Where is the Charismatic Movement Headed?

Photo by Artem Balashevsky: https://www.pexels.com/photo/two-lane-road-in-the-vicinity-of-bogushevsk-in-the-morning-at-dawn-20381776/

I don't claim to know the answer to this question. I don't exercise enough leadership in the charismatic movement nor do I have enough of a grasp of the state of it beyond North America to be able to answer this question knowledgeably. I do, however, think I know two things with relative confidence: 1. Now is a time of massive change in the North American charismatic movement and in North American evangelicalism; a crossroads moment, if you will. 2. The direction in which the charismatic movement goes in North America is very important, because 'Pentecostal/charismatic' is the expression of Christianity that is growing exponentially around the world at this moment in church history, and North America continues to exercise a huge influence in world Christianity, for better or for worse. This is, after all, the continent from which Pentecostal/charismatic Christianity initially spread around the world.

Although I do not know the answer to the question in the title of this blog post, I do have a personal opinion on some things I would like to see high on the priority list of charismatic churches in the future. Please feel free to let me know your thoughts on this in the comments here on the blog or on social media. I welcome open and respectful dialogue! A very important caveat for what follows is that it is certainly not only or especially the charismatic movement that has these challenges and problems, they are present across the whole Church. I am focusing on the charismatic movement in North America simply because this is the part of the church of which I myself am a part and am therefore most personally invested in. These are not by any means charismatic-only problems!

1. Listening to victims of sexual and spiritual abuse in the church, rather than silencing them with erroneous interpretations of Matthew 18:15-20.

Anyone invested in the health of the Church in North American over the last decade or so has surely noticed an ever more common theme: pastors and leaders being exposed for ungodly, oftentimes abusive, behaviour. Is it even necessary to rehash the every-growing list at this point? Bill Hybels, Bruxy Cavey, Ravi Zacharias, Carl Lentz, Brian Houston, Mike Bickle. It is clear at this point that North American Christianity (and Christianity in other places around the world also) has had an unhealthy leadership paradigm. We have consistently prioritized visible and worldly measures of ministry 'success' (such as numbers, big budgets and big buildings) over the Christlikeness of our leaders and the wellbeing of the sheep they have been entrusted to care for. Ungodly and/or abusive behaviour has become so widespread and common now that it seems, to my eye at least, that God may be the one calling time on all this abuse in his church and calling us to do better on a macro scale. I am going to be writing my PhD dissertation with the goal of mining John Calvin and Paul's letters for theological and spiritual resources for the Church as we seek to address this problem of seemingly rampant religious moral hypocrisy. This problem is harming so many so deeply and is seriously damaging the credibility of the witness of the Christian Church in our time.

How should we respond to all this? We need to reckon with it. The first thing we need to do, in my opinion, is to actually listen to potential victims of abuse when they come forward. This is an extremely pressing and current issue in the charismatic movement in North America right now: Consider the IHOPKC scandal and the ongoing reports of spiritual abuse by Alan Scott at Dwelling Place Anaheim. Many well-known charismatic leaders, whom I respected and looked up to for many years, are refusing to listen to these kinds of reports, oftentimes with recourse to very poor interpretations of the classic church discipline text in Matthew 18:15-20. Jesus was not referring to issues of abuse in this text and never expects that a victim of abuse must approach their abuser one on one and thus expose themselves to a torrent of retaliatory activity before anyone else even knows what has happened. I do of course believe that all reports of abuse must be investigated before any leader is declared guilty. But we must have policies, systems and processes in place before these things happen, whereby potential abuse victims can feel heard and protected and accusations can be thoroughly examined by a neutral third party.

2. Searching our hearts: Does the charismatic movement in North America have a politics problem and/or a money problem?

Other problems in the North American charismatic movement which are also prompting many Christians of my generation to deconstruct are the relationships between the charismatic movement and politics and the charismatic movement and money. I don't think that this blog is the place for me to advocate one political view over against another, as I have readers from both perspectives, all of whom I value and care about. I merely want to point out here that many esteemed evangelical leaders and thinkers are pointing out that North American Christianity, especially but not only south of the border, has an unhealthy obsession with gaining political ascendency. For example, Roger Olson, the American Baptist theologian, has written about how he thinks American evangelicalism, of which he is a part, is being derailed by its inordinate desire to gain and wield political power. To be clear: I am not saying that we all need to become left wing to stop younger generations from deconstructing, even though younger evangelicals do tend to be more progressive. What I am advocating is a return to the path first trod by our Saviour himself: he refused to seek political power or to use violence to this or any other end. This does not mean that we cannot or should not be involved in the political processes of our respective countries, we are very blessed to have the right to do so in the first place! But it does mean that having the 'correct' political opinions and doing whatever it takes to have them enacted is NOT a central tenet of our faith. Consider this spine-tingling text from Matthew's passion narrative, which comes immediately before Jesus is executed by an oppressive political system i.e. the Roman Empire:

Matthew 26:47-56 (NRSV): 'While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; with him was a large crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him.” At once he came up to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him. Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you are here to do.” Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him. Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way?” At that hour Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I were a bandit? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not arrest me. But all this has taken place, so that the scriptures of the prophets may be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.'

The second problem I have mentioned above is a potential money problem. I have posted often on this blog in the past on the topic of the health and wealth gospel, which I argue is not only unbiblical, but heretical and harmful. My question, that I am inviting all of us charismatics to prayerfully ponder in our hearts, is how deep does this problem run in the charismatic movement in North America? I am by no means claiming that most pastors and leaders in the charismatic movement have this problem. There are quite literally hundreds of thousands of charismatic pastors and lay people serving with no love of money whatsoever and a profound servant heartedness. That said, when I look at some of the 'big name' charismatic ministries and leaders, I continue to be struck by the prominence of messages around prosperity, success and wealth and by the kinds of opulent lifestyles being lived.

3. Drawing from our past, rather than living in it.

As the charismatic movement in North America seeks to 'pass the baton' to a younger generation of leaders, I have sensed a tension. Not a relational tension between people, but a temporal tension. Let me explain what I mean. As I have written about in other places on this blog, the charismatic movement has been birthed out of large scale moves of God that had an unimaginable impact e.g. the early revivalist dynamics at the Anaheim Vineyard, the Toronto Blessing, the various waves of revival out of Bethel Church in Redding, and so on. I think a pressing question for charismatics now is 'How do we navigate the connection between our past, what God has done in these amazing moves of the Spirit, and our future, what he is doing now and will do in the future?' I have found that there are a variety of implicitly held but not often explicitly expressed opinions on this question. One is that our primary task is to pray and wait for the next big revival. I think that there is some merit to this, in that what God has done he will likely do again. Although I have experienced much personal hurt in the context of revivalist charismatic Christianity, I still personally long to be touched by the Spirit in life-changing ways. That said, I think that this by itself is a bit of a static and one-dimensional approach. Another common approach is a consistent remembering and perhaps romanticizing of the past, the 'glory days' when God moved in remarkable ways and thousands of lives were irrevocably changed by the power of God. I think this approach has some merit too; we absolutely need to remember what God has done in the past and continue to live in those blessings and realities and to pass them on to future generations. It is not hard to see how much emphasis is placed on this in the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament). We are called to remember what God has done then so as to be faithful now and tomorrow.

I personally want to integrate elements of both of these above approaches with elements of a third approach: although I am immensely grateful for revivalist moves of God, the gifts of the Spirit, experiencing God's presence, and all of the distinctive charismatic emphases, I am constantly being reminded by my engagement with the scriptures, with Christian tradition and with Christian brothers and sisters from other branches of the Church that these things do not constitute the sum-total of the Christian life. Do I want to see more huge moves of God's Spirit? Certainly. Do I want to move in the gifts of the Spirit, see and do what the Father is doing, pray for miracles, live "naturally supernatural" (as per Gary Best), absolutely! But I also think that it is time for the charismatic movement to broaden its influences, thinking and practices; this isn't all there is to Christianity! As we charismatics are oftentimes fond of saying in Holy-Spirit-related contexts 'There is more!'. There are also the riches of the tradition cherished by our Catholic brothers and sisters, the intellectual depth exemplified by our Anglican friends, the joyfulness and power of African Christianity, the justice-related insights of underrepresented groups, the connectedness to and honouring of the Creator and creation characteristic of Indigenous Christians, and on and on it goes.

If you are still reading, thanks for sticking it out to the end! I realize that some of the things I have said above are relatively bold. Please be assured, my goal is never to offend or cause strife or anxiety. Essentially, I just care very deeply about the Church generally, the charismatic movement specifically, and all of the people who are trying to find their spiritual home in these places. I am almost certainly wrong on some of the opinions I have expressed above. After all, the only thing we can all be sure of all the time is that none of us ever has a monopoly on truth. Otherwise, we wouldn't need to rely on or remain open to God or one another. In this spirit, I therefore want to welcome other people's perspectives in the comments here on the blog and on socials, or to me via email, if you like. But let's please remain respectful at all times, remembering Paul's words in Romans 14:13 (NRSV) 'Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another' and 15:2-3 (NRSV) 'Each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor. For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is written, “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”'