My Struggles with my Charismatic-icism

First of all, I have no idea if ‘charismatic-icsm’ works as a word, but I’m going to give it a try.  I love the fact that I’ve grown up in a charismatic church.  I am so grateful for our recently retired Senior Pastor Tom Goetz who not only left me his entire pastoral library (thousands of dollars worth of books), but who in his 15 years of service faithfully preached the Bible and did not allow us to get off track as many charismatic churches are wont to do.  At our church I’ve seen God do some absolutely amazing ‘charismatic’ (biblical things that do still happen today) things.  I’ll never forget the evening service we had where we watched a man’s leg grow.   I mean literally watched a man’s leg grow, a man that I knew back then and still know today.

Now, there are times in my ‘Charismatic-icism’ that I struggle a bit, specifically when words like ‘Revival’ and ‘Outpouring’ and ‘Renewal’ start being mentioned.   How I desire that God would pour out his Spirit upon his bride, but it seems that often times these special outpourings seem more ‘man-glorifying’ or ‘gift-glorifying’ than God-glorifying.  This has been the case with the recent Lakeland Outpouring.  There are some people that I know that wholeheartedly support Todd Bentley, and others that are quick to call him a false prophet.  Honestly, from what I’ve seen, I’d say that this latest outpouring is less about the glorification of Christ and more about glorifying what he wants to give us….and that is scary. 

I’ve been waiting for John Piper to weigh in on the issue, and I wasn’t disappointed when he finally did with this article (The Charisma article he references can be found here).  As always, I appreciate his perspective.  It is easy for to jump into the judgment seat and hammer Todd Bentley, but I need to remind myself that I need to be praying for him and his family, especially in this difficult time.  Yes, I  disagree with a lot of his doctrine as well as his methods, but I pray that Christ would be glorified in his life and ministry, whatever it ends up to be.  I am also freshly humbled and pray that Christ would protect me and my family, and that in my ministry, I would never elevate the gifts above the Giver.

Anyone who thinks sermon preparation is easy….

has only ever preached sermons they’ve ‘borrowed’ from someone else.  Sermon prep is hard work….as well it should be.  It is not something to be taken lightly, but should be undertaken with great fear and trembling.  At this point, I’m trembling…