Pentecostal Culture

Several years ago I read a book from Willow Creek titled “Becoming a Contagious Church” which illustrated the gaps that exist between the unregenerate (unsaved, lost, unchurched, far from God…whatever description you choose to use) and God.

The author described the vast cultural chasm that exists and has to be bridged before individuals will become open to hearing about the life changing message of the gospel. In our nation, secular culture has truly helped shape the worldview of this generation and when (according to this worldview) truth is now relative to individual interpretation and any lifestyle is acceptable, the Christian church faces the daunting challenge of proclaiming Jesus as the way the truth the life amid this popular outlook. Like it or not we, the church, have become another face in the crowd in the American psyche – persona non-grata – just one very "intolerant" way of expressing first amendment religious liberty.

I contend that there is yet another cultural chasm that exists and in many cases has to be overcome before individuals will be open to the gospel and that is "Pentecostal Culture." Pentecostalism (which I grew up in and love dearly) is unlike any other expression of Christianity. The past 100 years have seen a rapid rise of Pentecostalism across the globe and we are privileged to be a part of this great expansive movement. Pentecostals doctrinally believe that the Holy Spirit gives power for evangelism yet in America we see that many non-Pentecostal churches equal and in some cases exceed us when it comes to evangelistic impact. Why is this? Could it be related to the culture of Pentecostalism?


I could blog for hours with examples of how I've seen Pentecostal culture get in the way of successful evangelism but that would be tiresome. One example I will share happened many years ago when an unchurched couple attended one of our services at (Church name withheld for my protection). Worship was amazing – high energy, passionate and God-honoring - then the guest speaker spent the entire morning dealing with ridding the church of the Spirit of Jezebel. A “deliverance” time followed where many came forward and were “slain in the spirit.” The service was loaded with Pentecostal language and expression, nothing I hadn’t seen before, but this time I saw it through the eyes of someone else. The couple was scared to death and never returned even after attempted follow up. It was like a sucker punch to my gut because somewhere the message of the gospel was clouded by the culture of Pentecostalism.

Sometime later another couple started coming, one of whom is a school teacher. They didn’t bolt after the first service and we were fairly sure they had not committed their lives to Christ but were being drawn by the Spirit. When my wife and I met them for dinner a few weeks later we asked them pointedly if they had any questions about the church or the services, to which they replied “we have a ton of questions.” The school teacher said she spent weeks looking at our signage (vision, mission, etc…) and listened intently to the service trying to piece the whole thing together using her deductive and inductive reasoning skills she learned in college. Again I started seeing Pentecostal culture through someone else’s eyes. We spent time with them to bridge the aforementioned cultural gaps and in time, with help from other believers they came to Christ. I have realized now more than ever how Christianity can be a foreign language to the unregenerate. Add to that the distinctive language of Pentecostalism and we have more to translate and explain than we realize.

Thoughts for Discussion:
How can we continue to be Pentecostal and at the same time avoid letting Pentecostal culture get in the way of successful evangelism? Also, how can we avoid the pitfall of taking evangelistic efforts in our own hands, thus minimizing or unintentionally eliminating the Holy Spirit’s role in the process?