I found this article interesting.
Has the influence of the movement spread like yeast through bread?
Are there changes in the broad church world that are permanant?
Have the well-publicized excesses of some charismatic "celebrities" spoiled the loaf?
6 comments:
I'm halfway through reading "Surprised by the Power of the Spirit" by Jack Deere and it is the best Biblical defense of the Spirit's speaking and healing that this conservative evangelical has ever read!! :) Maureen
I don't know. I came into the charismatic renewal in the '70s through a mainline church (Roman Catholic). I did not see a lot of the excesses we hear of today. Exciting, wonderful things happened at Kathryn Kuhlman meetings, but there was a distinct decorum.
In some respects I believe it has spread like yeast. Some of the choruses I learned at charismatic churches have made it into the latest edition of our hymnal, Evangelical Lutheran Worship. There was a time when the moving of the Holy Spirit and people's desire for that was not as prominent. What I am hearing now though in the hearts of many on this ridge of the Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary is, "Come, Holy Spirit."
I think we have lost some of what we had in the 1970's movement. The unifying factor has evaporated. That movement's roots were in the mainline churches and it didn't matter what denomination we were. Today, we seem to have the non-denominational charismatic churches, traditional Pentecostal churches, then everyone else. I've come across a number of people in our ELCA denomination that had been involved/influenced by the charismatic renewal and then later left because of excesses.
Great post Singing Owl. Blessings.
Just some thoughts.
I got quite a few comments when I posted the link to the Christianity Today article on the charismatic movement. Very interesting.
Interesting that you got comments over at FB and I got none!
I think that you are right about that unifying factor. I really wasn't technically a "charismatic" since we joined an Assembly of God church in the 70s, but I was part of some wonderful prayer meetings with Catholics.
Most of the comments made me sad.
How we people do manage to mess up God's work.
But, at the same time, I will say I would not trade the experiences at our 70s church for anything...even tho if I went back to the exact same congregation now I might not be able to stay...
It was like an open door to a new spiritual "room" in my life. I would not close the door, or leave the room. Make sense?
Interesting article.
I'm surprised at how some denominations are so against the Charismatic aspects/worship of some other groups. It is a we/they situation, and the "they" group are automatically wrong.
I haven't had a Charismatic experience personally, but a book I read by a Lutheran pastor who was a missionary opened my mind to the whole thing. He and the others didn't "learn" this worship from others, but it came upon them and later it left. He wrote the book to explain and explore the issue. Later, he was a seminary professor.
I have heard about some charismatics also judging non-charismatics as not quite having enough or the right faith.
The article tells how this faith and worship experience helped break down denominational boundaries and barriers. Surely that is a sign that the "real" Holy Spirit was present.
And surely there have been people who had experienced Charismatic worship who didn't dare tell their home pastor that this had happened.
I could not agree more with those last two paragraphs!
Post a Comment