The Church of God is at an interesting crossroads. We are beginning to build up walls to protect what being Pentecostal has become instead of refining what being Pentecostal should become. We are wanting to threaten our ministers that if they question our “party line” about what it means to be Pentecostal then they are going to be removed from our ranks. I have to ask this question, “Why now?”

It appears that we are worried about the decline of our churches over the years, and we think it is because our worship has not been Pentecostal enough…even though we are Pentecostal.

The problem has never been our lack of Pentecostal Worship. The problem is our lack of Pentecostal Witness. We forget that tongues, prophecy, healing and the like all came about as a result of desiring to be a witness for Christ…not that being a witness came about because we spoke in another language.

If we don’t have enough people speaking in tongues it is not because we don’t teach and preach about it…it is instead because we do not stress enough the need for witnessing for Christ in the day that we live.

It is awesome to hear that over 500,000 people have received the Baptism with the evidence of tongues over the past two years in the Church of God…great! Now how many of them are witnessing? How many of them have won someone to Christ within a year of receiving their Baptism?

Let’s take it a step farther, how many of our 6 million members, have received the Baptism? Maybe 3 million? Out of those 3 million who have spoken in tongues how many have led someone to Christ since their Baptism? How many of them are still leading people to Christ?

I’ve been told of a Gay-Pentecostal church in Chattanooga where they speak in tongues and have “Pentecostal Worship”.

The article presented at Engage21 on Pentecost was interesting. It pointed out that political candidates are emulating “Pentecostal Worship” in their campaign gatherings.

I’ve read numerous articles about how non-Pentecostal churches are trying to implement “Pentecostal Worship” into their services.

Now I’m glad that Pentecostalism has gone main-stream, but we are not seeing Pentecostal Power in our Witness on a large scale. Why? Because we continue to promote Pentecost as Worship instead of Witness. Your worship can be copied, but your witness can not!

In spite of all the negatives, there are many who truly desire to be witnesses of Christ. To these Christ continues to pour out His power and His presence through His Spirit. I believe these will demonstrate that powerful presence in an ability to witness for years after their initial evidence. I also believe these will encourage others to become witnesses, and true Pentecostal Worship will once again become dominant within our churches as a result. But I also believe we have to go farther than just reinforcing initial evidence…we need to stress the power to witness.

Hoping that all who speak in tongues will someday be witnesses for Christ,

Darrell B Jr.