Baadhi ya maandishi haya bado hayajatafsiriwa kwa Kiswahili; sehemu hizo zinaonyeshwa kwa Kiingereza.

Kusoma mitazamo tofauti ya kiteolojia. Masomo ya kihistoria yanaeleza mitazamo ya waandishi wake, ikiwemo mapokeo ya Kiarminiani na ya Kireformed au ya Kikalvini. Kujumuishwa hakufanyi msimamo wa mwandishi kuwa fundisho thabiti la CTS. Soma pamoja na Maandiko na nyenzo zilizopangwa. Jibu lenye hoja kutoka mtazamo mwingine wa kiinjili linapaswa kupimwa kwa hoja zake, si kuadhibiwa kwa sababu tu linatofautiana na mwandishi. Ikiwa alama ya kompyuta inakataa jibu kama hilo, omba CTS ilipitie.

Masomo Yaliyopangwa ya Uzamili (yote matano)

Wanafunzi wa M.Div. na Th.M. husoma masomo yote matano yaliyopangwa na kufanya mtihani wake tofauti baada ya kuanzishwa. Ukurasa wa mtihani unaeleza kanuni ya sasa; ukamilishaji halali wa awali unabaki halali.

Heshima ya Hiari (chagua matatu)

Heshima ni ya hiari kwa kila programu. Wanafunzi wa Cheti na wa Shahada ya Mshiriki wanaweza kusoma masomo matatu ya heshima bila mtihani wa masomo ya lazima. Heshima haichukui nafasi ya mtihani wowote wa Uzamili.

The Master's textbook test: read Maria Woodworth-Etter, Acts of the Holy Ghost (1912): Selections, then take its test: twenty fill-in-the-blank questions, drawn from forty; eighteen right passes. Each answer is marked right or wrong at once. Correct answers and explanations are available after the attempt passes. It is separate from the reading test on the five digests below: passing one does not pass the other. On the M.Div. and Th.M. tracks both tests are being introduced; each test's page says whether it is in force yet. Until then any student may take them, and a pass is kept in your record.

The Master's reading test: separate from the honors invitation below. Honors asks you to read any three of these digests; the Master's test covers all five. It has twenty fill-in-the-blank questions, four from each reading, drawn from forty; eighteen right passes. Each answer is marked right or wrong at once; correct answers and explanations are available after the attempt passes. You may try again after a short wait. The test is being introduced: its page says whether it is in force yet. Until then any student may take it, and a pass is kept in your record.

Chaguo la heshima: Kamilisha masomo matatu yoyote kati ya matano yaliyo hapa chini. Masomo haya yanaongeza kozi na hayachukui nafasi ya sehemu zake wala mitihani yake.

Kwenye tovuti hii: Kila moja ya masomo matano ni muhtasari wa Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala, ulioandikwa na CTS, unaopatikana hapa kwenye tovuti — kila mmoja unafunguka moja kwa moja kutoka ukurasa huu, bila kupakua chochote. Kila kadi inataja kitabu ambacho muhtasari wake umetokana nacho.

Yaliyochaguliwa: 0 kati ya 3

Somo la 1 · Her Call to Preach

A Worm to Thresh a Mountain

A CTS digest of Maria B. Woodworth-Etter, Acts of the Holy Ghost (Dallas: John F. Worley Printing Co., 1912), chapters I–III, about pp. 23–39

Woodworth-Etter tells of her poor Ohio childhood, her conversion at thirteen at a Disciples baptism, years of illness and the deaths of five children, and a call to preach that no church around her would accept. Among the Quakers she received an anointing of power, argued from Scripture for women preaching, and held her first revival meetings.

MUHTASARI WA CTSSoma muhtasari wote — unafunguka hapa hapa

Muhtasari wa Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala — muhtasari asilia ulioandikwa na CTS, unaopatikana kwa Kiingereza, Kihispania na Kifaransa, unaosomeka bila mtandao. Huu ni muhtasari wa CTS, si maandishi kamili ya chanzo asilia.

Mnyoo wa Kupura Mlima: Wito wa Maria Woodworth-Etter wa KuhubiriA Worm to Thresh a Mountain: Maria Woodworth-Etter’s Call to Preach

Somo la Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala — sura za mwanzo za tawasifu yake: utoto wa Ohio, mapambano marefu na wito ambao hakuna kanisa lililoutambua, upako kwa huduma, na mikutano yake ya kwanzaA Chapala Theological Seminary reading — the opening chapters of her autobiography: an Ohio childhood, a long struggle with a call no church would recognize, an anointing for service, and her first meetings

Muhtasari wa CTS wa sura za I–III za Maria B. Woodworth-Etter, Acts of the Holy Ghost (Dallas: John F. Worley Printing Co., 1912), uk. 23–39 hivi. Maandishi yake mwenyewe ni mali ya umma; nukuu fupi zilizo hapa chini zimetoka kwake.A CTS digest of chapters I–III of Maria B. Woodworth-Etter, Acts of the Holy Ghost (Dallas: John F. Worley Printing Co., 1912), about pp. 23–39. Her own text is in the public domain; the short quotations below are from it.

Acts of the Holy Ghost, sura ya I–IIIActs of the Holy Ghost, ch. I–III
Chanzo cha msingiPrimary source
1844–karibu 18801844–c. 1880
Maria Woodworth-EtterMaria Woodworth-Etter

Neno kabla ya kusoma. Maria Beulah Woodworth-Etter (1844–1924) alikuwa mmoja wa wainjilisti mashuhuri zaidi wa Marekani wa wakati wake, naye alikuwa daraja kati ya uamsho wa Utakatifu (Holiness) wa karne ya kumi na tisa na vuguvugu la Kipentekoste la karne ya ishirini. Sura hizi ni simulizi yake mwenyewe ya jinsi alivyoitwa. Zisomeni kama ushuhuda: mwanamke anayekumbuka, zaidi ya miaka thelathini baadaye, Mungu alichofanya katika maisha yake. CTS inawasilisha maono yake na uzoefu wake kama alivyoyaripoti, si kama matukio tunayoweza kuyahakiki. A word before you read. Maria Beulah Woodworth-Etter (1844–1924) was one of the best-known American evangelists of her day, and she became a bridge between the nineteenth-century Holiness revivals and the Pentecostal movement of the twentieth century. These chapters are her own account of how she was called. Read them as testimony: a woman remembering, more than thirty years later, what God did in her life. CTS presents her visions and experiences as she reported them, not as events we can check.

1.Utoto wa Ohio Uliogubikwa na Hasara1.An Ohio Childhood Marked by Loss

Maria Underwood alizaliwa tarehe 22 Julai 1844 huko New Lisbon, Wilaya ya Columbiana, Ohio, akiwa binti wa nne wa Samuel na Matilda Underwood. Wazazi wake hawakuwa wanaoenda kanisani alipokuwa mdogo. Walijiunga na Kanisa la Wanafunzi (Disciples) mwaka mmoja tu kabla baba yake hajafa kwa kupigwa na jua kali mwezi Julai 1855, alipokuwa na umri wa miaka kumi na moja. Mjane aliachwa na watoto wanane na karibu hakuna cha kuishi nacho. Maria na dada zake wakubwa walienda kufanya kazi kwa familia nyingine kwa wiki. Alitamani shule na alilia hadi usingizi kwa sababu ya jambo hilo. Alihifadhi vitabu jikoni na kujifunza mistari kwa moyo alipokuwa akifanya kazi. Mwanamke ambaye baadaye angehubiri kwa makutano ya maelfu alikuwa na elimu rasmi ndogo sana.Maria Underwood was born on 22 July 1844 in New Lisbon, Columbiana County, Ohio, the fourth daughter of Samuel and Matilda Underwood. Her parents were not churchgoers when she was small. They joined the Disciples Church only a year before her father died of sunstroke in July 1855, when she was eleven. The widow was left with eight children and almost nothing to live on. Maria and her older sisters went out to work for other families by the week. She longed for school and cried herself to sleep over it. She kept books in the kitchen and learned verses by heart while she worked. The woman who would later preach to crowds of thousands had very little formal education.

2.Kuongoka Kijitoni2.Conversion in the Creek

Alipokuwa na umri wa miaka minane tayari alihisi “hamu kubwa ya kumjua Mungu.” Dada zake wawili waliongoka katika mkutano wa Wamethodisti, lakini watu wazima pale walionekana kudhani watoto hawahitaji wokovu. Alipokuwa na umri wa miaka kumi na mitatu alikwenda mbele katika mkutano wa Wanafunzi (Disciples), akitembea njia ndefu kutoka nyuma ya umati. Wanafunzi wa Kristo (Disciples of Christ) walikuwa wa vuguvugu la “Urejesho” la Stone–Campbell. Walifundisha kwamba mtu anapaswa kuamini, kutubu na kubatizwa kwa kuzamishwa, nao walikuwa na mashaka na uongofu wa hisia. Woodworth-Etter anasema waziwazi kwamba “hawakuamini mabadiliko ya moyo.” Hata hivyo siku iliyofuata, alipokuwa akipelekwa kijitoni, alimwomba Bwana amwokoe kikamilifu, na alipokuwa akiingia majini “nuru ilinijia.” Watazamaji walidhani amezimia. Tangu hapo alikuwa kanisani mara nne siku ya Jumapili na mara kadhaa wakati wa juma. Wakati wake mkuu wa kwanza wa kiroho ulikuja ndani ya mapokeo ambayo hayakuutarajia, mtindo unaopita katika maisha yake yote.At eight years old she already felt “strong desires to know of God.” Two sisters were converted at a Methodist meeting, but the adults there seemed to think children did not need salvation. At thirteen she went forward at a Disciples meeting, walking the long aisle from the back of the crowd. The Disciples of Christ belonged to the Stone–Campbell “Restoration” movement. They taught that a person should believe, repent and be baptized by immersion, and they were suspicious of emotional conversions. Woodworth-Etter says plainly that “they did not believe in a change of heart.” Yet the next day, as she was led down to the creek, she asked the Lord to save her fully, and while going into the water “a light came over me.” The onlookers thought she had fainted. From then on she was at church four times on Sunday and several times in the week. Her first great spiritual moment came inside a tradition that did not expect it, a pattern that runs through her life.

3.Wito Usio na Mlango Uliofunguka3.A Call With No Open Door

Muda mfupi baada ya kuongoka, anaandika, alisikia Yesu akimwita “aende kwenye barabara kuu na mipakani mwa mashamba kukusanya kondoo waliopotea.” Hakuwa na mtu wa kuzungumza naye kuhusu hilo. “Wanafunzi (Disciples) hawakuamini kwamba wanawake wana haki yoyote ya kumfanyia Yesu kazi,” anasema, naye hakuwa amewahi kusikia wanawake wakifanya kazi hadharani isipokuwa kama wamisionari. Kwa hiyo alifanya mpango wa siri: kama angeolewa siku moja, angeoa Mkristo mwenye bidii nao wawili wangeingia katika kazi ya umisionari pamoja. Alimwoa P. H. Woodworth, nao wakakaa mashambani, lakini mpango ulishindwa. Afya yake ilidhoofika, kazi yao ya shamba ilienda vibaya, na mara nyingi alikuwa mbali mno na kanisa kuhudhuria. Kisha zilikuja miaka ya huzuni. Kati ya watoto wao sita, watano walikufa wakiwa wadogo. Anasimulia kila kifo, hasa cha Georgie mwenye umri wa miaka saba, aliyekufa kwa scrofula baada ya miezi minane ya mateso. Ni Lizzie tu, mkubwa, aliyekua. Woodworth-Etter anafasiri hasara hizi kama Mungu akimwita aelekeze moyo wake mbinguni. Wasomaji wengi wa leo watapata tafsiri hiyo kuwa ngumu. Mchungaji anapaswa kuishughulikia kwa upole: anaeleza jinsi alivyopata maana ya huzuni isiyovumilika, si kutoa kanuni ya jinsi Mungu anavyoshughulika na kila mama anayeomboleza.Soon after her conversion, she writes, she heard Jesus calling her “to go out in the highways and hedges and gather in the lost sheep.” She had no one to talk to about it. “The Disciples did not believe that women had any right to work for Jesus,” she says, and she had never heard of women working in public except as missionaries. So she made a private plan: if she ever married, she would marry an earnest Christian and the two of them would go into mission work together. She married P. H. Woodworth, and they settled in the country, but the plan failed. Her health broke down, their work on the land went badly, and she was often too far from a church to attend. Then came years of grief. Of their six children, five died young. She tells of each death, above all that of seven-year-old Georgie, who died of scrofula after eight months of suffering. Only Lizzie, the eldest, grew up. Woodworth-Etter interprets these losses as God calling her to set her heart on heaven. Many modern readers will find that interpretation hard. A pastor should handle it gently: she is describing how she made sense of unbearable sorrow, not giving a rule about how God deals with every grieving mother.

4.Huzuni, Maono na Makubaliano na Mungu4.Sorrow, Visions and a Bargain With God

Wakati wa magonjwa marefu, kila mtu alipotarajia afe, alipata alichokiita “maono matukufu.” Wakati mmoja alimwona Mwokozi msalabani kando yake na kuligusa mwili wake uliojeruhiwa. Wakati mwingine alionekana kubebwa hadi “Mji Mzuri,” ambako aliwaona watoto wake wakiangaza kwa utukufu. Hatimaye, anasema, “wakati ulikuwa umefika wa kuahidi au kufa.” Alimwahidi Mungu kwamba, kama angeirudisha afya yake na kumtayarisha, angefanya kazi. Alianza kupata nafuu mara moja. Familia ilihamia kwenye makazi ya Marafiki (Friends, yaani Waquaker), nao Marafiki wakampeleka kwenye mikutano yao. Hapa mapambano yaliongezeka. Waquaker waliwaruhusu wanawake kusema katika ibada, kwa hiyo mlango hatimaye ulikuwa wazi, lakini alikuwa “amefungwa kana kwamba kwa minyororo katika roho ya kuogopa watu.” Aliposimama kushuhudia alitetemeka “kama jani” na kumsihi Mungu atume mtu mwingine. Maono ya wenye dhambi wakianguka shimoni, naye mwenyewe juu ya njia nyembamba ya mbao akiwaita wapande juu, yaliendelea kumsukuma. Mume wake, binti yake na ndugu zake walimpinga. Wahudumu ambao hakuwa amewahi kuwaona walimwambia Mungu alikuwa akimwita. Jibu lake lilikuwa, “Kama ningekuwa mwanamume ningependa kumfanyia Yesu kazi.”During long illnesses, when everyone expected her to die, she had what she calls “glorious visions.” Once she saw the Saviour on the cross beside her and touched his wounded body. Another time she seemed to be carried to the “Beautiful City,” where she saw her children shining in glory. At last, she says, “the time had come to promise or die.” She promised God that if he restored her health and prepared her, she would do the work. She began to recover at once. The family moved to a Friends (Quaker) settlement, and the Friends took her to their meetings. Here the struggle sharpened. Quakers allowed women to speak in worship, so the door was finally open, but she was “bound as with chains in a man-fearing spirit.” When she stood to testify she trembled “like a leaf” and begged God to send someone else. A vision of sinners falling into the pit, with herself on a narrow plank calling them upward, kept pressing on her. Her husband, her daughter and her relatives opposed her. Ministers she had never met told her God was calling her. Her reply was, “If I were a man I would love to work for Jesus.”

5.“Mnyoo wa Kupura Mlima”: Upako5.“A Worm to Thresh a Mountain”: The Anointing

Hiki ndicho kitovu cha kitheolojia cha somo hili. Woodworth-Etter anataka msomaji aelewe kwamba tayari alikuwa na “uzoefu mzuri, moyo safi,” na alikuwa amejaa upendo wa Mungu, lakini “hakuwa amestahilishwa kwa kazi ya Mungu.” Alichukua taswira yake kutoka Isaya 41:15: “Mungu angelazimika kuchukua mnyoo ili kupura mlima.” Kwa hiyo aliomba nguvu ambayo Mungu aliwapa “wavuvi wa Galilaya,” akija “kama mtoto anayeomba mkate.” Kisha, anaandika, nguvu ya Roho Mtakatifu ilishuka kama wingu angavu kuliko jua. Aliona “moto wa majimaji” wenye malaika ndani yake. “Nilibatizwa katika Roho Mtakatifu, na moto, na nguvu ambayo haijawahi kuniacha.” Hapa tunaweza kuona wazi jinsi anavyohusiana na vuguvugu la Utakatifu (Holiness). Wahubiri wa Utakatifu wa kipindi hicho, wakijenga juu ya John Wesley na Phoebe Palmer (1807–1874), walifundisha kazi ya pili ya neema baada ya kuongoka, mara nyingi inayoitwa utakaso kamili au “moyo safi.” Wengi wao pia walizungumza juu ya “ubatizo wa Roho Mtakatifu” kama nguvu kwa huduma. Woodworth-Etter anatenganisha mambo hayo mawili: kwanza moyo safi, kisha upako kwa kazi. Baada ya uamsho wa Azusa Street huko Los Angeles kuanza mwaka 1906, makanisa ya Utakatifu-Kipentekoste kama Church of God in Christ na Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) yalifundisha mpangilio kama huo: wokovu, utakaso, kisha ubatizo katika Roho Mtakatifu, sasa ukiwa na kunena kwa lugha kama ishara yake. Simulizi yake ya 1912 haitaji lugha hapa. Badala yake inaonyesha mtindo wa zamani wa Utakatifu ambao mafundisho ya Kipentekoste yalikua kutoka kwake.This is the theological centre of the reading. Woodworth-Etter wants the reader to understand that she already had “a good experience, a pure heart,” and was full of the love of God, but she was “not qualified for God’s work.” She took her image from Isaiah 41:15: “God would have to take a worm to thresh a mountain.” So she asked for the power God gave the “Galilean fishermen,” coming “like a child asking for bread.” Then, she writes, the power of the Holy Spirit came down like a cloud brighter than the sun. She saw “liquid fire” with angels in it. “I was baptized with the Holy Ghost, and fire, and power which has never left me.” Here we can see clearly how she belongs to the Holiness movement. Holiness preachers of the period, building on John Wesley and on Phoebe Palmer (1807–1874), taught a second work of grace after conversion, often called entire sanctification or a “clean heart.” Many of them also spoke of a “baptism of the Holy Ghost” as power for service. Woodworth-Etter separates the two: first a pure heart, then an anointing for work. After the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles began in 1906, Holiness-Pentecostal churches such as the Church of God in Christ and the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) taught a similar order: salvation, sanctification, and then the baptism in the Holy Spirit, now with speaking in tongues as its sign. Her 1912 account does not mention tongues at this point. It shows instead the older Holiness pattern from which Pentecostal teaching grew.

6.“Nenda Sasa”: Hoja Yake ya Kimaandiko na Mikutano ya Kwanza6.“Go Now”: Her Scriptural Case and First Meetings

Hata baada ya upako alisita. Alipanga kozi ya masomo kwanza, lakini hakuweza kuzingatia. Kisha, anasema, Yesu alisimama kando yake katika maono na kuuliza alikuwa akifanya nini. Alisema atafanya kazi atakapokuwa ametayarishwa. Jibu lilikuja: “Je, hujui kwamba wakati unajitayarisha roho zinaangamia? Nenda sasa, nami nitakuwa pamoja nawe.” Alipopinga kwamba hakuijua Biblia vya kutosha, aliona Biblia kubwa iliyofunguliwa ukutani na akahisi aliielewa. Woodworth-Etter hakukataa masomo. Hoja yake ni kwamba wito wa kuhubiri hauwezi kungoja maandalizi kamili ambayo hayafiki kamwe. Sura ya III kisha inaweka hoja yake ya kibiblia kwa wanawake kuhubiri, iliyoandikwa kama mfululizo wa “maswali makali”: Miriamu, Debora na Hulda; Ana na Foibe; wafanyakazi wenzake wanawake wa Paulo; ahadi ya Yoeli kwamba “wana wenu na binti zenu watatabiri,” iliyotimizwa Pentekoste (Matendo 2). Anauliza, “Je, hakuna msingi mwingi wa kuunga mkono msimamo kwamba wanawake wameitwa kuhubiri kama ulivyo kwamba wanaume wameitwa?” Mkutano wake wa kwanza ulikuwa katika kijiji kati ya ndugu wa mumewe. Alisimama akiwa na Isaya 38:1 akilini, “Uweke nyumba yako katika taratibu,” na hofu ikamwacha: maneno yalimjia kwa kasi kuliko alivyoweza kuyatamka. Ishirini hivi walikiri kuongoka. Aliendelea kuhubiri mwishoni mwa juma huku akitunza nyumba. “Sikuandika mahubiri yangu wala kuwa na michoro ya mahubiri,” anasema; alichukua andiko na kumtegemea Mungu. Jaribio lake kubwa zaidi la mapema lilikuwa mahali paitwapo “Pango la Ibilisi,” palipojulikana kwa kutokuamini. Ilimbidi “kuzungumza yote, kuomba yote, na kuimba yote.” Baada ya majuma mawili, anaripoti, watu sabini na watano walikuwa wamegeukia Kristo. Alianzisha Shule ya Jumapili ya wanafunzi 150, akimweka mlevi wa zamani kuwa msimamizi.Even after the anointing she held back. She planned a course of study first, but could not concentrate. Then, she says, Jesus stood by her in a vision and asked what she was doing. She said she would work when she was prepared. The answer came: “Don’t you know that while you are getting ready souls are perishing? Go now, and I will be with you.” When she protested that she did not know the Bible well enough, she saw a great open Bible on the wall and felt she understood it. Woodworth-Etter did not reject study. Her point is that a call to preach must not wait for a perfect preparation that never comes. Chapter III then sets out her biblical case for women preaching, written as a set of “pointed inquiries”: Miriam, Deborah and Huldah; Anna and Phoebe; Paul’s women co-workers; Joel’s promise that “your sons and daughters shall prophesy,” fulfilled at Pentecost (Acts 2). She asks, “Is there not as much to sustain the position that women are called to preach as there is that men are called?” Her first meeting was in a village among her husband’s relatives. She rose with Isaiah 38:1 in mind, “Set thy house in order,” and the fear left her: the words came faster than she could speak them. About twenty professed conversion. She went on preaching at weekends while keeping house. “I did not write my sermons or have sketches of sermons,” she says; she took a text and trusted God. Her boldest early venture was a place called “The Devil’s Den,” known for unbelief. She had “to do all the talking, all the praying, and all the singing.” After two weeks, she reports, seventy-five people had turned to Christ. She organized a Sunday school of 150, with a former drunkard as superintendent.

7.Anachochukua Mchungaji wa Kipentekoste Leo Kutoka Humo7.What a Pentecostal Pastor Takes from It Today

Kwanza, anaunganisha wito, tabia na nguvu. Hakuchukulia upako kama mbadala wa moyo safi, wala moyo safi kama wa kutosha bila nguvu. Pili, hadithi yake ni onyo dhidi ya kuchelewa. Waamini wengi wenye karama hungoja wakati kamili, na swali la maono yake bado linawasemesha. Tatu, anaonyesha kile ambacho wachungaji sasa wanakiita ufuatiliaji: mikutano ya maombi, Shule ya Jumapili na viongozi wa mahali wanaowajibika vilianzishwa kabla hajaondoka. Nne, tabia yake ya kuhubiri bila maandishi inahitaji urari. Katika utendaji wa baadaye wa Kipentekoste, kumtegemea Roho wakati mwingine kumewekwa kinyume na maandalizi, lakini mahubiri yake mwenyewe yalijaa Maandiko. Mhubiri wa leo anaweza kuomba na kujiandaa, na kufanya yote mawili katika Roho. Mwisho, hoja yake ya kuhubiri kwa wanawake inaibua swali ambalo makanisa yanatofautiana. Mapokeo mengine, mara nyingi yanayoitwa ya kukamilishana (complementarian), husoma vifungu kama 1 Timotheo 2:12 na 1 Wakorintho 14:34 kama vinavyoweka ofisi ya uchungaji au kuhubiri kwa mamlaka kwa wanaume wanaostahili, huku yakikaribisha ushuhuda, ufundishaji na kazi ya umisionari ya wanawake. Mapokeo ya usawa (egalitarian) husoma Yoeli 2, Matendo 2 na Wagalatia 3:28 kama vinavyofungua kila huduma kwa wanawake na wanaume sawa. Mengine husisitiza huduma ya timu, ambamo waume na wake au timu mchanganyiko hutumikia pamoja chini ya usimamizi wa pamoja. Madhehebu ya Kipentekoste yenyewe yamejibu kwa njia tofauti. CTS inawataka wanafunzi kuelewa hoja zake na maoni mengine kwa uadilifu, na kufuata mafundisho ya kanisa lao wenyewe.First, she joins call, character and power. She did not treat the anointing as a substitute for a pure heart, nor a pure heart as enough without power. Second, her story is a warning against delay. Many gifted believers wait for a perfect moment, and her vision’s question still speaks to them. Third, she shows what pastors now call follow-up: prayer meetings, a Sunday school and responsible local leaders were set up before she left. Fourth, her habit of preaching without notes needs balance. In later Pentecostal practice, dependence on the Spirit has sometimes been set against preparation, yet her own preaching was full of Scripture. Today’s preacher can pray and prepare, and do both in the Spirit. Finally, her case for women preaching raises a question on which churches differ. Some traditions, often called complementarian, read passages such as 1 Timothy 2:12 and 1 Corinthians 14:34 as reserving the pastoral office or authoritative preaching to qualified men, while welcoming women’s testimony, teaching and mission work. Egalitarian traditions read Joel 2, Acts 2 and Galatians 3:28 as opening every ministry to women and men alike. Others stress team ministry, in which husbands and wives or mixed teams serve together under shared oversight. Pentecostal denominations themselves have answered differently. CTS asks students to understand her arguments and the other views fairly, and to follow the teaching of their own church.

8.Kuchukua kwa Moyo8.Taking It to Heart

Kwa tafakari. Woodworth-Etter aliambiwa kwamba alipokuwa “anajitayarisha, roho zinaangamia.” Je, kuna kitu ambacho Mungu amekuomba ukiahirishe hadi uhisi umetayarishwa? Alitofautisha “moyo safi” na nguvu kwa huduma. Ungeeleza vipi tofauti hiyo, au uhusiano, kwa mwamini mpya? Mateso na hasara vimeumbaje huduma yako mwenyewe, na unawezaje kusema juu ya makusudi ya Mungu katika huzuni bila kuwajeruhi wanaoomboleza? Mwisho, kanisa lako linaelewaje huduma ya wanawake, na je, unaweza kueleza kwa uadilifu maoni makuu mbadala? For reflection. Woodworth-Etter was told that while she was “getting ready, souls are perishing.” Is there something God has asked of you that you keep postponing until you feel prepared? She distinguished a “pure heart” from power for service. How would you explain the difference, or the connection, to a new believer? How have suffering and loss shaped your own ministry, and how can you speak about God’s purposes in grief without wounding those who mourn? Finally, how does your church understand the ministry of women, and can you state the main alternative views fairly?

Chagua

Somo la 2 · Running a Campaign

Three Meetings a Day

A CTS digest of Maria B. Woodworth-Etter, Acts of the Holy Ghost (Dallas: John F. Worley Printing Co., 1912), chapter XXII, about pp. 132–139

In the summer of 1886 Woodworth-Etter held invited campaigns at Anderson and Farmland, Indiana: three services a day, church members called forward first, a team of workers that lost heart, people falling under the power, a prayer she linked to the Charleston earthquake, 194 baptized in the White River, and a new church organized before she left.

MUHTASARI WA CTSSoma muhtasari wote — unafunguka hapa hapa

Mikutano Mitatu kwa Siku: Jinsi Woodworth-Etter Alivyoendesha KampeniThree Meetings a Day: How Woodworth-Etter Ran a Campaign

Somo la Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala — kiangazi cha 1886 huko Anderson na Farmland, Indiana: mialiko, mahema na vichaka, timu iliyoyumba, ubatizo wa wengi katika Mto White, na kanisa lililoanzishwa kabla hajaendeleaA Chapala Theological Seminary reading — the summer of 1886 in Anderson and Farmland, Indiana: invitations, tents and groves, a team that faltered, a mass baptism in the White River, and a church organized before she moved on

Muhtasari wa CTS wa sura ya XXII ya Maria B. Woodworth-Etter, Acts of the Holy Ghost (Dallas: John F. Worley Printing Co., 1912), uk. 132–139 hivi. Maandishi yake mwenyewe ni mali ya umma; nukuu fupi zilizo hapa chini zimetoka kwake.A CTS digest of chapter XXII of Maria B. Woodworth-Etter, Acts of the Holy Ghost (Dallas: John F. Worley Printing Co., 1912), about pp. 132–139. Her own text is in the public domain; the short quotations below are from it.

Acts of the Holy Ghost, sura ya XXIIActs of the Holy Ghost, ch. XXII
Chanzo cha msingiPrimary source
18861886
Kampeni za IndianaIndiana campaigns

Neno kabla ya kusoma. Kufikia 1886 Woodworth-Etter hakuwa tena mke wa shamba mwenye woga akitoa ushuhuda kati ya Waquaker. Alikuwa mwinjilisti msafiri ambaye mikutano yake ilijaza mahema, vichaka vya miti na majumba ya opera kote Indiana, na ambaye jina lake lilikuwa kwenye magazeti. Sura hii inaonyesha upande wa vitendo wa huduma hiyo: jinsi kampeni ilivyoanza, ilivyoajiriwa watu, ilivyodumu kwa muda gani, na kilichobaki baada yake. Kama kawaida, idadi na maajabu ni ripoti zake mwenyewe. A word before you read. By 1886 Woodworth-Etter was no longer a timid farm wife testifying among the Quakers. She was a travelling evangelist whose meetings filled tents, groves and opera houses across Indiana, and whose name was in the newspapers. This chapter shows the practical side of that ministry: how a campaign began, how it was staffed, how long it ran, and what was left behind. As always, the numbers and wonders are her own reports.

1.Mazingira: Indiana katika Miaka ya 18801.The Setting: Indiana in the 1880s

Mwanzoni mwa miaka ya 1880 Woodworth-Etter alihamisha kituo chake kutoka Ohio hadi Indiana. Mwaka 1884 alijiunga na Churches of God (Makanisa ya Mungu), chombo kilichoanzia kwa mhubiri wa German Reformed John Winebrenner (1797–1860). Mkutano wake wa kanda uliitwa “Eldership” (Baraza la Wazee), neno linalotokea mara nyingi katika kitabu chake. Kanisa hilo lilimpa makao na kutambuliwa kama mhudumu, na makanisa kadhaa aliyoanzisha yalijiunga nalo. Umaarufu wake ulikua haraka. Wakati wa uamsho huko Hartford City mwaka 1885 mara nyingi alianguka katika hali ndefu za kuzimia rohoni (trances) jukwaani, na waandishi wa habari wakaanza kumwita “mwinjilisti wa hali ya kuzimia” (trance evangelist). Baadhi ya waandishi walisifu mabadiliko ya kimaadili katika miji aliyoitembelea. Wengine walisema aliwaroga wasikilizaji wake kwa hipnotiki, na madaktari walijadili kama kuanguka huko kulikuwa ugonjwa wa neva. Woodworth-Etter aliandika kwa wasomaji waliokuwa wamesikia ripoti za aina zote mbili. Lengo lake mwenyewe katika sura hii ni kuonyesha utaratibu na matunda ya kazi.In the early 1880s Woodworth-Etter moved her base from Ohio to Indiana. In 1884 she joined the Churches of God, a body that went back to the German Reformed preacher John Winebrenner (1797–1860). Its regional conference was called an “Eldership,” a word that appears often in her book. That church gave her a home and recognition as a minister, and several of the congregations she founded joined it. Her fame grew quickly. During a revival at Hartford City in 1885 she often fell into long trances on the platform, and reporters began to call her the “trance evangelist.” Some writers praised the moral change in the towns she visited. Others said she mesmerized or hypnotized her hearers, and doctors debated whether the prostrations were a nervous disorder. Woodworth-Etter wrote for readers who had heard both kinds of report. Her own aim in this chapter is to show the order and fruit of the work.

2.Kualikwa, Si Kulazimisha2.Invited, Not Imposed

Kampeni ya Anderson ilianza, anasema, baada ya “wenye dhambi na watu wa Kikristo” kumwomba aje kwa miaka miwili. Alifika Julai na kusimamisha hema lake kwenye Uwanja wa Maonyesho (Fair Grounds). Usiku wa kwanza halikuweza kuchukua umati. Wengi wa waliokuwepo, anasema, walikuwa “wasio-wakiri, au, wakiri waliokufa, ambayo ni mbaya zaidi.” “Professor” (mkiri) katika siku zake alimaanisha mtu aliyekiri imani: mshiriki wa kanisa. Kwa hiyo alianza kwa njia isiyo ya kawaida. “Sikuwaomba wenye dhambi waje, bali nilisisitiza wakiri waje mbele.” Aliwaita washiriki wa kanisa mbele kwanza, kutubu na kuomba, lakini wasioongoka pia walikimbilia mbele, na katika dakika kulikuwa na “uongofu kadhaa angavu.” Alifanya ibada tatu kwa siku kwa majuma matatu, kupitia mvua na dhoruba. Wachungaji wa mahali mwanzoni “walisimama na kutazama,” lakini wahudumu na wazee kutoka mahali pengine walikuja, walishiriki, na kuidhinisha kazi hadharani. Wanawake kutoka makanisa ya mjini walimwalika nyumbani mwao na kumsihi abaki.The Anderson campaign began, she says, after “sinners and Christian people” had asked her for two years to come. She arrived in July and pitched her tent at the Fair Grounds. The first night it could not hold the crowd. Most of those present, she says, were “non-professors, or, dead professors, which is worse.” A “professor” in her day meant someone who professed faith: a church member. So she began in an unusual way. “I did not ask sinners to come, but insisted on professors coming to the front.” She called church members forward first, to repent and pray, but the unconverted rushed to the front as well, and in minutes there were “several bright conversions.” She held three services a day for three weeks, through rain and storms. The local pastors at first “stood and looked on,” but ministers and elders from other places came, took part, and publicly endorsed the work. Ladies from the town churches invited her into their homes and begged her to stay.

3.Timu Iliyoyumba3.A Team That Faltered

Hakuweza kubaki, kwa sababu alikuwa ameahidi kwenda Farmland, kijiji katika Wilaya ya Randolph. Hapa tunaona kwamba alifanya kazi na timu. Alikuwa ametangazwa Farmland kwa Jumapili iliyotangulia, kwa hiyo alituma “wafanyakazi wengine kadhaa wazuri” mbele kuanza. Watu elfu mbili, anasema, walikutana na treni wakimtarajia, nao walikatishwa tamaa. Kisha mpango ulisambaratika. Katika kituo cha Anderson alikutana na mmoja wa wanawake aliowatuma. Mwanamke huyo alikuwa amekata tamaa; alikuwa amewaona watu wa Farmland katika maono wakiwa wamelala katika majeneza yao na aliamini hawawezi kamwe kuinuliwa kiroho. Mfanyakazi wa pili alitoroka bila neno. Wa tatu alikuwa mwanamume, yule aliyemtegemea zaidi. Alimkuta amelala amechoka hemani mwake, akasema hakuna linaloweza kufanywa, na akakataa kubaki. “Alipanda hack na akaondoka.” (Hack ilikuwa gari la kukodi la farasi.) Alivunjika moyo na kulia. Ulikuwa wakati wa ibada ya alasiri, na mamia walikuwa wakitembea kuelekea hemani. “Kwa nguvu ya Mungu niliinuka; nilisaidiwa kwenda mimbarini.” Alisimama akitetemeka na kuanza kuimba. Nguvu ilikuja; aliomba, alihubiri na kuwaita watafutaji, na madhabahu yalijaa kwa siku kumi. Zingatia mambo mawili. Kwanza, uaminifu: hafichi kushindwa kwa timu yake mwenyewe. Pili, maoni yake kwamba mwanamume huyo alikuwa “mwoga mbaya zaidi kuliko mwanamke.” Kama watu wengi wa wakati wake alidhani wanaume wanapaswa kuwa jasiri kuliko wanawake, lakini hadithi yake inaonyesha mwanamke akishikilia mstari mwanamume alipokimbia.She could not stay, because she had promised to go to Farmland, a village in Randolph County. Here we see that she worked with a team. She had been announced at Farmland for the previous Sunday, so she sent “several other good workers” ahead to begin. Two thousand people, she says, met the train expecting her, and they were disappointed. Then the plan fell apart. In the Anderson station she met one of the women she had sent. The woman was discouraged; she had seen the people of Farmland in a vision lying in their coffins and believed they could never be raised spiritually. A second worker slipped away without a word. The third was a man, the one she depended on most. He found her lying exhausted in her tent, said nothing could be done, and refused to stay. “He stepped in the hack and was gone.” (A hack was a hired carriage.) She broke down weeping. It was time for the afternoon service, and hundreds were walking toward the tent. “In the strength of God I arose; was helped to the pulpit.” She stood trembling and began to sing. The power came; she prayed, preached and called for seekers, and the altar was crowded for ten days. Notice two things. First, the honesty: she does not hide the failure of her own team. Second, her comment that the man was “a worse coward than the woman.” Like most people of her time she assumed men should be braver than women, yet her story shows a woman holding the line when a man ran.

4.Ndani ya Mkutano wa Kichakani4.Inside the Grove Meeting

Alirudi Anderson kwa majuma matatu zaidi katika kichaka ambacho waamini wa mahali walikuwa wamekipata. Tena kulikuwa na ibada tatu kwa siku, na wakati mwingine moja iliendelea hadi nyingine. Anaripoti uongofu ishirini hadi hamsini kila siku, huku watu kutoka majimbo mengi wakienda nyumbani kusimulia waliyoyaona. Maelezo yake ya mikutano ni ya kuvutia. Nguvu ya Roho Mtakatifu “ilikuja kama kimbunga,” na umati ukayumbayumba kama nafaka kwenye upepo. Watu “walipigwa chini kila upande” na kubebwa hadi jukwaani, ambalo halingeweza kuwachukua. Wanaume hodari walianguka-anguka kama walevi. Nyakati nyingine nguvu ilikuja “kwa nguvu ya kuyeyusha, wimbi baada ya wimbi,” na hadhara nzima ikalia kimya. Wengi walisimama katika ibada yote. Anataja madaktari, mawakili na wasioamini walioongoka, naye anasimulia uponyaji: mwanamke aliyeachwa na madaktari kadhaa, ambaye daktari wake asiyeamini alikuja, akampima, akasema hadharani na kuongoka pamoja na mkewe; mfanyabiashara aliyekuwa akifa kwa kifua kikuu (consumption) aliyekuja mkutanoni asubuhi iliyofuata akiwa mzima. Wasomaji wa Kipentekoste watatambua mandhari haya. Kile ambacho makanisa ya baadaye ya Kipentekoste na ya karismatiki huita “kuanguka chini ya nguvu” au kuangushwa katika Roho (slain in the Spirit) kilikuwa kipengele kikuu cha mikutano yake miongo miwili kabla ya Azusa Street, nacho kilikuwa na mizizi katika mikutano ya kambi ya Umethodisti wa mapema wa Marekani.She returned to Anderson for three more weeks in a grove the local believers had secured. Again there were three services a day, and sometimes one ran into the next. She reports twenty to fifty conversions daily, with people from many states going home to tell what they had seen. Her description of the meetings is vivid. The power of the Holy Spirit “came as a cyclone,” and the crowd swayed like grain in the wind. People were “stricken down in every direction” and carried to the platform, which would not hold them. Strong men reeled as if drunk. At other times the power came “in melting power, wave after wave,” and the whole audience wept in silence. Most stood through the entire service. She mentions physicians, lawyers and unbelievers converted, and she tells of healings: a woman given up by several doctors, whose unbelieving physician came, examined her, spoke publicly and was converted with his wife; a merchant dying of consumption who came to the meeting the next morning well. Pentecostal readers will recognize these scenes. What later Pentecostal and charismatic churches call “falling under the power” or being “slain in the Spirit” was a central feature of her meetings two decades before Azusa Street, and it had roots in the camp meetings of early American Methodism.

5.Kuomba Tetemeko la Ardhi5.Praying for an Earthquake

Tukio linalovutia zaidi katika sura linahitaji kusomwa kwa uangalifu. Woodworth-Etter alikuwa na mzigo kwa “wanaume na wanawake werevu” waliokuwa “karibu washawishike” lakini hawakukubali. Alihisi kusukumwa kusema kwamba ulikuwa “wito wa mwisho,” naye aliomba kila mtu aliyeamini katika maombi apige magoti, anyanyue mikono na kumwomba Mungu atikise dunia, “atume tetemeko la ardhi, ikiwa ni lazima.” Watu mia tano hivi walipiga magoti. Kisha, anasema, ardhi ilitetemeka na mtetemo ulihisiwa kote mjini. Anaulinganisha na tetemeko kuu la ardhi la Charleston, South Carolina. Tetemeko hilo lilitokea usiku wa tarehe 31 Agosti 1886. Lilikuwa mojawapo ya yenye nguvu zaidi kuwahi kurekodiwa mashariki mwa Marekani, liliua watu sitini hivi, na lilihisiwa katika eneo kubwa lililojumuisha Indiana. Tarehe zinalingana na simulizi yake ya kiangazi. Lakini maana anayolipa ni yake mwenyewe: “Sala ya imani itajibiwa, ikiwa Bwana atalazimika kuishusha mbingu.” Mchungaji makini ataona tatizo. Tetemeko la ardhi lililoleta kifo na maangamizi Charleston linasomwa hapa kama jibu kwa mkutano wa maombi maili mamia mbali. Wakristo wa Kipentekoste wanaamini Mungu anaweza kutumia matukio ya asili, lakini walimu wengi leo wangekuwa wapole kuunganisha maafa fulani na sala fulani, na wapole zaidi kuifanya chombo cha uinjilisti.The most striking event in the chapter needs careful reading. Woodworth-Etter was burdened for “bright men and women” who were “almost persuaded” but would not yield. She felt impressed to say that it was “the last call,” and she asked everyone who believed in prayer to kneel, lift hands and ask God to shake the earth, “to send an earthquake, if necessary.” About five hundred knelt. Then, she says, the ground shook and the tremor was felt across the city. She identifies it with the great Charleston, South Carolina, earthquake. That earthquake struck on the night of 31 August 1886. It was one of the strongest ever recorded in the eastern United States, it killed about sixty people, and it was felt over a vast area that included Indiana. The dates fit her account of the summer. But the meaning she gives it is her own: “The prayer of faith will be answered, if the Lord has to bring heaven down.” A careful pastor will notice the problem. An earthquake that brought death and ruin to Charleston is here read as an answer to a prayer meeting hundreds of miles away. Pentecostal Christians believe God can use events in nature, but most teachers today would be slow to link a particular disaster to a particular prayer, and slower still to make it a tool of evangelism.

6.Ubatizo, Kanisa Jipya na Ngazi za Jengo la Mahakama6.Baptism, a New Church and the Court-House Steps

Kampeni haikuwa imekamilika, katika utendaji wake, hadi waongofu wabatizwe na kukusanywa katika kanisa. Siku aliyopanga, waongofu walishuka hadi Mto White, ambapo gati ya mbao ilitoka majini. Mhudumu alitembea majini hadi mwisho, wakati yeye alitembea kurudi na kurudi juu ya mbao akiongoza kila mgombea. Anahesabu mia moja tisini na wanne walibatizwa, wengi wao waliopita sitini, baadhi zaidi ya themanini, na wengi walitoka majini wakipiga kelele za shangwe. Kisha alianzisha kanisa kichakani lenye majina 295 yaliyoandikishwa. Woodworth-Etter, kama Churches of God aliyoyatumikia wakati huo, alitekeleza ubatizo wa waumini kwa kuzamishwa, naye aliuchukulia kama hatua ya hadharani iliyofuata kuongoka. Kampeni ilifungwa, kwa ombi la wafanyabiashara wa mahali, kwa mkutano kwenye ngazi za jengo la mahakama. Alikuwa amechoka kabisa na “dhaifu sana na mwenye wasiwasi,” akiwa amezungukwa na “wahudumu, mawakili, madaktari na waandishi wa habari.” “Ilihitaji neema na ujasiri kwangu kusimama kwenye ngazi hizo za juu,” anasema, hata hivyo sauti yake ilifika mitaa mingi. Wakati huo huo wachungaji wa Farmland walikuwa wametuma kamati kumwomba arudi, wakisema makanisa yao yalikuwa yameamshwa. Alirudi kwa mkutano wa kambi ambamo “karibu wahudumu wote wa kijiji” walifanya kazi kando yake. Mhudumu wa Ndugu Wanaoungana (United Brethren) alianzisha kanisa, na washiriki wa Society of Friends walisaidia. Anaripoti kwamba wachache tu wa waongofu walikuwa chini ya miaka kumi na minane na nusu yao walikuwa zaidi ya arobaini.A campaign was not finished, in her practice, until converts were baptized and gathered into a church. On the day she appointed, the converts went down to the White River, where a pier of planks ran out into the water. A minister waded out to the end, while she walked back and forth on the planks leading each candidate. She counts one hundred and ninety-four baptized, many of them past sixty, some above eighty, and most came out of the water shouting. Then she organized a church in the grove with 295 names enrolled. Woodworth-Etter, like the Churches of God she then served, practised believer’s baptism by immersion, and she treated it as the public step that followed conversion. The campaign closed, at the request of local businessmen, with a meeting on the court-house steps. She was worn out and “very weak and nervous,” with “ministers, lawyers, doctors and reporters” all around her. “It took grace and courage for me to stand on those high steps,” she says, yet her voice carried for blocks. Meanwhile the pastors of Farmland had sent a committee to ask her back, saying their churches had been revived. She returned for a camp meeting in which “nearly all the ministers of the village” worked beside her. A United Brethren minister organized a church, and members of the Society of Friends helped. She reports that only a handful of the converts were under eighteen and about half were over forty.

7.Anachochukua Mchungaji wa Kipentekoste Leo Kutoka Humo7.What a Pentecostal Pastor Takes from It Today

Sura hii ni mwongozo mdogo wa utendaji wa uamsho. Alienda mahali alipoalikwa na kutimiza miadi yake. Aliwaita washiriki wa kanisa kutubu kabla ya kuwaita wasioamini. Alifanya kazi na timu na na wachungaji wa mahali wa madhehebu kadhaa. Alitoa muda mrefu na wa kukazia mahali pamoja: majuma matatu, ibada tatu kwa siku. Na hakuondoka bila kubatiza waongofu na kuanzisha kanisa. Tabia hizo zilipita katika uinjilisti wa Kipentekoste: kampeni ya hema, mwito wa madhabahuni, wito wa “kungoja” (tarry) katika maombi, na juhudi ya kupanda makanisa kutoka mikutano ya uamsho. Sura hii pia ina maonyo. Alijisukuma hadi kuanguka, na timu yake ilivunjika chini ya shinikizo; mchungaji wa kisasa anapaswa kujenga timu iliyofunzwa, inayoombewa na kutunzwa, na kulinda afya yake mwenyewe. Madai yake kuhusu idadi yalikuja bila mfumo wa kuweka kumbukumbu, na yanapaswa kusomwa kama ripoti ya furaha, si takwimu. Na usomaji wake wa tetemeko la ardhi unatukumbusha kusema kwa unyenyekevu juu ya jinsi Mungu anavyofanya kazi katika asili. Funzo lake lenye nguvu zaidi labda ndilo rahisi zaidi: wasaidizi wake waliporuka, aliimba, na akaendelea kuhubiri.This chapter is a small manual of revival practice. She went where she was invited and kept her appointments. She called church members to repentance before calling unbelievers. She worked with a team and with local pastors of several denominations. She gave long, concentrated time to one place: three weeks, three services a day. And she did not leave without baptizing converts and organizing a church. Those habits passed into Pentecostal evangelism: the tent campaign, the altar call, the call to “tarry” in prayer, and the effort to plant churches from revival meetings. The chapter also carries warnings. She pushed herself to collapse, and her team broke down under pressure; a modern pastor should build a team that is trained, prayed for and cared for, and should guard his or her own health. Her claims about numbers came without any system of recording, and they should be read as a joyful report, not statistics. And her reading of the earthquake reminds us to speak humbly about how God works in nature. Her strongest lesson is perhaps the simplest: when her helpers ran, she sang, and she kept preaching.

8.Kuchukua kwa Moyo8.Taking It to Heart

Kwa tafakari. Woodworth-Etter aliwaita “wakiri” (professors) mbele kabla ya kuwaita wenye dhambi. Ingeonekanaje kuanza uamsho kwa toba miongoni mwa washiriki wa kanisa katika kusanyiko lako? Timu yake ilimwangusha Farmland. Unawaandaa, kuwasaidia na kuwarekebisha vipi watu wanaotumikia pamoja nawe? Unapangaje ufuatiliaji, ili waongofu wabatizwe na kuunganishwa na kanisa? Na mhubiri wa Kipentekoste anapaswa kusemaje juu ya matetemeko ya ardhi, dhoruba na maafa mengine bila kutoa madai ambayo Maandiko hayatoi? For reflection. Woodworth-Etter called “professors” to the front before calling sinners. What would it look like to begin a revival with repentance among church members in your congregation? Her team failed her at Farmland. How do you prepare, support and correct the people who serve with you? How do you plan follow-up, so that converts are baptized and joined to a church? And how should a Pentecostal preacher speak about earthquakes, storms and other disasters without making claims Scripture does not make?

Chagua

Somo la 3 · Worship, Prayer and Testimony

The Poor Despised Mourners’ Bench

A CTS digest of Maria B. Woodworth-Etter, Acts of the Holy Ghost (Dallas: John F. Worley Printing Co., 1912), chapter VII, about pp. 58–64

At Monroeville and Massillon Chapel, Indiana, in the winter of 1883–1884, Woodworth-Etter brings back the mourners’ bench, prays three nights for God to show his power, and sees people fall into long trances. Rumours of mesmerism follow. She teaches that a vision is a trance, preaches free grace, and lets restored drinkers and new converts testify.

MUHTASARI WA CTSSoma muhtasari wote — unafunguka hapa hapa

Benchi la Waombolezaji Lililodharauliwa: Ibada, Maombi na Ushuhuda katika Uamsho WakeThe Poor Despised Mourners’ Bench: Worship, Prayer and Testimony in Her Revivals

Somo la Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala — mikutano miwili ya majira ya baridi katika Wilaya ya Allen, Indiana, mwaka 1883–1884: madhabahu yaliyorudishwa katika kanisa baridi, sala ili Mungu aonyeshe nguvu zake, watu wakianguka katika hali za kuzimia rohoni, uvumi wa mesmerism, na ushuhuda wa waongofu wapyaA Chapala Theological Seminary reading — two winter meetings in Allen County, Indiana, in 1883–1884: an altar brought back into a cold church, prayer for God to show his power, people falling in trances, rumours of mesmerism, and the testimonies of new converts

Muhtasari wa CTS wa sura ya VII ya Maria B. Woodworth-Etter, Acts of the Holy Ghost (Dallas: John F. Worley Printing Co., 1912), uk. 58–64 hivi. Maandishi yake mwenyewe ni mali ya umma; nukuu fupi zilizo hapa chini zimetoka kwake.A CTS digest of chapter VII of Maria B. Woodworth-Etter, Acts of the Holy Ghost (Dallas: John F. Worley Printing Co., 1912), about pp. 58–64. Her own text is in the public domain; the short quotations below are from it.

Acts of the Holy Ghost, sura ya VIIActs of the Holy Ghost, ch. VII
Chanzo cha msingiPrimary source
1883–18841883–1884
Monroeville na MassillonMonroeville and Massillon

Neno kabla ya kusoma. Sura hii inatuingiza ndani ya mikutano miwili midogo ya uamsho mwanzoni mwa huduma ya Woodworth-Etter ya kusafiri. Inaonyesha ibada ilivyoonekana katika mikutano yake: madhabahu yaliyojaa, vipindi virefu vya sala, kuimba, watu wakilala “chini ya nguvu,” na waongofu wakisimama kusimulia Mungu alichofanya. Pia inaonyesha kwa nini mikutano yake ilisababisha hofu na uvumi. Isomeni kama ushuhuda wake. Hali za kuzimia rohoni na hukumu anayoieleza ni simulizi na tafsiri yake, si mambo ambayo CTS inaweza kuyahakiki. A word before you read. This chapter takes us inside two small revival meetings early in Woodworth-Etter’s travelling ministry. It shows what worship looked like in her meetings: a crowded altar, long seasons of prayer, singing, people lying “under the power,” and converts standing to tell what God had done. It also shows why her meetings stirred fear and gossip. Read it as her testimony. The trances and the judgment she describes are her account and interpretation, not facts CTS can verify.

1.Kurudisha Madhabahu1.Bringing Back the Altar

Mnamo Novemba 1883 alianza mikutano katika kanisa la Methodist Episcopal huko Monroeville, Wilaya ya Allen, Indiana, kwa mwaliko wa mchungaji. Kanisa, anasema, lilikuwa “limekufa.” Hakukuwa na uamsho wa kweli mjini kwa miaka, na karibu kila mtu alitarajia kushindwa. Hawakuwa wametumia benchi la waombolezaji (mourners’ bench) kwa miaka tisa au kumi. Baada ya siku ya pili alimwomba mlinzi wa kanisa arudishe chombo cha muziki nyuma na alete mbele “benchi lile maskini lililodharauliwa la waombolezaji.” Alicheka. Watu walisema litakuwa mzaha mzuri juu yake, kwa maana hakuna ambaye angelitumia. Usiku ule alihubiri, “alipiga kelele za ushindi,” na kuwaita watafutaji, nao walikuja mbele kwa majuma matatu, mchana na usiku. Historia kidogo inasaidia hapa. Benchi la waombolezaji, pia linaloitwa benchi la wenye wasiwasi (anxious bench), lilikuwa kiti cha mbele ambapo watu waliohukumiwa dhambini walipiga magoti kuomba na kuombewa. Lilitoka katika mikutano ya kambi ya Wamethodisti na likafanywa maarufu na mwinjilisti Charles Finney katika miaka ya 1830. Wakosoaji walidhani lilidanganya hisia. Watetezi wake waliliona kama mahali pa kufanya uamuzi wa hadharani. Mwito wa madhabahuni wa Kipentekoste, na desturi ya kuomba na watafutaji mbele, vinakua moja kwa moja kutoka mapokeo haya.In November 1883 she began meetings in the Methodist Episcopal church at Monroeville, Allen County, Indiana, at the invitation of the pastor. The church, she says, was “dead.” There had been no real revival in the town for years, and nearly everyone expected failure. They had not used a mourners’ bench for nine or ten years. After the second day she asked the sexton to move the musical instrument back and bring up to the front “the poor despised mourners’ bench.” He laughed. People said it would be a good joke on her, for no one would use it. That night she preached, “shouted victory,” and called for seekers, and they came forward for three weeks, day and night. Some history helps here. The mourners’ bench, also called the anxious bench, was a front pew where people under conviction knelt to pray and be prayed for. It came out of Methodist camp meetings and was made famous by the evangelist Charles Finney in the 1830s. Critics thought it manipulated emotions. Its defenders saw it as a place to make a public decision. The Pentecostal altar call, and the practice of praying with seekers at the front, grows directly from this tradition.

2.Kuomba Mungu Aonyeshe Nguvu Zake2.Praying for God to Show His Power

Kanisa lilikuwa limekuwa rasmi sana, anaandika, hata baadhi ya watu bora mjini walikuwa karibu wenye mashaka. Alihisi ingehitaji maonyesho makuu ya nguvu ya Mungu kuwashawishi kwamba “dini ya uzoefu” (experimental religion) ilikuwa halisi. Katika siku zake maneno hayo yalimaanisha dini inayojulikana kwa uzoefu: kukutana kwa kweli na Mungu, si imani sahihi tu. Akidai ahadi kwamba Mungu atatoa kinachoombwa kwa utukufu wake, aliomba kwa usiku tatu ili Mungu “aonyeshe nguvu zake kwa njia yake mwenyewe.” Siku ya tatu mwanamke mzee alianguka sakafuni na kuwa baridi na mgumu, “kana kwamba amekufa,” mapigo yake tu yakionyesha uhai. Walimlaza kwenye kochi la mimbari, ambapo alibaki mchana kutwa. Jioni ile wanawake wengine wawili walianguka; siku iliyofuata sita wengine. Msichana mmoja alisimama kwa masaa mawili hivi macho yake yakiwa wazi na tabasamu usoni. Walipokuwa wakibebwa nyumbani, baadhi ya watu walikimbia kutoka kanisani kwa hofu. “Sikuwahi kuona kitu kama hicho,” anasema. “Lo, jinsi imani yangu ilivyoimarishwa!” Anaongeza kwamba yeye mwenyewe alianguka chini ya nguvu hii mara kadhaa wakati wa mkutano, alipokuwa akiimba au akizungumza, na mara moja alionekana kuwaona watoto wake waliokufa. Zingatia jinsi alivyoishughulikia: aliwaambia hadhira waje kimya na kutazama, na waamini walibaki usiku kucha, wakiimba na kuomba kando ya wale waliolala kimya.The church had become so formal, she writes, that some of the best people in town were almost sceptics. She felt it would take a great display of God’s power to convince them that “experimental religion” was real. In her day that phrase meant religion known by experience: a real meeting with God, not only correct belief. Claiming the promise that God would grant what was asked for his glory, she prayed for three nights that God would “display his power in his own way.” On the third day an elderly woman fell to the floor and became cold and rigid, “as if dead,” with only her pulse to show life. They laid her on the pulpit sofa, where she remained all day. That evening two more women fell; the next day six others. One young woman stood for about two hours with her eyes open and a smile on her face. As they were carried home, some people ran from the church in fear. “I had never seen the like,” she says. “Oh, how my faith was strengthened!” She adds that she herself fell under this power several times during the meeting, while singing or talking, and once seemed to see her children who had died. Notice how she handled it: she told the audience to come quietly and look, and believers stayed all night, singing and praying beside those who lay still.

3.Hukumu, Uvumi na Shtaka la Mesmerism3.Judgment, Rumours and the Charge of Mesmerism

Usiku mmoja alionya kwamba mtu fulani alikuwa akimkataa Mungu “kwa mara ya mwisho.” Mzee mmoja aliondoka akilaani kanisa la Methodist. Akiwa njiani kutoka mjini, treni ilimpita na kumwua. Anaiita “hukumu ya haraka.” Mji ulitikiswa. “Wengine walisema niliomba Mungu amwue,” anaandika, na watu walikataa kuombewa naye. “Wengine walisema niliwaroga watu kwa mesmerism.” Mesmerism, iliyoitwa kwa jina la daktari wa Austria Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815), ilikuwa nadharia maarufu ya karne ya kumi na tisa kwamba mtu angeweza kudhibiti akili na mwili wa mwingine kwa aina ya nguvu isiyoonekana; leo tungesema hipnotiki. Wakosoaji wengi wa hali zake za kuzimia rohoni walitumia maelezo haya, na magazeti yaliyarudia kwa miaka. Wakosoaji wake hawakuwa tu maadui wa Mungu. Wengi walikuwa watu wa kawaida walioogopa waliyoyaona, au wanaume wasomi wakijaribu kueleza kwa sayansi ya wakati wao. Woodworth-Etter alijibu kwa utulivu. Hakuna haja ya kukaa mbali; angewaombea nyumbani. Mkutano uliendelea, naye anaripoti uongofu mia mbili hivi na watu mia moja hivi wakijiunga na kanisa la Methodist. Kisha alifanya jambo la vitendo sana: alipanga mikutano ya maombi ya nyumbani, kutoka nyumba hadi nyumba, wakati mwingine mitano au sita kwa juma. Mchungaji wa kisasa atataka kusema kwa uangalifu zaidi kuliko yeye kwamba kifo cha kusikitisha si ushahidi wa hukumu ya Mungu juu ya mtu mmoja. Lakini kukataa kwake kupigana na uvumi, na uangalifu wake wa kuwafanya watu waendelee kuomba pamoja nyumbani, vinastahili kujifunza.One night she warned that someone was refusing God “for the last time.” An old man left cursing the Methodist church. On his way out of town, a train ran over him and killed him. She calls it “swift judgment.” The town was shaken. “Some said I prayed for God to kill him,” she writes, and people refused to have her pray for them. “Others said I mesmerized the people.” Mesmerism, named after the Austrian doctor Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815), was a popular nineteenth-century theory that a person could control another’s mind and body by a kind of invisible force; today we would speak of hypnosis. Many critics of her trances used this explanation, and newspapers repeated it for years. Her critics were not simply enemies of God. Many were ordinary people frightened by what they saw, or educated men trying to explain it by the science of their day. Woodworth-Etter answered calmly. No one need stay away; she would pray for them at home. The meeting went on, and she reports about two hundred conversions and about one hundred people joining the Methodist church. Then she did something very practical: she appointed cottage prayer-meetings from house to house, sometimes five or six a week. A modern pastor will want to say more carefully than she did that a tragic death is not a proof of God’s judgment on one person. But her refusal to fight the rumours, and her care to keep people praying together in homes, are worth learning.

4.Theolojia ya Maono na Hali za Kuzimia Rohoni4.A Theology of Visions and Trances

Katikati ya sura anasimama kufundisha. Mungu daima ameonya na kuwaongoza watu wake “kwa maono na ndoto,” anasema, naye aliahidi kufanya hivyo hasa “katika siku hizi za mwisho,” zilizoanza Pentekoste. Anaanukuu Yoeli 2:28 kama Petro alivyoitumia katika Matendo 2:17. Kisha anafanya usawazishaji wa kijasiri: “Maono ni hali ya kuzimia rohoni (trance).” Paulo alianguka katika hali ya kuzimia rohoni alipokuwa akiomba (Matendo 22:17), na Petro aliona maono yake ya shuka katika hali ya kuzimia rohoni (Matendo 10:10). Kama waamini wangeomba zaidi “sala za aina sahihi” na kuendelea kutazama hadi baraka ije, wangejua zaidi nguvu ya Mungu. Taswira yake inakumbukwa: “Msiombe mkate mzima na kuridhika na makombo!” Watoto wa mfalme hawapaswi kuishi kwa makombo wakati meza imejaa. Kisha anageuka kwa nguvu dhidi ya “wahubiri wanaohubiri Herufi lakini wanakana Nguvu,” akitumia 2 Timotheo 3:5 na 2 Wakorintho 3:6. Mada hii, kwamba makanisa yalikuwa yamehifadhi mfano wa utauwa lakini yamepoteza nguvu, ikawa moja ya hoja kuu za vuguvugu la Kipentekoste baada ya 1906. Wapentekoste pia wamejifunza, mara nyingi kwa uchungu, haja ya kupambanua. Maagizo ya Paulo katika 1 Wakorintho 12–14, kwamba kila kitu kifanyike “kwa adabu na kwa taratibu” na kwamba unabii upimwe, ndiyo mfumo ambao makanisa mengi ya Kipentekoste leo hupokea maono na maonyesho mengine.In the middle of the chapter she pauses to teach. God has always warned and guided his people “by visions and dreams,” she says, and he promised to do so especially “in these last days,” which began at Pentecost. She quotes Joel 2:28 as Peter used it in Acts 2:17. Then she makes a bold equation: “A vision is a trance.” Paul fell into a trance while praying (Acts 22:17), and Peter saw his vision of the sheet in a trance (Acts 10:10). If believers prayed more “the right kind of prayers” and kept looking until the blessing came, they would know more of God’s power. Her image is memorable: “Do not ask for a loaf and be satisfied with the crumbs!” Children of a king should not live on crumbs when the table is full. She then turns sharply against “preachers who preach the Letter but deny the Power,” using 2 Timothy 3:5 and 2 Corinthians 3:6. This theme, that the churches had kept the form of godliness but lost the power, became one of the main arguments of the Pentecostal movement after 1906. Pentecostals have also learned, often painfully, the need for discernment. Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians 12–14, that everything be done “decently and in order” and that prophecy be weighed, are the frame in which most Pentecostal churches today receive visions and other manifestations.

5.Uzito wa Mwito5.The Weight of the Appeal

Ibada ya Woodworth-Etter haikuwa kamwe juu ya uzoefu tu; ilikuwa ya kiinjilisti. Anasimulia kijana aliyeketi katika mkutano wa Monroeville lakini aliahirisha uamuzi wake. Majuma machache baadaye aliugua na, anaripoti, alikufa bila tumaini, akikataa kuombewa kwa sababu aliamini ilikuwa imechelewa. Hadithi inakusudia kumfanya msomaji ahisi udharura aliouhisi. Anaandika juu ya “wajibu wa kusimama kati ya walio hai na wafu kama kinywa cha Mungu,” akijua kwamba ujumbe ule ule ungeleta uzima kwa wengine na hukumu kwa wengine. Hata hivyo pia anahubiri neema kwa wazi. Mwenye dhambi lazima aje kama mtubu mnyenyekevu, akimtegemea Kristo peke yake. “Wokovu si kwa matendo.” Ukilipa senti kwa chochote, si zawadi tena. “Nafurahi wokovu ni bure.” Mwamini mpya hupokea “ushuhuda wa Roho” na kuendelea kwenye ubatizo na matendo mema. Huu ni uhubiri wa kiinjilisti na wa Kiwesley wa kawaida: neema ya bure, uhakika kwa Roho, na maisha matakatifu kama tunda.Woodworth-Etter’s worship was never only about experience; it was evangelistic. She tells of a young man who sat through the Monroeville meeting but put off his decision. A few weeks later he fell ill and, she reports, died without hope, refusing prayer because he believed it was too late. The story is meant to make the reader feel the urgency she felt. She writes of “the responsibility of standing between the living and the dead as a mouthpiece for God,” knowing that the same message would bring life to some and judgment to others. Yet she also preaches grace clearly. A sinner must come as a humble penitent, trusting Christ alone. “Salvation is not of works.” If you pay a penny for anything, it is no longer a gift. “I am glad salvation is free.” The new believer receives “the witness of the Spirit” and goes on to baptism and good works. This is classic evangelical and Wesleyan preaching: free grace, assurance by the Spirit, and holy living as the fruit.

6.Kanisa Dogo la Massillon: Moto, Familia na Ushuhuda6.Massillon Chapel: Fire, Families and Testimony

Mkutano wake uliofuata, kuanzia tarehe 27 Desemba 1883, ulikuwa Massillon Chapel katika wilaya ile ile, ambapo makutaniko mawili madogo, ya Kilutheri na ya Kimethodisti, yaliabudu. Kila kitu kilionekana cha kukatisha tamaa, lakini baadhi ya wahudumu na waongofu kutoka mikutano ya awali walikuja kusaidia. “Usiku wa pili moto mtakatifu ulilipuka.” Ulienea kutoka mtu hadi mtu na kisha kwa maili kuzunguka, “kama moto katika makapi makavu.” Familia nzima zilikuja madhabahuni pamoja: usiku mmoja baba, mama na wana watatu. Hapa ushuhuda ulikuwa kitovu. Ndugu T., aliyewahi kuwa kiongozi wa “class” wa Methodist aliyeheshimiwa, alikuwa ameanguka kwa miaka ishirini katika ulevi mkubwa. Aliporudishwa alisimama na kuwaambia kusanyiko jinsi alivyokuwa na taabu na jinsi Mchungaji alivyomfuata, na nyumba ikajaa kulia na kelele za furaha. Anaongeza kwamba yuko tayari yeye (Woodworth-Etter) aisimulie hadithi yake “kwa kutia moyo wengine” wanaohangaika na pombe. Ndugu V. alisema moyo wake ulikuwa mgumu kama jiwe, lakini alipiga magoti, akaomba, na katika dakika chache alikuwa amesimama kwa miguu yake “akisema kana kwamba kwa ulimi mwingine,” akiwahimiza wenye dhambi waje. Mwaka 1883 maneno hayo karibu hakika yanamaanisha nguvu na uhuru wa ghafula katika usemi, si kunena kwa lugha kwa maana ya Kipentekoste ya baadaye. Mtu wa tatu, Ndugu S., alikuja mbele kupitia nyumba iliyojaa akiimba wimbo wa injili “Hold the Fort.” Anahesabu waongofu sabini hivi, waliorudi nyuma arobaini waliorudishwa, na washiriki wapya sabini wa kanisa, katika hali ya hewa baridi zaidi ya majira ya baridi.Her next meeting, from 27 December 1883, was at Massillon Chapel in the same county, where two small congregations, Lutheran and Methodist, worshipped. Everything looked discouraging, but some ministers and converts from earlier meetings came to help. “The second night the holy fire broke out.” It spread from person to person and then for miles around, “like fire in dry stubble.” Whole families came to the altar together: one night a father, mother and three sons. Here testimony was central. Brother T., once a respected Methodist class leader, had fallen away for twenty years into heavy drinking. When he was restored he stood and told the congregation how miserable he had been and how the Shepherd had followed him, and the house was filled with weeping and shouts of joy. She adds that he would be willing for her to tell his story “for the encouragement of others” who struggle with drink. Brother V. said his heart was as hard as stone, but knelt, prayed, and in a few minutes was on his feet “speaking as if it were with another tongue,” urging sinners to come. In 1883 that phrase almost certainly means sudden power and freedom in speech, not speaking in tongues in the later Pentecostal sense. A third man, Brother S., came forward through the packed house singing the gospel song “Hold the Fort.” She counts about seventy converts, forty restored backsliders and seventy new church members, in the coldest weather of the winter.

7.Anachochukua Mchungaji wa Kipentekoste Leo Kutoka Humo7.What a Pentecostal Pastor Takes from It Today

Kwanza, sala ilitayarisha njia. Aliomba kwa usiku tatu kabla ya jambo lolote lisilo la kawaida kutokea, na mkutano ulibebwa na waamini waliobaki na kuomba. Pili, madhabahu hayakuwa mapambo. Yalikuwa mahali pa uamuzi, sala na huduma, na mtu alipaswa kuyarudisha. Tatu, ushuhuda ni ibada. Katika mikutano yake watu wa kawaida walisimulia Mungu alichofanya, na hadithi zao ziliwafikia wengine zaidi ya mahubiri. Ibada za Kipentekoste ambazo bado zinajumuisha wakati wa ushuhuda zinahifadhi karama hiyo. Nne, maonyesho yanahitaji utunzaji wa kichungaji. Hakuyaigiza, kuyaeleza mbali wala kuyatumia vibaya; aliwatunza watu waliohusika. Mchungaji wa leo anapaswa kukaribisha kazi ya Roho, kufundisha mfumo wake wa kibiblia, na kuepuka hofu na tamasha. Tano, ufuatiliaji ulifanyika majumbani. Mikutano yake ya maombi ya nyumbani inafanana sana na vikundi vya seli vya makanisa ya kisasa ya Kipentekoste huko Amerika ya Kusini na Asia. Mwishowe, anaonyesha kwamba uamsho unaweza kushirikiwa kuvuka mistari ya makanisa: mikutano ilifanyika katika makutaniko ya Methodist na Kilutheri, na waongofu walijiunga na makanisa ya mahali badala ya kumfuata yeye.First, prayer prepared the way. She prayed for three nights before anything unusual happened, and the meeting was carried by believers who stayed and prayed. Second, the altar was not decoration. It was a place for decision, prayer and ministry, and someone had to bring it back. Third, testimony is worship. In her meetings ordinary people told what God had done, and their stories reached others more than sermons could. Pentecostal services that still include a time of testimony keep that gift. Fourth, manifestations need pastoral care. She did not stage them, explain them away or exploit them; she watched over the people involved. Today’s pastor should welcome the Spirit’s work, teach its biblical frame, and avoid both fear and spectacle. Fifth, follow-up happened in homes. Her cottage prayer-meetings look much like the cell groups of modern Pentecostal churches in Latin America and Asia. Finally, she shows that revival can be shared across church lines: the meetings were held in Methodist and Lutheran congregations, and converts joined local churches rather than following her.

8.Kuchukua kwa Moyo8.Taking It to Heart

Kwa tafakari. Je, kuna “benchi la waombolezaji lililodharauliwa” katika maisha ya kanisa lako, desturi fulani iliyopuuzwa ya sala au uamuzi inayohitaji kurudishwa? Unaomba kwa muda gani kabla ya kuhubiri, na ni nani anayeomba pamoja nawe? Watu wanapoanguka, kulia au kupiga kelele katika ibada zako, unawatunzaje na kulisaidiaje kusanyiko kuelewa kinachotokea? Unawezaje kutoa nafasi ya ushuhuda bila kupoteza utaratibu? Na ungejibuje, kwa neema na kweli, kama jamii yako ingeshutumu kanisa lako kwa kuwadanganya watu? For reflection. Is there a “despised mourners’ bench” in your church’s life, some neglected practice of prayer or decision that needs to be brought back? How long do you pray before you preach, and who prays with you? When people fall, weep or shout in your services, how do you care for them and help the congregation understand what is happening? How can you give space for testimony without losing order? And how would you respond, with grace and truth, if your community accused your church of manipulating people?

Chagua

Somo la 4 · Healing and Discernment

A Good Counterfeiter

A CTS digest of Maria B. Woodworth-Etter, Acts of the Holy Ghost (Dallas: John F. Worley Printing Co., 1912), chapters XXXIV–XXXV, about pp. 187–203

In Oakland (1889–1890) and St. Louis (1890) Woodworth-Etter preaches in an eight-thousand-seat tent, warns that the devil counterfeits God’s works, faces down a mob in Kerry Patch, and reports many healings and early speaking in tongues. CTS reads these as historical claims, adds the Oakland prophecy controversy her book omits, and asks how pastors should pray for the sick.

MUHTASARI WA CTSSoma muhtasari wote — unafunguka hapa hapa

Mfanyaji Bandia Mzuri: Madai ya Uponyaji na Kupambanua huko Oakland na St. LouisA Good Counterfeiter: Healing Claims and Discernment in Oakland and St. Louis

Somo la Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala — kampeni kuu za hema za 1889–1890: hema la viti elfu nane huko Oakland, onyo juu ya ughushi wa ibilisi, kundi la ghasia katika wilaya ya Kerry Patch ya St. Louis, na mfululizo mrefu wa uponyaji ulioripotiwaA Chapala Theological Seminary reading — the great tent campaigns of 1889–1890: an eight-thousand-seat tent in Oakland, a warning about the devil’s imitations, a mob in the Kerry Patch district of St. Louis, and a long series of reported healings

Muhtasari wa CTS wa sura za XXXIV–XXXV za Maria B. Woodworth-Etter, Acts of the Holy Ghost (Dallas: John F. Worley Printing Co., 1912), uk. 187–203 hivi. Maandishi yake mwenyewe ni mali ya umma; nukuu fupi zilizo hapa chini zimetoka kwake.A CTS digest of chapters XXXIV–XXXV of Maria B. Woodworth-Etter, Acts of the Holy Ghost (Dallas: John F. Worley Printing Co., 1912), about pp. 187–203. Her own text is in the public domain; the short quotations below are from it.

Acts of the Holy Ghost, sura ya XXXIV–XXXVActs of the Holy Ghost, ch. XXXIV–XXXV
Chanzo cha msingiPrimary source
1889–18901889–1890
Uponyaji wa kiunguDivine healing

Neno kabla ya kusoma. Uponyaji wa kiungu ukawa sehemu maarufu zaidi, na iliyobishaniwa zaidi, ya huduma ya Woodworth-Etter. Katika sura hizi anaripoti macho ya vipofu yakifunguliwa, vilema wakitembea na wanaokaribia kufa wakirudishwa. Wakristo wa Kipentekoste wanaamini kwamba Yesu bado anaponya kwa kujibu sala, na CTS inaheshimu msimamo huo. Lakini masimulizi haya ni ushuhuda na madai, yaliyoandikwa miaka baadaye, bila kumbukumbu za kitabibu. CTS inayawasilisha kama madai ya kihistoria, si matokeo ya kitabibu yaliyothibitishwa, na inawaomba wanafunzi kuyasoma kwa imani na kwa uangalifu pia. A word before you read. Divine healing became the most famous, and the most disputed, part of Woodworth-Etter’s ministry. In these chapters she reports blind eyes opened, cripples walking and the dying restored. Pentecostal Christians believe that Jesus still heals in answer to prayer, and CTS respects that conviction. But the accounts here are testimonies and claims, written years later, without medical records. CTS presents them as historical claims, not as verified medical findings, and asks students to read them with both faith and care.

1.Magharibi hadi Oakland: Hema Mvuani1.West to Oakland: A Tent in the Rain

Katika vuli ya 1889, anaandika, alihisi Bwana akimwita California, ingawa hakumjua mtu yeyote huko. Alifungua mikutano Oakland tarehe 28 Oktoba 1889, katika mvua mbaya zaidi ambayo mji ungeweza kukumbuka. Mkutano haukutangazwa, na watu ishirini na watatu walikuja usiku wa kwanza. Aliwaambia kwamba mamia wangeokoka na kwamba hema lingekuwa dogo hivi karibuni. Baadhi walicheka. Maelezo yake ya majuma yaliyofuata yamejaa utoaji mdogo mdogo: Wakristo walioweka majiko na sakafu katika hema lenye unyevu, jiko lenye moto mwekundu lililopatikana limewekwa kwa fumbo katika hema lake la kuishi, zawadi za vyakula na pesa. Wachungaji wa makanisa kadhaa walisaidia, na mikutano ilitangazwa “kwa njia mbalimbali.” Hivi karibuni marafiki wa kazi walinunua hema jipya la gharama ya dola 1,325 lenye uwezo wa watu elfu nane, ambalo analiita hema kubwa zaidi la injili Amerika. Mchungaji wa Methodist Episcopal kutoka San Francisco alihubiri mahubiri ya kuweka wakfu. Mabaharia wengi na manahodha wa meli walikuja. Nahodha mmoja, mkewe na wafanyakazi kumi na wawili wa meli waliongoka, na wafanyakazi walinunua mamia ya vitabu vyake na kuvitawanya kwenye meli, hivyo, anasema, ujumbe ulienda sehemu nyingi za ulimwengu.In the fall of 1889, she writes, she felt the Lord calling her to California, though she knew no one there. She opened meetings in Oakland on 28 October 1889, in the worst rain the town could remember. The meeting was not advertised, and twenty-three people came the first night. She told them that hundreds would be saved and that the tent would soon be too small. Some laughed. Her account of the next weeks is full of small provisions: Christians who put stoves and a floor into the wet tent, a red-hot stove found mysteriously set up in her living tent, gifts of groceries and money. Pastors from several churches helped, and the meetings were advertised “in different ways.” Soon the friends of the work bought a new tent costing $1,325 and holding eight thousand people, which she calls the largest gospel tent in America. A Methodist Episcopal pastor from San Francisco preached the dedication sermon. Many sailors and ship captains came. One captain, his wife and twelve of the crew were converted, and workers bought hundreds of her books and scattered them on the ships, so that, she says, the message went to many parts of the world.

2.“Ibilisi ni Mfanyaji Bandia Mzuri”2.“The Devil Is a Good Counterfeiter”

Anaeleza mikutano kwa njia yake ya kawaida. Roho Mtakatifu angeshuka wakati wa kuhubiri; wanaume waliovaa vizuri waliketi wameinua mikono, “wameshikwa chini ya nguvu kuu ya Mungu,” na watu walianguka “kote hemani, kama miti katika dhoruba.” Msafiri mzee wa ulimwengu mmoja alikuja kudhihaki na akapigwa sakafuni kwa masaa mawili, kisha akainuka ameongoka. Kisha anasimama kwa kupambanua. Ibilisi, baada ya kushindwa kuzuia kazi, alijaribu kuiga. “Ibilisi ni mfanyaji bandia mzuri.” Mfano wake ni Musa mbele ya Farao: waganga wa Misri pia waligeuza fimbo zao kuwa nyoka, na hakuna aliyeweza kuona tofauti, hadi fimbo ya Haruni ilipomeza zao (Kutoka 7:10–12). Mungu huruhusu bandia “kwa muda,” anasema, lakini mwishowe kazi ya kweli itameza ya uongo. Mafunzo mawili yanastahili kuzingatiwa. Kwanza, anakubali kwamba maonyesho ya kweli na ya uongo yanaweza kuonekana sawa. Pili, kipimo chake si mwonekano bali matokeo kwa wakati. Hilo liko karibu na kanuni ya Yesu mwenyewe, “mtawatambua kwa matunda yao” (Mathayo 7:16), na agizo la Paulo “jaribuni mambo yote” (1 Wathesalonike 5:21).She describes the meetings in her usual way. The Holy Spirit would fall during the preaching; well-dressed men sat with hands lifted, “held under the mighty power of God,” and people fell “all over the tent, like trees in a storm.” One elderly world traveller came to scoff and was struck to the floor for two hours, then rose converted. Then she pauses for discernment. The devil, having failed to stop the work, tried to imitate it. “The devil is a good counterfeiter.” Her example is Moses before Pharaoh: the magicians of Egypt also turned their rods into serpents, and no one could see the difference, until Aaron’s rod swallowed theirs (Exodus 7:10–12). God permits counterfeits “for a while,” she says, but in the end the true work will swallow up the false. Two lessons are worth noting. First, she admits that real and false manifestations can look the same. Second, her test is not appearance but outcome over time. That is close to Jesus’ own rule, “by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:16), and to Paul’s instruction to “prove all things” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

3.Kile Simulizi ya 1912 Inachoacha3.What the 1912 Account Leaves Out

Msomaji mwadilifu anapaswa kujua kwamba kampeni ya Oakland pia ilikuwa uwanja wa mzozo wa hadharani ambao sura hii haitaji. Mwanzoni mwa 1890 magazeti ya California yaliripoti kwamba watu waliounganishwa na mikutano yake walikuwa wakitabiri kwamba tetemeko la ardhi na wimbi la bahari vingeharibu Oakland na San Francisco mwezi Aprili mwaka huo. Magazeti yalisema baadhi ya waamini waliondoka eneo hilo. Tarehe ilipopita kimya, vyombo vya habari vilimdhihaki, naye aliondoka kwenda St. Louis Aprili hiyo. Masimulizi yanatofautiana kuhusu kiasi alichotoa yeye mwenyewe au kuidhinisha utabiri huo, na kumbukumbu ya magazeti inapaswa kuhakikiwa wakati wa kulinganisha. Baadaye katika kitabu chake (sura ya LVIII) anadai kwamba San Francisco ilionywa na anaunganisha onyo hilo na tetemeko kuu la ardhi la 1906. Tukio hilo linaonyesha kwa nini wakosoaji wake hawakuwa tu wapinzani wa Mungu. Magazeti yaliyochapisha hadithi za kusisimua pia yaliripoti utabiri halisi ulioshindwa, na Maandiko yenyewe yanatoa kipimo cha unabii usiotimia (Kumbukumbu la Torati 18:22). Makanisa ya Kipentekoste leo kwa ujumla hufundisha kwamba maneno ya kinabii lazima yapimwe na kanisa na kwamba utabiri wa tarehe na maafa unahitaji tahadhari maalum.A fair reader should know that the Oakland campaign was also the scene of a public controversy that this chapter does not mention. In early 1890 California newspapers reported that people connected with her meetings were predicting that an earthquake and tidal wave would destroy Oakland and San Francisco in April of that year. The papers said some believers left the area. When the date passed quietly, the press mocked her, and she left for St. Louis that April. Accounts differ about how far she herself made or endorsed the prediction, and the newspaper record should be checked during collation. Later in her book (chapter LVIII) she claims that San Francisco was warned and links the warning to the great earthquake of 1906. The episode shows why her critics were not simply hostile to God. Newspapers that printed sensational stories also reported a real failed prediction, and Scripture itself gives a test for prophecy that does not come to pass (Deuteronomy 18:22). Pentecostal churches today generally teach that prophetic words must be weighed by the church and that predictions of dates and disasters call for special caution.

4.St. Louis: Ujasiri katika Kerry Patch4.St. Louis: Courage in Kerry Patch

Akiitwa St. Louis Aprili 1890, alifanya mikutano katika ukumbi kwa miezi miwili. Ili kuokoa pesa kwa kampeni, yeye na wasaidizi wake walikodi vyumba kwenye ghorofa ya tatu na kujipikia wenyewe. Mwezi Juni alisimamisha hema kuu la California katika “Kerry Patch,” wilaya ya Waayalandi iliyojulikana kwa ghasia; ilikuwa ardhi pekee kubwa vya kutosha. Wakristo walimsihi asiende huko. Usiku wa kwanza hema lilijaa wanaume waliosimama juu ya viti wakiwa na mabomba na sigara, wanawake wenye aproni chafu, fataki, bastola na marungu. Wahudumu waliojaribu kusema walipigwa mawe au kupigiwa kelele. Aliwaambia wafanyakazi wenzake kwamba kama kundi la ghasia lingewatoa hemani “kabla hatujawa tayari kwenda, watatutoa tukiwa wafu.” Wanawake wawili waliomba kwa sauti; kisha alisimama, akainua mkono wake na kuamuru umati usikilize. Hofu kuu ya Mungu ilianguka, anasema. Wanaume walivua kofia zao, baadhi walianguka, na umati ukaondoka kimya. Kurusha mawe kuliendelea kwa majuma hadi raia waliposhinikiza polisi kuchukua hatua na mkuu akaahidi ulinzi. Katika kiangazi kitongoji kilibadilika: wanaume walinyoa na kuja na familia zao, na wanawake walikuja katika nguo safi. Aliwaambia wapinzani kwamba kama mikutano ingewasafisha baadhi ya raia wao tu, hilo peke yake lilistahili kuungwa mkono.Called to St. Louis in April 1890, she held meetings in a hall for two months. To save money for the campaign, she and her helpers rented rooms on a third floor and did their own cooking. In June she raised the great California tent in “Kerry Patch,” an Irish district notorious for violence; it was the only ground large enough. Christians begged her not to go there. On the first night the tent was packed with men standing on the seats with pipes and cigars, women in dirty aprons, fire-crackers, pistols and clubs. Ministers who tried to speak were stoned or shouted down. She told her co-workers that if the mob took them out of the tent “before we are ready to go, they will take us out dead.” Two women prayed aloud; then she stood, raised her hand and commanded the crowd to listen. A deep fear of God fell, she says. Men took off their hats, some fell, and the crowd left quietly. Stone-throwing went on for weeks until citizens pressed the police to act and the chief promised protection. Over the summer the neighbourhood changed: men shaved and came with their families, and women came in clean clothes. She told the opponents that if the meetings only cleaned up some of their citizens, that alone was worth supporting.

5.Masimulizi ya Uponyaji5.The Healing Accounts

Mikutano iliendelea mchana na usiku kwa miezi mitano. Hapa sura inakuwa orodha ya uponyaji. Vilema walitupa magongo, viziwi-bubu walipiga makofi, watoto ambao hawakuwahi kutembea walikimbia huku na huku. Watu wasio na msaada walipokea “mshtuko kutoka betri ya Mbinguni.” Anasimulia juu ya mwanamke wa Methodist aliyekuwa kilema kwa miaka kumi na minne, mgonjwa kitandani kwa minne, mwenye orodha ndefu ya magonjwa, aliyebebwa ndani na wanaume watatu; alijitoa kwa Mungu, Woodworth-Etter aliweka mikono juu yake na kuomba pepo wachafu watolewe, na mwanamke aliruka kote hemani. Anasimulia juu ya mvulana ambaye hofu yake baada ya kukamatwa na wakamataji wa mbwa ilikuwa imemwachia “vipindi vya wazimu” vikali kwa miaka miwili, ambavyo watu walivichukua kuwa kichaa cha mbwa; wakati wa shambulio moja aliuma tundu katika turubai ya hema lake. Anakiri waziwazi, “Niliogopa sana,” na akamwambia mama asimlete tena. Lakini mama alirudi, na “Bwana alinipa imani ya kumwombea.” Anaripoti kwamba aliponywa na kwa miaka baadaye alimletea maua. Madaktari fulani, anasema, walihesabu mia sita walioponywa. Katika kampeni hii pia anaripoti watu waliobatizwa katika Roho na kupokea karama: msichana mdogo, aliyeponywa kutokuwa na uwezo na ububu, ambaye alinena kwa lugha isiyojulikana, na mwanamume aliyeitwa kwa mataifa ambaye alipewa, aliamini, karama ya lugha zao. Waongofu hamsini na watatu walibatizwa katika Mto Mississippi, na misheni ya washiriki zaidi ya mia nne iliundwa.The meetings ran day and night for five months. Here the chapter becomes a catalogue of healings. The lame threw away crutches, the deaf and dumb clapped their hands, children who had never walked ran about. Helpless people received “a shock from Heaven’s battery.” She tells of a Methodist woman crippled for fourteen years, bedridden for four, with a long list of diseases, who was carried in by three men; she gave herself to God, Woodworth-Etter laid hands on her and prayed for the unclean spirits to be driven out, and the woman leaped through the tent. She tells of a boy whose terror after being seized by dog-catchers had left him with violent “mad spells” for two years, which people took for hydrophobia; during one fit he bit a hole in her tent canvas. She frankly admits, “I was so scared,” and told the mother not to bring him back. But the mother returned, and “the Lord gave me faith to pray for him.” She reports that he was healed and for years afterward brought her flowers. Some physicians, she says, counted six hundred healed. In this campaign she also reports people baptized in the Spirit and receiving gifts: a little girl, healed of helplessness and dumbness, who spoke in an unknown tongue, and a man called to the nations who was given, she believed, the gift of their languages. Fifty-three converts were baptized in the Mississippi River, and a mission of over four hundred members was formed.

6.Kusoma Madai kwa Uangalifu6.Reading the Claims Carefully

Mwanafunzi ashughulikieje hadithi hizi? Tahadhari tatu zinasaidia. Kwanza, uchunguzi wa magonjwa ni maelezo ya watu wa kawaida. “Hydrophobia” (kichaa cha mbwa), “dropsy” (uvimbe wa maji) na “catarrh” (mafua ya kudumu) yalikuwa maneno mapana ya karne ya kumi na tisa, na hakuna kumbukumbu za kitabibu. Pili, idadi hazikuhesabiwa kwa mfumo wowote. Tatu, maandishi ya 1912 yaliandikwa baada ya uamsho wa Azusa Street, na mwanamke ambaye kufikia wakati huo alikuwa amejiunga na vuguvugu la Kipentekoste, na msamiati wake wa “karama” na “lugha nyingine” unaweza kuakisi kwa sehemu mazingira hayo ya baadaye. Ripoti yake ya lugha mwaka 1890 bado inavutia kihistoria, kwa sababu inaonyesha kwamba baadhi ya mikutano ya Utakatifu (Holiness) ilijua uzoefu kama huo kabla ya 1906. Mwanamume aliyepewa “lugha zao” anaakisi imani iliyokuwa ya kawaida katika miaka ya kwanza ya Kipentekoste, wakati mwingine inayoitwa xenolalia: kwamba lugha zilikuwa lugha halisi za binadamu zilizotolewa kwa uhubiri wa kimisionari. Walimu wengi wa Kipentekoste baadaye walihama kutoka wazo hilo. Hakuna kati ya haya linalomaanisha kwamba hakuna kilichotokea. Watu wengi katika mikutano yake waliamini kwamba wameponywa, baadhi walisema walikaa wazima kwa miaka, na Wapentekoste wanaamini Mungu hujibu sala ya imani (Yakobo 5:14–16). Linamaanisha tunashikilia ripoti zake kama ushuhuda, tunaheshimu yale Mungu anayoweza kuwa ameyafanya, na tunaepuka kudai zaidi kuliko ushahidi unavyoruhusu.How should a student handle these stories? Three cautions help. First, the diagnoses are lay descriptions. “Hydrophobia,” “dropsy” and “catarrh” were broad nineteenth-century terms, and there are no medical records. Second, the numbers were not counted by any system. Third, the 1912 text was written after the Azusa Street revival, by a woman who had by then joined the Pentecostal movement, and its vocabulary of “gifts” and “other tongues” may partly reflect that later setting. Her report of tongues in 1890 is still historically interesting, because it shows that some Holiness meetings knew such experiences before 1906. The man given “their languages” reflects a belief common in the first Pentecostal years, sometimes called xenolalia: that tongues were known human languages given for missionary preaching. Most Pentecostal teachers later moved away from that idea. None of this means nothing happened. Many people in her meetings were convinced they had been healed, some said they stayed well for years, and Pentecostals believe God answers the prayer of faith (James 5:14–16). It means we hold her reports as testimony, honour what God may have done, and avoid claiming more than the evidence allows.

7.Anachochukua Mchungaji wa Kipentekoste Leo Kutoka Humo7.What a Pentecostal Pastor Takes from It Today

Woodworth-Etter aliunganisha uponyaji na injili: watu waliokolewa na kuponywa “wakati mmoja,” na uponyaji ulikuwa ishara inayoelekeza kwa Kristo, si mwisho wenyewe. Mchungaji leo anaweza kufuata ujasiri wake na huruma yake, akiwaombea wagonjwa kwa ujasiri na kuombea hata visa vya kutisha zaidi, kama alivyofanya na mvulana. Lakini mchungaji mwenye hekima pia hujenga tabia ambazo yeye hakuwa nazo. Wahimize watu waendelee kuwaona madaktari wao na waache uboreshaji wa kitabibu uthibitishwe. Usitangaze uponyaji kabla haujapimwa. Kamwe usiwashinikize wagonjwa, wala kuwalaumu wasioponywa kwa imani dhaifu. Weka kumbukumbu za kweli za ushuhuda na uwafuatilie watu miezi baadaye. Watendee wakosoaji na waandishi wa habari kwa heshima, na ukubali makosa, hasa kuhusu unabii. Na tekeleza kupambanua kama alivyofundisha: tafuta matunda yanayodumu, pima kila kitu kwa Maandiko, na liache kanisa lipime yanayodaiwa kwa jina la Roho.Woodworth-Etter joined healing to the gospel: people were saved and healed “at the same time,” and healing was a sign pointing to Christ, not an end in itself. A pastor today can follow her courage and compassion, praying boldly for the sick and for the most frightening cases, as she did with the boy. But a wise pastor also builds habits she lacked. Encourage people to keep seeing their doctors and to let medical improvement be confirmed. Do not announce healings before they are tested. Never pressure the sick, or blame those who are not healed for weak faith. Keep honest records of testimonies and follow up with people months later. Treat critics and journalists with respect, and admit mistakes, especially around prophecy. And practise discernment as she taught it: look for lasting fruit, measure everything by Scripture, and let the church weigh what is claimed in the Spirit’s name.

8.Kuchukua kwa Moyo8.Taking It to Heart

Kwa tafakari. Woodworth-Etter alionya kwamba “ibilisi ni mfanyaji bandia mzuri.” Ungetumia vipimo gani kutofautisha kazi ya kweli ya Roho na ughushi? Unawaombea wagonjwa vipi kwa namna inayoonyesha imani halisi, lakini ikilinda watu dhidi ya shinikizo na kukatishwa tamaa? Ungefanya nini kama unabii uliotolewa katika kanisa lako haukutimia? Na unaposikia ushuhuda wa uponyaji, unamheshimu vipi Mungu na mtu huyo huku ukisema kweli kuhusu kinachojulikana? For reflection. Woodworth-Etter warned that “the devil is a good counterfeiter.” What tests would you use to tell a true work of the Spirit from an imitation? How do you pray for the sick in a way that expresses real faith, yet protects people from pressure and disappointment? What would you do if a prophecy given in your church failed to come true? And when you hear testimonies of healing, how do you honour God and the person while still telling the truth about what is known?

Chagua

Somo la 5 · A Sermon on Women’s Ministry

Your Daughters Shall Prophesy

A CTS digest of Maria B. Woodworth-Etter, “Sermon: Woman’s Privilege in the Gospel,” Acts of the Holy Ghost (Dallas: John F. Worley Printing Co., 1912), chapter LXXI, about pp. 478–486

In her sermon “Woman’s Privilege in the Gospel,” Woodworth-Etter argues from Pentecost and Joel’s promise, from Phebe and Paul’s co-workers, from Deborah and from the women sent to announce the resurrection, and answers the command to keep silent. CTS sets out her case beside complementarian, egalitarian and team-ministry readings without taking a side.

MUHTASARI WA CTSSoma muhtasari wote — unafunguka hapa hapa

Binti Zenu Watatabiri: Mahubiri ya Woodworth-Etter juu ya Fursa ya Mwanamke katika InjiliYour Daughters Shall Prophesy: Woodworth-Etter’s Sermon on Woman’s Privilege in the Gospel

Somo la Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala — moja ya mahubiri yake yaliyochapishwa: Pentekoste na ahadi ya Yoeli, wanawake waliomzunguka Paulo, maneno magumu juu ya kunyamaza, Debora na wanawake wa ufufuo, na wito kwa kila mwamini kufanya kaziA Chapala Theological Seminary reading — one of her printed sermons: Pentecost and Joel’s promise, the women around Paul, the hard sayings about silence, Deborah and the resurrection women, and a call to every believer to work

Muhtasari wa CTS wa sura ya LXXI, “Sermon: Woman’s Privilege in the Gospel,” katika Maria B. Woodworth-Etter, Acts of the Holy Ghost (Dallas: John F. Worley Printing Co., 1912), uk. 478–486 hivi. Maandishi yake mwenyewe ni mali ya umma; nukuu fupi zilizo hapa chini zimetoka kwake.A CTS digest of chapter LXXI, “Sermon: Woman’s Privilege in the Gospel,” in Maria B. Woodworth-Etter, Acts of the Holy Ghost (Dallas: John F. Worley Printing Co., 1912), about pp. 478–486. Her own text is in the public domain; the short quotations below are from it.

Acts of the Holy Ghost, sura ya LXXIActs of the Holy Ghost, ch. LXXI
Chanzo cha msingiPrimary source
Ilichapishwa 1912Printed 1912
Huduma ya wanawakeWomen in ministry

Neno kabla ya kusoma. Woodworth-Etter alihubiri kwa zaidi ya miaka arobaini, na mara nyingi aliulizwa ni kwa haki gani mwanamke afanye hivyo. Mahubiri haya ni jibu lake kamili zaidi la hadharani. CTS inayawasilisha kama mahubiri ya kihistoria na inaeleza alichoamini na kutenda. Wakristo wanaoipenda Biblia wamefikia hitimisho tofauti juu ya huduma ya wanawake, na muhtasari huu unaweka maoni hayo bila kuchukua upande. Wanafunzi wanapaswa kuelewa hoja zake, mbadala kuu, na mafundisho ya kanisa lao wenyewe. A word before you read. Woodworth-Etter preached for more than forty years, and she was often asked by what right a woman did so. This sermon is her fullest public answer. CTS presents it as a historical sermon and describes what she believed and practised. Christians who love the Bible have reached different conclusions on women’s ministry, and this digest sets out those views without taking a side. Students should understand her arguments, the main alternatives, and the teaching of their own church.

1.Mahubiri na Ulimwengu Wake1.The Sermon and Its World

Mahubiri haya yamechapishwa miongoni mwa mahubiri zaidi ya ishirini yanayojaza sehemu ya mwisho ya kitabu chake cha 1912. Hayana tarehe na huenda yalihubiriwa mara nyingi. Kufikia 1912 alikuwa mtu mkuu katika vuguvugu changa la Kipentekoste; mwaka huo alifanya kampeni ndefu huko Dallas, na mwaka uliofuata alikuwa mhubiri mashuhuri katika Worldwide Camp Meeting huko Arroyo Seco, karibu na Los Angeles. Lakini hoja yake ni ya zamani kuliko Upentekoste. Mwaka 1859 mwalimu wa Utakatifu wa Kimethodisti Phoebe Palmer alichapisha The Promise of the Father, na Catherine Booth wa Salvation Army alichapisha Female Ministry; wote wawili walitetea kuhubiri kwa wanawake kutoka Yoeli 2 na Matendo 2. Wanawake walikuwa mashuhuri katika uamsho wa Utakatifu na kisha Azusa Street na katika misheni za mapema za Kipentekoste. Woodworth-Etter anasimama katika mstari huo. Mahubiri yake si tasnifu ya kitaaluma; ni hoja ya mhubiri, iliyojengwa kutoka maandiko mengi na kulenga kuwasukuma wanawake kutenda.The sermon is printed among the more than twenty sermons that fill the last part of her 1912 book. It is undated and may have been preached many times. By 1912 she was a leading figure in the young Pentecostal movement; that year she held a long campaign in Dallas, and the next year she was a featured preacher at the Worldwide Camp Meeting at Arroyo Seco, near Los Angeles. But her argument is older than Pentecostalism. In 1859 the Methodist Holiness teacher Phoebe Palmer published The Promise of the Father, and Catherine Booth of the Salvation Army published Female Ministry; both defended women’s preaching from Joel 2 and Acts 2. Women were prominent in Holiness revivals and then at Azusa Street and in early Pentecostal missions. Woodworth-Etter stands in that line. Her sermon is not a scholarly treatise; it is a preacher’s case, built from many texts and aimed at moving women to act.

2.Pentekoste: Wana na Binti2.Pentecost: Sons and Daughters

Anaanza pale mahubiri ya Kipentekoste kwa kawaida huanzia, na Matendo 2:1–4: upepo, ndimi za moto, na wote kujazwa Roho Mtakatifu. Kisha anachora mandhari. Umati uliona “wanaume na wanawake, nyuso zao zikiwaka utukufu wa Mungu, wote wakihubiri kwa wakati mmoja.” Kama ilivyo leo, anasema, nguvu ya Mungu inapoonyeshwa, watu walipiga kelele “msisimko mwingi mno” na kuwaita waamini walevi. Petro alijibu kutoka Yoeli 2:28–29: “wana wenu na binti zenu watatabiri,” na juu ya “watumwa wangu na vijakazi wangu” Mungu angemimina Roho wake (Matendo 2:17–18). Kwake hili linamaliza swali kuu. Roho alimiminwa juu ya wanawake pamoja na wanaume, nao walisema. Anaongeza 1 Wakorintho 11:5, ambapo Paulo anatoa maagizo kwa mwanamke “aombaye au atabiriye,” na anasema “Paulo anasema kana kwamba ilikuwa kawaida sana kwa wanawake kuhubiri na kutabiri.” Pia anataja binti wanne wa Filipo waliotabiri (Matendo 21:9). Zingatia kwamba anachukulia kutabiri na kuhubiri kama vinavyohusiana kwa karibu, akifuata fasili ya Paulo katika 1 Wakorintho 14:3: kusema na watu “maneno ya kujenga na kuonya na kufariji.”She begins where Pentecostal preaching usually begins, with Acts 2:1–4: the wind, the tongues of fire, and all of them filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she paints the scene. The crowd saw “men and women, with their faces shining with the glory of God, all preaching at once.” Just as today, she says, when God’s power is shown, people cried out “too much excitement” and called the believers drunk. Peter answered from Joel 2:28–29: “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,” and on “my servants and on my handmaidens” God would pour out his Spirit (Acts 2:17–18). For her this settles the main question. The Spirit was poured out on women as well as men, and they spoke. She adds 1 Corinthians 11:5, where Paul gives instructions for a woman who “prayeth or prophesieth,” and says “Paul speaks as if it were very common for women to preach and prophesy.” She also mentions Philip’s four daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:9). Note that she treats prophesying and preaching as closely related, following Paul’s definition in 1 Corinthians 14:3: speaking to people “to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.”

3.Foibe, Prisila na Wafanyakazi Wenzake wa Paulo3.Phebe, Priscilla and Paul’s Co-workers

Kisha anabisha kwamba “Paulo alifanya kazi na wanawake katika injili zaidi kuliko mtume mwingine yeyote.” Anawataja Prisila na Foibe (Phoebe), na kufikiria Foibe na Paulo “wakifanya uamsho pamoja” kabla Foibe hajasafiri kwenda Roma. Maneno ya Paulo katika Warumi 16:1 yanamwita “mhudumu wa kanisa lililoko Kenkrea,” na Woodworth-Etter anaongeza kwamba hii “inamaanisha mhudumu wa kanisa.” Neno la Kigiriki ni diakonos, ambalo linaweza kumaanisha mtumishi, mhudumu au shemasi, na tafsiri hutofautiana. Pia anabainisha kwamba Paulo alilitaka kanisa la Roma limsaidie Foibe katika “shughuli” yoyote aliyokuwa nayo, akamwita msaidizi wa wengi, na akawasifu wanawake wengine “walioshindana pamoja nami katika injili” (Wafilipi 4:3). Hitimisho lake ni kwamba Foibe alikuwa na mamlaka halisi katika makanisa na alikuwa amezaa matunda katika kuwashinda roho. Wafasiri wanakubaliana kwamba wanawake walikuwa wafanyakazi wenzake hai katika misheni ya Paulo; wanatofautiana kama maandiko kama haya yanaeleza ofisi ya uongozi au huduma ya thamani ya utumishi chini ya uongozi wa wazee.Next she argues that “Paul worked with the women in the gospel more than any of the apostles.” She names Priscilla and Phebe (Phoebe), and imagines Phebe and Paul “holding revivals together” before Phebe travelled to Rome. Paul’s words in Romans 16:1 call her a “servant of the church which is at Cenchrea,” and Woodworth-Etter adds that this “signifies a minister of the church.” The Greek word is diakonos, which can mean servant, minister or deacon, and translations differ. She also notes that Paul asked the Roman church to assist Phebe in whatever “business” she had, called her a helper of many, and praised other women who “laboured with me in the gospel” (Philippians 4:3). Her conclusion is that Phebe had real authority in the churches and had been fruitful in winning souls. Interpreters agree that women were active co-workers in Paul’s mission; they differ on whether texts like these describe an office of leadership or a valued ministry of service under the leadership of elders.

4.Maneno Magumu4.The Hard Sayings

Haukwepi 1 Wakorintho 14:34, “Wanawake wenu wanyamaze katika makanisa.” Majibu yake ni mafupi na makali. Paulo anaongeza “kama vile torati nayo inavyosema,” naye anajibu, “Hatuko chini ya sheria bali chini ya neema.” Paulo anasema wanawake wawaulize waume zao nyumbani, naye anauliza, “Wale wasio na waume watafanya nini?” Baadhi ya wanawake, anaongeza, wangekufa katika ujinga kama wangetegemea waume zao kwa maarifa. Zaidi ya yote, anasoma kifungu hicho kama jibu la Paulo kwa “mabishano katika makanisa,” akibainisha kwamba waraka huo huo unazungumza juu ya faraka (1 Wakorintho 11:18). Kwa maneno mengine, Paulo alikuwa akikataza fujo na ugomvi katika ibada, si usemi wa wanawake uliotolewa na Roho. Wanafunzi wanapaswa kujua jinsi wengine wanavyosoma maandiko haya. Wafasiri wengi wa kukamilishana (complementarian) wanaona katika 1 Wakorintho 14:34 na 1 Timotheo 2:11–14 mpangilio wa kudumu, mara nyingi uliowekwa katika uumbaji, unaoweka ofisi ya kufundisha kwa mamlaka au uzee kwa wanaume wanaostahili, huku wakithibitisha kwamba wanawake wanaweza kuomba, kutabiri na kutumikia kwa njia nyingi. Wafasiri wengi wa usawa (egalitarian), kama yeye, husoma vifungu hivi kama vilivyoelekezwa kwa matatizo ya mahali na kuona Wagalatia 3:28 na Pentekoste kama vinavyofungua kila huduma kwa wote wawili. Wasomaji wa pande zote mbili wamehoji jibu lake la “sheria na neema,” kwa kuwa Paulo mwenyewe anarejea sheria huko. Zingatia pia kwamba mahubiri yake hayajadili 1 Timotheo 2:12 moja kwa moja.She does not avoid 1 Corinthians 14:34, “Let your women keep silence in the churches.” Her answers are brief and pointed. Paul adds “as also saith the law,” and she replies, “We are not under law but under grace.” Paul says women should ask their husbands at home, and she asks, “What will those do who have no husbands?” Some women, she adds, would die in ignorance if they depended on their husbands for knowledge. Above all, she reads the passage as Paul’s response to “contentions in the churches,” noting that the same letter speaks of divisions (1 Corinthians 11:18). In other words, Paul was forbidding disorder and quarrelling in worship, not the Spirit-given speech of women. Students should know how others read these texts. Many complementarian interpreters see in 1 Corinthians 14:34 and 1 Timothy 2:11–14 a lasting order, often grounded in creation, that reserves the authoritative teaching office or eldership to qualified men, while they affirm that women may pray, prophesy and serve in many ways. Many egalitarian interpreters, like her, read these passages as addressed to local problems and see Galatians 3:28 and Pentecost as opening every ministry to both. Readers on both sides have questioned her “law and grace” answer, since Paul himself appeals to the law there. Notice too that her sermon does not discuss 1 Timothy 2:12 directly.

5.Debora, Wanawake wa Ufufuo na Mwanamke Kisimani5.Deborah, the Resurrection Women and the Woman at the Well

Mahubiri ni yenye nguvu zaidi yanaposimulia hadithi. Anaorodhesha Miriamu (Mika 6:4), Hulda nabii mke (2 Wafalme 22) na Esta, na anasimulia upya Waamuzi 4 kwa nguvu: Israeli walikuwa wametenda dhambi na kuteseka kwa miaka ishirini, na “Baraka hakuthubutu kukutana na adui isipokuwa Debora aongoze mbele.” Anamchora Debora akipanda kando ya jemadari, “akipiga kelele za ushindi,” na mfalme adui akikimbia, ili auawe na mwanamke. Kisha ananukuu Wagalatia 3:28: katika Kristo hakuna mwanamume wala mwanamke. Mfano wake muhimu zaidi ni asubuhi ya Pasaka. Wanafunzi walikuwa wamekimbia, lakini wanawake walibaki karibu na msalaba, walitazama mazishi na wakaja mapema kaburini. Malaika na kisha Bwana aliyefufuka mwenyewe waliwatuma waende kuwaambia ndugu. Yesu, anasema, aliwakabidhi wanawake hawa “kuhubiri mahubiri ya kwanza ya ufufuo.” Mwishowe anageukia mwanamke Msamaria wa Yohana 4, aliyeacha mtungi wake wa maji na kukimbia mjini akisema, “Njoni mwone mtu” (Yohana 4:29). Mji wote ulitoka. “Hii ilikuwa matokeo ya mahubiri moja ya mwanamke dhaifu.”The sermon is strongest when it tells stories. She lists Miriam (Micah 6:4), Huldah the prophetess (2 Kings 22) and Esther, and she retells Judges 4 with energy: Israel had sinned and suffered for twenty years, and “Barak dared not meet the enemy unless Deborah led the van.” She pictures Deborah riding beside the commander, “shouting victory,” and the enemy king fleeing, only to be killed by a woman. She then quotes Galatians 3:28: in Christ there is neither male nor female. Her most important example is Easter morning. The disciples had fled, but the women stayed by the cross, watched the burial and came early to the tomb. Angels and then the risen Lord himself sent them to tell the brothers. Jesus, she says, entrusted these women “to preach the first resurrection sermon.” Finally she turns to the Samaritan woman of John 4, who left her water jar and ran through the town saying, “Come, see a man.” The whole city came out. “This was the result of one sermon by a weak woman.”

6.Mwito: Kila Mwamini Kazini6.The Appeal: Every Believer at Work

Sehemu ya mwisho ya mahubiri ni mwito. Anazungumza moja kwa moja na “dada yangu mpendwa katika Kristo”: “Ni wakati mwafaka kabisa kwa wanawake kuacha taa zao ziangaze,” kutoa talanta “zilizofichwa zikiota kutu” (linganisha kukiri kwake mwenyewe katika sura ya III kwamba alikuwa amezika talanta yake moja). Lakini anapanua wito kwa kila mtu. Kanisa linaundwa na “wanaume, wanawake na watoto.” Ni jengo, na kama hatuwezi kuwa nguzo au jiwe la pembeni, “tuwe msumari au kigingi au tofali.” “Kanisa la Mungu ni karakana; hakuna wavivu wanaoruhusiwa hapa.” Anakopa kumbukumbu ya Vita vya Wenyewe kwa Wenyewe vya Marekani, serikali ilipoita mamia ya maelfu ya wajitolea, na kuuliza ni nani atakayejiandikisha katika jeshi la Kristo kwa thawabu ya uzima wa milele. Anawakumbusha wasikilizaji wake kwamba “wale waliowaongoa wengi kwenye haki” wataangaza kama nyota (Danieli 12:3), na mahubiri yanaisha kwa mashairi, ya waandishi wengine, juu ya “taji isiyo na nyota,” taji isiyo na vito kwa sababu aliyeivaa hakumshinda mtu yeyote kwa Kristo. Mada ni uinjilisti wa dharura. Kwa maoni yake, swali la huduma ya wanawake hatimaye lilikuwa swali la mavuno: mashamba ni meupe, na wafanyakazi ni wachache.The last part of the sermon is an appeal. She speaks directly to her “dear sister in Christ”: “It is high time for women to let their lights shine,” to bring out talents “hidden away rusting” (compare her own confession in chapter III that she had hidden her one talent). But she widens the call to everyone. The church is made of “men, women and children.” It is a building, and if we cannot be a pillar or cornerstone, “let us be a spike or a nail or a brick.” “God’s church is a workshop; no idlers allowed here.” She borrows the memory of the American Civil War, when the government called for hundreds of thousands of volunteers, and asks who will enlist in Christ’s army for the reward of eternal life. She reminds her hearers that “they that turn many to righteousness” shall shine as the stars (Daniel 12:3), and the sermon ends with poems, by other writers, about a “starless crown,” a crown with no jewels because its wearer won no one to Christ. The theme is urgent evangelism. In her view, the question of women’s ministry was finally a question of harvest: the fields are white, and the workers are few.

7.Anachochukua Mchungaji wa Kipentekoste Leo Kutoka Humo7.What a Pentecostal Pastor Takes from It Today

Woodworth-Etter alifanya zaidi ya kubisha. Alihubiri, alianzisha makanisa, alibatiza waongofu na kusafiri na wafanyakazi wenzake, na baada ya ndoa yake ya pili, mwaka 1902, mumewe Samuel Etter alimsaidia katika mikutano. Makanisa ya Kipentekoste tangu wakati huo yamejibu swali kwa njia tofauti. Mengine, kama International Church of the Foursquare Gospel iliyoanzishwa na Aimee Semple McPherson, huwaweka wanawake wakfu kwa kila ofisi. Mengine, ikiwemo madhehebu kadhaa makubwa, huwapa wanawake leseni au kuwaweka wakfu kama wahudumu na wainjilisti lakini yameweka ofisi fulani, kama askofu au uongozi mkuu, kwa wanaume. Bado mengine yanasisitiza huduma ya timu, ambamo timu za mume na mke au vikundi vya uongozi mchanganyiko hutumikia pamoja chini ya usimamizi wa pamoja. CTS haichukui msimamo hapa. Mchungaji anaweza kujifunza kutoka kwa mahubiri kwa vyovyote: Roho amemiminwa juu ya waamini wote; ushuhuda wa wanawake umekuwa muhimu tangu asubuhi ya ufufuo; fujo na ugomvi hudharau ibada; na kila mshiriki wa kanisa, bila kujali jukumu lake, ameitwa kufanya kazi katika mavuno.Woodworth-Etter did more than argue. She preached, organized churches, baptized converts and travelled with co-workers, and after her second marriage, in 1902, her husband Samuel Etter assisted her in the meetings. Pentecostal churches since then have answered the question in different ways. Some, such as the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel founded by Aimee Semple McPherson, ordain women to every office. Others, including several large denominations, license or ordain women as ministers and evangelists but have reserved certain offices, such as bishop or senior leadership, for men. Still others emphasize team ministry, in which husband-and-wife teams or mixed leadership groups serve together under shared oversight. CTS does not take a position here. A pastor can learn from the sermon in any case: the Spirit is poured out on all believers; women’s witness has been vital since the resurrection morning; disorder and quarrelling dishonour worship; and every member of the church, whatever their role, is called to work in the harvest.

8.Kuchukua kwa Moyo8.Taking It to Heart

Kwa tafakari. Kanisa lako linasomaje Yoeli 2, Matendo 2, 1 Wakorintho 14 na 1 Timotheo 2, na je, unaweza kueleza kwa uadilifu hoja yenye nguvu zaidi kwa msimamo tofauti na wako? Woodworth-Etter aliwaita wanawake kaburini wahubiri wa kwanza wa ufufuo. Uaminifu wao unamfundisha nini kila mwanafunzi, mwanamume au mwanamke? Katika kusanyiko lako, je, kuna talanta “zilizofichwa zikiota kutu”? Na unawezaje kumsaidia kila mshiriki kupata mahali pa kufanya kazi, kama “msumari au kigingi au tofali,” katika jengo la Mungu? For reflection. How does your own church read Joel 2, Acts 2, 1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Timothy 2, and can you state fairly the strongest case for a view different from yours? Woodworth-Etter called the women at the tomb the first preachers of the resurrection. What does their faithfulness teach every disciple, man or woman? In your congregation, are there talents “hidden away rusting”? And how can you help every member find a place to work, as “a spike or a nail or a brick,” in God’s building?

Chagua

Andika usomaji wako

Ukishasoma kikamilifu masomo matatu uliyochagua, andika jina lako na uthibitishe hapa chini. Kumbukumbu hii inatunzwa kwa uaminifu wako, kwenye kivinjari hiki; inaonekana kwenye cheti chako kama kwa heshima.

Jina lako

Kwa uaminifu wangu, nimesoma kikamilifu masomo matatu niliyochagua hapo juu.

✓ Imeandikwa — kozi hii inahesabiwa katika maendeleo yako ya Heshima. Kusoma kwa Heshima ↗

Somo la Heshima — limeandikwa

alithibitisha tarehe kuwa amesoma kikamilifu:

Chapala Theological Seminary · Pentecostal Worship, Preaching, and Ministry · present or print this page as your honors reading record.

Masomo Zaidi: Vitabu Three vya Uwanja wa Umma

Vitabu hivi three ni kwa masomo zaidi, kwa mwanafunzi anayetaka kuendelea kusoma. Si sehemu ya masomo ya heshima yaliyo hapo juu: hayo yanabaki kama yalivyo — muhtasari tano za CTS, mitatu yoyote ikisomwa kikamilifu na kuandikwa kwa uaminifu wako. Vyote three viko katika uwanja wa umma; kila kiungo kinafungua kitabu mtandaoni, na vingi vinapatikana pia katika Internet Archive au Project Gutenberg. Vingi viko kwa Kiingereza: kivinjari cha Chrome kinaweza kutafsiri ukurasa (bonyeza kitufe cha kulia cha kipanya, “Translate to…”; kwenye simu, menyu ya kivinjari).

The Whole Book · 1912 Scan

1. Acts of the Holy Ghost

Maria Woodworth-Etter · Dallas: John F. Worley Printing Co., 1912; Internet Archive scan

Read the chapters and sermons the textbook leaves out, in the scan of the 1912 edition from which its selections were taken. Read its accounts of healings and visions as testimony: they are what the author and her witnesses reported.

Fungua somo ↗

The Plain Text · 1912

2. Acts of the Holy Ghost

Maria Woodworth-Etter · 1912; text read by machine from the scan

Search the whole book as plain text. The text was read by machine and has many errors, even in names; check a passage against the page images before you quote it.

Fungua somo ↗

The 1912 Edition · Archive Record

3. Acts of the Holy Ghost

Maria Woodworth-Etter · 1912; Internet Archive record

Look at the archive’s record of the scan, with its date and publisher, before you cite the work.

Fungua somo ↗

Uthibitisho wa heshima: Kwa kuchagua masomo matatu hapo juu, unathibitisha kwamba umesoma muhtasari hiyo mitatu kikamilifu. Muhtasari hiyo imeandikwa na CTS na inaweza kuwa na dondoo fupi au marekebisho ya kazi zilizo katika uwanja wa umma.