What is remarkable about this new strain of Pentecostalism is the heroic intensity of the ministries, which have not yet evolved into tired bureaucracies. The founders of these programs are driven by a sense of calling, a feeling of thankfulness for how God has intervened in their personal lives, and they are constantly reinventing their programs in response to what they perceive to be the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Through their research, Miller and Yamamori found Pentecostalism, like early Methodism before it, often improves the lot of the poor. Typically the mother of the household converts first, followed by her children. If her husband follows he is more than likely to stop drinking, gambling, womanizing and becomes more engaged in family life. Household income rises and the whole family is better off.

Pentecostalism is a religion of the people. Again, like early Methodism and evangelicalism generally, it is the democratization of the faith. Everyone has direct access to God, the scriptures, and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Add to this a strong emphasis on the community of faith and human dignity, and social transformation is one of the unintended consequences.

Religion can be an opiate for the oppressed masses (Marx). More often evangelicalism in general, and Pentecostalism in particular, have proven to be powerful forces for change.

As Pentecostals become upwardly mobile—better educated and more affluent—they no longer see the world as a place from which to escape. They tend to want to make the world a better place to live.

Is it any surprise that 85% of the churches that fitted the criteria were Pentecostal or charismatic?

Their conclusion after a four year study spanning twenty nations: some of the most innovative social programs in the world are being initiated by fast-growing Pentecostal churches.

Case studies cited include, AIDS projects in Kampala, ministries to children in the slums of Cairo, schools for the children of prostitutes in Calcutta, treatment programs for drug addicts in Hong Kong, political rights for indigenous people in Guatemala.

It seems that while Liberation Theology opted for the poor, the poor opted for Pentecostalism.

“Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement” (Donald E. Miller, Tetsunao Yamamori)

It is certainly a distortion of the Christian message if it is primarily interpreted as a program for the material improvement of the human condition.

The core of the Christian message is the proclamation of a tectonic shift in cosmic reality inaugurated by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This proclamation radically relativizes all the empirical givens of this world, including all human institutions. Any reinterpretation of Christianity in terms of a this-worldly agenda, individual or collective, is a distortion.

Peter Berger

Peter Berger is the leading sociologist of our time. He is also a Christian.

In a this article he reflects on the impact of Pentecostal Christianity on the poor in Africa. You might be surprised by his findings.

Since 1977 under the leadership of Andrew Evans, and for the last twelve years Brian Houston, the Australian Christian Churches have been one of the fastest growing movements in the land.

The ACC has released its 2009 report. A few observations. . .

Since 1997 there has been an 85% growth in the number of constituents, from 115,912 to 216,203. In the same period the number of churches has grown from 826 to 1108 , a 23% increase. Figures most other denominations can only dream about.

The ACC is growing, but the growth in constituents is considerably greater than the growth in numbers of churches. Therefore ACC churches are on average getting larger.

In the last two years, the growth in the number of constituents has slowed but is still a respectable 10.6%, from 195,488 to 216,203. A net increase of 20,715 people. For the same period there has been a net increase of 31 churches. These figures are interesting as they show that the ACC has grown by a ratio of 710 new people for every one new church.

The trend is clearly towards larger existing churches and a decline in the rate of at which the ACC starts new churches. That trend, if it’s not addressed, will lead to a plateau.

In summary:

1. The ACC continues to grow at a healthy rate, but that rate is slowing.

2. The number of constituents is rising at a faster rate than the number of churches.

3. Average church size is increasing.

If these trends continue the ACC is headed for a plateau. Alternatively the ACC could make an innovative return to tradition. . .

The conventional wisdom is that Christianity reinforces the oppression of women.

Elizabeth Brusco, a feminist Marxist scholar conducted fieldwork in Columbia from 1982-1983, and found that pentecostal conversion transformed traditional gender relations by giving women a moral authority in the home to challenge their husbands’ drinking, gambling, or adultery.

She wrote up her findings in “The Reformation of Machismo: Evangelical Conversion and Gender in Columbia” (1995).

Brusco wanted to find out, What happens to the macho value system when the husband converts to evangelical Protestantism?

The answer? He swears off the traditional masculine vices like drinking and partying most of the weekend and reintegrates himself into the household. He assumes the role of husband and father he may have neglected since the early days of his marriage and participates actively in the church community.

For many men, no longer having to maintain the facade of unrelieved masculinity and bravado is a great relief; the private world of household and loved ones is preferable to the public world of men. Brusco writes that, “In Colombia, machismo is, over the long run, very demanding and difficult for all under its sway, including the males who must perform this role” (p. 120).

Those changed male behaviors result in a radical reorientation of family consumption patterns. If formerly a goodly share of the husband’s income was diverted into wine, women, and song, that income is now channeled toward the welfare of the entire family.

Thus individual consumption by the father/husband turns into collective spending on a better diet and educating the children.

Another major shift takes place within the family, in the sphere of power relations between spouses. If the macho husband was characterized by drunkenness, infidelity, and even physical abuse of wife and children, the converted husband is pacific (appropriate New Testament behavior) and his attentions focused on his marriage and home life. Upon his conversion, however, he adopts a value system sharply at odds with the values prescribed for males by the dominant culture.

Second hand copies are still available on Amazon.

Pentecostals are known for their dependence on the Holy Spirit. Did all this goal setting undermine that dependence?

We set goals. But to get the churches going there has to be a work of God.

In South Australia, I began to pray for the larger regional towns. When I began as State Superintendent in 1978, we had just 12 churches.

We started to see where God was doing something and we just had to cooperate with Him. If you cooperated it would work.

So, for instance, Port Augusta, six people came to see me and said, we want to start a church. They were all English immigrants with an AOG background.

I told them, this is the bottom line, you’ve got no money, you’ve got no pastor, but if you want to start a church, start a prayer meeting.

Three weeks later I was at a combined function for church boards, pastors in Adelaide. Sitting there, I can feel the Holy Spirit say, “Here’s the man for Port Augusta.” Now, this guy was a board member, he wasn’t a pastor.

I looked at this guy and I thought, gee, I don’t know, he’s a nice guy and all that, but in my view he wasn’t pastor material. He was a faithful board member.

So I never said a word to him. About two weeks later he rang me and asked to meet with me.

He said I’ve been thinking of going into the ministry and he said he wondered what to do. He thought perhaps he was called to NSW. Soon after he drove through Port Augusta on a work trip and he felt God say, this is it.

I told him, Al, you’ve got no money, there’s only six people, and they’re “Poms” (English). You’ll have to go and get a job, and that’s it. He said well, I think God wants me to do it.

So, off he went. Within 6 months, he had seventy people.

Now, that story, that simple story, was repeated over and over again.

The mechanics and human willpower will not work if the Spirit is not at work.

In my twenty years as National Superintendent we planted a new church about every ten days—680 churches. That trend has continued under Brian Houston’s leadership, except now the churches on average are larger.

What role did ministry training play in fueling a church planting movement?

When I became National Superintendent, the Commonwealth Bible College (now Southern Cross) was our only college for the nation. Everyone felt it was our duty to support the denominational college.

But we had a few “renegades” like Daivd Cartledge in Townsville who decided to start their own colleges. David was the first.

David is a driver and he began to recruit from all over Australia. The College became successful.. He applied for AusStudy and recognition from the government.

The new college was graduating young leaders and off they’d go and plant all these churches.

Others followed David’s example and started colleges all over the nation. I planted one here in South Australia.

Eventually we had 18 colleges. We set up basic guidelines so they could be registered with the denomination.

The fear was, if we start more colleges they will compete with each other and not be viable. When we had just one college there were 40-50 graduates annually. Once we had colleges throughout the nation we had 1,000 graduates a year.

These new colleges were not turning out PhDs like the central college could. But they taught good knowledge of the bible and the basics of church life and leadership.

The colleges just kept feeding church planters into the movement. Without that, I don’t think we would’ve made such a difference.

The central college at first was troubled, but now has reinvented itself and provides resources and expertise to colleges all over the nation. It’s doing an even better job today because of all the new colleges.

What other changes did you need to make?

I can think of two.

Firstly, we changed our view of leadership at a national and state level. We encouraged visionary leadership rather than administrative leadership in the denomination. Our state and national leaders were at the same time, effective local church leaders.

Administrators and educators have an important part to play in a movement. But they should not lead the movement. Leaders should lead.

Secondly, we had to battle the “territorial mindset”—the idea that you can’t come in to “my territory” and plant a church.

We brought out a rule saying we could start a church anywhere, anyplace, at any time. Provided that you do two things. One, you’re ethical and don’t go after people in other churches. And secondly, you go and talk to the local pastor and tell him what you want to do. You go and talk to the State Executive and tell them what you’re going to do. You’re not asking for permission, but you are doing the right thing.

Andrew, what would you like to say to the next generation of Australian church planters?

I want to remind them of importance of the anointing.

It’s something I learnt from my dad. He was converted following the Welsh revival in a fresh outpouring of the Spirit. His Pastor was a coalminer, and he was just a dear old guy who loved the Lord and took to preaching. He taught other young men like my dad to preach under the power of the Spirit.

Well you can’t live without God. I mean, if you try to get through on methods, it just won’t work.

Have your goals and plans, but look for that God-factor every time you want to plant a church.

And so, there’s always a supernatural factor about it. I think even our guys today, church planters, sometimes overlook that.

It doesn’t matter how good you are and how big you are, it’s got to be God.

He was the National Superintendent 1977 to 1997. In 2002 he started the Family First Party and was elected into the Legislative Council of South Australia.

I met up with Andrew in Adelaide just before he retired from parliament. We talked about the astonishing growth of the Assemblies of God under his leadership.

The Assemblies of God grew steadily from its formation in 1937. Then in the late 1970s the growth became exponential. What happened?

We didn’t sit down on day one and said okay this is the way to make it happen. It was an evolving thing, I think that God just gave us clues for each stage as we needed them. All along we felt we were led.

I was narrowly elected National Superintendent at our 1977 National Conference. I was just 41 years old. Afterwards, the deputy, Phil Hills, came up to me and said, before we wind up the conference could you set some goals? We’d never set goals in 40 years of meetings.

We’d set goals for overseas missions and the remarkable thing is we always reached them.

Phil said, what about a growth goal? And I said, let’s do it. How much? And he said 50%. I said okay.

50% growth in what timeframe?

The next two years.

It seemed impossible. So I got up and told the conference, we’re going to suggest that we go for 50% increase and everyone put their hands up and voted and it happened.

After the conference I began to think how are we going to achieve this. I wrote to each of our churches and challenged them to trust God for a certain number of new decisions for Christ.

Two years later we’d grown by 68%.

So, the next two years, we said we’d go for 100%. And we got 128%.

Risk nothing and you get nothing. If you aim at something your faith will grow.

What else contributed to the change?

Another thing we did was challenge our pastors to visit Korea together. Two hundred and forty came on trip. It was faith building to see the finances come in.

We saw what God was doing in Korea and it inspired us. We were all on a high, all wanting to go back and take the word of God to the nation.

Some pastors went too far. They may have a church of 50, and they believed they would have thousands in two years. It didn’t happen. We learnt that it was far better for a church of 50 to trust God for 70 rather than a 1,000.

Despite this, it was still important to stretch people’s faith.

We came back and in the next two years saw a 120% increase. At our next conference I felt God speak say, little by little we’ll take the nation.

How was that going to happen?

We decided we’d go for a church in every Australian town of over 1,000 people within two years (1981-83). Then we had to work out how to do that.

And we set out a four point strategy:

1. Identify the towns.
2. Adopt the town in prayer.
3. Seek to start a home group.
4. Begin a small church.

We asked each church of 100 to try and plant a new church every two years. We didn’t want to make it too hard.

Some did some didn’t. Some planted two or three. Others planted none.

Every two years at the National Conference the figures and the stories would come in and people got inspired.

Some states were better than others. Queensland did particularly well. They identified all their towns and they got their districts to allocate where churches should be planted. They reorganised very well.

In the 1990′s they’d reached every town of over 1,000.

Sounds like the National Conference played a key role.

Right from the start it was important to change the tone and purpose of our National Conference. Since our beginning it was focused on the issues that divided us. There were long and heated debates about theological technicalities. The rest of the time was taken up with business.

And so, I made my decision that I’d make the conferences inspirational. We reduced the business and limited the time spent debating “non-issues”.

Year after year the Conference became a place for corporate vision and inspiration as stories came in of progress and as we set new faith goals.

Next post: Andrew Evans part 2