Digging Out the Embedded Church - The Maranatha Community

But things have changed. Richard Massey, in his biography of Donald Gee, 161 who was one
of the most important pioneer Pentecostal leaders, quotes from the publisher‟s foreword to
Gee‟s book Towards Pentecostal Unity to show that Gee‟s concern for unity among
Pentecostalists was realistic enough to see that there could be no „worldwide denomination to
embrace all Pentecostals.‟ Quoting, Massey says of Gee:
„He was certain that organizational unity was an impossible dream. His vision and
prayer, however, was that Pentecostals would drop petty differences and independent
attitudes and then unite in spirit and various ways to evangelise the world. He called
for “a world fellowship by recognizing, not organising.”‟
Gee himself quotes from a vision a missionary friend had. The man had written:
„I wonder if you still remember a vision the Lord gave me at that first United
Pentecostal Missionary Conference in Johannesburg when you were out here?
In that vision a large congregation of Christian workers could be seen, all looking
forward, towards a platform where Jesus was standing. While they could all see the
platform they could not see each other because there were wooden partitions around,
so that none could have fellowship with the others. But it was clear they all had the
same aim and that all were looking to Christ.
Then a wonderful quiet fire came down from heaven, going through these wooden
partitions, which burnt up in that fire, but no smoke or flames could be seen and it did
not disturb the people. The partitions just seemed to burn up and disappear.
And now the workers could see each other and greeted each other and there seemed to
be such wonderful harmony and they continued looking forward to Christ who was still
standing on the platform.
Although the wooden partitions had disappeared, it did not alter the position of the
various workers; each one still kept his own individuality, but they all seemed to love
each other and esteem each other highly.‟
Gee‟s comment on this was:
„We are seeing all over the world the fulfilment of this vision. Those who want to
maintain or rebuild the partitions should be very careful lest haply they work against
God. Especially mistaken are any zealots trying to build up a new Pentecostal body,
hoping thereby to absorb all the others. They never will.
It is time to burn our partitions, not one another.‟
What Gee hoped for among Pentecostalists, may we not hope for in a far wider sense? In
the vision given, partitions were burned away but each person retained his own identity. In
Gee’s words, the call of this book is also for ‘fellowship by recognizing, not organizing’ but
on a scale that takes in all Christian denominations. This seems a simple and easy goal,
161 Massey, Richard, Another Springtime, Highland Books, 1992, pp 168-169.
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