Realising there are noteworthy events globally highlighting the scholarship of Pentecostals, the Global Pentecostal Summit (GPS) was never intended to be the new standard for such events. Rather, the Global Pentecostal Summit was a catalytic initiative seeking to establish CHC to prophetically speak to its region and beyond. Given the historic centre of vibrant theological reflection being the local church, the initiative sought to reemphasize this as a central commitment. It sought to break the mould of scholarly symposiums being a small group of people who speak to themselves about Pentecostalism, thus creating self-definition as experts. The local church as the context for theological reflection was an intentional effort to replace the professional guild as the influential voice for Pentecostalism and offer an effective local church to be a key “influencer.”
The priority of local church as prime influencer is exemplified in the case study of Antioch as the initiator of the paradigmatic ecclesiastical model of establishing churches for “all the people” as seen in the case study of Acts 11:19-13:4. Additionally, the theologically informed strategy of Paul in his efforts at the hall of Tyrannus Ephesus (Acts 19:9-10) and the valuing of both prophets and teachers in the Antiochian leadership team (Acts 13:1) does provide biblical foundation for the vision that has emerged at City Harvest Church.
The stated goals of the GPS were:
Far from being a singular event, that was a stand- alone effort yielding little enduring influence, the Global Pentecostal Summit (GPS) was just the beginning. Realising that the Lord had blessed the event with a fulfilment of stated goals of the GPS, there was now the establishment of a base line for an enduring initiative. Kong Hee and CHC began to discern next steps. Central to the future was the establishment of a more formal version of theological education. This led to the expansion of the highly successful one-year School of Theology (SOT) that City Harvest Church had held for decades. Academic offerings at SOT were expanded to include the Associate of Arts in Ministry program, a Bachelor of Theology program, and a Master of Arts program. Through a dynamic new partnership, all SOT degrees are now validated globally by Alphacrucis University College in Sydney, Australia.
In addition to the validation of the broadened educational efforts, CHC leadership also saw the GPS as an inaugural event that could regularly bring the finest Pentecostal scholars in the world into contact with the growing cadre of Asian Pentecostal scholars. CHC began to discern what might be next steps to use the catalysing impact of the GPS event to provide continuing theological synergy to strengthen Global Pentecostalism and undergird the theological foundations of Asian Pentecostalism, a vibrant movement in dire need of theological rootedness.
To that end CHC has created the Global Pentecostal Voices (GPV) initiative that will host two events in 2025. The proceedings of these events will be published in partnership with Regnum Books UK in both print and open access versions. The GPS: Voices Loud and Clear event proceedings that were published with Regnum in 2024 will now represent the first book in the Global Pentecostal Voices Book Series.
With each event in the GPV initiative, the leadership of the initiative will offer an official statement that summarizes the notable theological concepts offered by presenters. In the archiving of these resources in both print and digital forms, there is the potential of creating a rich source of theological foundations that can serve the continued vitality of the Pentecostal church in Asia.
From 3-6, November 2023, 16 global Pentecostal scholars met at City Harvest Church in Singapore for the inaugural event that would commence the Global Pentecostal Voices initiative. Representing six continents and fourteen nations, the scholars presented and responded to scholarly works focused on Pentecostal participation in the burgeoning reality that is global Christianity. As a product of the event, the following declaration is offered.
The Summit’s Resolutions in Response to the presentations offered by 16 Global Pentecostals scholars
In an effort to provide Global Pentecostals some potential action steps that operationalise the impact of the scholarly presentations, we offer the following resolutions as an expression of theological reflection upon content of the Global Pentecostal Summit.
With regard to Foundational Considerations for Global Pentecostals
With regard to Affirmations for Global Pentecostals
With regard to Challenges facing Global Pentecostalism
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