I am praying for Pentecost! It is not so much about people speaking “in a strange tongue” as it is about believers getting power to be faithful. The church does not need power to identify with the rich and privileged. One gets a subsidiary power from such an identification that makes the church at least a valuable adjunct of the values of the principalities and powers. One does not really need power (dunamis) unless one is standing in tension with the world as it is. If the church were to put the poor first, would we once again receive Pentecostal power?

Maybe we do not desire such power or the consequences of Jesus’ liberation mandate. Yet, I cannot help hoping that such power would come and we would experience the power of the inbreaking, radical reign of God. Come, Lord Jesus, come!

—Keith Russell, “Pentecost: The Power of Liberation.” The LIVING PULPIT, April-June 2004, page 13.