68 posts tagged Pentecostalism

St. Paul said "that which I recieved gave I also unto thee," well that's all anybody can do isn't it, if all you've recieved are a set of, redundant to usefulness doctrines, that's what you will be rattling on about, like a dog who has dug up some dirty, smelly old bone and he won't let go of it even if you toss him a lamb chop.

Have a look at the correlation between number of churches started and growth in numbers of people in these figures from the Queensland Assemblies of God. Let’s pop across to the UK where Peter Brierley tells the same story: Now to the US and the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) one of the rapidly declining mainline churches.

Following up on Ignoring that Pentecostal ‘gender paradox’, It seems an evangelical-pentecostal faith will not only change your marriage, it will change your whole life—for the better. Here’s a comment from David Martin, distinguished sociologist in his review of David Smilde’s Reason to Believe,

Review of Mark J Cartledge (Ed.), Speaking in Tongues: Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives, Paternoster, (2006). I have related before that my background has been in the pentecostal-charismatic tradition.

The Best Of Intentions My friend, John Gilmartin of Sheep's Crib "fisks" some recent statements out of the Pentecostal Churches. John does an excellent job with the specifics and I highly recommend this piece to you.

Update on the The curious incident of the barking dog in the night. I’ve been able to track down the 2007 attendance and growth figures for the Australian Christian Churches (formerly Assemblies of God). They currently have 1,120 churches with over 215,000 constituents up from 905 churches and 166,408 constituents in 2004.

Today we celebrated the festival of the resurrection. It is, or at least should be, the most holy and high holiday of the year, much more important than the festival of the incarnation (Christmas). In preparation for the day, I read a couple of books in defense of the Christian faith and also read through the four gospel accounts.

Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): “Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?” Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.” Gregory: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.” Holmes: “That was the curious incident.”Lately I’ve become obsessed with stats, especially those related to the rise and fall of movements.

Allan Anderson has a new book out: Spreading Fires: The Missionary Nature of Early Pentecostalism. My copy is still on the way but I have read a summary article. Here are some highlights . . . According to Anderson, Pentecostalism is probably the fastest expanding religious movement ever.

Review of Robert Beckford, God and the Gangs, DLT, (2004). In January 2003 two teenagers at a new year’s eve party were killed in the midst of a firefight between rival gangs in the Aston area of Birmingham, it was an event that garnered national media attention.