CYBERJOURNAL FOR PENTECOSTAL-CHARISMATIC RESEARCH

A Pentecostal Paradigm for the Latin American Family:

An Instrument of Transformation

 By

Virginia Trevino Nolivos

Anaheim, California

May 2001

Introduction

Latin America is a society in perpetual crisis.  Its story, although decorated with victories and conquests, is also saturated with devastation and misery.   Roger Cabezas writes:

Presently, most Latin Americans and Caribbeans suffer from extreme subsistence-level living conditions in all areas:  nutrition, health, housing, clothing, employment, etc.  Discrimination because of sex, race, religion and age are bewildering and shameful experiences, but they are also part of this history.[1]

Suffering has enthroned itself in Latin America howling a message of hopelessness. 

The Pentecostal movement in Latin America has furnished the people with hope in the midst of their suffering.  Although Pentecostalism has been a major liberating force primarily among the marginalized masses, its message of the resurrected Christ and life in the Holy Spirit is available and essential to all people.  One of the most effective instruments through which the Pentecostal message can reach communities is the fundamental social unit of society…the family.  Harvey Cox in his book, Fire From Heaven, points out that, “For decades Pentecostals were persecuted in many parts of Latin America.  So, since they could not gain access to the public arena, they worked mainly through family networks.”[2] The Latin American family modeling the Pentecostal message is an effective witness for today of the importance and power of living in the kingdom.[3]  In order for the family to be faithful to the witness of the Pentecostal message, it must have an appreciation of God’s design and purpose for the family.  

This paper focuses on Pentecostalism and the Latin American family.  Some Latin American families have already testified about the Pentecostal movement’s effect on their families.  Yet, the Pentecostal experience provides for the family far more than what has been identified.  Liberation, transformation and formation are some of the experiences the family encounters when they adopt a biblical and theological paradigm of the family from a Pentecostal hermeneutic.  This paradigm may be derived from the “constellation of motifs recurring throughout the whole Pentecostal tradition:”[4] Jesus as Savior, Sanctifier, Spirit-Baptizer, Healer and Coming King.  The premise in which this paradigm is possible rests on the truth that God entered into a covenantal relationship with the human race.  The reason this paradigm will be utilized is because expectations for family behavior are essentially the same as those for all Christian relationships.  The family should always be “Christian” with one another.  Therefore, this paper seeks to develop a model for the Latin American family that is faithful to the biblical and theological understanding of family in covenantal relationship with God and each other. 

This study will present a biblical and theological model of the family from a Pentecostal hermeneutic.  The implications and benefits this model provides for the Latin American family and the community will also be observed.

The Biblical and Theological Paradigm of the Pentecostal Family

Every society is made up of family systems –traditional, non-traditional, functional and dysfunctional; and every person belongs to a family.  Even the prodigal or the orphan has an immediate or an extended family somewhere.   The family is a significant contributor to the formation of a person’s identity.  Aside from determining the physical characteristics, the family shapes the mind, the values and sometimes even the behavior of a person.  This valuable entity was created for a specific purpose.

The family is the primary setting in which the covenant we have with God is to be known and expressed.[5]   This covenant of life, established in the Garden of Eden, required that the human race in all the ages of its existence live appropriately to being created in the image of God, living harmoniously with Him.[6]   In examining this covenant we can make the following observations:

The life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus reinstated this covenant under terms of grace.  In constructing a model of the family from a Pentecostal hermeneutic, the themes of Jesus as Savior, Sanctifier, Spirit-Baptizer, Healer and Coming King are appropriate because the ministry of Christ restores, enables and equips the family to be faithful to the covenantal relationship with God and with one another.  Each of these motifs and their importance for the family will be studied next.

Jesus as Savior

The redeeming work of Christ provides for the family a restoration of its original identity:  created in the image of God for covenant with God and one another.  Being created in the image of the triune God has many implications for the family.

 First, there exists a sacredness of life.[7]  All human life is to be appreciated and esteemed.  The Focus on the Family mission statement, a Para-church ministry in the United States for the family, sums this idea up very well:

Human life is of inestimable worth and significance in all its dimensions, including the unborn, the aged, the widowed, the mentally handicapped, the unattractive, the physically challenged and every other condition in which humanness is expressed from conception to the grave.

Every person has value and dignity by nature of being a creation of God. The measure of worth of a person should not be dependent on his/her material possessions, accomplishments in life, acquired fame or educational achievements.  Pentecostalism has incarnated this message.[8] 

Second, humans are intrinsically relational.  This covenant God entered with Adam and Eve required that they be in covenant with one another.  Jackie David Johns in an article about covenant writes, “To have the image of God is to have the capacities for wholeness in personal existence and fulfillment through shared existence.”[9] Shared existence does not imply a loss of identity.[10]  Mary Ruth Stone in an article entitled, “Relations in the Pentecostal Family,” asserts that:

While unity of purpose as a family is a worthy goal, it should not be allowed to smother and to destroy the individuality of its members. [sic] It is both possible and desirable to engage in meaningful and close relationships while retaining a healthy sense of self-identity and personhood...[11]

The family is made up of diversity for a glorious unity.  This idea of diversity in the midst of unity is exemplified perfectly through the Trinity.[12] 

This is important especially for the Latin American woman who for the most part is expected to be like Mary (the mother of Jesus) – the symbol of someone always accessible and always giving.  The mother is expected to deny herself. [13]  Her identity and purpose are only found in her husband and her children.  Apart from them she has no identity.   While the conceptualization of what it means to be a woman is changing,[14] Pentecostalism challenges the woman to strive at reaching her potential.[15] 

Third, both male and female were created in God’s image.[16]  Both were created equal in dignity and authority.[17]  In creation there exists a mutual dependency between the man and the woman in their relationship with each other over creation.[18]   This understanding of the male and the female is contrary to what Roman Catholicism[19] has taught for many years.  Machismo, which originated in Spain, teaches that the man is superior to the woman and that the woman does not deserve respect; Mariology, on the other hand, teaches in a subtle manner, that the woman is superior to the man in the areas of the moral and spiritual.  Pentecostalism challenges both the man and the woman to establish their identity according to the created order before the fall. 

Jesus as Sanctifier 

The sanctifying work of the Word and the Spirit enables the family to live and grow together toward perfection.   Individually, each member and collectively, the family seek to live a life that is holy.[20]   In an effort to live holy, the family participates in necessary transformational and formational experiences that shape its doctrine, practice and affections.[21]  Convictions change; [22] behavior changes,[23] and dispositions change.[24] Transformational and formational experiences come about through exercising some of the disciplines important for a family:  testimony,[25] prayer, Bible Study, and “koinonia” –fellowship all in the context of worship.[26]  The family also experiences formation when it integrates elements necessary for its growth.  Jack O. and Judith K. Balswick in their book, The Family, identify these elements as covenant, grace, empowerment and intimacy.[27] 

Covenant entails an unconditional commitment of love for one another.  This stands in contrast to a society that models a manipulative love or requires a person to earn love.  Families that have as foundational to their relationships an unconditional commitment of love will nurture individuals that are confident, stable, trusting, trustworthy, independent and honest. 

In an atmosphere of grace, a willingness to forgive and be forgiven, [28] individuals are given the time and space necessary for growth.  Grace also enlightens individuals to the truth of human frailty -everyone makes mistakes.  Children, for example, that are given the space to make mistakes will learn how to take risks.  When grace is absent, people live in fear of rejection or impending judgment.   Machismo has contributed to the view that God is a dominant figure demanding obedience and quick to carry out punishment.  Very little emphasis is given about the love of God because this is incompatible with His role.   Ana-Marie Rizzuto in her book, The Birth of the Living God, alleges that individuals form their first impressions about God depending upon the mother and father imagery in early childhood. [29] If the Latin father exercises grace and affection toward the children then perhaps the child will form an understanding of a loving and gracious Heavenly Father.

Empowerment provides the ability to serve one another.  Balswick and Balswick in their book share that every parent must empower his/her child.  A parent should recognize the strengths and potentials of the child and encourage and guide the child toward the development of those qualities.  The purpose of this is for the child to attempt at living a healthy and fulfilled life.  Empowering children does not indicate that parents will lose their authority.[30]

Intimacy grants the opportunity to know one another without any pretense.  Physical intimacy occurs between husband and wife.  Emotional intimacy should occur between everyone in the family.  The depth of bonding that occurs within families will determine the depth of bonding that will occur within a community.

Jesus As Spirit-Baptizer

            The baptism of the Holy Spirit enables the family to live in the eschatological community:  the reality of the kingdom that is here, but not yet in its fullness.  This eschatological community lives with an awareness of another reality.[31] Cheryl Bridges Johns in her book, Pentecostal Formation A Pedagogy Among the Oppressed, states, “For Pentecostals, Spirit baptism is the unveiling of a new reality and the realization of an altered consciousness… …the mode of awareness may be described as a critical consciousness.”[32]  This critical consciousness enables the family to discern and evaluate the present reality in which they live.

This eschatological community is a community without discrimination.  The promise of the Holy Spirit in Joel 2:28, 29 is a promise for “all flesh.” Any member of the family –man, woman or child –can receive the promise.  There needs to be a greater effort in nurturing children to seek after the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The eschatological community is a prophetic community empowered to witness.  Any member of the family can share the Gospel message through whatever means the Spirit chooses.[33]  Individuals have a boldness that is a confidence upon the basis of which he/she speaks.  As a result, women have felt an authority to minister.  In addition to leading their families to the church, women are going a step further and becoming actively engaged in varying ministries that beforehand were not permitted to them.[34]   Roger Cabezas writes:

All believers are fully valued and become active participants in pastoral ministry.  Sisters exercise diverse ministries, but a challenge to the Pentecostal community in relation to women is to esteem their work as Jesus Christ’s disciples and to recognize the particular characteristics of women’s pastoral ministry.[35]

The eschatological community challenges the family to commit to personal and social transformation.[36]  Jesus challenged His disciples to transform their community and to align history with the direction the kingdom of God is taking.[37]  In this participation to transform, families are learning to give more of themselves.[38]

Jesus as Healer

The healing ministry of Christ has drawn many people to Pentecostalism.  Richard Shaull comments,

A recent study, carried out by the Institute for the Study of Religion in Rio de Janeiro, revealed that the majority of new converts in all Evangelical churches said that their conversion occurred at a time of crisis in their lives.  But when asked about the nature of this crisis, the highest percentage spoke, first of all, of sickness (35 percent), followed by family conflicts (25 percent) and drinking problems (14 percent).  Only 9 percent said that their conversion occurred in a time of “spiritual crisis.”[39]

Pentecostalism emphasizes healing of the body as provided for all in the atonement.[40]  Yet, Latin America is overflowing with families that are hurting.  Healing must not only occur in the physical and spiritual but also in the emotional realm.  I had a dream one night during my ministry among the indigenous women of Ecuador.  In this dream I found myself in the midst of a large field with a corral and a couple of bulls at a distance.  As I walked with some older women one of the bulls left its area and headed straight toward these women.  The bull trampled one of the women.  She was crushed.  Yet, the bull did not stop.  He turned around, ran towards her again and crushed her leaving her near death.  Tears rolled down my eyes as I witnessed all of this.  I knew nothing else but to pray.  As I prayed for the woman (in my dream) she was healed and restored.  When I awoke the Lord told me that the women in my dream represented the indigenous women and the bulls represented the Spaniards.  These women were in need of healing as a result of the abuse and exploitation they experienced in their history.[41]  On another occasion while praying for an 8-year-old abused child I literally felt the power of God healing her of her wounds.

Families that experience healing above and beyond the physical and spiritual will emit a life of wholeness.  Families that are whole in the midst of so many that are wounded from abuse and exploitation will serve as anchors for the community.[42]    Complete healing will not occur until the fullness of the kingdom of God arrives.             

Jesus as Coming King

            Jesus as coming King affirms the occasion of the covenant and the disposition with which the family must live.  The occasion of the covenant is eternity.  God entered into a covenant with the human race that would last for eternity.  All the families in the family of God will reign with Him for eternity.  Because of this, the disposition of the family must be:  living the present in light of eternity. [43]  Living for eternity provides hope and strength for the family amidst adversity.[44]  The seemingly endless sorrow and suffering of this world will end one day. 

Living for eternity should not occasion an escapist mentality because believers have a responsibility with respect to the Parousia.  José Míguez Bonino asserts, “The ‘mission’ of the Spirit does not have to do only with the work of redemption but with the total work of the triune God:  therefore, with labor, with justice, with peace, indeed, with the history of the world and of humanity.”[45] 

Conclusion

            The Latin American Pentecostal family is challenged to impact the community.   For the family to achieve its potential as an effective instrument of transformation it must first have an accurate understanding of itself.   This requires an examination of the Creation account where God entered into a covenant with the human race.  This covenant required that the human race live harmoniously with God and with one another.  Because the fall made this difficult to accomplish, God made a provision for the human race in the ministry of Christ.  His ministry reinstated the covenant. 

The motif of the five-fold Gospel (Jesus as Savior, Sanctifier, Spirit-Baptizer and Coming King) was utilized in developing a paradigm for the family because this is fundamental to Pentecostal doctrine; and, expectations for family behavior are essentially the same as those for all Christian relationships. 

My conclusions about Latin America and the family came about through living in a Latin American country and through a series of investigations.  I am aware that the characteristics I described for the Latin American family are not absolutes.  However, there isn’t a Latin American family that does not emulate at least one of these characteristics I have mentioned. 

This paper is also an invitation for the Pentecostal church in Latin America to dialogue.  The church must be more intentional in facilitating a model that families can adopt so that they might remain faithful to God.  Jackie D. Johns in an article about the church’s responsibility in helping families states, “The ability of the church to help families will be determined by the place it gives to families, and the place it gives to families will always be determined by the church’s prevailing understanding of its own nature.”[46]  My hope is that more research will be done concerning this topic.