Intrepid 3: The sad Charismatic
October 4th 2007 04:47
Sad at so many friends leaving
Big Cat's third go at finding the Spirit came after Scientology did its engram-seeking thing, only to find all the confessing apparently didn't impress the Holy Spirit, who he still couldn't find.
The Charismatic Christian movement* interested me because of its impressive growth in members attracted away from mainstream Christian denominations over the very thing that concerned me - finding the Holy Spirit.
The Charismatic church I checked out one Sunday in 1992 was carrying out an induction of about 100 defectors mostly from the Baptist Church. I went along and enrolled in not just one but two of the 14 weekday meetings set up for the men in this new influx. I wanted to learn quickly.
The influx roughly trebled the congregation to almost 400. But unfortunately for me and the other new members, it failed in our hope of seeing the Spirit.
The first sign that the Charismatic influx wasn't going to stick around came when attendance almost immediately fell off at the men's meetings. Within a few months the 14 weekday meetings were down to four.
Why? Because most of the men couldn't get excited about reading the Bible as much as the meetings required. They found it a very hard book to read and were impatient about seeing the Holy Spirit show up.
To the majority, men and women alike, the Spirit simply didn't show up. By about a year later half of the Charismatic newcomers were gone.
Many of the Charismatic influx defected to the local big Pentecostal church that has the same attraction for Christians as Sydney's famous Hillsong further west. (Both are mega churches in the mainstream of church growth today.)
I stuck at being a member of the Charismatic church but the departure of all my new friends made at the mens meetings made me very sad.
However, imagine my joy when overseas preachers began coming to the church in the third year, telling about a phenomenon in North America where the Holy Spirit was "indeed showing up". But that's another story worthy of another in the Intrepid series sometime later.
Helpful links:
A typical Charismatic church mission statement, including "we fully expect the Holy Spirit to equip and empower us."
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