of legitimate expressions of the spirit is evidence of the importance of ritual
practice and its distinction from spiritual belief. All Pentecostal churches, of
various denominations, share the belief that God will manifest Himself through
worshipers by giving them spiritual gifts. Yet, there is variation between
churches in the type of spiritual gifts displayed, their manner or method of
legitimate expression, and the process whereby they are discerned as legitimate.
Consensus of belief bore little relationship to the actual details of those prac-
tices through which the solidarity of the congregational religious experience
was produced. We found that even different churches, of the same denomi-
nation, in the same metropolitan area, vary in the acceptable details of the
production of legitimate spiritual gifts. This means that participants must
learn how to appropriately produce their spiritual gifts through participation
in congregational worship, not through faith, and that each time a member
shifts to another congregation they must learn new ritual practices on site.
Pentecostal congregations are interacting social groups with interactional
expectations deeply embedded in the details of ritual practice. Newcomers
who do not know the local order of practice and consequently can not meet
these interactional expectations may be negatively sanctioned until they are
able to meet the new group’s situated expectations with regard to practice.
Knowledge of, and commitment to, a set of beliefs will not help the parish-
ioner in this regard. On the other hand, it is not necessary to master the beliefs
in order to have a meaningful spiritual experience through enacting practices
appropriately.
Moreover, the interactional expectations in their details have an associa-
tion with the sacred and are designed to edify the congregation and its lead-
ership. Whether intended or not, a failure to meet situated interactional expectations
is a challenge to the status quo of sacred authority and will be treated as evidence
of the parishioner ’s moral shortcomings. Thus, members who are dissatisfied
with leadership, as well as newcomers who are not socialized into the con-
gregation, could find their spiritual expressions discerned as illegitimate.
There is an interesting paradox in this. Ironically, belief and faith are empha-
sized as the key to the individual “born again experience” that facilitates
“baptism of the Spirit,” through the initial experience of speaking in tongues.
Yet, the experience of speaking in tongues, as well as the interpretation of
tongues, and prophecy, are practices that must be produced in publicly rec-
ognizable ways in order to be discerned (another organized and detailed
practice) and accepted as legitimate.
280 • Bonnie Wright and Anne Warfield Rawls