over the last two decades. And this decline has izing, non-Western countries that are bestirred by not happened painlessly. In fact, the drama has the equally potent force of free-market capitalism. played out most vividly through a conflict between This southward shift in the center of religious gravity two ministries to youth—the bellwether of global means that formerly “un-churched” peoples now Catholicism’s future. The Youth Shepherd move- play a bigger role in shaping Christian belief and ment, shaped by the folksy ethos of ’60s-era socially practice than do their co-religionists in the late- engaged Catholicism, has lost ground to Jesus colonial powers that first missionized them. Youth, a product of Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Closer to the ground, a number of more recent “Just like many of the marginal groups we want developments become apparent. Neo-Pentecostal them to try to help, our young people criticize or “next generation” churches like Igreja Renacer are social engagement for just talking and not changing now outpacing the growth of traditional Pentecostal anything,” said Boareto. “Charismatic Renewal is churches, particularly among the emerging middle changing their realities, but the question is whether classes. Unlike older denominations, many of which that experience inside the church will really change have opened Bible colleges and seminaries to train the social reality.” pastors, these newer expressions of the Pentecostal movement tend to be highly organized without being “True” Christians tied to orthodox ideas about liturgy or theology— The wave of religious renewal that has swept in fact, they tend to eschew most formal theological through Campinas and the rest of the developing and denominational labels. Thus they have been world over the past quarter-century has likewise able to attract highly capable, mission-minded brought upheaval to established Protestant institu- leaders like Renata Strohmenger, a successful graphic tions like the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran designer, who considers her profound experience of Confession, which claims about 1 million members calling to ministry as her primary qualification for in Brazil. During her tenure as a minister and parish holding the pulpit. administrator, Rev. Neusa Tezner witnessed the The Catholic Charismatic movement, by contrast, long arc of the event first-hand. has been largely absorbed by the organizational She said that the appropriation of charismatic structure of its two-millennia-old parent institution. music and worship styles by some pastors and their Charismatic retreat centers in Africa, the Middle congregations was acceptable to her and other East and South Asia now host thousands of mostly members of the denominational hierarchy. But the lower-class retreatants as well as priests and nuns, very ecumenism that allowed Brazil’s Lutheran who are regularly dispatched to them for periods of establishment to absorb some of the energy of spiritual renewal. the Pentecostal movement also put it at odds with But if established Protestant and Catholic com- another of that movement’s common features: munities have begun to find their equilibrium after the notion that believers who have experienced the the tumult of what might eventually be considered gifts of the Holy Spirit must be re-baptized as a sign the First Global Great Awakening, Pentecostal and that they have become “true” Christians. charismatic missionizing of non-Christian religious Tezner’s denomination acknowledges baptisms groups is sending even broader ripples through from all Christian traditions as valid, and she developing societies that are already in a state of said that pastors who practiced re-baptism were flux. The cell-group strategies of renewalist “church- considered “contaminated.” During this period of planters” in India, China and tribal regions of Indo- polarization, which culminated in an administrative nesia and Brazil often disturb deeply established housecleaning in 2002, about 15,000 people left structures of kinship and belief—a process that the fold. exposes tensions between the values of religious “I’m happy that era is over,” Tezner said. “It was freedom and social stability. a painful process. But it strengthened the core of The following pages explore these issues in the Lutheran church.” greater depth and detail, looking frequently at how That, in a sense, is what religious renewal is the interplay between Christian renewal movements all about. and the particular elements of a given cultural landscape influence developments in politics, Renewal Movements and economic equality, gender relations or sexuality. Christianity’s Southward Shift With any luck, the reader will have acquired, by the How are these trends shaping the religious land- end, a clearer sense for what believers mean by scape in other parts of the global South? For about “Pentecostal”—and for the consequences of the 10 years the headlines have read something like increasing dominance of that form of belief in this: Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity is the parts of the world that are changing at a breakneck fastest-growing religious movement on the planet, pace. i and it is flourishing most vigorously in rapidly urban-

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ORIGINS and growth

The Los Angeles Times was not pleased religious fervor last night… Men and epidemic—cholera, typhus and even by events unfolding at the Apostolic women embraced each other in an bubonic plague—roiled Southern Cali- Faith Gospel Mission. Under the head- apparent agony of emotion. Whites fornia and other parts of the country. line “Women With Men Embrace” in the and negroes clasped hands and L.A. itself was undergoing difficult newspaper’s edition for September 3, sang together. The surprise is that growing pains—the city had tripled in 1906, the writer for the Times cata- any respectable white person would size during the first decade of the 20th logued several “disgusting scenes”: attend such meetings as are being century, the plan to establish a steady conducted on Azusa street. water supply for the arid region was still Muttering a jargon of unintelligible just “Mulholland’s Dream” and a boom- sounds which no man can interpret, Even apart from the overt Caucasian and-bust economy had created a huge, the worshipers in the barn-like male chauvinism apparent in the article, restive underclass. negro church on Azusa street worked the L.A. of that time was very different themselves into paroxysms of from the relatively stable, suburban- ized metropolis of today. Racial unrest, violent labor protests and the threat of

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87509_USC_r1.indd 11 5/17/13 12:02 PM h Cidade de Refúgio (City of Refuge), an LGBT-inclusive Pentecostal church in Many Pentecostal and charismatic communities in São Paulo, Brazil Korea, Fiji, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere nurture origin stories that offer a counter- narrative to the assumptions that underlie the Azusa Street origin story.

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87509_USC_r1.indd 12 5/17/13 12:02 PM Iconoclastic Religion trace their roots to Los Angeles and the In the midst of this turmoil an unortho- Azusa Street Revival. But the charis- dox black preacher named William J. matic impulse in American Christianity Seymour appeared. Seymour’s testi- has a much older lineage—including mony about the spiritual transformation the camp meetings at Cane Ridge, Ken- that followed the believer’s personal tucky in the early 19th century and other experience of the Holy Spirit connected events associated with the First and a radically individualist form of Christi- Second Great Awakenings. Members of anity to the event at Pentecost—an ac- renewalist movements often locate the count in the New Testament that serves source of their theology and practice as a touchstone for both Pentecostals even farther in the past, identifying and their Catholic counterparts, Charis- their cultivation of ecstatic experiences matic Renewalists. During the Pentecost with the spiritual fervor of Christianity’s event, which is supposed to have oc- earliest apostolic age. And many Pente- curred 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection, costal and charismatic communities in his key disciples and scores of other Korea, Fiji, Latin America, sub-Saharan followers were visited by the Holy Spirit, Africa and elsewhere nurture origin an ecstatic encounter that bestowed stories that offer a counter-narrative to abilities like healing, prophesy and the assumptions that underlie the Azusa supernatural speech—or “speaking in Street mythology. tongues.” For example, the Mukti revival in Seymour’s church on Azusa Street India occurred concurrently with events drew motley throngs that alarmed in Los Angeles. And in West Africa, in- members of a civic and religious digenous evangelists William Wade Har- establishment who saw little to like in ris and Garrick Sokari Braide sparked an African-American preacher leading Pentecost-inspired revival movements an interracial flock that engaged in a in the early 20th century that had only noisily emotional form of worship. But the most tenuous relationships to Pen- along with the promise of direct access tecostalism in the global North. to divine power through the Holy Spirit, the emphasis on emotion in Pentecos- Networks and Empowerment talism was, arguably, the primary rea- But if there were near-simultaneous son it proved so attractive. Traditional eruptions of renewalist fervor during Protestant and Catholic movements what might be called the First Global of that era defined themselves largely Great Awakening, the missionary and through creeds, liturgical orthodoxies media networks that were established and conventions of biblical interpreta- and expanded by Azusa Street evange- tion—they were, in short, religions lists unquestionably enabled the spread more of the head than the heart. At a of the spiritual fire. In an article titled time when rapid urbanization and social “‘Tongues’ Go Into Africa” (May 18, upheaval were the order of the day, 1907), the Los Angeles Times offered a Pentecostalism’s promise of supernatu- glimpse of this ongoing dispatch of mis- ral power and healing made it a popular sionaries into “un-churched” lands: remedy for the forms of soul-sickness that afflicted many people in early 20th- The “Gift of Tongues” fellowship century L.A. and in parts of the world transferred itself bodily last evening connected to the city through a growing from the Azusa-street church to the missionary network. Salt Lake Depot, and a “Pentecostal farewell” was given to the Cummings Competing Mythologies family, as it started in its initial jour- At this point the story becomes more ney, the end of which is planned to complicated. Among many American be Monrovia, Liberia, Africa. scholars, the standard narrative about Pentecostalism is that contemporary global expressions of the movement

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munities across Latin America, Africa and East Asia. The frequent syncretism between local musical forms and the performance component of renewalist religious experience also means that local innovations of praise music are readily transmitted through the same transnational networks.

Pentecostalization and Routinization A number of additional trends have emerged in Africa, Asia and Latin America. For example, many mainline communities have become Pente- costalized—meaning that emotional worship styles and an emphasis on the gifts of the Holy Spirit are now com- mon features in churches that formally identify themselves with established denominations like Methodism or Angli- canism. Which highlights the fact that the boundaries separating evangeli- cal, Pentecostal, charismatic and even mainline churches are blurring, making traditional distinctions somewhat outmoded. Conversely, many older Pentecostal denominations have begun to prize professionalized clergy and a more rationalistic worship culture— processes of routinization that have diminished their capacity to innovate and grow. The leading edges of the Christian renewal movement are now the province of post-denominational groups that are beginning to engage with other religious movements in order to transform weak and often corrupt civil societies. Los Angeles, formerly the point of departure for missionaries dispatched to the global South, is now home to dozens of outposts established by Protestant renewal groups like the India Pentecostal Church, Nigeria’s Redeemed Christian Church of God and Misión Cristiana Elim, a particularly dynamic next-generation movement

h Top and bottom: Nossa Senhora based in Central America. What are the de Penha Catholic Church, Rio de characteristics of the renewal move- Janeiro, Brazil ments on the southern ends of these networks? How are they interacting with—and even shaping—the cultures where they flourish? And what seeds are they planting in the well-turned spiritual turf of the City of Angels? i

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87509_USC_r2.indd 16 5/23/13 2:33 PM h Centro Christiano, San Salvador,

El Salvador h Healing service at Blessing Centre headquarters, Kerala, India

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87509_USC_r1.indd 17 5/17/13 12:03 PM Evolutions Movements associated with the first wave of global Christian renewal have become institutionalized, sparking new renewalist impulses in the developing world.

Glory Moses, a pastor’s daughter, is no New Testament Greek) is one of about spiritual slacker. Other 20-year-olds a dozen training centers for pastors and in her native Kerala may be counting lay evangelists within an hour’s drive the days until the opening of Kochi’s of Kochi. And in a country dominated mammoth Lulu Mall—billed as the by Hindus, Christians constitute slim largest shopping center in India outside majorities in several towns on the edge Mumbai. But Moses, a student at a of Kochi’s urban sprawl. girls’ school affiliated with Doulos Bible Yet interspersed among the gleam- College, is up before dawn every morn- ing commercial developments and ing for about two hours of prayer. Her mushrooming churches that line the school day, punctuated by periods of state’s well-maintained highways are Bible study and meditation, officially rows of red flags emblazoned with the ends at 6 p.m. with more prayer. But Communist movement’s hammer and she prays on her own for another hour sickle. As the Indian writer Akash Kapur before midnight and again between 1 noted in “Poor But Prosperous,” his and 2 a.m. seminal essay on Kerala, a long history “That’s when it’s easiest to get au- of international trade and a general thority over the evil spirit,” she said. openness to outsiders have made the An improbable mixture of religious state fertile ground for political as well fervor, socialist politics and centuries- as religious practices that are distinct old cosmopolitanism constitutes from the more insular social ethos that Kerala’s heady cultural brew. Indians prevails in other parts of India. commonly refer to the state, which Abraham and Molly Pothen, Fuller has a population of about 35 million, Theological Seminary graduates who as their country’s Bible Belt. To wit, returned to India to found Doulos in Doulos (the word means “servant” in the 1990s, are senior leaders in the

h Above: Girls’ Bible study class, Blessing Centre headquarters,

Kerala, India h Left: Glory Moses Right: Abraham Pothen

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87509_USC_r2.indd 18 5/23/13 2:33 PM In a country dominated by Hindus, Christians constitute slim majorities in several towns on the edge of Kochi’s urban sprawl.

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87509_USC_r2.indd 19 5/23/13 3:27 PM Estimated Size of Renewalist Populations

Pentecostals Charismatics Total (Renewalists)

United States 5% 18% 23%

Latin America Brazil 15 34 49 Chile 9 21 30 Guatemala 20 40 60

Africa

h Students at a school renovated Kenya 33 23 56 by Guiding Light Assembly, Lagos, Nigeria 18 8 26 Nigeria South Africa 10 24 34

Asia India (localities) 1 4 5 Philippines 4 40 44 South Korea 2 9 11

SOURCE: Pew Research Center, “Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals,” 2006

Sharon Fellowship Church, a second- also makes their rate of growth sluggish cures and other supernatural events. generation Pentecostal movement with in comparison to upstart churches like This fact speaks to the degree to which over 2,000 small congregations, mostly Heavenly Feast and the Blessing Centre. the process of Pentecostalization entails in Kerala and other southern states. These “post-denominational” or “next- not just the appropriation of lively They supervise about 250 students in generation” movements train lay people preaching and worship styles but also the campuses affiliated with the school. to seed most of their new churches a shift toward the individual believer’s The primary purpose of the institu- (degrees in business or engineering are personal experience of encounter with tion, according to Abraham Pothen, is more common among young leaders the Holy Spirit. to nurture the growth of their religious than formal theological certification). An even more striking trend revealed network. But a strong emphasis on “gifts of the in the Pew report is that renewal “Ninety-five percent of our gradu- Holy Spirit”—particularly supernatural movements in six of the ten countries ates will be pioneer ministers,” Pothen healing—still places them within the surveyed now account for solid majori- said. “They’ll go into new areas where renewalist stream of global Christianity. ties of the Protestant population. Which there is no church.” means that in places ranging from Brazil Glory Moses’ religious ardor and the Fine-Tuning the Storyline and Guatemala to Kenya and the Philip- Pothens’ commitment to cell group- on Pentecostal Growth pines, Christian renewalists—including style evangelism are typical of the Catholicism and Protestantism claim traditional and “next generation” Pen- growing edges of Protestant renewalist roughly equal portions of India’s 24 tecostals and Pentecostalized mainline movements in southern India. On the million Christians. According to the Protestants as well as charismatic other hand, long-established de- Pew Research Center’s survey of global Catholics—now dominate the religious nominations like the India Pentecostal Christianity in 2006, India is one of two landscape. Church (IPC) often cling to orthodox- countries (along with Nigeria) where a Still, seven years after the publica- ies—a prohibition against jewelry, for majority of worshipers in non-renewalist tion of the Pew report, a number of example—that diminish their appeal to congregations—Methodist, Baptist developments suggest that many of younger believers. A heavier reliance on and traditional Catholic churches, the older, first-generation Protestant organizational and pastoral authority for example—have begun to report renewal movements have reached the experiencing or witnessing miraculous

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87509_USC_r1.indd 20 5/17/13 12:03 PM Renewalist Influence on Protestantism

Percent of Protestants who are… Pentecostals Charismatics Non- Renewalists

United States 10 18 72

Latin America Brazil 72 6 22 Chile 59 19 22 Guatemala 58 27 15

Africa h Worshipers at the Vincentian House Kenya 50 23 56 of Prayer, Nairobi, Kenya Nigeria 48 12 40 South Africa 14 29 57

Asia India (localities)* – – – Philippines 37 30 33 South Korea 9 29 63

SOURCE: Pew Research Center, “Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals,” 2006 * Results for India were not reported because Pew’s general survey included a small number of Protestants.

peak of their potential for growth. This The Next Generation— A number of developments slowing expansion has to do, in part, Renewing Renewal Movements suggest that many of the older, with the natural limits on the appeal of Within the ranks of Protestant renewal any given movement within the religious movements, the experience of encoun- first-generation Protestant marketplace. In other words, in places tering what might be called a “spiritual renewal movements have like Chile, Brazil and El Salvador, most saturation point” in the wider religious reached the peak of their of the Catholics who might be attracted culture has redirected the energy of the to charismatic forms of worship have evangelizing impulse in a pair of impor- potential for growth. either already left the Catholic flock or tant ways. First, pastors increasingly joined a Charismatic Renewal group tend to identify themselves and their supported by the local hierarchy of the ministries with networks rather than Church. Similarly, the worship cultures their own denominational leadership. In of traditional Protestant denominations other words, for inspiration and innova- in Nigeria, Indonesia, South Korea and tion they rely more heavily on global other parts of the developing world are relationships cultivated through social by now largely Pentecostalized, which media and the flow of migrant labor means there is less incentive for believ- than on their denomination’s hierarchy. ers to look beyond their own communi- And second, the institutions that pre- ties for the kind of spiritual exuberance serve denominational identity among that was once the distinctive offering of older Pentecostal movements have Pentecostalism. become more routinized and inward “The only difference between Chris- looking as millions of latter-day evange- tian churches in Nigeria,” said Yusufu lists find themselves much more tightly Turaki, director of the Centre for the constrained than their predecessors in Study of Religion at Jos Theological where and how they can evangelize. Seminary, “is who’s in the pulpit. The The 90-year-old India Pentecostal congregations are all the same.” Church is a case in point. IPC is the

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largest Pentecostal denomination in personal spiritual crisis. He describes India, with over 7,000 churches there his first experience with denominational and in countries where Indians have culture—in a small, second-generation migrated for work and study. During a movement similar in theological outlook visit to an IPC seminary in Kerala, about to IPC—as a “negative example” of how a dozen faculty members made formal, to run a church. The leadership strictly conference-style presentations that enforced clean-shaven faces for men uniformly placed great emphasis on the and modest dress for women as well denomination’s centralized structure as a closed-minded perspective on and careful control of worship culture. religious “others.” This establishmentarianism starkly con- “This was not what Jesus intended,” trasted with the lively, almost ad hoc Anthony said. spiritual ethos of Heavenly Feast and The worship experience at the the Blessing Centre, next generation headquarters of the Blessing Centre h Damien Anthony, founder, Blessing Centre movements that are bursting the seams movement—there are currently 14 of their industrial-warehouse style centers in India and a handful in the

h Women’s charismatic prayer, worship spaces and attracting younger, Arab world and sub-Saharan Africa—is Vincentian House of Prayer, more demographically and economi- loose and vibrant compared to the Nairobi, Kenya cally diverse believers. more conservative style that prevails “If you are willing to take God out in Kerala’s first-generation Pentecostal of his theological box,” said Damien churches. Women significantly outnum- Anthony, founder of the Blessing Centre, bered men at a recent Sunday service, “he will start working in your life.” and many of them wore the colorful Anthony, who grew up in a Catho- saris and jewelry typical of southern lic family, joined a Protestant renewal India’s dominant Hindu culture. While group in the 1990s during a period of supernatural healing has a prominent

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87509_USC_r2.indd 24 5/23/13 2:34 PM place in the movement, Anthony is in- different to using the label Pentecostal to describe his beliefs and practices. He even eschews the word “church” as too narrow to accommodate the breadth of his vision for ministry in a religiously pluralistic country, which points toward another characteristic of next-gener- ation movements—an openness to a degree of ecumenism that would have been unimaginable, even abhorrent, to earlier generations of Pentecostals.

Finding a Place for Charismatics in the Church If, compared to next-generation movements, traditional Pentecostal denominations like the Assemblies of God and IPC are beginning to resemble the hidebound Protestant establish- ment that the first Pentecostals in the U.S. rebelled against, the charismatic movement in the Catholic Church has managed to establish a congenial niche within the Church’s larger ecclesial culture. This comfortable assimilation is particularly apparent in India, where the Church has a long history—St. Thomas is supposed to have brought Christian- ity from Rome to Kerala in 52 CE—and charismatic retreat centers attract thousands of participants each week. In fact, Kerala’s enormous Divine Retreat Centre offers twice-yearly spiritual renewal programs for both priests and nuns. But the relative comity between the Catholic Charismatic movement and traditionalists within the Church has not been achieved without some difficulty. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which established the Divine Retreat Centre in the 1950s, runs other centers in Nigeria and Kenya. In Nairobi, where women often lead charismatic cell groups at the Vincentian House of Prayer, the hier- archy of the local diocese banned char- ismatic ministries for several months in 2009. But the Vincentian House of Prayer also conducts healing services that attract thousands of participants from the nearby Kawangware slum, which undoubtedly figured into the Vatican’s decision to order the lifting of

the ban. h Vincention House of Prayer, Nairobi Kenya

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87509_USC_r1.indd 25 5/17/13 12:04 PM Século 21 plans to produce the four Gospels in telenovela format and dub the HD programming into dozens of languages. Thus the network’s TV viewership of 20 million in Brazil will likely soon become a relatively small fraction of a much larger global online audience.

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87509_USC_r1.indd 26 5/17/13 12:04 PM h Yoido Full Gospel Church, Seoul, South Korea

A similar appreciation for the Prosperity Loses Its Luster value of the charismatic movement as The prominence of the prosperity the Church’s engine of evangelism is gospel among Protestant renewalists apparent in Brazil, which still has the is a key difference between the Catholic largest number of Catholics in the world Charismatic movement in the global even though Catholicism now claims South and the Pentecostal movements less than 60 percent of the population whose worship styles and evangelism —down from 85 percent just two strategies charismatics have begun decades ago. to emulate. As next-generation Pentecostal “sheep stealing” is Pentecostals begin to attract upwardly largely responsible for this decline, mobile, well educated worshipers from which inspired Fr. Edward J. Dougherty, emerging middle classes, many of SJ—founder of TV Século 21 (21st Cen- the pastors who promote a sense of tury TV), a Catholic media network—to divinely ordained entitlement among produce online educational programs their parishioners have become to train Catholic laymen and laywomen embroiled in scandal or have been as evangelists, essentially taking a page called out for their profligacy by their from the Pentecostal playbook and coreligionists. updating it for the digital age. And along Asked about the followers of Silas with shows devoted to youth culture, Malafaia, one of Brazil’s wealthiest cooking, news and sports, Dougherty megachurch pastors, a 20-something and his development team have also member of a second-generation created fare like the immensely popular Pentecostal church in Rio de Janeiro “Charismatic Nights” that responds remarked, “They think God is like the to the needs of viewers who are eager genie from Aladdin’s lamp.”

h Sound stage at TV Século 21 for Catholic programming with a Pente- That kind of grassroots disdain (21st Century TV), near Campinas, costal flavor. for the excesses of Pentecostalism’s Brazil “Jesus Christ would be on the air,” prosperity-focused subculture is Dougherty said. Indeed he will be. becoming widespread in the develop- Século 21 plans to produce the four ing world—and not without reason. Gospels in telenovela format and dub Believer’s Church in India, City Harvest the HD programming into dozens of in Singapore and, perhaps not surpris- languages. Thus the network’s TV view- ingly, Yoido Full Gospel Church in South ership of 20 million in Brazil will likely Korea—the largest Pentecostal mega- soon become a relatively small fraction of a much larger global online audience.

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87509_USC_r1.indd 27 5/17/13 12:04 PM As some of the movements driven by the impulse of spiritual renewal in global Christianity begin to develop the traits of institutionalism—or begin to allow the distinctive individualism of Pentecostal experience to devolve into uninspired self- centeredness—new renewalist movements will inevitably arise.

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87509_USC_r1.indd 28 5/17/13 12:04 PM h Cidade de Refúgio (City of Refuge), São Paulo, Brazil

church in the world, with nearly half a Crisis and Innovation million members—have all been tainted Glory Moses, the ardent Bible college by money-related scandal in recent student in Kerala, spoke of what she years. took to be a prophetic dream in which But even in the absence of overt she is called upon to pull “huge, fat financial misconduct, many proponents people, even people who call them- of the prosperity gospel have become selves Christians” from the bottom of objects of scorn in the eyes of their a dry well. This kind of vision-inspired next-generation peers. Tony Rapu, prophecy falls squarely within a scrip- pastor of This Present House and several tural tradition that includes figures like other ministries in Lagos, recently Amos and Jeremiah, who preached to published an op-ed piece in a Nigerian (and chided) not just spiritual outsid- newspaper in which he criticized fellow ers but also degenerate coreligionists. pastor Ayo Oritsejafor for accepting Moses’ description of her sense of voca- a private jet as a gift from a wealthy tion also reflects the broader tension benefactor. In Rapu’s widely discussed between reformation and orthodoxy in opinion, the acquisition by Oritsejafor, all religions. Thus as some of the move- the first Pentecostal president of the ments driven by the impulse of spiritual Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) renewal in global Christianity begin and the first person to serve as the to develop the traits of institutional- leader of both CAN and the Pentecostal ism—or begin to allow the distinctive Federation of Nigeria, was “technically individualism of Pentecostal experience h Tony Rapu, senior pastor of This legal but spiritually inappropriate” in a to devolve into uninspired self-cen- Present House, Lagos, Nigeria country hobbled by rampant corruption teredness—new renewalist movements and where tens of millions of people live will inevitably arise. Fresh sparks of on less than $1 a day. spiritual innovation are emerging now, as they have before, under the kinds of acute social pressure that are especially congenial to extremophile forms of religious belief. i

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87509_USC_r1.indd 30 5/17/13 12:04 PM Adaptations Just as Christian renewal movements are shaping the cultures where they are growing, they are also shaped by the imperative to find common values in pluralistic societies.

“Joy is in the house!” declared Sister Florence Aviso, a worship leader at Kings Revival Church International in Dubai. Aviso kept a crowd of roughly 800 on its feet singing praise songs for over an hour at the start of KRCI’s Sunday evening English-language service. The church’s Filipino band took the stage that night, but African, Indian and Middle Eastern musicians have their turn over the course of a weekly roster that averages a couple of services a day in half a dozen languages.

h Lanna Holder (left) and Rosania Rocha, founders of Cidade de Refúgio (City of Refuge), an LGBT-inclusive, next-generation Pentecostal church in São Paulo, Brazil

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Engagement

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87509_USC_r1.indd 40 5/17/13 12:05 PM In dysfunctional societies, some renewal movements are beginning to engage civic institutions and religious “others” to effect positive social change.

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87509_USC_r1.indd 41 5/17/13 12:05 PM h Shanties at Isolo Landfill, Lagos, Nigeria

“The failure of the system, A fleet of rented minivans from God Rapu, Orhonor and a handful of vol- of the society, has become a Bless Nigeria Church pulled up to the unteers fanned out through the shanties edge of Isolo landfill, an especially and led anyone who would follow them leverage for us. In this darkness blighted section of a city not known for to a small clearing. As a sweaty, glassy- we have decided to be light. its beauty. eyed man argued with his demons and a We’re providing education, Tony Rapu, senior pastor of This one-legged boy hopped nimbly around Present House, a prosperous next- small piles of scrap metal, Rapu stood we’re providing healthcare, generation church in Lagos, led a team on a recumbent refrigerator and told a we’re providing empowerment— of volunteers up a steep path of packed crowd of roughly 50 onlookers that they all of that.” dirt to the top of the landfill, which is were welcome to come to God Bless Ni- home to hundreds destitute people who geria, where they could get a shower, a have scavenged plastic sheeting, card- meal, a haircut and fresh clothes as well board and corrugated metal to make as help with medical needs, education shelters for themselves. and job training. “The failure of the system, of the “We go to about 200 neighborhoods society, has become a leverage for us,” in total,” Orhonor said. “And all these said Pastor Orhonor, the coordinator areas we go to, we never leave. We be- for God Bless Nigeria, one of several come a part of the area. This is the only social-outreach ministries of This Pres- way I know Christianity right now. ” ent House. “In this darkness we have decided to be light. We’re providing Signs and Wonders education, we’re providing healthcare, In the Lagos region—far from the we’re providing empowerment—all of sectarian strife that plagues Nigeria’s that.” central and northeastern regions—the problem that impairs social develop- ment is primarily poverty deepened by economic and political corruption.

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87509_USC_r1.indd 42 5/17/13 12:05 PM Homegrown Pentecostal denominations dent of the Pentecostal Fellowship of As he did in 2010, Nigeria’s President like This Present House, Mountain of Nigeria—is a fairly accurate reflection Goodluck Jonathan delivered a homily Fire and Miracles Ministries, Living Faith of the disparities between Nigeria’s tiny on the last night of the congress and, Church and the Redeemed Christian elite and its enormous underclass. afterward, knelt for a blessing from Church of God (RCCG) have flourished All of these elements were on Enoch Adeboye, general overseer of in the relative stability of Yorubaland, display at the RCCG’s annual Holy RCCG. where Christianity is the majority Ghost Congress, a weeklong event in A casual observer at the Holy Ghost religion and ethnic Yoruba families December that drew several million Congress might reasonably conclude often have both Muslim and Christian believers to the denomination’s mam- that by encouraging multitudes to pray members. moth Redemption Camp about 30 miles for riches and anointing a politician who Many of these renewal movements north of Lagos. The theme of this year’s embodies Nigeria’s status quo, RCCG’s emphasize personal prosperity and su- congress—“Signs and Wonders”— administration tacitly accepts Nigeria’s pernatural healing, which are powerful threaded through sermons, healing dysfunctions. But behind the scenes, enticements for the poor residents who services, ecstatic prayer sessions and the situation proved more complex and constitute the overwhelming majority an altar call that stretched to half an pointed toward a growing commitment in a metropolis that has swollen from hour to allow time for would-be to social engagement among some about 1 million to over 20 million in four converts to cover the kilometer from Pentecostal leaders in the Lagos region. decades. But this narrow focus on the the back of the Redemption Camp “Our most important task is winning welfare of the individual believer has structure to the stage. The tune to the the lost for Christ,” said Yemi Osinbajo, also tended to create congregations hymn “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand” a pastor with RCCG and supervisor for that are disengaged from the structural was repurposed for the congress, the denomination’s social responsibility problems of Nigerian society. In fact, including a chorus that began “God projects. Osinbajo, who teaches law at the contrast between churchgoers will give us signs and wonders” and the University of Lagos, is also a former whose average yearly income is often lines like “Rejoice the sick you’ll soon special advisor to the attorney gen- less than $500 and millionaire pastors be healed” and “Rejoice the poor you’ll like Ayo Oritsejafor —the current presi- soon be rich.” h Redemption Camp, Redeemed Christian Church of God, near Lagos, Nigeria

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87509_USC_PCRI_rev1.indd 43 5/23/13 11:34 AM eral of Nigeria and served as attorney general and commissioner for justice of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007. As he described it, the RCCG’s idea of “win- ning the lost” takes shape as something other than conventional evangelism. “This means reaching out to the poorest members of our communities,” he said, “even if they are not Christians. The point is trying to touch those in need in real and positive ways.” Projects sponsored by Osinbajo’s organization include insurance schemes to provide healthcare for poor children and the “Excel” reading program, which has instituted and underwritten new teaching strategies for promoting lit- eracy in 40 public schools in the Lagos area. This shift in the notion of what constitutes the core imperative of the gospel—from simply amassing converts to promoting primary social goods like healthcare and education regardless of the religious affiliation of beneficia- ries—marks a subtle but important evo- lution in Nigeria’s Pentecostal culture. The primary vector for transmit- ting this new thinking is a Lagos-based network called Apostles in the Market Place (AIMP), on whose board of advi- sors Osinbajo serves. John Enelemah, the president of AIMP, said that the deep structural problems in Nigerian society, coupled with some earnest soul-searching, prompted the founding of his organiza- tion in 2003. “How can Nigeria be so religious,” he asked, “and at the same time so violent and corrupt? The answer is that some- times people use faith as a substitute for industry. We have to accept respon- sibility and stop saying our problems are all the fault of bad government.”

“We focus on values like honesty, integrity, transparency and fairness that are equally important to our Muslim

brethren.” h Sam Adeyemi, founder h John Enelemah, president of Apostles in and senior pastor, Daystar the Market Place, Lagos, Nigeria Christian Centre, Lagos, Nigeria

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87509_USC_r1.indd 44 5/17/13 12:05 PM Perhaps more importantly in the Vanguard of a New Movement? Nigerian context, the projects of the The progressive turn among Pente- AIMP network—including workshops costals in the Lagos region is rooted in business ethics and leadership in Nigeria’s second wave of renewal- skills, poverty alleviation and educa- ist fervor, which swept the country’s tion reform—are oriented toward both university campuses during the first few Christians and non-Christians. decades of Nigerian independence. Like Enelemah said, “We focus on values many other next-generation leaders, like honesty, integrity, transparency and most of the key figures in this movement fairness that are equally important to pursued professional degrees before our Muslim brethren.” heeding a call to ministry, and signifi- This broad-minded perspective on cant portions of their congregations the promotion of national transforma- are drawn from equally well-educated tion characterizes the points of view of members of an emerging middle class. several prominent Pentecostal pastors According to the latest data from in Lagos—including Tony Rapu of This Pew, next-generation or “post-denom- Present House, Sam Adeyemi of the inational” Pentecostals currently ac- Daystar Christian Centre, Paul Ad- count for 53 percent of the world’s half- efarasin of House on the Rock and Wale billion Christian rewewalists—a figure Adefarasin of Guiding Light Assem- that dwarfs the number of traditional bly. In addition to NGO-style poverty Pentecostals or Catholic Charismat- abatement projects like Rapu’s God ics. This means the leading edge of a Bless Nigeria Church, all of them have movement that has historically shunned developed marketplace-oriented train- engagement with either civil society or ing programs to foster ethical business adherents of other religions is beginning practices as well as organizations to to pursue both the transformation of revitalize public education within their dysfunctional societies and cooperation spheres of influence. And each has ex- with religious “others.” pressed a commitment to social values “Our work is to disciple people away and forms of civic engagement that from traditionalism toward a church invite the participation of all Nigerians. that is more responsive to the needs of “In their emphasis on creating society today,” said Adonaldo Arias, a material wealth, many pastors are not twenty-something on-air host and youth mature in their thinking,” said Daystar’s programing producer for CCT-TV, the

h Officers of Nigeria’s State Security Sam Adeyemi. “They should model sac- media-production ministry of Misión Service, Assemblies of God head- rifice, service and tolerance. You can’t Cristiana Elim in El Salvador. “This is quarters church, Jos, Nigeria lead the whole country with prejudice. what it means to help people know the Every citizen should want to live in a full gospel.” developed country—Christian, Muslim, The Elim headquarters church—with animist, atheist. This message will ap- 80,000 members—is one of the largest peal if we’re not antagonistic.” next-generation Pentecostal commu- In a surprising departure from nities in the world. And in a country the otherworldly ethos of traditional where Christian renewal movements This shift in the notion of what Pentecostalism, which usually fosters claim over half of the population, CCT- constitutes the core imperative of a disdain for politics among adherents, TV exerts a powerful influence on both many next-generation leaders in Lagos religious and mainstream culture. the gospel—from simply amassing have begun to discuss political activism Like the progressive Pentecostals converts to promoting primary as a logical next step in the project of in the Lagos region, Arias and other social goods like healthcare national transformation. As with their thought-leaders at Elim are leveraging imperatives for economic reform, they their cultural sway in a country with and education regardless of the acknowledge the importance of toler- relatively weak civic institutions in order religious affiliation of beneficiaries ance and inclusivity in a country evenly to effect transformation that benefits —marks a subtle but important divided between Christianity and Islam. not just themselves but all stakeholders “There should be no exclusive Chris- in their society. evolution in Nigeria’s Pentecostal tian [political] parties,” said AIMP’s John “We made a decision to unlearn culture. Enelemah. “The point is to promote what we had learned from Pentecostal- values that include Muslims.” ism regarding the Scriptures,” Arias said. “Our emphasis is now more on

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87509_USC_r1.indd 45 5/17/13 12:05 PM reformation and openness. We are just as it offers healing for those Next-generation or “post- planting the seeds of enlightenment.” whose economic marginalization causes denominational” Pentecostals This theological shift is intimately suffering. related to the particulars of the Salva- In El Salvador, “Pentecostalism has currently account for 53 percent doran context—barely 20 years after become a refuge for people searching of the world’s half-billion Christian the end of a bloody civil war, poverty for identity in a time of anomie,” Mixco rewewalists—a figure that and instability persist as both causes said. and consequences of rampant gang None of which is to say that all dwarfs the number of traditional violence—as well as to the broader Salvadoran renewalists are following Pentecostals or Catholic effects of globalization. Elim’s lead. Many next-generation Charismatics. The leading Luis Mixco, coordinator of the churches in San Salvador’s wealthier Culture and Religion program for El enclaves are shaped by the self-inter- edge of a movement that has Salvador’s Secretary of Culture, ested ethos of the prosperity gospel. historically shunned engagement said that as recently as the 1980s, And traditional Pentecostal communi- with either civil society or “Pentecostalism was for the ignorant. ties, which dominate the countryside, Now there are a growing number of are still deeply conservative on matters adherents of other religions is professionals attracted to next-gener- related to biblical interpretation and beginning to pursue both the ation churches. Pentecostalism is now interreligious relations. transformation of dysfunctional associated with social ascendance.” But as in other parts of the world, Tolerance and Collaboration societies and cooperation with the expanding demographic base of Perhaps no other issue has exposed the religious “others.” newer Pentecostal movements isn’t sectarian fault-lines in El Salvador as simply an indication that the spread starkly as the issue of gang violence. of economic liberalism has enriched Since the end of the civil war in 1992, people who were once poor. Rather, this successive center-right administrations phenomenon suggests that Pentecostal- have attempted to suppress the gangs ism offers a balm for those whose that dominate poorer urban neighbor-

prosperous lives have lost meaning, hoods through “Mano Dura” (“strong h Worshipers at Misión Cristiana Elim, San Salvador, El Salvador

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And on the other hand, they assert h Clockwise from top left: Iberia that the healing power of that experi- neighborhood, San Salvador, El ence should extend into the broader Salvador; Pedro Landeverde and a society beyond the individual. young resident of Iberia; Eliberto “Jesus was a model of integral mis- Juarez, program coordinator for sion,” said Vega. “He demonstrated Semillas de Nueva Creación (Seeds deep spirituality, healed and fed those of a New Creation); Sound stage at who were sick and hungry. And he CCT-TV, San Salvador, El Salvador; integrated people who were socially Mario Vega, senior pastor of Misión excluded into his mission.” Cristiana Elim. Pedro Landaverde—pastor of Elim district 8, zone 5—is also, arguably, a model of integral mission. To get to Ibe- ria, the poor neighborhood on the edge of San Salvador where he started his current ministry, one must pass through a military checkpoint and trust in the good graces of the local gang leaders. But the goodwill of all of the residents is Planting Seeds palpable; since 2009, Landaverde has The essential node in Pedro Lan- established three community centers, daverde’s network is an NGO called a preschool and small businesses to Semillas de Nueva Creación (Seeds of provide employment to young men and a New Creation), which was created women. in 2001 to serve as a conduit linking a “I requested to be transferred to the wide array of social stakeholders for the worst zone to start working on this kind purpose of realizing the goal of integral of strategy,” he said. mission. Like the progressive Pentecostals Semillas, like Nigeria’s Apostles in in Lagos, Landaverde’s work in Iberia the Marketplace, is the present-day depends on the promotion of what expression of Pentecostal activism on he calls “kingdom values”—honesty, university campuses from the late 1960s tolerance, discipline and transparency, through the 1980s. In the context of El for example—in a way that invites the Salvador, this religious ferment included participation of people who frame the an admixture of liberation theology, importance of those values in different which has all but disappeared as a ways. This openness to engagement strand of living Catholicism. with those who share his values but “Liberation theology opted for the not necessarily his beliefs has enabled poor,” said Eliberto Juarez, the program Landaverde to network with Protestant, “There’s early talk of new political coordinator for Semillas. “But the poor Catholic and municipal organizations parties,” Juarez said. “This would lever- opted for Pentecostalism.” as well as secular and religious NGOs age the emergence of new voting blocs Still, the Pentecostal encounter in order to transform Iberia’s social like the middle class and intelligentsia with liberation theology’s emphasis on landscape and quell the violence that that aren’t committed to either the right social transformation produced scholar- hinders development. or the left.” preachers like Rene Padilla and Samuel Mario Vega connected this expansive As a passionately spiritual but Escobar who have inspired a number of ecumenism to what he described as one traditionally insular religious movement next-generation leaders to alter Pente- of the foundational theological innova- comes of age, progressive next-genera- costalism’s relationship to the world. tions of the Protestant Reformation. tion Pentecostals in El Salvador, Nigeria “Many Pentecostals are developing a “God works not just through the and elsewhere may herald a broader deeper commitment to society,” Juarez church but through the whole universe,” turn toward tolerance and positive so- said. In a practical sense—and, again, he said. “This means that God can make cial transformation in parts of the world mirroring the strategies of Nigeria’s his kingdom through the church and where both are often in short supply. progressive next-generation leaders— beyond the church.” “Semillas has became a point of this commitment entails potential forms encounter for a variety of people—a of political engagement that could sort of ecumenical brotherhood,” said dramatically extend the social capital Juarez. “For us, the kingdom of God on generated through networks like Seeds earth means peace, justice, love and of a New Creation. living in harmony.” i

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87509_USC_r1.indd 49 5/17/13 12:06 PM Pentecostal and REGIONAL CENTERS Charismatic BRAZIL Research Initiative Center for the Study of Latin American Pentecostalism Paul Freston, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro Maria das Dores Campos Machado, Emerson Giumbelli, Cecilia Mariz, Ari Pedro Oro, Universidade do Estado do A project of the USC Center Rio de Janeiro (UERJ)

for Religion and Civic Culture, EL SALVADOR The Impact of the Pentecostal and Charismatic made possible by a grant from Movements on Local Community Organizations and Civic Participation in Central America the John Templeton Foundation Jeannette Aguilar, University of Central America in El Salvador www.usc.edu/pcri Richard Wood, University of New Mexico INDONESIA Pentecostal Growth and Social Relations in Indonesia Zainal Abidin Bagir, Center for Religions and Cross-Cultural Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies, Gadjah Mada University Religion in Los Angeles NIGERIA Richard Flory, USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture Nigeria Pentecostal and Charismatic Research Centre Hebah Farrag, Project Manager Umar Danfulani, Musa Gaiya, Yusuf Turaki and Danny McCain, Brad Christerson, Biola University University of Jos Rebecca Kim, Pepperdine University Juan Martinez, Fuller Theological Seminary RUSSIA Haven Perez, University of Southern California Center for the Study of Pentecostal and Charismatic Arlene Sánchez Walsh, Azusa Pacific University Movements in Russia Daniel Walker, CRCC Research Associate Alexander Panchenko, European University at St. Petersburg Patrick Plattet, University of Alaska, Fairbanks

h PCRI fellows and CRCC staff at the first PCRI consultation in Quito, Ecuador

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87509_USC_r2.indd 50 5/23/13 2:36 PM INDIVIDUAL AND Karrie Koesel University of Oregon TEAM GRANTS Where Faith Thrives: The Rise of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity AFRICA in Russia and China Febe Armanios Jiexia (Elisa) Zhai Autry Middlebury College Institute for Global Engagement Coptic Charismatic Renewal in Egypt: J. Gordon Melton (co-PI) A Modern History Institute for the Study of American Religion The Spread of the Chinese Indigenous Richard Burgess Pentecostal and Charismatic Movement University of Birmingham (U.K.), Centre of in the East Asian Chinese Community: The Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies Case of the True Jesus Church Pentecostal Spiritualities, Inter-Religious Relations and Civic Engagement: A Comparative Study of Nigeria and Zambia GLOBAL

Robert Dowd Gordon Hanson University of Notre Dame University of California, San Diego The Roman Catholic Charismatic Move- Chong Xiang ments in Sub-Saharan Africa: Its Causes and Purdue University Consequences The Global Marketplace for Christianity

John McCauley University of Maryland LATIN AMERICA Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity and the Henri Gooren African Political Landscape Oakland University The Pentecostalization of Religion and Soci- Daniel Jordan Smith ety in Paraguay and Chile Brown University Pentecostalism and AIDS in Nigeria Andrew Johnson University of Minnesota ASIA Religion Behind Bars: Pentecostalism in Bra- Graham K. Brown zilian Prisons and the Social Consequences University of Bath (U.K.), Centre for of Religious Prisoners Development Studies Theological Resources, Ethnic Boundaries Robin Shoaps and Civil Society: A Case Study of University of Chicago Charismatic Churches in Kuala Lampur, Making a Religious Difference: Communica- Malaysia tive Ecology and Conversion in Two Maya Communities Chad Bauman Butler University Timothy Wadkins Pentecostals, Charismatics, Conversion Canisius College, Institute for the Global and Hindu-Christian Conflict in Study of Religion Contemporary India The Preferential Option for the Spirit: Pente- costalism and Culture in Modern El Salvador William Kay Glyndwr University (U.K.) Asian Pentecostal-style Church Growth: OCEANIA An International Comparative Project Karen Brison Union College A Cosmopolitan Ethnography of Global Pentecostal Networks: The View from Fiji

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h Top: Healing service at the Blessing Centre headquarters, Kerala, India. Bottom left: Students at Holy Cross Catholic Church, Nairobi, Kenya; Bottom right: Cell group meeting for Bible study, Misión Cristiana Elim, San Salvador, El Salvador; Right: Acolytes at Holy Cross Catholic Church, Nairobi, Kenya.

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