Global Study: Growing Pentecostal Churches Have Social Mission {+Catholics}

Researchers say Pentecostals and charismatics - Catholics and others who share in Pentecostal practices - make up one-quarter of the world’s Christians, with the greatest numbers in the developing world. A new study finds the fastest-growing Pentecostal churches are tackling social problems in their communities...

Professor Donald Miller of the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture said churches like this are booming around the world. He has visited many, from a Catholic charismatic congregation in India to a Pentecostal assembly in Singapore.

This Catholic charismatic congregation in Brazil is part of a huge movement in the country, where the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life says half of the population may be charismatic or Pentecostal.

Charismatic Episcopalians in Brazil work with impoverished people who scrape out a living in garbage dumps. In Egypt, charismatic Coptic Christian Maggie Gobran works with children in Cairo’s garbage dump, providing support and training.

There is a strange love-hate relationship between Catholics and Pentecostals, within and outside the church. It has to do with the validity of private revelation and the pitfalls of accepting it. Think of how long it took the church to respond to Fatima, on the one hand and Jim Jones on the other.

Trusting private revelation and those who act on inspiration is difficult. That said, acting Christian makes sense, but endorsing private revelation as authority doesn’t.

If the Spirit will harness us with Christ’s yoke, millions can be lifted to Heaven.

Christ said that there will always be poor among us; that his main purpose was not to solve the issue of material poverty but to enrich the souls of men with the kingdom of Heaven! Granted, the fruits of the spirit include a compassion for the sick and needy, but more importantly a passion for the lost souls of human kind must also be first and foremost.

On Fatima, I don't know -- I as a Catholic don't consider private revelation to be necessary for my faith. HOWEVER, if someone does have this and it's from God, I say let him/her. Miracles can happen today, talking in tongues can happen today. I'm not going to say it's not possible

As mdmathis6 points out, together Catholicism and Pentecostalism can spread the word of God across the world

Private revelation is the Spiritual regeneration that God does in each individual soul. If a true regeneration is done, then knowledge of who Christ is, our utter depravity as fallen men, and of our utter need for his saving power becomes not just one’s personal revelation but also becomes a universally known truth across the breadth of believers no matter what Christian persuasion or denomination. People will always disagree as to forms of worship but a Christian, truly regenerated, will never disagree in the divinity in the object of our worship. The Nicene and other similar creeds is is just as true for me as it is for Catholics as well as many Protestants. Christ was God in flesh born of the virgin Mary. He died for our sins and was resurrected after three days and nights and was caught up to sit at the right hand of the Father therebye to soon judge the World. I cannot deny these truths and even if I tried, I should at some point be forced to kneel, confessing Jesus as Lord as the scripture says.

The core faith is what unites all. Each individual must have a personal regeneration of the Spirit, his own “private revelation”...yet for this “private revelation” to be true, it will match what all others have had in terms of a personal saving knowledge(as outlined above) of Jesus Christ.

You and I can “discuss” about saints and Mary and church and pulpit”, but as Christians we can never disagree about Christ who takes away the sins of the World”.

The problem with your thesis is that the nature, cause, circumstances, and results of regeneration for these two groups of people, Catholics and Pentecostals, is wholly incompatable.

The one and only thing they have in common is the subjective experience of tongues. Everything else in doctrine and practice must be set aside.

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