Monday 11 November 2013

Celebrating My Heritage

My plan is to use this blog partly to engage in personal critical reflection on pentecostalism (note: critical here does not mean only saying bad things!). I intend as well to explore some theological paths that have perhaps been avoided by popular pentecostal thinking, (perhaps partly because it has been hijacked by fundamentalism). But before I set out to do that, I think it is important for me to highlight some of the things that I would want to affirm and celebrate about my pentecostal heritage. That's what this post is about (and then at the end I explain why there have been two posts so close together, and offer an apology for a bit of a false start).

Firstly, let me say that I recognise that there are many forms and expressions of the pentecostal movement and this is just my perspective on the part of it that I have experienced (see here for the first post on a series

Friday 8 November 2013

What Am I Talking About?

In my first post, I indicated I had been part of the pentecostal-charismatic movement for many years, and that there is much about it that I'd like to celebrate. It occurred to me that perhaps I should explain what, or who, I consider myself to be talking about when referring to this movement before I go any further.

First of all, I am using the hyphenated pentecostal-charismatic (with lower case) rather than Pentecostal. The latter is usually used to refer to classical Pentecostalism in terms of the three main denominations that emerged from the Pentecostal revival in the early years of the 20th Century (Apostolic, Elim and Assemblies of God). I have never been a member of any of these denominations. But then there was the Charismatic movement, from the 1960s onwards, in which much of the Pentecostal teaching and practice affected many other denominations as well as helping to shape the house church movement, that emerged in the 1970s,

Sunday 3 November 2013

Follow the Link - Benefit of the Doubt

While waiting to get round to writing my next post, let me encourage you to look at this interview with Greg Boyd, about his book, Benefit of the Doubt, which I reviewed at Different Kingdom. Boyd, a pastor-theologian, and the blogger interviewing him, Peter Enns, an Old Testament scholar, have both helped me in my journey in re-thinking my theology.

I especially like Boyd's emphasis on honesty with God and ourselves, on speaking 'straight'. I also feel that the point about starting with Jesus rather than the Bible is essential; we are then able to understand the Bible better in the light of Jesus.