Black Fire Reader

Book excerpt: This compendium of primary resources reflects the important but often overshadowed contribution of African American believers to the dynamic growth of the modern Pentecostal movement--the fastest-growing segment of global Christianity. The doctrinal statements, sermons, songs, testimonies, news articles, as well as scholarly treatises included here allow black leaders, scholars, and laypeople to speak in their own voices and use their own language to tell us their stories and articulate the issues that have been important to them throughout the one-hundred-year history of this movement. Among the constant themes that continue to emerge is their appreciation of an empowering encounter with the Holy Spirit as the resource for engaging the dehumanizing racial reality of contemporary America.