Back to Life

After nearly 8 years on hiatus, I’m returning to writing. I now have 25 years of experience pastoring at the most historic Pentecostal church in San Francisco (CA), and—pending the successful defense of my dissertation—am finally finished with my formal education.º Over the years, many have suggested to me that I write a book or books. I would rather offer my contributions to the church free of charge. For me, the Kingdom is not ‘a spade’ª with which to pad my standard of living, but a calling and a passion.

A couple of presuppositions for the forthcoming posts: First, in my estimation, christology, pneumatology, discipleship, ecclesiology, missiology, and eschatology are so closely connected that I find it impossible to address one topic apart from all the others.◊ The posts on this site will often center on these topics, their interrelatedness, and their implications for various areas of life and spirituality. Second, I write from a pentecostal‡ perspective. I have been immersed in a pentecostal community of practice for 27 years, and have read 106 volumes† (and counting) of academic pentecostal theology. I have read extensively outside of my faith community as well (Anabaptist, Anglican, Catholic, Episcopal, Evangelical, Exvangelical, Lutheran, Methodist, Orthodox, Quaker, Reformed, etc.), but my worldview is decidedly influenced by an ongoing encounter with Jesus via the Holy Spirit that characterizes pentecostal spirituality.

Third, even though I am writing from within the church and for the church, I embrace pluralism in the sense that I accept the fact that public space is a contested space. By claiming to be somehow neutral, disinterested, and objective, the scientific worldview presumes to be the authoritative voice in this space. Some Christians (especially in the United States) likewise treat the public forum as though Christianity should be the only voice permitted to speak. I fully subscribe to historic Christianity, and am convinced that its narrative of the trinitarian God is the true story of the world, its purpose, and its future: creating the world, calling Abraham (and, by extension, Israel), appearing, living, teaching, dying, rising, ascending, and pouring out the Holy Spirit in and through the Person of Jesus of Nazareth, and the promise of Jesus’ return to perfect the work of New Creation begun in His incarnation. When I say I am a pluralist, what I mean is that I acknowledge the many belief systems (including none at all) that people adhere to, and that I affirm their right to hold those beliefs, and to seek to convince others of their accuracy. I am doing theology in public. As such, I accept the responsibility of having to ‘out-narrate’∆ other truth-claims rather than speaking as though the Christian story is to be taken for granted, and I invite those who disagree with me to voice those disagreements. Far from being threatening to me, I have found that the critique of others helps refine, clarify, and strengthen my faith and its quality.

If you are a pastor or someone who cares deeply about the church, my sincere hope is that you find these posts generative for your imagining and participating in the wonder that is God’s church. I also hope that these posts find their way to a scholarly readership, triggering some dialogue between the church and the thinking and output of the academy, thereby contributing in however small a way to the shrinking of the chasm between the local church and Christian scholarship. These are the two primary groups of people I am addressing in these posts. Whether or not you fall into one of these two audiences, I pray that you recognize the signature of Truth in what you read. I hope that it resonates deeply within you, and gives you a taste of what Jesus referred to as Living Water—eventually producing a desire in you to permanently camp at the Well from which it springs. Above all, I pray that it inspires as great a shift as possible in the way that you think about and participate in the church.

º For those to whom this is of interest: I hold a Master’s in Ministry from Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, and will soon hold, God willing, a Doctor of Ministry (Emphasis in Spiritual Formation) from Berkeley School of Theology.

ª The Avot tractate of the Mishnah refers to a Rabbi Zadok’s prohibition on using the Jewish Law as a means to make a livelihood.

◊ The ‘ologies’ here, in the order listed, refer to: the studies of Jesus’ Messiahship and divinity, the Holy Spirit, the church, the church’s mission, and the so-called ‘end times’ (which are frequently misunderstood as occurring at a point in time in the future, as opposed to having already begun, a topic that I will address in future posts.)

‡ I will use the capitalized Pentecostal to refer exclusively to those movements that trace their origins to the Los Angeles Azusa Street Revival of 1906. Though I am an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God (a Pentecostal fellowship), when speaking in my own voice I will use pentecostal, as I cannot claim to represent either the official perspective or that of the entire fellowship.

† At some point I will create a list of these books, and update it as I read additional ones. I’ll also highlight some recommendations from the list, as well as those from outside the pentecostal tradition.

∆ This concept originates with John Milbank in his Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006).