Introduction
Pentecostal churches have been growing since their inception at the beginning of the 20th century. This growth was at first unnoticed by the academic community or not thought to be a topic worthy of investigation. Although there were, as we shall see, psychological or psychiatric studies on Pentecostalism before about 1925, the appearance of new Pentecostal denominations was not subject to scrutiny. Only after the 1950s did Pentecostalism attract the wider interest of academics but, even when this was so, growth factors were largely unexplored. Such research as was done tended to be based in the USA and, to a lesser extent, the UK.
Before 1945
Early psychiatric accounts of Pentecostalism focus on speaking with tongues rather than the functioning of Pentecostal churches.
Understandably enough, historical accounts of Pentecostalism do not appear until the 1920s. Frank Bartleman’s book on Azusa Street first came out in 1925
Journalistic or diary-based publications telling the story of dramatic Pentecostal crusades were published for a growing Pentecostal readership both in the United States and in Britain.
After 1945
In 1979 RM Anderson published Vision of the Disinherited in which he told the now familiar story of Pentecostal beginnings from the holiness background through to the Azusa Street revival and its associated Apostolic Faith movement and, from there, to the first burst of missionary activity and denominational formation. Where Anderson is different from earlier writers is in his acceptance that a double understanding is desirable. He speaks of trying to understand Pentecostals ‘from the inside’ and, by invoking intellectual and cultural sources, ‘from the outside’.
Psychology and anthropology
After the flurry of early 20th century activity, psychological explorations of glossolalia and healing changed their methodologies in the 1960s.
Other research examined speaking in tongues from other angles which, as the decade of the 1970s progressed, became increasingly less hostile so that, by the 1990s, research on large numbers of Pentecostals was able to show their levels of neuroticism fell below the norms of the general population. In other words the evidence provided by large-scale studies indicated that, according to their personality profiles, glossolalics were more stable than average.
In 2004 Robins reviewed well over 100 anthropological publications to go ‘beyond deprivation and disorganisation’ to explain Pentecostal growth.
The anthropological method of ‘participant observation’ implicitly accepted Pentecostal practices. Anthropologists who lived closely with Pentecostals and attended their numerous church services could hardly, at the same time, regard these people as dangerous or mentally deranged. By regarding Pentecostalism as, among other things, a cultural phenomenon it was also regarded non-judgementally as simply one of a great range of interesting human activities. In this respect anthropology gave Pentecostalism the respect that had originally been denied it by Freudian methods or the Marxist fringes of the social sciences.
After 1989 testable theories appear
The first of these theories are sociological rather than anthropological. They draw on the capacity of sociology to harness historical data for the purpose of generating testable propositions in the contemporary world.
Sociology
In 1989 Margaret Poloma brought together an appropriate and sophisticated sociological theory and several original data sets.
All this can be seen in 20th century historical phenomena when a burst of charismatic activity carried by a series of gifted individuals stemming from the Azusa Street revival moved into the second or third generation. The administrative and bureaucratic structures which were built up to secure congregations and enable the continuance of charismatic activity eventually became burdensome. By the end of the century denominations were in danger of being smothered by regulatory by-laws so that, without a fresh spate of charismatic activity, the whole enterprise might become a husk or shell that was Pentecostal in name only.
Poloma hypothesised that the growth of a major Pentecostal denomination in the USA, the Assemblies of God, would be associated with the charismatic experiences and activities of members. She collected the data by participant observation in 16 congregations and by surveys from 1275 congregational members. In addition she surveyed 246 pastors and interviewed more than 50 of them. In this way she brought together congregational data, qualitative pastoral data and quantitative pastoral data. In the tables that she published it is clear that, within the congregational sample, there is a strong and positive correlation between evangelism and charismatic experience and that, among the pastors, there was a strong correlation between charismatic experiences and prophecy and between charismatic experiences and congregational charismatic practices. In this way she established the impact of the senior pastor on the charismatic temperature of his or her congregation and provided evidence that, where congregational charismatic activity was high, there was likely to be accompanying personal evangelism as well.
Theology
While sociological theory was built and tested, it has to be acknowledged, even with reference to Weber, that there is theological content implicit within sociological conceptualisation. The very term ‘charisma’ comes from the pages of the New Testament. It is not surprising, then, that theology itself may offer an explanation of the growth of Pentecostal churches. After all, theology is theoretically what fills the heads of many Pentecostal pastors.
Pentecostalism had, from the very beginning, defined itself by reference to the outpouring in the second chapter of the book of Acts. In that chapter Peter quotes the prophet Joel,
In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy (Ac 2. 17, 18)
From this key text Pentecostals understood the Holy Spirit to be poured out universally and especially on the servants of God. What is striking about the passage is that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit belongs to no elite group but is inclusive in its scope. It is for ‘sons’ and ‘daughters’ and ‘young men’ and ‘old man’ i.e. neither age nor gender categories are relevant. If there is a message in this text spiritual empowerment is available to all.
This outpouring of the Holy Spirit is expressed in the doctrine of the Church which picks up Reformation themes about the priesthood of all believers. In 1 Corinthians 12-14, chapters beloved of Pentecostals because they speak of spiritual gifts, there is an exposition of the diverse activity of the Spirit and the benevolent distribution of gifts to members of congregations. A Pentecostal congregation is envisaged as being both diverse and unified by participating in the activity of the same Spirit. These theological ideas have been re-expressed many times but they imply a much more active Christian population than is implied by any high sacramental view of priesthood stemming from Catholicism.
These theological ideas found their way into Pentecostal congregations from the 1920s onwards but, from the 1980s onwards, teaching about cell groups also occurred.
Sociology and psychology
The sociological insights that Poloma tested on Assemblies of God in the United States became the basis of a more extended series of tests I carried out in 2000 in the UK. The UK incorporated variables measuring ministerial and congregational charismatic activity and a variety of personality variables as well. Moreover, while Poloma dealt with only one denomination, the study in the UK dealt with four.
There were technical differences in the surveys since the information in the UK was derived entirely from ministers and not from congregations. Ministers were asked about their congregations but the congregations themselves were not approached. However, one of the things that ministers usually keep track of is the size of their congregations, and this is especially so in Pentecostal situations since the well-being and income of the minister are almost always directly related to the size of his or her congregation. Big congregations can afford to be generous to their ministers whereas, in small congregations, everyone sacrifices and the minister struggles financially. For these reasons, there is a built-in incentive within Pentecostal congregations to grow. Ministers become entrepreneurial not only because they wish to communicate the gospel but also because they benefit if the gospel is successfully communicated.
So the UK study collected data on ministerial charismatic activity and ministerial evangelistic activity. Here the same items were used as had been used by Poloma and ministers were asked to indicate how often they had exercised certain charismatic gifts and how often they had carried out simple evangelistic activities (like offering to drive people to church). These items were arranged into scales by adding responses together. The scale scores are more robust than scores on individual items and therefore preferable. Individual items may vary widely but, when items are added together into scales, there is a smoothing out effect and scores usually fluctuate less.
Ministers were also asked about their congregations. They were asked to judge what percentage of their congregations exercised charismatic gifts and the extent to which their congregations had grown during the previous 12 months. It then became possible to correlate ministerial charismatic activity with ministerial evangelistic activity and, indeed, there was a clear and significant correlation between these variables: ministers who were charismatically active were evangelistically active. There was a significant correlation between ministerial charismatic activity and the percentage of people in their congregation who exercised spiritual gifts. This is not unexpected. One would expect ministers to serve as an example to their congregations and to be a role model in spiritual matters. So, charismatic ministers engender charismatic congregations.
When personality variables are brought into the picture, it becomes evident that extrovert ministers thrive in Pentecostal milieux. Extrovert ministers take pleasure in the social activities of church life, enjoy the stimulus of risk-taking, find contact with other people energising and are not worn out by constant meetings. By contrast, introvert ministers find themselves in danger of burnout. They are placed under stress by the non-liturgical nature of Pentecostal meetings and they may well find it difficult to perform socially risky actions like publicly praying for the sick or prophesying which, despite their prevalence within Pentecostal churches, are unpredictable and carry the possibility of professional embarrassment. We can conclude that extrovert and charismatically active Pentecostal ministers are most likely to be found in charge of growing churches.
This incorporation of sociological and psychological variables within a single setting was only possible because empirical methods in both disciplines are identical. Sociological variables can be quantified in the same way as psychological variables and both kinds of variables can be fed into similar mathematical models for analysis by the same software. Additionally, by bringing together the perspectives of two disciplines, a larger range of hypotheses can be tested and a greater breadth of theoretical possibilities can be entertained. Indeed, by bringing in theological perspectives as well, it is possible to see show how all these disciplines complement each other. Theology – though this is not why it was written – provides testable hypotheses that can be assimilated to sociological and psychological frameworks; alternatively, it can be said that sociological and psychological theory illuminates theological thought.
Widening the range of disciplines
As Pentecostalism broadened and raised its profile globally, it appeared on the radar of more academic disciplines. Not all these disciplines were accustomed to anchor their theories in empirical reality but, even so, it was usually possible to translate theoretical constructs into hypotheses for testing by social science methods.
From anthropological theories come the notion of cultural flow and the harnessing by Pentecostals of the forces of globalisation that could lead to the hypothesis that Pentecostal churches are geared to upward social mobility and prosperity. From some pulpits, particularly in Africa, Pentecostalism almost turned itself into an economic theory by suggesting that the giving away of wealth was the mechanism by which wealth was created.
Feminist accounts of Pentecostalism have not always been positive and this is especially so where historical tracing of diminishing egalitarianism has been carried out.
Theological accounts were expanded to take John Wimber’s idea of a ‘power encounters’ involving miraculous events that expressed the clash between the kingdoms of light and darkness.
Sociological accounts were able to absorb a variety of Pentecostal phenomena and, in a variant of the displacement theory, to suggest that Pentecostals might find within a church community a community similar to the one that they had enjoyed in childhood or in their pre-conversion days. The Pentecostal community was analogous to a village with its elders and its pattern of life and its celebrations. The church offered friendship and social interest to those who cared about the lives of other people. Such ideas were testable both by reference to the opinions of ministers and by collecting life history data from congregational members.
Psychological accounts might also involve, in addition to reference to the normality of Pentecostals, the notion of actualisation through the manifestation of spiritual gifts or the integration of the personality through conversion. Mystical experiences, particularly those that enabled the individual to feel at one with the universe or with the rest of humanity, were testable through appropriate inventories.
Pentecostal and charismatic churches, after a century of growth, are now found in almost every country and culture of the world.
Taking the foregoing survey of academic thinking about Pentecostals, at least twelve hypotheses put in the form of questions can be deduced. Do Pentecostal and charismatic churches grow by:
1. Promoting the integration, stabilisation and actualisation of personality?
2. Enabling displaced largely urban populations to rediscover communitarian and civic roots?
3. Providing free-flowing charismatic experience/worship to replace religious formalism?
4. Providing charismatic empowerment for individuals encourages them to place their (new) gifts at the service of others, especially in congregations above a minimum size?
5. Matching a Pentecostal worldview of spiritual beings with similar worldviews, especially when these worldviews are largely untouched by the Enlightenment?
6. Offering authoritarian preaching so as to bring certainty in a postmodern world?
7. Empowering women, especially in macho cultures?
8. Building megachurches that can provide so many activities that they can appeal to a range of people?
9. Utilising cell church structures in the cause discipleship and evangelism?
10. Associating with the forces of globalisation and promising personal health and prosperity?
11. Conducting charismatic ‘power evangelism’ or engaging in spiritual warfare to manifest the kingdom of God?
12. Engaging in activities that lead to civic and social transformation?
The locations
Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur indicate Asia’s rising aspirations. Yet, there is in these locations more than a vestige of the old way of life concealed beneath the gleaming skyscrapers and amidst the street markets at the edges of their efficient transport systems. In this respect these cities are a mixture of old and new, rich and poor. Hong Kong has always been a port and entrepôtoffering a gateway into China and a door out of which cheaply made Chinese goods can be exported. Since 1998, Hong Kong has been equipped with a state-of-the-art airport that can handle a huge volume of freight and passenger traffic. Since 1997, when the British returned sovereignty to mainland China
All the cities have important religious similarities. Each have colonial connections with Britain and educated middle-aged men and women will have been schooled through the medium of English. This, especially in the age of the internet, gives them access to international culture and, if finance permits, opportunities to complete their education in the UK or the United States or, increasingly, Australia. Each contains cathedrals and Christian schools going back well over a century and has a legal system that guarantees religious freedom - although this freedom is not identical in each location. Only Hong Kong retains trial by jury, a right abolished in 1969 in Singapore and in 1995 in Malaysia.
In Hong Kong, Catholics and Protestant combined amount to around 700,000 people or about 10% of the total population of 7m. Of the Christians slightly less than half are Protestant, though this number has been growing since 1997, and the most numerous group are Baptists with more than 154 congregations.
In Singapore the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act (1990, 2001) is intended to ensure that the religious communities currently in existence maintain similar relative sizes. The resident population of Singapore aged 15 and over rose from 1.6 million in 1980 to 2.5 million in 2000. In 1980 10.1% of the population were Christian and by 1990 this had risen to 12.7% and in 2000 to 14.6%. During the same period Buddhist adherents grew from 27% to 42.5% while Islamic adherents had slightly shrunk from 15.7% in 1982 to 14.9% in 2000. Hinduism increased slightly from 3.6% in 1980 to 4% in 2000. In the same twenty-year period those who accepted no religion rose from 13% to 14.8%. The two most active religious groups are Christianity and Islam and it is these that are kept in balance by the Religious Harmony Act.
When these figures are broken down by age group, it becomes clear that Christians are roughly equally spread through the whole age range whereas the Islamic population is better represented among the young. When the figures are examined by education, it appears that Buddhists have grown fastest among those with graduate qualifications. The general picture is of rising educational levels among all religious groups although it is also true that Christians appear to predominate in the university sector with about a third of the student population.
While the overall population of Singapore continued to rise in the first decade of the new millennium, often drawing in migrant workers from the Indian subcontinent or Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, the churches aim to keep pace by arranging services in the native languages of these arrivals. Pentecostal-style churches adopted this strategy successfully and this helps explain why they outnumber Roman Catholics by about 3 to 1. There are three large independent charismatic churches: City Harvest has a weekly attendance of more than 25,000; New Creation claims 20,000 and Faith Community Baptist Church 10,000. Assemblies of God in Singapore, which keeps precise annual statistics, has 143 ordained ministers and 83 licensed ministers and almost exactly 50 churches (the number fluctuates year by year).
Religious statistics in Malaysia show a correlation between ethnicity and religion. Native-born Malays are assumed to be Muslim and their religion is entered on a biometric identity card and legally unchangeable.
Method
Area studies of the interaction between, for example, evangelicalism and democracy, have been carried out in different parts of the world (e.g. Lumsdaine, 2009). Such studies use social science methods to gather information on chosen variables at micro- and macro-levels. In the study reported in this paper, the assumption is that quantitative social science methods can demonstrate the relationship (or lack of it) between variables at the level of the individual, the church and the wider culture. As mentioned in the sociology and psychology section above similar studies have been carried out in the United States and in the UK where patterns of correlation indicate how charismatic gifts within Pentecostal churches are associated with growth of this churches.
The three locations selected for the study are sufficiently similar to each other to allow meaningful cross-cultural comparisons but sufficiently different to allow some of the variations to be attributed to cultural factors. In each of the locations English was an acceptable second language and in each of the locations, although there were a variety of Pentecostal charismatic churches, there were also good numbers of members of Assemblies of God congregations. Consequently it was reasonable to assume that the differences between the three locations were not brought about by sharp variations in Pentecostalism itself but rather by the local cultural variables. Initially, the expectation was that the legal framework in which religion is practiced in each location might make crucial differences to the functioning of Pentecostal churches. In Malaysia a Muslim constitution provides a different setting from the more open framework available in Hong Kong. Singapore, in this respect, provides an intermediate position since conversion from Islamist possible but contested and, in practice, discouraged by religious harmony legislation.
The three locations are themselves part of larger cultural unities but there is precedent for dealing with Hong Kong as an entity in itself even though it is now strongly pulled towards mainland China (e.g. Tsang, 2011). Similarly studies of Pentecostalism have already appeared in which ‘Asian’ Pentecostalism is seen as a coherent and researchable topic (e.g. Anderson and Tang, 2005). Equally studies have made use of ethnicity as well as geographical area (e.g. Austin, 2011). Such precedents inspire confidence in the ‘key location’ research design adopted here.
Data collection
Data were collected by means of a questionnaire distributed to ministers. The questionnaire contained items about the respondent’s religious experience, responsibilities, role, charismatic and evangelistic activity and devotional life. There were also questions about the congregation to which the respondent belonged concerning its structure, size and pattern of meetings. Among these were questions about the percentage of congregational members who exercised spiritual gifts and about the percentage of congregational growth in the preceding 12 months. There were also 174 items written to correspond with the hypotheses drawn from various disciplines referred to above. These items were answered on a five point Likert scale ranging from strong agreement through a neutral mid-point to strong disagreement. The booklet was completed by two personality inventories.
Sample
The ministerial questionnaire was distributed in three ways. In Singapore, it was sent out by the Assemblies of God National Office to 170 ministers with a request the booklet be completed and returned anonymously for a small cash reward. Six ministers from City Harvest also participated. In Hong Kong a day conference was held in an Assemblies of God college and the miscellaneous attendees were invited to complete the questionnaire at the end of the morning session. In Kuala Lumpur two further conferences were held, one for an independent charismatic group, the Full Gospel Testimony, and the other for Assemblies of God. Where data is collected through conferences, it is impossible to calculate an exact response rate. All data were collected anonymously since no names were written on the booklets. Altogether the ministerial questionnaire was completed by 310 ministers. Of these 125 were based in Singapore, 86 in Hong Kong and 99 in Malaysia. Just over 95% of the Singaporean respondents were affiliated to Assemblies of God, and the equivalent figure in Kula Lumpur was 80.8% and in Hong Kong was 48%. As many as 64% of the Hong Kong respondents answered in Chinese while in the other two locations more than 97.6% answered in English. There was a predominance of males in the sample (59.7% against 40.3%, with two of undeclared sex). The average age was 48 years, with a range from 20 to 76 and a median of 50.
Findings
Evidence from the completed questionnaires will be given following the order of the 12 hypotheses above. In each case the evidence is interpreted in relation to church growth.
Personality
H J Eysenck’s personality questionnaire measures the three dimensions of extraversion-introversion, neuroticism-stability and psychoticism-tendermindedness. The instrument has been used internationally and found mildly dissimilar norms within different cultures. In this study, however, the focus is on correlations rather than norms. For instance significant Pearson correlations were found between extraversion and the item ‘by what percentage would you judge the number of people in your ministerial care has grown in the past 12 months?’ (r =.178, p< .003). By contrast a significant negative correlation was found between the growth item and neuroticism (r =-.147, p< .014). We can interpret this as indicating that extraverted ministers are associated with growing congregations and introverted ministers are not. Similarly the neurotic ministers are not associated with church growth whereas stable ministers are. If we see the church growth as leading to job satisfaction and self-actualisation, then stable extraverted ministers gain these benefits.
Communitarian roots
A significant correlation was found between the growth item ‘by what percentage would you judge the number of people in your ministerial care has grown in the past 12 months?’ and ‘belonging to a community is important to me’ (rho =.136, p < .021). There was no significant correlation between the growth item and ‘the church reminds me of the small community where I grew up’. We may interpret this as showing that churches which grow are also are attractive to people who value belonging to a community. While it is possible that people who value belonging to a community are those who join churches, is also possible that people who join churches come to value belonging to a community. The lack of correlation with the other items suggests that there is no evidence for the notion that churches are a substitute for the lost communities of youth. Having said this, the mean score on the five-point Likert scale for ‘the church reminds me of the small committee where I grew up’ is slightly above the halfway point of 3 (3.63), suggesting that there is marginal support for the proposition. The mean for ‘belonging to a community is important to me’ is 4.36, which is very high.
Free-flowing worship
Three items were used to assess worship. ‘I like the free-flowing worship of a Spirit-filled church’ recorded a mean of 4.27, ‘I would like to have a prayer book to help me worship in church’ recorded a mean of 2.59 and ‘singing traditional hymns is a vital part of Christian worship’ record a mean of 3.26. Anything above 3 indicates agreement and so these figures may be interpreted as showing that, while there is support for traditional hymn singing, what these ministers especially appreciate is free-flowing worship. There is no support for the use of a prayer book.
When these 3 items were correlated with the growth item, the only significant correlation was found with ‘I like the free-flowing worship of a Spirit-filled church’ (r =.201, p <.001) showing that appreciation of free-flowing worship is also associated with, though not necessarily a cause of, congregational growth.
Charismatic empowerment of individuals
There was weighty confirmation of the item ‘the Holy Spirit gives me gifts to make me a better servant of others’. As many as 52.8% agreed with this item and 38% agreed strongly, giving a total endorsement of more than 90%. Moreover this item correlated significantly with the measure of congregational growth over the past year (rho = .220, p < .000). Again the direction of causation is uncertain: it may be that growing churches enable people to see the Holy Spirit makes them better servants of others or that, because people believe this, churches grow. If, however, it is argued that standard Pentecostal teaching on the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts can be taken for granted in Pentecostal churches, then we are entitled to argue that growth is a consequence of this teaching; because people feel empowered to serve others, they do so and, in a virtuous circle, an entire congregation begins to grow.
When annual growth is compared with the prevalence of spiritual gifts within the congregation, a high and significant correlation is found (rho = .517, p < .000). The positive association between these two variables is striking and is shown in table 1. It demonstrates for instance, that in congregations where no spiritual gifts are manifested, there is some growth but more than half (51.4%) have no growth. By contrast, in congregations where more than 30% of the congregation exercise spiritual gifts, over a third (37.8%) have grown by more than 30%.
Worldview matches
There is good support for belief in the reality of the spiritual realm and the connection between this realm and the material world. For instance, the mean for ‘the material world and the spiritual realm are closely connected’ is 3.82 and for ‘most people in Hong Kong/Singapore/Kuala Lumpur believe in a spiritual realm’ is 3.73. Higher still is the mean for ‘my church teaches that the spiritual realm is real’ which reaches 4.36. We can express this another way by saying that 75% agree or agree strongly that the material and spiritual realm are connected and just under 70% that in their country most people believe in a spiritual realm. An overwhelming 95% agrees that their church teaches the spiritual realm is real. These figures indicate a general consonance between acceptance of spiritual reality in local culture and acceptance of spiritual reality in the church. More than half of the sample (53%) believes ‘there is usually a spiritual cause behind material events’.
When these items are correlated with congregational growth, the only significant association is found with ‘my church teaches that the spiritual realm is real’ (rho = .182, p < .002) which implies that the supernaturalistic worldview of the church is meaningful in these cultures.
Authoritarian preaching
Evidence for the acceptability of authoritarian preaching was mixed. The item ‘the best preachers have the most authority’ only achieved a mean of 2.41. The item ‘in this uncertain world we need strong preachers to tell us how to live’ achieved a mean of 3.6. Yet ‘preachers should speak with authority’ achieved a mean of 4.33. Putting this another way we can say that nearly two-thirds of respondents (62.7%) disagreed with the notion that ‘the best preachers have the most authority’ although slightly more (68.4%) thought that we need strong preachers in this uncertain world. Since there was also strong agreement (by more than 95%) with the view that preachers should speak with authority, it appears that the sample could distinguish between the authority of the preacher and the content of the message being preached. Congregations wanted to hear an authoritative message but they did not think that authoritative preaching was necessarily best.
When these items were correlated with growth, a positive correlation was found only with ‘preachers should speak with authority’ (rho = .184, p <.002). Since there was no correlation between growth and the need for strong preachers to tell us how to live, the notion that churches grow by simplifying existential and moral issues with authoritative pronouncements is unsupported. People expect their preachers to speak with authority and this is because, in Pentecostal churches, they are expected to sit and listen to them for anything up to an hour at a time.
Empowering women
There was strong evidence that these churches supported the ministry of women. ‘Women should have exactly the same opportunities for ministry as men’ recorded a mean of 4.4 and ‘the Holy Spirit empowers women’ a mean of 4.35. Putting this another way, 96% of respondents believe that women should have the same opportunities for ministry as men and 91% believed believe that the Holy Spirit empowered women. Looking at the data from the other perspective, 91% expressed disagreement with the item ‘women should not serve as church officers’ and 89% disagreed with the item ‘women should not preside at Holy Communion’. Similarly 93% disagreed with the item ‘women should not be in charge of congregations’. In short, the population believe that women should hold office in congregations, should or could be in charge and should not be restricted in comparison with men. The only item which indicates a non-feminist orientation is ‘women should obey their husbands’. Here 90% agreed or agreed strongly with the proposition and, given that the sample contains a large number of women, the evidence is that the women also accepted the proposition. Indeed, when the statistics were calculated for women alone, as many as 89% agreed that women should obey their husbands, which was not significantly different from the figures derived from males.
When these figures were examined in relation to growth, significant negative correlations were found between restrictions on women and growth. In other words, where women were restricted, congregations failed to grow or grew less. There was a negative correlation between ‘women should not preside at Holy Communion’ and growth (rho = -.131, p < .024), ‘women should not speak in church meetings’ (rho = -.120, p < .041) and strongest of all ‘women should not be in charge of congregations’ (rho = -.207, p < .000). There was no correlation between growth and the obedience of women to their husbands: obedience of women to husbands neither enhanced nor impeded growth.
Megachurch variety
There was moderate support for the view that ‘megachurches grow because of the many activities they can offer’ which had a mean of 3.28. Just over half the population expressed agreement with this item (53%). There was general disagreement with the items ‘megachurches are too big and impersonal’ (mean 2.92) and ‘megachurches help children and young people most’ (mean 2.61). In percentage terms just under 40% thought megachurches are too big and impersonal and just over 20% thought that such churches help children and young people most. On the other hand, only 10% of the population thought ‘megachurches can help Christians more than small churches’.
In respect of growth, there was a negative correlation (rho = -.178, p < .002) with ‘megachurches are too big and impersonal’ and with ‘megachurches can help Christians more than smaller churches’ (rho = -.118, p < .043). The implication is that megachurches grow because they are not seen as big an impersonal – and presumably here the importance of cell and home groups comes to the forefront. Similarly megachurches grow because they are seen as being more helpful to Christians than smaller churches by many people – and there is anecdotal evidence of this.
Cell structures
There was good support for home groups. ‘Home groups (or cell groups) enhance church life’ gave a mean of 4.26 and a huge 95% agreed with the item. There was even general support for the item ‘I believe all churches should have a cell structure’ with a mean of 3.28 and an agreement by just over half (51%). Distinctions were made between home groups and cell groups by just over half (53%). The most rigid form of cell structure is usually thought to be G12 where each leader of a group is also a member of the another cell in a way that builds up a pyramid of authority to the top cell led by the senior pastor. The item ‘I believe the G12 cell structure is vital to the future of the church’ recorded a mean of 2.79 and attracted agreement from 17% of respondents. The implication is that, while respondents appreciate cell groups or home groups, only a few were supportive of the stronger discipling system implied by the G12 philosophy.
In relation to congregational growth there were positive correlations with ‘home groups (or cell groups) enhanced church life’ (rho = .131, p < .026) and ‘I believe all churches should have a cell structure’ (rho = .126, p < .032). A negative correlation was found between growth and ‘I believe the G12 cell structure is vital to the future of the church’ (rho = -.128, p < .03). In short, a positive view of cell or home groups is associated with congregational growth.
Health and prosperity
There was general acceptance that Christians should experience material prosperity as God’s will. ‘All Christians should experience material prosperity’ recorded a mean of 3.38 and ‘I believe God desires the material prosperity of the church’ a mean of 3.74. Some 55% agreed that Christians should experience prosperity although a third (30.1%) disagreed with the proposition. Nearly three-quarters of the population (72%) believe that God desires the material prosperity of the church. When asked how this material prosperity might be secured, 22% thought ‘successful spiritual warfare’ was the answer. However, 53% disagreed with this. There is a divergence of opinion here between those who think that spiritual warfare can bring about material prosperity and the majority who presumably attribute material prosperity to hard work or other factors.
There were no significant correlations between congregational growth and beliefs about material prosperity. This implies that congregations do not grow by expounding doctrines about becoming rich by faith.
There was also negativity towards ‘my church helps me make business contacts’ which only attracted agreement from 17%. However more than three-quarters (79%) did agree with the item ‘my church teaches me how to succeed in the world of work’ and this item recorded a large positive correlation with congregational growth (rho = .227, p < .000). It appears that these churches are preparing their members to do well in the marketplace or the office and giving them skills or confidence or wisdom to make a success of their employment.
There was strong support for a doctrine of healing. Just over half (51%) believed that ‘divine healing will always occur if a person’s faith is great enough’ and 93% believed in ‘the laying on of hands for healing’. The theological basis for such healing is ‘provided by Christ’s atonement’, a position accepted by 95%.
Congregational growth is correlated with healing. There is a strong significant correlation between growth and ‘I believe in the laying on of hands for healing’ (rho = .208, p <. 000) and ‘physical healing is provided by Christ’s atonement’ (rho = .164, p< .005). There was no correlation, however, with ‘divine healing will always occur if a person’s faith is great enough.’ This suggests that growing churches are exercising a ministry of healing without adopting the extreme position that divine healing always occurs and, where healing does not occur, blaming the sick person for lacking faith.
Spiritual warfare
Spiritual warfare was accepted by three-quarters of the population (76%) and the item ‘spiritual warfare is part of my life-style’ recorded a mean of 3.82. Even more decisive was endorsement of the item ‘my faith has rescued me from believing in the power of luck’ which was accepted by 91%. There is rejection of traditional Chinese fatalism connected with gambling and superstitions designed to bring good luck. Christianity offers believers faith in God that counteracts and contradicts susceptibility to the blind force of Lady Luck.
There is a strong positive correlation between being rescued from the power of luck and congregation growth (rho = .173, p < .003).
Civic transformation
Seven items with the stem the ‘my church ought to be fully involved in giving practical help to …’ assessed the range of compassion. The list of people was: ‘the poor’, the elderly’, ‘unmarried mothers’, ‘AIDS sufferers’, ‘the unemployed’ and ‘ethnic minorities’. In every case there was a mean above 3.0, the midpoint, so that, for example, 80% thought their church ought to be involved in giving practical help the poor, 79% in giving practical help the elderly, 75% in giving practical help to unmarried mothers, 66%, in giving practical help to drug addicts, 50% in giving practical help to AIDS sufferers, 58% in giving practical help to the unemployed and 66% in giving practical help to ethnic minorities.
When these figures were correlated with congregational growth, significant positive correlations were found in every case apart from AIDS sufferers and ethnic minorities, though even in these two cases the correlations were positive if not significant. The most likely interpretation of this correlational evidence is that churches which are compassionate towards people in need grow.
Conclusion
There is evidence for 10 of the 12 hypotheses given earlier. The strongest evidence supports free-flowing charismatic experience, the charismatic empowerment of individuals, the matching of worldviews, the empowering of women, use of home groups, a doctrine of healing, rejection of the power of luck and compassionate social action leading to civic transformation. The notion of Pentecostal congregations as oases of transcendence for displaced populations finds little or no support and authoritarian preaching appears less important than the authority of the message that is preached.
The hypotheses may be divided into two groups: factors specific to Pentecostal/charismatic churches, and factors that might apply to non-Pentecostal/charismatic churches. Reference to spiritual gifts like healing, free-flowing worship and spiritual warfare stem from a Pentecostal theology. Reference to integration of personality, creation of community, the service of other people, multiple activities through the resources of the megachurch, the message of health and prosperity, the message of being prepared to succeed in the world of work, and activities leading to social transformation through compassionate social action may stem from broadly based Christian theology. Some of the factors associated with church growth in Pentecostal churches could be transferred to non-Pentecostal churches that might, as result, grow. And the traffic in these common factors can go both ways. There are large Baptist and Free Evangelical churches alongside large Pentecostal and charismatic churches so that the actual structure of the church is not dependent upon a specific theology of the Holy Spirit. What appears to be important is that big churches foster friendliness and encourage small groups to form even if their central events comprise large congregational meetings dominated by biblical preaching.
Standing back and looking at these findings in the light of the international data referred to earlier, there is evidence that the dynamics of church growth in Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are similar to the dynamics of church growth that were discovered in United States and in Britain. These dynamics rest on the presumption that numerous individuals are empowered by the Holy Spirit within congregations and, by this empowerment, the individuals become active in a variety of ministries that help the church to grow. There are correlations between the percentage of the congregation exercising spiritual gifts and the rate of church growth. Thus charismatic gifts and church growth go hand-in-hand. Or, we can put this another way by saying that spiritual gifts within congregations do not have the result of repelling newcomers from the church. The implication here is that Pentecostal and charismatic churches need to retain their heritage because it is precisely this heritage which drives their growth. Moreover, this heritage appears to sit as comfortably, perhaps more comfortably, in an Asian setting as in an indigenously western one.