Right now, we are faced in our Union with the challenge of restructuring the resources at our disposal within the Resource Team. New stipendiary appointments of a Mission Coordinator and a Ministry & Mission Adviser are immanent; and a new Honorary Treasurer is also needed. Are there pertinent insights that might be taken into consideration, in reviewing trends within Pentecostalism, where we are looking to blend and form these new posts into a Resource structure that will serve our Union well?
This also begs a humble reminder: our Lord is at work in Christian traditions other than our own. We have engaged in dialogue in recent years with churches of an independent Evangelical Tradition and we might still be trying to work out how to respond to recent developments in the national Presbyterian Church of Scotland. But one tradition which we have not engaged in any significant dialogue with, a tradition which I will argue is closer to us than we readily realise, is the Pentecostal tradition.
We will therefore begin by looking first at markers of the Pentecostal tradition: the practices that mark it as distinctively Pentecostal. We will reflect on whether these markers are shared in our own tradition. We will then proceed to a general overview of theological distinctives within the Pentecostal tradition (because the markers of a tradition may not be theological; and theological distinctives may not be markers!), asking how these in turn might alert us or cause us to reflect further on what is important in holding together both mission and ministry in our Scottish Baptist context.
Markers
With nearly 1/3 of world Christianity classifiable as ‘Pentecostal’, what is it that binds this massively mixed and varied tradition together? Its roots, going back at least to the beginning of the Twentieth Century, share with many Scottish Baptist congregations a common context of Christian communities developed and forged amidst a culture of social change and a discovery of the transformative power of the Christian invitation: ‘repent, believe and be baptised!’
Significantly, two markers of the Pentecostal tradition identified from within are Praise and Testimony. Pentecostalism did not start with a theology. It started with an experience of God that proved transformative and life-changing, expressed in a way that effected how people behaved. These resulting markers were not firstly theological: they were certainly sociological and arguably ecclesial. They marked the shared experience of people led into a new sense of God’s presence and power that produced and still produces a rich and varied hymnody. They also marked new expressions of praise and styles of testimony: stories of what God had done and was doing in their lives.
But surely, what about Tongues? Well, according to significant Pentecostal Theologians and historians, glossolalia is not a key common denominator or primary, distinctive feature of Pentecostalism. Not all Pentecostals spoke or speak in tongues. It may be encouraged, but it is not definitive. Exuberant congregational praise and personal testimony that celebrates what God has done and is doing: these are the critical features that leading Pentecostal commentators see as characteristic of growing, vibrant faith-filled Pentecostal congregations.
And here is our first cause for reflection. Were these two features not also seminal markers in the development of our Baptist tradition? People today sometimes talk about ‘baptist theology’. I myself cannot identify systematic theologies shaped by Baptists other than those that reflect the broader theological context and culture of their time. We might choose instead to speak about baptistic theologies; and then seek to go on to ask whether there are common features among them. But that doesn’t make for a single ‘baptist theology’. What Baptists have in common with Pentecostals are shared features that shaped their practice, not their theory: glorifying God in song and declaring the wonders of what He has done through Christian witness. These two practices of Praise and Testimony go together. These are the key, defining markers that we share with Pentecostals. Defining markers that we need to revisit and reaffirm.
There is no such thing as a Baptist ‘theology’. What marks both Baptists and Pentecostals are useful practices: they share in common the practices of Praise and Testimony. What other practices might we want to add, in order to identify a combination of practices that make a distinctly Baptist mix?
Theological distinctives
Early Pentecostalism, following and building on the teachings of the North American Holiness Movement of the 19th Century, spoke of a fourfold Gospel emphasis: Jesus Christ as Saviour, Healer, Baptiser and Coming King. This morphed in development of the Pentecostal Movement in the States with the appearance of an apparently new and distinctive strain of teaching: the ‘finished work of Christ’ doctrine. This teaching emphasised that salvation and the accompanying sanctification of believers were completed works fully accomplished by Christ’s atoning death on the Cross. Nothing more had to happen: ‘There’s nothing more that I can do for Jesus did it all, I am complete in Him’. Now, to people nurtured as we are within a context that has the backdrop of Reformed theology, this might seem fair enough. But for those more influenced by Wesleyan, Holiness teaching and a Pentecostal experience subsequent to conversion, this ‘finished work’ teaching could prove more of a challenge.
The controversy arose from emphasising ‘acts of grace’. Was ‘sanctification’ a 2nd act of grace, following on ‘conversion’, as holiness teaching rooted in John Wesley’s thinking emphasised? Or was it all ‘done and dusted’ at the Cross and therefore within the 1st act of grace? And, depending on how you answered that, there could arise a supplementary question: is ‘Holy Spirit empowerment’ for witness and mission a gift arising out of the blood-washed life, or actually a 3rd act of grace? In the face of these questions, for some there was a need to affirm a necessary, seminal experience of sanctification as well as that of empowerment. Consequently, a supplement to the foursquare, fourfold Gospel appeared: a fivefold Gospel rendering of Jesus Christ as Saviour, Healer, Sanctifier, Spirit Baptiser and Coming King.
In all of this, Pentecostals could get themselves into a bit of a jam. Because is it valid or even Biblical to think of ‘acts of grace’ in the Christian life as stages of attainment or even to talk of a ‘one package get all’ deal from God at conversion?
Truth is, however, that most Western (as distinguished from Eastern Orthodox) Christians and most certainly most Evangelicals think this way. Of the Holy Spirit as something you ‘get’, either at conversion, or sometime afterwards. Or maybe at special events like baptism or communion. Even ordination. In this sense, Baptists aren’t so different. But does that make us right?
Is it that we ‘get’ the Holy Spirit, or is it more Biblical to talk and think in terms of the Holy Spirit as having ‘got’ us?
An implication for us as Baptists lies in the area of Holiness. Early Pentecostal emphases touched Baptists too. The continued development within early Pentecostalism of a fourfold Gospel message consolidated teaching on the ‘finished work of Christ’ and a growing stress on ‘done and dusted at Calvary’. Consequently, there was a diminished emphasis on looking for a special act of grace that enabled sanctification; and an emphasising of the power of the Spirit that comes to enable missional expression. There was less stress on sanctification as a 2nd work of grace. Furthermore, where ‘finished work of Christ’ teaching was joined with an emphasis on church growth in terms of decisions for Christ, this could account for diminished stress on holy and fruitful living and an increase in seeking the Holy Spirit for signs and wonders and power for producing conversion results.
The real crisis affecting both Baptist and Pentecostals today lies in the area of mission: what are we seeking to do in mission? Are we looking for decisions or disciples? Are we processing and enrolling or are we about purifying and then empowering? Are we simply fishing for followers or are we providing recovery environments for penitent sinners?
Mission and Ministry
The key to an effective and integrated mission and ministry policy for us as Scottish Baptists today lies in grasping the fine balance expressed in the fivefold Gospel message that is a key teaching within Pentecostalism: emphasising that Christians need to be purified and empowered and not simply processed and enrolled as church growth statistics.
Mission needs to give ministry its shape and direction; but ministry is its soul. A focus upon the holy and sanctified growth of saved sinners is what is needed to give mission a heart for its head. In our Scottish environment, recent developments in sister denominations should make us cautious in forgetting or forsaking that fundamental, Biblical maxim: the ‘fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’. Holiness and sacrificial consecration of personal lives were once hall marks among Scottish Baptists. And they need to be stressed as such again today.
A focus on mission moves us away from the malaise of mere maintenance. A focus on ministry reminds us that the only legitimate form of church development comes through service that is sanctified and sacred. Ministry must serve mission in stressing the need for Christlike quality in the Christian life, reflecting the righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself. Mission should take men and women thus established and propel them out towards others dependent on empowered, Holy Spirit enabled service. Like salt and pepper, mission and ministry must go together.
There is a danger in being infatuated with ‘bigness’. Big is only good if it is also better. And it is only better if we understand our goal to be Christlike holiness and effective service. Sometimes ‘lean and mean’ is better than ‘fat and slack’
Drivers
The key thing to learn from all of this is that it is neither markers nor theological distinctives that will keep us with a Baptist Union worth holding onto. What matters is what drives us. What we learn from Pentecostalism is that what makes us effective in both mission and ministry is the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, purposefully focusing us to mature in our participation in the personal life of Jesus Christ. Pursuing holy ministry and planning meaningful mission go together.
Drivers matter. Drivers of decision. Drivers of personal holiness. Drivers of empowerment for sacrificial and meaningful service. We need to’ download’ these from Heaven’s ‘serve’r in Jesus’ name so we can make our ‘hardware’ operational and our ‘software programmes’ work. Here’s a suggestion:
Scottish Baptists affirm that there is urgent need to emphasise personal purity and holiness in disciples’ lives, prayerfully seeking the empowerment of the Holy Spirit for this and implementing justice, expressing mercy and humbly participating in the righteousness of God made known through Jesus Christ. It is our mission to offer a faithful witness and testimony to God’s love and gift of eternal life for all who would receive.
Paradoxically, it is in a sympathetic yet critical evaluation of both our own and other Christian traditions that we discover afresh what God has given to us, that we might be true to Him and distinctively Baptist. May it be in the reaffirmation of that mix of drivers, expressed through practices and their accompanying, distinctive theological convictions that form us as distinctively Baptist, that we find ourselves making a fuller contribution to the wider ecumenical scene.
Deeper detail:
‘Presence and Proclamation: what might Baptists and Orthodox learn from each other in the pursuit of Christian mission?’ in Baptistic Theologies Vol. 2.1, Prague: IBTS, 2010; ‘The Missional Doxology of the Philippian Hymn’ in Baptistic Theologies: Ideologies and Convictional Theologies, Prague: IBTS, 2011; and ‘Water, Fire & Wind: Visiting the Roots of Pentecostal Pneumatology’, Communio Viatorum, the Theological Journal of Prague’s Charles University Protestant Faculty (Autumn, 2011).
Deeper detail:
‘Presence and Proclamation: what might Baptists and Orthodox learn from each other in the pursuit of Christian mission?’ in Baptistic Theologies Vol. 2.1, Prague: IBTS, 2010; ‘The Missional Doxology of the Philippian Hymn’ in Baptistic Theologies: Ideologies and Convictional Theologies, Prague: IBTS, 2011; and ‘Water, Fire & Wind: Visiting the Roots of Pentecostal Pneumatology’, Communio Viatorum, the Theological Journal of Prague’s Charles University Protestant Faculty (Autumn, 2011).
