What is a Pentecostal?

The Assemblies of God is going through an identity crisis right now. We, as a movement, are trying to discover if our days of growth in the United States are over. (We have been statistically plateaued for a decade, see link at the end of post). I have grown up in this fellowship, and feel deeply rooted in doctrine and relationship.

TrueLife Church is a member of the North Carolina Assemblies of God where I was District Youth Director for five years, 2002-2007. I still serve my fellowship in several roles and committees. Some people connected in TrueLife Church come from an Assemblies of God (A/G) background, while others do not.

Part of my job as pastor is to be the guy that brings up the right questions. This one is worthy of our thought & dialog:

What is a “Pentecostal”?

During the past couple of decades three characteristics defined being “Pentecostal”

1. Music Style (Loud & Passionate)
2. Preaching Style (Loud & Passionate)
3. Spiritual Gifts (Loud & Passionate)
   (Do you see a pattern? All you have to do to be pentecostal is turn up the volume)

“Pentecost” in scripture is all about one thing: the harvest.

1. Called » FEAST OF WEEKS (Exodus 34:22; Deuteronomy 16:10)
2. Called » FEAST OF HARVEST (Exodus 23:16)
3. Called » DAY OF FIRST FRUITS (Numbers 28:26)
4. Called » DAY OF PENTECOST (Acts 2:1;20:16; 1 Corinthians 16:8)

The key to being Pentecostal is to live missional lives. Ready to be led by the promptings of the Holy Spirit in order to be a part of bringing in the harvest. Our challenge as pentecostals is that we have a tendency to act as if the day of Pentecost is all about that one moment in time when the baptism of the Holy Spirit arrives. The key to understanding Acts 2 is to keep reading the book of Acts. The initial, physical evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit may have been speaking in tongues, but the ongoing evidence was a life focused on evangelism. We have spent too many years focusing on the former to the detriment of the latter.

There are two pathways to transform an organization:

1. The way of Martin Luther: Break away and go outside.

2. The way of St. Francis of Assisi: Transform from the inside.

I sense a calling to walk the pathway of St. Francis of Assisi. TrueLife Church may not look like a 1980’s style pentecostal church (I don’t have the hair for it), but it will look like the first century pentecostal church that depended on the power of the Holy Spirit to lead missional lives.

For all you stat nerds (like me) here is a pdf of the Assemblie of God, USA.