Let the Pentecostals Stand Up and the Reformed Sit Down: A Few Things Nigerian Reformed Christians Must Learn From their Pentecostal Counterparts – Part 2
by: Moses Jesutola
Let the Reformed Sit Down – Dead Orthodoxy and Spiritual Dynamism
Orthodoxy can be marred by spiritual dryness. The emphasis of the Nigerian Reformed people on orthodoxy is helpful, except that it can result in a disconnection from the active and living presence and power of the Spirit. While such emphasis must be appreciated, the Nigerian Reformed movement needs to sit down and listen to the much-needed emphasis of the Nigerian Pentecostals on spiritual dynamism and experiential Christianity.
The Disease of Doctrinalism and the Health of Spiritual Renewal
The emphasis of Reformed people on doctrinal accuracy is valid and biblical. In short, it is a much-needed emphasis in the midst of the chaotic Christianity that dotted the Nigerian religious landscape. Nonetheless, doctrinalists tend to be reductionistic. Doctrinalists may sometimes bow to the idols of routine and technique. Doctrinalists may become impatient and ungracious. Doctrinalists may unknowingly embrace the idols of rationalism and expertise. Doctrinalists may be prideful in that they assume they have mastered God and his word. Pentecostals, on the other hand, if we listen to them well, threaten our idols. Their emphasis on constant renewal of the presence and power of the Spirit in the lives of God’s people threaten our complacent orthodoxy, dry doctrinalism, and methodological idolatry. We must take a sit and listen to them in this area.
Hypercritical Spirit and Godly Open-mindedness
Some Nigerian Reformed Christians are overly critical. This hypercritical spirit is sometimes displayed in criticising concepts that warrant no criticism at all. Criticism, rightly done, is not an issue. But it becomes a problem when our default approach to anything outside our denomination is a hypercritical posture. A good example of this is the needless criticism of the phrase “… my worship is my weapon” in Dunsin Oyekan’s “Fragrance to Fire” song.
We must keep in mind that a hypercritical spirit is ungodly at root. Pentecostalism, however, by its emphasis on the spiritual dynamism allows for open-mindedness. Open-mindedness can be disciplined and godly.
Spiritless Cessationism and Pentecostal Continuationism
Without entering into a detailed and nuanced conversation that the cessationism-continuationism debate requires, the call for an examination of the kind of cessationism that is dry and sterile is one that Nigerian Reformed Christians must yield. The unfortunate thing is that the depth that goes into the debates between cessationists and continuationsts in the Western world is most times lacking in the conversations and debates about it on the Nigerian X space.
Nevertheless, Pentecostalism’s emphasis on spiritual gifts and the Spirit’s ongoing work allows for vitality in the church. Nigerian Reformed cessationists need to sit down with God in the place of prayers. I personally appreciate the corrective to spiritism and mysticism that cessationism offers. But the context in which we live yearns for the visible and miraculous power of the Holy Spirit; not a deist-like cessationism.
Let the Pentecostals Stand Up
The Blessing of Pentecostalism
The Pentecostal/charismatic movement, like other sectors of the church, has its strengths and weaknesses. They have much to learn from their Reformed counterparts, but they are also a blessing. Pentecostalism, contrary to the perception of some Reformed people, is a blessing rather than a curse. Their renewed emphasis on the power and presence of the Holy Spirit revitalises the church. Further, classical Pentecostal/charismatic scholars are doing a great deal of job in ensuring that they’re as closer to the correct interpretation of the Protestant Bible in doctrine and practice as they possibly can.
Thus, let the Nigerian Pentecostals stand up in the following ways, especially in their relationship with their Nigerian Reformed counterparts.
Prayer
Nigerian Reformed people pray but perhaps not as much and as powerfully as their Pentecostal/charismatic counterparts. As a Reformed Christian myself, I can say that our prayers are sometimes feminised; other times they’re needlessly dogmatic; at times, they’re empty and dry; and sometimes they’re formulaic, faithless and deistic. As one who grew up in CAC and served as a youth pastor in the denomination, as well as visited a number of Prayer Mountains, I have never seen the level of prayerfulness that Pentecostals exhibit among Reformed people. To rephrase Don Carson’s words, God forbid that we can argue doctrines more than we can struggle in prayers on our knees for our sin-ridden nation! And, yes, Pentecostals can stand up to call us to repent of our prayerlessness and even pretentious prayerfulness. Let the Pentecostals stand up and the Reformed sit down!
Continued here
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