Pentecostal Pastoral Leadership and Global Missions — Unit 1: A Pentecostal Theology of Mission (Acts 1:8)

Key Verse

"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." (Acts 1:8, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Explain why Pentecostals say that the purpose of baptism in the Holy Spirit is power for witness and mission.

2. Describe how the book of Acts shows the Holy Spirit leading the church's mission.

3. List the main marks of a Pentecostal theology of mission: Spirit power, every believer as a witness, urgency, signs that serve the Word, and care for the whole person.

4. State fairly the main objections to this theology and explain how Pentecostals answer them.

5. Apply these teachings in a local church that has never thought of itself as a sending church.

The Voice of This Unit

This course is written from inside the classical Pentecostal tradition, for pastors who belong to it. It is Trinitarian and conservative. We hold that the Bible is the inspired and authoritative Word of God, and we hold that the Holy Spirit still empowers the church for mission. Other evangelicals and many historians see some of these matters differently. We state their views fairly and then give our answer. Courses 1 to 3 told the history of our movement, its theology, and its teaching on the gifts. We refer to them briefly and do not repeat them here. This course asks a practical question: how do Pentecostal churches send, lead and serve in the world?

Why Begin with Mission

Pentecostalism did not begin as a theory. It began as a prayer for power to witness. Early Pentecostals said that the Spirit was poured out so that the gospel might reach the whole world. That is why a course on pastoral leadership begins with mission. A pastor who forgets the mission will lead a church that serves itself, and a church that serves itself loses the very thing the Spirit was given to do.

Mission begins with God. The Father sent the Son, and the Father and the Son sent the Spirit. Jesus said to His disciples after the resurrection, "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you" (John 20:21). Missiologists often call this "the mission of God." The church does not invent mission. It shares in a mission that God has already begun. This is good news for a small church with few resources, because the work depends first on God.

Acts 1:8 and the Shape of the Book of Acts

Jesus gave His disciples a promise and a task in one sentence. The promise is power: "you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you." The task is witness: "you shall be witnesses to Me." The map follows: Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and "to the end of the earth." Luke gives the same link in his Gospel, where Jesus tells the disciples to wait in the city "until you are endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49).

Many readers see that Acts follows this map. Chapters 1 to 7 are centered in Jerusalem. Chapters 8 to 12 move through Judea and Samaria and reach Gentiles at Caesarea. Chapters 13 to 28 follow the gospel across the Mediterranean world to Rome. Luke arranged his book around the promise of Acts 1:8, and in every part of the map the Spirit is the one who leads and empowers.

Notice the order in the verse. Power comes first, and witness follows. The Pentecostal reading of this verse is simple: the Spirit's coming upon believers is given for the sake of witness. Spirit baptism is not mainly a private comfort or a mark of rank among believers. It is a gift for those who are sent.

The Spirit Leads Mission in Acts

If we read Acts slowly, we see that the Spirit does more than give power. He guides, sends and opens doors.

He sends. At Antioch, "As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, 'Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them'" (Acts 13:2). The first sending of missionaries came out of worship and fasting, and the Spirit spoke. The church did not meet to plan a program. It waited on God.

He guides. In Acts 16:6-10 Paul and his companions were kept from entering certain regions, and then Paul received a vision of a man of Macedonia. The team concluded that the Lord was calling them to preach there. Pentecostals have always valued this kind of dependence on the Spirit's direction, tested by Scripture and by the counsel of the church.

He opens new doors. In Acts 8 Philip preached in Samaria, and Peter and John came to pray for the believers there to receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-17). In Acts 10 the Spirit prepared Peter and Cornelius separately, and then fell on the Gentile household. Peter later told the church in Jerusalem what he had seen, and the church glorified God because He had given repentance to the Gentiles (Acts 11:18). The Spirit broke down a wall that the apostles themselves had not been ready to cross.

He gives boldness. After Peter and John were threatened, the believers prayed, and "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness" (Acts 4:31). Boldness for witness is a fruit of fresh filling. Pentecostal churches often pray this prayer together.

Marks of a Pentecostal Theology of Mission

Pentecostal missionaries and pastors in many countries have held certain convictions in common. We set out the main ones here. These are teachings from Scripture that Pentecostals have emphasized, and not a new gospel.

1. The Spirit empowers the church for witness. Roger Stronstad, a Pentecostal scholar, argues that Luke presents the Spirit's coming as a prophetic empowerment. Moses wished that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit on them (Numbers 11:29). Peter, quoting Joel on the day of Pentecost, announces that the wish has been fulfilled for sons and daughters, young and old, servants and handmaids (Acts 2:17-18). The whole people of God are made ready to speak for Him.

2. Every believer is a witness. If the Spirit is poured on "all flesh," then mission is not only for professionals. In the book of Acts, those who were scattered by persecution "went everywhere preaching the word" (Acts 8:4). Pentecostal churches in the poor world have grown largely because ordinary believers, such as farmers, market sellers, teachers and drivers, tell their neighbors what Christ has done. A pastor's work is to prepare and release such people, in line with Ephesians 4:11-12.

3. Urgency. Early Pentecostals believed that the outpouring was a sign that the Lord's return was near. They spoke of a "latter rain," drawing on Joel 2:23 and James 5:7, as a final harvest rain before the end. Whether or not one uses that picture, the New Testament joins the Spirit with the end of the age and the need to reach the nations before the Lord returns. Urgency is not panic. It is the steady awareness that people are dying without Christ and that time is a gift.

4. Signs that serve the Word. Pentecostals expect healing, deliverance and other works of power to accompany the preaching of the gospel. Acts says that the Lord was "bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands" (Acts 14:3). The signs do not replace the Word. They confirm and open hearts to it. Where the church ignores the Word and promotes the sign, it has left the biblical pattern. We return to this in Course 3 and in the unit on prosperity teaching.

5. Care for the whole person. Jesus read in the synagogue at Nazareth that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him to preach good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted and to proclaim liberty to the captives (Luke 4:18). The same Spirit comes upon His people. A Pentecostal theology of mission therefore includes prayer for the sick, care for the poor, and the proclamation of salvation. We study social engagement in a later unit.

6. The goal is all peoples. Jesus commanded His disciples to make disciples of all the nations (Matthew 28:19-20), and John saw a multitude from every nation, tribe, people and tongue before the throne (Revelation 7:9). Pentecostal mission is not finished when one village or one tribe has been reached. It looks to the end of the earth.

Fair Objections and Pentecostal Answers

We present each objection as its holders would state it, and then answer.

Objection 1: Acts 1:8 describes the apostles' special task, not a promise for all believers.

Some evangelicals, including James D. G. Dunn in his study of Spirit baptism, hold that the Spirit is given to every believer at conversion, and that the events in Acts show the church's unique beginning. On this view power for witness is part of salvation itself, and Acts 1:8 belongs to the apostles' special task.

Our answer. We agree that every believer receives the Spirit at new birth, and that the apostles had a unique place as eyewitnesses. But Peter, speaking to a crowd, said, "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call" (Acts 2:39). The promise of the Spirit was not limited to the Twelve. Luke also shows believers of no apostolic rank, such as the disciples at Samaria and Ephesus (Acts 8 and 19), receiving the Spirit in a way that the church could recognize. We believe that Luke gives a pattern for the church in every age.

Objection 2: Pentecostal missions have been too focused on the end of the age and on saving souls, and have neglected the poor and the world.

Some historians say that the early Pentecostals, expecting the Lord to return soon, gave little thought to schools, justice or social change.

Our answer. There is truth in this. In some places urgency did crowd out other forms of service. But the historical record is more mixed. Pentecostals have always prayed for the sick, fed the hungry and opened orphanages and clinics in many places. Researchers such as Douglas Petersen have studied Pentecostal social concern in Latin America and have shown that it grew out of the church's own convictions about the Spirit. The correction we need comes from Scripture itself: the Spirit who sent Jesus to preach good news to the poor sends the church to do the same. A later unit in this course takes up the matter fully.

Objection 3: Emphasis on signs and wonders can make mission a show of power and can overshadow the cross.

Critics point to examples in which a preacher's reputation seems to matter more than the message of Christ.

Our answer. The warning is just. Paul refused to rely on persuasive human wisdom and resolved to preach Christ crucified, yet he also said that his message came "in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (1 Corinthians 2:1-5). Signs belong to the gospel, but they do not stand above it. The test of any ministry is whether Christ is lifted up, whether the Word is faithfully taught, and whether the preacher is humble and accountable. We return to these matters in the unit on pastoral ethics.

Objection 4: Pentecostal missions are an export of Western culture.

Some critics argue that Pentecostal missions from the United States and Europe carried Western habits with the gospel, just as other missions did.

Our answer. This criticism applies to some missionaries of every tradition, including our own, and we should say so honestly. Yet historians such as Allan Anderson have shown that Pentecostalism spread widely through local believers and local leaders, often with little outside money. The principle of the "indigenous church," taught by Pentecostal missionary thinkers, was meant to correct the danger of foreign control. We study that principle in Unit 3.

Pastoral Application

Pastor Marcos leads a small congregation of about sixty people in a village of western Mexico. The church meets in a rented hall and the members are mostly farm workers and shopkeepers. When the denomination asks for gifts for missions, the church says, "We are too poor. Missions is for big churches." The pastor feels that the church has lost its first love and does not know how to begin.

First, he preaches a series on Acts 1:8, showing the church that the Spirit is given for witness and that being poor does not remove the promise. He reminds them that the first church in Jerusalem was not wealthy.

Second, he asks the church to pray for the power of the Spirit for all believers, not only for himself. He gives time in services for members to tell what God is doing in their own families and workplaces.

Third, he starts close to home. He chooses a nearby village with no evangelical church and asks a small team to pray for it each week and to visit it once a month. This is "Judea" for his church.

Fourth, he teaches the church to give regularly, even in small amounts, to a missionary known to the denomination, and he reports every few months what that gift has done.

Fifth, he guards the Word. He teaches that prayer for the sick and for deliverance are signs that serve the gospel, and he asks the team to preach Christ clearly in every visit.

Within a year, the church is no longer saying that missions belongs to others. Its members understand that they are part of the sending of God.

Summary

The Pentecostal theology of mission begins with Acts 1:8: the Holy Spirit is given to believers as power for witness, to the end of the earth. Luke shaped the book of Acts around this promise, and in Acts the Spirit sends, guides, opens doors and gives boldness. Pentecostal missions has been marked by six convictions: the Spirit empowers the church, every believer is a witness, the time is urgent, signs serve the Word, the whole person matters, and the goal is all peoples. Evangelical critics say that the promise was limited to the apostles, that Pentecostals neglected social needs, that signs can become a show, and that the missions were Western exports. We answer from Scripture and from history, with honesty about our own failures. A pastor leads best when the whole church shares in the mission of God.

Further Reading

• Roger Stronstad, The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke (1984).

• James D. G. Dunn, Baptism in the Holy Spirit (1970), an evangelical critique.

• Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism (2nd ed., 2014).

• Douglas Petersen, Not by Might nor by Power (1996).

• Donald E. Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori, Global Pentecostalism (2007).

• J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, Contemporary Pentecostal Christianity (2013).

• The Apostolic Faith (Los Angeles, 1906-1908), a primary source.

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