The Ways of Community and Spiritual Gifting.
It's time to start getting a few things right in the Charismatic.
Ever notice that one of the times Jesus arrived after He rose from the dead, He did so by a campfire? He had cooked food waiting for them as he invited them to the fire. It’s a warm picture, a friendly picture.
Have you ever sat around a campfire late into the night? Cold fingers wrapped around a cup for warmth and comfort, unwilling to go to bed because you never wanted the combined environment of friends, starlight, and firelight to end? “Just another cup from the pot over the fire,” you think. Wondering if staying up late into the night will be worth it all in the morning. Ignoring the voice of older wisdom, you embrace that child-like defiance you knew so long ago and stay up “just a little longer.”
The Body of Christ was never meant to be divided in any form. But unfortunately, the realities of all of us being raised in the church system have, at times, forced a necessary and hopefully temporary separation from each other for spiritual health. I’ve walked that road more than once, not knowing exactly why it should happen. But in some cases, after reconnecting years later, we had discovered we both had grown, and the distance created was for our benefit. On the other hand, I have held onto things too long and watched them crumble. So I have learned it’s better to walk away and wonder than hold on and make a blunder.
The fellowship that the Lord intended for us was to be ongoing, changing, and adapting to every need or environment. And at some point, when our life here on Earth is no more, it will be Eternal. Sadly, too many of us have settled for the hope of the Eternal while living with hell on Earth.
Disconnected from a daily interactive fellowship with the rest of the Body. We retreat from the world at the end of our workday to our apartment or house, hoping for a bit of silence, warmth, and maybe a pleasant conversation before the day’s end. In spiritual poverty, we repeat each day's actions over and over again until we gather in the ‘church’ with our best smiles. We listen to messages from a pastor who often feels alone in his efforts, secretly wishing that more of the congregation would get his ‘vision’.
The thoughts play out in our mind that everyone else’s life is most likely better than ours, not realizing that the common boat we all inhabit is leaking just as much as our lives.
Is this the abundant life Jesus said we could have?
Sad as it may sound, I’ve got over forty years into this. I’ve seen the smiling hollow eyes of husbands and wives playing the game as their children grow up to watch it all unfold. Secretly, those kids make hidden vows to themselves to have something better. And the percentage rate of kids growing up in the ‘church’ and following the ways of the Lord into adulthood continually drops to lower and lower levels.
Divisions come from both within and without, lurking around the corner, waiting for an invitation. Friends separate over issues, congregations split, and staunch “Bible-believing” congregations build doctrines to justify staying away from the “spirit-filled” for fear of being contaminated with the unpredictable, all the while whispering that it’s actually demonic.
Where is the fire? Remember the fire, the zeal, the passion to do the things of wonder we all secretly hoped we could do? Have the embers of Pentecost grown cold?
“...I have come to a settled persuasion is at home in you also; for which cause I am reminding you to keep constantly blazing the gift of God which is in you through the imposition of my hands, for God did not give us a spirit of fearfulness but of power and of a divine and self-sacrificial love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:6 WET). When we read Paul's words to Timothy, we often read this with the orphan's eyes... alone.
Because that is how we have been trained to think. However, we were never meant to be alone. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to us after He died and rose again to be our helper and guide. Not only that, He intended us to be in community with the rest of the body. Friends remind each other, and friends challenge each other. We cry, we celebrate, we give each other the ‘look’ when we do something dumb, and our noses and eyes run when we laugh too hard.
Many people feel that they must “spiritualize” everything to the point that a shiny pop can by the side of the road reflecting sunlight is seen as a “sign” from God. Not really, what you have is misplaced hope manifesting into anything your desperate heart can find. In such actions, if unchecked, can become inroads for omens and other witchcraft-like things. Similar to what we now see in some modern Charismatic Christian circles.
The Charismatic was meant to be a campfire to warm the people of God and cook the food. But what happens when unsupervised children play with fire? They burn the house down. What we have today is the mature fruit of the 1980s Charismatic. Without true Spiritual Elders, the children grew up, made a mess of the house, and now it’s burning.
Community is part of the grounding system the Body needs now. No, I am not speaking about the traditional concepts of Community we were taught. I am speaking about a rediscovery of something far deeper. An atmosphere where things are encouraged and allowed to blossom, not an atmosphere of submitting new ideas for approval before moving forward. Let me give you some charismatic examples.
The Wrong Way.
Many years ago, I was a part of a brand-new Vineyard church plant. We started in a living room and grew into a rented facility. Unfortunately, the Pastor seemed to have some control issues. And I am sure that my young self did not make things easy on him because I already knew more about the history of the Vineyard than he did. Also, there was another issue, Spiritual Gifts.
He had a policy that he said was from the Vineyard. Yes, it was, but he added his own personal twist to it. The policy is that they want to get to know you for a year before you are allowed to prophecy. What he added was that EVERY single prophetic word must go through him for his approval before you are allowed to speak. I was their three years, words came from me and other people, none that I know of ever saw the light of day.
The Better Way
My former employer, Morningstar Ministries. Although this ministry (as you can tell from my previous posts) has many issues, and I do not agree with certain policies they had concerning the prophetic. They created a good atmosphere on the ground level for the exercise of spiritual gifting. Things were very open and fluid, and it did not take long for timid people to feel safe in trying to do something spiritual.
Many days, I was there more than five days a week, and it was extremely common to see groups ministering to each other. In fact, it seemed really odd if it was not happening.
The Best Way (hopefully)
If you can create an atmosphere where Christians are interacting with each other on a very regular basis, not just once a week. But perhaps 3 or 4 times for reasons other than some study. And you also allow and encourage the exercise of gifting, making it common, that would be a great start. However, in an effort to avoid the pitfalls of what happened with my former employer, I would suggest a modification of the Vineyard policy.
Accountability structures - The Elders.
People who are new, either to the congregation or to the gifting, should be monitored quietly by the elders. They should not be prevented or even the hint of being prevented from operating in gifting, because it's hard to judge something that is not happening. During this time, the elders should be meeting to discuss the people and what they are seeing. This way, they can make course corrections in a person's life with wisdom. After all, should we not all grow up into the things of the Lord?
After a year of intense observation, the elders should call the person in and talk/minister/correct, and or bless what they are seeing. If the elders deem what they are seeing to be of the Lord and growing, then the person should know this.
A secondary function of a good, growing atmosphere also lies on the shoulders of the Elders. Senior-level leaders can kill a lot of Godly things in the name of doing good things. Elders need to be the buffer between those two groups, and at times rebuke senior leaders. This is something that should have been done with Rick, as he should be given a PHD in gaslighting congregations.
In reality, I think we have been getting it all wrong. The Body of Jesus was meant to be a spiritual reality on Earth, expressed through the love of the Community. We want to create and control, and that is bringing devastation to our families as they try to live in an artificial religious bubble. The Body was meant to fly and be a blessing to the world with the news of Jesus. This is the adventure we have been distracted from going after. So instead of creating and controlling, how about we just provide hospitality to people and God, and we wait to see what happens between them.
Morningstar Update.
It looks like in Rick’s desperation to keep the ship afloat, he “may be” making a move to start the process of bringing Mike Bickel to minister at Morningstar. I have it on good authority that he has tried to bring Bentley and Reed back, but he was stopped from doing so.
If all this is true, this may be his third chess move. If you want to know what I am referring to, I suggest these two previous posts.
And
Reading this makes me so sad. I did have some of this beginning in 1997 and even after Mike started going to church, because I was still connected to some of the people from my old church, and the church was large enough that there was a variety of people with various giftings who were able to fly under the radar of some of the “official rules.” I was very new and hadn’t yet learned to discriminate and I wanted it ALL! Which could have been not so good. God has a way of reining me in through Mike, he is a protection for me in many ways, but can be restrictive, too. Of course, our present church is restrictive as well; the pastor grew up in an Assemblies of God church, but he doesn’t support the visible spiritual gifts. Which makes it comfortable for Mike. All this to say that I am glad to be in this group.