Given the community orientation of Pentecostalism, on the one hand and the excesses of a somewhat rampant individualism among interpreters generally, on the other hand, reflection on the place of the community in the hermeneutical process appears to be a natural next step in the development of a Pentecostal hermeneutic. This chapter explores one possible paradigm, which is derived from the New Testament itself. This approach is that revealed in the deliberations of the Jerusalem Council as described in Acts 15.1-29. The proposed Pentecostal hermeneutic built on Acts 15 has three primary components: the community, the activity of the Spirit, and the Scripture. In order to gauge the usefulness of this paradigm, it is tested by addressing a particularly difficult issue facing the church. Perhaps one of the most significant current debates within the ecclesiastical world is that regarding the role of women in the ministry of the church.
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John Thomas (1994) studied this question.