From affliction to preaching: when the suffering talk to the community

How can charismatic believers speak about their suffering to religious peers when charismatic groups are influenced by the idea that the righteous are blessed with wellbeing and health? The author tries to understand this issue through the analysis of four testimonies given by sufferers during an evangelical worship service in Geneva, focusing on the interactions between these individuals and the group as they explained their trials in an otherwise normal worship context. From a stigmatised or discredited condition they arrived at an authoritative charismatic status, which allowed them to teach and explain the reasons for their suffering to the congregation. This status improvement was complete when the pastor, in his authoritative position, asked them to pray for the sick at the end of the service. For the first time, this study reveals the believers' performance behind the curtain of the common idea of "healing centrality" in Pentecostal theology.