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 PrintableVersion Hoover Street RevivalA preacher like James BrownHOOVER STREET REVIVAL This video is a 99-minute documentary of a thriving Californian church in an area of great social deprivation, South Central Los Angeles. The Greater Bethany Community Church (GBCC) is worthy of attention in as much as it draws regularly something in the region of 10,000 people to its meetings and activities. There is no question that it has made an impact on local people. 55-year-old Pastor, or 'Bishop' (depending which you prefer), Noel Jones has been described as a 'magnetic, super-preacher' and as having 'succeeded in instilling faith, hope, and a clarity of vision amongst a community buckling under the weight of deprivation and despair'. His achievements are not to be taken lightly. Shots of church meetings and activities are contextualised by interviews of grateful 'parishioners' and footage of local crime, including a murder case, and other evidence of deprivation. The blurb reads: 'Part Soul star, part life-coach, part prophesising [sic] high priest; the bishop is often likened to James Brown, whipping congregations up with a crescendo of hollered admonitions; before mesmerising all with his whispered contemplations. The documentary reveals a well orchestrated stage show, and having Grammy-nominated gospel choir, "The Voice of Judah" as backing singers, only heightens the experience...' Jones's motivational oratory, encouraging the predominantly impoverished African American flock to embrace 'black self worth', likewise appeals to glamorous Hollywood residents. Halle Berry, P. Diddy, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and Chris Tucker often slip into a back pew, (disguised), to hear him reflect: 'We may not agree how to get to heaven, but socially, we oughta agree how to live here!' Audio and video recordings are sold in bulk from the church premises by 'Noel Jones Ministries'. Peace Apostolic ChurchGBCC is actually one of 27 churches belonging to a California-based denominational federation called 'Peace Apostolic Church, Inc.' The significance of the term 'Apostolic' in this context is not widely known by UK Evangelicals. It is not to be confused with the Apostolic Faith Churches founded by Charles Parham or the related Apostolic Faith Church in Bournemouth. Neither is it to be confused with the Apostolic Church denomination, with headquarters in Penygroes, Wales, which broke away from the Bournemouth church under the leadership of the great Welsh preacher, Dan Williams. These churches are orthodox in as much as they are Trinitarian and adhere to other essentials of the faith. Denial of TrinityHowever, in the early days of the Pentecostal movement in the USA, there was a sizeable secession from the Pentecostal movement by a group which denied the Trinity and instead subscribed to a non-Trinitarian theology known among Pentecostals as 'Jesus only' or 'Oneness'. Churches subscribing to this alternative theology commonly distinguished themselves from the mainstream Pentecostal churches by designating themselves 'Apostolic'. In essence, Oneness adherents believe that there is only one Person in the Godhead. They do believe that Jesus is both God and man, but they say that his divine nature is 'the Father' and his human nature is 'the Son'. Both of these are contained within the one Person, Jesus. One of their favourite texts is: 'For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily' (Colossians 2.9). However, their theological peculiarities do not stop there. 'Apostolics' believe that water baptism is essential for salvation. This is not the same as baptismal regeneration: they do not believe that baptism alone saves anyone; baptism must be undertaken in faith. But they go further in that water baptism, in order to be valid, must be undergone 'in the name of Jesus Christ', or some similar non-Trinitarian formula. Hence you are not fully saved unless you are also baptised. Additionally, they believe in the Pentecostal baptism of the Holy Spirit, but this experience is taught as part of the conversion package. As it is believed that 'the baptism' should be accompanied by 'speaking in tongues', absence of 'tongues' is held to raise a doubt about the genuineness of a person's salvation (conversion). The fact that some people in this movement are truly converted just shows that being born again does not immunise people against heresy. It also shows that God is able to work within heretical groups, although we hope and pray that God will eventually enlighten people concerning such serious error. Prominent peopleSignificantly, too, many prominent US people have had links with Oneness Pentecostal churches, including Robert Redford. It is not unusual for media people to attend Oneness services in the USA. Most UK Oneness adherents are African-Caribbean, the two most prominent denominations being the United Pentecostal Church and the Bible Way Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. There are many, many other denominations which hold to a similar theology. Like other 'Oneness' pastors, Jones is streetwise and empathises strongly with those around him. Evelyn Ealy, who works with the homeless on LA's Skid Row, finds Noel Jones 'spiritually uplifting ... he's kind, loving and generous and he doesn't put himself on a pedestal'. A high school student, Beth Daniel, said: 'He meets us where we are, he relates to us'. 47-year-old Helen Robinson says: 'I come from a generation of abuse' and that she is at the church because of a vision she has had: 'A lot of us are have-nots. He has been called to shepherd a flock of have-nots.' Another admirer, Joseph Williams, who works at Charles R. Drew University in Watts, says: 'He is very articulate - he can talk to the ordinary person and the Queen of England.' Jones frequently ministers publicly with T.D. Jakes, a dynamic African-American 'Oneness' preacher highly popular in the USA and UK, who founded the 'Potter's House'. Jones preaches: 'Is it righteousness of retribution that punishes? Or it is the sin that punishes? When I am punished for my sin, it is not God who punishes me; it's sin that punishes me because "the wages of sin is death".' While the appeal of this thinking is evident, it unfortunately omits the relational aspect of our accountability to God, a key theme in biblical teaching. Elsewhere, Jones explained that the word kosmos, while meaning 'world', relates primarily to 'order' or 'arrangement'. He went on to say that the word aeon is another word for 'world', 'but it's not just an orderly arrangement now; it's a spirit'. This led to the following conclusion: 'The arrangement of the Kosmos is moved by the Aeon of the Kosmos; the world has a spirit and it's the spirit of the world that moves the world from one arrangement to another.' However much truth or half-truth there may be in such ideas, they do not qualify as valid biblical exegesis. The following reveal some themes of Jones's ministry: 'When I go out, it'll be with respect. When I go out, it'll be with victory. When I go out, it'll be with high self-esteem.' 'The mind is a terrible thing to waste.' 'A smooth life goes nowhere.' 'To get what it is you really want, you have to be willing not to have anything. That's the risk.' 'One way to get rid of the anger: stop seeing yourself as a victim.' Self-empowermentGood though some of this advice might be, I felt the emphasis to be more concerned with self-empowerment (a la Norman Vincent Peale) than with a true, biblical dependence on the Lord. One prayer-portion from Jones was this: 'Reach down into my brother and my sister, and bring all the beauty that's sitting in there - and bring it out, bring it out.' Indeed, most of his teaching seems to concentrate on mental discipline and self-respect. Without denying the importance of these in many contexts, these themes can be amplified to the exclusion of biblical teaching which gets to the real root of our problems. I was looking forward to seeing this video, mainly because of the title and the African-American context of the documentary. It did demonstrate that evangelicals have so much to learn from those ministering in other traditions. But I was disappointed by the paucity of biblical theology: I would have liked help with its application to today's urban contexts. Unfortunately, the message communicated so effectively was relatively weakly linked to key New Testament themes, so the video was not as enlightening as I had hoped. Mike Taylor,
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