[Please read the introduction for context to all subsequent posts.]
This series is specifically addressed to those good people who are worshipping and serving the Lord Jesus Christ in what is often called, Pentecostal / Charismatic churches. These posts are provided to find a quick answer to some of the more often asked questions regarding our Spirit-filled practices. So let us begin…
Not all continuationists are the same.
Recently, a fairly notable reformed pastor posted his opinion concerning certain doctrinal positions he attributed to Pentecostalism. The opinions were released as “short” video snippets with condensed critique of where those who believe in the present activity of the Holy Spirit have gotten some things “wrong”. As a self-identified “Pentecostal” pastor and college professor of some time, I normally let these moments pass with a chuckle. Doctrinal disputing on social media has produced little fruit and even less theological conversion. People who enter these discussions are usually convinced their position is THE position. So why waste the energy and time, right?
Greetings Pastors, Partners, and friends of Legacy Christian Ministries,
Tracie and I have just started a month long ministry tour speaking at conferences and churches, as well as encouraging local church pastors and wives in their assignments. It is a part of our call and assignment and we are enjoying this season.
We always want to start our email updates with gratitude and thanks for the invitations to minister across this country and globe -AND- for the growing number of financial and prayer partners who are helping to underwrite and undergird this ministry. I am not embellishing when I tell you that our nation’s pastors are facing unprecedented spiritual warfare and personal assault. It is certainly true that the Lord is “shaking all that can be shaken” and cleaning His House from unrighteous and unqualified leadership, but there are untold hundreds of thousands of pastors who are walking faithfully in their assigned churches doing the work of the ministry under incredible challenge.
The recent statistics show us just a glimpse of what is going on…
Umpires are essential participants in the game of baseball. Other sports have referees, but baseball officials carry the term, “umpire”. They are a genuinely neutral official who watches a game or match closely to enforce the rules and judge unbiasedly on matters arising from the play. A good umpire will:
There may be more characteristics, but those are the ones that come to mind quickest. Umpires are essential. Without them, rules are broken, stretched, and ignored. I remember playing some pick-up games of baseball and in later years, softball, and no umpires were used. Everyone on the field was on the “honor” system. You don’t need me to report on how those times turned out. In a close play, everyone defaults to partisan team loyalty. It’s the nature of human beings.
There is an old European folk tale which revolves around the story of a chicken, Henny Penny, who believes that the world is coming to an end. The fear is spread amongst numerous animals until there is a “mass hysteria”. One of the characters is a fox who seizes upon this frenzied group of animals and leads them to its lair where they are summarily eaten by the family of foxes waiting for this hysterical bunch. The tale comes to America in the story of Chicken Little, who is hit on the head by an acorn, and then creates panic by telling everyone, “The sky is falling”. The dictionary describes a “Chicken Little” as “a person who constantly warns that a calamity is imminent; a vociferous pessimist”. Another defines it as, “A person who panics easily, or spreads alarm amongst others”. The story is the perpetual playbook of politics. Create widespread fear over an issue or a person and then promise to battle it. It has been around since democracy has existed. It stays around because it works.
