Robert Menzies, (Ph.D. University of Aberdeen) is an adjunct professor at Asia Pacific Theological Seminary in the Philippines. He has taught at Bible schools and seminaries in the Philippines, Australia, Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Russia, Holland, Korea, and the United States.
Dr. Menzies has authored several books on the work of the Spirit, including Spirit and Power: Foundations of Pentecostal Experience (Zondervan, 2000), Christ-Centered: The Evangelical Nature of Pentecostal Theology (Cascade, 2020), and The End of History: Pentecostals and a Fresh Approach to the Apocalypse (ACPT Press, 2022). Dr. Menzies’ writings on the work of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament have served as a catalyst for fresh thinking in this area.
For the past 20 years Dr. Menzies, along with his wife, has lived and served in China. They have two daughters who grew up in China and now live in the U.S. with their husbands. Dr. Menzies is currently the director of the Asian Center for Pentecostal Theology (www.pentecost.asia).
.
Mayfield highlights…the essential continuity that bound the early Pentecostal missionaries together with their evangelical contemporaries; the way in which the “heat and noise” of Pentecostal worship, which often repelled Europeans, actually served to attract the Chinese masses; and the strategic role that women played in the founding of Pentecostal churches.
From the desk of the guest editor.
Prior to 1949, while some of the independent, indigenous Chinese churches were not Pentecostal, the larger church networks had Pentecostal roots. Pentecostal beliefs and practices continue to define a large segment of Chinese churches today.
Menzies discusses his belief that the Pentecostal churches in China have an important contribution to make to the larger, global body of Christ, and that the Pentecostal movement, in China and globally, need the larger body of Christ.
If the last seven decades in China have taught us anything, they have surely taught us never to underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit. I am confident that you will be encouraged as you read these eye-witness accounts of the story of Pentecost in China.
This conversation did raise for me, two important questions. How do we view the world around us, and particularly its political and social institutions? And how will God’s redemptive plan, God’s kingdom, be ushered in in all of its fullness?
Beginning in 1993 and running into the first decade of the twenty-first century many other Pentecostal believers in the villages of Wu Ding County left their TSPM churches and established their own Pentecostal house churches due to opposition. Now there are over 40 Pentecostal churches in Wu Ding that network together.
The Lord is building this eternal dwelling and the stones he is using to construct this beautiful “holy temple” include dedicated young men and women from various parts of China like the two martyrs in Pakistan and like the Bernheims.
An author has noted that societies being shaped by the forces of modernization and urbanization represent fertile ground for the seeds of Pentecostal revival. Menzies supports this claim in a case study that gives us the history and growth of the Li Xin Church, a large, Pentecostal house-church network.
A look at the impact and continuing influence of Pentecostal theology in the Chinese church.