Sacramental Theology from a Pentecostal Perspective; by Demetria Bryant

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen devotes a chapter of his Introduction to Ecclesiology to exploring a distinctively Pentecostal approach to ecclesiology, and it is telling that he begins by asking about such an approach, “Is there any?” The question is quite justified, echoing the questions posed by Paul D. Lee in light of Pentecostalism’s history:
If Pentecostalism is a movement, is it useful or valid to talk about ecclesiology at all? What does ecclesiology mean to a Pentecostal? At first, Pentecostals were so busy spreading the “good news” of the fresh outpouring of the Spirit “in the last days” that they became unconcerned about forming a denomination. The premillenial urgency of the imminent Kingdom made Pentecostals focus on their readiness, through personal conversion and regeneration, thereby rendering any ecclesiological deliberation rather irrelevant or at least secondary.
Indeed, the influence of this early strong eschatological bent—which has by no means completely dissolved over the movement’s continued life span, but persists as a quickening element in much of its common piety—likely helps to account for a relative dearth of doctrinal, philosophical, or systematic theological reflection that has characterized Pentecostalism historically. Of course, recent decades have seen this trend changing, to be sure. Nevertheless, when we come to consider Pentecostal sacramentology, the question, “Is there any?” could be asked with as much justification as in sacramentology is a part. My own initial answer is, Yes: it is still largely in an undeveloped form, but the resources latent in Pentecostal spirituality hold the case of ecclesiology, of which much potential for developing a conscious theological appreciation of the sacramental character of worship in general, and of those ecclesial rituals that have historically been explicitly recognized as “sacraments” in particular. My goal in this thesis is to investigate that potential so as to demonstrate how, if shaped in a certain way, this area of Pentecostal theology can aid doctrinal rapprochement between Pentecostals and other groups of Christians in the face of some existing divisions. I intend to direct my focus to the Eucharist, but first I must clear a space for talking about sacraments generally from a Pentecostal perspective. That will consume the first part of the paper, and in the second and third major sections I will proceed to engage some theologians of other traditions to determine where Pentecostalism might be able to appropriate some of their ideas.