Post-Charismatic

“I am a spiritual mutt” That’s my answer when people ask about my denominational background. I guess, to be accurate, I should change the statement to “I am a denominational mutt”. A variety of churches provided the backdrop of my childhood. I vaguely remember attending a Baptist church and then we spent a few years in a Wesleyan church and just before my teens started attending a non-denominational charismatic church.

I remember loud clapping, raucous repetitive singing of praise choruses, simultaneous praying in tongues and people being slain in the spirit. My own experience with being filled with the Holy Spirit was one succumbing to peer pressure and was entirely fake. I walked away from that church the first time when there was no support when my step-father left us after thirteen years of marriage to my mother. A newly single mother with a teenage daughter is in desperate need of physical, emotional and spiritual support. There was none. I briefly went back five years later when I was pregnant with my first child as an unwed mother. Why did I think the climate may have changed? Within five minutes of sitting down, one woman came over to welcome me back, picked up my hand, saw no ring, turned and walked away without a word.

After my husband and I married, we knew we wanted to be involved in church. He grew up Lutheran and I was that denominational mutt with a heavy emphasis on charismatic experience though. We ended up in a non-denominational, non-charismatic church for the four years we lived in Memphis. It was a wonderful experience. We received good teaching but most importantly, we had a family. The community support there was incredible.

Our few years spent in Charlotte were a blur to me as we added two more children, I began homeschooling and my husband’s schedule was so erratic that we never got established in a church community. Things weren’t much better when we moved back to South Carolina. We opted for a close Southern Baptist church though many of our core beliefs were set on the back burner while we attended there. Then we spent seven years in a charismatic church after I had a authentic experience with the Holy Spirit. We shifted gears and begun attending a community church. I really don’t know why we made the change. There was just an sudden urgency we felt to find a new church home and I was on the brink of my paradigm shift, I think. In my experience, most community churches have a strong Baptist background and this one did though there was an almost underground movement of spirit-filled believers praying for a movement of the Lord.

At the culmination of my paradigm shift and midst great personal turmoil that left me feeling wounded and abandoned by God and by the body, we left that church. As I have stated here before, I honestly thought we were leaving the whole of church culture behind. God had planted a seed in me though that was growing too big for me to manage alone. I couldn’t ignore the huge social issues that were constantly brought to my attention. I couldn’t deny that the core of my concern was based on my Spiritual understanding. I wanted to work alongside other Christians. I think that is one of the main reasons we went back to church and one of the main reasons that we chose a United Methodist Church.

Now all of that is really background information to what I really want to say today. Having had a strong charismatic influence in my youth, having spent seven years in a charismatic church and a couple more with a group that was praying in that direction, I think I am now Post-Charismatic. At one time, I was positive I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit complete with the tangible signs. At one time, speaking in tongues was part of my prayer ritual and where I found connection with God. Now I am not so sure of all of that. In many ways, it comes down to the same reason that I left the first charismatic church when my step father left. What use is all this manifestation of the spirit when the body of Christ is in need and is ignored; or when there are the hungry, the poor, the oppressed who need more than an emotional encounter with God. When they walk away from the alter, when they go home, there is no food on the table, no gas to get to work the next day.

That is why I label myself Post Charismatic. More distinctly, as this post explains, Functional Cessationist:

Functional Cessationists are those who, like the Former Charismatics, don’t dismiss the charismata, but they’re open to them… kind of. They don’t really pursue the gifts, and are just wary enough that there’s no actual practice of the charismata taking place. This group is actually content with the way things are because it feels appropriate, non-controversial, and allows a focus on other important spiritual priorities with none of the mess. They don’t deny the gifts in their theology, but in practice, they certainly aren’t sought or encouraged, so although the function of the gifts haven’t been ruled out, they don’t actually function.

though I’d like to believe I would continue moving through the paradigm to a Detoxing Post-Charismatic:

Detoxing Post-Charismatics are those who have set the charismata aside, but only for a season. They have a desire to see the gifts practiced and functioning in their everyday life and church community, but based on their past charismatic experiences, they’re excercising an extreme caution. Unlike the Functional Cessationists, they aren’t content with this mode, and want to actively pursue the gifts. As it stands however, their past experience has left them asking a lot of questions and sorting out what’s been from God and what hasn’t. The detox period they’re in is one of sorting out a new understanding for the ongoing function of the charismata, which they fully intend to pursue as they figure things out a bit more. There may be various degrees of awareness of it, but they are feeling wounded from the excesses and abuses in their charismatic experiences and observations, and to some degree, for many, it may be best to excercise caution in their practice of the gifts until they are able to heal from their woundedness and begin to use the gifts again in a way that is untainted by their past experience

to a Classic Post-Charismatic:

Classic) Post-Charismatics are those who have rejected some of the forms of their charismatic backgrounds — the excesses. Having considered any excesses and abuses they have observed or experienced, they have also considered the positive impact of the charismata, and moved beyond it. They have a strong desire to pursue the practice of the gifts in their life and in the life of their community, and are seeking ways to integrate the regular practice of the gifts in ways that are void of the negative aspects and effects they’ve seen in the past. They have evaluated the good and the bad, and unlike the Former Charismatics, they have weighed the potential benefit and the potential pitfalls and found the benefits worth the “risks.” To some extent, they are still experimenting with how to integrate the gifts without being drawn into some of the excesses or errors which caused them to want to leave the charismatic movement, but fundamentally, they value and seek to practice the gifts. They’re attempting to get on with it, but haven’t completely finished asking and answering some of the questions they’ve posed for themselves.

and finally to live my life as a Realized Post-Charismatic:

Realized Post-Charismatics are those who have found ways of integrating the charismata into their life and practice, and are getting on with “doin’ the stuff,” as John Wimber used to call it. They have rejected the excesses and abuses that have characterized some of the charismatic movement they’ve known, but have been able to put all of it enough into the past so as not to be too bothered about it any longer. These are much like the (Classic) Post-Charismatics, but they’ve stopped asking quite so many questions, having reached a place of peace with answers that they have come up with so far. They are Post-Charismatic in the sense of having left the charismatic movement, but having integrated the good from the charismatic movement into their ongoing life of faith and practice.

Robby McAlpine describes it with a chrysalis metaphor.

I like the imagery of the chrysalis as a metaphor for the journey that post-charismatics find themselves on. In the cocoon stage, a caterpillar looks – in the outer expression – dead and withered. Yet a metamorphosis, a transformation, is taking place in a deep and hidden place.

And finally, the chrysalis stage ends as the transformed life emerges. And like the chrysalis, the exit from the post-charismatic cocoon is hard-fought; wholesale rejection of all things charismatic would be easier, yet there is something stirring in many post-charismatics that does not allow for this option. There is something that produces strength when the new expression of life is not easily attained, but is rather won through reflection, struggle and overcoming.

With bittersweetness, I wonder if this means I won’t stay content at our United Methodist Church or will I figure out a way to be post-charismatic within this community.

All of that is why I may come across as distracted and a bit skeptical when I hear about a great movement of the Lord. I may not deny that God is moving but I must say that God only moves with a purpose, with a plan. With great blessing,comes great responsibility. I would love to see community of people infused with the power of the Holy Spirit with a commitment to going out and meeting the needs of the world. I truly believe this would be the best of both worlds. Grace has a summary of some posts about what I think she coined as Charismissional: Spirit Led Missional Living.

“Traditional charismatic expression has little connection or relevance to the outside world. Our use of charismatic gifts has not compelled us to go to those to whom we are called. The deeper we went in our quest for the things of the Spirit, the further removed we became from knowing and relating to those who do not yet know Jesus.”

As always, my time is up this morning. I am off to wrap up 24 mini-loaves of pumpkin bread to take to my Sunday School Class. I am anxious to be there this morning and thank them for a special gift they gave me this week. It was a gift to meet a physical need but in the process they have met a much larger spiritual need. In that simple act, they have shown me more of God than any Holy Spirit movement I have witnessed.

~~ Grace and Peace ~~

Related Tags: post charismatic, charismissional

~ by Cynthia on April 20, 2008.