Categoría de discapacidad visual en adultos mayores

Pentecostal Christianity embraces diversity and change due to their understanding of the Holy Spirit perceived as creative and open (Jacobsen 2006, Warrington 2008). Consequently, Pentecostals cannot identify with a static theological culture and a singular structure of governance (WAGF Theological Commission, 2014). The theological culture of the churches under study thus fails to fully capture the Pentecostal understanding particularly on gender parameters. Pentecostals do not discriminate on the

basis of any physical dimension; be it status, age or gender (Acts 2:17). Since Pentecostals are the church (Scott 2011), and thus continue to be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit that defines them so as to transform others (Wolfgang, 2011), discrimination of women cannot arise. Moreover, the church would have failed to show evidence of transformation and consequently would not transform others.

Pentecostals embrace a priesthood of all believers. For a formal process of ordination to exist therefore, it would have to carry less weight and only arise for practical purposes; that is, to endorse a leadership office that has already been established by the gifting of the Holy Spirit (Benventi 2004, Clifton 2009, WAGF Theological Commission, 2014). The formal exclusion of women from the hierarchical structures of the churches under study, on the basis of gender, is not in line with Pentecostal teachings.

The study concurs with WAGF Theological Commission reports (2014) that since the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not restricted by gender; neither should the leadership in church. Admittedly, women played a prominent part as church planters, missionaries, pastors and leaders in the early Pentecostal Christianity (Clifton 2009, Sanders, 1996) and so should be in the selected Pentecostal churches.

Veli-Matti (2002) rightly observes that a Pentecostal church is a charismatic fellowship, as in the body of Christ so that priority is given to the local

assembly, where God is manifest in the charismata. The Pentecostal focus is thus on the persons in relation to others rather than structural or institutional understandings of the church. Consequently, any hierarchical structure that prevents universal participation in church and ministry is resisted. This implies that the structures in the churches under study that marginalize women resist Pentecostal definition.

Every time the Holy Spirit is given, the outcome is transformative and mission oriented (Chant, 1999, Stronstad 1984). Notably, Jesus Christ declared the power of the Holy Spirit was upon him to proclaim the arrival of the Kingdom (Luke 4.17-21). The Kingdom proclaimed by Christ was where the ones’ on the margins would be targeted by God‘s favor (Rusell 1993, WAGF Theological Commission report, 2014). It is therefore ironical that the selected Pentecostal churches would maintain the status quo of the margins while subscribing to the belief in the liberating spirit.

It is instructive, for the purpose of this study, that Peter, quoting from Joel‘s prophecy restated that the pouring out of the Holy Spirit would include women as well as men (Acts 2:17). There is therefore no ground in Pentecostal Christianity, whatsoever, for women restriction from full participation in church ministries as is the case in the churches under study. The Chronology of events in Acts attests to the evidence that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are for witness and service.

The study further concurs with the WAGF Theological Commission report (2014) that to be Pentecost is to accept the commission of Christ as obligatory and achievable through the Holy Spirit. The study is therefore convinced by this ground that an understanding of Pentecostal Christianity by the churches under study would have given them a reason to elevate women, who are anointed by the Holy Spirit in order for them to fulfill their spiritual mandate. The churches view would be that of gender equality in church. They would have been able to work as a team that interdepends as in the imagery of the Body of Christ (WAGF Theological Commission report, 2014). Notably, Paul uses the metaphor of the Body of Christ to stress that the gifts are given for the sake of others (Rom. 12, 1 Cor. 12, Eph. 4) an indication that those with the gifts of the Holy Spirit (women included) should be encouraged to do as enabled by the gifting.

Women participation in the administrative leadership of the churches under study is therefore important so that to not only express their interests but also utilize their God’s given abilities. The leaders of the churches under study must acknowledge that Pentecostal Christians, whether men or women, are gifted in diversity and the different gifting are important for the growth of the church. Consequently, acknowledging that women are spiritually gifted is not enough. There is need for understanding that the Holy Spirit operates in an egalitarian way as observed on the day of Pentecost in the second chapter of acts.

The leaders of the churches under study must also understand the term church in the light of the body of Christ that has many parts but which must work together (Eph. 4). This must be perceived as a guiding principle in positioning women in the churches under study in addition to Paul’s declaration in Galatians 3:28 that reject cultural perceptions in regard to who serves in the Kingdom of God. After all, under the new covenant it is not the outward body that is important but the life within the body, the Holy Spirit, so that to restrict women because of their gender would be to take a worldly point of view (Scott 2011).