Clash of the Charismaniacs: Part 2

When I was a kid I remember a dynamic young preacher who caught the eye of several pastors in our denominational circle of churches. For a stretch of about 2 years this guy was everywhere; youth camps, revivals, conferences, etc. You couldn't find a church in the Houston area that didn't know who this guy was and who didn't have anything but high praise for his preaching skills and teaching talents. Everybody seemed to love him equally. The older preachers seemed to look to this young man as the leader of the future generation of preachers; the young people seemed to hang on his every word.

Then he was gone. He just dropped off the face of the earth. As I grew into my own pastoral calling I would ask some of the older pastors what happened to this young firebrand. I got vague answers that really didn't answer the question. Finally, one pastor let me know that the young pastor had been "lost" to heresy. It seems not only was he a charismatic speaker he actually had become a Charismatic speaker. The older pastors shook their head sadly when his name was invoked as if a great blow had been struck to the denominational cause.

It is this mentality that drives me to do what I do. I know of many pastors who I love and respect who are more concerned with establishing and maintaining our denominational distinctives than in actually doing what Christ commanded His Body to do; many brethren believe these two purposes to be identical.

As I stated in my last blog entry, I was raised with a cessationist dogma. What I failed to mention is the penalty among pastoral peers when one of our own "falls away" into doctrinal heresy like believing in the modern existence of the gift of tongues. I've seen many godly, gifted preachers turned away by their peers because of doctrinal differences like this. I've seen struggling missionaries turned away because they got a jot or a tittle wrong on their bible doctrine questionaire.

With this pattern displayed for me from my youth up, you can imagine how difficult my personal journey into these doctrinal waters has been. Every question I ask brings my credibility into question in the eyes of many of my peers. Every step I take brings me that much closer to having the heretic card whipped out on me.

That used to bother me greatly. Now, and I say this with no pride or cockiness whatsoever (he that has ears to hear...), I could not care less what others think of me. I'm not boasting or coming from a bad place when I say this. Oh, believe me, I used to say "I don't care" from the darkest pit of despair and depression that a human being can be in without committing suicide. No, I can now say "I don't care" with the spiritual confidence borne from countless hours of praying, seeking, asking and knocking. I know in whom I have believed and that knowledge grows with each passing day.

Like Job, I grew up with a head knowledge of God but very little relational knowledge (Job 42:5). I was raised with a performance based Christianity. As a pastor I was treated more like the coach of a professional sports team than a spiritual leader of a church of Jesus Christ; win here or you're outta here. I was taught to fear my sheep as they had the power to remove me at a moment's notice if I taught or led them into anything they did not like or agree with doctrinally. I was shown by my pastoral peers that if I didn't toe the company line I'd be relegated to second-class citizen status and my name would be uttered in hushed whispers with melancholy head-wagging at pastor's conferences; "Did you hear what happened to Chris Murphy...?"

I share this with you just so you know where I'm coming from when I bring these topics up. I do not see myself as a rabble-rouser or a trouble-maker. My prayer is to be used of God in whatever capacity He sees fit to use me in His kingdom. It just so happens that He wants to use me to ask some questions of His people. Some see my questioning in the same light as the one asked by the serpent in the garden; "Has God really said...". But, for those who are seeking after God...

Does our supernatural God still move supernaturally on the earth today? Is God the great "I WAS" or the great "I AM"? Is the Bible a history book or a handbook? Does God still manifest Himself through His Holy Spirit in "every man" (1 Corinthians 12:7) or has He changed His methods in these "last days" of the church age? These are just some of the questions I have burning within me.

Stay tuned, true believers...you'd better believe there's more to come.