The Wisdom of Robbie pt. 4...

He's quoting me here.

When I saw it I smiled then almost puked. Typical 'grief' stuff there I guess.

"More Ghost More Better..."

So, we're both 'charismatics'.

"What is a charismatic?"

Well, a 'charismatic'--simply put--is the kind of Christian who emphasizes, in life and work, the miraculous, or supra-rational aspect of the Christian life. A charismatic tends to be a person who is 'experientially oriented' a 'taste/touch/see' kind of person. Someone who needs to 'feel' something in order to believe it.

We're not big on propositional truth as an end in itself. We believe that if something is true it should be able to be experienced.

There is oxygen in the air--> you should be able to breathe.

Music is engaging--> you should be able to feel it when you listen to it.

Love is better than hate--> you should have lots of loving relationships.

God is as real as oxygen--> you should be able to breathe in His presence.

God is engaged with you--> you should be able to hear and feel Him.

God is love--> you should be able to experience that in relationship.

That sort of thing.

Charismatic churches tend to be churches that emphasize singing in worship because charismatics believe that, in worship, you're actually coming into God's manifest presence as a people so, naturally, you should allow people lots of time to 1) get used to it 2) learn how to work within it 3) get whatever it is they're supposed to be getting out of that experience that day.

Charismatic churches also tend to pray for people by laying their hands on them in agreement with what the Bible teaches and actually EXPECT God to come through. Charismatic churches tend therefore to celebrate answers to prayer and they also become more bold in praying for people as they see God come through again and again.

Some Charismatic churches (at least the 'classically charismatic' ones) don't really emphasize preaching because they tend to think that because 'God is still speaking today...' we should be able to hear Him 'in the immediate' through a 'prophetic word' or a 'word of knowledge'. This is where someone with a 'gift' for sensing or hearing what God is (supposedly) 'saying' in that moment takes the microphone and 'speaks' the 'word of the Lord' to a person or group of people. In the worst case scenario in these kind of churches, the Bible is used as a 'verse vending machine' where disparate (and usually obscure) verses are 'cherry-picked' to support what the so-called prophet is saying. There's some tension here because in most of Biblical history it was a limited group of people (The Prophets) who spoke this way but many people think that after the events of Act 2 (where the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church) every Christian was given the ability to 'hear' God like the OT prophets used to, so they believe that every Christian can (and should) 'hear' God when He speaks and 'share' these 'words from the Lord' when appropriate. The problem with this kind of approach (when not employed in submission to the clear teaching of scripture as interpreted and applied by a team of Elders in a local church) is that 'Larry the Mechanic' can end up speaking into your life as 'the voice of God' and, we all know (based on his track record with my car at least...), that more often than not 'Larry the Mechanic' either gets it wrong or is 'sharing' things that fall somewhat short of the truly prophetic.

To say nothing of the fact that, in Bible times, 'false prophets' were killed.

This is why there weren't a lot of 'prophets' in Bible times and why, today, every Tom, Dick, and Harry (in an undisciplined charismatic church) can grab the mic and 'play God' for a bit.

The flip side is, many non-charismatic churches stop expecting God to SPEAK to people through the preaching of the Bible about Jesus, and they also refuse to allow any 'word of knowledge' ministry to go forth in their church.

(I've found that 'word of knowledge' ministry in our churches typically works well during the worship service as the worship leader 'freestyles' a bit based on what He/She feels God is saying/doing in the moment and also I encourage people, when praying for people during ministry time, to pray with conviction the things God puts on their heart to pray. More often than not the things you end up praying are *exactly* the things the people you were praying for needed to hear. I don't think you need to preface things by saying "I feel God is saying..." I think you just pray. If you get a sense that you need to pray something really specific or outlandish I encourage people to say "Look, I realize I may be way off here, but I was feeling like I should be praying for ________. What do you think about that?" Then they either break down crying 'cause you've just 'read their mail' or they say "Nope, I don't think that's what I'm feeling..." and you just keep going.)

The kind of charismatic churches Robbie pastored were proper charismatic churches in the real sense. They emphasized Spirit-filled worship, and made room in the service for 'ministry time' where qualified church leaders could 'speak into' people's lives while praying for them and, in Robbie's churches, the Bible was preached about Jesus.

But he always expected God to 'show up'.

I'll never forget the first time Robbie walked into my first church plant (in the heart of downtown Toronto) and, all bug-eyed, asked me how in the heck we managed to have THAT much 'Ghost' in the room? What he was saying was that he could *really* feel the presence of God in the room, and that it was good, and that he thought it special. His "how do you do it?" was a real question.

I told him, "Well, that's what we've asked for..."

That God would presence Himself with His people in worship, word, sacrament (ministry time) and community.

That's all we ask for.

'Cause we're charismatics.

At the heart of it, I believe in God, and the story of the Bible, ONLY because I continue to EXPERIENCE it from week to week, month to month, year to year, decade to decade in my life.

For me it involves goosebumps and crying.

When I walk into a church service I'm looking to *feel* something. When I do, usually two things happen. In the worship I get goosebumps all over my body then I start crying because I'm deeply moved by an awareness that God is real and that He loves me in spite of me. Then, if the preaching is any good, at at least one point during the sermon (and the *really* good ones have more than one moment like this) I feel as if the preacher, who has no reason to know me or the details of my life, is speaking DIRECTLY AT me. We refer to this as the preacher 'reading my mail...'

aka: being prophetic.

If I don't FEEL the presence of God in the worship time, ministry time, and fellowship time (as the redeemed interact together) I don't want to go back. If I don't FEEL the presence of God in the powerful preaching of the Bible about Jesus, I don't want to go back.

If I do, I do.

Simple.

So, the above being true, it stands to reason that MORE of it would be better. If God was going to MANIFEST Himself in your worship service such that people's *actual* lives were changed, wouldn't you want Him to do MORE of it? If God was actually going to FILL your preaching (or the preaching, if you're not a preacher) with His own POWER such that the people listening felt like you were preaching directly at (and for) them, wouldn't you want Him to do MORE of that?

Yes you would.

If the Holy Spirit was actually going to TESTIFY to people, on an ongoing basis, that Jesus is real and Jesus LOVES them in spite of them, resulting in enough encouragement for them to 'keep going' in their increasingly harder lives, would you want Him to do MORE of that?

Yes you would.

If the love of Jesus that was spilling into people's lives as they experienced MORE of the Holy Spirit began OVERFLOWING from their lives into the lives of the 'real' (normal/non-christian) people in your town, resulting in them coming to your church and getting ROCKED by the presence of the Holy Spirit and becoming Christians, wouldn't you want God to do MORE of that?

Well, yes you would.

More Ghost, more better.

If you, as a person, found a church where, week in and week out, you could AUTHENTICALLY experience the life of God Himself at work in the midst of that group of people, wouldn't you keep going back? Would anything stop you from going back? Conversely, once you'd EXPERIENCED what happens in a 'real' charismatic church, would any amount of marketing, programming, or social networking get you to go to a church where the worship had NO GHOST, where the preaching had NO GHOST, and where the people had NO GHOST?

Heck no.

Once you've tasted and seen that the Lord is good, nothing else will do.

So, that's why me and Robbie and our friends went charismatic. We realized (early 90's) that ONLY the actual, manifest presence of the actually LIVING God, would be enough to capture the hearts of our disillusioned, relativistic, pluralistic, sensualist peers.

Only the Ghost will do.

So we say...

"More Ghost More Better..."

The wisdom of Robbie.

Love you man,

T