OK, so I married a Foursquare girl. She has no official theology of the Spirit...only an experience.
Back in my reformed days, which in all practicality means before 2006, I self labeled myself a reformed charismatic Anglican. Though I no longer worship in an Anglican community, I still consider myself to be one... Though I don't worship in a Charismatic community I still consider myself to be one. Though rationalistically (or perhaps modernically -- how about that new word) I still would be considered to be reformed, experientially I am not.
I really miss the thoughtful liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer. I also really miss the use of all the gifts in worship. (I haven't been party to those being used for many a year now.) An emergent pastor here in Portland stated that he didn't see that anyone would really be interested in a Charismatic emergent church -- that there would be little to no target audience. I think he missed the point.
Though we live in a world of mystery and the unknown, post-modernism really still is an age of skepticism and rationality. We focus on experience -- our experience -- and if something falls outside of that experience we tend to discount it.
With all the excesses and abuses of the Pentecostal movement, the emergent church community tends to rightly be skeptical. Having said that, I really believe that they are not only missing the point, they are missing God in the process.
Over the past seven years I have grown to know a God who truly transforms lives and offers his good gifts to those who are willing to surrender to him. Who in their right mind wouldn't want that?
I am hoping that as we get more involved with Tree of Life Church and the Jesus People that make up the congregation, we will find a synergy of life changing power and post modern expression of that power that will take root and become something more than anything I have known. We will see what God has... This is his call...
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