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...