My Reformed Charismatic Journey Part 2

Here is the second part in my series on how I became a “reformed charismatic” (read the first part here). It really seems to be personal story telling time in the blogging world at the moment. Today’s installment covers from when I was about 12 to 18. I am particularly conscious as I write this that many of my friends look back on this time with mixed opinions and the internet is not the place for a full discussion of all the issues, so I will simply give the basic details and how I felt about it at the time.

Drifting Away

After Ern Baxter died, the church I attended slowly but surely became less and less charismatic. More hymns were sung and fewer choruses. The charismatic gifts were seen less and less. We no longer attended Bible weeks. This was largely due to the pastor’s growing concerns about the direction that the charismatic movement was headed in. It lacked commitment to Scripture, had antinomian tendencies, left false prophecy unchallenged and there were even a number of tragic cases of gross immorality amongst leaders. “Open to the Spirit” increasingly meant “open to anything whatsoever”.

By 1994, my church had lost any resemblance whatsoever to a charismatic church, and with the onset of the “Toronto Blessing” began to actively criticise the movement. Dr. Jebb had earlier written a booklet defending a basically Pentecostal doctrine of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, which in his typical style was argued with hundreds of biblical references. He now wrote a second booklet arguing against his position in the first. It was in a difficult time for the church, with many people leaving, including the families of quite a few of my friends. Many though were persuaded that the charismatic movement had gone off the rails and we were best staying out of it. Others stayed simply out of love and loyalty to their spiritual family and home, not knowing quite what to make of the change in direction.

The big problem, we were told, was that the charismatics are after “experience” which is subjective, not objective. We should be content with the objective Word of God and remember that worship is not about enjoying yourself but honouring God. It seemed to make sense to me at the time, but it was not until a few years later, when I started reading John Piper, that the whole idea of honouring God by enduring boring worship was blown away (not of course that it was put quite like that, but that was the general impression I got).

I was now on the verge of starting university, and was encouraged to read books such as “Charismatic Chaos” by John MacArthur and “Christianity in Crisis” by Hank Hanegraaf. These confirmed to me that the charismatic movement was irretrievably lost in a mess of muddled thinking, and that I would do well to avoid it. I was also beginning to read more of the Puritans and Reformers who had a cessationist stance whenever they touched on these issues.

About this time I started going on yearly missions with UBM, where I found many evangelicals with a love for the Word and a heart for evangelism, but I quickly discovered that charismatics were viewed with extreme disapproval. So at this stage in my life all the people I looked up to in the faith were noncharismatic in practise and teaching, and I was regularly hearing anti-charismatic anecdotes which bolstered a growing prejudice against them.

Despite all this going on, these were years of significant spiritual growth for me. I was baptised, and got about as fully involved in church life as I possibly could. I loved the youth groups especially, and the atmosphere of controversy over the charismatic movement and particularly contemporary Christian worship music (which was viewed with extreme disapproval) did at least serve to get me thinking and studying the Bible for myself.

So I was in a fairly settled position. I believed that the charismatic gifts were still valid for today, but that most churches who tried to use them were seriously deficient in other areas. In fact, I do not ever remember hearing a cessationist argument in church, except for one sermon on why there were no longer apostles today. I had been warned of the excesses of charismatic practise, but had not rejected charismatic theology. Perhaps I would have left it at that, content with a noncharismatic evangelicalism, but there were still issues for me to think through, and some of these came to the forefront while I was at university (which will be the subject of part 3).

Mark Heath 3 September 2005

Hi Chris,.Sorry I've taken a while to reply. I'm afraid I don't know your area, but you could check out the Sovereign Grace and New Frontiers sites if you're still looking for reformed charismatic churches.

Chris Hoops 13 July 2005

Your story sound much like mine. I left the Charismatic church in 1982 after 5 yeras of reading puritan and Reconstruction authors. Though raised a Calvinistic Charismatic, post (A) mill Christian, I say the Charismatic church taking a nose dive in pentacostal (TBN) style weardness. Name it and claimit, Benny Hinn craisy stuff, so with drew totally putting up with my reformed friends bad mouthing Contemporing Christian Worship (CCW), the gifts, and so on. now for the last 10 yeras I have been looking for reforemed charismatic near me and have found none. Do youknow of any in the Sacramento, CA area? By tyhe way, in the late 1960's and early 1970's Earn Baxter often came to our church to preach, I grew up in Leonard Fox's church Christian Center Church, in Colton ,CA. for the last 30 yeras ministering in and out of reformed churcjes, CCW churches and was used of God to found three churces, 2 in NE Washington state, a charismatic and one OPC Preabyterian.

Jackie Mair 8 September 2005

Mark.Where is your Reformed Charismatic Journey Parts 1 and 3? I enjoyed the 2nd one :-)..THanks

Judy Thurstan 22 June 2006

Your story sounds like my husband and mine..We so desperately need a church in the San Bernardino, CA. area..I won't go into details, but if you know of a church near us that is reformed in teaching, but charismatic please let us know..Thank you,.Judy Thurstan

Zoe 15 January 2007

I would strongly suggest anyone looking for a reformed charismatic church check out www.sovereigngraceministries.org - they are an excellent, balanced, Biblical organization of churches..if there isn't a church in your area, ask about starting one through them. CJ Mahaney heads it up, located in Maryland. There is a church in San Diego that I know of but you can do a search on their site. There are also churchesin the process of being adopted in, which takes several years to do.

The Neills 30 April 2013

We too attended West St., Baptist Church, away back in the 70's when the Charismatic movement was in full flow. The Dale's Bible week was a blessing, and we learned a great deal how the Holy Spirit could impact our lives..However, it was not an easy time as we were influenced by Mr. Jebb's teaching on this subject, and the need to be baptised in the Spririt, in order, to .fit in. to the church's culture at the time. It was a case, of following the man, and not listening to the Lord - so we could go on. We know of many people who were hurting, and probably still are. We eventually left the church and attended an Anglican church on the Dunstable/Luton borders - one that followed the gifts of the Spirit, and was certainly not legalistic in any form. The moral, I guess, is always listen to what the Lord is saying, and line everything up with the WORD.