“For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:5)
Here’s a touchy topic for most U.S. Baptists: If what is happening in New Zealand Baptist life is a clue to what might be coming next here (and I think it is), then Baptists in the Mid-Atlantic can expect a cozier relationship with the charismatic stream of Christianity in the future.
John Chandler
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Honestly, my initial reaction to this is to break out in a rash. I have seen my fair share of pathological charismatic spirituality. The church where I served for 11 years was badly damaged by a charismatic split—as were scores of churches in the U.S. after the “Jesus People” movement of the 1960s. I’ve heard plenty of flat-out wrongheaded, quasi-biblical teaching about the requirement to speak in tongues. And I’ve dealt with more than a few “new gnostics” who claim special revelation and insight from God not available to anyone else. Some told me that God wanted me to do something. I usually responded that once God told me, then I’d do it.
But there’s a new hybrid of Baptist-charismatic expression in New Zealand that I found solidly biblical and completely refreshing. It weeds out the wacko charismatic theology and practices I find so distasteful and harmful, and instead replaces them with a non-showy expressiveness in worship and openness to the movement of the Holy Spirit in all of congregational life.
Craig Vernall, pastor of one of the largest Kiwi churches and incoming national leader for New Zealand Baptists, says that the key to the blend is “tying spirituality with pragmatism.” Kiwis are, by nature and culture, modest and practical people. This tamps down some of the more strange public expressions of being filled with the Spirit, while opening up the church to the idea that the Holy Spirit can be immediately and transformationally present in our lives and worship.
What does this look like there? More expressive worship, an intentional openness to the Holy Spirit to speak and an emphasis on healing, for starters.
What does it look like in here? Now, there’s a “local church issue” if I ever saw one! But I’m eager to see some clues—and already do.
Trending is written by John Chandler, leader of the Spence Network, www.spencenetwork.org./equip.htm.