APOLARITY

I’m currently in the process of reading the Post-Charismatic project over at Robbymac’s site. It is an extensive resource, but I am considering it invaluable in forming a useful dialogue between charismatics, ex-charismatics, the emerging church, and those unfamiliar with the history and praxis of the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement. Of course, many of those categories overlap.

Robbymac provides a well-researched historical overview and critique of the various movements that have come up within the Charismatic movement, especially spending time on the Shepherding, Latter Rain, and Word Faith/Prosperity movements; he identifies these in particular as having a lot of impact on today’s church, and the roots of the reason for people turning away from Charismaticism.

It is important to note that he does not mean Post-Charismatic as non-Charismatic; he offers a critique of the movement with analysis for our times. There is a lot of Charismatic expression that is beneficial to the church at large, and we are missing out if we give up on it altogether.

I recently came to terms with this myself – last weekend I got to see David Ruis in a “worship concert.” It was my first experience in quite a while with high-voltage Charismatic worship. Honestly, it felt like a breath of fresh air. I realized that there is something I have been missing of worship through music that is so expressive, in which the presence of God can be felt in some strange, tangible way.

Anyway, go check out the Post-Charismatic project.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 18th, 2006 at 11:58 am and is filed under religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.