I am a Pentecostal believer through and through.  I believe in the gifts of the Spirit; all of them.  I practice demonstrative worship.  I strive to live a sanctified life.  I don’t mind saying…I think we’re the best thing going.

Pentecostalism is the fasting growing religious movement in the word, adding an estimated 35,000 new converts daily.  I’m proud to be a part of it.  I grew up in the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world as the son of an Assembly of God pastor.  I pastored an Independent Holiness church for 12 years.  Now I am a licensed Ordained Minister with the Church of God out of Cleveland, TN.  I’m not going anywhere. These are my people.  This is how I have church.  This is the way I live my life. 

You know what I’ve realized though?  As a Pentecostal evangelist, pastor, worship leader…we get it wrong.  We get it wrong pretty often.  Sometimes we teach and preach things that aren’t biblical.  We’ve been guilty of looking down our noses at people from other traditions.  As an emotional body of believers, we can find ourselves dangerously allowing emotion and “experience” to override sound biblical truths. 

Why am I saying all of this?  My heart wants to express the freedom I’ve found from the suffocating sin of sectarianism. The first step to finding such freedom is understanding that no group of believers is perfect, and we all get some things wrong, including Pentecostals.  Sectarianism is when someone becomes so devoted to a certain sect or belief that they completely reject anyone who does anything even slightly different than them.  I’ve seen this in Pentecostal circles, but I’ve seen it in other traditions as well. 

I remember conducting a funeral at a Missionary Baptist Church several years ago.  The pastor’s wife was lamenting to me prior to the service that her daughter had “left the faith”.  I expressed sympathy and told her that I would be praying that her daughter would get back in church.  She revealed to me that her daughter was still going to church.  When asked where she attends, the mother with tears streaming down her cheeks and agony in her voice responded, “Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiirst Baptist!”  My sympathy came to an abrupt end and with an eyeroll that spanned from east to west, I returned to my work. 

When I was leaving California to take a church plant in Hot Springs, AR, I asked my pastor, Bro. Brad Moss, to give me advice on my new adventure.  He told me one sentence that I have never forgotten.  “The Baptists are not your enemy.”  That may sound silly to some, but if you’ve ever been suffocated by sectarianism, you understand how vital that advice was for me. 

In Mark 9, the disciples of Jesus were upset that they had encountered others who were casting out devils in the name of the Lord, yet they were part of a different group.  Jesus looked at them and responded with a golden principle who’s flames have been extinguished by the rushing waters of ego. 

“He that is not against us is for us.” Mark 9:40

Read that again and tell me why the Baptists can’t work with the Methodists, and the Lutherans can’t join arms with the Pentecostals.  Those who are not against us are for us!  That’s incredible news.  Especially if you have a heart to reach your community.

My hometown of Hot Springs has pressed through the barriers of sectarianism, and it has been a blessing to my life.  If you are content with plugging away pastoring your few and making no impact on your community, then, by all means, continue.  But if you really want to have Godly influence on those around you, you might want to reevaluate your stance on working with others. 

The grace of God has brought me to Pentecostal pulpits in the Holiness Church, the Assemblies of God, the Pentecostal Church of God, the Pentecostal Holiness International Church, the Church of God, and even the Apostolic Church.  But, in my opinion, greater than that, the grace of God has rescued me from sectarianism to the point that I’ve been able to remodel a house for a widow with an Evangelical Church, play music for revivals in the Baptist Church, have intense prayer meetings with a pastor from the Church of Christ, be embraced by Lutheran pastors during a difficult time, and lead Presbyterian pastors in worship for their annual presbytery meeting.  In doing all of this, I have seen addicts delivered, the homeless fed, widows cared for, saints encouraged and lost souls saved.

Without sacrificing my distinctive traits as a Pentecostal, I have found great value in my brothers and sisters from other traditions.  They have found value in me.  Isn’t that how the family of God is supposed to work anyway?

-AG