Pentecostalism is the branch o protestantism that flourished greatly over the last decades in many parts of the world , church organizations that follow the key doctrines of the movement can be found in both urban and rural areas , some of which are affiliated to a national pentecostal church federation , some are independent churches.
The movement shares many doctrines with other protestant denominations , its most self defining teachings are those that referring to the position of the Holy Spirit in both prayer and day to day christian life . The Holy Spirit plays the role of madiatrix , similar to the role given to the Blessed Virgin Mary within the roman-catholic tradition , being a the "messenger" of God , the One who executes the will of the Lord. Pentecostalism had a great success in poor areas and it fastly became popular between the members of the middle and lower classes , this also being a result of the very well developed system of social care that the church provides for its members.
Social care , youth oriented policies and a very strong community spirit made pentecostal congregations very stable with loyal followers , very often the managed to develop ways in which the congregation can be financially independent and self administrated . From a organizational point of view , as I mentioned earlier , pentecostal churches are autonomous , even so , many of them will be part of a national pentecostal church gathering which may dictate some general guidelines for the congregations present in a state or a region . When it comes to doctrine , pentecostals can be divided in two main ideology currents : 1. traditional pentecostals , 2. charismatics. The main difference between the two movements is that the charismatics have a set of particular teachings that highlight the importance of miracles , healings , tongue interpretation as sings of the receiving of the Holy Spirit by a believer.
What I want to truly give a detailed analysis on in this article is the defining characteristics of pentecostal worship and personal experience of faith.
Singing along with moving prepares not only the believer's heart to accept the gifts of the Holly Spirit but also it prepares the physical body for a hole range of manifestations associated with such a experience. Music plays a essential role in pentecostal services , other from its preparatory role , it also helps to bring all the believers presents in the sanctuary at a common level , spiritually and physically . It makes a individual's moves more fluent , as a result , the believer's receptivity to stimulus increasing , this increase coincides with the acceleration of blood circulation in the body and the production of adrenaline , that it is known for neutralizing pain and other physical discomfort.
The core of the service is the moment when the believers experience the power of the Holly Spirit , the moment is marked by a series of manifestations , such as : speaking in tongues , interpretation of the tongues , prophecy , etc. Charismatic services often focus on miraculous healings and prophecy , the traditional current focuses more on less dramatic manifestations .
Such manifestations often had been the subject of great controversy within protestantism , many religious authors and theologians questioned their authenticity .The controversy reached the pages of newspapers with cases in which pastors claimed to have healing powers that were direct manifestation of the Holy Spirit's power , not only healings were the subject of various scandals , preachers from charismatic congregations were accused of tricking people in to giving them money , the effect would be that of miraculous clearing of all their financial problems.
This type of practices are results of the teachings of the Prosperity Gospel , a charismatic ideology that teaches that faith in God can help a individual to gain material wealth . The moment in which the Holly Spirit is suppose to manifest through the believers is marked by violent moves of the body , a lack of self control , a disconnection with the surrounding environment , speaking in tongs and so on . The service is often divided in to two levels , the first being the one were the singing happens and the second can consist of the reading of a religious text . The manifestation of the Holly Spirit is mostly spontaneous and can occur in any of this parts of the service .
Pentecostalism enjoys a great amount of popularity in many of Africa's nations , its acceptance by the locals was widely attributed to some similarities that it shares with some indigenous spiritual religions which concentrate on the relationship between man and spirit , sings of the presence of spirits may manifest through possession , extremely similar to the pentecostal view of the manifestation of the Holly Spirit.
The movement still enjoys popularity in Africa and South America , africans having a extra help for keeping their community spirit alive . Sometimes being labeled as a "religion of the lower class" , pentecostalism managed in many classes to act as a glue for communities were socialization and social cooperation came to a dead end , on the other had , some blame the movement for its cult alike practices , lack of honesty with its members ,the rapid gain of material benefits and so on.
As a conclusion , I can state that even with all the controversies that the movement was subject of , it managed to grow and organize its structures in a way that it assured its stability , and not last , to promote and be the leader of social change in poor communities .
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