Priesthood, Prophethood and Spirit-led Community: a Practical-prophetic Pentecostal Ecclesiology

Theological study of the Pentecostal church has been a relatively neglected field, even more so in the Australian context. This book constructs a Pentecostal ecclesiology by using the ecclesiological method of Nicholas M. Healy to produce a practical-prophetic ecclesiology. The doctrinal basis for the practices examined is the doctrines of the priesthood of believers, the prophethood of believers, and Pentecostal churches being Spirit-led communities. The literature examined shows a variety of understandings of the priesthood and prophethood of believers and eschatology is used to partition the practices which are used to construct the ecclesiology. Pentecostal definitions of the priesthood of believers and the prophethood of believers and what is church are proposed, then the global and local contexts of two Australian Pentecostal churches are explicated. From this flows a demonstration of Healy's methodology by the examination of the practice of worship from source material produced by Hillsong Church and a briefer examination of the exercise of the spiritual gift of prophecy within Christian City Church (now C3) churches.