What do you think?
Rate this book
Pentecostal Sacraments: Encountering God at the Altar
Because Pentecostalism is a Spirit movement, Pentecostals favor worship in which the Spirit moves. Pentecostal worship means experiencing the Holy Spirit in the fellowship of the Church. This worship experience includes anointed singing, inspired preaching, and observance of the holy sacraments. However, the goal of worship is to encounter the Holy Spirit at the altar. It is in the altar that souls are "gloriously saved," converts are sanctified, the sick are healed, and seekers are baptized in the Holy Spirit. These altar calls may be noisy and chaotic events, or they may be somber and tearful events, but those who witness and participate in this Spiritual worship walk away from the altar deeply moved and inwardly transformed. Pentecostal worship is not simply enthusiasm, nor is it entertainment - it is an evangelistic encounter with God's holy presence.
288 pages, Paperback
First published July 17, 2010
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 4, 2013
Given a season of ministry I have had within the Anglican tradition, during which I came to appreciate sacramental spirituality, I much enjoyed reading Tomberlin’s 2010 book titled, Pentecostal Sacraments: Encountering God at the Altar. In a very readable style, Tomberlin demonstrates that that we can appreciate early Pentecostal spirituality and now primarily within its more Wesleyan forms, as deeply sacramental in orientation. As an ordained bishop and current senior pastor in the Church of God (Cleveland), Tomberlin writes from this background. Hence, his delineation of four identified sacramental practices are steeped in Wesleyan theology and spirituality, albeit steered more closely towards the Pentecostal nuance on encountering God at the altar, while doing so in manners that provides practical direction for implementing these themes in congregational worship services. I should say however that given our postmodern turn towards embodied spirituality, Keswickian Pentecostals (e.g., Assemblies of God, Foursquare, etc) can certainly deeply benefit from Tomberlin’s work and reflect on how to appropriate varied themes within their more Reformed theological nuances. In doing so, perhaps we should also remind ourselves that Reformed faith is also historically sacramental in orientation— once we are willing to recognise Zwinglian doctrine as quite an excessive extension of Reformed tradition).
Tomberlin begins by stressing that “sacramental worship is essential to Pentecostal spirituality” (p. xi), which he then introduces in chapter 1 by anchoring this basic theme to some very traditional Pentecostal themes of the “altar”; a holy place where humans significantly experience an invasive life changing encounter with the presence of God. Chapters 2 and 3 further explicates a Pentecostal understanding of “sacrament” (thus also arguing against the more Keswickian-Pentecostal past penchant for the term “ordinance”), while also delineating how Pentecostal sacramental spirituality becomes expressed, active and lived via the confessional framework of the Wesleyan Pentecostal fivefold gospel of Jesus as Saviour, Sanctifier, Healer, Baptiser and Coming King.
Tomberlin identifies the basic sacramentalism of of Pentecostalism by stressing how “Pentecostalism is an embodied spirituality,” which he moreover correlates to the essential dynamic of Spirit baptism— the experience of complete immersion in the Holy Spirit” (p. 73). Drawing from patristic as well as early Pentecostal sources, Tomberlin then more explicitly defines the meaning sacrament, basically describing “sacrament” as signs and instruments by which the Holy Spirit mediates grace in the Church (pp. 78-79). Tomberlin then correlates this basic understanding to the Wesleyan-Pentecostal understanding of the fivefold gospel as indicative of what he clarifies as the “Pentecostal way of salvation.” Pentecostal spirituality thus stresses Christian life as a salvific journey comprises “a series of crisis experiences along the way”; hence, “salvation is a process of spiritual growth,” punctuated by periodic though definitive encounters with God. Tomberlin also stresses Wesley’s understanding of sacraments as varied “means of grace” (e.g., “sanctifying grace”) experienced along the ongoing processes or stages of growth that illustrative of the Christian “way of salvation.”
In the context of Pentecostal congregational worship, time at the altar has facilitated opportunity for such encounters. At this point, Tomberlin draws from Kenneth Archer’s insightful correlation of the fivefold gospel to five kinds of “encounter” with God, each distinctively correlated to a specific sacramental sign and experience. This results in the following scheme (p. 88):
Saviour → Justification/Redemption → Water Baptism.
Sanctifier →Sanctification → Footwashing.
Spirit baptiser → Spirit baptism → Tongues speech.
Healer → Healing → Laying on with hands / anointing with oil.
Coming King → Glorification → The Lord’s Supper.
Chapters 4 through 7 more specifically delineate Pentecostal approaches to the sacraments of water baptism, the Lord’s Supper, foot washing, and anointing with oil / laying on with hands. A chapter on tongues speech as a sacrament of Spirit baptism would have certainly been helpful. Nonetheless, what is especially helpful about these three concluding chapters, is that each is deeply rooted in Scripture, ecumenical retrieval of diverse church historical sources, and early Pentecostal literature. Moreover, Tomberlin provides in each chapter, ample pastoral guidelines and suggestions for implementing his theological expositions of the sacraments in the context of Pentecostal congregational life, worship and ministry. Finally, readers will also appreciate that this book is very written in a very simple and engaging style, consistently sparked from beginning to end with narrative accounts and first hand testimonials of Pentecostals experiencing God through the Pentecostal sacraments of water baptism, Holy Communion, foot washing, tongues speech, and healing prayer.
Tomberlin’s conclusion ends with this timely exhortation: “Worship must be more than entertainment. Worship must be a transformative encounter with God. The sacraments are the physical means of this encounter. Pentecostalism is a Christo-Pneumatic ecclesiology that is expressed in a physical spirituality. . . .
“Just as our Pentecostal patriarchs and matriarchs sought to recover an encounter with the Holy Spirit, we must be diligent to search the house for any lost treasure. Pentecostal pastors must hold fast to their role as the primary teachers and worship leaders of the church. We must be students of the Scriptures, searching the Scriptures for every salvific treasure. This is an ongoing task that is essential to the renewal of the church. The sacraments have become the lost treasure of many Pentecostal churches. We have treasures remaining. However, we must not be satisfied until we recover all lost treasures. Then we can rejoice.” (p. 261)
Tomberlin, Daniel. Pentecostal Sacraments: Encountering God at the Altar. Cleveland, TN: Center for Pentecostal Leadership and Care, 2010.
Tomberlin begins by stressing that “sacramental worship is essential to Pentecostal spirituality” (p. xi), which he then introduces in chapter 1 by anchoring this basic theme to some very traditional Pentecostal themes of the “altar”; a holy place where humans significantly experience an invasive life changing encounter with the presence of God. Chapters 2 and 3 further explicates a Pentecostal understanding of “sacrament” (thus also arguing against the more Keswickian-Pentecostal past penchant for the term “ordinance”), while also delineating how Pentecostal sacramental spirituality becomes expressed, active and lived via the confessional framework of the Wesleyan Pentecostal fivefold gospel of Jesus as Saviour, Sanctifier, Healer, Baptiser and Coming King.
Tomberlin identifies the basic sacramentalism of of Pentecostalism by stressing how “Pentecostalism is an embodied spirituality,” which he moreover correlates to the essential dynamic of Spirit baptism— the experience of complete immersion in the Holy Spirit” (p. 73). Drawing from patristic as well as early Pentecostal sources, Tomberlin then more explicitly defines the meaning sacrament, basically describing “sacrament” as signs and instruments by which the Holy Spirit mediates grace in the Church (pp. 78-79). Tomberlin then correlates this basic understanding to the Wesleyan-Pentecostal understanding of the fivefold gospel as indicative of what he clarifies as the “Pentecostal way of salvation.” Pentecostal spirituality thus stresses Christian life as a salvific journey comprises “a series of crisis experiences along the way”; hence, “salvation is a process of spiritual growth,” punctuated by periodic though definitive encounters with God. Tomberlin also stresses Wesley’s understanding of sacraments as varied “means of grace” (e.g., “sanctifying grace”) experienced along the ongoing processes or stages of growth that illustrative of the Christian “way of salvation.”
In the context of Pentecostal congregational worship, time at the altar has facilitated opportunity for such encounters. At this point, Tomberlin draws from Kenneth Archer’s insightful correlation of the fivefold gospel to five kinds of “encounter” with God, each distinctively correlated to a specific sacramental sign and experience. This results in the following scheme (p. 88):
Saviour → Justification/Redemption → Water Baptism.
Sanctifier →Sanctification → Footwashing.
Spirit baptiser → Spirit baptism → Tongues speech.
Healer → Healing → Laying on with hands / anointing with oil.
Coming King → Glorification → The Lord’s Supper.
Chapters 4 through 7 more specifically delineate Pentecostal approaches to the sacraments of water baptism, the Lord’s Supper, foot washing, and anointing with oil / laying on with hands. A chapter on tongues speech as a sacrament of Spirit baptism would have certainly been helpful. Nonetheless, what is especially helpful about these three concluding chapters, is that each is deeply rooted in Scripture, ecumenical retrieval of diverse church historical sources, and early Pentecostal literature. Moreover, Tomberlin provides in each chapter, ample pastoral guidelines and suggestions for implementing his theological expositions of the sacraments in the context of Pentecostal congregational life, worship and ministry. Finally, readers will also appreciate that this book is very written in a very simple and engaging style, consistently sparked from beginning to end with narrative accounts and first hand testimonials of Pentecostals experiencing God through the Pentecostal sacraments of water baptism, Holy Communion, foot washing, tongues speech, and healing prayer.
Tomberlin’s conclusion ends with this timely exhortation: “Worship must be more than entertainment. Worship must be a transformative encounter with God. The sacraments are the physical means of this encounter. Pentecostalism is a Christo-Pneumatic ecclesiology that is expressed in a physical spirituality. . . .
“Just as our Pentecostal patriarchs and matriarchs sought to recover an encounter with the Holy Spirit, we must be diligent to search the house for any lost treasure. Pentecostal pastors must hold fast to their role as the primary teachers and worship leaders of the church. We must be students of the Scriptures, searching the Scriptures for every salvific treasure. This is an ongoing task that is essential to the renewal of the church. The sacraments have become the lost treasure of many Pentecostal churches. We have treasures remaining. However, we must not be satisfied until we recover all lost treasures. Then we can rejoice.” (p. 261)
Tomberlin, Daniel. Pentecostal Sacraments: Encountering God at the Altar. Cleveland, TN: Center for Pentecostal Leadership and Care, 2010.
November 23, 2020
Tomberlin does an excellent job advancing his primary thesis by mining the historical data, not only of the early church fathers but also of the early Pentecostal movement. The aforementioned thesis is essentially that Pentecostals should embrace a sacramental theology, insofar as the movement is already committed to an embodied faith in which the Spirit of God is encountered in a tangible way.
This volume does not offer a uniquely Pentecostal liturgy but rather it offers a framework for understanding the sacraments through the lens of the Pentecostal movement. This book not only informed me but also served to convict me concerning indifference in my thinking towards the sacraments.
This volume does not offer a uniquely Pentecostal liturgy but rather it offers a framework for understanding the sacraments through the lens of the Pentecostal movement. This book not only informed me but also served to convict me concerning indifference in my thinking towards the sacraments.
February 9, 2026
important read for all pentecostals
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews