I have read and studied Dr. Villafañe’s book, The Liberating Spirit, and I have come to these conclusions: we cannot preach or teach a gospel of prosperity as a means of improving the financial condition of society. The problem of sin and evil must be aggressively addressed and dealt with an ethics based on the Holy Spirit. Many forms of approaches have been tried, but to no avail. The situation here in Puerto Rico is increasingly deteriorating. Just recently our professor was questioning the fact that in Guatemala and Puerto Rico, although the Evangelical church is the predominant church, the societal problems are more acute.
I have considered that our focus has been on people’s needs and wants. For this reason, the prosperity teaching has thrived. Nevertheless, sin and evil have being sterilized and cast to oblivion. Guatemala has one of the largest churches in Central America, but the country is mired in poverty and crime. This is not the way to promote a healthy society. What is being created is a society which lives according to their wants and not according to God’s will which can be known if we walk in the Spirit. What is going on is that we have a church that is self-served rather than a church that seeks to find the will of God by walking in the Spirit.
The challenge is great for Hispanic leaders to lift the people from the problematic situation they find themselves in. However, the church has a mandate, a mission to fulfill, and it can be done by following the classical missiological categories of the church’s mission: (1) Koinonia; the fellowship or community of the Spirit; (2) Leitourgia, the worship in the Spirit; (3) Kerygma, the proclamation of the “good-news” of the Spirit’s historical project; and (4) Diakonia, the service in and by the Spirit. This is how Dr. Villafañe’s book, The Liberating Spirit ends, by appealing to the church to walk in the Spirit.
I have considered that our focus has been on people’s needs and wants. For this reason, the prosperity teaching has thrived. Nevertheless, sin and evil have being sterilized and cast to oblivion. Guatemala has one of the largest churches in Central America, but the country is mired in poverty and crime. This is not the way to promote a healthy society. What is being created is a society which lives according to their wants and not according to God’s will which can be known if we walk in the Spirit. What is going on is that we have a church that is self-served rather than a church that seeks to find the will of God by walking in the Spirit.
The challenge is great for Hispanic leaders to lift the people from the problematic situation they find themselves in. However, the church has a mandate, a mission to fulfill, and it can be done by following the classical missiological categories of the church’s mission: (1) Koinonia; the fellowship or community of the Spirit; (2) Leitourgia, the worship in the Spirit; (3) Kerygma, the proclamation of the “good-news” of the Spirit’s historical project; and (4) Diakonia, the service in and by the Spirit. This is how Dr. Villafañe’s book, The Liberating Spirit ends, by appealing to the church to walk in the Spirit.
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