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2007-05-15 issue:

Focus on Jesus

Pentecostal pacifist to speak for joint worship at San José Mennonite convention

by June Krehbiel

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Paul Alexander found a peace theology in a place he never thought to look—buried beneath the teachings of his own denomination. Raised in a Pentecostal family with a devout love of Jesus and in a church wedded to civil religion, Alexander at age 25 thought he knew Jesus.
Then he discovered peace, and his search for Jesus started all over again.



Today Alexander sits in his office at Azusa (Calif.) Pacific University, amazed at his faith journey—one that took him from his parents’ home in Sedan, Kan., to college and graduate school in Texas, and now to southern California, where he directs the doctor of ministry program at Azusa.

Mennonite Church USA convention planners have asked Alexander to speak to youth and adults during the July 4 evening worship at San José. The message from this peace-loving Pentecostal will be simple: Don’t lose focus on Jesus.

Background: “My great-grandparents were part of the Pentecostal movement at the beginning of the 20th century, when it was just getting started. For Mennonites that’s not a long heritage, but for Pentecostals, that’s as far back as it goes,” Alexander explains. Traditional beginnings for the movement date back to revivals in 1901 in Topeka, Kan., and in 1906 in Los Angeles.

Pentecostals believe in a baptism of the Holy Spirit evidenced by divine healings and speaking in tongues. Pentecostals in the United States today, including evangelists Oral Roberts and Rex Humbard, number more than 20 million.

The largest Pentecostal denomination is Assemblies of God, the church to which Alexander’s parents belong and in which Paul Alexander is a minister.

“My dad prayed for me and my brother almost every night of our growing-up years. He would plead the blood of Jesus over us. I was used to an emotional religion of weeping and praying. Dad’s great advice to me was to always, ‘Seek Jesus,’ ” Alexander says.

Raised with a heart for the church, missions and world, Alexander claims that his denomination was in love with the military and patriotism and also wedded to civil religion.
“My love of Jesus and my heart for God and the church went well with my love and patriotism for this country. The thought of being a conscientious objector—or opposing war or not killing someone in self-defense or for America—seemed ludicrous to me,” Alexander says. “I could not fathom the idea of a Christian not killing. The Amish and Mennonites seemed rather silly and naïve.”

Alexander completed his bachelor’s degree in cross-cultural missions in three years at Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, Texas. Two years later he earned his master of divinity degree.

During his doctoral work in theology at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, he struggled with his faith. Where is the all-loving and all-powerful God, he wondered, when there is suffering and evil in the world? Where is this God we plead to for healing when healing doesn’t happen? Where is the Jesus I thought I understood so well?

Reclaiming his peace heritage: Doing research for a course, Alexander remembers that he “accidentally” learned about the peace heritage and social justice concerns that had been part of the early history of the Assemblies of God church until the Vietnam War.

Shocked and surprised, this one-time disciple of Far Right political commentators absorbed the writings of the United Methodist theologian Stanley Hauerwas and took a course taught by Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder—in 1997, months before Yoder died.
After learning about peace and ethics, after “finding” the Jesus described by Yoder and the Peace Church tradition and after discovering the early Pentecostal conscientious objectors, Alexander reclaimed his faith.

“The theology of peacemaking was very persuasive. I realized that Jesus saved me. I came to understand that if Jesus is the Son of God and the Way, then this is what it means to live that way,” Alexander says.

He had found a strong, passionate vocal and public witness for nonviolence and forgiveness and against war and nationalism. Only after first learning stories of the Assemblies of God pacifists did he discover that his grandfather had resisted conscription during World War II.
Grandpa in CPS: “When Grandpa Smith was drafted, he wrote a letter to General Hershey and to the President, explaining that he was a Pentecostal Christian, a follower of Jesus, and he could not kill,” Alexander says. Granted an exemption, W.B. Smith of Mt. Pleasant, Texas, served in a Civilian Public Service camp in Virginia from April 1942 to February 1945.

A conscientious objector’s grandson, Alexander could no longer argue for violence in any form. “Earlier I thought I had all the answers and I could explain war and justify violence—that sometimes you just have to kill people—but I was wrong.”

The position came directly from his Pentecostal heritage. Sound theological and biblical arguments, including those from Mennonites, backed up the peace position. Alexander finally told himself, “OK, I’m going to follow Jesus.”

Owning peace: Although Alexander’s years of owning the peace position have held some rocky days, he continues to follow “God’s call to the way of Christ in all things.” Discipleship is ongoing.

In July 2001, Alexander founded the Pentecostal Charismatic Peace Fellowship, which now has around 500 members. As its executive director, he has met twice since the Charlotte (N.C.) Convention with Mennonite Church USA leaders, including peace advocate Susan Mark Landis and director of interchurch relations André Gingerich Stoner, to discuss how denominational peace fellowships can work together.

In 2005, Alexander put his walk with peace into action when he joined a Christian Peacemaker Teams delegation to Palestine/Israel/West Bank.

“My father always told me to seek Jesus. Little did he or I know that this would lead me to take peacemaking so seriously,” Alexander says.

June Krehbiel writes for Mennonite Church USA News Service.

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