Reading a book about the growth of global Pentecostalism and this paragraph reminded me of this thread:
Compatriotism, however, is not the only competitive advantage possessed by professional Pentecostal sales representatives. That crente pastors normally belong to the same socioeconomic class as those they seek to convert also makes for easier sale of Pentecostal products. Not only does nationality distance the majority of Catholic clergy from prospective practitioners, but so do their educational levels. Years of seminary training place priests among the educational elite of Latin America. Even if they came from humble origins, they have acquired considerable sacred and secular knowledge through higher education and no longer speak the language of the unlettered pueblo. Hence, the gap between the highly educated foreign priest and the potential parishioner with no more than an elementary school education makes for a harder sell of the Catholic product.
(...)
The final element of Pentecostal polity that gives this branch of ecstatic Protestantism a competitive edge over its rivals is its preference for charisma over theological training for its professional sales representatives or pastors. While larger and older denominations, particularly the Assemblies of God, have institutionalized to the point that its salaried pastors are required to have several years of seminary training, Pentecostalism, as a popular religion, has historically emphasized spiritual gifts over theological education. That a male believer with not more than an elementary school education but a healthy dose of charisma can rise through the pastoral ranks of most denominations opens the ministry up to tens of thousands of impoverished male believers who would never qualify for the rigorous educational requirements of the Catholic priesthood or mainline Protestant ministry. The result has been a proliferation of Pentecostal pastors, who in Brazil, the largest Catholic nation on earth, now outnumber priests by two to one.
