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....