Reflections of an Undeconstructed Pentecostal
A presentation on November 6, 2024 for Heritage Week Chapel at Pentecostal Theological Seminary in Cleveland, TN. This presentation discusses the heritage of Pentecostal worship and associated sights and sounds – healing, prayer, singing and dancing, holy laughter, being slain in the Spirit, and handling snakes.
Estrelda Alexander’s Black Fire tells a compelling story of the Pentecostal Movement, specifically that of Pentecostal believers of African descent in North America. Like many Pentecostal historians, she begins by comparing the physical earthquake in San Francisco in April 1906 with the spiritual earthquake of the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles in the same year. The reader is to be reminded of the words of God spoken by an ancient prophet: “I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land. I will shake all the nations . . .” (Haggai 2:6-7). The birth of twentieth century Pentecostalism was indeed a profound shaking – a shaking of ecclesiastical structures, a shaking of socio-political sensibilities in North America, a shaking that would be felt in all the nations of the earth.
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Earl Pearly Paulk was a pioneering Pentecostal leader whose ministry spanned five decades, serving the Church of God as an evangelist, pastor, state overseer, and denominational executive. He was renowned as one of the finest Pentecostal preachers in the movement. As a scholar of the Holy Scriptures, he influenced the doctrine of the Church of God and was a leading apologist for Pentecostalism. He was among the best of his generation, and a hero to the next generation. If one wishes to understand the development of Pentecostalism, then one needs to know Earl Pearly Paulk.
Available in Hardcover and Softcover from Amazon.
Earl Pearly Paulk was a pioneering Pentecostal leader whose ministry spanned five decades, serving the Church of God as an evangelist, pastor, state overseer, and denominational executive He was renowned as one of the finest Pentecostal preachers in the movement. As a scholar of the Holy Scriptures, he influenced the doctrine of the Church of God and was a leading apologist for Pentecostalism. He was among the best of his generation, and a hero to the next generation. If one wishes to understand the development of Pentecostalism, then one needs to know Earl Pearly Paulk.
Continue reading “New Book – “Preacher Paulk””
Recently (June 6, 2018), I had the privilege to spend the day with a wonderful group of theologians and scholars representing the Churches of Christ. My friend, Tony Richie, and I were invited to attend the Christian Scholars Conference hosted by Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee. We were participants in an ecumenical dialogue. So, does the Church of God have anything in common with the Churches of Christ?
Continue reading “What does the Church of God have in common with the Churches of Christ?”
Seven things I hate about Pentecostalism and seven things I love about Pentecostalism…
Continue reading “Things I Hate & Love About Pentecostalism”