NEWS RELEASE

Mennonite World Conference

For Immediate Release

March 28, 2006

Symposium concludes Anabaptists and Pentecostals can help each other

Pasadena, California, USA—Anabaptist churches and conferences should “explore what is missing in our life as a community that makes people hungry for what they find in Pentecostal churches.”

That was one conclusion of a findings group following a symposium on “Global Anabaptism and Global Pentecostalism: Creating Understandings,” another part of the Mennonite World Conference (MWC) General Council gathering held here March 7-15. The symposium was organized to recognize (a) that 2006 is the one hundredth anniversary of Pentecostalism, and (b) Pentecostalism began in  Southern California, also site of the 2006 MWC gathering.

Speakers at the symposium were two Fuller Theological Seminary professors: Juan Martinez, a Mennonite Brethren; and Cecil M. Robeck, Jr., a Pentecostal.

“Our [Anabaptist] spiritual forebears struggled with the relationship between Spirit and Word,” Martinez said. “They strongly opted for Word within a couple of generations. Dialoguing with Pentecostals will likely invite us to reconsider … the Spirit’s role in crucial Anabaptists distinctives like our peace commitment, social justice, service alongside the poor, prophetic witness, and similar issues.”

Describing Pentecostalism as a movement that emphasizes the Holy Spirit’s power to transform a believer’s life, Robeck noted, now 100 years old, Pentecostals are beginning to experience what other, older groups, like the Anabaptists, have already experienced, such as the lack of interest of their youth.

“While in a sense all Christians are Pentecostals,” he said, “we need to ask how all of us tap into the power of the Holy Spirit today.”

In discussions following these presentations, some noted that Pentecostalism has positively influenced global Anabaptist churches while others said the impact was not always positive.

Elina Ciptadi of Indonesia said she likes to move and shout when she worships. “I have never seen in Mennonite teaching that we only worship a certain way,” she said.

Matiku Thomas Nyitambe of Tanzania, however, noted that “a spirit of splitting up has entered our churches” as a result of Pentecostalism.

“We need to remember that the New Testament calls us to live in the path of Jesus as well as in the path of the Holy Spirit,” Martinez said at the conclusion. “I sometimes ask: What is more miraculous? To speak in tongues, or for the rich to give up their money?”

Recognizing that both Pentecostalism and Anabaptism are both restorationist movements based on Acts 2 and considered radical alternatives to mainstream culture, both can benefit from each other, the findings group said.

They encouraged Anabaptists to take their own identity more seriously in order to enable more fruitful dialogue with Pentecostals.

J. Lorne Peachey,

Courier / Correo /  Courrier Editor