Over 300 scholars and students of the Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements are gathering in Memphis Thursday through Saturday for the 40th annual meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. 

With attendees from several nations, this meeting of the society is emphasizing diversity in renewal Christianity along with hearing voices from various traditions, nationalities and ethnic groups.  We expect that listening to one another will enable us to move toward greater understanding and healing our divisions.  Thursday evening’s session is at Mason Temple and is free and open to the public.  Other events are at the Memphis Marriott Downtown and paid registration is available at the hotel.

The birth of the Pentecostal Movement is commonly attributed to a 1906 revival under the ministry of African-American William J. Seymour at the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles.  From Los Angeles reports that God was pouring out the Holy Spirit in the last days, including a restoration of spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues, spread quickly to other areas of the world.  Church of God in Christ minister Charles H. Mason traveled to Los Angeles and brought back the Pentecostal message to Memphis in 1907. 

Two years later, G.B. Cashwell preached in Cleveland, Tenn., and the Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.) was swept into the growing movement.  New denominations also emerged including the Assemblies of God, which was born in a meeting in Arkansas in 1914.  By the middle of the 20th century, Christians in many traditions testified of a renewed work of the Holy Spirit.  Today some estimate that more than 600 million people are part of renewal movements globally.

The Society for Pentecostal Studies is the world’s largest organization of scholars studying the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements.  The SPS was organized in 1970 at the Pentecostal World Conference in Dallas, Texas.  The society held its first annual meeting the following year at Open Bible College in Des Moines, Iowa.  Since then colleges and universities throughout the United States as well as in Mexico and Canada have hosted the society.  Memphis Theological Seminary and All Saints Bible College are hosting this week’s meeting.  Brother Jeffrey Gros, MTS Distinguished Professor of Ecumenical and Historical Theology, is the program chair and local coordinator.

Along with keynote presentations related to the theme “Receiving the Future: An Anointed Heritage,” Kimberly Erwin Alexander (Pentecostal Theological Seminary) is giving the presidential address “Standing at the Crossroads: The Battle for the Heart and Soul of Pentecostalism, and Harvey Cox (Harvard University) is presenting a fifteen-year retrospective on his book “Fire from Heaven.”  In other sessions over the three days scholars representing ten areas of study such as Bible, theology, history and missions are offering papers related to their recent research.

Along with its annual meeting, the society publishes Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies and an e-newsletter.  More information about the society is available at www.sps-usa.org.

Dr. David G. Roebuck serves as executive director of the Society for Pentecostal Studies.  He directs the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center and is an assistant professor of the history of Christianity at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee.