Rockin’ with the Foursquare Gospel Church

Congregation singing in the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) church is done with hymn book by pre-modern standards. There’s no clapping, dancing, waving of hands or cheering. Drums, cymbals, electric synthesizers, guitars, etc are taboo. 

There is no spontaneous individual praise, speaking in tongues, prophesying or crying. Everything is kept in a formal, outwardly reverent and strictly prescribed format - and that is from my own experience being born, raised and educated by this church for the 47 years of my life.

At the other end of the church decorum spectrum stands the Pentecostal church - specifically the Foursquare Church. In my teenage years I had the chance to observe them worship and my friends and I labelled them as weird, possessed, drunk, etc. Honestly I thought that they were not worshiping God at all.

My perception could have stayed that way were it not for the intervention of the Holy Spirit that transformed me into a Pentecostal believer. My daughter who followed me out of the SDA church had the chance to serve the Foursquare church just recently and the experience stirred her soul like nothing before. Here are some photos that I gleaned from her album and Kathleen's.

The Evangelical church of Bangkok praise team led by Pastor Adam was invited to the Foursquare Youth Conference in Baguio city, Philippines. Kukie - my daughter, is in the left with a hand 
raised in prayer. 

This is conference is done every two years for the youth 
leaders of the church

that's how they pray... If you did that in the SDA church 
you'd be considered odd.

sing and dance... why not?

speaking in tongues... prophesying...

cheering...

All that is considered old-school compared to the SDA style of worship when one considers these examples in the ancient Israelite era:

Psalm 149:3 "Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with timbrel and harp.

and in the early Christian era:

Acts 2 "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome(both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine."