Why I'm Not Pentecostal

There was a time when I envied the Pentecostal churches. they seemed to be really in touch with the Spirit of God and miracles were happening everywhere and every week.

But now I see too many things that concern me- both at the macro (big picture) and micro (individual congregations and people) levels. ...

The cover of this week's Bulletin magazine just sums it all up. The cover refers to an article about Hillsong church and you can take it all with a pinch of salt, but it just really expresses in a nut-shell what is wrong with the Pentecostal branch of the Church. Read it here

Don't get me wrong- I believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Every Christian needs to be born again and baptised with the Holy Spirit. I pray in tongues and I hear the voice of God.

But there are some really bad directions in the branches of the Pentecostal movement that I know the best- namely Assemblies of God and Christian Outreach Centres. I'm not having a go at any particular pastors-- I really love my local AOG and COC pastors. This is a generalisation about the movements/ denominations from wide observations.

1. Let's get this one out of the way-- prosperity doctrines and the resulting poverty. Why spend zillions of dollars on a building programme, especially when you haven't got enough to support the pastors?
2. Emphasis on outward appearances over inner change.. this comes in at so many levels. From the happy-clappy make sure you always look good pressure to conform- right through to the annoying and deceitful practice of claiming that someone has been saved when they put their hand up or go forward or even just cry when you're talking to them!
3. A desperate desire to make God look good. Just because miracles happen or just because God does pour out blessings on His people does not mean we have to claim every good thing as a blessing or miracles where they aren't there! If Bill Smith receives prayer before going to chemotherapy and is healed, and if most people are healed by the chemo anyway without the prayer, we can't claim that's a miracle!
4. I mentioned the salvation issue. I looked right through the bible and I cannot find anywhere that putting up your hand or going out to the front gets you right with God. I know of people who "get saved" at least once a month! Pastors cannot go on claiming these people are saved- until they (the Pastors) have investigated what's really happening in the lives of these people. I think that for many people "going forward" is the Pentecostal version of Confession in the Catholic Church... it's a way of receiving God's forgiveness (or perhaps the feeling of forgiveness).
5. Along with the growing emphasis on prosperity is the increasing chasing of influential business people and ignoring of the poor. Some churches only want people who will "look good and behave themselves." This is ironic because the historical roots o of the Pentecostal movement were amongst the poor and uneducated.
6. There is a massive self-deception going on in many churches that good music = "anointing". I'm not sure what the word anointing means any more, but the presence of the Spirit of God is often equated with a good band! I'm not sure that Jesus had a drummer or bass guitarist in His band! The anointed zone is often equated with the stage and in fact I know of one person who told me that one day he felt the "Presence" right there as he stepped onto the stage to play.
7. There is massive self-deception going on also that a growing congregation implies the favour of God.

I could keep on going, but I don't just want to keep bagging out other people. I am desperately worried for the integrity of the Church.

Take the salvation issue, for example. If we tell people they are saved when they put their hand up we have reduced salvation to a very simple physical act. Similarly if we equate salvation to teary eyes in a sermon then again salvation becomes an action. The danger is that people genuinely believe they are right with God when in fact they are not.

Similarly if we believe that getting a band with the right riffs and a worship leader who just looks holy is somehow equivalent to the presence of the Spirit of God we are in a really bad place!

At the moment, i have a lot of confusion in my heart about this stuff. What I see is some really wonderful people, who really love Jesus, but who seem to be way off the mark in their theology and in their practice. They are so desperate for the power of God that in some ways they have to "make it happen" in any way they can.

Blessings

Keith