Having celebrated its 100th anniversary, the Pentecostal Church of God is now moving into its second chapter. This begs the question: What will a PCG 2.0 look like?
Dr. Wayman Ming Jr.
October 15, 2019
Topic:
Growing the Church
Our Centennial Celebration may have concluded, but our commitment to write a new chapter for a PCG 2.0 is just beginning. It begins NOW, and it begins with US! Every person is a mission... Every church is a mission... Every nation is a mission...
Have you ever considered the scientific acumen of movement? This may seem difficult to believe, but everything in our world is moving whether it looks like it or not. The basic principle that Sir Isaac Newton taught us over 300 years ago is that movement occurs through interfacing forces—different forces functioning at the same time.
So, if you are sitting in a chair, moving atoms in your body are forcing you down while moving atoms in your chair are magnetically forcing you up, exactly balancing the force of gravity. Because all of these forces pushing up and pulling down are equal, your chair is moving, but you aren’t going anywhere. In other words, when all the interfacing forces at work in our lives are counterbalancing one another, we are moving but going nowhere.
After 100 years, denominations have a tendency to create interfacing forces that become so counterbalanced that their chair becomes static. The chair is moving but going nowhere. In other words, if all the interfacing forces at work in the PCG are counterbalancing one another, we are moving, but going nowhere. The soccer ball is lying on the ground but going nowhere. The rocket is sitting on the launch pad but never launches into a new spiritual dimension. The Ferris Wheel is going round-and-round, but we never get off. For there to be movement, the person in the chair must do something that moves past the status quo or those counterbalancing, interfacing forces.
PCG family, I have been given the divine assignment to call the grassroots of the PCG to JOIN THE MOVEMENT—One Mission, One Movement. A new chapter won’t be written in the PCG from the top-down but from the bottom-up. In fact, to experience movement, there must be cooperation between “the thing” and “a power greater than the thing.” Here’s the good news. We have a sacred cooperation between the thing (us) and the power greater than the thing (the Holy Spirit) on the earth today.
In the Old Testament, Moses MOVED by lifting up the rod, and then God MOVED by opening the Red Sea. The children of Israel MOVED by walking around the walls of Jericho, and then God MOVED by destroying those walls. In the New Testament, the blind man MOVED and washed the mud out of his eyes, and then God MOVED by healing him. The disciples MOVED by going to the Upper Room and tarrying in prayer, and then the Holy Spirit MOVED by turning the world upside down and right-side up again with the gospel.
Something happens in the spiritual realm when we MOVE in sacred cooperation with the Spirit. Much like a motion detector that turns the light on when someone walks near it, the Holy Spirit turns the light on in every place where we MOVE! During the Wednesday night service of the Centennial, I shared that we as a PCG 2.0 must move toward…
P – Pentecostal Power
C – Church Multiplication
G – God’s Blessing
The PCG wasn’t birthed as just any kind of movement but as a “Pentecostal movement.” A theological rubric was formed that placed the power of the Holy Spirit at the epicenter of our faith and practice. In other words, the proclamation of the gospel was confirmed through signs and wonders and supernatural power. For the PCG to write a new chapter, we must live the supernatural and not just talk about the supernatural.
At the beginning of 2019, I attended the Pentecostal Charismatic Churches of North America (PCCNA) leadership gathering in Memphis, Tennessee. Twenty young leaders, representing their Pentecostal denominations, were asked the question, “What is frustrating you the most concerning the Church today?” In so many words, they responded that too many Pentecostal leaders weren’t living what they were preaching. Their leaders were preaching about Pentecostal power but not living it. They were preaching about winning the lost but not winning anyone to the Lord and certainly not connecting them to the local church. I was so deeply moved by what they shared that it took several weeks for me to process it.
During the 20th century, the Pentecostal movement called itself a Full-Gospel movement, and we proclaimed Bible truth in Pentecostal power. Unfortunately, in the 21st Century, some Pentecostals now retreat to the shadows beneath their steeple where they haven’t introduced anyone to Christ since Noah was on the ark. They’re utilizing spiritual language, but they aren’t living in Pentecostal power. In fact, they have sometimes confused spiritual language for spiritual power.
Respectfully, the genuine, authentic Pentecostal power of the 1st-Century Church was not given so people would get together, speak in tongues, and feel good concerning a particular service. The power of Pentecost showed up to win the lost, expand the Kingdom, and turn the world upside down with the gospel. The power of Pentecost showed up to populate heaven and depopulate hell.
Perhaps we should simply speak the truth in love. If we desire more Pentecostal power, we need to offer the “Full-Gospel to an Empty World.” If we genuinely desire to see revival, we need to stop saying “we had a good service with the saved” and start reaching the unsaved again. Unfortunately, within ten minutes of many of our church buildings, people are dying and going to Hell this week. If we really want to see the static nature of the chair change, the soccer ball move down the field, or the rocket launch into a brand new spiritual dimension, we need the grassroots of the PCG to JOIN THE MOVEMENT and genuinely live with Pentecostal power.
In the first issue of the Pentecostal Messenger in 2020, I will be vision-casting this specific area in more detail, and we will launch a two-year Missional Plan and a five-year Church Multiplication Plan. However, if I may share candidly for a moment, we have been multiplying ministry and seeing movement all over the globe, but in the U.S., we have been losing traction. At each General Assembly, a smaller and smaller group of people gathers together to hear reports that say something like we’ve lost more ministers than we’ve added and closed more churches than we opened over the past two years. Then, we end up leaving the meeting discouraged and singing, “Backward Christian Soldiers” without any real strategy to multiply ministries and churches.
Hopefully, many experienced a different culture and atmosphere at our Centennial Celebration. In one of the largest gatherings in many years, I believe that people left encouraged while dreaming dreams concerning “what could be” and “what should be” rather than “what is.” However, as we continue to create momentum in our conferences and general assemblies, we must also visioneer missional movement through our plans and actions. We need more than inspiration; we need participation. We must have real strategies to multiply ministries and churches. Consequently, we will be moving toward the following in the days ahead.
Five Year Missional Plan
God desires to bless the PCG: “And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you … Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the country … Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds … Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out … The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses…” (Deut. 28:2-8, NKJV). As we learn how to live as One Mission—One Movement or as a multinational, multicultural, multigenerational church, He will command a blessing.
During the Encounter Conferences at the beginning of this year, I didn’t preach the message, “I Have a Dream” because Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. already preached that amazing message. I preached the message “You have a Dream” because a PCG 2.0 is really about you. We will be blessed because of you. A new chapter will be written because of you. Hope will spring eternal because of you. In fact, the devil thinks that he can minimize or marginalize what God is doing in the PCG, but what he can’t seem to figure out is that we have a secret weapon already mobilizing in the U.S. and across the globe. We have a secret weapon already renewed and re-formed for this urgent chapter in our destiny. We have a secret weapon that is present and accounted for in every sector of our society. PCG men and women of God, we have you! You are the secret weapon! You have a dream.
In conclusion, over the past two years, many of you have been hearing me talk about transitioning from an organizational machine to a missional movement. Missional movements occur because people decide to JOIN THE MOVEMENT. Missional movements occur because people decide to engage in a cause greater than themselves.
So, if you’re wondering what we’re asking you to join or what a PCG 2.0 is missionally moving toward, allow me to reinforce the ten prophetic declarations spoken at the Centennial Celebration. We are praying and believing that a 2nd-Century PCG is moving toward...
PCG family, the Pentecostal Church of God will only grow if our dreams and expectations exceed our doubts. Our experiences may define our present, but our expectations determine our future. If you hope to be a part of writing a new chapter for the PCG, allow me to inspire you to JOIN THE MOVEMENT, and we will never be the same again.
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