Tony Campolo. How to Be Pentecostal Without Speaking in Tongues. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1991. See here to buy the book.
Tony Campolo is a preacher and a sociologist, and he was a spiritual
adviser to President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Campolo is an evangelical Christian, but he holds a number of
progressive political positions that are sensitive towards the poor, so
he is considered to be a leader of the Evangelical Left.
How to Be Pentecostal Without Speaking in Tongues is about
Pentecostalism, but it is also about the work of the Holy Spirit and
spiritual warfare against demons. According to Campolo, the Holy Spirit
guides Christians and encourages them. For Campolo, those who want a
more intimate relationship with God through the Holy Spirit can
personally throw their sin and negativity onto Christ, who absorbed it
at the cross, and Christ will replace the bad within them with good.
They should also confess and apologize for sins they have committed
against others and become a part of a community, however small, in which
they can share, pray for each other, and hold each other accountable on
living the Christian life. Campolo also contends that those who are
spirit-filled are committed to social justice and environmental
preservation.
Regarding spiritual warfare, Campolo talks about the demonic in
culture and institutions. Campolo does not reject rock music, for he
mentions rock musicians whose concerts have a positive effect on people,
one that uplifts people and engenders within them a spirit of love and
peace. But he also contends that certain negative forms of rock music
have had a negative effect on the young, one that makes them sullen,
depressed, and rebellious. In addition, Campolo discusses the
involvement of young people in certain forms of witchcraft, as they
attempt to gain power in a society in which they feel powerless,
victimized, and rejected. Campolo also focuses on world events and how
demons encourage conflict and resentment, and that, according to
Campolo, is why being a peacemaker is such an essential aspect of
spiritual warfare.
The book contains a number of interesting stories and insights.
Campolo tells a story at the beginning of the book about Pentecostalism
in an area of Latin America and how it was encouraging morality and a
better life, as people formed co-ops that served themselves
economically. Campolo later tells a story about how he and other
religious leftists challenged a corporation about its policies regarding
the Dominican Republic, only to learn that their accusations were not
entirely fair. The corporation invited them to propose policies that it
could enact to help the poor in the Dominican Republic, and Campolo
learned from this the possibility of principalities and powers doing
good rather than evil. Campolo also talks about Billy Graham and how
there is a power in Graham’s preaching that encourages people to accept
Christ. It is not because Graham is presenting anything earthshakingly
original, and some people who accept Christ in response to Graham’s
preaching report that they cannot even remember anything specific that
Graham said; but they were still moved to go forward and accept Christ.
Campolo distinguishes between the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit.
For Campolo, the fruit of the Spirit is character that emerges as a
result of the Spirit and the Christian’s participation in discipleship,
including social justice. The gifts are gifts of service in Christian
ministry. They include preaching, but they can also include making sure
that the church runs smoothly (the gift of helps in I Corinthians
12:28). According to Campolo, one can have gifts of the Spirit without
having fruit, and one can have fruit of the Spirit without being
successful in the gifts. Campolo tells the story of a preacher who was
having an affair with an organist, yet his preaching brought a lot of
people to God.
There were areas in which Campolo seemed to contradict himself. He
appeared to imply that everyone who is saved and is a child of God
experiences the tangible ministry of the Holy Spirit, and yet, in
discussing the people in Acts 19 who repented and were baptized yet were
unaware of the Holy Spirit, Campolo seemed to believe that they were
saved and forgiven even before Paul laid his hands on them and they
received the Holy Spirit. Campolo in one place depicts interaction with
the Holy Spirit as something that can be done in solitude, and he
relates that he does so while lying in bed at night. Later, however, he
says that Christianity is not about seeking God in solitude but in
community, for the Spirit shows up when believers are together.
Appealing to Matthew 5:23-24, Campolo says that Christians should not
meet God until they have made amends to those against whom they have
sinned, and he critiques the idea that reconciliation with God must
precede reconciliation with others, saying that Jesus appears to teach
the opposite. Later in the book, though, Campolo praises the Psalms as
examples of people honestly venting before God about the people in their
lives.
Some of Campolo’s interpretations of Scripture were rather
interesting. Romans 8:19 says: “For the earnest expectation of the
creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God” (KJV). I
have long seen that as eschatological—-as something that will occur
after Christ comes back—-but Campolo applies it to Christians doing
works of social justice and contributing to the healing of creation in
the here and now. I am not sure if I agree with Campolo’s
interpretation, but I do agree with his point, for, so often, the Spirit
in the Bible inspires people to be concerned for the poor.
Because Campolo presents the Spirit as tangibly guiding believers,
one may wonder if that means that we cannot question anyone who says God
is speaking to him or her. Campolo does express skepticism about some
claims. He talks about a woman who said that God told her to tell
Campolo to read certain anti-feminist books, after Campolo had delivered
a pro-feminist message, and Campolo was skeptical that God told her
this, since he had already read the books. Campolo also notes that
there are many who claim to be speaking under the Holy Spirit’s
inspiration, yet they focus on end-time scenarios rather than what the
Bible focuses on, such as the poor. In one chapter, Campolo criticizes
the excesses within Pentecostalism (i.e., preachers interested in money,
people coming up with off-the-wall ideas and attributing them to the
Spirit), preferring the Anglican and Catholic varieties that honor
tradition and thus weed out the excesses.
This was an enjoyable book to read, and there was so much more in the
book that I did not mention. I struggle with some things that Campolo
says. His point about the importance of reconciliation before meeting
with God challenges me, as one who has difficulty with this, and yet
that does not mean that this standard is entirely wrong. There are many
Christians who do not experience God in a tangible way, but who may
rely on the Bible or experience God as aloof, and I wonder how Campolo
would account for that. I am also not sure if I agree with him about
God blessing preachers who are immoral and lack the fruit of the Spirit:
on some level, it makes sense, since we can see that there are immoral
preachers who are successful in gaining converts, and moral preachers
who are not as successful. And yet, I Timothy 3 and II Timothy 2
emphasize that good character is a criterion for those who want to be
spiritual leaders in the community, so why would God honor an immoral
preacher?
Surprisingly, Campolo’s description of his own small group did not
particularly scare me, as one who is socially anxious and who cringes at
the word “accountability” because it sounds cultish. Campolo describes
his group as three people gathering together, sharing, and praying the
Psalms. It’s rather simple, and yet, as Campolo states, the Spirit
meets them.
Overall, this book helped me to appreciate the Holy Spirit, as one
who encourages Christians personally and communally while bringing forth
good into the world. Reading this book made me want to read more by
Tony Campolo.