Kerala Pentecostalism is one of the powerful spiritual movements that originated, developed, and spread in Kerala. The mainline Pentecostal churches are the Indian Pentecostal Church, The Pentecostal Mission, Assemblies of God, Church of God, and Sharon Fellowship. Though they contributed greatly to the growth of the Kingdom of God, there are many unhealthy trends in Pentecostalism which are really hindering the growth of the Kingdom of God and their organizational purity and strength.
Some are as follows:
Transfer System of Pastors
Most of the Kerala Pentecostal churches have a system of transferring the local church pastor every three years, usually. This system gives different spiritual challenges:
I do not understand how far this system can keep God's will regarding a church and its pastor in all this process.
A pastor takes at least one to two years to build a relationship with people in a new place. Once he builds up a relationship and starts to share the gospel with the people in that place, he gets transferred, and the work of God is hindered.
Because of transfers, the local churches do not have any vision for their ministry in the particular location.
Pastors are increasingly getting involved in church politics and tend to prefer transferring to a church that is financially stable or wealthy.
No Basic Salary Support for Pastors
Most of the Kerala Pentecostal churches do not have any kind of centralized salary scale for pastors. Local churches take care of the pastor in their financial capacity. The lack of a centralized financial system keeps all pastors in financial insecurity. Pastors are not willing to pastor a local church with fewer members and less financial income. If there were a centralized salary scale for all the pastors under an organization, irrespective of whether the pastor is working in a big or small local church, and whether the church is financially rich or not, it would provide financial security and stability to the pastor. If that were the case, pastors could go to any church to pastor, regardless of the condition of the local church, and it would also help avoid church politics.Preaching in the Church
One common trend in Kerala Pentecostal churches is that the pastor of the church often does not get an opportunity to preach properly in the Sunday worship because unexpected visiting or guest pastors come to the church. We need to stop this trend. The pastor must prepare and receive God's voice for the congregation and must deliver that to the congregation every Sunday, which is essential for the spiritual growth of the church.Pastor's Education
The Pentecostal churches need to have certain basic criteria for selecting a pastor for ministry in their organization. One area that is often ignored is that most pastors are not trained for the various needs in the church, such as counseling, leadership, Christian education, discipleship training, music and worship leadership, ministry development, and so on. Pastors should receive continuous training and resources for their ongoing ministerial development and growth. This is especially relevant when doing ministry in a fast-changing world.Lacking Vision
Most of the Pentecostal churches in Kerala engage in fasting prayers and conventions. These are the major events of most of the churches, and most of the financial resources are invested in these two areas: fasting and conventions. I personally feel that churches should move beyond these two things. We need to reorganize and re-prioritize our events, finances, time, human resources, and effort based on the vision of the local church and for the growth of the local church. The results from conventions and fasting for church growth are often minimal. Churches need to think of other alternative ways to fulfill the vision of the local church. For example, if a local church has enough finances, instead of investing all those finances in a convention or fasting prayer, let the local church send a missionary to another place to pioneer a new church. If we ask any local church about their vision statement, they may not have one. It is time for all local churches to develop some kind of God-given vision and reorganize the entire church according to that vision.