Unity
I just left a meeting of Reading city pastors and came away thankful for the unity that would be unthinkable years ago.
I served with the Assemblies of God for almost 15 years in full time ministry before I came to serve at Hopewell Christian Fellowship for the last 4 years. Hopewell has it's roots in the Mennonite denomination and now is a non-denominational church that has a mix of those that have come from a charismatic background, some from Catholic churches, others from Baptist and still others from Lutheran, Presbyterian, Brethren and more. Things you will not see or hear at Hopewell often is people praying in tongues, dancing during worship, people falling down in the midst of prayer and much of the military type imagery that seems to permeate charismatic prayer times.
I have realized through these years that much of the charismatic experience is still in my blood. At the same time though, truth be told, I had been pulling away from much of the charismatic expression for years before I left the Assemblies. People who know me, will not hear me use much of the language that is used in such circles. I am a bit apprehensive when people use such language in public, because it smacks of a subculture that is only understood by those that are deeply entrenched in it. It is assumed by those who are in it, that it is a normal way to speak, but it is not. People have no context in their day to day lives to relate such spiritual speak and I think God wants our faith to be very real and relatable to our normal lives. I also have a problem with the fact that (and this is only my observation), it seems to create people that are always looking for the next "high," or touch of God. People often judge a good service by the sensational outward appearances and if they do not see or feel these things, than they wrongly conclude that God was not present. God speaks in a still small voice and beyond this, the Word tells us that if are to know God - it comes through being still and silent.
Having said that, I cannot deny the power of God that I experienced when I was filled with the Spirit of God. I believe that people do receive a heavenly language, that healings and deliverances do take place. More than this, those that are most passionate about the lost and demonstrate a constant hunger for God are consistently those that are pentecostal.
If you cannot tell by now, I seem to be a contradiction. I don't believe I am though. I am a charismatic pentecostal person who also beleives in stillness and quiet and thinks that the gospel does in fact have a social aspect to it and while I long for new expressions of the church, I have a great respect for the historical church.
In the church world, there has been a huge divide between pentecostal/charismatic churches and the more mainline liberal churches. Recently, there exists additional divides with the growth of the Emergent movement. In my heart, I have always been a mix of all of these influennces and wished so badly that churches could focus on THE things that really matters - Christ crucified, burried, resurected and imparting His Spirit to His followers to now be the church. These are truths about which all pentecostal, mainline and emergent churches would agree.
All of that to say, this morning was one of the few times I had a small taste of that. Various pastors from various backgrounds being real and transparent about their struggles personally and with their churches and then going to God and crying out for more of Him to empower their efforts to build His church for His glory. All divides dissapeared and it was obvious to see that unity is trully a beautiful thing. And for this, I am trully thankful.