Pentecostalism: What attracts the Sunday masses?

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Sorry, this video has expired Video: An inside look at Pentecostalism (ABC News)

Live music, bright flashing lights, a large crowd of young people waving their hands in the air and a sound crew mixing audio in the background.

So far, it fits the bill for your everyday gig.

But add speaking in tongues, divine healing and a hip-looking middle-aged pastor preaching with his smartphone and what you actually have is a service for one of Australia's fastest growing religious movements - Pentecostalism.

Pentecostalism also boasts the highest weekly attendance rates, and those stamping their feet to the religious rock make up the youngest congregations of any Christian denomination in Australia.

Members are full of praise for the movement, but critics say it is far more authoritarian and dangerous - with its use of exorcism for healing - than its relaxed, happy-go-lucky facade suggests.

"The social side is always fun, I've got a few friends here, but I also learn a lot out of the teachings," said 22-year-old band member Ricky Kenny after a Sunday night service at Brisbane City Church in Bowen Hills.

"I've been to other churches and I don't feel like I'm on the same page as what they're saying, but I feel really at home here," he added, clad in maroon skinny-leg jeans and a white tee-shirt.

Rapid rise

Pentecostalism in Australia dates back to the early 20th century, but it has seen dramatic growth since the 1970s.



Experts say the total number of members in Australia is difficult to calculate, but they estimate up to 2 per cent of the population falls under the Pentecostal banner.

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Ricky grew up attending a Pentecostal church but for others, like 35-year-old Pattie Close, the movement is new.

"If I can be honest I found the movement quite frightening at the start... loud music, lights, everyone so funkily dressed," she said.

"I was freaking out because I was conservative and church had very strict rules for me."

But Pattie says since joining the church in mid-2008 she has fallen in love with it.

At Brisbane's Metro Church in South Bank, members echoed those sentiments.

"For me it's something that I grew up with, this is what I know, these are the people that I know, they're my friends," said 27-year-old lawyer Hanh Ayoko, who attends church every week with her husband Ade, an engineer.

"I would consider them my family, not my immediate family, but they're close to me and we care about each other so that's what keeps me coming back, it's the connection and the relationship."

"It's just a vibrant place to be, everyone's awesome, everyone's really nice and friendly and you get awesome life skills out of the service," added 26-year-old Daniel King, who has been a Pentecostal for the past eight years.

"It's Christianity, but it's alive."

'Subconscious facade'

Associate Professor Rick Strelan of the University of Queensland says young people are attracted to Pentecostalism's "anti-institutional" appearance, but things are not always as they seem.

"I wouldn't say this is a deliberate front; it's more of a subconscious facade," he said.

"There is the perception that this is grassrootsy stuff with no authority structures, but the reality is it's quite different.

"While it seems like everybody is going along regularly and comfortably and happily and so on, very often there is checking going on, not just by the leaders but each individual member is meant to check - what I would call check in a negative sense - why weren't you there last Sunday?

I know some people who belong to the movement because they feel they have to. If they don't go then they feel God is going to zap them. Associate Professor Rick Strelan

"So it's that subtle pressure, or not so subtle pressure, designed to make sure that people come back and stay within the group."

He says the movement is perfectionist, in that it sees only one way for a person to be a good Christian.

"I know some people who belong to the movement because they feel they have to. If they don't go then they feel God is going to zap them," he said.

"I know one young person who, if she didn't read her Bible every day, then somehow she felt she was failing."

But Associate Professor Strelan says he can understand why many young people are attracted to the direct, clear-cut message Pentecostalism offers.

"When it comes to questioning, that is not encouraged, and when it comes to teaching, people are given the answers," he said.

"There's so much at say, between 16 and 25, where your relationship with your parents is up in the air, your relationship with yourself is up in the air, you don't know who you are sexually, you don't know what your future is professionally.

"There are so many things in that age group that are up in the air, so people have said to me at least let god be simple and uncomplicated."

Speaking in tongues

One complex aspect of the Pentecostal approach is its encouragement of speaking in tongues and its use of "divine healing" through exorcism.

Speaking in tongues is when members of the congregation make "babbling sounds" or "inarticulate groanings", as some academics describe it.

Sam Hey from Christian Heritage College, who has written a PhD on the history of Australian charismatic megachurches, says speaking in tongues allows all members of the congregation to feel as though they have a one-on-one relationship with God.

"Unlike some traditional churches where you approach God through the hierarchy of the church, through the minister, and you feel rather remote, the experience of speaking in tongues gives you the sense that every individual in the meeting could be having their own experience with God," Dr Hey said.

Virginia Gilliland, 24, was speaking in tongues when ABC News Online attended a Brisbane City Church service. She believes it is God talking through her.

"God lives in us and because he is God he can be anywhere, do anything at any time," she said.

Pattie Close, sitting next to Virginia, expanded on that: "The holy spirit we believe is a person... there are times in your life when you can't spit out a word, and so when you pray he is interceding on your behalf, saying how you can get through this and find wisdom to take the next step."

Pattie and Virginia both say it is possible for a person speaking in tongues to be speaking someone else's native language - without knowing.

"You do have instances where someone might hear you and they go, 'that's my native tongue', and you think 'wow'," Pattie said.

"Sometimes it might not even be their native language, it might be that they've just understood what was being prayed and so they interpret what was said as well," Virginia added.

Foul play

Some Pentecostal churches also run "supernatural schools", designed to teach members how to perform miracles.

Associate Professor Strelan says Pentecostals rely too heavily on "divine healing" when people's lives are at stake.

"To say to somebody if you're sick and you believe enough then God will heal you, for some people that would have to be devastating because these people don't get better, and in fact die," he said.

"And then where does that leave you?

"You can't blame God, because that movement never blames God, so it leaves you with yourself - that you didn't believe enough. That is the logical conclusion."

He says much of the movement's healing takes place in the form of exorcisms, performed by both pastors and laypeople.

"A bad temper gets identified as an evil spirit, so you have a demon and we need to get that demon out of you," he said.

"There have been cases in Australia which have ended up in the courts of people doing that, refusing medical assistance and relying on the church community to treat this person who has been identified as being possessed, and sometimes with tragic consequences."

Associate Professor Strelan says there is an apparent safety net around Pentecostalism because it is a religious movement, but that it is not always safe.

"With charismatic Pentecostal churches, usually in the areas of sex and money, the record is no better than in the so-called traditional churches," he said.

"A lot of the leaders of these groups usually fall foul in those two areas... running off with the church organist, that kind of thing."

But to those who criticise the movement, members say attending Pentecostal services brings them joy, love and friendship.

"I think if you turn around to someone and say, I'm right [and] you're wrong, we don't have the right to do that," Pattie said.

"We're all finding our own feet and our way in this world, and hey, if that expression over there is helping those people, more power to it."

Credits

Reporting: Amy Simmons

Photos and video: Tim Leslie

Video editing: Leonard King

Executive producer: Matthew Liddy

Topics: christianity, australia

First posted