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

western Pentecostal missionaries were chiefly involved in spreading the
Pentecostal message among the missionaries and the existing Christian
communities. On the other hand, indigenous Pentecostal workers were involved in
the evangelisation of the local population. This does not mean that foreign
missionaries were not involved in the evangelisation of indigenes. However, this
was not their major contribution, even though there were exceptions, such as Berg
and Cook, who made vigorous efforts to spread the message to the indigenous
people.
Although the Indian Pentecostal Movement cannot be considered a direct product
of North American Pentecostalism, western Pentecostal missionaries made some
major contributions to the making of the Movement. The most significant
contribution was the establishment and consolidation of Pentecostal churches.
While indigenous Pentecostal revivals produced spiritual awakening and
missionary zeal, western Pentecostalism assisted by laying foundations for the
institutionalization of Pentecostal churches. In the early indigenous Pentecostal
revivals, the indigenes gave priority to evangelism rather than church planting. It
is likely that it was due to ‘the spirit of the age,’ at least in north India in the early
part of the twentieth century, that indigenous Christian missionaries had not
shown much interest in ecclesiastical institutions. For example, Sadhu Sundhar
Singh, one of the early twentieth-century north Indian Christians, who made a
lasting impression on indigenous Christianity in India, did not see the significance
of ecclesiastical institutions and organizations in his ‘non-ecclesiastical, individual
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