Monday, December 22

Charismatics and the emerging church

My early years of following Christ were in a pentecostal church. There was a fire and passion within that I still believe to be real. The gifts and at least some of the manifestations, for lack of a better term, of the Spirit were legit. In my own limited scope, I have seen a drastic reduction in miracles and even average functioning of the more supernatural, again for lack of a better term, spiritual gifts in the emerging church. While there are many, many, and I mean many, good things going on with how the church is evolving, I fear losing the power and presence of the Spirit. For whatever ills the excesses have given to us, there were benefits to the twentieth century charismatic movement. How do we not lose that? Is anyone else thinking about this? Can the good be a part of the emerging church without ending up with the bad?

I am seriously interested to see if there are a few charismatic movements or even individual local churches who are engaging the questions we grapple with in the emerging church.

I should also note that I am in the more extreme segment of the emerging church in regards to structure. We avoid anything looking like an institution or establishment at all costs. I just add that because when I have investigated charismatics and postmodernity in the past, the norm is to change a few external things while keeping the core of the ministry intact.

posted by Alan | 6:46 PM | |