pastor of the church that spawned them. In other cases, these pastors ask a respected person within their network to mentor them by meeting regularly with them and holding them accountable for their actions, including the vision that they are promulgating to members of their church. Within a denominational structure, this accountability would be to a bishop or similar person within the hierarchy. But these nondenominational pastors ask someone they respect to function as a spiritual parent, guiding them in their ministry. This idea often trickles down to the congregational level, and we frequently heard mention of church members being mentored by an older congregation member—perhaps not in chronological age, but in spiritual development. Indeed, accountability was a frequent watchword, whether applied to child-rearing or leading a cell group ministry. In summary, technology and the phenomenon of globalization are facilitating new possibilities for the organization of the Christian church. While denominational models are typically geographically based—a bishop or the equivalent oversees a particular region—the churches we have studied often relate to each other on the basis of aYnity rather than geography. Senior pastors are drawn into relationships because of the style of their ministry and the fact that they share a common vision. Communication is not hierarchical; it is horizontal and lateral. Implementation of new ideas does not require a committee; it does not involve permission from an overseer. Rather, the question is whether this idea is applicable within this church setting and the DNA of the congregation. THE ROLE OF WOMEN

Of the many Pentecostal churches that we visited during our several years of research, only one congregation was headed by a woman, and this was in Singapore. On the other hand, many of the most exceptional social programs we studied were founded by women. Names that immediately come to mind are Mama Maggie in Cairo, who created a network of nurs-


ery schools in the slums; Colleen Walters, who pioneered child care programs in Johannesburg; Jackie Pullinger, who founded a remarkable program for drug addicts in Hong Kong; and Jane Wathome, who started a dynamic center for women who are suVering from AIDS in Nairobi. Hence, while women may be restricted from serving as senior pastors in many Pentecostal churches, they are not barred from being social entrepreneurs—a role that depends on their creativity and drive, not their gender. Historically women have been allowed to prophesy within Pentecostal churches, since this role is speciWcally mentioned in the Bible as being appropriate to both genders. On occasion, especially talented women, such as Aimee Semple McPherson, have simply broken through the ideological binders of the tradition because of their extraordinary talent and their ability to create large congregations and even social movements.4 Furthermore, many women have played important pastoral roles within churches as coministers with their husbands, even though in the eyes of some people this violated St. Paul’s injunction that women remain silent in the church. Women have also functioned as pastors by assuming titles such as evangelist or missionary. And, increasingly, women are serving on pastoral staVs of Pentecostal churches, although there are still relatively few female senior pastors. As previously stated, women are often the Wrst ones to convert within their families. Furthermore, they are typically the majority of most congregations. Several theories have been put forward as to why women, who usually outnumber men, allow themselves to remain in secondary roles, and also why they are more numerous in churches. One theory goes under the heading of the patriarchal bargain, which is that women will trade prestige and authority within religious settings for husbands that become “domesticated” as a result of conversion—that is, become less abusive at home, give up extramarital aVairs, and spend more time raising children. Another theory that resonates with our own experience is that Pentecostal churches often exist in areas where the members are transitioning from rural to urban environments. For women in this situation, the church is


actually a liberating institution in that it provides an escape from domestic chores and often is a relatively egalitarian location in which they can exercise their “gifts.” Hence, they become “somebody” within the church environment, whereas at home they may have few privileges. Third, given the alternatives available to them (e.g., Catholic churches or mainline Protestant churches that are more patriarchal), the local Pentecostal church may be surprisingly open to participation by women in important roles. CONCLUSION

If Progressive Pentecostalism is going to become a social movement, the organizational dynamics supporting its growth are highly relevant to our discussion. In our opinion, many of the pieces are in place to launch this movement, which we suspect will be fueled in part by Neo-Pentecostals. In reXecting on the many churches we visited, there is little question but what the Neo-Pentecostal churches were organizationally more progressive than many of the Pentecostal churches associated with one of the classical denominations. They were more likely to have cutting-edge ministries for youth, their social programs were often very innovative, and their worship and cell groups seemed alive and vital. In many cases these churches were driven by the vision of the founding pastor, although we often wondered what would happen in the second generation. Would these churches routinize like their denominational counterparts? Unless some sociological miracle occurs, the answer undoubtedly is yes. Every institution routinizes, and the very label Neo-Pentecostal is a recognition that innovation often occurs through schism, or more charitably, through the vision of a new charismatic leader.

chapter eight

The Future of Progressive Pentecostalism

In this Wnal chapter we will summarize our argument, make some predictions about the future of Progressive Pentecostalism, note some theoretical issues that have echoed through our analysis, and identify some speciWc challenges that face this emergent movement within the Pentecostal tradition. The problem with generalizing about Pentecostalism, however, is that it is such an unruly movement. Wherever it emerges, Pentecostalism tends to indigenize, absorbing the local culture in the way it worships, organizes itself, and relates to the local community. In searching for a metaphor to describe the growth of Pentecostalism, we were struck with the idea that the movement is more like a wild shrub than a tree with symmetrical branches. Shrubs tend to have multiple oVshoots and often appear chaotic until they are pruned into shape or trained on a trellis. However, in the case of Pentecostalism, no one is in charge of its evolution—unless one credits the Holy Spirit—and, furthermore, there is no oYcial spokesperson for the movement. So for the moment, we are stuck with relying on the typologies of social scientists. THE ARGUMENT

The thesis of this book is that Pentecostals are increasingly engaged in community-based social ministries. Throughout the history of Pente211

212 / The Future of Progressive Pentecostalism

costalism there have been examples of compassionate social service, so this is not a new phenomenon. But we believe there is an emergent movement within Pentecostal churches worldwide that embraces a holistic understanding of the Christian faith. Unlike the Social Gospel tradition of the mainline churches, this movement seeks a balanced approach to evangelism and social action that is modeled after Jesus’ example of not only preaching about the coming kingdom of God but also ministering to the physical needs of the people he encountered. This movement reXects the increasing maturation of Pentecostalism as it develops from being an otherworldly sect to a dominant force in reshaping global Christianity. As we mentioned in the introduction, our inspiration for studying Pentecostal churches came as a result of writing to some four hundred diVerent individuals, soliciting their nominations for churches in the developing world that were growing rapidly and had active social ministries. To our astonishment, 85 percent of the churches that were suggested were Pentecostal or charismatic. This took us on a four-year research odyssey during which we visited churches in twenty diVerent countries. We struggled with what to call this emergent phenomenon within Christendom and Wnally settled on the label Progressive Pentecostalism, which we deWned as a movement of Christians who claim to be inspired by the Holy Spirit and the life of Jesus and who seek to holistically address the spiritual, physical, and social needs of people in their community. Our one uneasiness with the label progressive is the fact that the Pentecostals we studied are typically not overtly political in their activities. In fact, we excluded from our deWnition Pentecostals who have aligned themselves with right-wing repressive governments. On the other hand, we feel that progressive is the right adjective because when it comes to their worship music, organizational expression, and engagement with their community, the churches we studied are very progressive—especially when contrasted with earlier generations of Pentecostals, who were quite sectarian, Xeeing any real engagement with the world except for the purpose of proselytizing. The range of diVerent types of social engagement by Progressive Pente-

The Future of Progressive Pentecostalism / 213

costals is extensive, from various kinds of emergency responses to crises such as drought, Xoods, and earthquakes; to ministries that promote quality education; to economic development projects, medical clinics, and counseling. At one end of the spectrum are humanitarian responses to human need, while the other end of the spectrum is anchored by projects that focus on community development. In our opinion, projects that engage issues at a systemic level are the leading edge of Progressive Pentecostalism, but this is still an emergent movement. In our analysis we have often featured programs that emphasize community development, but we have also tried to acknowledge that many church-based projects have not yet achieved that level of engagement with the community. Many churches are still putting bandages on problems and only recently have begun to think structurally about social issues. Part of the problem is that, until recently, many Pentecostals were fervently waiting for the return of Christ. Hence, it did not make much sense to establish programs that were committed to long-term engagement with the community. However, our sense is that the emergence of a middleclass constituency within Pentecostalism is altering Pentecostals’ eschatology. The kingdom of God is not simply a future reality; the faithful Christian seeking to follow the example of Jesus is also obligated to be an agent of love and compassion in the present moment. If that is the goal, the question is one of tactics. What is the role of the Christian in society? Was Jesus a revolutionary or a meek and mild mystic? COMPARISONS WITH LIBERATION THEOLOGY

We have hinted at several points in this book that Progressive Pentecostalism might be a successor to Liberation Theology, and therefore it is important to acknowledge the diVerences between these two movements as well as to note some ways in which Progressive Pentecostals and Liberation activists might have mutually complementary strengths. One cynical interpretation of Progressive Pentecostalism is that it is simply a tool of capitalist ideology. Namely, it helps create sober, hardworking, honest employees


who are pawns within a capitalist system. In countries where there are huge disparities between classes or castes, this may be an apt criticism. In chapter 6, we cited the disillusionment of a Catholic priest who had been very involved with the charismatic renewal movement but then decided that religion was little more than an opiate if it is not connected to political organizing that has the potential to reverse unjust social policies. In many ways, Pentecostalism operates with an entirely diVerent set of guiding principles than those of Liberation Theology. The imagery of Pentecostals tends to be organic in tone, emphasizing harmony and purity. In contrast, Liberation theologians tend to use metaphors that conjure images of opposition, conXict, and struggle, reXecting its Marxist orientation. These diVerences are important because, as we saw in our discussion of organizational dynamics (chap. 7), metaphors reXect the fundamental roots of social movements, as well as having a controlling eVect on people’s behavior within these movements. Hence, the organic image of Christians being part of one body in which Christ is the head, with each individual being called to fulWll his or her particular role and function within the body, tends to motivate people quite diVerently than does a structural model that begins with the root assumption of exploitation in which one class is pitted against another. In the latter case, Jesus is a revolutionary prophet. In the former instance, he is a king who rules over a well-ordered and harmonious kingdom. Violence and revolutionary rhetoric are inappropriate within most Pentecostal circles, whereas they are at the heart of some expressions of Liberation Theology. According to the Marxist paradigm, the utopian kingdom will occur only after a revolutionary struggle. For Pentecostals, the kingdom of God is realized as people purify their conscience in obedience to God and follow his guidance and purpose for their lives. In terms of tactics, Progressive Pentecostals are more inclined to create alternative institutions than they are to overturn existing ones. Thus, they are committed to growing a new generation of leaders—a rather organic metaphor—by Wrst seeing to it that these potential leaders have a lifechanging conversion experience and then nurturing them through com-


munal support systems that build character and develop leadership skills. In contrast, Liberation Theology fosters more of a “frontal assault” on corrupt political institutions, on occasion resulting in clergy embracing leftleaning political movements that promote internal civil struggles. Pentecostals tend to follow Jesus’ example of nonviolence. They hope to foster a “quiet revolution” in which church members will eventually Wnd their way into positions of civic leadership. This strategy, of course, requires patience and Wts what might be called a “trickle-up” model of social change. That is, as people with strong moral values move into positions of authority, the institutions they lead will gradually change. This image of social change is quite diVerent from revolutionary models that may involve violent changes in the structure of oppressive governance. The suggestion that Progressive Pentecostalism may step into the vacuum being created by the decline in Liberation Theology’s inXuence is undoubtedly too bold. But we are reminded, of course, of the Latin American theologian who told us that “Liberation Theology opted for the poor at the same time that the poor were opting for Pentecostalism.” Obviously not every individual made this choice, but it is safe to say that we have witnessed a global change in the balance between Liberation Theology and Pentecostalism, with the former declining and Pentecostalism continuing to build in strength. While this demographic shift might cause despair in observers who wish for rapid social change, there is some possibility that Pentecostalism can Wll the breach left by Liberation Theology, although we do not want to be unduly optimistic. Legalistic Pentecostal churches oVer little inspiration for systemic social change. Prosperity Gospel churches likewise may be little more than an opiate for the masses—although we do not want to underestimate their potential, since once the desire for upward mobility is awakened, it is possible that repeated failures of magical intervention might be harnessed into a radicalized social movement—especially given the size and charismatic leadership driving some of these churches. Charismatic renewal churches are typically more infatuated with “signs and wonders” than they are with the hard work of transforming their communities.


In contrast, the Progressive Pentecostal churches we have studied are taking an incremental approach to social change by addressing the human needs that confront them on a daily basis. Thus, they are taking care of orphans, addressing people’s medical needs, educating children, and so on. However, they typically are not engaged in structural critiques of social issues, nor are they working at systemic solutions—although there are a growing number of exceptions to this generalization. Hence, if there is a complementarity between Liberation Theology and Progressive Pentecostalism, it is that they operate at very diVerent levels, and undoubtedly there is room for both. After all, Liberation Theology does not have a great track record in winning civil wars, even though its proponents have heroically been on the side of the victims in these struggles. This failure, however, does not mean that they should give up their eVorts at systemic change. But it does mean that there is a role for someone to address social problems, one person at a time—which tends to be the pattern of Progressive Pentecostals. FUNDAMENTALIST OR POSTMODERN?

As we contemplate Pentecostalism’s future directions, it is important to address a residual perception that seems to linger in the minds of some analysts and many journalists: namely, the temptation to equate Pentecostalism with fundamentalism, the latter being a backlash movement against “modernist” trends within society. This equation, however, leads to a number of misperceptions. First, fundamentalism—particularly the fundamentalist movement within the United States—has almost nothing in common historically with Pentecostalism: the former is dispensational, believing that the miraculous is relegated to the Wrst century, whereas Pentecostals believe the gifts of the Spirit are to be used in the present age. Second, fundamentalism is deeply suspicious of religious experience, preferring instead to elaborate theological doctrines and principles that are timeless and absolute. And third, fundamentalists of all stripes inevitably want to return to a prior Golden Age when things were more ordered, less


corrupt, and more God-centered. In contrast, Pentecostals, in addition to being experience-oriented and suspicious of theological dogmas that substitute for direct encounters with the holy, are often future-oriented, utilizing the latest technology in promulgating the gospel. While Pentecostals may resist the following identiWcation, there is a sense in which they are postmodern—or at least post-Enlightenment— rather than premodern. Fundamentalists are dualists at heart, separating body and mind, heaven and hell, good and evil. But many Pentecostals have escaped elements of the dualism associated with the Enlightenment. While some proponents of classical Pentecostalism may dress like they belong to a prior generation, many Neo-Pentecostals are more hip than members of the presumably sophisticated mainline denominations. In fact, Neo-Pentecostals, as we have seen, are often the Wrst people to incorporate aspects of contemporary culture into their worship and managerial style. It is the mainline churches that seem to be in a time warp, singing the same old songs, following the same old liturgy, and working in ossiWed bureaucratic structures. When visiting many Neo-Pentecostal churches, the outside observer is often Wrst struck by how youthful the congregation is. Rather than a multitude of gray and balding heads, which populate most mainline congregations—especially in the Northern Hemisphere—most congregants are young and single adults and families with children. This is not a backlash generation. These are “seekers” who are Wnding something in the experience of Pentecostal worship that is personally transformative. If ecstasy were all they were after, there would be no reason to move beyond the club scene. Instead, there seems to be something authentic and real about what they are encountering. Contrary to the perception of Pentecostals as being fundamentalist reactionaries, members of these churches are reaching out for a reality that is life-changing, life-aYrming, and future-oriented. These youthful church members are not sitting on their hands waiting for the return of Jesus, nor are they barricading themselves from the world in sectarian enclaves. Quite the opposite, they are dancing to Jesus tunes and Wguring out how they can align their lives with a reality that transcends the


oppressive quality of much of urban life. They reject contemporary culture’s individualistic, indulgent, and destructive elements. But this hardly makes them backward-looking fundamentalists. Instead, they are often quite utopian in their outlook as they seek to realize God’s kingdom in this world. In terms of analytical frameworks, the most useful theoretical perspective is to identify Pentecostalism as a renewal movement.1 Without renewal movements, religion simply routinizes and dies as it becomes increasingly formalized. Renewal groups demonize these formal structures as they seek to connect with the original animating element of the movement. This means that they often attempt to imitate the way things were done during the origins of the movement, but not with the hard edge of fundamentalist retrospective absolutizing. Rather, they seek to recover the fresh bloom of the early days in all of its innocence—before the movement became institutionalized. In the case of the early Christian church, some fairly weird and whacky things occurred: people speaking in tongues, prophesying, and being instruments of physical healing. It is unlikely that any self-respecting Presbyterian, for example, would have been comfortable on the day of Pentecost, which was a chaotic moment in the history of Christianity. Likewise, the First and Second Great Awakenings were equally embarrassing to the sophisticated classes of American society.2 People barking like dogs, fainting as they were Wlled with the Spirit—ecstatic religion is not everyone’s cup of tea. In summary, the hallmarks of renewal movements are that they encourage direct experience of the holy, they break with hierarchical authority, they democratize organizational structures and encourage lay participation, they privilege experience over theological dogma, and they typically get attacked by people involved in institutional religion who are threatened by their entrepreneurial spirit. Although Pentecostalism is a rather diverse movement, it has many of these characteristics, even though its early form—what we have called classical Pentecostalism—is now quite routinized. Predictably, we have seen the emergence of NeoPentecostalism and various independent churches resisting the legalism


and routinization of classical Pentecostalism, pushing forward in highly indigenous ways. CONTEMPLATING THE “S” FACTOR

Throughout this book we have sometimes referred to the Spirit with a capital “S.” This has been very intentional, because Pentecostals believe that the animating force in their lives is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. While it is not our intention to debate the ontological reality of the Holy Spirit, we honor the experience of Pentecostals and their claim that their faith is based on something other than their own human projections. At the same time, we Wrmly believe that human emotions and motivations are inevitably interwoven with transcendent experiences. Hence, simply reducing the animation that occurs in ecstatic worship to what Émile Durkheim called collective eVervescence—a somewhat primitive celebration of the values and beliefs that bind a community together— seems to us to be highly reductive, or at least a bit arrogant. And it would be naive to assert that collective dancing, chanting, singing, shouting, and other such practices do not create an experience that is more than the sum of the individuals present. Anyone who has participated in a wellorchestrated political march, or, for that matter, a high-spirited football game, can attest to the very human experience of being caught up in a collective fervor. Hence, the question, is there “something more” going on in collective worship than mere human projection? At the risk of being accused of having gone native, we believe that there is something that can be identiWed as the “S” factor that appears to operate in the lives of Pentecostals. In part we assert the potential reality of the “S” factor on the simple grounds of parsimony—it more easily explains certain phenomena than the reigning paradigms of psychoanalysis, Jungian thought, Marxism, functionalism, among others. By making such a bold assertion, we most certainly are not claiming that the “S” factor is not permeated with human desire and projection, cultural elements, or social class inXuences. Yes, of course, it is. But is that all there is to the experience of


the often heroic individuals we encountered in our research? We accept the possibility that there may be something more that animates these individuals and communities. Apparently we are not alone in this speculation. In all times and places individuals have used the word God or some local variation to point to this reality. However, in a book of this nature, God language seems a little bold. We prefer the “S” factor nomenclature because it simultaneously seems somewhat less theological but also more descriptive of the fact that it is “the Spirit” that gives direction and purpose to Pentecostals’ lives. Lest we be cruciWed on the cross of secular dogmatism, a few caveats are appropriate. We by no means believe that good deeds are done only by people animated by the “S” factor. Nor do we believe that horrendous acts are not committed by people claiming that the Spirit guides them. We are not attempting to defend God or engage in apologetic rhetoric. Instead, our intent is much more modest. We simply acknowledge that there may be more to the Pentecostal experience than most social science interpretations allow. For example, a standard interpretation of the rise of Pentecostalism is as a response to the anomie that people encounter when they move from rural to urban areas. The social networks that characterized life in rural society are destroyed; life in the city is impersonal and lonely; the extended family is often fractured; unemployment is high; husbands are tempted by drugs, alcohol, and gambling; promiscuity and prostitution are rampant. It is no wonder that Pentecostalism is attractive, argue sociologists, especially to mothers who are trying to hold their families together. Hence, the church is a haven from a chaotic world; it provides a moment of ecstatic release when prayers and petitions can be uttered and when the spirit can soar in song; and it oVers a structured environment where moral laws are proclaimed and where a community can give support in times of trouble. From a sociological perspective, the foregoing factors explain why the movement is growing. However, they fail to address the issue of whether individuals within the movement sometimes encounter a reality that is more than compensation for the trials of life or more than the ecstasy of


group celebration. In many ways these are theological questions. But it is also true that scholars within the social sciences often write as if they have oVered comprehensive explanations when, in fact, sociological generalizations are just that—they are generalizations about trends and causation that avoid speciWc cases, which of course are where the Spirit operates (i.e., in deep encounters with individuals). In this Wnal chapter, we simply want to cast a modicum of doubt on the sometimes arrogant ways in which we social scientists think we have explained reality. As stated previously, the most parsimonious explanations of the growth of Pentecostalism might well include some reference to the “S” factor, since without it there is a lot within Pentecostalism that simply does not make much sense. CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS

In reXecting on the question of what is the single most important element that empowers Progressive Pentecostals, the answer unequivocally is the energizing experience of worship. While organizational structure is an important ingredient, the driving force behind the social ministries of Pentecostals is their experience of the Spirit in moments of worship— both corporate and private. The work of doing social ministry is not easy; it requires ministering to people who are often sick, despairing, and living on the margins of society. If one is going to assist these individuals, then one needs hope. And, equally important, one needs to transmit this hope to others with a spirit of joy. Otherwise the task becomes dreary and, for many, unsustainable. For Pentecostals, worship provides the opportunity to experience an alternative reality. It is a moment when mind and body can potentially connect; it is a space in which worshippers imagine impossible possibilities; it is a time when they are Wlled with new hope and desire for a better world. The challenge is to channel these emotions, these feelings, these desires. And that is where teaching and preaching enter, they say. But it is also where potentially mysterious encounters happen. It is where, according to Pentecostals, the Holy Spirit speaks to them about their duties as


Christians—sometimes audibly, but more typically, through subliminal messages that creep into their consciousness and then are tested in relationship to the vision of the larger community, as well as in their personal encounter with scripture. The key, however, as our respondents have told us, is to have daily periods of renewal in personal prayer. It is during these moments that they oVer the tasks confronting them to a higher power. It is in these moments of meditation and prayerful reXection over scripture that they realize that if the work is going to go forward, it will not be on the basis of their personal strength alone. While we do not want to view Progressive Pentecostals through rosecolored glasses, nevertheless, we have seen a unique quality in many of the people we encountered during our research, which was a residual spirit of joy. Clearly Progressive Pentecostals are pursuing commitments they believe to be divinely inspired. The usual anxieties associated with social change that people have are modulated by a perception that this is not their work; they are merely the vessels of a larger divine purpose. This consciousness seems to translate into a lightness of spirit—that they are not doing their work alone and, in a sense, they are not even responsible for its success. Rather, God is all-powerful; he will accomplish in the world what he wants; and the only challenge is not to be an impediment, but rather an implement, in carrying out the divine plan. This is the worldview within which Progressive Pentecostals operate. While we make these generalizations, very speciWc images come to mind, and, in fact, it is these individuals that we met and the programs they initiated that guard us from cynically thinking that Pentecostalism is simply one more expression of delusional compensation. For example, we reXect back on our visit with Mama Maggie in the slums of Cairo—to our visit to one of the homes where families sorted garbage as their source of income and where the children did not look much cleaner than the garbage they were separating—that is, until we visited several of the many nursery schools that Maggie started in the slums, and there we saw children who were not only clean but engaged in learning skills that one day might enable them to pursue a diVerent way of life than that of their par-


ents. What motivated Maggie to get into this business, she said, was looking into the eyes of a street vendor and her child and seeing Jesus staring back at her, provoking her to realize that she could be that woman and the child could be her daughter. The image of children and nursery schools makes us think of Colleen Walters in Johannesburg, South Africa, who started a nursery school in which half the children were black and half were white. The black children were the sons and daughters of domestic workers whose white employers attended Colleen’s church, and this model nursery school was the training ground for women who started child care programs in the townships were they lived. Colleen, like Mama Maggie, had been living an upper-middle-class lifestyle when God spoke to her. She didn’t need to dedicate her life to giving disenfranchised black children the same opportunities as white children. Something else motivated her and sustained her in this diYcult work. Her claim is that God was speaking to her through the Holy Spirit. From Africa we leap continents to Asia, where we visited young women who until recently had been hooked on heroin and had supported their habit by selling their bodies. With a strong dose of unconditional love from Jackie Pullinger and colleagues, and an experience of “the Spirit,” they were turning their lives around. The same was true of dozens of men that we interviewed. Somehow this whole operation seemed to run on faith. Money came in to support the program as it was needed. Volunteers showed up to work for minimal wages or nothing. Surely selfinterest was not the motivating force behind this heroic work. Some other model is needed to explain these workers’ motivations. Continuing to reminisce—one of the more remarkable evenings we spent was with the group of teens and young adults in Sister Marlena’s home in a Venezuelan barrio. As these young adults danced to homeimprovised music, it was diYcult to distinguish between raging hormones and Spirit possession. What was clear, however, is that Sister Marlena was providing a template for living a good life. Rather than sex, drugs, and rock and roll, these kids were praising Jesus at night and either working in


productive jobs or going to school during the day. They all talked about an experience of the transcendent that had touched them, mediated by a heroic mother Wgure. And speaking of raw, unadulterated worship, we remember our Wrst impulse to buy a video camera, in Kampala, Uganda, when we attended a Saturday concert with a hundred-member youth choir, accompanied by pulsating drums and guitars. Even the two aging professors from America were tapping their feet. If this had been the only thing we observed at Kampala Pentecostal, then the deprivation theorists might still have a persuasive argument. But it was this church that was caring for hundreds of AIDS orphans in well-run villages of individual cottages that church members had constructed. Along with feeding, clothing, and educating these children, volunteer dads were showing up weekly to mentor their “adopted” children. And what about those kids in nearby Kenya that were being supported by Nairobi Pentecostal Church in a beautifully designed facility for street kids? Were the organizers motivated by personal gain? Or were they trying to live out an ethic exempliWed in the life of the founder of their religion? These examples, of course, oVer more questions than answers. But they do blunt the cynicism of analysts who think everything Wts neatly within a rational choice model—or some other equally reductive approach to human theorizing. The reality, of course, is that Pentecostalism has multiple expressions. Sometimes it seems like it is nothing more than catharsis for downtrodden people. Marx’s theory about religion as an opiate for the oppressed is not without merit. And there are surely self-interested manipulators within the Pentecostal movement—just as there are in political oYce in some of the wealthiest countries of the world. Religion is a rather earthy phenomenon that is mixed up with escapism, cultural baggage, and fraud. This observation is not new; it is what the prophets of the Hebrew scriptures and all of the great religious traditions have denounced. But there is another side to Pentecostalism that marches to a diVerent drummer, and it is this dimension of the movement—those who are leading heroic and self-sacriWcial lives—that has intrigued us throughout this study.

appendix

LIST OF INTERVIEWS

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA February 24, 1999

Elijah Bongarra, Iglesia de la Abierta Juan Pablo Bongarra, Iglesia de la Abierta Rene Padilla, Kairos Center Daniel RuYnatti, SACDEM Marie Elena Otero, SACDEM

February 25, 1999

Analia de Sebastiano, Central Baptist Church

February 26, 1999

Carlos Mraida, Central Baptist Church Malena Riverson, Central Baptist Church Pablos Derros, Central Baptist Church Fortunato Mallimaci, University of Buenos Aires

February 27, 1999

Gerado Muniello, Iglesia de la Abierta Hilario Wynarczyk, sociologist YEREVAN, ARMENIA

April 20, 2001

Yuri Avanesyan, Armenian Evangelical Hamlet Zakarian, Brotherhood Church

April 21, 2001

Ruben Krikyan, Jinishian Memorial Program

225

226 / Appendix SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL May 17, 1999

Richardo Mariano, sociologist

May 18, 1999

Paul Freston, sociologist

May 19, 1999

Bishop Tito, Nuevo Vida Mauricio Fragate, Nuevo Vida

May 20, 1999

Jabes Alencar, Assembly of God Paulo Lutero, Brasil para Cristo Carlos A. Quadros Bezerra Jr., Communidade da Graca Carlos Alberto Bezerra, Communidade da Graca

May 21, 1999

Bishop Geraldo, Renascer Pastora Darcey, Renascer CONCEPCIÓN, CHILE

March 1, 1999

Hernan Mulato Henriquez, First Baptist

March 2, 1999

Manuel Jesus Poblete, Comunidate Teológica Juan Carolos Barrera, First Baptist Yolanda Adams, First Baptist Maurico Laborte, former Roman Catholic priest Hernnano Arnoldo Vera, sociologist

March 4, 1999

Christian Romo, Christian Community CORONEL, CHILE

March 4, 1999

Maneul H. Luna, president of Pastor’s Council LOTA, CHILE

March 4, 1999

Raul Frez, Evangelical Pentecostal SANTIAGO, CHILE

March 4, 1999

Eduardo Jakob, Encuentro con Cristo

March 5, 1999

Omar Cortes Gaibur, Fourth Baptist Margarita Daza, Resurrection 2000

List of Interviews / 227 Arturo Chacon Herrera, sociologist Samuel Palma, sociologist CIGONG, CHINA May 19, 2000

Au Shucun, Christian Church Chen Shuying, Christian Church Hsu Jinying, Christian Church GUANGDONG, CHINA

May 18, 2000

Yi Lu Chen, Union Theological Seminary QING YUEN, CHINA

May 19, 2000

Elder Chang Dar Min, Christian Church Lai Sai Fung, church elder Chen Xian Qin, director of Religious AVairs Wei San Yim, Medical Clinic CAIRO, EGYPT

May 18, 2002

Celine Ashadud, Stephen’s Children

May 19, 2002

Maggie Gobran, Stephen’s Children Ahmad Beshal, Stephen’s Children

May 20, 2002

Menes Abdul Noor, Evangelical Church Kasr El-Dobera, Evangelical Church ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA

April 10, 2000

Abraham Adessa, Addis Ababa Geunet Gossaye Alemu, Addis Ababa Geunet

April 11, 2000

Agidew, Addis Kidan Baptist Florence Muindi, Addis Kidan Baptist Seyume, Evangelical Church Association

April 12, 2000

Girma Foggi, Addis Ababa Mulu Wongel Tilahun Dinsa, Addis Ababa Mulu Wongel

228 / Appendix ACCRA, GHANA July 19, 2001

Mengah Otabil, International Central Gospel

July 21, 2001

Sam Korankye-Ankrah, Royal House Chapel GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA

March 12, 2001

Edmond Madrid, Showers of Grace QUETZALTENGA, GUATEMALA

March 1, 2001

Elder Pineda, Church of God HONG KONG

May 20, 2000

Silas Hi Siu Lai, Pentecostal Church of Hong Kong

May 21, 2000

Lai Wing Yiu, Pentecostal Church of Hong Kong Peng Kin Tak, Pentecostal Church of Hong Kong Ruth Tong Mo Wan, Pentecostal Church of Hong Kong

May 22, 2000

Siu Hoi Lei, Hong Kong Assemblies of God Samuel Chu, Hong Kong Bible Seminary

May 23, 2000

Chan Kim-kwong, Hong Kong Christian Council

May 24, 2000

Scarlet-Kwan Shun Chan, Sino Consult

February 6, 2001

Wong Wai Chung, Tze Fung Elderly Centre

February 7, 2001

Chu Wai Man, St. Stephen’s Society Debbie Russell, St. Stephen’s Society Matt Hudson, St. Stephen’s Society Wong Waichun, St. Stephen’s Society

February 8, 2001

Jackie Pulllinger, St. Stephen’s Society Lee Ming Yee, St. Stephen’s Society

February 9, 2001

Hon Lai Nga, St. Stephen’s Society Hon Yi, St. Stephen’s Society Ko Wing Sze, St. Stephen’s Society Lau Chi Yat, St. Stephen’s Society Lui Vuk Kam, St. Stephen’s Society

List of Interviews / 229 CALCUTTA, INDIA April 5, 2000

John Higgins, Assemblies of God Anita George, Emmanuel/Samaritan Ministries Bwna Nathan, Emmanuel/Samaritan Ministries Premila Pavamani, Emmanuel/Samaritan Ministries Tarannum, Emmanuel/Samaritan Ministries Vijayan Pavamani, Emmanuel/Samaritan Ministries Pariki Bose, Samaritan Midway Home Tammoy Tasu, Samaritan Midway Home

April 6, 2000

Ambika Pandey, Assemblies of God Dipendra Bansria, Assemblies of God Janak Nandanl Hartnot, Assemblies of God Joni Middleton, Assemblies of God Z. P. Dadina, Assemblies of God CHENNAI (MADRAS), INDIA

March 30, 2000

Sam Sundaram, Apostolic Christian Assembly Samineni Arulapp, Roman Catholic

March 31, 2000

John Thomas, St. Thomas Orthodox Church Father Xavier, Working People’s Liberation Movement

April 1, 2000

Kumar, Apostolic Christian Assembly Jaya Kumar Christian, World Vision HYDERABAD, INDIA

April 1, 2000

Christuraj James, Divine Word Center Caleb Premamandam Rayapati, Harvest Ministries Samineri Arulappa, Roman Catholic

April 3, 2000

G. Peter, Assemblies of God Zephaniah Peter, Bible League R. C. D’Cruz, Brethren

April 4, 2000

Nalla Thomas, Centenary Baptist

January 27, 2001

Paulson, evangelist/healer

230 / Appendix January 28, 2001

Ratnamanakyam, Lord’s Grace Church Solomon Tomar, Shrine of Infant Jesus NAIROBI, KENYA

January 28, 1999

Alfred Wetindi, Nairobi Chapel Cosma Gatere, Nairobi Chapel Kyama Mugambi, Nairobi Chapel Oscar Muriu, Nairobi Chapel Sylvester Nalo, Nairobi Chapel

January 29, 1999

Bob Kikuyu, Nairobi Chapel Luke Jaoko, Nairobi Chapel Mercy Ngatia, Nairobi Chapel Robert Rasmussen, Nairobi Chapel Dennis White, Nairobi Pentecostal

January 30, 1999

Peter Njoka, All Saints Cathedral Ken Ikiara, Nairobi Chapel Stephen Maina, Nairobi Chapel Peter Bisem, National Council of Churches Samuel Kabue, National Council of Churches

February 1, 1999

Bonaface Adoyo, Nairobi Pentecostal Gregory Nzioka, Nairobi Pentecostal Noise Wangin, Nairobi Pentecostal Rosemary Nyanga, Nairobi Pentecostal

May 25, 2002

Takunboh Adeyemo, Association of Evangelicals Jane Wathome, Beacon of Hope Ken Wathome, Nairobi Chapel MACAU

May 25, 2000

Janet Borzel, Canadian Assemblies of God Timothy C. K. Lam, Macau Evangelical Church

List of Interviews / 231 George Veith, Mennonite Gregory Li, Trinity Christian Centre MANILA, PHILIPPINES January 14, 1999

Noeh Vios, Diliman Bible Melba Maggay, ISACC

January 15, 1999

Ressie Abalos, Jesus Is Lord

January 17, 1999

Edwardo Dizon, Sr., Jesus Is Lord Ike Devera, Jesus Is Lord Jesusa Guevarreh, Jesus Is Lord Pastor Romeosuna, Jesus Is Lord Rainier Evardone, Jesus Is Lord

January 18, 1999

Nolan, Jesus Is Lord

May 8, 2002

Eddie Vilanueva, Jesus Is Lord WARSAW, POLAND

May 28, 2000

Jan Marek Jopek, Pentecostal Church Lilia Chatojan, Pentecostal Church Margaret Lipert, Pentecostal Church Monika Kowalczyk, Pentecostal Church Tom Lipert, Pentecostal Church Sebastian Kozlowski, politician

May 29, 2000

Krystyna Wisniewska, Christian Church Andrzej Starzynski, Pentecostal Church Edward Czajko, Pentecostal Church Marian Suski, Pentecostal Church Michal Hydzik, Pentecostal Church Wlodzrmierz Rudnacki, Theological Seminary Timothy Case, Warsaw Theological Seminary

May 30, 2000

Aguieszka Biatowas, Catholic Renewal Andrew Bajenski, Christian Church

232 / Appendix Arkadivsz Kvczynski, Pentecostal Church Krzysztof Zareba, Pentecostal Church Renata Pruszkowscy, Pentecostal Church SINGAPORE February 2, 2001

Melvyn Mak, Faith Community Baptist

February 3, 2001

Lai-Kheng Pousson, Love Singapore Michael Chan, Singapore Bible College Dominic Yeo, Trinity Christian Center Eu Yat Wan, Trinity Christian Center

February 4, 2001

Edmund Chun, Evangelical Free

February 5, 2001

Eugene Seow, Touch Community Services

May 14, 2002

Margaret Tay, Trinity Christian Center Patsy Chan, Trinity Christian Center Riulin Hung, Trinity Christian Center

May 15, 2002

Richard Fowler, City Harvest JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

January 26, 1999

Colleen Walter, Highway Assemblies of God Mark Brooks, associate pastor, Highway Assemblies of God

January 27, 1999

JeV Bond, Highway Assemblies of God

January 4, 2001

Fred Shabalala, Back to God, Assemblies of God

January 5, 2001

Fred Kobus, Urban Planning Services

January 7, 2001

Thomas Rasane, Youth for Christ

January 8, 2001

Ian Thompson, Safe and Sound

January 9, 2001

John Bond, Highway Assemblies of God

January 11, 2001

Moss Ntlha, Evangelical Alliance of SF SOWETO, SOUTH AFRICA

January 8, 2001

Norman Pule, Assemblies of God

List of Interviews / 233 BANGKOK, THAILAND January 20, 1999

Manoosak Kamolmatyakum, Jaisamarn Church

January 23, 1999

Associate Pastor Somthab, Hope of Bangkok

January 24, 1999

Carl Groot, Abundant Life Fellowship Jerry Khoo, Thai pastor, Christ Church

January 25, 1999

Sirijongkol Ariyawanakit, Baan Chivit Mai Pitsanunat Srithawong, Hope of Bangkok Linda Kevorkian, Nor Giank Somnuk Montrilertrassaunoe, Plukghit Church KAMPALA, UGANDA

February 3, 1999

Zac Niringiye, IFES Chris Komagum, Kampala Pentecostal

February 4, 1999

Brenda Katongole, Kampala Pentecostal Joan Hall, UK missionary

February 5, 1999

Nicholas Wafula, Deliverance Church

February 6, 1999

George Tibeesigwa, Church of Uganda David Sempiira, Kampala Baptist

February 8, 1999

Andrea Crowe, Deliverance Church Sam Mugote, Deliverance Church Stephen Watiti, Deliverance Church CARACAS, VENEZUELA

February 24, 2000

Jesus Ramon Perez, Renacer Roberto Ruhamut, sociologist

February 25, 2000

John Palmer, Assemblies of God Alexis Mora, Fuente de Vida Oswaldo Melo, Hogar Renacer Alberto Partidas, Renacer Xiomara Suarez, Renacer

February 26, 2000

Mary Mahon, Fuente de Vida

February 27, 2000

Martin, Las Acacias Samuel Olson, Las Acacias Gregorio Lugo, Renacer

February 28, 2000

Isbelia Armas, Las Acacias

March 8, 2001

Sister Marlena, Renacer

NOTES

INTRODUCTION 1. For example, see the widely read books by Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002); Harvey Cox, Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-Wrst Century (New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1995); and David Stoll, Is Latin America Turning Protestant? (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990). 2. See the extensive overview of Pentecostalism in Stanley M. Burgess, ed., The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002). 3. See the excellent overview of concepts related to holistic ministry in the report issued by the Lausanne Committee 2004 Forum for World Evangelization, in Holistic Mission Issue Group, ed. Evvy Hay Campbell and John Farquhar Plake, Pattaya, Thailand, September 29–October 5, 2004. 4. Prominent writers on evangelical social action include Ronald Sider and Heidi Rolland Unruh, Saving Souls, Serving Society: Understanding the Faith Factor in Church-Based Social Ministry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005); Bryant L. Myers, Walking with the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999); Tim Chester, Good News to the Poor: Sharing the Gospel through Social Involvement (Leicester, U.K.: InterVarsity Press, 2004); Jim Wallis, The Call to Conversion: Why Faith Is Always Personal but Never Private (New York: HarperCollins, 2005). 235

236 / Notes to Pages 4–18 5. See William James, Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature (New York: Collier Books, 1961). 6. Tetsunao Yamamori, ed., Serving with the Urban Poor: Cases in Holistic Ministry (Monrovia, CA: Marc Publishing, 1998). 7. Donald E. Miller, Reinventing American Protestantism: Christianity in the New Millennium (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997). 8. Steve Ferguson, a program oYcer for Fieldstead Company, deserves the credit for encouraging the collaboration of the authors of this book. 9. For example, see the excellent work by Grant Wacker, Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001). 10. See Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy: An Inquiry into the Non-rational Factor in the Idea of the Divine and Its Relation to the Rational (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973). 11. James, Varieties of Religious Experience. CHAPTER 1. GLOBAL PENTECOSTALISM 1. In 2005, there were reports that 3 million people attended the march. 2. The news media in Brazil have criticized the founders of Renascer for utilizing church funds to enrich themselves personally. 3. The classic treatment of Christianity’s sociological evolution is Ernst Troeltsch, The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches (New York: Macmillan Company, 1931). 4. See Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 3–6. 5. See the interesting treatment of challenges to Catholicism in R. Andrew Chestnut, Competitive Spirits: Latin America’s New Religious Economy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003). 6. See Hugh McLeod and Werner Ustorf, eds., The Decline of Christendom in Western Europe, 1750–2000 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003). 7. See C. Peter Wagner, “The New Apostolic Reformation: A Search for a Name” (paper presented at the National Symposium on the Postdenominational Church, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California, May 21–23, 1996). 8. The story of spiritual ferment in the United States is well told in Nathan Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989).

Notes to Pages 18–19 / 237 9. For descriptions of the early days of Pentecostalism, see Cecil M. Robeck Jr., The Azusa Street Mission and Revival: The Birth of the Global Pentecostal Movement (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2006); Gastón Espinosa, “Ordinary Prophet: William J. Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival,” in The Azusa Street Revival and Its Legacy, ed. Harold D. Hunter and Cecil M. Robeck Jr. (Cleveland, TN: Pathway Press, 2006). 10. For a highly readable overview of the development of Pentecostalism, see Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004). For a more technical history of global Pentecostalism, see Walter J. Hollenweger, Pentecostalism: Origins and Developments Worldwide (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997). 11. See the article called “Charismatic Movement” in Stanley M. Burgess, ed., International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 477–519. 12. David Barrett, ed., World Christian Encyclopedia: A Comparative Survey of Churches and Religions in the Modern World, 2 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 1:19. 13. Ibid. 14. David Martin, Pentecostalism: The World Their Parish (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002), p. 1. In private e-mail correspondence (May 17, 2006), Paul Freston, a noted authority on Pentecostalism, oVered the following estimates of Pentecostalism. He says there may be 250 million non-Catholic Pentecostals and charismatics and 100 million Catholic charismatics. In North America, he estimates there are 75 million Pentecostals and charismatics, and in Latin America approximately 70 million Pentecostals and charismatics. In Brazil, he states that there are accurate polls indicating that 18.5 percent of the population, or 35 million people, are Pentecostal or charismatic. In the rest of the world, he oVers the following estimates: in Africa, approximately 100 million; in Asia, approximately 75 million; in Europe, approximately 25 million; in Oceania, approximately 5 million. Another excellent source of information is the World Christian Database at the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary: http:// worldchristiandatabase.org/wcd. 15. See the discussion of secularization in Eileen Barker, James A. Beckford, and Karel Dobbelaere, eds., Secularization, Rationalism, and Sectarianism: Essays in Honour of Bryan R. Wilson (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993). 16. This statistic was cited in personal correspondence from Doug Petersen, May 11, 2006.

238 / Notes to Pages 19–29 17. For example, see the discussion of independent Pentecostal groups in Africa by Paul GiVord, Ghana’s New Christianity: Pentecostalism in a Globalizing African Economy (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004). 18. See the discussion of postmodern religious organizations in Donald E. Miller, Reinventing American Protestantism: Christianity in the New Millennium (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 134–56. 19. Barrett, World Christian Encyclopedia, 1:10. 20. Jenkins, Next Christendom, 3. 21. Ibid. 22. Barrett, World Christian Encyclopedia, 1:5. 23. See John C. Raines, ed., Marx on Religion (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2002). 24. See Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion (New York: W.W. Norton, 1989). 25. See Émile Durkheim, Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (New York: Free Press, 1995). 26. One of the classic interpretations of Pentecostalism that utilizes deprivation theories is Robert Mapes Anderson, Vision of the Disinherited: The Making of American Pentecostalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979). 27. See the excellent ethnography of the attraction of Pentecostalism to poor people by Rebecca Pierce Bomann, Faith in the Barrios: The Pentecostal Poor in Bogotá (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1999). 28. See Harvey Cox, Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the 21st Century (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1995). 29. See the article on the Assemblies of God in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assemblies_of_God (accessed August 2006). 30. GiVord, Ghana’s New Christianity, 56. 31. See the discussion of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in Brazil in Paul Freston, Evangelicals and Politics in Asia, Africa, and Latin America (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 11–58. 32. See the article on the charismatic movement in Wikipedia: http://en .wikipedia.org/wiki/Charismatic_movement. 33. See the discussion of the worship styles of Calvary Chapel, Hope Chapel, and the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Miller, Reinventing American Protestantism, 80–107. 34. See Simon Coleman, The Globalization of Charismatic Christianity: Spreading the Gospel of Prosperity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).

Notes to Pages 30–54 / 239 35. See Donald E. Miller, “Routinizing Charisma: The Vineyard Christian Fellowship in the Post-Wimber Era,” in Church, Identity, and Change: Theology and Denominational Structures in Unsettled Times, ed. David A. Roozen and James Nieman (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2005), 141–62. 36. For a good overview of Marx’s theory of religion, see Daniel L. Pals, Seven Theories of Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 124–57. 37. For two somewhat diVerent views, see Douglas Petersen, Not by Might nor by Power: A Pentecostal Theology of Social Concern in Latin America (Oxford: Regnum, 1996), and Freston, Evangelicals and Politics, 281–321. 38. Representatives of this view include Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Émile Durkheim. 39. See Peter L. Berger, ed., The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1999), as well as the excellent volume by Jose Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994). 40. See Robert Wuthnow, Saving America: Faith-Based Services and the Future of Civil Society (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004). 41. See Dean Kelley, Why Conservative Churches Are Growing: A Study in Sociology of Religion (New York: Harper & Row, 1972). 42. See R. Stephen Warner, “Work in Progress toward a New Paradigm for the Sociological Study of Religion in the United States,” American Journal of Sociology 98 (1993): 1044–93; Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, “Religious Economies and Sacred Canopies: Religious Mobilization in American Cities,” American Sociological Review 53 (1988): 41–49; Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, The Churching of America, 1776–1900: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992). CHAPTER 2. PROGRESSIVE PENTECOSTALS 1. For an alternative typology, see Heidi Rolland Unruh and Ronald Sider, Saving Souls, Serving Society: Understanding the Faith Factor in Church-Based Social Ministry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 29–31. 2. For a critique of the role of NGOs, see Fiona Terry, Condemned to Repeat? The Paradox of Humanitarian Action (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002). 3. There is an emerging theological literature on Pentecostal social concern.

240 / Notes to Pages 68–99 See, for example, Murray W. Dempster, “Pentecostal Social Concern and the Biblical Mandate of Social Justice,” PNEUMA: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies 9 (1987): 129–53; Murray W. Dempster, Douglas Petersen, and Byron Klaus, eds., Called and Empowered: Global Mission in Pentecostal Perspective (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1991); Murray W. Dempster, “Social Concern in the Context of Jesus’ Kingdom, Mission and Ministry,” Transformation 16 (1999): 43– 53; Murray W. Dempster, Byron D. Klaus, and Douglas Petersen, The Globalization of Pentecostalism: A Religion Made to Travel (Oxford: Regnum Books, 1999); Douglas Petersen, Not by Might nor by Power: A Pentecostal Theology of Social Concern in Latin America (Oxford: Regnum, 1996); Doug Petersen, “Towards a Latin American Theological Political Ethic,” Transformation 14 (1997): 30–33; Doug Petersen, “Missions in the Twenty-Wrst Century: Toward a Methodology of Pentecostal Compassion,” Transformation 16 (1999): 54–59; Doug Petersen and Doug Petersen Jr., “Changing Paradigms and Challenges for Latin American Evangelical Pentecostals,” unpublished paper, 2005. CHAPTER 3. BUILDING A NEW GENERATION 1. For an excellent overview of AIDS-related issues and the role of the church in prevention, see Edward C. Green, Rethinking AIDS Prevention: Learning from Successes in Developing Countries (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2003). 2. For a discussion of the role religion plays in ordering human life, see Peter L. Berger, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969). 3. For a discussion of utilitarian individualism, see Robert N. Bellah, Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and Steven M. Tipton, Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985). 4. “Hardwired to Connect: The New ScientiWc Case for Authoritative Communities,” report from the Commission on Children at Risk (New York: Institute for American Values, 2003). CHAPTER 4. PRACTICING THE FAITH 1. Jackie Pullinger with Andrew Quicke, Chasing the Dragon (Port Huron, MI: Servant Ministries, 1982).

Notes to Pages 100–165 / 241 2. See discussion of John Wimber and the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Donald E. Miller, Reinventing American Protestantism: Christianity in the New Millennium (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 44–51. 3. For a description of the Gramine Bank, see Muhammad Yunus, Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle against World Poverty (New York: Public AVairs, 2003). CHAPTER 5. ENCOUNTERS WITH THE HOLY 1. See the classic work by Émile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (New York: Free Press, 1995). 2. This Durkheimian theme is developed by Robert N. Bellah in his introduction to Émile Durkheim, Emile Durkheim on Morality and Society, ed. Robert N. Bellah (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975). 3. Feminists have also criticized Durkheim for his reductive views. See, for example, Victoria Lee Erickson, Where Silence Speaks: Feminism, Social Theory, and Religion (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993). 4. See Donald E. Miller, “Worship and Moral ReXection: A Phenomenological Perspective,” Anglican Theological Review 67 (1980): 307–20. 5. See the classic work by Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents (New York: W. W. Norton, 1961). 6. Harvey Cox, Fire from Heaven: The Rise of Pentecostal Spirituality and the Reshaping of Religion in the Twenty-Wrst Century (New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1995). 7. William James, Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature (New York: Collier Books, 1961), 351. 8. Christian Smith, Moral, Believing Animals (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 109. CHAPTER 6. BORN IN THE IMAGE OF GOD 1. Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002). 2. See Rom. 9:9–24 as well as John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Faith (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960). 3. For another interpretation of the relationship of Pentecostalism to the

242 / Notes to Pages 172–205 Protestant ethic, see Bernice Martin, “New Mutations of the Protestant Ethic among Latin American Pentecostals,” Religion 25 (1995): 101–17. 4. See the discussion of the aYnity between capitalism and Protestantism in Reinhard Bendix, Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait (New York: Doubleday Books, 1960), 55–63. 5. For a discussion of the Prosperity Gospel, see Simon Coleman, The Globalization of Charismatic Christianity: Spreading the Gospel of Prosperity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000); and Simon Coleman, “The Faith Movement: A Global Religious Culture,” Culture and Religion 3 (2002): 3–19. 6. For an excellent overview of religion and politics in these countries, see Paul Freston, Evangelicals and Politics in Asia, Africa, and Latin America (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001). 7. While the movement at Azusa Street was interracial, the history of Pentecostalism is one of relative segregation, although recent attempts have been made to address this issue. See Anthea Butler, “Constructing DiVerent Memories: Recasting the Azusa Street Revival,” in The Azusa Street Revival and Its Legacy, ed. Harold D. Hunter and Cecil M. Robeck Jr. (Cleveland, TN: Pathway Press, 2006), 193–202. 8. See Estrelda Alexander, “The Role of Women in the Azusa Street Revival,” in The Azusa Street Revival and Its Legacy, 61–78. 9. See the discussion of Marx by Anthony Giddens in Capitalism and Modern Social Theory: An Analysis of the Writings of Marx, Durkheim, and Max Weber (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971), 205–23. CHAPTER 7. ORGANIZING THE SAINTS 1. On the emergent church, see Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003); Leonard Sweet, The Church in Emerging Culture (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003); Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger, Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005). 2. See Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, The Churching of America, 1776–2005: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992). 3. This line of argument has been put forward by various rational choice theorists, including Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, “Religious Economies and

Notes to Pages 209–218 / 243 Sacred Canopies: Religious Mobilization in American Cities,” American Sociological Review 53 (1988): 41–49; Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, “How the Upstart Sects Won America: 1776–1850,” Journal for the ScientiWc Study of Religion 28 (1989): 27–44; Laurence R. Iannaccone, “A Formal Model of Church and Sect,” American Journal of Sociology 94 (suppl. 1986): 241–68; Laurence R. Iannaccone, “Religious Practice: A Human Capital Approach,” Journal for the ScientiWc Study of Religion 29 (1990): 297–314; Laurence R. Iannaccone, “The Consequences of Religious Market Structure,” Rationality and Society 3 (1991): 156–77. 4. See the illuminating discussion of Aimee Semple McPherson in Edith Blumhofer, Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody’s Sister (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1993). CHAPTER 8. THE FUTURE OF PROGRESSIVE PENTECOSTALISM 1. For a discussion of the role of renewal movements in recent Christian history, see Donald E. Miller, Reinventing American Protestantism: Christianity in the New Millennium (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 177–90. 2. See Nathan Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989).

CONTENTS OF DVD

WORSHIP Asia City Harvest, Singapore Catholic Charismatic Church, Hyderabad, India Harvest Ministries Church, Hyderabad, India

Africa Assemblies of God, Alexandria, South Africa Anglican Church, Kampala, Uganda Assemblies of God, Soweto, South Africa

Latin America March for Jesus, São Paulo, Brazil Assemblies of God, Caracas, Venezuela Resurrection 2000 Church, Santiago, Chile Charismatic Catholic Worship, São Paulo, Brazil

245

246 / Contents of DVD SOCIAL MINISTRIES Children and Youth Safe and Sound, Johannesburg, South Africa Stephen’s Children, Cairo, Egypt Nairobi Pentecostal Church, Nairobi, Kenya

Drugs and Addiction St. Stephen’s Society, Hong Kong Member Testimony, St. Stephen’s Society, Hong Kong

Street Children and Poverty Nairobi Children’s Home, Nairobi, Kenya Episcopal Church, Recife, Brazil INTERVIEWS Church Planting and Growth

africa Tokunboh Adeyemo, Association of Evangelicals, Nairobi, Kenya Oscar Muriu, Nairobi Chapel, Nairobi, Kenya Chris Komagum, Kampala Pentecostal, Kampala, Uganda

asia Eddie Villanueva, Jesus Is Lord, Manila, Philippines Dominic Yeo, Trinity Christian Centre, Singapore

Theology of Social Ministry Florence Muindi, Life in Abundance, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Maggie Gobran, Stephen’s Children, Cairo, Egypt Jackie Pullinger, St. Stephen’s Society, Hong Kong

Contents of DVD / 247 Religious Experience and Healing Caleb Premamandan Rayapati, Harvest Ministries, Hyderabad, India Testimony on Resurrection, Harvest Ministries, Hyderabad, India Paulson, Lay Catholic, Hyderabad, India

INDEX

“Amazing Grace” (spiritual), 107 Anglican Church, 66, 96–97, 124, 140, 143 animism, 21, 24–25 anomie, Pentecostal growth and, 23 apartheid, 75 Area Development Projects, 124 Argentina, 10, 48, 55, 207 Armenia, 10, 54–55, 136, 204 Armenian Apostolic Church, 204 Arminius, Jacobus, 164 arts training, 43, 93–94, 96 asceticism, Pentecostalism and, 171–73 Asia, Pentecostal membership estimates in, 237n14 Asia Minor, early Pentecostal churches in, 17 Assemblies of God: as classical Pentecostal movement, 1, 26; colonial inXuence in, 201; development vs. assistance in, 48–49; diVering orientations within, 29; education programs of, 74, 75–79; fund-raising in, 21; global inXuence of, 19; holistic ministry of, 64–65; legalism in, 172;

abstinence, emphasis on, 33, 120, 160–61, 164 accountability, 208 Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), 8, 39–41, 54, 144 Addis Kidan Baptist Church (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), 39–41 Africa: AIDS pandemic in, 2; Pentecostal growth in, 174–75, 237n14; Pentecostal missionaries in, 18. See also Egypt; Ethiopia; Kenya; South Africa; Uganda; speciWc city AIDS pandemic, 49; Catholic education programs, 66; compassion and, 120; condom use and, 119–20; educational programs, 120, 121; HIV-positive children, 112–14; holistic ministry and, 64–65, 66; orphans created by, 68, 183, 224; palliative care, 117–18, 183; Pentecostal orphanages, 9, 68–70; Pentecostal response to, 2, 55, 119–21, 182–83 alcohol, moral proscriptions against, 33, 160–61, 164 alcoholism, 84, 85 All Saints Cathedral (Nairobi, Kenya), 66

249

250 / Index Assemblies of God (continued) numbers of adherents, 19; selfsuYciency in, 199; worship services of, 144 Australia, 74, 198–99 authoritarianism, 178, 185 Back to God movement, 199 Bangkok (Thailand): church-related clinic in, 117; community needs in, 55; evangelism in, 206; HIV-positive babies, program for, 112–14; interviews in, 11; prostitution in, 121–22; prostitution ministries in, 55, 122; worship services in, 144, 155; youth programs in, 96–97 Bangladesh, 124 baptism, 144 Beacon of Hope (Nairobi, Kenya), 120 Bethel Bible School (Topeka, KS), 18, 26 Bhengu, Nicholas, 199 Bible: as authoritative word of God, 148; holistic interpretation of, 182; social justice in, 183. See also speciWc book Black Consciousness movement, 199 bourgeoisie, religion and, 179–80 brain drain, 200 Brand, GeoV, 75 Brasil para Cristo (São Paulo, Brazil), 46 Brazil: demons as viewed in, 154; indigenous Pentecostal denominations in, 26–27; Pentecostal membership estimates in, 237n14; Protestant inXuence in, 15; worship services in, 139. See also São Paulo Buddhism, 124, 155, 206 Buenos Aires (Argentina), 107, 110–12, 136 bureaucratization, 159. See also routinization Cairo (Egypt): “dump” children in, 80, 222; educational programs in, 8, 57,

80–83, 222–23; evangelism in, 206; holistic ministry in, 63; self-esteem focus in, 174. See also Stephen’s Children Calcutta (India), 9, 47, 48–49, 107, 121–22 calling, the, 162–63 Calvin, John, 163 Canada, 74 capitalism and Pentecostalism: Marxist critique of, 178–80, 213–14; Pentecostal ethic and, 164–65, 171; Protestant ethic and, 162–64; social justice and, 183; social mobility and, 33 capitalist ethic, 162 Caracas (Venezuela): barrio life in, 84, 85; community needs in, 55–56; conversion and social mobility in, 161–62; drug rehabilitation programs in, 107; holistic ministry in, 60–61; interviews in, 11; Prosperity Gospel in, 176; social ministries in, 10, 55–56; tent crusades in, 198; worship services in, 138; youth programs in, 84–88, 223–24 catharsis, prayer as, 146 Catholicism: AIDS crisis and, 119; charismatic movement in, 9, 27–28, 181–82, 237n14; corruption in, 163; declining status of, 12, 17, 202; as Pentecostal market, 206; Pentecostal partnerships with, 95, 124; physicality lacking in, 143; social ministries of, 66; social mobility and, 162; women and, 210 Cecilia (Brazilian volunteer), 44 cell groups, 191–95, 207; advantages of, 194–95; characteristics of, 192; meeting procedures, 92, 193; in megachurches, 92, 170; in Neo-Pentecostal churches, 210; social ministries of, 53; as support groups, 170 Center for Religion and Civic Culture (University of Southern California), 5

Index / 251 charismatic movement: membership estimates, 237n14; as Pentecostal expression, 27–28; proto-charismatic, 28; right-wing alliances in, 2; social justice ignored in, 181–82, 215 charismatic renewal, 18, 214 Chasing the Dragon (Pullinger), 99, 105 Chennai (India), 9, 11, 136, 173–74, 180–82 Child Advocacy Week (Manila, Philippines), 94–95 child labor, 94, 95 children: abuse of, 81, 94; authoritative communities in lives of, 96; charity vs. self-suYciency, 49–50; exploitation of, 95; HIV-positive, 112–14; of prisoners, 111; sponsorship of, 70; street children, 52, 71–74, 112 children’s rights, 94–95 child/youth programs: for AIDS orphans, 68–70, 120–21; camps, 80–83; churchbased, 96–97; community-organizing models for, 96–97; community service, 88–90; drug rehabilitation programs, 103–4, 106–7; funding of, 70, 72, 74; for HIV-positive children, 112–14; in megachurches, 91–94; Neo-Pentecostal, 210; orphanages, 112–14, 120–21, 224; preschools, 75– 79, 82–83; for prostitutes’ children, 73–74; social transformation and, 86– 88; for street children, 2, 71–74, 224; transitional rituals, 90–91; vocational schools, 83. See also educational programs Chile, 10, 55. See also Santiago China, 62, 116, 136 Christian Assistance Service for Prisoners and the Mentally Ill (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 110–12 Christian identity, 194–95

Christianity: Coptic, 80, 83; demographic shift in, 19–20; as egalitarian religion, 174; evolution of, as social institution, 17; holistic, 1, 2–3, 22, 24 (see also Progressive Pentecostalism); Indian population, 73; Orthodox, as political challenge, 54–55; Pentecostal inXuence on, 212; proto-charismatic, 28. See also Anglican Church; Catholicism; Protestantism; speciWc denomination Christy, Sister, 47 churches, Pentecostal: colonial domination resisted in, 199–201; competition among, 205–7; congregation size, 53– 54; evangelism in, 194, 197–99; global networks, 207–8; growth of, 184, 201–7; mainline churches vs., 184; marketing strategies, 201–3; media used in, 203–4; music in, 202–3; organizational structure of, 186–91, 214; partnerships with NGOs, 199– 200; pastoral leadership in, 184–88; philosophy of practice in, 189–91; planting strategies, 197–99; religious persecution and, 204–5; as worship spaces, 134–36. See also cell groups; megachurches; worship services Church of God (Cleveland), 26 Church of God in Christ (COGIC), 26 Church of the Open Door (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 88–90, 112 church schools, 96 City Harvest Church (Singapore), 8, 65– 66, 91–94, 135; Community Service Association, 93 civil society, 132 class. See social class clergy, Pentecostal: cell groups and, 192, 194; charismatic, 187–88, 210; church planting and, 197–98; conversion experiences of, 186, 195–96, 204, 214–

252 / Index clergy, Pentecostal (continued) 15; as “enablers,” 189–91; global networks and, 207–8; leadership style of, 184–88, 215; leadership transfer, 201; salaries of, 200; successful, 185–86; theological education of, 195–97; women as, 177, 208, 209 clinics, church-related, 114–17 cocaine, 105–6 “collective eVervescence,” 133, 134, 176, 219 colonialism, 50, 199–201 Communidade da Graca Church (São Paulo, Brazil), 116–17 community building, 132–34, 172 community organizing, 39–40, 48, 78–79, 96–97 community service, 88–90, 93 Compassion International, 50 condoms, AIDS crisis and, 119–20 conservatism, Pentecostalism and, 34 conversions: church planting through, 198; competition for, 205–7; economic advancement and, 160–64, 165–68; of Pentecostal clergy, 186, 195–96, 204, 214–15; reasons for, 174; women and, 209–10. See also evangelism; proselytism Coptic Christianity, 80, 83 1 Corinthians, 165, 188–89, 190 2 Corinthians, 106–7 corruption, 199 counseling services, 42, 96 Cox, Harvey, 25, 143 crusades, 198 dancing, 85, 141 Deliverance Church (Uganda), 96, 115– 16, 117–18 deliverances, 154–57, 158, 170 democracy, Pentecostalism and, 177–79, 185

demon possessions, 151, 154–57, 170 Deuteronomy, 110 disenfranchisement, Jesus encountered through, 40–41, 57–58, 59 domestic violence, 55 Dowdy, Naomi, 207 drug rehabilitation programs, 99–105; Holy Spirit intervention in, 107, 108– 10; interviews in, 9; motivations behind, 223; procedures in, 100–103; spirituality and self-esteem in, 62; staV members in, 104–5; unconditional love in, 61, 104, 106–7; youth programs, 103–4 drugs: moral proscriptions against, 33; prostitution and, 103, 108, 122–23 duality, mind-body, 138, 141–44, 217 Durkheim, Émile, 22, 133–34, 142, 219 dying, the, palliative care for, 117–18 economic development: charity model vs., 39–40, 48–50; conversions and, 160–62, 165–68; in holistic ministries, 63; ministry types, 42; NGOPentecostal partnerships and, 123– 24; Pentecostalism and, 168–71; Prosperity Gospel and, 175–77; religion and, 160–64. See also social mobility “ecstasy deWcit,” 25, 143 ecstatic worship: in “charismatic renewal,” 18, 218; as collective eVervescence, 219; as energizing experience, 172; misconceptions about, 142; Pentecostal diversity and, 1; Pentecostal growth and, 23–24; in Pentecostal theology, 3; as postmodern phenomenon, 142–43; social ministries energized through, 221–24; transformative power of, 108– 10; Weber’s typology and, 172. See also worship services

Index / 253 education, 42, 74; moral, 96; theological, for clergy, 195–97 educational programs, 2; AIDS, 120, 121; in arts, 93–94; camps, 80–83, 222–23; church schools, 96; in megachurches, 92–94; motivations behind, 222–24; NGO-Pentecostal partnerships and, 123, 199–200; preschools, 75–79, 82– 83, 223; tutoring, 93; vocational schools, 83 egalitarianism, 177–79 Egypt, 8, 80–83. See also Cairo elderly, programs for, 9, 42, 51, 66, 88, 93, 121 El Shaddai, 9 emergency services, 42 England, 18, 74 Enlightenment, 217 epiphany, 57 eschatology, 182, 213 Ethiopia: famine in, 40, 55; holistic ministry in, 59; political activity in, 54; worship sites in, 136. See also Addis Ababa Europe: missionaries from, 199; missionary-founded churches from, 12; Pentecostal membership estimates in, 237n14; religious inXuence in, 35 evangelism: cell groups and, 194; church planting strategies and, 197–99; competition in, 205–7; of foreign missionaries, 200; health-based, 39– 41; skills learned through, 171; social ministry vs., 1–2, 59–60; women and, 209. See also conversions; proselytism exorcisms, 154–57, 158, 170 faith healing: AIDS crisis and, 119; in “charismatic renewal,” 18; functionalistic perspective on, 158–59; Pente-

costal diversity and, 1; Pentecostal growth and, 24, 36–37; Prosperity Gospel and, 31; secularization hypothesis and, 36; stereotypes of, 20–21, 35; during worship services, 149–54 family cohesion, 55, 85, 108 famine, 40, 55 fasting, 171 Father’s Heart Ministry (Kampala, Uganda), 69 Finland, 18 Food for the Hungry, 5, 6, 50 food pantries, 46–47 foot-washing, 144 Foursquare Gospel Church, 1, 19, 26 Franklin, Benjamin, 162 free riders, 205 Freud, Sigmund, 13, 22, 142 “friendship evangelism,” 197 functionalism, 22, 142, 158–59 fundamentalism: Islamic, 34; Pentecostalism vs., 216–17 gambling, moral proscriptions against, 33, 160–61, 164 Germany, 74 gifts, God-given, 132, 147, 189–91, 216 globalization, 48, 140–41, 208 Global Leadership Network, 207 glossolalia: in “charismatic renewal,” 18; functionalistic perspective on, 158–59; history of, 17, 146; in Pentecostal theology, 3; in proto-charismatic Christianity, 28; stereotypes of, 20–21, 35; during worship services, 131, 139, 146–47 Gobran, Maggie: holistic approach of, 63; motivations of, 57, 222–23; selfesteem focus of, 174; Stephen’s Children founded by, 8, 80–83; as woman in leadership role, 208–9. See also Stephen’s Children

254 / Index God, 3, 148–49; Bible as authoritative word of, 148; existence of, and religion, 158. See also Holy Spirit “God Is Dead” movement, 28 Good Samaritan, story of, 58 government: corruption in, 125–26; Pentecostal interface with, 51–52 Gramine Bank, 124 Great Awakenings, 218 group identity, 169 Guatemala, 10, 174, 177 Hagin, Kenneth, 29, 175 handicapped, programs for, 9, 16, 42, 51 Hands of Compassion (Johannesburg, South Africa), 46 healing. See faith healing health, 1, 31–32 health evangelism, 39–41 heroin, 122–23 Highway Assembly of God Church (Johannesburg, South Africa), 75–79 Hinduism, 174, 197, 206 Hinn, Benny, 29 holistic ministry, 59–62; examples of, 64– 66; philosophy of, 63–64; spirituality and, 62–64 Holy Spirit: animism and, 25; egalitarian access to, 177; as energizing force, 219–24; gifts of, 147, 148–54, 189–91, 216; Pentecostal growth and, 37–38, 219–21; in Pentecostal history, 17; phenomenological approach to, 3; possession by, 157–58, 223; renewal in, 149; social program reinventions and, 127–28; transformation through, 86– 88, 100, 104, 108–10, 113–14; Weber’s typology and, 172–73; during worship services, 138–39, 141–42, 147, 148–54 Hong Kong (China): church-government interface in, 51; drug rehabilitation

programs in (see St. Stephen’s Society); healing as viewed in, 152–53; prostitution in, 122–23; Walled City in, 99; worship services in, 138 Hope of Bangkok Church, 122 hospitals, 74 Hot Springs (AR), 26 House of the Dying (Calcutta, India), 47 human rights, 5, 33–34 hunger programs, 43–46, 55 Hyderabad (India), 9, 136, 150–52, 197 independent churches, 19, 27 India: caste system in, 174; children’s programs in, 72–74; Christian population of, 73; community needs in, 55; healing as viewed in, 149–52; holistic ministry in, 63; Pentecostal growth in, 173–74; Pentecostal missionaries in, 18, 201; political activity in, 54; Prosperity Gospel in, 176; research interviews in, 9; worship services in, 139, 144; worship sites in, 136. See also Chennai; Hyderabad indigenous denominations, 26–27 integral gospel/ministry, 1, 22. See also holistic ministry integration. See racial integration International Church (São Paulo, Brazil), 154–55 International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. See Foursquare Gospel Church Internet, 207 Islam, 34, 54, 124, 206 Jaisamarn Church (Bangkok, Thailand), 122 James, Book of, 65 James, William, 4, 13, 145

Index / 255 Jenkins, Philip, 19–20 Jesus: divinity of, 3; encountered through disenfranchised, 40–41, 57–58, 59; glossolalia and, 146; in Liberation Theology, 180; transformation through, 86–88 Jesus, as Progressive Pentecostal model: compassion for disenfranchised, 127, 180–81; healing ministries, 118, 120, 173, 191; holistic ministry and, 59, 212; nonviolence, 215; service ethic, 88–90 Jesus Is Lord movement (Philippines), 8, 160–61, 195–96 Johannesburg (South Africa): AIDS programs in, 64–65, 66, 119; child care facilities in, 75; food distribution programs in, 46–47; holistic ministry in, 64–65, 66; preschools in, 8, 75– 79, 223; research interviews in, 11; teacher training program in, 76–77; tent crusades in, 198; worship services in, 138 John (Kenyan convert), 165–66 Jovita, Sister, 47 Joy Medical Clinic (Uganda), 115–16 Judaism, Reform, 36 Kampala (Uganda), Anglican worship service in, 140 Kampala Pentecostal Church (Uganda): AIDS orphanage of, 7, 68–70; schools of, 96; worship services at, 7, 129–32, 224 Kenya, 7–8; children’s programs in, 71–72; church organization in, 187; leadership transfer in, 201. See also Nairobi Kevorkian, Bob, 113–14 Kevorkian, Linda, 112–14 Kiiru, Macmillan, 120–21

Kiiru, Nelly, 120–21 Kwan (Thai orphan), 113 Las Acacias Church (Caracas, Venezuela), 10 Latin America: membership estimates in, 237n14; Pentecostal missionaries in, 18; Protestant inXuence in, 17. See also Argentina; Brazil; Chile; Venezuela; speciWc city legalism: holistic ministry vs., 61, 66; Pentecostal churches oriented toward, 29; personal purity emphasis and, 126– 27; Progressive Pentecostalism and resistance to, 218–19; social change and, 215; Weber’s typology and, 172 lepers, rehabilitation of, 47, 65 Liberation Theology: declining inXuence of, 4, 12; Jesus as liberator in, 180; Progressive Pentecostalism vs., 125, 182–83, 213–16 loans, microenterprise, 40, 123–24, 200 Los Angeles (CA), Asuza Street revivals in, 18, 26 love, unconditional: in AIDS programs, 120; in drug rehabilitation programs, 61, 104, 107, 191, 223; Jesus as model of, 120 Love Singapore, 8 Luther, Martin, 162–63 Lutheran Church, 124 Madras (India). See Chennai (India) Maggie, Mama. See Gobran, Maggie Manila (Phillipines): Child Advocacy Week in, 94–95; church-related clinic in, 117; conversion and social mobility in, 160–61; holistic ministry in, 63; NGO-Pentecostal partnerships in, 63; Prosperity Gospel in, 176–77; worship services in, 138

256 / Index “March for Jesus” (São Paulo, Brazil), 15, 16–17, 236n1 Marcos, Ferdinand, 126 marital Wdelity, 120 marketing, 201–3 Marlena, Sister, 84, 85, 86, 161, 223–24 Martin (Kenyan convert), 167–68 Martin, David, 19 Marx, Karl/Marxism: Liberation Theology and, 214; Pentecostal/capitalist link and, 178–79, 213–14; Pentecostal social ministries and, 4, 32–33; Pentecostal stereotypes and, 21, 22; Prosperity Gospel and, 215; religion as opiate in, 13, 21, 22, 32–33, 179–80, 215, 224 Matthew, Book of, 40, 58 Max (Nairobi physician), 115 Mayan Pentecostal Church (Guatemala), 10 McPherson, Aimee Semple, 209 medical services, 42, 55, 74, 96, 114–17 megachurches: facilities in, 135–36; multiple music genres in, 203; Pentecostal growth and, 184; Pentecostal vision expressed in, 172; Progressive Pentecostal development and, 31; routinization in, 30–31; youth-based, 91–94 mental health programs, 9, 66, 93, 110–12 mercy ministries, 42, 43–48 metaphors, organic, 214–15 Methodist Church, 124 microenterprise, 51 microloans, 40, 123–24, 200 middle class, Pentecostal growth among, 36, 127, 167–68, 173 Miller, Don, 5 missionaries: churches founded by, 12; reverse movement of, 198–99; unintended consequences of, 199–201; women as, 209

Missouri, 26 modernity, Pentecostalism as response to, 25 Montessori method, 77 Montt, Ríos, 177 moral remaking, ritual and, 133–34 Mugote, Sam, 117–18 Muindi, Florence, 8, 39–42, 48, 57 Muriu, Oscar, 114–15 music, during worship services, 131, 136– 41; centrality of, 23–24; church marketing and, 202–3; joyousness of, 171–72; in Neo-Pentecostal churches, 173; youth and, 85–86. See also worship services mysterium tremendum, 13 mysticism, Pentecostalism and, 171–73 Nairobi (Kenya): AIDS programs in, 119, 120–21; Anglican outreach programs in, 66; charity vs. self-suYciency in, 49–50; church organization in, 187; church-related clinic in, 114–15; conversion and social mobility in, 165–68; holistic ministry in, 60; research interviews in, 7–8; worship services in, 139–40. See also Nairobi Chapel; Nairobi Pentecostal Church; speciWc church; program Nairobi Chapel (Nairobi, Kenya), 7–8, 90–91, 114–15 Nairobi Pentecostal Church (Nairobi, Kenya), 7, 71–72, 224 Neo-Pentecostalism: in Brazil, 15; emergence of, 218–19; future-orientation of, 217–18; legalistic prohibitions dropped in, 173; organizational structure of, 210; as Pentecostal expression, 27; as postmodern movement, 217; Progressive Pentecostalism and, 30, 210; worship services in, 20–21

Index / 257 New Age religion, 143 NGOs. See nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) Nigeria, 26 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs): AIDS care and, 118; anti-prostitution eVorts of, 49; children’s rights and, 94–95; faith-based, 67; health evangelism and, 40, 41; negative eVects of, 52; Pentecostal partnerships with, 3, 50– 52, 94–95, 123–24, 199–200; Pentecostal social services and, 170; vocational programs of, 123 Nor Giank (Bangkok, Thailand), 114 North America, Pentecostal membership in, 237n14 Oceania, Pentecostal membership estimates in, 237n14 orphanages, 68–70, 112–14, 120–21 Otto, Rudolf, 13 parent-training programs, 78 Parham, Charles F., 18 pastors. See clergy, Pentecostal Patrick (Ugandan AIDS victim), 117 Paul, Saint, 188–89, 190, 209 Pavamani, Premila, 73–74 Pavamani, Vijayan, 73–74 Pentecost, day of, 218 Pentecostal ethic, 164–65, 168–69, 171 Pentecostal General Council, 26 Pentecostalism: AIDS crisis and, 119–21; appeal of, 143, 173–75; charismatic movement, 27–28; class and, 33, 173– 75; classical, 26, 217, 218–19; as conservative, 34; demographic variations in, 21; early history of, 17–18, 242n7; as egalitarian, 177–79; fundamentalism vs., 216–17; group identity in, 169; growth of, 18–19, 22–25, 211, 219–21;

independent churches, 19, 27, 218–19; indigenous denominations, 26–27, 211; Liberation Theology vs., 182–83; lifestyle in, 164–65; membership estimates, 237n14; misconceptions about, 20–22, 34–35, 142, 177, 216– 17; modern, emergence of, 18–20; organic imagery of, 214–15; orientations within, 29–31, 61, 66, 126–27; otherworldly aspect of, 21–22, 28–29, 64, 127; political challenges to, 54–55; Prosperity Gospel in, 29; as racially segregated movement, 242n7; as renewal movement, 218–19; rightwing politics in, 177; role of, 66–67; routinized, 30–31, 37, 218–19; secularization hypothesis and, 19, 36–38; social mobility and, 168–71; social science interpretations of, 220–21; social transformation and, 31–34, 41– 43, 86–88; Statement of Fundamental Truths in, 26; support network in, 169–70; theology of, 3, 54, 147; typology of, 1, 25–31; use of term, 1; in Weber’s typology, 171–73. See also Neo-Pentecostalism; Progressive Pentecostalism Philippines: community needs in, 55; Jesus Is Lord movement in, 8, 160–61, 195–96; “medical mission” in, 117; political activity in, 126; Prosperity Gospel in, 176–77; research sites in, 8–9. See also Manila Piaget, Jean, 77 Pinochet, Augusto, 177 Plymouth Brethren, 150 Poland, 10, 105–7, 152, 204–5 policy change, 43 politicians, mentorship programs for, 125–26 populism, 178

258 / Index postmodernity: “ecstasy deWcit” in, 25, 143; Pentecostalism and, 142–43, 217–18 poverty: church role and, 11–12; as community need, 55; in DVD, 14; holistic ministry and, 12; Jesus encountered through, 40–41, 57–58, 59; mercy ministries and, 47–48; Pentecostalism and, 173–75, 183; as systemic problem, 183 prayer, 129–32, 144–46, 171, 193, 222. See also worship services “prayer language,” 21. See also glossolalia predestination, 163–64 preschools, 75–79, 82–83 Price, Frederick, 175 priesthood, 177, 178, 187 primitivism, Pentecostalism in, 142 prison ministry, 110–12 Progressive Pentecostalism: deWned, 2–3, 212; emergence of, 29–30; examples of, 39–41; future of, 211, 215–19; global networks, 207–8; government and, 51–52; holistic worldview of, 63– 64; interfaith partnerships, 95; Liberation Theology vs., 182–83, 213–16; Neo-Pentecostalism and, 30, 210; organizational structure of, 210; partnerships with NGOs, 3, 50–52, 94–95, 123–24; political engagement in, 125–26; research site selection and, 6–7; role of, 66–67; secularization hypothesis and, 37–38; as subversive movement, 4–5, 34; in Weber’s typology, 173. See also Jesus, as Progressive Pentecostal model; Progressive Pentecostalism, social ministry of Progressive Pentecostalism, social ministry of: community needs and, 55–56; development vs. assistance in, 48–50, 123–24; funding of, 50–53; growth in, 211–12; holistic, 59–66, 212–13;

individual charity and, 43–48, 182– 83; motivation for, 57–58, 61–62, 212, 219–24; PR beneWts of, 55–56; program reinventions, 127–28; proselytism and, 43, 46–47; self-esteem focus in, 174–75; spirituality and, 62– 64; types of, 41–43, 212–13; variables aVecting, 53–55, 127. See also drug rehabilitation programs; educational programs; elderly, programs for; handicapped, programs for; mental health programs; orphanages; prison ministry; prostitution ministries; speciWc program proletariat, religion and, 179–80 Property Gospel, 1 prophecy, 3, 20, 58, 149 proselytism: holistic ministry and, 63; NGOs and, 51; Progressive Pentecostal views on, 43; street preaching, 56; as ulterior motive for charity, 43, 46–47. See also conversions; evangelism Prosperity Gospel, 29, 31–32, 172, 175– 77, 215 prostitution ministries, 9, 121–23; charity vs. self-suYciency, 49; as community need, 55; unconditional love in, 103, 108 prostitution/prostitutes: AIDS contracted through, 118–19; children of, 73–74; drugs and, 103, 108, 122–23; Jesus as Pentecostal role model and, 58; unionization of, 49 Protestant ethic, 162–64 Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, The (Weber), 162–64, 171–73 Protestantism: charismatic movement in, 27–28; growing inXuence of, 15, 17; liberal, 35, 36; mainstream, declining growth of, 202; mainstream, Pentecostal partnerships with, 95; mind-

Index / 259 body duality in, 138; women and, 210; worship services in, 217 Protestant Reformation, 162–63 proto-charismatic Christianity, 28 Pullinger, Jackie, 105; business practices of, 109–10; as female leader, 209; on gifts, congregrational use of, 190, 191; motivations of, 61, 102, 223; as St. Stephen’s Society founder, 9, 99–102, 107. See also St. Stephen’s Society (Hong Kong) Puritans, Pentecostals vs., 171–73 purity, personal, 130, 132–33, 171 racial integration, 76, 77–78, 223, 242n7 racism, 55, 75 radio, 203 reductionism, 109, 134, 219 religion: demographic realignments in, 207; economics and, 160–64; functionalistic perspective on, 22, 158–59; God’s existence and, 158; imperfections of, 224; marketing of, 201–3; Marxist critique of, 179–80, 224; material/ psychological basis of, 13; New Age, 143; pluralism and, 36, 59; purpose of, 12–13, 86; ritual in, 133–34; science vs., 25, 35; secularization hypothesis and, 35–36; social justice and, 181–82; Weber’s typology of, 171–73. See also speciWc denomination; religion religious freedom, 54 religious persecution, 61–62, 174, 204–5 Renascer Church (São Paulo, Brazil), 16, 43–45, 141, 236n2 renewal movements, 218–19 Republican Party (U.S.), 177 research: assumptions underlying, 12–14; DVD of, 14; interviews, 10–11, 225– 34; methodology, 5–7; sites, 7–12 Resurrection 2000 Church (Santiago, Chile), 45–46, 136–37, 157–58

resurrections, 151–52 revivals, 18, 31, 138 Rhema Church (Johannesburg, South Africa), 46 Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), 26 ritual: beneWts of, 175; moral remaking, religion and, 133–34; physicality of, 143–44; possessions, 154–57, 170; transitional rites of passage, for youth, 90–91; in worship services, 143–44, 154–57 Roberts, Oral, 175 Roman Catholic Church. See Catholicism routinization, 159, 172, 178, 210, 218–19 RuYnatti, Daniel, 110–12 RuYnatti, Maria Elena, 111, 112 Russia, 18 Safe and Sound preschools (Johannesburg, South Africa), 76–79 sanitation projects, 50 Santeria, 84, 161 Santiago (Chile): church-aYliated businesses in, 52–53; domestic violence in, 55; mercy ministries in, 45–46; political activity in, 126; television ministry in, 204; worship services in, 24, 157– 58. See also Resurrection 2000 Church São Paulo (Brazil): church planting in, 197; church-related clinic in, 116–17; “March for Jesus” in, 15, 16–17, 236n1; media criticism of Pentecostals in, 236n2; megachurches in, 135; mercy ministry in, 43–45; prison ministry in, 112; self-esteem focus in, 174, 175; worship services in, 141, 144–45, 153– 55. See also Renascer Church; Universal Church of the Kingdom of God; speciWc church schism, innovation through, 210 schizophrenia, 110, 111

260 / Index science, religion vs., 25, 35 secularization hypothesis, Pentecostal inXuence and, 19, 36–38 self-esteem, 62, 169, 174 self-suYciency, 199–201 seminary education, 195–97 Sermon on the Mount, 33 Seventh Day Adventists, 66 sex, casual, 87, 118, 161, 164, 182–83 sex slavery, 121–22. See also prostitution/ prostitutes Seymour, William J., 18 “S” factor, 219–21. See also Holy Spirit shamanism, 24 Shepherd’s Home (Nairobi, Kenya), 120–21 Singapore: church-aYliated businesses in, 53; church-government interface in, 51–52, 59; Global Leadership Network in, 207; holistic ministry in, 59–60; megachurches in, 135; research sites in, 8; worship services in, 139, 145. See also City Harvest Church skepticism, 153 Skinner, Gary, 70 Smith, Christian, 158 social class: clergy theological training and, 196–97; Pentecostalism and, 21, 36, 173–75; religion and, 22, 179–80 Social Gospel movement, 4, 60, 212 social justice, 5, 180–82 social ministry, 24; cell groups and, 53; charity vs. community organizing/ development models, 39–40; development-oriented, 48–50; evangelism vs., 1–2, 59–60; individual charity, 43–48; Neo-Pentecostal, 210; types of, 41–43. See also Progressive Pentecostalism, social ministry of social mobility: conversions and, 160–62,

165–68; Pentecostalism and, 33, 168– 71; Prosperity Gospel and, 175–77, 215; social ministries and, 3 social science, 220–21 social transformation: Pentecostalism and, 31–34, 41–43, 86–88; personal purity and, 130 SoWa (Polish translator), 105–7 South Africa, 8, 55, 75–79, 136. See also Johannesburg Soweto (Johannesburg, South Africa), 64–65 speaking in tongues. See glossolalia spirituality, 21–22, 28–29, 62–64, 127. See also religion sponsorship, 70, 74 Statement of Fundamental Truths, 26 Stephen (Kenyan convert), 166–67 Stephen’s Children (Cairo, Egypt), 8, 80– 83, 222–23 St. Stephen’s Society (Hong Kong): drug rehabilitation programs at, 99–105; government support of, 52; motivations behind, 61, 108, 223; spirituality and self-esteem at, 62, 107 Swedish Pentecostal Church, 122 Tanzania, 123–24 teacher training programs, 76–77 Teen Challenge, 106–7 televangelism, 29 television, 203–4 tent crusades, 198 Teresa, Mother, 47 Texas, 26 Thailand, 9, 49, 55, 61–62, 155 theology: Arminian, 164; clergy training in, 195–97; eschatology, 182, 213; glossolalia and, 147; liberal, 60; personal self-worth in, 169; priesthood in, 177, 178; social ministry and, 54

Index / 261 tithing, 175–76 totalitarianism, 178 Triads (Hong Kong gang), 99 Trinity Christian Centre (Singapore), 207 tutoring programs, 93 Uganda, 7, 55; AIDS victims in, 117–18; children’s programs in, 68–70; churchrelated clinic in, 115–16; church schools in, 96; leadership transfer in, 201. See also Kampala entries unionization, 49 United States: Assemblies of God membership in, 26, 74; Christian music marketing in, 141; church attendance in, 36; fundamentalist movement in, 216–17; missionaries from, 199; missionary-founded churches from, 12; Pentecostal/right-wing political alliance in, 177; televangelists in, 29 Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (São Paulo, Brazil), 26–27, 135, 153–54, 175, 197 University of Southern California, 5 Venezuela, 10, 84–88. See also Caracas Vineyard Christian Fellowship, 28, 100 Walters, Colleen, 8, 75–79, 209, 223 Wathome, Jane, 120, 209 wealth, 1, 31–32 Weber, Max, 162–64, 169–70, 171–73 Wimber, John, 100 Winners’ Chapel (Nigeria), 26 womanizing, moral proscriptions against, 33 women: as community-building entrepreneurs, 78–79; microloans to, 124; in Pentecostal churches, 177, 208–10; as prisoners, 111 Word of Life Church (Armenia), 10, 204

work ethic: Pentecostal, 164–65, 168–69, 171; Protestant, 162–64 Working People’s Liberation Movement, 181 work projects, 200 World Council of Churches, 9 World Encyclopedia of Christianity, 18, 19, 20 World Relief, 50 World Vision, 50, 123–24 worship leaders, 131–32, 139 worship services: as celebrations, 194; centrality of, 23–24; as communal activity, 132–34, 145–46, 148–49; deliverances (exorcisms) during, 154– 57; divine-human encounters during, 148–49; functionalistic perspective on, 158–59; global inXuences on, 140–41; glossolalia during, 146–47; goal of, 139; healing during, 149–54; NeoPentecostal, 20–21, 210; physicality of, 138, 141–44; physical sites for, 134–36; prayer during, 129–32, 144– 46; prophecy during, 149; ritual in, 143–44; social ministries energized through, 221–24; Spirit possession during, 157–58; structure of, 131, 138–41. See also ecstatic worship; music, during worship services Xavier, Father, 180–82 Yamamori, Tetsunao, 5 Yerevan (Armenia), 204 youth: community service by, 88–90; exploitation of, 95; social transformation of, 86–88, 161–62; transitional rituals for, 90–91; worship services for, 129 youth programs. See child/youth programs

Text: Display: Compositor: Indexer: DVD Engineer: Printer and binder:

11/15 Granjon Granjon BookMatters, Berkeley Kevin Millham Dan Leopard Sheridan Books, Inc.

Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement

Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement

Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement