FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP) — The head of the Baptist World Alliance said Pentecost should inspire Christians to speak courageously to centers of power.
Pentecost Sunday — May 31 on most Christians' liturgical calendar this year — commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles recorded in the second chapter of Acts.
Neville Callam
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BWA General Secretary Neville Callam said in an open letter that Christians need "Holy Spirit-inspired courage" to confront "growing secularism that threatens to push religion permanently to the margins."
Callam said such empowerment enables the powerless to "create holy mayhem that upsets the established order."
"Pentecost summons us to rise up and speak courageously, to recognize that it is only in the power of the Spirit that we can speak truth to power, bear witness to the convictions we have been led to hold and to live authentically as people whom God is constantly renewing," he said.
Callam said Pentecost calls Christians "to be people of real courage" but warned that "when the Holy Spirit empowers us to act courageously, some may feel threatened by the prospect of losing their position of privilege."
"This may cost us dearly," he said. "Yet, what price can we not pay to live as God's pentecostal people?"
Pentecost, based on a root word meaning "fifty," marks the 50th day of Eastertide. It ends the Easter season in the Christian calendar, traditionally observed mainly in Catholic, Anglican and other liturgical religious traditions but increasingly observed among Baptists.
Randel Everett
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Randel Everett, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, wrote in the Baptist Standard that by the second century after Christ, Pentecost was observed as a Christian feast second in importance only to Easter, but by and large Baptists in the United States have missed out on the celebration.
"Easter reminds us Jesus conquered sin and death," Everett said. "Pentecost is a reminder the Holy Spirit has come upon the church and empowers us to be Christ's witnesses to the world."
Everett said Pentecost also gives opportunity "to celebrate the multi-ethnicity of the gospel." The Bible says the thousands of believers gathered for the first Pentecost were from many nations, and when the Galileans began speaking in miraculous tongues, each heard them in his own native language.
Pentecost also is significant for Pentecostal and other charismatic churches that believe spiritual gifts in the Bible like speaking in tongues and miraculous healing are still effective today.
Millions of Christians around the world plan to participate Pentecost Sunday in a Global Day of Prayer, an annual event started by a South African businessman who says in 2000 God gave him a clear message to "call Christians together for a day of repentance and prayer."
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.