The Ecumenical Challenge of Pentecostal Missions:

A European Pentecostal Perspective

for the 21st Century

Paper presented at the 29th Annual Conference of the

Society for Pentecostal Studies

Northwest College, Kirkland, Washington

March 16-18, 2000

by

Pfister .Raymond R .Dr

Academy of Mission, University of Hamburg, Germany

 The Ecumenical Challenge of Pentecostal Missions

INTRODUCTION

There was a time – not so long ago – when being a Pentecostal

meant not to go to movies, not to dance,... and not to engage
in ecumenical activities. The present author confesses that he
has never been able to fit into this rather narrow definition
for the past twenty-five years... even though he was always
able to remain a member of a Pentecostal/Charismatic Church
during this period. While some Pentecostals would like this
ancient definition of Pentecostalism to remain an everlasting
reality, others have boldly gone on a journey in search of
ecumenical adventures. A quest with many intriguing questions
and accompanied with a growing number of surprises... not to
mention some tragedies, as some Pentecostal theologians have
lost their sense of belonging and have given up, maybe not
their Pentecostal theology, but certainly their Pentecostal
identity.

What connections exist between Pentecostal missions and

ecumenism? How might the particular features and dynamics of
Pentecostal missions contribute to the quest for Christian
unity?1

These questions are raised from within the European

Pentecostal movement, as a French Pentecostal theologian
living in Germany, a member of a German Pentecostal
congregation, working as a director of a Salvation Army Centre
for alcohol addicts, participating actively in sessions of the
theological committee of the Ecumenical Council of Christian
Churches of Hamburg (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Christlicher
Kirchen), and teaching at seminars on European Pentecostalism
with an ecumenical perspective for Lutheran pastors and vicars
at the Academy of Mission at the University of Hamburg. This

1
Dr. Daniel E. Albrecht raised similar questions about the Pentecostal spirituality in his article "Pentecostal
Spirituality: Ecumenical Potential and Challenge" in Cyberjournal for Pentecostal/Charismatic Research.
[http://www.pctii.org/cyberj/cyber2.html] July 1997.

2
 The Ecumenical Challenge of Pentecostal Missions

is doing theology in context. This means first of all, not to

attempt to speak for all the Pentecostals of the world – there
is no such thing as a global view of Pentecostalism. There is
of course such a thing as a western view of world
Pentecostalism – one might say a very legitimate view if you
are aware that this is what you are getting, as well as a most
predominant view, largely due to the large amount of
literature produced on Pentecostalism in the Western world.
Doing theology in context also means – in a positive way -
doing theology with a "conscious2 biography" and within a given
geographical setting, and with an acknowledged narrow angle.

Key Pentecostal leaders of the past3 and a growing number of

Pentecostal scholars4 today argue convincingly that
Pentecostals are ecumenical, although they do not always fully
recognize their own ecumenical dimension5. With over 11,000
different Pentecostal denominations and 3,000 independent
6
charismatic denominations worldwide , the Pentecostal/
Charismatic Movement needs to face the fact that it has long
been an ecumenical movement in its own right. It should be
viewed as a new emerging Christian tradition, i.e. a unifying
work of the Spirit and not as an institutional construct. The
Pentecostal World Conference has been definitively for half a
century (since 1947) one concrete, certainly selective but not
monolithic expression of it. Prior to it, international
gatherings, such as the Hamburg Conference (1908), brought

2
Aware, sensible, felt, known, cognizant, apprised are the synonyms of 'conscious' mentioned in Webster's New
Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language. Second Edition (William Collins Publishers, 1979).
3
For European examples, see Donald Gee, England (The Contribution of the Pentecostal Movement to the
Church Universal), Lewi Pethrus, Sweden (De kristnas enhet. Stockholm: Förlaget Filadelfia, 1919), Ludwig
Eisenlöffel, Germany (...bis alle eins werden: Siebzig Jahre Berliner Erklärung. Erzhausen: Leuchter Verlag,
1979), Leonhard Steiner, Switzerland (Mit folgenden Zeichen. Basel: Verlag Mission für das volle Evangelium,
1954), Paul Siefer, France (see in Raymond Pfister, Soixante ans de pentecôtisme en Alsace (1930-1990). Studies
in the intercultural History of Christianity, vol. 93. Bern, Frankfurt, Paris, New York: Peter Lang, 1995, pp. 40-
75).
4
Such as Cecil M. Robeck, Jr., Cheryl Bridges Johns, Juan Sepulveda, Veli-Matti Käerkkänen, Harold Hunter,
Gary McGee, David Daniels
5
See also David Bundy, "The Ecumenical Quest of Pentecostalism" in Cyberjournal for Pentecostal/
Charismatic Research. [http://www.pctii.org/cyberj/cyber5.html] February 1999.
6
Stanley M. Burgess and Gary B. McGee, eds. Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (Grand
Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1988), s.v. "Statistics", by David B. Barrett.

3
 The Ecumenical Challenge of Pentecostal Missions

many international Pentecostal leaders together.7 Thomas B.

Barratt, one of Europe's early apostles, had issued "an urgent
call for charity and unity" (1911) that remains today just as
relevant. In years to come, Pentecostals will need to look
realistically at their own differences in beliefs and
practices, and rise above them if they hope to promote
understanding and cooperation among themselves. But
Pentecostals need also to look beyond their own differences as
one realizes that the Spirit has been given to the Church –
the Church at large – as Pentecostals learn lessons from their
fellow Christians. And the Church at large needs to discover,
of course, the experience of the Spirit as the older Christian
traditions learn from the Pentecostals/Charismatics as from a
younger sister tradition.8 Up to the present time most major
German catholic and protestant writings on ecumenism still
completely ignore the (European) Pentecostal/Charismatic
movement. German ecumenical conferences hold on missions still
will not have any major Pentecostal theologian participating
and addressing the Pentecostal issues.9 European Pentecostals
have often adopted a stance leading to their own isolation.
They are challenged to review their position in order to be
able to play a major role in the "ecumenical mission" of the
Church during the next century, instead of allowing themselves
to be excluded.10

7
Stanley M. Burgess and Gary B. McGee, eds. Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (Grand
Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1988), s.v. "Pentecostal World Conference" by C.M. Robeck, Jr.
8
This would mean – especially in Europe – that the Pentecostal Churches are not viewed anymore as religious
sects and the likes. Most German dictionaries on religious groups still do so. For example: Lexikon der Sekten,
Sondergruppen und Weltanschauungen. Freiburg, Basel: Herder, 1990), 796-802 – where Pentecostalism is
defined somewhere between Pantheism and Polytheism.
9
An ecumenical conference (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Christlicher Kirchen in Deutschland – ACK) was held at the
Academy of Mission in Hamburg (May 17-19, 1999) on "A Missionary Ecumenism: Towards a Missionary
Profile for the Next Millennium". It was part of the ACK study program on "Mission and Evangelism in
Germany". Pastor Gustav Yeboah, pastor of an African Pentecostal congregation in Hamburg was the only
Pentecostal participant to play an active, but very minor role – indeed more likely to be seen as an exotic feature
– in this consultation.
10
The German example of an ecumenical debate on missions where Pentecostals are completely left out of the
picture is documented in the following recent publication: Aufbruch zu einer missionarischen Ökumene: Ein
Verständigungsprozeß über die gemeinsame Aufgabe der Mission und Evangelisation in Deutschland. Edited by
Evangelisches Missionswerk in Deutschland (EMW), Arbeitsgemeinschaft Christlicher Kirchen in Deutschland
(ACK), and missio/Aachen, Hamburg, 1999.

4
 The Ecumenical Challenge of Pentecostal Missions

Anybody seriously interested in matters dealing with the

management of the household of God will need to come to terms
not only with the general issue of mission, but specifically
with the issue of Pentecostal missions. The Church of the 21st
Century will be a missionary Church or it will be no church at
all: from a Pentecostal point of view, this is no
overstatement. How healthy will the Church of the coming
millennium be? Will it be able to produce in the spirit of
Pentecost a new and visible unity among all Christians in
answer to Jesus' prayer (John 17:21)? In view of its
production, distribution, and consumption of religious wealth,
will the Church – and especially the Pentecostal tradition -
be able to satisfy indeed the material and spiritual needs of
its people and those coming to her?11 For that purpose, will
the Church succeed in developing an ecumenical welfare rather
than an economical warfare that would negate the Great
Commission and disqualify her witness to the world?

CHARACTERISTICS OF PENTECOSTAL MISSIONS

The Implicit values of Pentecostal missions12

Pentecostal missions reflect a spirituality that is
characterized by (1) a high value placed on personal
experience and participation, (2) a preference for oral
communication in its various forms of testimony – spoken, sung
and prayed; (3) spontaneity in personal conduct as well as
corporate worship; (4) otherworldliness with its sense of
eschatological urgency focused on the return of Jesus; (5)
biblical authority, often expressed in a hermeneutic of
biblical principle and/or precedent; (6) openness to the
activity and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, especially
through the practice of the manifold charismata, for the sake

11
Pfister, 201.
12
This point is largely indebted to Russel P. Spittler, "Implicit Values in Pentecostal Missions" in Missiology: An
International Review, Vol. XVI, No. 4, October 1988, pp. 409-424.

5
 The Ecumenical Challenge of Pentecostal Missions

of personal spiritual transformation; (7) a lay movement13 with

a grass-roots mentality; and (8) social responsibility as
reaching the whole man with the whole Gospel includes
remembering the poor as well as the quest for justice.

One might object that one or more of these features are not
specifically Pentecostal. To this argument, one might respond
in two ways: (1) Pentecostal beliefs and practices do not
claim nor intend to be cut off novelties that are in
discontinuity with the historical Christian faith; (2)
Obviously the same values, separately or in certain
combinations, might be found in other Christian traditions.
But as a whole these eight values (not be seen as an
14
exhaustive list!) characterize the Pentecostal tradition.

The pragmatics of Pentecostal mission strategies

No doubt that "Pentecostals have excelled as missionary
practitioners over the years"15 and still do, leaving the art
of producing theories mostly to others. Even though a few
16
competent missiologists have come out of the Pentecostal
movement, most Pentecostals would still feel quite
uncomfortable participating in such academic exercises.
Pentecostal mission strategies focus on evangelistic results,
in terms of men and women converted to Christ and made
responsible members of multiplying churches.17 Talking about
Pentecostal mission is talking about a missionary enterprise
that works. In its extreme form, the calling of the
Pentecostal pastor is measured by his aptitudes to evangelize
and reach people effectively.18 However, due to the imperative
of Spirit guidance in Pentecostal missions, a great amount of

13
In many European countries, the Pentecostal has no theological education. Even if he has attended a Bible
School for 1, 2, or 3 years, he has been enrolled in an "indoctrination" program (not meant to be understood
pejoratively here!), as the Bible School functions as an extension of the local church. The resistance to
theological education is certainly partly due to the fact that historically theological education has produced a
professional clergy who is cut off from its roots.
14
Spittler, 411.
15
Gary B. McGee, "The Azusa Street Revival and Twentieth-Century Missions," International Bulletin of
Missionary Research 12 (1988) 60.
16
Such as Grant McClung, Gary McGee, Paul Pomerville,
17
Paul A. Pomerville, The Third Force in Missions (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1985), 108.

6
 The Ecumenical Challenge of Pentecostal Missions

flexibility and creativity are in principle always possible:

Pentecostal mission strategies presuppose a dynamic view of
biblical theology. Strategy means having the testimonium,19 the
inner witness of the Spirit in the form of a positive but yet
pragmatic concept, thinking it through, implementing it, and
evaluating it in light of experience and results.

The ecclesiological perspective of Pentecostal missions

It is all too often forgotten that the heartbeat of
Pentecostal missions is the local congregation. One cannot
understand Pentecostal mission without understanding its
ecclesiology. It is by no means a pure coincidence that
eminent early Pentecostal missiologists like Melvin L. Hodges
wrote church-oriented books on mission, as shown, for example,
in this three-part structure of one of his works, going from a
theology of the Church to a theology of the Church's mission,
and finally to the Church in mission.20 In a similar way,
Morris Williams defined partnership in mission in terms of the
Church building task, the Church building tools, and the
Church building team.21

The Church is the community of God's people and only as such

"God's agent in the earth", to use Melvin Hodges' words, "the
medium through which he expresses Himself to the world. God
has no other redeeming agency in the earth."22 It seems urgent,
in the face of growing bureaucracy, centralization, and
hierocracies, as observed for example, in the recent
development within the German Protestant churches, the
Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD), to speak out and
remind the churches that "people" and "community" are indeed

18
As it is the case in the French Assemblies of God; see R. Pfister, Soixante ans de pentecôtisme, 93-121.
19
Pomerville, 120-127.
20
Melvin L. Hodges, A Theology of the Church and Its Mission (Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House,
1977).
21
Morris Williams, Partnership in Mission (Springfield, MO: Department of Foreign Missions of the Assemblies
of God, 1979).
22
Melvin L. Hodges, A Guide to Church Planting (Chicago: Moody Press, 1973), 15. See also Howard Snyder's
plenary paper during the 1974 Lausanne International Congress on World Evangelization: "The Church as God's
Agent in Evangelism" in Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis: World Wide Publications, 1975), 327-360.

7
 The Ecumenical Challenge of Pentecostal Missions

the two poles which together make up the biblical reality of

the Church. One might ask, if the major concern of a Church is
to save institutions, will it still be able to save people?
This question is particularly relevant, if saving people is
indeed not the same as having a growing number of people going
to church on Sunday, looking the same, talking the same
(language), and (not) doing the same (things).

DIFFERENT KINDS / LEVELS OF ECUMENISMS

It is misleading if one thinks about ecumenism as a uniform

reality. Some might prefer to think in such terms, but for all
practical purposes, such a view cannot be seen as realistic.
There are at least four levels of ecumenism to account for. Of
course, all four are in some way related to each other and in
some cases, some overlapping can be found.

The people's level

This is probably the most neglected level of ecumenism, but at
the same time it may be the most important. Jesus' prayer
about unity had certainly not so much interdenominational
pastoral conferences and/or theological colloquies in mind,
but rather what Adelheid von Guttenberg calls the "ecumenism
of the neighborhood".23 Ecumenical learning experiences at the
local church level should have the highest priority. But
missionary fervor can only affect fellow believers when beyond
the mere church activities, a shared missionary and innovative
lifestyle is being discovered because people have met. My plea
is therefore that ecumenism for mission needs to take place in
the context of ecumenism for koinonia.24

23
Ökumenisches Lernen: Eine Arbeitshilfe (Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus Gerd Mohn, 1985), 86
24
This statement is a Pentecostal reaction to David Bundy's observation : "there is less of a concern among
Pentecostals for a unity of theological opinion than for common activity for the Kingdom of God. In other words,
ecumenism for mission has precedence over ecumenism for koinonia." (Ecumenical Quest)

8
 The Ecumenical Challenge of Pentecostal Missions

The church leadership's level

Most of the time, this level of ecumenism finds forms of
expression along theological affinities. In Hamburg there are
three of these associations with different theological accents
and orientations, but also some overlapping: the
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Christlicher Kirchen in Hamburg (ACKH)25
with the majority of pastors and priests coming from the so-
called ”historical” Churches26; the Evangelische Allianz in
Hamburg (EAH) with mostly pastors, leaders and Christians from
evangelical (evangelikal) free churches; and the Kreis für die
Einheit des Leibes Christi in Hamburg27 (KELCH) with pastors,
leaders and Christians from Pentecostal and Charismatic
churches and organizations. Each of these in its own way makes
implicit claims for some kind of ecumenical monopoly. These
different forms of ecumenism make it clear that living side by
side is not the same as living with each other. The ecumenical
challenge of Pentecostal missions needs as its foundation and
deepest conviction that the Holy Spirit's missionary work is
also a work of unity making people free for more openness,
greater understanding, and shared commonness.

Even if ambiguities and tensions will always be found in the

life of the Church, God's reconciliation with the world will
definitively go the path of Christian unity in faith and
practice. When it comes to the subject of discernment and the
struggles of decision-making related to the manifestations of
the Spirit, Pentecostals and Charismatics have actually the
benefit of valued experience, since as Margaret M. Poloma
rightly says, "ambiguity is necessary for the survival of
28
charisma" . To resolve the ambiguity – to silence the dilemmas
– would indeed spell the end of Pentecostal missions.

25
The "Ecumenical Council of Christian Churches in Hamburg" is inspired by the World Council of Churches.
As can be seen in the English translation of its name (as advocated by Rev. Msgr. Wilm Sanders, its present
chairman), it most obviously conveys a certain claim of ecumenical exclusiveness.
26
Such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Lutheran Churches, the Reformed Church, the Orthodox Church, the
Methodist Church.
27
The "Circle for the Unity of the Body of Christ in Hamburg" has a rather narrow view of the household of
God.

9
 The Ecumenical Challenge of Pentecostal Missions

Therefore, one can only hope that in the future Pentecostals

will no longer be so busy with themselves, but will risk the
adoption of a broader view of the Church of Jesus Christ.

The institutional–denominational level

What Peter Hocken says about the charismatic movement is
certainly also true for the Pentecostal movement worldwide: it
"has not up to this point had much influence on leadership
within the ecumenical movement. Despite occasional efforts to
get the World Council of Churches and some national Councils
of Churches to take the charismatic movement seriously, not
much progress has been made."29 This must be especially
difficult as long as the ecumenical language remains some kind
of religious Esperanto. It may sound nice, but who can
understand it? We are not saying, of course, that this
situation should not change, nor that it will not change—
quite the contrary.

The academic–theological level

The European Pentecostal/Charismatic Research Association as
well as the Society for Pentecostal Studies have become
ecumenical forums of tremendous value. They are certainly not
the only gatherings of this kind30, but they, more than any
others, have given a sense of continuity and of covering a
breadth of subjects – including missiology – throughout recent
decades. One of the challenges the Pentecostal/Charismatic
academic-theological enterprise is going to face in the next
century is to put itself in a position where it will serve the
Church by reaching all other levels of ecumenism. This is an
imperative if it does not want to appear as a "closed shop"
business cut off from its roots and if it does not want to get

28
Margaret M. Poloma, The Assemblies of God at the Crossroads: Charisma and Institutional Dilemmas
(Knoxville, TN: The University of Tennesssee Press, 1989), 240.
29
Peter Hocken, The Strategy of the Spirit? (Guildford, Surrey: Eagle, 1996), 149.
30
At least the different series of discussions of the Roman Catholic/Pentecostal dialogue (since the early 1970s)
need to be mention at this point.

10
 The Ecumenical Challenge of Pentecostal Missions

overly and constantly frustrated at the institutional-

denominational level.

In referring to the Roman Catholic/Pentecostal dialogue, Jerry

L. Sandidge said that "the fruit of this dialogue must not be
expected immediately in terms of the unity of the church."31
However, it must be a legitimate question to keep in mind:
what fruit can be expected for whom in which timeframe? It is
not sufficient to acknowledge that ecumenical encounters are
lessons in spiritual growth for participants from all sides –
what they definitively are. But one question remains
unanswered: what benefit are they going to be for those not
participating?

SHARING ONE UNDERSTANDING OF MISSION:

Steps towards a common understanding of mission– Reporting on the work in progress of

the theological commission of the Ecumenical Council of Christian Churches in Hamburg
(Arbeitsgemeinschaft Christlicher Kirchen in Hamburg – ACKH)

The theological commission of the ACKH has been working since

1991 on the document Confessing the One faith: An Ecumenical
Explication of the Apostolic Faith as it is Confessed in the
Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (381).32 It should be noted
that for Pentecostal participants such a situation was most
unusual, as they are used to work with the Bible as their
starting point rather than with such historical documents.
After having discussed the articles about the Holy Spirit and
the Church, during the year 1996 the members of the committee
discussed the different views on mission found in the
affiliated churches: Adventist, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist,
Orthodox, Pentecostal, Reformed, and Roman Catholic. Those
discussions merged in the annual fall conference with the
following question: "What is the purpose of mission – against
each other or together?", which in turn led to more pertinent

31
Stanley M. Burgess and Gary B. McGee, eds. Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (Grand
Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1988), s.v. "Dialogue, Roman Catholic and Classical Pentecostal" by J. L. Sandidge.
32
Faith and Order Paper No. 153, World Council of Churches, Geneva 1991.

11
 The Ecumenical Challenge of Pentecostal Missions

questions. What Christian profile can we expect to find in a

secular society with a growing religious plurality? When we
talk about the witness of our faith, what is it we believe in?
What is mission for the Christian churches in Hamburg? What do
we mean by "proselytism"?

33
Part I: Laying a foundation
As a Pentecostal theologian, I was asked by the commission to
prepare a paper that would present the main theses on mission
as discussed in the previous sessions. Its working title was
"Towards understanding mission as a challenge and an impetus
for the congregation/the local church – Witness and service
for Christ's will in Hamburg"34. The following five theses
summarize the discussions:

FIRST THESIS: Mission is a task entrusted to all Christians

and an invitation extended to every person – independently
from race, gender, religious background, and social status. As
a consequence, the significance of the Gospel needs to be made
visible in order to communicate it effectively to people. No
single strategy or method should dominate it, nor should the
shortcomings of Church history be a hindrance.

SECOND THESIS: Mission, as a work of the Holy Spirit, leads

essentially to a personal encounter with the living Christ in
order to receive His forgiveness; it is the personal receiving
of the call to discipleship and to a life for service in
Christ – a decision taken personally and freely without human
manipulation.

THIRD THESIS: Mission as a call to discipleship is done with

the power of the Holy Spirit. It is at the same time missio
Dei (sovereign work of the Holy Spirit), missio ecclesiae (the
responsibility God has entrusted to the Church as the

33
The question of the resulting transforming character for individuals and therefore for society in the life of a
disciple of Jesus Christ is not dealt with here.

12
 The Ecumenical Challenge of Pentecostal Missions

fellowship of assembled believers), and missio fidelis (the

responsibility God has entrusted to every single believer as a
witness of Christ).

FOURTH THESIS: Mission in the Spirit of Pentecost goes beyond

walls and borders existing between people, and restores broken
unity. Opposite convictions and traditions should not be
hindrances to a common witness of the Church. The Holy Spirit
unites and liberates to more openness, understanding, and
commonness.

FIFTH THESIS: Mission is having an open attitude towards

people of different faiths and accepting to enter in a
relationship with an attitude of dialogue. Mission should not
be threatening to people, nor dominated by feelings of
superiority and power over others. Instead, with loving and
genuine caring, the Christian should move in the riskful arena
of a life full of tensions, finding and trying to keep a
balance between openness and syncretism, between tolerance and
relativism.

Part II: Tackling the issues

Two kinds of controversial issues appeared during the
discussions and were handled quite differently. The first one
was about water baptism. Left out of the first draft, it
received an unsatisfactory and rather unfair treatment. One
single sentence took care of centuries of theological
arguments: "Baptism finds largely (weithin) mutual
recognition, even though for many congregations where baptism
is highly valued (taufgesinnnt) the need for dialogue partly
remains." This meant that the majority of Churches in the ACK
were paedobaptists, and that the questions of the free
churches (including the Pentecostals) practicing believers’
baptism were put on the back burner. It is a theological irony

34
The final declaration was voted by the General Assembly on May 14, 1997, and has been published in German
in Einheit der Christen in Hamburg 15, June 1997: 4-5..

13
 The Ecumenical Challenge of Pentecostal Missions

that baptism is precisely "the drama of decision".35 In infant

baptism, it all turns around the decision of God, the decision
of the Church, the decision of the family, and the decision of
the parents. The ecumenical challenge of Pentecostal missions
lies here in its pointing to the decision of the baptized
believer.36 Without his active involvement mission remains a
broken circle. How a Church baptizes says a lot about the kind
of Church that is going to be built.

The second greater issue is the one related to the

relationship between Christianity and other religions. There
was already a discussion about whether we are talking about an
encounter with religions (at an abstract level) or about
meeting people from other religions (at a more personal
level). The latest view prevailed due to the fact that our
approach focused on our concrete situation in Hamburg. But
even on this level of understanding, the debate did no go
beyond the questions related to Jews and Muslims.

The greatest attention was given to the Jewish question. This

was largely due to the fact that the Society for Christian-
Jewish Cooperation in Hamburg had sent out a declaration in
February 1995 to all Christian churches in Hamburg, asking
them to take an official position to reject the idea of
Christians missionizing Jews as being incompatible with the
Christian faith. Any mission among Jews is hereby seen not
only as unbiblical and historically obsolete, but also as a
major hindrance to the Christian-Jewish dialogue. However, the
final declaration of the ACKH agreed only on three points:
(1) Christians and Jews share common roots of the faith;

35
Oscar S. Brooks, The Drama of Decision: Baptism in the New Testament (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1987),
x. The thesis developed in this book is certainly shared by Pentecostal Churches: Baptism is the drama of
decision – the drama of a person's willing decision to enter into a new lifestyle based upon a relationship to God
through His Son. The drama acts out the decision as a testimony to an unbelieving world.
36
Pentecostals cannot be accused of having taken their baptismal view from the Baptists, no more than it can be
said that they have taken their view on justification by faith from the Lutherans. Furthermore, the sprinkling
practice of the Chilean Pentecostals should not overshadow the fact that the overwhelming majority of the
Pentecostal movement disagrees with infant baptism.

14
 The Ecumenical Challenge of Pentecostal Missions

(2) the suffering of the Jews through the Shoa needs to be

accounted for;
(3) therefore, Christians have a historical and theological
challenge they need to face in an adequate manner
However, the theological commission of the ACKH has been
working for the past two years towards a specific declaration
about the relationship between Jews and Christians.37

The questions related to the relation between Christianity and

Islam have been postponed and have not been dealt with so far.
The declaration mentions only that a great number of Muslims
are citizens of this town of Hamburg and that a constructive
dialogue will benefit both Christians and Muslims.

Part III: Finding a consensus

Publishing a common declaration meant that a certain consensus
was reached. In light of those experiences, I want to say
something, in closing, about ecumenical discussions and
official declarations.

There is the problem of language. We all agreed that I Timothy

2:4-6 was a central statement for mission, that God "wants all
men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For
there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men."38
Reading the same text with the same words did not mean,
however, that we meant the same thing. This became obvious
when one participant in the commission suggested, for example,
that Buddhists are also saved by Christ while remaining in
their Buddhist faith, and that we should also ask ourselves
how we can help our "Muslim brethren" to be better Muslims,
and vice versa.

37
This declaration was officially adopted by the General Assembly of the ACK Hamburg on 15 November 1999.
The title of the unpublished document is: Das Volk Israel und die Mission der christlichen Kirchen – Eine
Erklärung der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Christlicher Kirchen in Hamburg -
38
New International Version (NIV)

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 The Ecumenical Challenge of Pentecostal Missions

There is also the aspect of not mentioning or not including

controversial matters. What you do not say cannot be a point
of disagreement. What can we afford to say? What can we afford
not to say? What weight have majorities and minorities? This
is for European Pentecostals – considering that they are a
minority group - a decisive question. What is the price of
unity? What is the quality of the resulting unity?

The ecumenical challenge of (European) Pentecostal missions

means first of all getting a larger hearing. Pentecostals,
"let your light shine before men, that they might see your
good deeds and praise your Father in heaven" (NIV, Matt 5:16)!
Only as Pentecostals/Charismatics get appropriate attention,
can they hope to express in their own language their vitality
for the benefit of the whole Church. Pentecostals, be a people
of dialogue and address the issues that will change the face
of the Church for the better! This is certainly no easy task,
but a rewarding experience, and – beyond any doubt - a vital
enterprise for the Kingdom of God.39

BENEDICTUS, QUI VENIT IN NOMINE DOMINI.

39
The issue of our Christian solidarity to Messianic Jews is one concrete example: after having been completely
ostracized, it became a major point of discussion in the theological commission of the ACKH only because it was
forcefully brought in by the present author.

16