c. 2006 Religion News Service

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. _ Unintelligible murmurs fill Faith Tabernacle Church. Some jabber and sway. Some shout “Hallelujah” Some ecstatically clap their hands.

It has been 100 years since the Pentecostal-charismatic movement exploded in America with a spirit-filled revival on Los Angeles’ Azusa Street. An April 25-29 centennial celebration honors the anniversary, but the lasting legacy of Azusa Street may be thousands of charismatic churches like this one, where speaking in tongues and other “gifts of the Holy Spirit” are now commonplace.

At Faith Tabernacle, the congregation falls silent as Erika Plunkett spontaneously speaks. With closed eyes, as if in a trance, she utters a string of syllables that sound faintly Arabic. But it is no earthly language that rolls out of her mouth in long bursts: “Si ya la-la-la hay-ya … ”

Plunkett is finished, but the utterance in tongues awaits an “interpretation” so others can understand, as described by the Apostle Paul in the Bible’s 1 Corinthians.

“Thank you!” shouts a nearby woman.

“By the rising of the sun,” she continues, “and the going down of the sun, my name shall always be praised!”

The faithful of Faith Tabernacle believe the woman interpreted in English a message from God that Plunkett first spoke in tongues, a New Testament phenomenon that broke out at Pentecost after Christ ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to his waiting disciples.

“It’s like God is speaking through you,” Plunkett says after the service.

The 21-year-old married mother from Kentwood says the “gift of tongues” is not spooky, as it may appear, but a feeling of great joy.

“It just overwhelmed me, almost like water pouring over me,” she says. “You have to be willing to let the Lord work through you. Once you do, the Lord has his way.”

While speaking in tongues may seem exotic for some and has divided Christians for decades, scholars say it is a common occurrence for an estimated 600 million Pentecostals and charismatics worldwide.

In the United States, tongues was relatively rare until the Azusa Street revival 100 years ago. The three-year phenomenon gave rise to an ecstatic worship style and belief in other “gifts of the spirit,” including prophecy and healing.

Those practices found their way into Pentecostal groups such as the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel and the Assemblies of God, and later into charismatic movements within Catholic and mainline Protestant churches.

The movement is strong in western Michigan, as evidenced by thriving congregations ranging from megachurch Grand Rapids First (formerly First Assembly of God) to more than a dozen sanctuaries of the booming Church of God in Christ, a largely African-American denomination.

Then there is Faith Tabernacle, where an abiding belief in the Holy Ghost has fed worshippers since 1968.

The Rev. Michael Keller traces his church’s roots past Azusa Street all the way back to the day of Pentecost. On that day, according to the book of Acts, a wind from heaven blew in and set tongues of fire dancing on the apostles who “were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues.”

“I’m so glad this little group of people on Spencer and Diamond has experienced that,” Keller preached to about 70 worshippers one recent Sunday. “And it’s real. Amen? I know it’s real!”

That faith has made Pentecostalism “one of the most dynamic Christian traditions in the world,” says Joel Carpenter, director of the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity at Calvin College, based in Grand Rapids.

“Pentecostalism has been one of the real mediums for spiritual regeneration in American churches,” says Carpenter, author of “Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism.”

Praise teams, overhead projectors and an emphasis on spiritual experience have made their way into Protestant denominations including the Christian Reformed Church, Carpenter notes.

“It’s the recovery of the supernatural, saying, `God’s alive, God’s at work. Miracles happen, and you’re gonna see some tonight.”’

He’ll get no argument from Valerie Julien Bierlein. She says she left the unhealthy lifestyle of fronting a rock band to become the worship leader at Faith Tabernacle.

Raised Pentecostal, she strayed from the church but got hooked back in by performing in Faith Tabernacle’s annual Easter drama. She has attended faithfully for about eight years.

“It’s made a huge difference in my life,” says Bierlein, 36, convention services specialist for the Grand Rapids/Kent County Convention and Visitors Bureau. “I know what kind of person I would be if I did not have the Lord in my life, and it would not be pretty.”

Singing in front of the congregation, she says she can see the Holy Spirit moving through believers like a wave. When she feels it wash over her with the power of speaking in tongues, it’s “almost euphoric.”

“I feel cleansed. I feel loved. I feel filled,” she says calmly. “You’re in the presence of the Lord.”

Marie Postma felt the same after joining the church in 1970. She was a staunch Christian Reformed member when she saw a Faith Tabernacle ad in the paper promising “Pentecost in action.” She came, she saw, she believed.

“There was just something there I had never experienced before,” says Postma, 72, a church elder. “There was joy, peace. The Word of God became real.

“I did not feel that before. It was all head knowledge.”

Head knowledge is certainly not how you’d describe the joyful singing, praying and preaching at Faith Tabernacle.

From pulpit and keyboard, the Rev. Keller carries on a family tradition begun by his grandmother, a Baptist who got down to pray one day and was scared by the strange sounds she made.

Keller says he received the gift of tongues at age 9 during an altar call in his Indianapolis church. He calls the experience “joy unspeakable.”

“It flows into you,” says Keller, pastor for 11 years. “It’s from heaven’s throne, the power of God coming in your vessel.”

Couldn’t it just be the power of the psyche seeking an emotional outlet?

“You know in your spirit if it’s the Holy Spirit,” says Keller. “It’s tangible, it’s absolutely real.”

MO/RB END RNS

(Charles Honey is the religion editor for The Grand Rapids Press in Grand Rapids, Mich.)

ÃÂ?MDSUÃÂ?Editors: To obtain photos of exuberant worshippers at Faith Tabernacle Church, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

Also see RNS-AZUSA-STREET, about the history of the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles