Chapter 10 The Primary Purpose of a Spirit-filled Church

First, a quotation from John Dawson from his book, Healing America's Wounds in which he describes the origins of American Pentecostalism:

"The [1906] Azusa St. Revival was a modern Pentecost in which the outpoured Spirit broke the barriers of true Christian unity. Racial division, America's greatest problem, was swept away. The huge dirt-floor barn that housed William Seymor's [Afro American] church attracted scores of ethnic groups from their separate enclaves across Los Angeles. . . . [Then racism enters] This sincere and loving man---Seymor's friend---was afflicted with the blindness of his generation. He admired the Ku Klux Klan and believed that the besetting sin of humanity was racial mixing. . . . After denouncing Seymor, he continues his ministry, preaching against racial mixing and proclaiming the baptism of the Holy Spirit. . . . Pentecostalism divided into two groups, one black and one white, between 1908 and 1914. Glossolia became the new emphasis. . . . and God's true purpose went down the memory hole."

My goodness, the power and deception of the American trinity to derail this revival so quickly!

Is John Dawson right that the primary purpose of the outpoured Spirit is to break down racial and ethnic divisions so that the church can be an inclusive church, a multiethnic church? Is there clear and compelling biblical evidence? Yes, and from the lips of both Jesus and Paul.

In NT times, the division between Jew and Gentile, Jew and Samaritan, was huge. So, in Acts 1:8, Jesus pointedly tied the coming of the Holy Spirit to the inclusion of both Samaritans and Gentiles. In the book of Acts, it took some time before the church obeyed this marching order from Jesus, but finally Phillip, Peter and Paul crossed these enormous cultural barriers. And in Galatians 3:28, Paul nails it down (CEV):

"Faith in Christ is what makes each of you equal with each other, whether you are Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a man or a woman."

Religio-cultural divisions, socioeconomic divisions and gender discrimination all are broken down in the body of Christ; the church is designed to be inclusive as Paul again indicates in Colossians 3:11 (The Message):

"Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outside, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ."

Even early on at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, Jesus identified religiously based ethnocentrism as a social evil that God despised. In Luke 4:25-30, Jesus taught that God loved Gentiles as much as Jews and this heresy got him into deep trouble; the Nazareth Jews tried to kill him on the spot.

John Perkins despises and ridicules separate black and white churches; for him, they are contrary to the Bible. Speaking in tongues is legitimate, but let's get our biblical priorities straight. Preach and practice inclusion; destroy ethnocentrism. This is the primary purpose of the church.The second purpose of the Spirit-filled church is to release the oppressed poor and to invite the rich to share their wealth, to sell surplus houses and lands, to give so generously that there are no more poor in the church. From greed to generosity.

Can the American church, a Christian university, change the world? Only if they develop, preach and practice a more comprehensive kingdom of God theology.