It’s been over 100 years since Asuza St. Pentecostals now make up somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 of the global church. And yet not a week goes by where I don’t read or hear someone bashing Pentecostals. Sometimes it’s outright derogatory. Other times it’s well-meaning people who don’t seem fully aware of how condescending they’re being. They presume to educate people on how to experience God or talk about experiences with God, as if we (that’s right, I am Pentecostal) don’t live with and think about this stuff all the time. 

We know it’s messy. We know our people don’t always use the most precise theological language to describe things. But nobody likes the grammar police. Especially when what we’re trying to describe is as ineffable as the wind that blows where it wants. All theological language is analogy anyway. And it wasn’t doctrinal precison that led to Asuza St. It was hunger for more of God by humble, simple people who prayed and prayed and prayed. And waited and waited and waited. And then experienced and experienced and experienced. 

If you’ll stop bashing us long enough to join us in prayer and waiting, God might just show up again.