Pentecost Lost?

May 31st was Pentecost Sunday. A day regarded as the "birthday" of the Church, a commemoration of one of the most important events in Christendom, a great day of celebration in churches across the globe....except for most Pentecostal Churches. How can that be so? How is it that congregations who proudly display the banner of Pentecostal, Full Gospel, Charismatic, or any other label that describes emphasis on the Gifts of the Spirit given to the Church and first exercised on this historic day in Jerusalem, all but ignore this day?

The reasons for this are varied:

There is a growing disregard for historical Christianity, which places the modern Church in a vacuum, all but disconnected from a legacy of spiritual empowerment spanning some 2,000 years. In other words, we glory in the NOW, the legacies of our own recent and brief heritage rather than the far more substantial impact of the historical Church, of which we are a part above any other affiliations.

Adding to that is the recent lack of concern for genuine Christian education, which provides the means by which each new generation is informed and brought into prayerful and meaningful observation of the Christian calendar, which brings me to my next reason......

Many contemporaries hold to the false notion that the "true" Church is not bound by ancient traditional or even modern observances.... except Christmas, Easter, Palm Sunday, Mother's Day.....you get my drift.

And finally and most tragically, perhaps our Pentecostal/Full Gospel/Charismatic churches aren't as Pentecostal as we claim. By our very own definition, the Gifts of the Spirit should flow freely and frequently in our worship, but do they? The same powerful move of the Holy Ghost that enables our Pastors, Elders, & Prayer Warriors to move forth in Tongues should be experienced by new generations of believers, not necessarily younger aged, but the newly converted and growing in Christ. When is the last time this has occurred in our churches? When is the last time someone who previously did not exercise the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, including speaking in Tongues, receive the Gift and operate in it?

These are hard questions indeed, and one risks being seen as a mere critic to point them out, but from time to time, it is needed. So perhaps, Pentecost is not lost, but we would do well to rediscover it.

John 20:19-23 (NIV)

¹⁹On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

²¹Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” ²²And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

elder todd