Blog 4: Studying the History of Global Pentecostalism Part II

To continue from the previous blog, I believe it is no doubt that we must be reminded of the heritage of the classical Pentecostalism which started in Los Angeles—its African American spirituality, interracial fellowship, equality, ecumenical origins and ethos, the earnestness for evangelism and mission and so forth. These lessons shall continue to inspire us for the theological and spiritual renewal of our day.

On the other hand, we must also extend the historical research to the revivals that broke out in many parts of the world. These revivals took place independent of the Azusa Street and in some cases even predated it, like the accounts of Sadhu Sundar Singh of India (1889-1929) and John Sung of China (1901-1944). Besides, it is often that the native charismatic leaders led these revivals or expand it independently after the initial contact with missionaries. Many “indigenous Pentecostal churches” arose due to the sovereign move of the Holy Spirit and the nature of Pentecostalism which emphasizes on the supernatural encounter with God. Therefore, a more extensive revision of the history will inspire us in Asia to not overemphasize on the American forms of Pentecostalism as normative, but to learn from the local pioneers, and to better comprehend the contextualization of Pentecostal gospel in our region. These are the gems of our history.

Blog 3: Studying the History of Global Pentecostalism Part I

I believe there are several reasons why we should concern about the writing of Global Pentecostal history:

1.       To uphold the authenticity of history (correct any flaws)

2.       The recognize and enhance the knowledge of our identity and root

3.       To learn from the past as guidelines for today, and to gain future directions

4.       To gain a clearer view of the global Pentecostal movement, that God is the God of all nations.

5.       To refine our theology so to improve Pentecostal scholarship at large.

I am greatly inspired by Alan Anderson in his findings written in “The Origins of Pentecostalism and its Global Spread in the early Twentieth Century.” Anderson asserted a new approach to the problem of origins, which is to study the history from “below”—the perspective of the poor and powerless/the natives; rather than from “above”—the rich and powerful/the “westerners.” Truly, the Holy Spirit in His sovereignty has poured out the “latter rains” regardless of persons and places. The dynamic movement of God through history shall not be limited in a box by our fallible mindset. To fail to appreciate the multi-dimensional and multi-cultural manner in which the Holy Spirit had worked is to make God less than a God of all nations.  There are more lessons that we can learn from a less bias historical research ("less" because there is no "unbias" history). I will expand on this view further in the coming Blog.