Expectations and Realities: Visiting a "Charismatic" Church

BEFORE

I was given the assignment this week of visiting a church I've never attended before. I've always grown up in a Christ and Bible focused church. There was little talk about the judgement and expectations of the Father and little talk about the movement of the Holy Spirit. Most of what was taught was focused on what Christ had done for us and how the bible teaches us to live in response to that. Now we were supposed to visit a new church and write a response by tonight, but I was unable to attend any service due to the fact I was away all weekend. Therefore, rather than doing nothing, I figured I would write down my expectations now and then respond with the reality of the experience afterwards. I'm going to be attending what is considered a "charismatic" church. A church that is heavily focused on the Holy Spirit and it's movement. My hopes are high! I'm not sure how radical this church will be, but I'm hoping for a church that is closer to an extreme radicalism than a moderate one. I'm hoping someone will be waving a flag with a cross on it. I'm hoping there will be some demonstration that asks the Holy Spirit to do something controversial like "slaying" someone in the spirit, or something really radical like a divine on the spot healing. I'm hoping to be pushed out of my comfort zone and to not regret it. At a minimum I want it to be different. My fear (fearing simple disappointment from a lack of radicalism) is that I won't find it very different from my own church experience. I have very high expectations and I hope the experience at least mildly touches on them. I suppose I should explain why I hope for such radicalism. To be perfectly candid, I want these things to happen for my own joy and amusement and to provide a case study. I would love to watch these radical events happen and joke about them with a friend, discussing whether we think it is genuine or forced. Why? Because that is simply who I am and an avenue I find amusement in. However, in a more politically correct answer, I would also like to use the service as a case study to better understand more charismatic churches. Obviously it won't be enough to even begin discussing the individual church, let alone the denomination, or the category of church, but it is a start. I am mostly looking for an experience to wet my pallet and begin my understand, this is why I am so excited to visit the church.

AFTER

In retrospect much of my before section was written with an air of arrogance and superiority. It wasn't intentional but it's there and I'll own it. I certainly am a product of my upbringing and tend to view the way I've done things, while not perfect, as about as close as one can get. This was an experience to challenge my perception on what church should look like as well as possibly embracing practices of other followers of Christ. The whole time the words of my mentor echoed through my head. "Let's just be for people." A phrase he often mentions when talking about how caught up we get in minor differences. The phrase echoes the idea of unity and love amongst believers so oft talked about and yet so rarely seen. I went into this ready to accept what I saw, but also allowing myself to think about and challenge it. To ponder what they did well or better than my own church, but then allow myself to question what I enjoyed more in my own church. My experience actually started a bit earlier than Sunday morning service. Over the last two years a group of older twenty year olds had been working together to organize city wide worship services every other month. On Friday night I headed over to one of these with some friends. The worship was loud, passionate and enveloping as a group of around two-hundred college students from tens of different churches around the city met together to praise our uniting God. About half way through the worship a noise came out of the crowd, it was a long slew of unintelligible words. To be perfectly honest it sounds like an Arabian woman attempting to yodel (I mean no disrespect by this statement, it simply is what it sounded like). This proceeded for a good 3 to 5 minutes. At first I was simply taken off guard and thought, "She's speaking in tongues...huh...cool?" As it continued I asked God, "Are you in this? Is this genuine?" I didn't hear any clear answer, but I did ask "Is is edifying the body of believers?" I didn't think so. It was loud, some people were giggling and it lasted through the middle of a song transition. From that point on I felt far more disconnected from the worship and had to spend a great deal more time praying that God would make me receptive to His presence and worshiping him. The following Sunday I went to a local charismatic church. I had heard that this one was considered the most charismatic in the city and therefore it was the one I chose to attend. For brevities sake I won't comment on every thought about everything I experienced there, instead I'll simply point out what I've saw. I walked in and was greeted and left alone to wonder into a large sanctuary. I saw some free snacks and grabbed those. There was a clutter of musical equipment on the stage and the podium was on a small rise just in front of the stage. It smelled bad, like smoke and sweat, and I couldn't help thinking that it was a good sign, it meant they were hopefully reaching people that needed it. Worship began and freedom in worship was expressed. Some sat, some stood, some danced in the corners. A woman waved flags in the back, occasionally waving them around someone while praying for them. A couple people laid hands on others and prayed for healing. The band played a variety of songs whose topics leaned towards longing for and defining the characteristics of God. Their announcements were a video made by two high school students and while juvenile in nature, were certainly memorable. Two people came to an speaker during worship with "words" of encouragement for the congregation. The pastor spoke a message that was long, somewhat unorganized, and heavily practically based. The pastor used scripture as examples but not as strong foundations for the points he was making. The congregations would say things like, "Good one pastor." and "mhmm yes thats true." and in the bathroom someone informed me that on a particularly good sermon every once in a couple of years someone would throw a shoe at the pastor, because it was so good. We were asked to lay hands on our neighbors and pray for them at two different points and the service ended up being about an hour and forty-five minutes. 

The service was a good experience. I was never tempted to laugh at the people dancing or waving flags, (though one older lady was getting fairly hips-y with her moves) it just seemed as though they were genuinely just trying to express a worship of God. Though I questioned the distracting nature of the worship and whether it was edifying, I never felt it was a bad thing. I noticed the sermon was far more based on experience of the pastor than on scripture, it was a clearer distinction between preaching and teaching than I'd seen in most churches. He was a preacher, guiding his flock the best he knew how, not a teacher explaining every detail of a specific passage. They spoke a great deal about the Spirit, the presence of supernatural powers, and combating those in Christ's name, but not giving them more credit or power than they deserved. Finally, it felt far more intimate of a church than I had been in in a long time. It was about the same size as the church I grew up in and so the size seemed fitting and I understood the little dynamics like the pastor allowing someone he knows and trusts to raise a hand and ask a question about an announcement. It was a good place, and while it would take some getting used to, I would be perfectly at home attending there, based on my one experience. There was no doubt of the intimacy and realness of their relationships with Christ and I believe they are doing as they feel best to make him known in their community. In conclusion, the events I saw over the last week fit everything I had hoped for. I was curious what my response would be to these events and I'm not to surprised. Years of thinking about things like tongues, dancing in worship, flag waving ect. allowed me to not be thrown into confusion by their occurrence but understand their place and allow me to reflect on their effect on the atmosphere of the church. I never felt a need to laugh at what was different because I understood it's place in grande scheme and the heart of the people doing it. I most likely would never intentionally implement any of the things I saw this weekend into a church I was pastoring, but I also don't think I would try to stop them if they were happening. People were worshiping God in a tangible way, sometimes it was distracting, but so is standing next to a church choir member who feels the need to belt out every line of every song, and we don't kick them out. So in short, Christ is bigger than our little church differences. The charismatic churches know how to better get in touch with an emotional aspect of our faith, but they also need solid scripture based churches to make sure that their oft experienced based opinions line up with what the scripture truly teaches. This is unity in the gospel and a demonstration of the fact that there is only one Church.