Editorial:
August issue
I am sure Greg Downes’ article
(Hysteria or Holy Spirit? p32) will
ruffle a few feathers. He asks some
hard questions about so-called
‘manifestations’ of the Holy Spirit –
shaking, laughing, crying, falling
over – which often happen in
Christian gatherings.
As a charismatic Christian, he’s not
against those things, and neither am I.
Miracles, healings, signs and wonders,
being filled with the Spirit… these are
the things which take God from a head
question to a heart experience.
However, sometimes, with the
best of intentions, we can try to
force these experiences. In the real
world, Derren Brown and others have
demonstrated how easy it is to re-create
the atmosphere of a Christian meeting
using the power of suggestion in place
of God. How does that reflect on us? I
don’t think it’s disastrous; it just means
we have to be doubly vigilant about the
way we do things.
Are we manipulating people into
experiencing God? Are we telling
them what should be happening and
what they should be feeling? It’s a very
dangerous game, trying to do God’s
job for him. It’s how people get hurt
and can be catastrophic for people’s
faith journeys.
A friend of mine, not a Christian
but brought up in a Christian home,
had a bad experience at a summer
camp as a teenager. At the end of an
emotional meeting, lots of teenagers
responded to an altar call and began
praying in tongues. When he wasn’t
similarly struck, a crowd of people laid
hands on him and began aggressively
praying that he would have the gift.
He tells me how pressured and
then how excluded and inadequate he
felt when nothing happened. Based
on that experience, he concluded
that Christianity couldn’t be for
him. What would have happened if,
instead, someone had taken him to
one side, told him God loves him, and
encouraged him to listen for the ‘still
small voice’?
There are too many stories like this
and we need to address the problem.
Why is there such a huge drop off rate
for teenagers who make commitments
at summer camps and then afterwards
decide not to pursue it? It is partly
because they doubt the authenticity of
the experience they had.
There is a huge burden of
responsibility here on anyone involved
in leading a meeting. We need to
look again at the accepted routes into
experiencing God’s presence, and ask
ourselves whether there could be a
better way, which reduces the risk of
manipulation, coercion and dishonour.
Let’s believe in a God who is powerful
enough to work without any ‘help’
from us. And then see what happens.
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