Millions of black Pentecostals c/o Charisma, May 2003 (Vol 28, No 10). Pages 37-44. Issue #45 July 2003

Millions of black Pentecostals
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"Revive us, precious Lord" by Adrienne Gaines. Charisma, May 2003 (Vol 28, No 10). Pages 37-44. Issue #45 July 2003

Black mainline churches in the United States are seeing a neoPentecostal revival. The works and power of the Holy Spirit are being emphasized in ways that would have seemed foreign a few decades ago.
For example, African Methodist Episcopal churches historically are more reserved in their worship. Yet Bethel AME Church of Baltimore, a congregation of 15,000 members, is reflecting a trend that affects up to a third of black mainline Christians--about 5 million people. Charismatic behaviors including miracles, healing, and speaking in tongues are part of the Bethel experience.
There are about 400 million Pentecostals around the world, most of them concentrated in the global South. By 2040, there could be a billion. By 2050, experts predict that half of all African-American Christians will embrace Pentecostalism in some form.
NeoPentecostalism took root among black churches in the late 1960s when John Bryant, a young Harvard Divinity School student and pastor of St. Paul AME Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, began exercising a spirituality he had discovered on visits to Africa. He began to preach that the Holy Spirit was the vital force of Christianity for personal empowerment and for social transformation.
But the historic stance, or lack thereof, of Pentecostals on social and civil rights issues was disconcerting to some African Americans who watched this new movement emerge. Black Baptists, who led civil rights marches and attempted to influence elections, were dismayed that neoPentecostals politically had done so little to aid the black community.
Some neoPentecostal leaders don't feel that the church's primary business is to get mired in politics, but they remain committed to aiding their communities. First Baptist Church of Glenarden, Maryland, pastored by neoPentecostal John Jenkins, provides health services, a senior citizens center, and a credit union. Several neoPentecostal churches offer programs to help community members become homeowners and start businesses.




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