My Early Story (35)

The Charismatic Movement (2) 

I attended a Full Gospel Business Men’s convention in D.C. with the Methodist refugees. While the FGBM had their roots in traditional Pentecostalism (or at least this was true of the men I knew), like the AG the FGBM welcomed men and women from all backgrounds who wanted to follow Jesus. There were two things at this convention that made a lasting impression on me, one favorable and one a warning – they have both remained with me.

 

A musical group of about twenty men and women from a well-known Chrisitan university appeared on stage. They were tightly choreographed, every move on stage was finely tuned, every facial expression seemingly rehearsed, no one was out of place – not physically, not vocally, and not naturally.

 

I was shocked, it was not natural, it was not normal, it was a stage production when it should have been worship. I thought, “This is dangerous, where will this lead to?”

 

Where it has led to is to a cult of Christians “artists” and Sunday morning production companies (called churches) with seamless Sunday morning experiences and concerts. It has led to ticket sales and big business. If Billy Graham and others did not charge for the Gospel in Word, why do Chrisitan musicians and singers charge for the Gospel in music and song? How can we charge money for the Gospel…in whatever form?

 

How can we charge money for people to come and “worship”? Do we truly understand and experience worship? This makes no sense to me.

 

This is more complex than I am making it out to be, and I made some mistakes as a pastor along this very line when I should have known better. Let me just say, for now, that Sunday morning is not supposed to be a production.

 

On the evening prior to the opening of the convention, I attended a “preconvention” meeting in which the main speaker was a well – known Charismatic teacher. His text was 1 Corinthians Chapter 12. He did not speak on the “gifts of the Spirit.” He did speak on the Body of Christ.

 

He talked about what he called “EMI,” Every Member Involvement. Everyone, he taught, has something to offer the Body of Christ, everyone has a gift, a grace, the fruit of the Spirit – everyone has the life of Christ. We need everyone to contribute; we are all called to contribute.

 

He had a handout to illustrate his point. It was a large tree with many branches, and each branch had a label with the name of a gift, a grace, a fruit. The tree was the Body of Christ, the trunk was Christ Jesus, we were the branches – we all had something critical to share, in Christ, with one another.

 

The Charismatic Movement, and the Jesus People, taught me participation, they taught me that everyone has something to share, that everyone is valuable, that the Holy Spirit has indeed given us each a gift, a grace, an expression of Christ.

 

A sad irony of the Charismatic Movement is that it soon became top heavy, celebrity driven, and quite rigid in some expressions. In other words, it joined the religious club. Even the teacher who spoke that evening about EMI betrayed his own message by becoming dictatorial. When Jesus is no longer our Message and our Focus, bad things happen.

 

Yet, on a grassroots level I have continued to meet people over the years who were nurtured and set free through the Movement.  People who took the Bible and witnessing and building one another up in Christ seriously. For sure, I’ve always been puzzled by those elements of the movement that are into the sensational and into celebrities and what I call “the revelation of the month club.” These things repel me. Yet, I also see these very things in other strains of professing Christianity.

 

There is so much more I could say about the Charismatic Movement, including how faithful pastors who sought more for their people in traditional settings were treated terribly by their peers and denominations, I cannot forget the vitriol I saw from “Christian” leaders. For sure there were environments that gave people room to grow and express themselves, mutual respect within traditions and denominations could be found, but the “attack mode” that some groups propagated toward Charismatics was disgusting.

 

to be continued....

My Early Story (34)

I've been wanting to circle back on My Early Story and touch on the Charismatic Movement. A friend of mine made a comment to me a couple of weeks ago that motivated me to do it. 

The Charismatic Movement

I imagine I should say some things about the Charismatic Movement, since it also played a formative role in my early life (the 1960s and early 1970s). I realize that not everyone has good memories of the movement, and I see some crazies today who are products of it. However, I also meet folks for whom it was a formative blessing, many of them now in vocational ministry in traditional settings.

 

Frankly, when I consider the disgusting unconscionable behavior, including coverups, that have occurred in churches, Protestant, Pentecostal, Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox, the excesses of the Charismatic Movement pale in comparison. The problem with Pentecostals and Charismatics used to be that they didn’t know how to properly deport themselves, they weren’t “religious” enough, that was really, I think, their great sin (that and being a threat to old wineskins). Furthermore, whatever sins and stupidness were present in the Charismatic Movement generally weren’t institutional (as with traditional churches) – for it had no institutions in the beginning.

 

There isn’t anything today that I’d term a Charismatic Movement, but there is a lot of craziness going on – everywhere, in non-traditional settings and in traditional settings. I don’t know really what to think, so much poison in thinking and behavior. Well, I do know what to think, we need Jesus, O how we need Jesus.

 

While I am going to focus on the positive, I want to mention that I had a terrible time at one point when associated with the “Movement.” I can’t look back on it without shame, disgust, and sorrow. I want you to know that I write from a critical point-of-view, but that I’m also thankful for the Spirit of renewal that not only touched many during that time, but which laid the foundation for many of my future relationships.

 

When we go astray it is usually because Jesus is no longer enough, we think we need something to add to Him (2 Cor. 11:1 – 3; Mt. 17:5).

 

My initial exposure to the movement took two forms, one was through the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International, the other through a local Assembly of God.

 

After my abbreviated time at Bible college, I sought fellowship in a local church back in Maryland. Considering my experience at Bible college, and considering that my two pastors who were instrumental in sending me to the school did not follow up with me after my expulsion, it was natural that I’d look elsewhere for a place to worship and meet people. Perhaps the pastors were embarrassed that someone they had endorsed was expelled, perhaps they just didn’t know how to relate to a kid who had not been raised in their tradition, perhaps it was simpler for them to leave me alone – teenagers can require investment, time, work, and patience.

 

I began attending a small Assembly of God within walking distance of where I lived. The building would probably only hold 100 – 150 people and there was no threat of overcrowding. The pastor was a retired FBI agent who exhibited a thoughtful and quiet demeanor. There was a group within the congregation that gathered on Sunday mornings, they were charismatic refugees from the Methodist Church; the refugee Methodists befriended me.  

 

The “refugees” greatly respected the pastor, and I think were bemused at his dilemma, for while he was a traditional AG pastor, they were not traditional Pentecostal parishioners. Yet, in looking back, the pastor was likely ideal for them in that he had a breath of experience outside his religious tradition, and he could give them room to grow in Christ; he was able to minister to folks outside his tradition as well as those within it – a rare combination.

 

Of the three major “white” Pentecostal denominations, I have long thought that the Assemblies of God were more open to those from other traditions…and to those from no tradition. I think this ability to welcome and assimilate, to be permeable in culture, has contributed to the growth of the AG. While I have encountered AG throwbacks that focus on externals and legalism and a message of condemnation, these have been the exception in my experience. The same is true for having an emphasis on the Baptism in the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues, this is not “the thing” today that it once was in the AG, and I wonder why my Pentecostal brethren don’t rethink this “distinctive.”

 

Let me return to the “refugees” lest I dwell too much on Pentecostals.

 

The refugees met in homes regularly as a way of life. We’d read the Bible, pray, and listen to teaching tapes by various charismatic teachers. There were times when we’d drive to the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. and pray in one of the chapels – in those days at least one chapel was accessible 24 hours a day.  

 

I don’t recall an insistence that people speak in tongues, or any notion that people who moved in the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4 – 13) were better than anyone else. I don’t remember any hint of exclusiveness. I do recall that it was assumed that everyone was valuable, that everyone had something to share. I cherish my memories of the refugees being excited about Jesus, about God being alive in our lives on a daily basis.

 

Christ Church was an Assembly of God in N.W. D.C. It had a large seating capacity, and it opened its doors during certain evenings for folks across the city to come and worship in an open and “charismatic” fashion. I don’t recall whether this was weekly, but it was regularly scheduled. I think it was called “T.A.G,” which meant “take and give.” That was the spirit of the Charismatic Movement as I knew it in those days, you gathered with other disciples of Jesus to share and receive, the notion that only one person did all the talking was foreign, the notion that we were expected to do the same thing the same way week after week was alien. We were growing together, learning together, worshipping together.

To be continued...

 

As My Soul Draws Nigh

 

As My Soul Draws Nigh

RLW Feb. 3, 2026

1:00 PM

 

As my soul draws nigh

Beyond the eastern sky

I will ascend, I will ascend

To that City

 

To home I will draw

To my Father’s House

From whence I came, whence I came

In Christ Jesus my Lord

 

To Melchizedek, and Zadok,

To the saints of the ages I come.

Coming home, O coming home

To My Father, to my Home

 

O my soul, draw thou nigh

To thy home, to thy Rock, to thy Lord,

On the wings of the Spirit, on the wings of the Spirit,

I ascend, I ascend

 

And the Light of the City

Overcomes my vision, engulfs my senses

Bathes me, bathes me, in His purity

I am cleansed, I am cleansed – HALLELUJAH I AM CLEANSED!!!!!!

 

And the Water of that City

Fills my soul, fills my soul

And it pours from me, yes it pours from me,

And I swim, O how I swim, Hallelujah how I swim!

 

And my soul draws nigh to the Temple of that City

And my soul it comes home to that Temple.

To the Father and the Lamb, to the Great, Great I AM

I am HOME, I am HOME, I AM HOME!!!!

 

And my soul has entered into the Temple of that City

And I rest, how I rest in the Lamb

I lay down in green pastures, I walk beside still waters,

And my soul, O my soul, is in PEACE.