Can We Still Sing the Lyrics “Come Holy Spirit”?

Abstract

Australian Pentecostals, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, are speaking new tongues in their worship practices, forming new poetic languages of singing and conversation relevant for spatially dislocated twenty-first-century life. Using Nimi Wariboko’s three-city model offered in Charismatic City and the Public Resurgence of Religion, this article assesses Australian pentecostal worship practice in light of his “Charismatic City.” The article suggests that this emergent, poetic language of Spirit empowerment situates the worshipper in a rhizomatic network that flows with pentecostal energies, forming a new commons or space that is the basis of its global civil society. It presents two local case studies from Hillsong Church’s pneumatological song repertoire (1996–2006), and yarning conversation rituals at Ganggalah Church led by Aboriginal Australian pastors. These new languages identify and attune participants to the Spirit’s work in the world, particularly useful for urban cities and cyberspace.

Acknowledgment of Country: Intersecting Australian Pentecostalisms Reembeding Spirit in Place

“…[was] to sing their song well enough that the society at large [was] brought to their truth claim" (Wariboko 2014, p. 99). However, Wariboko notes the subsequent emergence of a "Secular City" in which God was proclaimed dead (Cox 2013;6 Wariboko presents three distinct philosophies of pneumatologically-oriented social engagement that exist simultaneously but also offer progression (See Riches (2016) for a more theological application of this theory). Wariboko 2014).…”

“…However, within the church itself, talk of God has expanded from reproducing its distinct practices towards developing language appropriate for the commons, or urban polis. Notions of Spirit absence have been replaced with immanence-God is everywhere, both in and outside of the church (See Riches (2016) for lyrical examples of this transition).…”

“…They boasted similarly "righteous" or "authorized" men who curated mission outposts. Although he states, "The clever men are all dead," their power apparently lived on 7 This is explored further in Riches (2016), the precursor work to this article, which uses Wariboko's Charismatic City proposal to compare distinct Australian Pentecostalisms. 8 This rises to 6% in remote rural areas, but for the purposes of contrast no measure of Pentecostalism exists.…”