\n\u2014Vinson Synan<\/div>Leading church historian and theologian Vinson Synan gives an overview of the trends and directions the Pentecostal\/charismatic movement have taken is the final decade of the Second Millennium.<\/p>\n
Professor Synan begins with a broad view of some of the positive press coverage the Pentecostal\/charismatic movement has received in recent years. He mentions the 1998 Newsweek<\/i> poll that 75 percent of evangelical Protestants have \u201cpersonally experienced the Holy Spirit,\u201d and the statement by religion writer Mary Rourke, \u201cwith almost no fanfare, the U.S. is experiencing its most dramatic religious transformation in this century.\u201d<\/p>\n Synan then mentions these seven trends: (1). Great growth continues: Pentecostals have planted over a million churches worldwide in this century and are still growing. (2). Worship becomes more charismatic: the Pentecostal style of worship has entered the main stream of non-Pentecostal churches and especially among those open to the contemporary gifts of the Spirit but who do not call themselves Pentecostal. (3). Pentecostal preaching creates megachurches: The largest and fastest growing churches throughout the world are predominantly Pentecostal or independent charismatic. (4). Cultural accommodations?: \u201cAre Pentecostals lowering their holiness standards just to attract even larger followings?\u201d (p. 61). Synan says, \u201cAlthough some churches and pastors in the United States and Europe may be softening their standards on such things as movies, tobacco and alcohol, almost all stand firmly for biblical standards on such questions as abortion, pornography, illegal drugs and homosexuality\u201d (p. 62). Rather, Pentecostalism in the United States is taking historic steps to heal racial divides. (5). Convergence movement: Former Pentecostal and charismatic pastors joined together in the early 90\u2019s to form a movement that attempts to combine evangelical preaching and the gifts of the Spirit with liturgy and sacramental expressions. Synan notes that while this is a notable trend, there are still many more leaving churches that are more liturgical and sacramental to join \u201centhusiastic, fast growing Pentecostal and charismatic churches\u201d (p. 62). (6). The New Apostolic Church Movement: C. Peter Wagner believes the age of the \u201cPost-denominational\u201d church has dawned. Synan says that this new apostolic movement is made up almost completely of Pentecostal\/charismatic churches and leaders even though Wagner himself downplays the experience of the Baptism in the Spirit and the teaching that the \u201cinitial evidence\u201d of this baptism in praying in tongues. (7). Revival manifestations: Synan says that, \u201cSince about 1992, waves of revival with distinctive manifestations\u201d of the Spirit\u2019s presence \u201chave swept through the church world\u201d (p. 64). He briefly contrasts the \u201cToronto Blessing\u201d revival with the Pensacola outpouring.<\/p>\n Reviewed by Raul Mock<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Vinson Synan, \u201cPentecostal Trends of the 90\u2019s\u201d Ministries Today (May\/June 1999, Vol. 17, No. 3), pages 60-64, 77. Leading church historian and theologian Vinson Synan gives an overview of the trends and directions the Pentecostal\/charismatic movement have taken is the final decade of the Second Millennium. Professor Synan begins with a broad view of some…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2843,"featured_media":19693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,3334,1],"tags":[4281,2818,3174,4282,4283],"ppma_author":[4702],"class_list":["post-19692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-history-2","category-fall-1999","category-pneuma-review","tag-1990s","tag-pentecostal","tag-synan","tag-trends","tag-vinson-synan","author-raullmock"],"authors":[{"term_id":4702,"user_id":2843,"is_guest":0,"slug":"raullmock","display_name":"Raul Mock","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Raul20181029-480x480-150x150.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Raul20181029-480x480-150x150.jpg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2843"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19692"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/km7.a6a.mytemp.website\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=19692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Vinson](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Synan.jpg\")
\n\u2014Vinson Synan<\/div>After noting these trends, Synan offers some reflections upon them. He says, \u201cAlthough manifestations are signs of revival, they are not the revival itself. Revival occurs when Holy Spirit convictions draw sinners to be converted and cause great change in society itself. It is my opinion that the experience called the baptism in the Holy Spirit, with the sign of tongues as the first evidence and all other charismata as confirming signs, has fueled the worldwide Pentecostal explosion. \u2026 We Pentecostals must not dilute our testimony and lose our power just to win the approval of noncharismatic evangelicals who want to count our numbers but do not wish to pay the spiritual price we paid in the beginning. Perhaps it\u2019s time to bring back the altar call, not only for salvation and deliverance, but for the baptism in the Holy Spirit\u201d (p. 77).<\/p>\n