2.1 How Did the Pentecostal Movement Come to Canada?

[Celestine]

The unorganized spread of Pentecostalism in its early days in Canada doesn’t surprise me, given the movement’s emphasis on the Holy Spirit’s spontaneous work and the grassroots nature of its growth. This unstructured approach likely allowed the movement to adapt and spread quickly through personal connections and revivals. While early resistance to organization might have facilitated rapid expansion, it may have also hindered the movement’s long-term stability, doctrine, and accountability. As Pentecostalism grew, the need for organization became apparent to ensure doctrinal consistency, provide structured leadership, and facilitate cooperation among churches. Pentecostals likely began to organize themselves to establish a unified identity, streamline ministry efforts, and ensure the movement’s sustainability and growth. Organization would have also enabled them to better respond to challenges, articulate their theology, and engage with other Christian denominations.

[Aidan]

The organic spread of revival across Canada is not surprising given the vast geography of our nation. As people brought revival back to their communities, it makes sense that a grassroots movement would start to sweep across the nation despite the lack of official organization/direction.
It also does not surprise me that there was resistance to the idea of Pentecostals organizing themselves into an official body or denomination. In the face of a fast-moving movement, I can understand the fear that adding too much structure would stifle the move of God and institutionalize the Pentecostal movement. While I think their resistance was perhaps too much of an overreaction, there is valid wisdom in recognizing what would be lost if they decided to add more structure, accountability, and administration to what had up until that point appeared to be working well.

[Melissa Smyth]

I feel like the response against organization was based on wanting to hold on to the life and freedom they were experiencing and not letting anything stifle that, as I am sure they had seen or experienced in the past. I think there was need for that freedom and change for a time, but I think that the more we live in unity as a wider Church body the more we can team together and move forward. We do need each other and need organization, but that structure needs to always be submitted to what Jesus is calling us to and not the other way around.

[Zach]

The resistance to organization does not surprise me as I am sure there was a lot of freedom that came with the Holy Spirit’s outpouring, and as said in the video, it was the great equalizer. I don’t believe that the resistance to organization was necessarily a hinderance in that it was bad, and a lack of organization represented a certain purity, but I do think it is possible that it did allow for the fire to not be snuffed out or quenched by those in systems with a vested interest in putting it out. That being said, wine needs a wineskin, and so resistance to organization indefinitely could have proven more costly than short term resistance if it didn’t give way. It is possible that Pentecostals eventually started to organize themselves as they became more confident in the normalcy of the experience and the need to steward the growth of this phenomena with intentionality.