In 1924 AoG was the last of the three main UK Pentecostal denominations to form alongside Elim and the Apostolic Faith Church and so it is important to set this critical event (considered in more detail in later chapters) briefly in the context of the UK and global Pentecostal movement.
The roots of Pentecostalism according to Mursell are a matter of dispute1 but are often traced back to the early Methodist and original Holiness movements in the UK and USA2 and 16th Century Anabaptist spirituality,3 with Hollenweger describing it as “a blending of aristocratic Anglicanism and Welsh revivalism”.4 The UK Pentecostal movement is considered to be the most dramatic development of modern Christianity.5 However, it is the state of mainstream UK church in the early 20th Century that set the climate for the arrival of Pentecostalism. The 19th Century had seen the impact of Darwinism on conventional thought not least on religious thinking6 and this coincided with the last throws of significant change that the industrial revolution had created in Britain, particularly the shifts in land ownership which had previously closely tied church and aristocracy together in a power system which by the middle decades of the nineteenth Century had crumbled and disintegrated.7 The process of secularisation began to affect British society; a decline in the church started with a crisis in religious belief as ever-increasing sections of the population began to see religion as increasingly implausible and
the end and the turn of the Century; Roman Catholic attendance mainly fell and the nonconformist denominations which had remained stable in the mid-1800s began to fall towards the end of the century.10 Although many point to only an Anglican decline (due to deep structural problems affecting their churches), in reality, free churches as well as Anglicans had visible declines. There had been a chronic over-building of chapels by Free Churches (who had seen a rapid increase in attendance after 1851) and consequently between 1880 and the first decade of the 1900s, independent and nonconformist chapels began to close through a combination of dwindling congregations, decreasing philanthropy and increasing debt problems. By the second decade of the 20th Century, churches and chapels everywhere were less than a third full.11 Concealed in that overall decline were denominational variances. The long term decline in Methodist attendance (that set in between 1886 and 1891) and the Particular Baptists (which peaked around 1880 then fell back by 1890) were countered somewhat by the dramatic growth in the new Salvation Army and even some of the older denominations such as the Churches of Christ, the Quakers and even possibly Brethren seemed to experience a degree of growth, however, these increases were not sufficient to compensate for the overall decline of the nonconformist denominations.12
Against this backdrop, Pentecostalism arrived in the UK. A precise definition of Pentecostalism is elusive and difficult as there are few distinct common unifying features.13 As the famous Pentecostal scholar Walter Hollenweger commented “I do not know anybody who could convincingly define what
Robeck argues that the historiography of the origins of Pentecostalism is hotly debated with multiple narratives found within all early Pentecostal sources.19 Anderson takes a wider view beyond the common Anglo-American perspective and argues that the historical evidence points to Pentecostalism being a far more global event20 and Warrington notes that although the driving force for much of early Pentecostalism was from the West, these were predated by expressions of Pentecostalism in India, China and Chile.21 In seeking to track the development of worldwide Pentecostalism, Wilkinson and colleagues acknowledge the profound cultural and linguistic change in composition of the Christian community that is exacerbated by the challenge of what
Within this milieu of global Pentecostalism the British Assemblies of God came into being, grew, struggled and changed. The study of AoG in all its uniqueness represents a fascinating and important insight into leadership, culture and ecclesiology. Although this book takes AoG as its focus, it is clear from previous experience of presenting papers at theological conferences and discussions with leaders from other streams of Christianity, that the insights, findings, questions raised and lessons learnt in this book are more universally applicable, not simply in Pentecostal contexts, but within the wider denominations of the body of Christ.
Gordon Mursell, English Spirituality: From 1700 to the Present Day (London: spck, 2008), p.405.
Steve Durasoff, Bright Wind of the Spirit: Pentecostalism Today (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1973), p.44.; Michael Harper, “The Waves Keep Coming In,” The Journal of the European Pentecostal Theological Association 28, no. 2 (2008).;,Nils Bloch-Hoell, The Pentecostal Movement: Its Origin, Development, and Distinctive Character (London: Allen & Unwin, 1964), p.13.
See Charles H. Byrd, “Pentecostalism’s Anabaptist Heritage: The Zofingen Disputation of 1532,” The Journal of the European Pentecostal Theological Association 28, no. 1 (2008).; Andrew Walker, Restoring the Kingdom: The Radical Christianity of the House Church Movement (Guildford, Surrey: Eagle Publishing, 1998), p.249. And Anthea Butler, “Pentecostal Traditions We Should Pass On: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” Article, Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies 27, no. 2 (Fall 2005 2005).
Hollenweger, The Pentecostals, p.176.
David Martin, Pentecostalism: The World Their Parish (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002), p.1.
Robert M Young, “The Impact of Darwin on Conventional Thought,” in The Victorian Crisis of Faith, ed. Anthony Symondson (London: s.p.c.k., 1974), p.25.
Callum Brown, The Death of Christian Britain: Understanding Secularism 1800–2000 (London: Routledge, 2002), p.17.
Robin Gill, The Empty Church Revisited (Aldershot, Hants.: Ashgate, 2003).
Adrian Hastings, A History of English Christianity 1902–1990, Third Edition ed. (London: scm Press, 1991), p.33.
Hugh McLeod, Religion and Society in England, 1850–1914 (Basingstoke: Macmillan Press Ltd., 1996), pp.172–74.
Gill, The Empty Church Revisited.
McLeod, Religion and Society in England, 1850–1914.
Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), p.10., Alister E. McGrath, Christianity’s Dangerous Idea (Lodon: spck, 2007), p.419.
Interview with Hollenweger and Neil Hudson, “Pentecostalism, Past, Present and Future: Interview with Walter Hollenweger,” The Journal of the European Pentecostal Theological Association 21 (2001a).
Martin, Pentecostalism: The World Their Parish, p.5.
Stephen Hunt, “Pentecostal Political Activism in the USA and the UK: A Comparative Analysis,” Politics and Religion 2 (2008).
Gee, Wind and Flame, pp.4–6.
Martin, Pentecostalism: The World Their Parish, p.5.
Jr Cecil M. Robeck, The Cambridge Companion to Pentecostalism, ed. Jr Cecil M. Robeck and Amos Yong, Cambridge Companions to Religion, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).
Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism.
Keith Warrington, Pentecostal Theology: A Theology of Encounter (London: t&t Clark, 2008).
Michael Wilkinson et al., Brill’s Encyclopedia of Global Pentecostalism (Leiden: Brill, 2021); Wilkinson et al., Brill’s Encyclopedia of Global Pentecostalism.