Well, what is the role of Pentecostalism in the world today? It was a question put to John Piper in early June at one of his international stops. He was doing a television interview in Monticevano, Italy, and there he was asked the question. Here's a field recording of what he said.

Pentecostalism in the world. Well, it's huge. I mean, when you think of the awakening of evangelicalism, true lovers of the gospel, lovers of being born again, lovers of scripture, lovers of the Bible, lovers of evangelism and world missions, when you think of that evangelicalism, it is decreasing in the Western world to an extent.

At least over the last century, it has hugely decreased, right? In Europe, which was once the center of evangelicalism, today is very small. Whereas at the beginning of the 20th century, probably 5% of Africa were evangelical, and today it would be close to 50%. Same thing in South America, same thing in Asia.

Now, if you ask, "What's the nature of that evangelicalism?" It's mainly Pentecostal. So Pentecostalism, that is people, this is my definition, people who are believing in the power of the Holy Spirit, believing that the Holy Spirit does miracles today, believing that the gifts of the Holy Spirit described in 1 Corinthians 12 are still active today, that kind of people are at the cutting edge of the growth of Christianity around the world.

Now, my caution would be this, mingled with Pentecostalism in many places is a prosperity gospel, a prosperity preaching that identifies Christianity with "things will go better for you, you won't suffer when you're a farmer, your crops will prosper, your wife will never miscarry, your pigs will have eight little piglets and never lose the piglets, everything will go better for you if you follow Jesus." That's not true.

And that kind of prosperity preaching is hurting the church, and so to the degree that Pentecostalism is associated with prosperity preaching, I've got concerns. And the next question, which was not entirely related, but it's worth publishing and putting out there, it was a question about how and why Pastor John corrects or debates people on issues of disagreement or concern, specifically regarding his conversation with Rick Warren.

Here's what Pastor John told the audience in Italy. I think it's absolutely crucial when someone has great influence and you have a sense that some of that influence may be negative, that instead of just talking about the person, you should talk to the person. So I want to write to people or talk to people who I think are negative, unless they have written books that are out there in the public and you can talk about the book.

You don't have to call everybody on the telephone who's written a book. I mean, I've written books. I don't expect people who disagree with me, I don't expect them to call me on the telephone first. I have a right to disagree with John Piper, put it in writing, put it on the internet, disagree with me.

And I feel the same. But if you know somebody, so we were talking about Rick Warren. I love Rick Warren. Rick Warren is one of the most influential pastors in the world. He's written the book that has sold more than any other Christian book outside the Bible and maybe one or two others.

And I think it's a good book, by the way. But I call Rick up. In fact, I asked him to come speak at our conference and it was very controversial. Why are you having Rick Warren come to your conference? Because you two guys aren't the same. And I said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa." So I called him.

I said, "Can I come and interview you for 90 minutes?" And we sat at a table just like this. And for 90 minutes, you can see it online. You can go there and type it in. And I just, I gave him every hard question I could think about theologically, because I want to know, are you teaching something essentially different?

We are different, very different. He's much more pragmatic than I am. I'm much more theologically oriented than he is. And I said to him at the end of our conversation, which turned up the fact that we didn't disagree on essential theological matters. The disagreement is method and emphasis. And I suggested to Rick, and he could listen to this and I wouldn't be ashamed.

I suggested, "You know, I think if you spent the last decade or two of your life being more doctrinal, more theological, your impact would be deeper and longer." And I don't know that he, I don't think he agreed with me, but my willingness to say that to him in person and in public is I think significant.

So I think leaders ought to do that for each other. We should confront one another when we have disagreements. Yeah, so good. This was a field recording captured during John Piper's television interview in Monticellano, Italy, recorded on June 3rd during his recent international trip. Piper was there for the International Ministries' Congresso Missione 2016 conference, and he was being interviewed by Alessandro Iovino.

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So thank you for your generosity that makes it all possible. Well if all of us, every single human being on the planet, if we're all descendants of Adam and Eve or even we could say of Noah, where did all the unique races on the planet originate? Such a good question, and that is tomorrow on the podcast.

Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast with longtime author, theologian, and pastor John Piper. I'm your host Tony Reinke, and we'll see you tomorrow.