a contextual missiology of the spirit - eTheses Repository ...

Pentecostals are actively engaged in the socio-political empowerment of their
community by forming various tribal welfare societies alongside their evangelistic
activities, as discussed in chapter five. However, for Pentecostals, as Philip Hefner
states, ‘transformation in the here and now is, strictly speaking, the work of the
Holy Spirit.’ 195 As contextual missiology is a pneumatocentric theology, it offers
the possibility of transformation. This multi-faceted transformation, which
includes socio-political aspects, has the potential to construct ‘alternative systems
of justice.’ 196
However, this does not mean that Pentecostals have a fully developed theology to
promote transformational mission. On the other hand, as Samuel Solivan
observes, what is happening among Pentecostals today is ‘indicative of the slow
journey toward community and social action, and is ‘just an initial venture into a
more explicit, self-critical and reflective commitment to the mission of the church
in the world…. They are moves in the right direction because they witness to the
Spirit’s leading into the world.’ 197 Dempster’s observation of Pentecostal social
concern is true in the context of Rajasthan:
… current engagement in social ministry among Pentecostals seems to depend
more on the individual conscience of influential leaders and the time-bound
exigencies of politics and culture than on broadly-shared theological agreements
concerning the nature of the church and its moral mission in society. The
195 Philip Hefner, ‘Transformation as Mission,’ in For All People: Global Theologies in Contexts:
Essays in Honour of Viggo Mortensen, ed. Pedersen Else Marie Wiberg, Holger Lam, and Peter
Lodberg (Grand Rapids, 2002), 179.
196 Dempster refers to various church social programs, and, according to him, their function is to
develop ‘alternative systems of justice.’ For more discussion, see, Dempster, ‘Evangelism, Social
Concern,’ 35-37.
197 Samuel Solivan, The Spirit, Pathos and Liberation: Toward an Hispanic Pentecostal Theology
JPTS Series, 14 (Sheffield: SAP, 1998), 145.
328