THE NATURE OF PENTECOSTAL RELIGIOUS COMMITMENT: VIEWS FROM THE OUTSIDE AND THE INSIDE

This stud y is an ethnosemantic investigation of a l ocal Pentecostal church. The inv es tigation focused on how the members of the congregation view the nature of thei r religious commitment. This insider's perception , otherwise referred to as the private face of religiosity, was preserved by employing a research tool known as the ethnosem antic interview. The ethnose mantic approach was especiall y su ite d here since its main objective was to discover and describe a cultural system in terms which preserved the insid er ' s point of view. The method avoided the assumption of what was to be considered relevant by making a verbatim re co rd of what an insider said about his/her cultural scene. In addition to the ethnosemantic investigation, participant observation and a shor t mail questionnaire were employed in the study. These research methods served as cross-checks of aBd supplements to the interview data. Aside from investig ating a local Pentecostal group's view of the nature of their reli gious commitment, this study also examined the phenomenon throughout the histories of the Pentecostal movement in general and in the Church of God of Cleveland, Tennessee, in particular. (The latter represents the Pentecostal denomination with which the studied congregation is affiliated .) In this examination, a sociological schem~ of the nature of religious commitment

. Therefore, any one person possessing the kn owled ge of many cultural scenes, wil l adapt his / her behavior accordingly, taking on a multiplicity of r oles, as he/she shifts from scene to scene during the course of his/her everyda y lives . For example, a person who is a parent at home, a vice -president of a business corporation, and a deacon in a church, will adopt the appropriate behavior for such roles as defined by each cultural scene.
The behavior exhibited by an individual in a particular cultural system indicates an effort by the individual to act in a manner deemed appropriate for the system, maintaining certain standards pertaining to the cultural scene (Goffman, 1959 : 107). The rough and boisterous behavior displayed by a person drinking with friends in a bar~roo~ would har d ly be considered proper behavior for the same perso n whil e he was functionin g as a deacon at a church service.
One of the most interesting aspects of the multicultural scenes a person enc ounters each da y is the change in roles displayed by the perso n as he/she shifts from scene to scene. As a person moves from one cultural scene to anotherr a change in character can usually be detected (Goffman, 1959:121-126 (Beals, 1979:121;Spradley, 1979:5). The purpose of a classification system for · a · group is that it allows _ communication among the members The sys tem s of meaning f urni she d by a religious group, or any other cultural scene, are used by t he members to organize their behavior, to understand themselves and othe rs, and to make sense out of the world in which they live.  ( Spradley , 1979) . The importa nce of t h is stud y lies in preserving th e natives' constructed reli g i ous re a lit y , which is us ed by them t o make se nse ou t of th e world in which they liv e . I n addition, the pres er vat i on of the insider' s viewpoint permits the obs ervatio n of alternative reali ties as defined by those who live them and thereby adds to the ri chness of sociological data. (1) that there is a blessing to be sought and to be received subsequent to and distinct from conversion;

Method
(2) that one must seek to be led by the Spirit in all the affairs of life; (3) that revivals and camp meeting ought to be utilized for the purpose of winning converts and rejuvenating the spiritual lives of the faithful; (4) that believers should maintain a vibrant hope in the imminent return of Christ; and (5) that one ought to forsake the world and shun a ll man ifestat i ons of "wor l dlin e s s "amusements , jewelry , use of cosmetics , l uxury .  (Nichol, 1966:87;Synan, 1971:147, 192

That Jesus Christ is the only begotten
Son of the Father, conceived of the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary.
That Jesus was crucified, buried, and raised from the dead. That He ascended to heaven and is today at the right hand of the Father as the Intercessor.
4. That all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and that repentance is commanded of God for all and necessary for forgiveness of sins . 8. In the baptism with the Holy Ghost subsequent to a clean heart. 9. In speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance and that it is the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Ghost .

10.
In water baptism by immersion and all who repent should be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost.

. Divine healing
is provided for all in the atonement.

12.
In the Lord's Supper and washing of the saints' feet.

13.
In the premillennial second coming of Jesus . First, to resurrect the righteous dead and to catch away the living saints to Him in the air. Second, to reign on the earth a thousand years. 14.
In the bodily resurrection: eternal life for the righteous and eternal punishment for the wicked (Conn, 1955:281 (Conn , 1955:197 -198 Teachin g be came a prominent part of the meetin g s, and ther e were many gatherings where the ~cr i ptures wer e d i s cuss ed by t he entire group. This gave oppor tun i ty f or i nstruction in vital issues per t i nent t o i nd i vidu al needs.
These sessions were an ou t cr oppi ng of t heir determination that no f ut ure r ampag e of f a naticism would catch them unprep ar ed . I n the past when great crowds were pr esen t , t he s er vi ces had been evangelistic to t he neglect of t horough pastoral teaching. Basic i n stru c ti ons in the Pentecostal faith had seemed suffi c ient, but now, ... more serious stu dy of the Scri ptures became much in evidence (Con n , 1955 :4 8-49 there has to be a constant searching to arrive at a form which will please God.
And that i s when our physical world is channeled to a spiritual fulfil l ment , instead of our physical wor ld channeled to a physical fulfillment.
I n sum, t h e conceptual scheme of the phys i cal and the spiritual dimensions of religion was recapitulated by the informant in the following sentence : ... t he ph ys i cal tak e s care of the bo dy and sur roun ding s , a nd t he spiri t ua l aspe ct is th e Lor d an d th e t hi ngs of t he Lor d .
The no ti on of th e physi cal and spiritual el ements f oun d to co mpose th e l oca l co ngre g ation's vi ewpoi nt of t he nat ur e of thei r r e li gi ous co mmitment is not an a bstrac t phe nomenon . These d ime nsi on s or ganize, info rm , an d interpret thei r actual reli g ious experiences.
The emplo yme nt of this cultural th eme was de monstrated i n a discussion co nce rning "living Pentec ostal." ... there's two ways of answering.
There is the way that the laity se e Pentecost; there is the way it really is . M an y people in Penteco s tal churche s , as far as the laity is concerned, equ at e Pentecostalism with the very outward show of spiritualit y . You know like, whenever you meet somebody it's, "Praise the Lord!" -it's an outwar d expressi on of somethin g that y ou have inside. So many peo pl e in the Pentecostal denomination ten d to sometimes concen t rate more on the outward manneris ms or conduct, per se, wher e the real heart of Pentecostalism, I believe, really has its roots in holiness.
You can fake a lot of thing s . You can fake sincerity, you can make it seem that you're sin c ere about somet h ing, or you can also fake Pentecostal worshi p , too. You can be in a congregation for a period of t ime and never really fulfill the tru e meaning of Pentecostalism b ec au se you wind up doing t he mechanics than t he Lord actually deal i ng through you. It's really a state of ho liness.
In other words, a true Pentecostal pers on is a person that is holy, not a person who is pious, n9t a person that is self righteous. But a person that doesn't lie at all. Doesn't talk badly about someone else.
The Bible says "if you can't say anything good then kee p your mouth shut. " A truly Pentecostal person will be that beca use the attributes that Christ had are perfect attributes.
He had the "fullness of the spirit," the Bible tell us, and He had "perfect patience," "p erfect compassion." It says, "He walked by, He had compassion for certain people," and in studying s ome of these Scriptu r es, it actuall y meant that He could walk by people and actually feel their physical pain.
In other words, if He met someone whose hand was chopped off, He could actually feel the pain in his arm, -sympathetic type thing.
He was so attuned to other peop les needs , He really felt these things. And if we allow ourselves to really achieve a close relation ship with the Christ , which is what we're all supposed to be . doing in this Christian religion, then it should automatically come about that we would take on the attributes of the one we are trying to get close to.
If you are truly seeking to be Christ-like, then it's not in anything you say, it's not anything you do -some people walk up to me and say, "Praise the Lord!," and smile, and it makes me sick.
Because you know, I don't feel anything coming from within at all.
And some people can get up and lead song service and it doesn't do anything.
Because Pentecostal living really i s something that is more felt than seen.

The informant again went on to support the conception that
Pentecostal living is a phenomenon more felt than observed by citing Scripture which, for him , proved his point : ... it's an inner something . The Bible talks about the spir it of God bearing witness ·one with another. It's true, sometimes, I will meet someone that I have heard about for maybe a long period of time and I expect to almost shake hands with a really sa intly, dynamic, overwhelming, awe-i nspiring person, you know , and I shake hands with that person and I have no feeling spiritually about the person . And then I'll shake hands with someone who nobody has even introduced me (to) -and I find love radiating from that person.
Not only women, but both men and women alike . It's something that just comes out . It ' s true that the word of God talks about this too . It says that the people who were with Christ, the othe r people knew just by walking by -they knew these people were with Christ . It wasn't necessarily by their verbal statement . It was by the spi rit. They felt the communion of the spirits between the disciples of Christ just as they walked by and that's what told them they were i n league with Christ. It wasn't necessarily an outward manner or an act .

Worship Services
The first phenome no n I will examine are the incide nces of diff erent types of worship services whi ch result ''at the discretion of the Spirit . " That ' s part of Pentecostal worship -is letting God have His way in service . ..

• •• services
a re every so often quiet and soft because they ' re soul -searching , to the point *The Highway Church of God is the pseudonym given to the con gregation studied in order to pr e serve its anonymity. The name will be used from this point on to refer to the l ocal group.

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where sometimes even before the aervice gets on, there's an altar call, and we're drawn to the altar to pray and to cry and whatever we need to do to just humble ourselves.
The Bible sa y s "we are to humble ourselves before God" -not to walk into the house of God and say I am Mr . Perfect and just sit down there nice and feel that everything is for everybody else . And sometimes we just get wrapped up in the emotion of it. Let's face it with the world system the way it is, the economic system the way it is, the pressures of recession -everything , and according to Scripture, I believe that all these things are going to get worse.
People want to wipe out everything that ' s out there and they want to get wrapped up in the blessings of God . Sometimes , believe me , I feel like just letting go. People need to have something that ' s positive.
And nothing that would be destructive like shooting cocaine . As a pastor I try to be in tune.
Sometimes we just need to praise God; just enjoy the joy that we have.
But then never to get to the point where you always lean that way and are not willing to be quiet before the Lord and be humble before the Lord.
In sum , the infor mant described Pentecostal worship services of two natures: quiet ; and emotional or joyful. ... at some particular tim e t he re was a desperat e need of prayer.
We pra yed f rom that time of the service on.
It was co mpletely different because we felt and sensed the nee d in the Spirit, and then we answered that need. The thought came into my mind, "Three strikes -and you're out ." And it ' s funny the th i ngs that c ome into your mi nd , you ' d thfnk a sp ir itua l person would have big high leve l things -but the Lord talks to me in very simplistic ways . But I s a id, " No, I don ' t want to strike out . " So I j u s t anointed the fellow and I prayed; and to this day I don ' t know the outcome of that but you see it's not for me to know; it ' s for me to feel the need. that day ." That Scrip t ure tel ls me that as lon g a s I know Him and a s l ong as I commit mys elf to Him, it do es n ' t matte r what I know, everyth ing else, a s lo ng as I know Him. This is the wa y I a lwa ys felt a bout knowledge .
The inf orma nt went on t o note that when people be g in to disc uss rel ig ion and talk about differen t aspects of heaven, t he new Jerusalem, and other subjects, when they recite "ten th ousand facts" the y have "memorized" about the vari ous topics, he find s it "irrelevant." It's ridiculous; that's the way _ I feel. I'm no t putt in g down the people who want to do somethi ng like that but you see a lot of people get so b ent out of shape with knowled ge that they lose Jesus Christ.
They get so f i l led with extraneous thing s ...

In sum, my informant's impression of knowledge is captured
in th e following sentence: It's good and everyone sh ould strive for more but make sure you have th e warmth, the important knowledge that is needed . ing to his head);" "con je cture ;" "memorize ;" "people get so bent out of shape with knowledge that they lose (the knowledge of) Jesus Christ;" "extraneous things;" and " f a c ts ." This "knowledge up here " was not highly regarded: "knowledge is not really important, per se, the amount of knowledge that you have;" "irrelevant;" "ridiculous;" and " . .. never lead you to Christ . " The other sense of knowledge, that of an inner spiritual nature, was signified by such r eferences as: "the knowledge down here (pointing to his heart);" "I still know whom I believe in;" "all I know is I want to be there (in Heaven);" "they lose (the knowledge of) Jesus Christ;" and "make sure you have the warmth." The "knowledge down here" was evaluated in one phrase, "the impor tant knowledge that is needed." So, the informant's denial of the importance of the quantit y of knowledge possessed is really not the issue in this instance . Rather, his concern is the type of knowledge that there is a n ee d for prayer .. . So when I feel someone is in dire need -just one per s on , doesn't have to be everybody -a s long as one pe rs on has that need , I believe we need to all be as of one accord f or that ~erson.
The informant proce eded to "prove" his belief that strength l i es in numbers by, again, quoting his authorit y .
... the Bible says " Cease not to lift up one anot her i n the most holy of faith, pra y without ceasing . Peter was prayed for in the st ory about when he was in prison, and the congregatio n gathered together and they prayed, prayed all nigh t long.
Peter got the spirit, broke him out of jail , he walked all the way up to where they were. This is where there i s a need sensed.
A person with a need can also acknowledg e that need on their own f ree will if the Spirit leads them to do so .
I feel my job, what God wants me to do with the peopl e there, or anywhere that I minis ter , is to get people to a point where they're willin g to move when God says move. I don't care, whether it's the so ng service, testifying, I don ' t car e if I'm preachin g , I d on ' t care what happen s a t a ny tim e if someone i s led that they ought t o go up there t o t he altar.
It ' s right for the m to go up there.
In su m, an altar call occurs when I feel ther e is the need or when someone admits by th e i r own move they need to hit the altar.
Fr om t his description, hi tt ing the alta r entails ei th er a perceptio n by one pers on that ano t her has a need or that person admits on th e ir own acc or d, by their move to t he a ltar, that the y have a nee d. Once t he move t o the alta r occurs, Now at that particular time I would do one of two things.
I would eit he r as k -being now there is another minister there -I ha ve a little more leeway (than ) if t here wasn't another minister there.
Because I do have a minister t here workin g under me, I can motion t o him, i f I f eel that's the way it should be done -pray for him, further.
Or, again, it depends on that instant like that (snaps fingers), whether we st op everything and both of us pray or I pray or it's happened at times that the whole church would come down and pray for that particular person and/or themselves.
Usually, this is what happens, when we get down there to the altar, mayb e to pray for a particular thing, we don 't all go back and sit down . We're already down at the altar , we've already prayed for a particular ne ed, while we ' re t he re, we might just a s well t ak e care of every other need and let's f a c e it, not one of us is perf e cted yet.
The notion that "none of us are per f ected yet" and, therefore, that all have needs to be pr a yed for is sho wn in the i nformant ' s ad mission of hitting the altar whenever the altar is ope ne d up to a congre ga tion.
Everytime I go into a service somewhere, minister or not , whenever the altar is opened up , I feel I got to be down ther e . Now, again, s ome ministers would say tha t I do wro ng by doing t hat.
People look at me as a pastor a nd a min i ste r and say why is he going up there, he must be sinning. I don't care -I want to humble myself before God. I want to be more used by God and I realize there's onl y one way that's going to be, if I admit to God at a ny opp ortu n it y that I can, t hat I'm nothing.
. A lot of times whe n I d o go to the altar, it i s no t necessari l y that I feel sin weighing down up on me -it shouldn' t be just in a minister, it sho u ldn't be in any Christian. Not that the weights of sin shouldn't be upon the m but imperfections of character, things that if you ask someone, what are you hitting the altar for . I don't go ar ou nd -I do n 't do a lot of things I co ul d go th r ough as far a s sin is concerned.
I fall short as f a r as ha v in g pa t ience sometimes. One of the thin g s ministers feel guilty of if they're not careful or conscious of, the fact that we are trying to minister to ot he r people all the time.
All the time, whether I 'm at work, or at home. What happens is that when I do get home, when I try to unwind sometimes, my daughter comes to me -I'm liable t o bite her head off . You try to let yourself all down all at once and all of a sudden you ' re interrupted . W ha t I'm saying is that these are not necessarily sins, per se, but they're imperfections. Let ' s face it, everyone has them.
There are also besetting sins, sins that no one but you and God knows.
I know there are things su ch as things I used to do that I don't do any more.
I'd have to also admit that I can ' t honestly say before God that I don't think about some of these things . I don't dwell on these. And when I do think about some of these things and when the y come back into my memory -because I'm seven years old in the Lord and thirty years old in world -and so I have all those years that I remember a lot of things and I wish to God that I didn't remember.
And again, these are the things there that we hit the altar for many times that we might have the mastery over, something like the proverbial thorn in the flesh that Paul had.
If you ever had a sliver, no body ever sees the sliver but the sliver really hurts. This is the sort of thing that has to be part of the church because most people are always holding in.
That's one reason why I go to the altar, because I really want to know what is bothering people. I don't want t o know in a sense of being nosey, but the Bible is very clear that we are to pray several ways : we are to pray with the knowledge and we are to pray in the spirit.
Paul said, "I praise God that I speak in tongues more than you all." What he's saying is that I pray with the understanding and I also pray in the spirit. In probably most Pent ec os t al church e s, it's not a service until ev ery body gets up to the a ltar and prays. I d on 't c onsider myse l f to be a rebel but I do loo k a t one thing -if this is the time to go up to the altar , how much real prayer are you going to get? I want peo p le t o come to the altar.
Nothing makes me feel better as a minister, nothing then when I minister God's Word and I see some one move on it. I can preach 20 or 30 dynamic sermons or what have you and it won't mean nothing.
If I preach one Scripture and touch someone to the point where t hey break down and seek God because of th at Scripture -t his is why I try to tell them be led by t he Spi r i t.
When you feel, no matter what time of the service; when you feel the nee d to pray , to seek God, something God has told you, and if you'r e like me, or like anybody else, many time s God has told me something and I've said, "that's good, I'll act on it later on." So even in worship service when the umption comes, you feel you've go t to do so mething about it, you've got to do it and that's when you go up to the altar.
When I say go to the altar, I don't necessar y mean even then come to the front of the church. That can be the case depending on how deeply the Lord deals with you on a particular subject matter.
To me, the altar is whenever I see s omeone real ly getting touched by the Lord. That's why a lot of times after I preach I ha ve everybody stand up and to me, they're at the altar right there in their pews. I don't want to ca ll them down like many people do and the y 're going to come down and they're gon na say, well, I don't want the pastor to be disappointed in me, so I'll go down to the altar. And many people do that. I don't want peo ple s erving me, I don't want people making me happy. Nothing wi l l make me happier than if, asI said, if I preach 20 weeks of prayer, that pers on comes down and asks me after the service is over, even after everybody is gone, please pray for me. Sometimes people are not as outward as other people, and after everybody is gone, the message is pray with me , I need help with something.
To me that's a true altar call. We have altar calls but I don't have them every service, per se. I don't want people to do anything because it's a ritual or i t ' s a form . I want people to feel free to just gather around the altar and hold hands with an othe r and jus t close ou r -eyes a nd 89 just pra y for each and everyone there . Somet imes, as a spiritual leader, I ask for that to hap pe n mainly so that a habit might be able to be formed, Not the habit , per se , of getting t ogethe r, holdin g ha nd s and praying, but a habit -of eliminating possibly the fear of doing i t . So if you , because of a certai n loose form are led to pray severa l ti mes , then when the Spirit re al l y moves upon you to do it, then you will be less afraid to do it beca use you ' ll have had the proper spiritual training t o do it. God wants people that come to Him with their hearts , no t just with an outward phys i cal show.
Hitting the altar illustrates quite clearly the conceptual scheme of the loca l congregation ' s nature of religious commitment.
Members are to hit the altar "with their hearts" and no t just as "a n outward physica l show." The event of hitt in g the altar should be the result of the And there are other times · where you're completely out of it; you don't even know anybody else is ar ound , wherea s , other t im es you can disti nctly make out vo ices, people talking, sin g ing, or whate ver t he case may be going on about you.
These bodily co nd iti ons of "semi-consc iousnes s " and "compl et ely out of it " were ex plai ned by the informant to be the result of havin g reached a 11 spiritual level" where one is 'bvert aken by the power of God." When some one reaches suc h a level, they have reached "that spiritual point wher e the y feel this onenes s with their Creator ... " The most telling featur e in the above description is th at the ev ent is a state in which one is "overtaken by the power of God," producing the feeling of "oneness with For every genui ne s piritu al encounter and truthful thing that exists in t he re a l m of God , there are also counterfeits . Ther e are also thin gs that are very close to -and people are very go od actors.
It doesn't take very l ong for a person to know how to act a role out.
Some peo ple, again, talking about these ki nd of pe ople -what happens sometimes, a person who may be st ep ping away from the Lord, in so me way or an other , th ey might try to cover up that with a superspi r ituality type of thing. Ju s t like a per so n was very shy, quite oftentimes is someone who is very boi s terous.
It's a coverup, a mask.
I would say that would be a rare case. But again it depends on t h e church you're in. You might find yourself in a church where most of the people are phony , in pl a in English.
They just get wrapped up in the fa ct that "we're S'l,lperspiritual pe op le" here. Some people are just that, they've built a rou nd the emotional end of the wor sh i p . Aga in , someone goes up there and kne el s down and gets slain -"We ll, hey, I'm not goin g to l et h im outdo me." Th e se are not nice thin gs to sa y bu t they're human nature, things that reall y ha ppen . There are many positive reasons that are genuine spiritually centered reasons why people ---.
On e of the ways you could put i t would be thi s -if you had a highly traumatic experience you ' d just gone through or a nerveshattering experience that you just didn't know how to cope with -many times one way you can f i nd r elief is again , taking this burden that you have directly to the Lord ... And when you g et into tha t habit of pra y in g , and intercession for others , then you can actually find yourself in a sta t e where you seek this total involvement wi th t he Lord, which would be possibly bein g slain i n th e Sp iri t .
Another good re ason i nvolves physical problems: In some cases it's a physical thin g . I've had times when I' ve ne eded to be touched in my body for healin g , a nd I've had times when I've gone before the Lord and prayed and reached that level and allowe d myself to reach that stage, and t hen after, again after the fact, I'd realize that, hey, I don't hurt anymore, why? How did it happen? I don't know exactly how or why but I know th at when I really feel that I've prayed, and really reached the Lord a bout some t hin g, then somethin g is bou nd t o hap pen.
And genera ll y speaking, to me, t hat ' s re a ll y a clear-cut si gn whether you ha ve reached the Lord.
If you pray to the point wher e the power of God just comes upon you -you're just overwhelmed, you're overpowered then I think everyone should pray to that level.

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In summary, then, the ev ent of hitting the floor is an incident in whic h one is "overtaken by the power For i nstance , I shar ed with you last time how I had been praying ab out a week ago, "Lord , let Brother White call ." He ' s a Christian brother I haven't seen in several months and I was really burdened (about) him . I was on the way home from some place tha t night . I was pr ayi ng this to myself and fi ve minutes af ter I go i n the door he r e , a phone call came from Arizon a , or Oklahom a where he li ves . There wa s an a nswer where I'd prayed and the Lord kne w tha t I was troubled about this parti cu l a r situa t ion.
I don ' t believe in c oi nciden c e . And when you pray something s peci fic like tha t and i t happens -when something li ke th at hap p ens and yo u verbalize it i n c hurch, so me one maybe who has not set the i r fa it h l oos e ever before would b e encouraged to do that.
Some people th i nk that certain thin g s are too big to get t o God, some peop le think things are so trivial they don't want to bother God wi th (them) . And when pe opl e st an d up and test i fy , every testimony is not so methin g big -colossal, supernatural, giganti c thing that God has done. It encourages other people to maybe tr y the Lord in that aspect.
It bui l ds up t h eir faith, to give the Lord a try.
In th e Word it says, "Try me." God actually says, " Tr y me, if you don't believe in me, if you don't know me for sure, try me to see if I will be faithfu l to yo u in your need." So that's really what we do.
The second important aspect of testimonies is that they "reaffirm tha t God is alive" and they "glorify" Him: But testimonies are important to reaffirm that God is alive.
The churches that d on't have testimon y s er v ice, I ' m s orry to say, I won 't sa y the y 're all dead churches -but many of t hem are.
They don ' t believe in the existence of the livin g all powerful God . And because they don't believe in that they don ' t get what the y don't believe.
It's a matte r of glori f yi ng the Gospel to one anot her. and secon d , i n the verbal expression of the occurrence to the congre gat ion so as to encourage others to also tr us t t he Lord . The spiritual aspect of g iving testim ony is that event being te sti fied to came ab out as the r e sul t of the Lord. The eve nt occu rred because of the tru st -the one more felt than seen -which that person h ad in God. In sum, the l ocal Pentecostal group 's concept ua l strateg y of the nature of their reli gi ous commitment is also acted out in the event of giving testimon y .
Confirmat ion fr om God "Confirmati on from God" is an event which involves a way of livin g , a "spiritual way of living," accordin g to one member of t he Highw a y Church . This statement of the significance of co nfirmation from God is further explained in a discussion wit h the principal in formant of this stud y : The Bible says that we ar e t o pr ove a ll things. Confi r mation . A preacher says something , you re ceiv e what he says , yo u think about it, and you accept it or reject i t . The Bible says t ha t you 'r e not supposed t o ac c ep t i t unl e ss i t i s conf ir med by the Word of God. 101 My in f ormant went on, once again, to cite Scripture to prove his poi nt .
The Bible says that when Pau l went about setti ng up churches thr ough Asia , he sa w that the pe ople in Bere a were better in one manner than the peop l e th at were at The ss a l onica . Why? Beca u se they searched the Scriptu res out . When Pau l told h im this, -t hi s spiritual truth, that spi rit ual t ruth, the y s aid , in e ss ence -"Show me in the W ord of God where it says this ." "Show me" -they d idn't have the New Testament but the y had the Old Testament, the five book s of Moses.
They said "show us," let us reaso n t ogether , it s ays in God 's Word. The s un coming up over the water , and then when I thought ab out the sun, the s-u-n coming up over the water , I thought also, again as the S-o-n of God coming up out of the tomb, and then I was trying t o think how -you know -what about this t hought .
Af ter se veral days of studying, my i nforman t still "hadn't penned anything down f or any of the four services." Then, his wife gave him a placema t .
. .. it was this beautiful placemat with a picture of the sun c omin g up ove r the water with Psalm 113, ver se 3 . It says, "From the risin g of the sun to the going down of the same the name of the Lord is to be praised." Soon as I saw that thing I knew it was confirmatio n , God was confirming that I was to talk and t o speak about the rising sun, but I don't just get up to speak for the sake of speaking; it's got to be backed up by the Word of God.
And ... I put a f l eece out to the Lord . I said , " Lord , if you want me to do this , I won ' t be ashamed of you, I ' ll do i t, I'll go right up there ," and I put a fleece out to the Lord and the Lord didn't answer the fleece, so I knew that it was not Him that was asking . In other wor ds , I want ed to do it be cause I believed in God . This is , again , the important thin g with th e thi ngs of the Lord.
The Word of God is true and His spirit and every (thing) -but God has got to actual l y confirm that Word to you in orde r for it to be something y ou can walk out on , sort of stick your neck out on. ... I came home Monday and there was a letter i n the mailbox from the head of the Church of God , the General Overseer.
All that comes to mind from that whole letter is that last sentence.
He was talking about the Holy Spirit equipping the saints to do an effective job, and when I read that I got so -it was confirmation.
Further, my informant cited yet another source of confirmation which pertained to this episode .
The results of last Monday, I believe, was confirmation because I'd feel in my spirit that several of the people that were in there -I know that the Lord moved.
I was teaching and people were crying. The Lord was just moving and ministering in what I was bringing out. Not that is was me . It was just the power of God. God was using me at that particular time to bring forth that particular message. And so that in itself, after the fact, was additional confirmation. First it was the Brother, then the letter, then the actual -...
In sum , the l ocal Pentecostal congregation 's conceptual scheme of the nature of their religious commitment is also manifest in the event of confirmation from God. Confirmation from God is the manner in which something is proven to be of the Spirit, to be of God.
Again, the confirmation may take the physica l form of a In talking to other Pentecostals, certain items were mentioned with reference to Pentecostalism about which, I would like more information.
These items appear on the enclosed questionnaire which I would like you to please complete as best you can . In filling out the questionnaire, I realize the space provided may be limiting, however, if you could please confine your answers to this space it would greatly aid in the timely completion of the research process .
Also, I would appreciate your prompt completion of the enclosed questionnaire . A preaddressed stamped envelope is provided for your convenience in returning the completed questionnaire. Your replies will be confidential and anonymous. Please, do not sign the questionnaire.
Further, should you be interested in seeing a copy of the final report, a copy will . be available to you. (4) As part of the Pentecostal worship services I have attended, a request for "testimony" has always been made.
Could you expla i n to me what it is you are doing when you give a testimony? Would you say there are different kinds of testimony?