The Living God Who Still Acts

Frédéric Schopin (1804–1880)

Bristol Museum & Art Gallery

Image credit: Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives

This is the third and final blog post in a mini-series focused on three things that I love about the contemporary charismatic movement in terms of its theology and practice. When I was growing up in Scotland, from ages 0-10 I attended the Church of Scotland with my family. But when I was about 11 my family and I moved to a Pentecostal Church hear the harbour in Aberdeen where we lived. I remember very clearly one of my first Sundays at this new church, again I was only about 11 years old and really didn’t know what to expect. It must have been only our second or third Sunday there and during the sung worship something a tad unexpected happened. The only experience I had ever had of sung worship was in the Church of Scotland context where my mum usually played the piano leading a congregation of mostly elderly people in hymns. But on this third Sunday at Aberdeen Elim Pentecostal Church during the worship there were shouts, shrieks, and I even remember being hit on the back of the head by a stray flag at one point! Wee 11-year-old David wasn’t quite sure what to do with this, but there was a sense that it was not quite as easy to hide at the back of this church without engaging as it has been in our old Church of Scotland. The people were more engaged, and something was happening to them while they worshipped, seemingly something quite impactful. This was my very first introduction to the world of charismatic/Pentecostal churches, and it made quite the impression!

This quaint little story from my childhood is of course not meant to denigrate the Church of Scotland in any way. In fact, I have huge respect for Norrie McIver who was the minister for something like four decades at New Hills Church of Scotland where we attended and was a stalwart of sound and biblical teaching in an increasingly theologically liberal Kirk. But young 11-year-old David did rightly perceive a shift in emphasis between these two streams of the Christian Church. Generally speaking, charismatic/Pentecostal churches place a significant emphasis on the immanence of God and the fact that he is still the Living God Who Acts just as powerfully now as he did in the book of Acts. And this is the final thing that I want to highlight that I love about contemporary charismatic theology and practice: we are not dealing with a God who is content to have done remarkable things thousands of years ago but is relatively uninvolved now. When you walk into a charismatic worship service there is a general consensus among many that we might not walk out the same way we came in. God is actively present by his Spirit and is seeking to transform our lives in powerful ways. Even if you want to just slip in, attend, and slip out early, the Spirit might have something else in mind and your life may be turned upside down on any given night.

This certainly doesn’t mean that we don’t continue to live faithfully in the small, mundane details of everyday life. But it does mean that we know, to use a biblical turn of phrase, God's arm is not too short - he is still the same God who raised the dead, walked on water, cast out demons, set people free, spoke truth to oppressive power, and healed the unhealable. Jesus as a figure has a unique way of demanding something from everyone who encounters him, whether in the words of Scripture or through attending a church service, or having coffee with a believer. It is not easy to stay on the fence about Jesus, he forces your hand one way or the other. Are you going to take him and his claims about himself seriously, or are you not? This sense of urgency and encounter and demand is I think much more pronounced in charismatic churches than some other traditions because again you are not dealing with just the pastor’s sermon or the lyrics of the songs or the prayers of the leaders, you are brought face to face with a holy, powerful and still-active God who you cannot control, read, or restrain. In the famous words of C. S. Lewis, “He [Jesus] is not a tame lion”. There is a strong sense of unpredictability, even danger about the work of the Spirit in charismatic contexts - He is going to do what He wants to do, whether you are ready for it or not. And this way of worshipping and gathering as God's people tends to attract people who are particularly hungry for God, people who have had enough of life as it always has been and want something more, they want Him in all his fullness, and they are going to make sure they get it - “I will not let you go unless you bless me” (Gen. 32:26 NIV).

My vision in this blog overall is to combine this kind of openness and hunger for the powerful, transformative work of the Spirit with solid, deep, sound and responsible theology, biblical studies and reflection on the traditional teachings of the Church. We need Word and Spirit together, not just one or the other! Thanks for reading, please feel free to let me know what you think in the comments here or on social media or via email.