Faith

H1HG1

D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 9

2 - Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, December 16, 2009

RENEE SCHOOFMcclatchy Newspapers (Mct)

WASHINGTON – As an evangeli-cal Christian living in Texas, climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe found that many conservatives had ques-tions about climate change based on things they’d heard on talk radio.

So Hayhoe and her husband, Andrew Farley, the pastor of a non-denominational church in Lubbock, Texas, decided to answer the ques-tions in a new book from religious publisher FaithWords, “A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-based Decisions.”

“The observed increase in green-house gas levels, due to human production, is the only explanation we can find to account for what has happened to our world,” Farley and Hayhoe wrote. “We’ve dusted for fingerprints. There’s only one likely suspect remaining. It’s us.”

Although the leaders of other reli-gious groups have been calling on the world to take action to prevent climate change from spinning out of control, evangelical Christians remain divided on it.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan

Williams, for example, has taken a strong stand on protecting the climate. The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, wrote in a commentary last month, “Climate change will only be overcome when all of us – scientists and politicians, theologians and economists, spe-cialists and lay citizens – cooperate for the common good.”

The National Association of Evangelicals, a group that represents millions of American evangelicals in about 45,000 churches, takes positions on other social issues but it hasn’t taken a stand on climate change because there isn’t a con-sensus among its members, said its director, Heather Gonzales.

The evangelical group Cornwall Alliance argues that concerns about global warming are unfounded and lobbies against legislation that would reduce U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases. The Evangelical Environmental Network, in contrast, accepts the scientific explanation of global warming and calls for reduc-ing the pollution that’s causing it.

This contrast in views prompted

Book tackles evangelicals’ questions on climate change

Mark Umstot/MCT

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

H2HG2

Hamilton Seventh-day Adventist Churchinvites you to join us for Bible Study each Saturday Morning at

9:30 a.m. and for Worship at 10:40a.m. 117 West Bridge Road • 363-0575

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

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

the Texas authors to write their book.

“When it comes to conserva-tive Christians, I think the real question is who can we trust on this issue?” Farley said. “The scientist who has opposed us in the past, perhaps on issues such as evolution versus creation? Can we trust the local radio talk-show host on conservative radio who seems to be vehemently opposed to the idea that cli-mate change is happening and speaks out quite passionately? Should I trust my local pas-tor who has a B-minus in high school biology?”

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

entists on the Nobel Prize-win-ning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which reported in 2007 that there was unequivocal evidence of warm-ing.

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

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

Many of the questions were from the arguments of conser-vative celebrities.

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

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

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

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

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

On the Web“Climate Literacy: The

Essential Principles of Climate Science,” a short guide by U.S. climate scientists: http://www.climate.noaa.gov/education/

“Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States,” a U.S. Global Change Research Program report: http://www.globalchange.gov/publications/reports/scientific-assessments/us-impacts

© 2009, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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

H3HG3


HG4

ANDY MEADMcclatchy Newspapers (Mct)

LEXINGTON, Ky. – It’s a cool, damp fall after-noon, and a group of 6- and 7-year-olds are prac-ticing soccer in a grassy field in Lexington, Ky.

Eric and Kim Lake sit on the sidelines in fold-ing chairs, watching their son T.J. kick the ball. A visitor asks what they think of this league.

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

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

“And sportsman-ship,” Eric says. “And then at the same time the gospel is presented throughout the year. Each week the kids have a (Bible) verse that they learn. It’s more family-ori-ented.”

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

This is Upward soccer. It is organized along the same Christian principles as Upward flag football, basketball and cheer-leading.

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

a featured speaker at Georgetown College this month.

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

He said he was looking forward to Georgetown students and others

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

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

Upward has spread to more than 2,500

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

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

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

Churches use Upward to reach outward

DAVID PERRY – Lexington Herald-Leader/MCT

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


HG5

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

at training sessions and is sold on the program.

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

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

© 2009, Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Ky.).

Visit the World Wide Web site of the Herald-Leader at http://www.kentucky.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Flag football coach David Todd leads a prayer during flag-football practice

at Macedonia Christian Church in Lexington, Ky.

DAVID PERRY – Lexington Herald-Leader/MCT


HG6

195 Skalkaho Hwy, Hamilton • 363-4244 • CanyonViewChurch.org

Christmas Eve ServiceDecember 24th • 7:00 PM

OF THE CHRISTIAN & MISSIONARY ALLIANCE

ANNYSA JOHNSONMilwaukee JourNal seNtiNel (Mct)

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

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

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

are expected to be people of faith.In Wisconsin and the nation, reli-

gious communities and individuals have lobbied lawmakers, launched advertising and educational cam-paigns, staged prayer vigils and more, framing health care reform as a moral imperative.

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

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

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

Alliances have emerged that

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

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

Religious communities call for health reform but differ on key issues

GARY PORTER – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MCT

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


HG7

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

Our service times: Sunday Mornings at 9 & 11am • Wednesdays at 7pm. Messages can be heard on our website at bitterrootvalleycalvarychapel.com & on KLYQ radio station 1240am on Sunday Mornings at 9:30am.

Christmas Eve ServiceThursday, December 24th 7-8PM, Bitterroot River InnAll are welcome to join us in the celebration of Christ’s Birth

700 North 4th Street, Hamilton • 363-3431 • www.BitterrootValleyCalvaryChapel.com

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

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

Influencing debateA study by Harvard Medical

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

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

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

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

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

agreement on the abortion limits.The political blog Politico

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

Divisive issueCoverage of undocumented

workers has been as divisive as abortion for some congregations, clergy said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“From any Jew, whether it’s Orthodox, Conservative, there would be consistent agreement that it is an obligation to provide medi-cal care for others,” said Berkson. “The real problem in the debate is how you get there.”

© 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.Visit JSOnline, the Journal Sentinel’s

World Wide Web site, at http://www.jsonline.com/



Married priests of other faiths may convert to CatholicismJENNIFER GARZAMcclatchy Newspapers (Mct)

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

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

That was four decades ago.

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

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

That is not likely to happen soon.

But the possibility that some-day Catholics may see married priests in the pulpit was raised last month. That’s when Vatican officials announced an arrange-ment that welcomes Anglicans into the Catholic Church, includ-ing their married priests.

Vatican officials have said

Celibacy may be reviewed as new priests are few

ANDY ALFARO – Sacramento Bee/MCT

Ed Donaghy left the priesthood in the Catholic church in 1979 so he could marry Brigid, a former nun, and they could start a family.

HG8

LiveNativity

You are invited to worship the Lord Jesus Christ and mediate on His birth in a very special way. Viewing the manger scene reenacted live is a spiritually moving event. Help yourself and your family to get in the true Spirit of Christmas. Make the 2,000 year-old birth of the Savior come alive in your heart and life.

Visit the Nativity!

Call 363-3390 or 375-0944

December 18 & 196-7pm

Christ’s Bible Church319 S. 5th Street, Hamilton

Matt. 9:35- “And Jesus went about all the cities and... preaching the gospel... and healing every sickness and every disease

among the people.”

Rev. 3: 20, 22- “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me... He that hath an ear, let him hear

what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” “Christmas Morn” - Poem & Hymn by Mary Baker Eddy

“Blest Christmas morn, though murky clouds Pursue thy way, Thy light was born... far above All mortal strife...

Thou our saint, Our way, alway.”

“... to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” - The Christian Science Monitor, Boston MA

The Hamilton Christian Science Society5th & Bedford Street

Sunday services: 10:30 am 1st & 3rd Wednesdays Healing Testimony Meetings: 7:30 pm

—All Are Lovingly Welcomed— For questions about Christian Science: www.spirituality.com


repeatedly over the years that celibacy will remain mandatory, but many observers say having married Anglican priests in the church is a “major move” toward the idea of married Catholic priests.

“It’s significant,” said Sister Chris Schenk, of FutureChurch, a Cleveland group studying the shortages of priests in the United States.

“It’s time for the church to bring these married priests back into ministry and to address the issue of mandatory celibacy,” Schenk said. “We have parishes closing and a number of priests retiring. Look at the demo-graphics.”

About 40,000 priests serve in U.S. dioceses, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. Many of those are nearing retirement. In 2009, 472 men were ordained.

“We have to do something because we need priests,” Schenk said. “It only makes sense to re-think celibacy.”

The Catholic Church already has mar-ried priests. Priests in the Eastern rite – 21 churches that are in communion with Rome – may marry.

“In our church most of the priests are mar-ried,” said the Rev. Ted Wroblicky, a married priest at the Holy Wisdom Eastern Catholic

ANDY ALFARO – Sacramento Bee/MCT

Donaghy says he would have returned to the priesthood if rules allowed Catholic priests to be married. The couple is shown on Oct. 29, 2009, in a retirement community near Sacramento, Calif.

HG9

Grace Gospel Fellowship 601 S. 2nd Street, Hamilton

Service TimesSunday School - 9:30am

Morning Worship - 10:45amWednesday Bible Study & Prayer - 7pm

As Christmas approaches there are many in the Valley who will fi nd it diffi cult this year to celebrate. You may be struggling fi nancially, physically, emotionally, or even spiritually. The joy that we associate with this time of year is but a mem-ory of “Christmas Past”. Yet, the promise of scripture is clear and true ... “The Word became fl esh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14). At Grace Gospel Fellowship we believe that God loved mankind so much that He set aside the glories of heaven to come to earth and meet our most desperate need. No matter what your struggle or diffi culty, we believe your future is as bright as the promises of God. Join us this Christmas Season as we celebrate the greatest gift ever given; Christ The Lord; “full of grace and truth”.

“Proclaiming the message of Redeeming Grace”For additional information please call 381-6578


Parish in Sacramento. “It is not unusual at all. People are used to it.”

In his church, if the men are priests first, they aren’t permitted to marry and remain in the min-istry. However, if a man is already married, he can become a priest.

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

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

Some have conflicting views on the subject of celibacy and

the priesthood.“I believe in celibacy, but

most of the Apostles were mar-ried, so we have to figure out a way of having both,” said David Leatherby, who has attended Mass every day for 45 years and who has a grandson who is a priest.

He believes practical issues should be addressed and celi-bacy ought to be optional.

For him, it’s also a practi-cal matter. “The church needs priests, why not bring in these men?”

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

has been debated by theolo-gians, parishioners and priests.

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

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

Some who favored a discus-sion said many early church lead-ers were married while others cited the blessings of celibacy.

Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto said celibacy is a gift.

“I think the celibate lifestyle is an important element of the priesthood,” said Soto, the spiri-tual leader of the Sacramento Diocese and its 900,000 Catholics.

It is a lifestyle that some priests find difficult to follow. Dan Delany left the church in 1967, after he fell in love. He and his wife Chris, a former nun, later founded Sacramento’s Loaves & Fishes.

“It was painful at the time because there were a lot of chal-lenges,” said Delany of leaving ministry. He said there were many men who left after Vatican II.

“After that there were more opportunities and a lot of us who left were do-gooders anyway – so we got involved in social service issues,” Delany said.

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

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

Bishop Francis Quinn, now retired, served as chaplain to the men in NOVA. He believes the church should study the advan-tages and disadvantages of celi-bacy and the priesthood.

“I think there are great advan-tages to having optional celibacy because some men need that intimacy,” Quinn said. “On the other hand, there is a beauty in celibacy, as Christ was celibate.”

Quinn said that while optional celibacy may address some con-cerns, “there will probably be new ones as well if it becomes optional.”

However, he said he believes the church will eventually have married priests. “But I thought that 30 years ago, and it didn’t change, so I’m not a good pre-dictor.”

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

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

Donaghy said he welcomes the Roman Catholic Church’s invitation to married Anglican priests, saying it could get peo-ple used to the idea of having married priests and their families in church on Sundays.

“I think there’s room in the church for married and unmar-ried priests,” he said.

© 2009, The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.).

Visit The Sacramento Bee online at http://www.sacbee.com/


I think there are great advantages to having optional celibacy because some men need that intimacy. On the other hand, there is a beauty in celibacy, as Christ was celibate.

– Bishop Francis Quinn

HG10

Please come and join us for a candlelight service

TUUUUU

Ravalli Republic, Wednesday, December 16, 2009 - 11

TIM TOWNSENDst. louis post-Dispatch (Mct)

STEELE, Mo. – At the begin-ning of an evening worship service at the First Assembly of God church, the Rev. Ryan Harris pitted teens against adults in a trivia game called Battle of the Generations.

Wednesday Night Alive is the church’s outreach service to a swath of the city’s troubled teen-agers here in the southernmost tip of Missouri’s bootheel. After a few more games, worship began in a style typical of evangelical churches.

Harris, a husky 26-year-old wearing a sweater, untucked shirt and baggy jeans, led 20 teenagers and 20 adults in a few upbeat, contemporary praise songs, and then delivered the night’s message.

“The gift of the Holy Spirit

is placed upon you, it’s placed inside you,” Harris told his con-gregation, his voice thundering through his headset to the back walls of the tiny church. “The Holy Spirit gives you strength to stand up to those who don’t want you to stay in school, who want you to try drugs, to try sex.”

It’s the Holy Spirit that pro-vides Pentecostals with the prac-tice that sets their movement apart from all other evangelical Christian churches: speaking in tongues, or glossolalia.

“The distinguishing feature of classical Pentecostalism is to say that unless you have spoken in tongues, you don’t have this baptism in spirit,” said Russell Spittler, emeritus professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary in California.

The practice is so central to

the 3 million-member, Missouri-based Assemblies of God, that denominational leaders voted unanimously to reaffirm it as doc-trine during the church’s General Council meeting in August.

Reaffirmation of one of Pentecostalism’s central tenets was necessary, according to the resolution voted on at the meeting, because speaking in tongues “has come under cer-tain scrutiny.”

Glossolalia has become the church’s real battle of the gen-erations. Some young pastors say that while they recognize the foundational importance of speaking in tongues to Pentecostalism, other features of their faith are more practical and helpful for their flocks.

Harris, who began preaching when he was 12, is a fourth-generation member of the

Assemblies of God. His great-grandfather was a church pio-neer who founded a Pentecostal camp meeting in southern Illinois. Harris has pastored First Assembly for two years, and he said audible glossolalia is heard just “once every two or three months” at the church.

“We do stress that the initial physical evidence of the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues,” Harris said. “But we do not encourage people to seek tongues. We encourage them to seek God and to seek the power of the Holy Spirit for witnessing. Tongues is just a byproduct of that.”

Sentiments like that worry an older generation of Assemblies of God pastors.

“There’s concern from our leadership that younger pastors are possibly taking their cues

Pentecostals divided on doctrine of speaking in tongues

HG11

LU HERANFAI H


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

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

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

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

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

Pentecostals believe Christians must expe-rience a second “baptism in the Holy Spirit.” The movement, and its doctrine of Holy Spirit gifts, is based on a scene in the New Testament book of Acts in which Christ’s apostles, in the wake of his resurrection and ascension, gather for a Jewish feast day called Pentecost, 50 days after Passover.

During that gathering in Jerusalem, as the apostles prayed, “suddenly, from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind,” according to Acts. “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”

The Spirit’s arrival on Pentecost “marks the origin of the Christian church,” said Spittler.

Speaking in tongues is the “initial physical evidence” that a person has been baptized in the Holy Spirit, according to Pentecostal tradition.

“Initial physical evidence is the key issue, and numerous Assemblies of God ministers are no longer tied to that doctrine,” said Stanley Burgess, a professor of Christian his-tory at Regent University in Virginia, and edi-tor of “The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements.” “Younger pastors are no longer nearly as committed to this as their elders are.”

But George Wood, general superinten-dent of the Assemblies of God, downplayed the importance of the general council’s reaf-firmation of the church’s doctrine this sum-mer.

“The fact that it passed unanimously sug-gests that the concern was overstated,” Wood said. “There’s always the case that my generation is going to be concerned about the handoff to a new generation. It’s easy for a denomination to stray from its moor-ings, and that’s an honest concern, but in this case, I don’t think statistics back up that concern.”

In a 2008 poll of Assemblies of God pas-tors, the church found that 56 percent strongly agreed with the statement, “I regularly teach our congregation about the concept of being baptized in the Holy

Spirit.” But only 28 percent said they strongly agreed that “within worship services, our church regularly prays for people to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.”

The Rev. Paul Scheperle, 37, pastor of First Assembly of God in Washington, Mo., said the issue is more about differing congre-gational dynamics than generational differ-ences.

“Individual pastors at individual churches are just responding to the receptivity of their audiences and their particular needs,” Scheperle said.

© 2009, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.Visit the Post-Dispatch on the World Wide

Web at http://www.stltoday.com/Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune

Information Services.

TIM TOWNSEND – St. Louis Post-Dispatch/MCT

Rev. Ryan Harris, pastor of First Assembly of God in Steele, Mo., prays with James Carter at the church’s weekly youth worship service.

HG12

Faith

Documents

Transcript of Faith