Wanted: Barnabases to discern what the spirit is doing!

Jerusalem, AD 41. The early church is worried about developments in Antioch. Do these persecuted, Greek-speaking gentiles give proper shape and content to what it means to be disciples of the risen Lord? Barnabas is sent to check out the church at Antioch and... "when he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad..." (Acts 11.22, 23).

But more Barnabases are needed. This became clear during a quite extraordinary symposium in Amsterdam recently on the nonwestern Pentecostal diaspora in the Netherlands. On the first day the 80 participants gathered in The New City, a church centre in the Bijlmer that accommodates up to ten different Dutch and immigrant churches for Sunday worship and weekday activities. Pentecostal worship and the "multiculti meal" [sic] were as much part of the symposium as the lectures and workshops. On the second day the meeting moved from this throbbing heart of multicultural Holland to what used to be the bulwark of Reformed academia, the Free University. Here the symposium continued its exploration of how diaspora and long-time citizens - Reformed, Pentecostal and others - can together be more faithfully the body of Christ in Dutch society today.

All agreed that this will not be easy. Alejandro López from the Dominican Republic spoke about his Hispanic Assembly of God congregation, which grew out of social work with prostitutes in Amsterdam's red light district. It belongs to the Dutch Union of Pentecostal churches but finds little connection with the culture of the white Pentecostal churches. Many agreed that social, cultural and linguistic boundaries are more difficult to cross than ecclesiological or theological frontiers. How we experience God has much to do with how we experience life and perceive ourselves in society. The gap between a white, middle-class Christian - whether Reformed or Pentecostal - and an illegal immigrant or political refugee without access to social and educational resources is larger than often realized.

Herrings and goldfish

In pursuing cooperation, what is possible and what is desirable? We are, says André Droogers, professor of social and cultural anthropology, like fish that are taken out of separate tanks and put into a single big aquarium. "How can the Dutch herrings live peacefully with the tropical fishes? Are the needs of all met? And who at present is setting the rules in the aquarium?"

But things are undeniably changing, both at the grassroots and at the Free University. Immediately following the symposium, the university installed Dr Cees van der Laan as its first Pentecostal professor of theology, and celebrated the opening of the Hollenweger Centre for the interdisciplinary study of Pentecostalism and charismatic movements. The new centre is a joint initiative with the Pentecostal Azusa Theological Seminary, and named in honour of the Swiss theologian Walter J Hollenweger. Both Pentecostal and Reformed, Hollenweger gained a worldwide reputation with his 10-volume standard work on Pentecostalism and his prolific writings on mission and ecumenism. Among his students and audiences worldwide, however, Hollenweger is loved in particular for his narrative theology. His lectures and liturgical plays have invited generations of people, Christian and non-Christian alike, to enter into stories, prayers, music and dance, and in the midst of these expressions of life as we know it, to encounter Christ and one another.

Wanted: Barnabases - Swiss, Dutch and other - to discern what the Spirit is doing among us today, see the grace of God, and be glad!

The image of Barnabas was used at the symposium by Rev Claudia Währisch-Oblau, director of the Cooperation between German and Immigrant Churches programme of the United Evangelical Mission, Wuppertal.

Why the mission in unity project's focus on immigrant churches?

The mission in unity project seeks to facilitate new expressions of common witness. This includes cooperation between mainline Reformed churches and immigrant churches, especially in the north. Some of the newer immigrants come from Reformed churches in the south but have found neither a home nor a partner in their church's partner in the north. This poses a direct challenge to the understanding of partnership and mission of Reformed churches in the north.

Immigrant groups of other denominations, including many of Pentecostal background, present a mission challenge too. They focus on mission and evangelism with a vigour that few mainline churches match. The unprecedented growth of Pentecostalism (from zero to over 500 million people in a single century) makes it a force in Christianity the Reformed family must take seriously. Besides, Pentecostal spirituality is present in quite a few churches of the Reformed family.

Calvin has been called the "theologian of the Holy Spirit"; there are interesting similarities between Reformed and Pentecostal theologies. In its bilateral dialogues with Pentecostals, WARC's department of theology seeks to draw these out in relation to the everyday life of Reformed and Pentecostal Christians.