(Quick intro: I'm from an Anglican background, with early conservative evangelical roots (almost Calvinistic in some respects), later broadening both towards the charismatic side of things (although never having spoken in tongues) and the "high" Anglo-Catholic respect for corporate liturgy. Quite a mongrel mixture.)
A couple of points which might assist thinking:
1) Evangelical traditions can lead us to an implicit individualism. (Emphasis on "me and my individual salvation". "You (singular) must use your (singular) gifts". Both OK, but both only show part of the whole.) We often lose sight that it is the church, corporate, which is the bride of Christ. While the gospels are full of individual encounters, there is also a strong strand of the community of faith being built up, leading to the Upper Room (corporate), Gethsemane (still corporate), the crucifixion ("woman, behold your son"), and various resurrection appearances. And Paul's letters to the churches are packed full of the corporate. (As, of course is the brilliant book of James (I disagree with Luther's "book of straw" slur!) and the letters to the seven churches of Revelation.)
2) Denominations such as Anglicanism have a touchstone of "scripture, tradition and reason". Scripture: already discussed above. Tradition: the received wisdom of the church down the centuries, and so a useful long timebase guard against being blown too far off course by today's possibly fleeting fads and fancies. (Also, for instance, while the doctrine of the Trinity is not "up front obvious" from scripture, nevertheless our combined Orthodox/Catholic/Protestant "tradition" has developed and accepted it.) Reason: the recognition that our capacity to think and interpret is a valid part of our discipleship. (St. Paul was no slouch in academic fields!) And it also appears to me that all three (scripture, tradition, reason) bear the hallmarks of individuals working in community.
Trusting everything "except the voice within me" (your "holy self-suspicion") actually sounds reassuring to me! On the one hand, we are open to the possibility of God speaking to us directly because of his grace (undeserved gift, etc.). On the other hand we are aware of the weakness of our own human nature: "The heart is deceitful above all things", etc. (Here comes the "scripture, tradition, reason".) We test it against scripture; we measure it up against the long-term received wisdom of our tradition (denomination, etc.); we employ the gift of thinking about all this (reason) as we try to work it out. (Here comes the community.) Additionally we recognise that although the experience might be personal, we are still part of the wider community, the church, and the church helps us explore the charismatic gifts and experiences through their discernment of scripture, tradition and reason.
We trust, through the baptismal convenant into his church, that God is at work "within" us always (we are still in our state of sin, yet simultaneously in the saving grace of the Son through the Spirit). We can also trust that he can, from time to time, be "upon" us. And we can be sure that, because he gives us each very different gifts, that our own experiences of the "upon-ness", which he gives to us, will be very different from each other, yet this all works together for the good of the church, and of the church's mission into the world around us...
(Quick intro: I'm from an Anglican background, with early conservative evangelical roots (almost Calvinistic in some respects), later broadening both towards the charismatic side of things (although never having spoken in tongues) and the "high" Anglo-Catholic respect for corporate liturgy. Quite a mongrel mixture.)
A couple of points which might assist thinking:
1) Evangelical traditions can lead us to an implicit individualism. (Emphasis on "me and my individual salvation". "You (singular) must use your (singular) gifts". Both OK, but both only show part of the whole.) We often lose sight that it is the church, corporate, which is the bride of Christ. While the gospels are full of individual encounters, there is also a strong strand of the community of faith being built up, leading to the Upper Room (corporate), Gethsemane (still corporate), the crucifixion ("woman, behold your son"), and various resurrection appearances. And Paul's letters to the churches are packed full of the corporate. (As, of course is the brilliant book of James (I disagree with Luther's "book of straw" slur!) and the letters to the seven churches of Revelation.)
2) Denominations such as Anglicanism have a touchstone of "scripture, tradition and reason". Scripture: already discussed above. Tradition: the received wisdom of the church down the centuries, and so a useful long timebase guard against being blown too far off course by today's possibly fleeting fads and fancies. (Also, for instance, while the doctrine of the Trinity is not "up front obvious" from scripture, nevertheless our combined Orthodox/Catholic/Protestant "tradition" has developed and accepted it.) Reason: the recognition that our capacity to think and interpret is a valid part of our discipleship. (St. Paul was no slouch in academic fields!) And it also appears to me that all three (scripture, tradition, reason) bear the hallmarks of individuals working in community.
Trusting everything "except the voice within me" (your "holy self-suspicion") actually sounds reassuring to me! On the one hand, we are open to the possibility of God speaking to us directly because of his grace (undeserved gift, etc.). On the other hand we are aware of the weakness of our own human nature: "The heart is deceitful above all things", etc. (Here comes the "scripture, tradition, reason".) We test it against scripture; we measure it up against the long-term received wisdom of our tradition (denomination, etc.); we employ the gift of thinking about all this (reason) as we try to work it out. (Here comes the community.) Additionally we recognise that although the experience might be personal, we are still part of the wider community, the church, and the church helps us explore the charismatic gifts and experiences through their discernment of scripture, tradition and reason.
We trust, through the baptismal convenant into his church, that God is at work "within" us always (we are still in our state of sin, yet simultaneously in the saving grace of the Son through the Spirit). We can also trust that he can, from time to time, be "upon" us. And we can be sure that, because he gives us each very different gifts, that our own experiences of the "upon-ness", which he gives to us, will be very different from each other, yet this all works together for the good of the church, and of the church's mission into the world around us...
Posted in: What is a Reformed Charismatic?
(Quick intro: I'm from an Anglican background, with early conservative evangelical roots (almost Calvinistic in some respects), later broadening both towards the charismatic side of things (although never having spoken in tongues) and the "high" Anglo-Catholic respect for corporate liturgy. Quite a mongrel mixture.)
A couple of points which might assist thinking:
1) Evangelical traditions can lead us to an implicit individualism. (Emphasis on "me and my individual salvation". "You (singular) must use your (singular) gifts". Both OK, but both only show part of the whole.) We often lose sight that it is the church, corporate, which is the bride of Christ. While the gospels are full of individual encounters, there is also a strong strand of the community of faith being built up, leading to the Upper Room (corporate), Gethsemane (still corporate), the crucifixion ("woman, behold your son"), and various resurrection appearances. And Paul's letters to the churches are packed full of the corporate. (As, of course is the brilliant book of James (I disagree with Luther's "book of straw" slur!) and the letters to the seven churches of Revelation.)
2) Denominations such as Anglicanism have a touchstone of "scripture, tradition and reason". Scripture: already discussed above. Tradition: the received wisdom of the church down the centuries, and so a useful long timebase guard against being blown too far off course by today's possibly fleeting fads and fancies. (Also, for instance, while the doctrine of the Trinity is not "up front obvious" from scripture, nevertheless our combined Orthodox/Catholic/Protestant "tradition" has developed and accepted it.) Reason: the recognition that our capacity to think and interpret is a valid part of our discipleship. (St. Paul was no slouch in academic fields!) And it also appears to me that all three (scripture, tradition, reason) bear the hallmarks of individuals working in community.
Trusting everything "except the voice within me" (your "holy self-suspicion") actually sounds reassuring to me! On the one hand, we are open to the possibility of God speaking to us directly because of his grace (undeserved gift, etc.). On the other hand we are aware of the weakness of our own human nature: "The heart is deceitful above all things", etc. (Here comes the "scripture, tradition, reason".) We test it against scripture; we measure it up against the long-term received wisdom of our tradition (denomination, etc.); we employ the gift of thinking about all this (reason) as we try to work it out. (Here comes the community.) Additionally we recognise that although the experience might be personal, we are still part of the wider community, the church, and the church helps us explore the charismatic gifts and experiences through their discernment of scripture, tradition and reason.
We trust, through the baptismal convenant into his church, that God is at work "within" us always (we are still in our state of sin, yet simultaneously in the saving grace of the Son through the Spirit). We can also trust that he can, from time to time, be "upon" us. And we can be sure that, because he gives us each very different gifts, that our own experiences of the "upon-ness", which he gives to us, will be very different from each other, yet this all works together for the good of the church, and of the church's mission into the world around us...
Posted in: What is a Reformed Charismatic?
(Quick intro: I'm from an Anglican background, with early conservative evangelical roots (almost Calvinistic in some respects), later broadening both towards the charismatic side of things (although never having spoken in tongues) and the "high" Anglo-Catholic respect for corporate liturgy. Quite a mongrel mixture.)
A couple of points which might assist thinking:
1) Evangelical traditions can lead us to an implicit individualism. (Emphasis on "me and my individual salvation". "You (singular) must use your (singular) gifts". Both OK, but both only show part of the whole.) We often lose sight that it is the church, corporate, which is the bride of Christ. While the gospels are full of individual encounters, there is also a strong strand of the community of faith being built up, leading to the Upper Room (corporate), Gethsemane (still corporate), the crucifixion ("woman, behold your son"), and various resurrection appearances. And Paul's letters to the churches are packed full of the corporate. (As, of course is the brilliant book of James (I disagree with Luther's "book of straw" slur!) and the letters to the seven churches of Revelation.)
2) Denominations such as Anglicanism have a touchstone of "scripture, tradition and reason". Scripture: already discussed above. Tradition: the received wisdom of the church down the centuries, and so a useful long timebase guard against being blown too far off course by today's possibly fleeting fads and fancies. (Also, for instance, while the doctrine of the Trinity is not "up front obvious" from scripture, nevertheless our combined Orthodox/Catholic/Protestant "tradition" has developed and accepted it.) Reason: the recognition that our capacity to think and interpret is a valid part of our discipleship. (St. Paul was no slouch in academic fields!) And it also appears to me that all three (scripture, tradition, reason) bear the hallmarks of individuals working in community.
Trusting everything "except the voice within me" (your "holy self-suspicion") actually sounds reassuring to me! On the one hand, we are open to the possibility of God speaking to us directly because of his grace (undeserved gift, etc.). On the other hand we are aware of the weakness of our own human nature: "The heart is deceitful above all things", etc. (Here comes the "scripture, tradition, reason".) We test it against scripture; we measure it up against the long-term received wisdom of our tradition (denomination, etc.); we employ the gift of thinking about all this (reason) as we try to work it out. (Here comes the community.) Additionally we recognise that although the experience might be personal, we are still part of the wider community, the church, and the church helps us explore the charismatic gifts and experiences through their discernment of scripture, tradition and reason.
We trust, through the baptismal convenant into his church, that God is at work "within" us always (we are still in our state of sin, yet simultaneously in the saving grace of the Son through the Spirit). We can also trust that he can, from time to time, be "upon" us. And we can be sure that, because he gives us each very different gifts, that our own experiences of the "upon-ness", which he gives to us, will be very different from each other, yet this all works together for the good of the church, and of the church's mission into the world around us...