THE MYTH:

During a Pentecostal church service, the Holy Ghost falls on the people in attendance.  Soon, everyone is shouting, speaking in tongues, and prophesying.  Suddenly, they hear sirens approaching outside and stop outside the door.  Four firefighters rush into the sanctuary, but then they stop and look around, obviously confused.  "Where's the fire?" they ask."What fire?" the pastor says.  "There's no fire here but the supernatural fire of the Holy Ghost!"The firefighters insist that the entire building was aflame.  They had received frantic calls from several of the neighbors, and, when they arrived on the scene, they had seen with their own eyes that the flames and smoke were pouring from all the windows.The pastor realizes that they must have seen a visual manifestation of the Holy Ghost upon the church.  The firefighters are so amazed that they come to the altar and repent of their sins and are filled with the Holy Ghost as well.

VARIATIONS: 

This myth varies widely in detail.  In some versions, it occurs in a small African village.  Instead of firetrucks and firefighters, it is the other villagers with buckets of water who rush to put out the 'fire'.  But the essential elements are the same:  the church appears to be on fire and outsiders are so amazed that they repent and become Pentecostals.

COMMENTS: 

This is one of many examples of "We'll Show Them!" myths that circulate among Pentecostals.  Pentecostals are usually embarrassed to be Pentecostals, even if they do not admit those feelings.  They know that wild church services appear strange and stupid to outsiders, and they feel uncomfortable about looking so foolish to others.

The story reinforces to Pentecostals that their wild form of worship really is "of God", hence the visible manifestation of fire.  Also essential to the story is that outsiders now realize that the Pentecostals were right all along, thus soothing the bruised ego of the many Pentecostals who feel marginalized and humiliated by their own religious beliefs and the lack of success they experience in convincing others that it really is God at work.