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2 - Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Book tackles evangelicals’ questions on climate change RENEE SCHOOF

Williams, for example, has taken a strong stand on protecting the WASHINGTON – As an evangeliclimate. The Ecumenical Patriarch cal Christian living in Texas, climate Bartholomew, the leader of the scientist Katharine Hayhoe found world’s Orthodox Christians, wrote in that many conservatives had quesa commentary last month, “Climate tions about climate change based change will only be overcome when on things they’d heard on talk radio. all of us – scientists and politicians, So Hayhoe and her husband, theologians and economists, speAndrew Farley, the pastor of a noncialists and lay citizens – cooperate denominational church in Lubbock, for the common good.�

Texas, decided to answer the quesThe National Association of tions in a new book from religious Evangelicals, a group that represents publisher FaithWords, “A Climate for millions of American evangelicals Change: Global Warming Facts for in about 45,000 churches, takes Faith-based Decisions.� positions on other social issues but “The observed increase in greenit hasn’t taken a stand on climate house gas levels, due to human change because there isn’t a conproduction, is the only explanation sensus among its members, said its we can find to account for what has director, Heather Gonzales. happened to our world,� Farley and The evangelical group Cornwall Hayhoe wrote. “We’ve dusted for Alliance argues that concerns about fingerprints. There’s only one likely global warming are unfounded suspect remaining. It’s us.� and lobbies against legislation that Although the leaders of other reli- would reduce U.S. emissions of gious groups have been calling on greenhouse gases. The Evangelical the world to take action to prevent Environmental Network, in contrast, climate change from spinning out accepts the scientific explanation of of control, evangelical Christians global warming and calls for reducremain divided on it. ing the pollution that’s causing it.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan This contrast in views prompted McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

Hamilton Seventh-day Adventist Church

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117 West Bridge Road • 363-0575

Following Jesus Together!

Our Hamilton church is a part of a world-wide body of Bible believers learning to honor Jesus by exploring His Way, discovering His Truth, and living His Life. By His grace we desire to “keep His commandments and have the faith of Jesus.� Rev. 14:12

Mark Umstot/MCT

Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University, and her husband, Andrew Farley, the pastor of a nondenominational Christian church in Lubbock, Texas, have written a new book, “A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-based Decisions.� The book is aimed to address questions they’ve heard from skeptical fellow conservative Christians.

The couple’s answers are based on the scientific explanation of how human activities are changing Earth’s climate.

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Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 2009 - 3

the Texas authors to write their book.

“When it comes to conservative Christians, I think the real question is who can we trust on this issue?” Farley said. “The scientist who has opposed us in the past, perhaps on issues such as evolution versus creation?

Can we trust the local radio talkshow host on conservative radio who seems to be vehemently opposed to the idea that climate change is happening and speaks out quite passionately?

Should I trust my local pastor who has a B-minus in high school biology?”

Hayhoe teaches in the Department of Geosciences at Texas Tech University, and she was a lead author of a U.S. government report on climate change in the United States that was released in June. She also was one of some 2,000 sci-

entists on the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which reported in 2007 that there was unequivocal evidence of warming.

Farley, a conservative Republican, is the pastor of Ecclesia, a nondenominational Christian church, and teaches linguistics at Texas Tech.

“To get information on climate change, you have to go to the people who know the information. That’s why we wrote this together as a climate scientist and a pastor,” Hayhoe said. “He asked the tough questions. He said you’ve got to talk about this and this and this, and these answers have to satisfy me.”

Many of the questions were from the arguments of conservative celebrities.

“Glenn Beck is saying this, Laura Ingraham is saying that,

Rush Limbaugh is saying this, and these people are wellrespected in conservative communities, so where are these talk-show hosts wrong and how can you show that they’re wrong with data, not slick talk?” he said.

Their goal, he said, was to reach the average person with facts, “with no spin to it, no politics to it, no economic policy recommendations to it, stripped of all those and stripped of the common misconceptions as well, getting down to the core issue: Is it happening, are we causing it and how can we be sure?”

The book is a look at the scientific consensus that heattrapping gases, mostly from the use of fossil fuels, are causing an increase in the Earth’s average temperature. It explains how scientists reach their conclusions

and why they rule out other possible explanations, such as the sun, volcanoes and natural cycles.

On the Web “Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science,” a short guide by U.S. climate scientists: http://www. climate.noaa.gov/education/ “Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States,” a U.S. Global Change Research Program report: http://www. globalchange.gov/publications/ reports/scientific-assessments/ us-impacts © 2009, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau on the World Wide Web at www. mcclatchydc.com.

4 - Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Churches use Upward to reach outward ANDY MEAD McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

LEXINGTON, Ky. – It’s a cool, damp fall afternoon, and a group of 6and 7-year-olds are practicing soccer in a grassy field in Lexington, Ky. Eric and Kim Lake sit on the sidelines in folding chairs, watching their son T.J. kick the ball. A visitor asks what they think of this league.

“I like it quite a bit,” Eric says. “It teaches the modified rules of the game, and every kid gets to play the exact same amount of time.”

Kim says, “The emphasis is taken off winning and put on having fun and learning the game.”

“And sportsmanship,” Eric says. “And then at the same time the gospel is presented throughout the year.

Each week the kids have a (Bible) verse that they learn. It’s more family-oriented.”

“And the parents cheer for both teams,” Kim adds.

This is Upward soccer.

It is organized along the same Christian principles as Upward flag football, basketball and cheerleading.

Caz McCaslin, who developed the Upward idea in 1986 when he was a recreation minister for a church in Spartanburg, S.C., was

DAVID PERRY – Lexington Herald-Leader/MCT

David Todd gives a pointer to Brody Solomon, 8, during flag-football practice at Macedonia Christian Church in Lexington, Ky.

a featured speaker at Georgetown College this month.

H.K. Kingkade, Georgetown College’s director of religious life, was helping coach a flag football practice a few yards away from the soccer practice.

He said he was looking forward to Georgetown students and others

hearing McCaslin talk about “the ministry of recreation” and how churches can use it to broaden their outreach.

“Here’s a man who had a vision and God blessed it, and it’s impacting kids all over the world,” Kingkade said.

Upward has spread to more than 2,500

churches of various denominations in several countries and claims 500,000 participants from kindergarten to sixth grade.

Georgetown College says that 171 Kentucky churches have used the program in the past three years, including 35 within a 50-mile radius of Lexington.

Those churches include Porter Memorial Baptist, Eastland Church of God, Highland Baptist, Immanuel Baptist and Calvary Baptist in Lexington; Faith United Community in Nicholasville; Woodford Community Church in Versailles; and Cedar Grove Baptist in Stamping Ground.

Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 2009 - 5

The kids practicing off Winchester Road – and behind Macedonia Christian Church – were on a team organized by Calvary Baptist.

David Todd, who was coaching the flag football team, said he and his wife got involved with Upward before they had a child old enough to participate.

He also referees Upward basketball games.

The kids playing on the Calvary Baptist teams don’t necessarily attend the church, or any church.

“I’ve got nine kids on my team and all but two or three have listed a church,” Todd said. “So with those two or three kids, there’s an outreach opportunity.”

A central part of Upward, he said, is how coaches and parents behave.

“They tell coaches, ‘Don’t jump on the referee,’” he said. “If the coach yells at a referee for a bad call, it in turn makes the parent feel that the coach saw a bad call, so (they’re) going to jump on the referee, too.’”

Todd, an engineer with Kentucky Utilities, has met McCaslin a few times

at training sessions and is sold on the program.

“It’s a unique program, and Caz does the best job of telling his vision and how it got started,” Todd said.

His son, Chris, 8, was tossing an Upward football into the air as his dad talked. He said he liked playing Upward flag football “because my friends from church are here and I get to play with them.” © 2009, Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Ky.).

Visit the World Wide Web site of the Herald-Leader at http://www.kentucky. com/ Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Flag football coach David Todd leads a prayer during flag-football practice at Macedonia Christian Church in Lexington, Ky. DAVID PERRY – Lexington Herald-Leader/MCT

6 - Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Religious communities call for health reform but differ on key issues ANNYSA JOHNSON Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (MCT)

MILWAUKEE – More than 100 people gathered outside Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Milwaukee on Friday, and led by a veteran of the civil rights movement, raised their voices in a prayer for the passage of health care reform.

“We pray that the people of this nation have the energy and strength to see this through,” said the Rev. Joseph Ellwanger, who sees access to health care, like racial equality, as a matter of justice.

As the national debate over health care reform shifts to the Senate, among the strongest voices

are expected to be people of faith.

In Wisconsin and the nation, religious communities and individuals have lobbied lawmakers, launched advertising and educational campaigns, staged prayer vigils and more, framing health care reform as a moral imperative.

“It’s our belief that it’s not just a political and economic issue, it’s a fundamental moral issue,” said David Liners, state coordinator for WISDOM, an interfaith coalition of about 140 Wisconsin congregations working to advance health care reform.

Despite near consensus in the call for reform, there remains widespread debate over who and what procedures should be covered

GARY PORTER – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MCT

Reverend Dennis Jacobson, right, leads a closing prayer during a MICAH prayer vigil for health care reform at Cross Lutheran Church on Milwaukee, Wis.

– with undocumented workers and abortion as the main flash points – and at what cost; the role of government and whether the law or conscience should dictate a health care professional’s participation.

Alliances have emerged that

reflect traditionally political divisions as much as faith, according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

“It’s not a question of whether we need health care reform, but how we do it. And I don’t think gov-

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Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 2009 - 7

ernment is the way,” said Mathew Staver, chairman of the faith-based coalition Freedom Federation, which opposes abortion and advocates a free-market approach to reform. “We believe individual liberties trump government-imposed obligations,” he said.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 46.3 million people, or 15.4 percent of the U.S. population, were uninsured in 2008, up slightly from the year before. In 2007, the latest data available, 488,000 people in Wisconsin, 61,000 of them in Milwaukee County, were uninsured all or part of the year, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

Influencing debate A study by Harvard Medical School and the Cambridge Health Alliance, which will appear in the December issue of the American Journal of Public Health, found that 45,000 deaths a year are associated with a lack of health insurance. In addition, it found that uninsured,

working-age Americans have a 40 percent higher risk of death than their privately insured counterparts, up from 25 percent in 1993, according to a Harvard Web site.

“For many of us in the faith community, this is a huge moral issue for our time,” said Linda Hanna Walling of Cleveland-based Faithful Reform in Health Care. “Many of us believe the debate has to be much bigger than how we pay for it.”

Among the most influential in the debate has been the American Catholic Church and its bishops, who support health care coverage for all, including undocumented workers, and have adamantly opposed any measure that includes funding for abortion.

A measure of their influence could be seen in the buildup to the House vote last week. According to the Associated Press, representatives of the U.S. Conference of Bishops were in the offices of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic and abortion-rights advocate, late Friday as officials hammered out the

agreement on the abortion limits.

The political blog Politico reported that Chicago Cardinal Francis George, president of the bishops conference, made a last-minute call to ensure that Republicans “did not scuttle” the House bill. The Chicago Archdiocese did not respond to a request for verification.

Divisive issue Coverage of undocumented workers has been as divisive as abortion for some congregations, clergy said.

Father John Yockey of St. Jerome Parish in Oconomowoc, Wis., said a few parishioners have challenged him over the church’s position on that front.

“This is a very good issue where we have to transcend our politics and honestly face the demands of our moral convictions as Catholics,” said Yockey.

“A good person of faith can argue the particulars, but the bottom line is we have to make sure

that the poor, the defenseless, the preborn and immigrants are taken care of,” he said.

Among those particulars, how to provide coverage has been equally debated.

Rabbi Marc E. Berkson of Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun said he personally supports a public option, believing his interests would be better served by his government than private companies whose primary motivation is profit. But he knows there is a range of views in his congregation and across Judaism.

“From any Jew, whether it’s Orthodox, Conservative, there would be consistent agreement that it is an obligation to provide medical care for others,” said Berkson.

“The real problem in the debate is how you get there.” © 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Visit JSOnline, the Journal Sentinel’s World Wide Web site, at http://www. jsonline.com/ Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Calvary Chapel is an inter-denominational church centered on the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We believe that God’s love is the true basis of the fellowship we share, and we look to the presence of his love in our lives as the greatest evidence that we are following Him. It is for this reason we desire to feed God’s people His Word by His Spirit. We do this by teaching through the Bible, verse by verse, explaining each passage. Our prayer is that all who come here will be built up in their faith, becoming rooted and grounded in His love. It is through believers who learned to follow Him, that those who have never met Jesus will have the same opportunity to experience personally the joy of a relationship with Christ.

Our service times: Sunday Mornings at 9 & 11am • Wednesdays at 7pm.

Messages can be heard on our website at bitterrootvalleycalvarychapel.com & on KLYQ radio station 1240am on Sunday Mornings at 9:30am.

Christmas Eve Service

Thursday, December 24th 7-8PM, Bitterroot River Inn

All are welcome to join us in the celebration of Christ’s Birth 700 North 4th Street, Hamilton • 363-3431 • www.BitterrootValleyCalvaryChapel.com

8 - Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Celibacy may be reviewed as new priests are few Married priests of other faiths may convert to Catholicism JENNIFER GARZA McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

SACRAMEN TO, Calif.

– One of the hardest things Ed Donaghy has ever done was leave his ministry as a Catholic priest. For months, he agonized over his conflicting desires to have a family and serve as a priest in the Sacramento Diocese.

In the end, Donaghy felt he had no choice. The priest, who served in Woodland, Calif., told his bishop he had to leave.

That was four decades ago.

“It would have been wonderful to be married and be a priest,” said Donaghy, 73, now retired as an insurance agent. “I loved the work and would have continued.”

Donaghy is one of more than 75 men in the Sacramento area who have left active ministry in the priesthood to marry. Many of them, say Donaghy and others, “would have returned in a minute if the rules changed.”

That is not likely to happen soon.

But the possibility that someday Catholics may see married priests in the pulpit was raised last month. That’s when Vatican officials announced an arrangement that welcomes Anglicans into the Catholic Church, includANDY ALFARO – Sacramento Bee/MCT Ed Donaghy left the priesthood in the Catholic church in 1979 so he could marry Brigid, a ing their married priests. former nun, and they could start a family.

Vatican officials have said

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Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 2009 - 9

repeatedly over the years that celibacy will remain mandatory, but many observers say having married Anglican priests in the church is a â&#x20AC;&#x153;major moveâ&#x20AC;? toward the idea of married Catholic priests. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s significant,â&#x20AC;? said Sister Chris Schenk, of FutureChurch, a Cleveland group studying the shortages of priests in the United States. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time for the church to bring these married priests back into ministry and to address the issue of mandatory celibacy,â&#x20AC;?

Schenk said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have parishes closing and a number of priests retiring. Look at the demographics.â&#x20AC;?

About 40,000 priests serve in U.S. dioceses, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

Many of those are nearing retirement. In 2009, 472 men were ordained. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have to do something because we need priests,â&#x20AC;? Schenk said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It only makes sense to re-think celibacy.â&#x20AC;?

The Catholic Church already has married priests. Priests in the Eastern rite â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 21 churches that are in communion with Rome â&#x20AC;&#x201C; may marry. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In our church most of the priests are marANDY ALFARO â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Sacramento Bee/MCT ried,â&#x20AC;? said the Rev. Ted Wroblicky, a married Donaghy says he would have returned to the priesthood if rules allowed Catholic priests to be married. The couple is shown on Oct. 29, 2009, in a retirement community near Sacramento, Calif. priest at the Holy Wisdom Eastern Catholic

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10 - Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Parish in Sacramento. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is not unusual at all. People are used to it.â&#x20AC;?

In his church, if the men are priests first, they arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t permitted to marry and remain in the ministry. However, if a man is already married, he can become a priest.

For nearly a decade, the Roman Catholic Church also has had a special provision for married ministers of other faiths to become Catholic priests after converting. Currently, about 150 married men across the country are now training for the Catholic priesthood, according to Schenk.

In the Sacramento Diocese, a former Lutheran pastor is in the process of becoming a Catholic priest. The man, who did not want to be identified, is married and has children. He will have the same responsibilities as other Catholic priests once he is ordained, according to church officials.

Some have conflicting views on the subject of celibacy and

the priesthood. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I believe in celibacy, but most of the Apostles were married, so we have to figure out a way of having both,â&#x20AC;? said David Leatherby, who has attended Mass every day for 45 years and who has a grandson who is a priest.

has been debated by theologians, parishioners and priests.

In a 2004 survey of Sacramento diocesan priests, 73 percent of the priests who responded said they favored an open discussion on mandatory celibacy, according to Call to Action, a Catholic grass-roots organization

I think there are great advantages to having optional celibacy because some men need that intimacy. On the other hand, there is a beauty in celibacy, as Christ was celibate. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Bishop Francis Quinn He believes practical issues should be addressed and celibacy ought to be optional.

For him, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also a practical matter. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The church needs priests, why not bring in these men?â&#x20AC;?

Celibacy has been a church rule since the 12th century. The issue of a celibate priesthood

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that mailed the survey to every priest in Northern California. The results were similar to those in other dioceses.

Some who favored a discussion said many early church leaders were married while others cited the blessings of celibacy.

Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto said celibacy is a gift. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think the celibate lifestyle is an important element of the priesthood,â&#x20AC;? said Soto, the spiritual leader of the Sacramento Diocese and its 900,000 Catholics.

It is a lifestyle that some priests find difficult to follow. Dan Delany left the church in 1967, after he fell in love. He and his wife Chris, a former nun, later founded Sacramentoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Loaves & Fishes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was painful at the time because there were a lot of challenges,â&#x20AC;? said Delany of leaving ministry. He said there were many men who left after Vatican II. â&#x20AC;&#x153;After that there were more opportunities and a lot of us who left were do-gooders anyway â&#x20AC;&#x201C; so we got involved in social service issues,â&#x20AC;? Delany said.

He and Donaghy belong to a Sacramento group of priests who have left active ministry called NOVA (Now Serving in Other

Vineyards Adjoining). They meet once a month for lunch.

Bishop Francis Quinn, now retired, served as chaplain to the men in NOVA. He believes the church should study the advantages and disadvantages of celibacy and the priesthood. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think there are great advantages to having optional celibacy because some men need that intimacy,â&#x20AC;? Quinn said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;On the other hand, there is a beauty in celibacy, as Christ was celibate.â&#x20AC;?

Quinn said that while optional celibacy may address some concerns, â&#x20AC;&#x153;there will probably be new ones as well if it becomes optional.â&#x20AC;?

However, he said he believes the church will eventually have married priests. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But I thought that 30 years ago, and it didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t change, so Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not a good predictor.â&#x20AC;?

When Donaghy was an active priest, he saw so many wonderful families in the church that he believed his call was to have one of his own.

After he made his decision to leave, he met his wife-to-be Brigid. She had been a nun who left her order months earlier. They have been married 39 years, have three children, five grandchildren and a comfortable life in Lincoln.

Donaghy said he welcomes the Roman Catholic Churchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s invitation to married Anglican priests, saying it could get people used to the idea of having married priests and their families in church on Sundays. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s room in the church for married and unmarried priests,â&#x20AC;? he said. Š 2009, The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.).

Visit The Sacramento Bee online at http://www.sacbee. com/ Distributed by McClatchyTribune Information Services.

Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, December 16, 2009 - 11

Pentecostals divided on doctrine of speaking in tongues TIM TOWNSEND St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MCT)

STEELE, Mo. â&#x20AC;&#x201C; At the beginning of an evening worship service at the First Assembly of God church, the Rev. Ryan Harris pitted teens against adults in a trivia game called Battle of the Generations.

Wednesday Night Alive is the churchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s outreach service to a swath of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s troubled teenagers here in the southernmost tip of Missouriâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bootheel. After a few more games, worship began in a style typical of evangelical churches.

Harris, a husky 26-year-old wearing a sweater, untucked shirt and baggy jeans, led 20 teenagers and 20 adults in a few upbeat, contemporary praise songs, and then delivered the nightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s message. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The gift of the Holy Spirit

is placed upon you, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s placed inside you,â&#x20AC;? Harris told his congregation, his voice thundering through his headset to the back walls of the tiny church. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Holy Spirit gives you strength to stand up to those who donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want you to stay in school, who want you to try drugs, to try sex.â&#x20AC;?

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the Holy Spirit that provides Pentecostals with the practice that sets their movement apart from all other evangelical Christian churches: speaking in tongues, or glossolalia. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The distinguishing feature of classical Pentecostalism is to say that unless you have spoken in tongues, you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have this baptism in spirit,â&#x20AC;? said Russell Spittler, emeritus professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary in California.

The practice is so central to

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the 3 million-member, Missouribased Assemblies of God, that denominational leaders voted unanimously to reaffirm it as doctrine during the churchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s General Council meeting in August.

Reaffirmation of one of Pentecostalismâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s central tenets was necessary, according to the resolution voted on at the meeting, because speaking in tongues â&#x20AC;&#x153;has come under certain scrutiny.â&#x20AC;?

Glossolalia has become the churchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s real battle of the generations. Some young pastors say that while they recognize the foundational importance of speaking in tongues to Pentecostalism, other features of their faith are more practical and helpful for their flocks.

Harris, who began preaching when he was 12, is a fourthgeneration member of the

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Assemblies of God. His greatgrandfather was a church pioneer who founded a Pentecostal camp meeting in southern Illinois. Harris has pastored First Assembly for two years, and he said audible glossolalia is heard just â&#x20AC;&#x153;once every two or three monthsâ&#x20AC;? at the church. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We do stress that the initial physical evidence of the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues,â&#x20AC;?

Harris said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But we do not encourage people to seek tongues. We encourage them to seek God and to seek the power of the Holy Spirit for witnessing.

Tongues is just a byproduct of that.â&#x20AC;?

Sentiments like that worry an older generation of Assemblies of God pastors. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s concern from our leadership that younger pastors are possibly taking their cues

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12 - Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, December 16, 2009

from other significant Christian movements like the emergent churches or user-friendly churches,” said the Rev. Boyd Brooks, 57, pastor of The People’s Church, an Assemblies of God congregation in Arnold, Mo. “It’s a legitimate concern that these churches are not being fully Pentecostal.”

Brooks said one might hear someone speaking in tongues once a month in his church – “Not as often as I would like,” he said.

Pentecostalism is distinguished from other evangelical movements by its emphasis on Scripturally-based “gifts of the spirit,” including healing, prophecy and speaking in tongues.

The movement began at a street revival in Los Angeles in 1906, but was marginalized by more mainstream Christians for much of the 20th century because of its emphasis on gifts of the spirit.

But over the last 50 years, the rituals once ridiculed by other Christians have helped Pentecostalism and related charismatic groups become the fastest growing Christian movement, making up an estimated onequarter of the world’s Christian believers.

Pentecostals believe Christians must experience a second “baptism in the Holy Spirit.”

The movement, and its doctrine of Holy Spirit gifts, is based on a scene in the New Testament book of Acts in which Christ’s apostles, in the wake of his resurrection and ascension, gather for a Jewish feast day TIM TOWNSEND – St. Louis Post-Dispatch/MCT called Pentecost, 50 days after Passover.

Rev. Ryan Harris, pastor of First Assembly of God in Steele, Mo., prays with James Carter at the church’s weekly youth During that gathering in Jerusalem, as the worship service. apostles prayed, “suddenly, from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent But George Wood, general superintenSpirit.” But only 28 percent said they strongly wind,” according to Acts. “All of them were dent of the Assemblies of God, downplayed agreed that “within worship services, our filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the importance of the general council’s reafchurch regularly prays for people to receive in other languages, as the Spirit gave them firmation of the church’s doctrine this sumthe baptism of the Holy Spirit.” ability.” mer.

The Rev. Paul Scheperle, 37, pastor of First The Spirit’s arrival on Pentecost “marks the “The fact that it passed unanimously sugAssembly of God in Washington, Mo., said origin of the Christian church,” said Spittler. gests that the concern was overstated,” the issue is more about differing congreSpeaking in tongues is the “initial physical Wood said.

“There’s always the case that my gational dynamics than generational differevidence” that a person has been baptized generation is going to be concerned about ences. in the Holy Spirit, according to Pentecostal the handoff to a new generation. It’s easy “Individual pastors at individual churches tradition. for a denomination to stray from its moorare just responding to the receptivity of “Initial physical evidence is the key issue, ings, and that’s an honest concern, but in their audiences and their particular needs,” and numerous Assemblies of God ministers this case, I don’t think statistics back up that Scheperle said. are no longer tied to that doctrine,” said concern.”

Stanley Burgess, a professor of Christian hisIn a 2008 poll of Assemblies of God pas© 2009, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. tory at Regent University in Virginia, and editors, the church found that 56 percent Visit the Post-Dispatch on the World Wide tor of “The New International Dictionary of strongly agreed with the statement, “I Web at http://www.stltoday.com/ Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements.” regularly teach our congregation about Distributed

by McClatchy-Tribune “Younger pastors are no longer nearly as the concept of being baptized in the Holy Information Services. committed to this as their elders are.”