1

Canadian Pentecostal Spirituality: These Boots Were Made for Walking

On April 26, 2002, in the midst of middle-life changes at the age of 53, author Charles
Wilkins left his home in Thunderbay, Ontario and began walking to New York City a
distance of some 2,200 kilometres. Sixty-three days and a half million steps later Wilkins
arrived at his destination. Chronicling his pilgrimage, in a book aptly entitled Walk to
New York, Wilkins connects his readers with pastoral farm roads, urban interstate
highways, ancient aboriginal trails, and the CP Rail. Along the way he encountered bears,
a bull moose, road kill, litter of everything imaginable and a series of encounters with a
stellar cast of quirky characters. If, writes Wilkins, “my walk bore the earmark of the old-
style spiritual journey, it did so largely, I would say, in its provision of the chance to
reflect, to rediscover and to re-arm against the pressures, and pessimism that are so much
a part of contemporary life.”1

Charles Wilkins is not alone in his tacit spiritual quest. Spirituality as a word to openly
address existential questions of value, meaning and fulfillment has arguably never been
so welcomed. In North America this is indeed ironic given the current sharp divide
between the church and the state. Whether by default or by design as a descriptor
spirituality has come to trump virtually all other rival words designed to peer behind the
veil and explore values and practices of ultimate concern without sounding naïve or
prudish. Once considered a topic too mystical and the private domain of religious
movements today everyone from church people to fitness trainers, to sexologists, to
dietarians, to technophobes are today freely employing the descriptor spirituality as an
appropriate noun to describe “the cluster of values, beliefs and practices”2 that marks
their vocation. Given this diverse context navigating through the waters of spirituality
requires sure set of qualifiers before any progress can be made.

1
Charles Wilkins, Walk to New York: A Journey out of the Wilds of Canada (Toronto: Viking Canada):
173-74.
2
R. Spittler
 2

In this essay I will be employing three such qualifiers. ranging from the general to the
specific namely: Christian, Pentecostal and Canadian. And to this end I seek to identify
the salient core dimensions of a Pentecostal spirituality within a Canadian context.

What follows are my own reflections on the subject and nature of Pentecostal spirituality
as it has developed specifically in Canada. In part these reflections are those of an insider
who was raised in a Pentecostal setting, completed undergraduate studies in a Pentecostal
Bible College, and pastored Pentecostal churches. In part these reflections are as an
outsider who completed graduate studies in a Roman Catholic University, who pastored a
Presbyterian church and is presently an Associate Professor in a non-denominational
college. And in part this represents my own personal Walk in the Spring Rain as I
continue to ramble through my own search for inner connectedness.

There is no doubt Canadian Pentecostals will not share all of my conclusions. Invariably
my approach will be too academic for some and for others too whimsical. I will not make
any attempt at achieving a balance of some sort as if anyone can decide where the
fulcrum point in such an equation lies. It is my hope, however, that this analysis will
resonate true with enough within the Pentecostal tradition in Canada that it will also
provide some understanding for those looking outside in.

I begin with some definitions. Within the Christian tradition, spirituality is linked with
the work and action of the Holy Spirit through individual lives participating within the
life of the church. It is precisely God’s Spirit working with and through the human spirit
that is said to shape one’s spirituality. In this usage spirituality is often contrasted with
the coinage “worldliness” where worldliness reflects participation within a secular and
finite quotidian. A spiritual person is a person of prayer, a person committed to reading
and meditating on scripture or any other activity that culminates in the pursuit of God. A
spiritual person is someone who is not anxious about tomorrow, and is content with their
present lot in this life. To quip the Westminster confession a spiritual person is one whose
chief end is to pursue God and enjoy him forever. In contrast a worldly person contrast is
preoccupied with self and the pursuit and accumulation of finite things that will in the
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end perish and leave the searcher unsatisfied. This being said Christian spirituality is not
divorced from time, space and society. As the Spirit is incarnated in the human it
manifests itself through the body of believers in corporate and public ways.

But the focus of our study is a particular brand of Christianity commonly identified as
Pentecostal.
In recent years scholars have begun examining in greater detail the salient qualities of
Pentecostal spirituality. Russell Spittler the provost at Fuller Theological Seminary, has
identified five such values. They include but are not limited to, individual experience,
where that experience is felt rather than telt; orality, where their history finds greater
expression through story than theological treaty; spontaneity, where believers are
compliant to the leading of the Holy Spirit; otherworldiness, where believers accentuate
any activity that is said to have a lasting reward; and biblical authority, where adherents
can cite chapter and verse in the biblical text for all decisions.3 In addition to Spittler’s
comments Harvard professor Harvey Cox identifies a primal dimension that is
characteristic to Pentecostal Spirituality. Writes Cox, Pentecostalism speaks to the
“spiritual emptiness of our time by reaching beyond the levels of creed and ceremony
into the core of human religiousness into what might be called “primal spirituality,” that
largely unprocessed nucleus of the psyche in which the unending struggle for a sense of
purpose and significance goes on.” Such rimal dimensions manifest themselves in
speech; where Pentecostals “pray in the Spirit” perhaps in an unknown language; in piety
where Pentecostals encourage such religious expressions as dream, visions, and healing;
hope, where Pentecostals wait in in great anticipation for the visible return of Christ and
the resulting establishment of God’s Kingdom. 4 On this latter point Pentecsotal scholar
Steven Land hangs the definitive core of Pentecostal Spirituality. For Land the nexus of
such spirituality is revealed in the correlation of a distinctive apocalyptic affection with
the righteousness, holiness and power of God.5 The distincitive apocalyptic affections of
Pentecostalims will be shown to be the integrating core for its narravitve beiefs and
practices. But the decisive context and everpresent horizon for most usefully and

3
Spittler 1097-1099
4
Cox 81=3
5
Land
 4

comprehensibly displaying those beliefs, practices and affection is eschatological: the

presence of God who, as Spirit, is the agent of the inbreaking, soon-to-be consummated
kingdom of God.6

The early Hebrew writers knew a thing or two about walking. Notably the earliest
example of spirituality within the Hebrew Bible is that of walking. Long before the
advent of the law, as far back as Genesis 5, Enoch was singled out because he walked
with God, likewise Noah is described as a righteous man and spared the judgment of the
flood because he walked with God. And Moses led the nation of Israel on foot, through a
scarred desert to their Promised Land. As a metaphor for spirituality, walking - “progress
by moving forward lifting and setting down each foot in turn, never having both feet off
the ground at once,” 7 has an ancient pedigree. And I submit it is an apt descriptor for
explaining both the essence and behaviour behind Pentecostal spirituality in Canada and
abroad.

Walking On Sunshine

In North America the 20th Century came of age with its displacement of tradition,
authority, and religion as forces of determinative truth. In their place, moderns
increasingly promoted individual autonomy, private conscience, personal experience and
pragmatic knowledge as the path to knowing and being. It was in this climate that North
Americans were introduced to a new religious enthusiasm that bore many of the earmarks
of changing times. Identifying themselves as a repristination of the early church, these
believers affectionately adopted the nomenclature “Pentecostal” (a reference to the events
surrounding the birth of the early church) as their own. Born in a stable in the burrows of
Los Angeles8 at the turn of the 20th Century, these new religious enthusiasts may have

6
p23. Land
7
Oxford Reference English Dictionary (New York: Oxford University, 1996).
8
Known to historians as the Azusa Street Revival, and the cradle of modern Pentecostalism, the revival
was led by a self-taught black man by the name of William Seymour and reached its apex of success during
the years 1906-08. See Walter Hollenweger, Pentecostalism: Origins and Developments Worldwide
(Massachusetts: Hendrickson, 1997).
 5

represented the socioeconomic disenfranchised,9 but they were thoroughly modern in the
way they spurned the religious traditions and authorities of the past. They emblazed
experience as a normative measure in determining truth.10 Pentecostals “’filled in the
Spirit”, were in the “Holy Ghost School of progressive truth.”11 And nothing was more
real and progressive than receiving the Holy Spirit and its promise to experience the
power of God.

Adherents were reminded that the Holy Spirit cannot be “weighted, ticketed, or analyzed
with the methods applied to the various ‘religious bodies’ in the world today. It stands
alone, and stubbornly refuses to be categorized with any of them.”12 They promoted a
new dispensation of freedom that would not be held in the thraldom of church tradition.
A motley group of swashbuckling free lancers these early Pentecostals rallied around a
(a) theological conviction that Pentecostals were living in the last days; (b) that behind
the machinations of the Holy Spirit, Pentecostals were better equipped to live out the
demands of a righteous Christian life; (c) and that there was a symbiotic relationship
between the infilling of the Holy Spirit and church health.13

If the Holy Spirit was the cause, spiritual was the effect. Pentecostals promoted a
spirituality that was driven by the freedom of the Holy Spirit. They would not be guilty of
resisting the Spirit as they yielded themselves as channels for the operation of the Spirit.
Spirituality Pentecostal style was promoted as a “cry for freedom.” Pentecostals were a
by-product of the latter rain14 while traditional church organizations were simple products

9
See Robert Mapes Anderson, Vision of the Disinherited: The Making of American Pentecostalism (New
York: Oxford University, 1979).
10
See Randall Holm, “A Paradigmatic Analysis of Authority Within Pentecostalism” Ph.D. diss., Laval
University, 1995. http://members.shaw.ca/rfholm/contents.html (date accessed: January 1, 2005). In my
own dissertational work on the Pentecostal church in Canada, I conclude that pragmatism is the single most
outside influential contributor to the regulation of faith among Pentecostals.
11
Frank SMALL, Living Waters: A Sure Guide for Your Faith (Winnipeg: Columbia Press Ltd. n.d.): 82.
12
Frank EWART, The Phenomenon of Pentecost (Houston, Texas: herald Publishing House, 1947): 9.
13
It is estimated that by the year 2005 global affiliated Pentecostals will number over 811,000,000 people.
D.B. Barrett, T.M. Johnson, The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements,
Stanley Burgess ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan): 287.
14
D. Wesley Myland in a series of lectures provided us a classic explanation for this concept. "If it is
remembered that the climate of Palestine consisted of two seasons, the wet and the dry, and that the wet
season was made up of the early and the latter rain, it will help you to understand this Covenant and the
present workings of God's Spirit. For just as the literal early and latter rain was poured out upon Palestine,
 6

of religiosity, "party spirits," “yokes of (ecclesiastical) bondage," that only intensify and
perpetuate division.15 Pentecostals heralded the end of "ecclesiastical hierarchies." The
only leader required for true organization was Jesus himself, with the Holy Spirit being
the impetus for fellowship.16 In no way did anyone wish to be guilty of restricting the free
movement of the Holy Spirit, which was liable to "burst through anyone."17 Individuals
were to be honoured for their God-given gifts and not for their pedigree, natural talents or
education.18 Everyone was either a "Brother" or "Sister," in the Lord. And women as they
felt called were encouraged, by example, to step up and assume leadership roles in the
church.19 All were deemed equal.

From its birthplace in Los Angeles in the early part of the 20th century, such utopian
aspirations went with the territory. Over and against the triumphalist naturalism of the
dominant culture, Pentecostalism posited a triumphalist supernaturalism that offered hope
through the Holy Spirit for the majority not born the right class, gender or race. These
Pentecostals were not simple holy rollers, too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good,
rather they made their mark on society by transforming spiritual piety into social
reform.20

For their part, Canadians were not left unaffected by such revanchist measures taking
place south of their border. From Los Angeles word soon travelled north in the form of
testimony. On a regular basis, The Apostolic Faith, a newspaper type publication
produced by the Azusa Street Mission, home of the new revival in Los Angeles reported

so upon the church of the First Century was poured out the spiritual early rain, and upon us today is being
poured out the spiritual latter rain. D. Wesley Myland, "The Latter Rain Covenant and Pentecostal Power,"
reprinted in Three early Pentecostal Tracts, ed. Donald Dayton (New York: Garland Pub., 1985): 1.
15
Frank Bartleman, “How Pentecost came to Los Angeles.” reprinted in Witness to Pentecost: The life Of
Frank Bartleman, ed. Donald Dayton (New York: Garland Press, 1985): 160.
16
Ibid. 59.
17
Ibid. 58.
18
Ibid.
19
See Grant Wacker, Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture (Massachusetts: Harvard
University, 2001): 103-4.
20
In a comparative study between Black Power and early Pentecostalism, sociologists Luther Gerlach and
Virgina Hine concluded both were movements of social transformation. People Power, Change:
Movements of Social Transformation (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1970).
 7

similar spiritual outbreaks abroad most of which had at least a casual link with Azusa
Street. One such testimony described a crusade on November 15th 1907 in Winnipeg.

Twenty were baptized with the Holy Ghost and many were healed. The
people brought handkerchiefs and aprons to be blessed as in Acts 19:12,
and the Lord did wonderful signs through the simple faith of the dear ones
that brought them. The Lord healed one young man of the tobacco habit,
taking all the desire for the stuff away from him, through an anointed
handkerchief, and he was saved in his own room. Demons were cast out of
those bound by them.21

While some came for healing and/or deliverance, others reported coming away with a
newfound desire for service, Writes Tom Anderson from Winnipeg,

I am here in Winnipeg and the glory of God is upon me. I can feel the
Holy Ghost being and the cloven tongues of fire are burning from my head
to the soles of my feet. I feel my nothingness and so unworthy to preach
the Gospel, and my Heavenly Father so loving and kind to save such a
wretched disgrace to humanity as I God has his hand on poor me and has
healed my body, opened up the way for service for me, got me into the
harness, and I am getting fleshy and strong physically and realizing a
channel for the Holy Ghost.22

Far from being a metaphysical phenomena sought for its own sake healing was an
opportunity to open oneself for service, service that would be accompanied ipso facto by
the power of God. Reporting on what many considered to be the Azusa Street revival of
the north at the Hebden Mission in Toronto, we are told of Mr. And Mrs. Hebden the
founders of this mission praying with other leaders to heal the sick and cast out demons.

The Lord said to Mrs. Hebden, : tongues, tongues.’ She answered, “No
Lord, not tongues, but power, power…They (the meetings) are heavenly.
They are conducted informally. A stranger could scarcely discover who is
in the lead. Christ is the Head. The Holy Ghost leads.

21
“The Apostolic Faith” 1:12 (January 1908) reprinted in Fred T. Corum and Rachel A Harper Sizelove
eds. Like as of Fire (Washington: Middle Atlantic Press, 1985): 49.
22
Ibid. 52.
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And apparently the Holy Ghost was leading in a way away from the perceived
spirituality of the historic churches. Describing the atmosphere among those
present at the Hebden mission, the reporter described a divine hush in the home.

There is a seriousness without rigidity, quietness without death and

formality, joy and much praise without flippancy, liberty without licence.
How anyone not right with God can come into these meetings and not get
under deep conviction and how a believer can fail to enjoy them, are
conundrums. Pentecost has begun in Toronto.23

Whether the impression was accurate or not early Pentecostals captured a mood among
many that the traditional church had grown too rigid, formal, joyless, and liberal. A
Pentecostal spirituality if nothing else would invariably rectify such an imbalance.

Walking the Line

By 1914 with the initial rush of Pentecostal enthusiasm waning, most Pentecostals
realized that their future depended on finding a way of institutionalizing their
newfound freedom. For those like the Toronto Hebden Mission who refused such
accommodation their demise quickly followed. The majority however, found their
way into any number of burgeoning new denominations/fellowships.24 The
resulting landscape of Pentecostal churches was variegated as it was colourful.
Churches subdivided themselves according to race, geography, doctrine, worship
styles and personalities. If the Spirit was the precursor to a new sense of unity
among these churches, then either the Spirit was doing a poor job or individual
agendas were supplanting the Spirit’s work. In any event while Canada and the
U.S. shared similar stories it was not long before notable differences began to
emerge among the respective dominant denominations.25

23
“Apostolic Faith” 1:5 (January, 1907). Ibid.
25
In the U.S, the largest such denomination is the Assemblies of God and in Canada it is the Pentecostal
Assemblies of God. Both work as sister organizations freely transferring credentialed pastors to each other.
 9

As a child growing up within the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC), Canadian

Pentecostals rarely had the same sense of panache, as did our American counterparts.
Exceptions aside, when a church needed an evangelist who could convict “sinners” in
their pew and respond to an evangelistic appeal they generally imported them from the
South. While Canadians had not shortage of good orators of their own, Canadian
Pentecostals have consistently preferred to borrow occasional excesses South of the
Border where I always suspected they could send them back in due season.

If the American experience of Pentecost could be likened as a sprint to the finish line in
anticipation of the soon return of Christ, Canadian Pentecostals have traditionally been
marathon walkers – one step at a time. As a Canadian ours is the journey in the
wilderness with a flash of the other-worldy. To be a Canadian Pentecostal is to never
have both feet off the ground at once.

In fact, Canada itself is a nation of walkers. We are not first in anything. Canadians
generally prefer a wait and see attitude. Even our parliament is designed for much debate
but little action at least in the short term. We are a nation that gets more excited over the
hobbling of a one legged young man across Canada in search of a cure for Canada,26 then
we do over any amount of gold medals in an Olympic competition. Canada is a place
where Revolutions are Quiet.27 Where a recent national poll taken by CBC declared
Tommy Douglas, the father of Canadian Medicare, and the former leader of a social
democratic party in Saskatchewan, the greatest Canadian of all time. Canada is a nation
that would rather negotiate peaceful resolutions than flex its police or military force.28
Socially, politically, culturally the Canadian ethos is distinguished from the United States
– all of which has been amply documented elsewhere.

26
On April 12th 1980 Terry Fox began a one legged Marathon of hope as he hopped and skipped 42
kilometres a day until his own cancer forced him to give up his journey near midpoint at Thunderbay,
Ontario.
27
The Quiet Revolution is the nomenclature given a transformation in the Province of Quebec during the
60s where the Roman Catholic cultural synthesis virtually vanished as the church lost control of both
education and economic influence.
28
Cynics would suggest our present preference for diplomacy is because the resources of our military force
are too depleted to act as a deterrent. However, it must also reflect the fact that Canadians do not rate
military power as a high priority in which they wish to invest their resources.
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Therefore it should come as no surprise that Pentecostalism would develop

asymmetrically from the United States. In the United States, in the spirit of enterprise and
individualism, missionaries working in conjunction with denominational officials, in
organizations like the Assemblies of God have required their missionaries to raise their
own funding support. Every so many years, missionaries are required to return to their
homeland and canvas churches for pledges of support. This is a system that has been
relatively successful in part because it represents American entrepreneurship. In Canada,
until very recently, overseas missions in the PAOC operated out of a general funding
formula. Reflecting the social policies of the county, churches were encouraged to
contribute monies to national office who would then disburse these funds as need
dictated.29

Again in difference to the American experience, Canadian Pentecostalism did not share
the same disenfranchised class dynamics of their southern counterparts. Many of the
prominent early Canadian pioneers in the Pentecostal tradition were firmly entrenched in
the middle class values of the early 1990s. A.H. Argue dubbed by many the greatest
Pentecostal evangelist in Canada left a very successful career in Real Estate before
becoming a full time evangelist. Dr. J. E. Purdie, Canada’s first principle of a Pentecostal
Bible College was an ordained Anglican priest with a Th.D. among his credentials. Many
other pioneer Pentecostal leaders such as A.G. Ward, G.A. Chambers, John T. Ball, R.E.
Sternall had their beginnings in leadership with previously established denominations.30
As a result it should come as no surprise that while main-stream Pentecostalism
supported a Holy Spirit sponsored theology replete with speaking tongues and other

29
Since 2002 the PAOC mission department has begun to change their policies to reflect a modified
American model. Missionaries are now required to raise their own support using what the PAOC calls a
shared funding formula. Missionaries must find their own support, while the national office provides
budgetary assistance. If it makes one wonder what exactly constitutes the sharing since missionaries are
required to raise all their support, time will tell if this new approach will survive given a Canadian
perception of fairness.
30
There are exceptions to this rule and by today’s standards one might question the extent of some of their
theological training, but nonetheless it is a factor that is often overlooked in the beginnings of
Pentecostalism in Canada. Chief among those denominations that produced these early Pentecostal leaders
were, Mennonite brethren in Christ and Christian Missionary Alliance. See Douglas Rudd, When the Spirit
Came Upon Them: Highlights from the Early years of the Pentecostal Movement in Canada (Burlington,
Ontario: Antioch books, 2002).
 11

ecstatic giftings they also maintained conservative main-stream social values. Men were
expected to bear the load of working and supporting their families. The privileged place
of women was at home supporting their husbands.31 While doctrinally similar to their
American cousins, Canadian Pentecostals were in no hurry to ordain women to ministry.
In Canada the “End Times” urgency that fuelled much of the American Pentecostal social
reversal was not so great that women could not continue to fulfill their God-given
responsibility and right as homemakers. Exceptions to this rule were frowned upon.32 For
the PAOC, the ordination of women was not possible until 1984 when the General
Conference voted to grant women the possibility to apply for a limited ordination
license.33 It was limited in that women would not be allowed to stand for an elected
position on either a District or the General Conference.34 Given the lengthy history
leading up to such a change in judicial social policy, critics and supporters of the status
quo had more than enough ammunition to claim that the denomination was simply
acquiescing to feminist lobbyists within the denomination.

31
D.N. Buntain who served as the General Superintendent of the PAOC between 1937- 44 was also the
editor of the Pentecostal Testimony. Reflecting the mood of his day he wrote, “The wife's real success is in
the success of her husband." “Marriage Misfits” Pentecostal Testimony (June 1954): 4. “How sad is the
condition of that woman who, giving home, husband and children second place in her life, believes that she
should be in the gaze of human eyes, leading and directing spiritual destiny to others, to the neglect of her
home, and when it is too late to decide aright she finds herself alone, with only memories of that which she
lost through her mistaken choice. She cast aside her veil and the sweetness of public applause, lost home
and children in taking the wrong course and neglecting her first duty. “Should Women Preach?”
Pentecostal Testimony (March 1, 39).
32
D.N. Buntain would have been surprised or even shocked had someone accused him of either chauvinism
or discrimination. He was very sincere in attributing women the "grander sphere." Writes Buntain, "In
Christian lands women have realized what Christ has done for them, and have always been at the forefront
ready to help in every Holy Ghost-led effort. Go into any congregation throughout the land and you will
find women in the majority. Survey the Sunday Schools of any Christian land, and you will find the
majority of the teachers are women. They are more open and responsive to the moving of the Spirit than
men.
Men have their part, but to woman as queen of the home and mother of the children, God gives an
intuition, touch and power which men can never know. With Christ in control she becomes God's greatest
agency in all the world." Pentecostal Testimony (Oct. 1, 1944): 2.
33
For more information on the march towards ordination of women within the Pentecostal Assemblies of
Canada see Randall Holm, Ph.D. diss., Laval University, 1995.
http://members.shaw.ca/rfholm/chapter7a.html (date accessed: January 1, 2005).
34
This was later changed during the General Conference in 1996. Presently the title ordination now grants
women the same rights and privileges as their male counterparts in the PAOC - at least in theory.
 12

In the end regardless what position one takes on the issue of women’s ordination, the
rationale behind it reveals how Canadian Pentecostals treat the issue of spirituality. On a
spiritual level, one could easily accept women as preachers who are gifted by the Spirit at
that moment to speak forth an urgent message. But it is only with reluctance that one
could concede that such an “empowerment” by the Spirit could have a lasting residual
effect in the person.

Taking A Walk on the Wild Side

Walking with a foot on the ground is a Pentecostal mainstay in Canada. But

walking also implies that at least one foot is in the air. For Canadian Pentecostals
that foot in the air has punctuated their walk in the park with an occasional walk on
the wild side.

Nearly fifty years after the Pentecostal movement landed in Canada, in November of
1947 in the city of North Battleford, Saskatechwan, an outbreak of religious enthusiasm,
led by brothers George and Ern Hawtin, caught the attention of North America. The
revival dubbed by adherents as the “Latter Rain Movement” is said to have begun in a
classroom at the Sharon Orphanage School.35 The outbreak was marked by words of
prophecy, and what adherents described as an effusion of spiritual gifts that could be
transferred through the laying on of hands. Describing the chain of meetings that
followed Geroge Hawtin testified,

Day after day the Word was taught, and then the signs followed its
teaching. Morning, afternoon and evening, people were slain under the
power of God and filled with the Holy spirit…We had been praying for a
return of the days when people would be filled with the Spirit immediately
when hands were laid upon them as they were at Samaria and Ephesus. It
was our great joy one night to have two ladies walk up before the whole

35
Since the motif “Latter Rain” was also prominently used fifty years earlier to describe the Azusa Street
revival, this later version could be described as the Latter Latter Rain.
 13

crowd and receive the Holy Spirit in this fashion. When hands were laid
upon them one immediately fell under the power of God; the other began
to speak in tongues as the Spirit gave her utterance.36

Reaction from the established Pentecostal tradition was swift and divided. People either
bought into the new outburst of enthusiasm or rejected it as a power struggle with an
authoritarian leadership that negated sound biblical teaching with too much emphasis on
prophecy. Attending one of the meetings, Pentecostalist, Richard Bombay reported,

It was like a continual convention with prayer, singing, preaching and

many professed prophecies, most of them promising that God was going
to do a “new thing” that was away beyond the Pentecostal outpouring. I
was acquainted with many who were there…One of the first things that
come to my notice was the great number of “independents” present. Were
they dissatisfied with their independence? It was also very apparent that
there was a “power struggle” for recognition as “the apostle of the Latter
Rain.”37

Outsiders to the Pentecostal tradition might easily conclude that given Pentecostals
genetic predisposition to at least a tacit Spirit theology, that such occurrences should be
expected if not desired. However, for Canadian Pentecostals if they like one foot in the
air there is no need to kick it in the air. In the end the so-called revival fizzled out, as
perhaps all must do under the weight of their own pretensions, but not before dividing
many Pentecostal churches. Even Pentecostals have their limits concerning how much
spiritual enthusiasm is necessary or orthodox.

Almost fifty years later Canada again garnished international attention hosting yet
another Pentecostal romp into latter rains. This time in the city of Toronto, a small
church affiliated with the Vineyard movement, a charismatic offshoot of Pentecostalism,
became home of a spiritual renewal that has been affectionately dubbed the Toronto
Blessing. Between the years 1992 and 199738 the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship

36
As quoted by Richard Riss, A Survey of 20th Century Revival Movements in North America,
Massachusetts, Hendrickson, 1988): 115.
37
As quoted by Thomas William Miller, Canadian Pentecostals: A History of the Pentecostal Assemblies
of Canada (Mississauga, Full Gospel, 1994): 263.
38
While it is generally recognized that TACF has returned to the normal ebb and flow of a regular church
status it is still a thriving assembly with scheduled meetings every night of the week except Monday. They
 14

(TACF) church became host to tens of thousands of people in search of a taste of

transcendence. In the course of a service, participants could be seen exhibiting what
appeared to be random acts of laughter, groaning, shaking and on occasion barking like a
dog. They could be sitting, standing, staggering as if they had too much to drink or lying
prostrate on the floor. With international attention it was not long before the nightly
meetings attracted media attention. Appearing on the Phil Donahue show convert Janis
Chevreau testified,

I was on the floor, and that began the laughter for about four hours…There
was an intense – I would describe it as joyfulness. I will just briefly tell
you I’m a very uptight person. I’m not someone who has a lot of fun as a
rule. I’m very serious about life, I saw the heavy side of it…And to see me
there (in that state of Spirit drunkenness) was absolutely a miracle in itself.
But yeah, it’s such an intimate time of having fun…I would go home and
literally that first night, there was such a joy that came over me. Our
circumstances hadn’t changed – and there were some hard circumstances
we were in – I had a lot of pain, but it lifted right off. And I walked around
for months with it lifted.39

Chevreau’s testimony was by no means isolated. As research for his own book Divine
Hunger in Canada, Peter Emberley a Professor of political science for Carleton
University heard a familiar refrain when he asked participants at TACF, why are you
here?” Respondents answered, “to be ravished; to be drunk in the Holy Spirit;” “God’s
drawing me out of myself – like a meat grinder;” “Like a drug high, we are getting high
on the Holy Spirit, It’s like never-ending intoxication,” were a sampling of his
responses.40 Advocates liken such histrionics to God’s advertising signs. While the

include revival meetings and on Tuesday night what they call a “soaking meeting.” “Soaking is intimate
time spent with Jesus. It’s you and I enjoying just being with Him. It’s about returning to our first
love…From the beginning of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at (TACF), John and Carol Arnott found
that one significant way of welcoming Him was by ‘soaking’ or resting in His presence. After ministering
to the people who were flooding to the meetings, John and Carol would spend hours every night - up to
3am or 4 am - just lying on the church floor ‘soaking’ up the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is a practice
they continue today, and one that is becoming more widespread.” Their website can be found at
http://www.tacf.org
39
as quoted by Margaret M. Poloma, “The ‘Toronto Blessing’ in Postmodern Society: Manifestations,
Metaphor and Myth,” in Murray Dempster, Byron Klaus, Douglas Peterson eds. The Globalization of
Pentecostalism: A Religion Made to Travel (California: Regnum books, 1999): 376.
40
Peter C. Emberley, Divine Hunger: Canadians on Spiritual Walkabout (Toronto: Harper Collins, 2002):
42-9.
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physical manifestations may not have an end in themselves, for some they are
sacramental in that they say God is present among them.

During the height of such activity, I was teaching at a prominent Pentecostal Bible
college in the pastoral setting of Peterborough Ontario a mere one hour and a half drive
from TACF. Nightly car loads of students from the college made the trek to Toronto,
some in search of a “Pentecostal” experience, some out of desperate need and some as
simple voyeurs. Reaction among students was mixed. Some were genuinely touched as
they expressed a newfound peace and /or freedom. Others reaffirmed their commitment
to enter into full-time pastoral ministry of one kind or another. Yet for every student who
testified that the spiritual exuberance witnessed at TACF was a blessing, others testified
that it was nothing more than a misguided maudlin exhibition that had more to do with
human desire on a shopping exhibition in search of ecstatic experience than it had to do
with the work of the Holy Spirit. In either event a proverbial line in the sand was drawn
with students standing firm on both sides of the debate.41

A Walk to Remember

Limning a Pentecostal spirituality is a difficult task. Indeed, even a causal reading of

Pentecostal history both in Canada and abroad reveals a spotty past of internal squabbles,
and elitist triumphalism all unctuously defended in the name of Spirit freedom. Within
the Canadian experience this has led to various corrective attempts to repristinate the
repristination. In Canada both the Latter Rain movement of 1948 and the recent “Toronto
Blessing” stand in a perpetual line of attempts at kick starting the ethos of Azusa Street
once again. Never mind that the look and shape of each of these events is different and in
all probability has little in common with the early church.

As disingenuous as attempts have been to relate these various spiritual outbursts back to
the second chapter of the book of Acts, they have nonetheless kept alive the “what

41
As for me, I deliberately chose not to attend. Given the emotion generated it seemed wiser to weigh in
from the outside without having to pick a side.
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meaneth this?” response of those early onlookers on the day of Pentecost as they too
wrestled with machinations of the Holy Spirit. Pentecostal spirituality is less a blueprint
than it is a pathway. Pentecostals are people of the way, walking to their next destination.
It is a walk that is coloured by the landscape and culture where they find themselves. At
times it is brisk at other times it slows to a crawl and sometimes it is just plain silly. It is a
walk that is easily distracted, as adherents often venture off-road, to get away alone, to
witness an aberration up close or just for the thrill of the journey. And it is a walk with
only provisional ends in sight. Even the Promised Land turns out to be just another walk.
Along the path Pentecostals continue to stumble, get lost, argue over which path they
should take, complain about the pacesetters, and debate the significance of the signs
along the road they discover. Some would prefer to stay on the road and others pine for
the chance to explore but in the end it is just a walk one foot in front of the other, with
one foot in the air and one foot on the ground at all times.