So, I'm not really getting anywhere with singing in tongues. So, I try (and I mean I really tried), to focus on God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit.... I invited the Holy Spirit to come into my presence. Sang "I Love You Lord" (since it's one of the few songs I know all the words to, and kind of captured what I was aiming for), and did my best to focus on the goodness of God. But, in the end, singing in tongues turned out not to be for me.... so I just hummed along in key.
After a number of minutes of this, then we were invited into a time of prayer, where Sandy and two other members of HTB's staff, went around praying for us. Since I was one of the last people they got to, I spent my time just trying to get deep into prayer. I won't tell you what others were doing in that room during this time... that's a matter for them to divulge. All I know is that I did my best to enter into prayer.
But it was very, very difficult.
One, I was genuinely afraid of what might be coming. I didn't want to bark like a dog or fall down in a heap, or do any of the things I've seen others do... mostly on TV. And the fear of what might be coming, kind of made it hard to really concentrate on speaking with, and listening to, God. Anyhow, I was sufficiently scatterbrained, when finally, Sandy Miller himself popped over to pray for me.
Now, people in that room, except for one guy who has become a good friend and desires this kind of religious expression for me for a lot of good reasons, weren't concentrating on me. But I'm the class skeptic... the guy who went to the "liberal" school who generally is concerned first and foremost with how we treat one another in the world of ours, above and beyond most other things. I know I'm the tough nut to crack, and more than one person in there was hoping that today would be my day to take faith "to another level".
So, I'm praying, or trying to pray, Sandy Miller come up, and asks if he can pray for me, and I say "yes". And then he asks, "What do you want me to pray for today?"
"I really don't know."
"You don't know", he replied.
"Well, I'm a little freaked out right now, so why don't you just pray... I'm sure whatever it is you pray will be fine."
Miller looked perplexed. "So, would you like to pray in tongues today?"
"Not today, thanks."
Miller, visably surprised, says, "Oh Bryan! Why not?"
"Well, the singing in tongues didn't go so well, so I think maybe I need just need to do some listening today."
"Well, that's fine", said a smiling Miller. "Just let me know if you change your mind. But if you praise God with all you are, I think you will run out of words in English to do so."
"Well sir, that might very well be true. But I'll just do the best I can in English today."
"One last time.... All you have to do Bryan, if you want to speak in tongues, is just do it. Are you sure?"
"Sir, I just think I need your prayer. I'm sure whatever you say will be fine."
What followed was really a beautiful prayer, where Sandy asked that God annoint me again with a sense of renewal for God's service and call, he prayed for each member of my family, for me to hear with new ears, speak with a new lips, read with new eyes, and reach out without fear.
To be honest.... it was moving. For the remainder of my time praying, to be honest, I didn't do any speaking. Instead, I just listened. And what I heard was the crying of children who were hungry and sick, and the anguished prayers of mothers too poor to do anything about it. And I heard these words, very clearly:
"If I speak in the tongues of angels, but have not love, I am but a clanging gong or a banging cymbal".
It was also clear that I was to be obedient to the teachings of Jesus, to love God and love my neighbor, so that others might be profoundly changed and challenged. Challenged to the point that if they thought or believed that speaking in tongues, barking like a dog, standing on their head, or maybe, working fewer hours, extending a little grace, concentrating on the people they love who are hurting, or doing whatever would lead to a better life for all would be seriously considered. Changed in that they would allow their life to move in a different direction.
And then, I was done praying.
Others weren't, so I excused myself outside where I enjoyed fresh air and beautiful London weather (high sixties and sunny... like fall at home). And then it was all over. Now, in retrospect, here is what I learned:
1) I learned that there is nothing to be afraid of in the charismatic world. It's not all fake, and it's not all real. It just is what it is. People I respect and love believe in it intensely, and they do so for the purpose of bringing greater healing and understanding to the Christian community and the world. In this world people shouldn't be judged by whether or not they raise their hands in worship, or not. The important thing is that we intensely love God with all we are, which starts by appreciating all that we have been blessed with in this life, so that we might begin to know him better. I learned that God is grieved by mothers who can't help their hungry or sick children, and by people who don't take that reality seriously.
2) I learned that what is really dangerous in charismatic thought and practice is the possibility of abuse and manipulation. For all the good HTB does, and make no bones about it, they are doing good things, I see real possibilities for problems. An example:
At the class that morning for the potential ordinands, during the break a young woman approached me, and asked if I was one of the Americans observing that day. I said yes, and she immediately looked relieved. 18 or 19 years old, someone associated with HTB spoke at her church (in America) last summer, and gave her a "word of knowledge" that she needed to come serve in a new church plant of HTB's in London. When I asked if she was enjoying her time here, her response was that she had been miserable since moving here in August, and really wished that she had just gone to college like she had planned before this encounter. Of course, I believe you can learn things about God and yourself in difficult situations, but, I also believe that doors can close and it's OK to leave. It seemed like that hadn't really occurred to her, but she's so young and impressionable, I just don't think she's got the life-experience and self-assurance to say, "I'm going home". If a charismatic ministry doesn't have the best interests of the people who follow them in mind, then abuses can be legion, but that is the case in any situation where there are leaders and followers. I've just seen (in particular, one person I used to work with in a past job) people use their "spiritual gifts" to take advantage of others, and that's what I'm wary of most of all.
3) Will I ever be a tongue-speaker? I don't know. I think maybe there are more important things to worry about, but I'll definitely spend more of my time loving God directly and intentionally. That you can be sure.
4) I love all the members of the BP Class of 2006-07, and appreciate how patient they are with one another. Together we are pushing the boundaries, and are all profiting greatly.
5) The forces, spiritual or otherwise, who shape a world where children get sick or hungry and mothers can't doing anything about it because they are too poor, need to be opposed in a spirit of obedience to Christ who told us that if we looked at things through his eyes, that we'd be made fools of, we'd be rejected and maligned, and that the first would become last and the last. How far do you think God will go with you if you step out with Him to help make these things happen?
Be careful... how you answer that question will largely define what you believe is possible, and not. Just a little something to think about.
Finally, look for another new blog (with promised pictures, now late), talking about today's trip to Oxford (where I ate fish and chips in the same seat C.S. Lewis used to hang out with J.R.R Tolkien and G.K. Chesterson) and the musical "Wicked" (which we saw this evening... it was fantastic).
Until tomorrow... rest easy mates!
Showing posts with label Speaking In Tounges. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Speaking In Tounges. Show all posts
Monday, October 16, 2006
Holy Trinity Brompton or "Speaking In Tongues Monday"
I told you that we worshipped at Holy Trinity - Brompton (the borough of London where the church is located, here forward known as HTB) yesterday evening, and it is was a good experience. Lots of young people (about 850) crammed into this old Anglican sanctuary, singing praise songs, praying, and studying the Bible under the leadership of Senior Pastor, Nicky Gumble. Nicky has been the Senior Pastor at HTB about 18 months, after more than 17 years as an Associate Pastor on it's staff. During that time, he re-wrote, and masterminded an evangelistic outreach program called "Alpha", which is now being hailed across the world as being one of the few successful evangelistic tools available in a post-Christian, secular society. It's being used in virtually every denomination, and bunches of independent churches, all over the world as basically a 10-week study of the basics of Christian faith.
While my fellow BP's were really overwhelmed by the worship yesterday evening, I had in fact, experienced such worship myself on a number of occasions at places like Mars Hill Bible Church (Grand Rapids, MI), the midweek service at Granger (IN) Community Church, and even at the little ol' Life Center in Goshen, Indiana. Lots of healing of wounded and tired souls through the power of praising God, seeking God in prayer, and a few words from a preacher that seemed to capture some sort of truth people could hang on to (and, yeah, I know I was the guy preaching in Goshen, but I'm not a total dufus.... sometimes I can say something that makes God go, "hey, not bad kid".) So, I had been in that environment before, and it's always great, but at HTB there were some elements that, quite frankly, were a little bit different. People came forward, shaking, kneeling-down and popping back up, speaking or saying strange things......
folks, we had entered the "Charismatic Zone".
I should have not been surprised. Somewhere I had read that the last Senior Pastor at HTB, Sandy Miller, an Anglican Vicar, had apprenticed with John Wimber, who birthed the Vineyard Church. For those who are not acquainted with The Vineyard, back in the early seventies, a bunch of hippies who came out of the sixties Jesus Movement, kind of wanted to re-invent church, particularly in the areas of music and spiritual expression. Bored or dissatisfied with the kind of traditional, Western European, hymns-choir-creeds-liturgy-20-minute-sermon thing, these "Jesusfreaks" decided to bring pop music into the worship service. This early form of "Christian Rock", in fact evolved into what we now know as "Praise and Worship Music", which over the last 30 years in the USA has become the dominant musical expression in worship. To be honest, none of us probably would have heard of any of this, if in early 1980's a young pastor by the name of Bill Hybles, in a new church called Willow Creek Community Church, hadn't seen the potential in praise and worship music, and appropriated it for what became (largely because Hyble's business-like approach streamlined and made efficient virtually every major area of the church) the largest, most influential church in the world.
But The Vineyard, not only by influencing Willow Creek and also the Calvary Church movement, but in its own right began to grow. It's just that Willow Creek ended up revolutionizing the way worship was done in the west, more so than The Vineyard because while Hyble's approach was kind of mainstream, The Vineyard kind of took a different path. You see, Wimber believed that people shouldn't just express some of the more traditional forms of Charismatic worship, but that that they should, in fact, have a direct experience with God in worship (much thanks to Steve Clouse, an old friend who helped me understand this many years ago). So, while Willow Creek's worship looked polished, The Vineyard's worship kind of just "followed the Spirit", and allowed people to encounter the Spirit... mainly, but not exclusively through, the speaking of tongues.
Since Sandy Miller (HTB's last Senior Pastor, for those who have forgotten) was mentored by John Wimber, I should not have been surprised to witness the kind of charismatic worship I saw last night. I kinda thought the English would be too proper, or skeptical, of such a thing, but, I was apparently wrong.
All of this, to explain my experience today.
After worshipping at HTB Sunday night, we spent the entire (and man, I mean the ENTIRE) day there kind of sitting at the feet of its giants. Tory Baucam, the prof leading the trip, is good buddies and somehow affiliated with Sandy, Nicky, and the gang at HTB, and obviously has been profoundly impacted by them... hence the reason we had access to them all, despite their crazy schedules (Sandy, for example, had just returned from Uganda, and Nicky from Russia this past weekend..... the demand for Alpha is pulling these guys all over the world).
So, in the morning, we spent some time with a number of (mostly) very young people who study at HTB's Theological School (for the purpose of getting ordained in the Anglican church), and that was good fun. But, in the afternoon, we spent our time with Sandy Miller, and that, friends, is where I got stretched. You see, we spent a good hour or so listening to Sandy explain that the real power in HTB's ministry was the willingness on the church's part to be led by the Holy Spirit. He then proceeded to tell us the story of being appointed to Holy Trinity, which in the late seventies was an upper-class, high steeple, liturgical, very liberal, aging congregation. Disturbed by the lack of young people, Miller looked to John Wimber, who in Southern California, was pulling them in by the droves, and asked him to come and speak. Wimber then ushered into Miller's life, the ministry of the Spirit, which is kind of difficult to explain, and this blog is already very, very long.... but in a nutshell, it is a ministry that believes literally that the Holy Spirit can work today like it did in Jesus and the Apostles day. That means healing people (either in body or emotionally), speaking in tongues, the manifestation of other spiritual gifts (like preaching and teaching), and in "words of knowledge" (more on that later).
Anyhow, Miller talked about his own journey, which started with Wimber offering a "Word of Knowledge" (which basically works like this... somebody hears something they are supposed to say from God, like, "I don't know who this is for, but for someone with a colon problem, you need to make an appointment with a GI by Thursday"... and the listeners must discern whether or not this word is for them or not - Hey man, I couldn't make this up if I tried.) about a "young woman who was trying to conceive a child to keep trying". A young woman that night, who had been told she couldn't have kids, stood up, everyone prayed for her, and nine-months later she gave birth to a girl (or a boy.... I can't remember).
After that, Miller began to experiment, at Wimber's prompting and leading, with speaking in tongues during prayer, within a small group of couples who were asked to join the Millers in trying some experimental praying. Soon, Miller, who says that the way you speak in tongues, is to just do so, began to teach about this at this church, and then began to allow for it in worship. That's why when you worship there, occasionally the song you're singing will cease lyrically, and the music will continue while all many (most) of the people around you kind of sing whatever they want... some in their native language, and some in a language that's unintelligible, called glossilalia or "the language of the angels". Soon, many healings were claimed, with much personal testimony from Sandy about people who had been healed through his ministry. Also, the Spirit, in Miller's words, began to lead the church's ministry, improving the Alpha program, and ultimately drawing people to the church from all over the world.
And, quite frankly, you can't argue with HTB's results. Now I think they average over 4000 in worship, have planted 12 new churches all over London, have exported Alpha all over the world, and are the root of a renewal movement happening now in the English Anglican Church.
Anyhow, after an hour of info, we took a break, and Tory asked Sandy to lead us in a time of prayer... where Sandy introduced, at least me, anyhow, to speaking in tongues.
(Note to my brother: I know, right now, you are freaking out. Calm down. The guy leading this wasn't [all] crazy, and I'm still me. So keep reading.)
I came to Asbury because I wanted to experience new ideas. I wanted to see how other pastors did things, and find out what my own leadership style really was. Can't say I ever thought one of them would try to teach me to speak in tongues.... that was a little outside of my expectation, but hey, I've already had a professor who claims to have casted out many demons, so I guess at this point, nothing should surprise me.
Well, he invited us first to sing in tongues, and basically all he wanted us to do was focus on how good God was while listening to our neighbors and allowing ourselves to sing whatever came to our lips. I knew I was in trouble when I heard others singing praise song lyrics, or the name of Jesus over and over, or in some sort of something or another that I couldn't understand, and the only thing I could come up with was...
"Water-mel-on, Water-mel-on, Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Black Eyed Peas"... which was the chorus to a song on "Hank the Cowdog" audiobook we got for the kids. Not real spiritually stimulating stuff.
But I decided to keep trying.....
(part two tomorrow)
While my fellow BP's were really overwhelmed by the worship yesterday evening, I had in fact, experienced such worship myself on a number of occasions at places like Mars Hill Bible Church (Grand Rapids, MI), the midweek service at Granger (IN) Community Church, and even at the little ol' Life Center in Goshen, Indiana. Lots of healing of wounded and tired souls through the power of praising God, seeking God in prayer, and a few words from a preacher that seemed to capture some sort of truth people could hang on to (and, yeah, I know I was the guy preaching in Goshen, but I'm not a total dufus.... sometimes I can say something that makes God go, "hey, not bad kid".) So, I had been in that environment before, and it's always great, but at HTB there were some elements that, quite frankly, were a little bit different. People came forward, shaking, kneeling-down and popping back up, speaking or saying strange things......
folks, we had entered the "Charismatic Zone".
I should have not been surprised. Somewhere I had read that the last Senior Pastor at HTB, Sandy Miller, an Anglican Vicar, had apprenticed with John Wimber, who birthed the Vineyard Church. For those who are not acquainted with The Vineyard, back in the early seventies, a bunch of hippies who came out of the sixties Jesus Movement, kind of wanted to re-invent church, particularly in the areas of music and spiritual expression. Bored or dissatisfied with the kind of traditional, Western European, hymns-choir-creeds-liturgy-20-minute-sermon thing, these "Jesusfreaks" decided to bring pop music into the worship service. This early form of "Christian Rock", in fact evolved into what we now know as "Praise and Worship Music", which over the last 30 years in the USA has become the dominant musical expression in worship. To be honest, none of us probably would have heard of any of this, if in early 1980's a young pastor by the name of Bill Hybles, in a new church called Willow Creek Community Church, hadn't seen the potential in praise and worship music, and appropriated it for what became (largely because Hyble's business-like approach streamlined and made efficient virtually every major area of the church) the largest, most influential church in the world.
But The Vineyard, not only by influencing Willow Creek and also the Calvary Church movement, but in its own right began to grow. It's just that Willow Creek ended up revolutionizing the way worship was done in the west, more so than The Vineyard because while Hyble's approach was kind of mainstream, The Vineyard kind of took a different path. You see, Wimber believed that people shouldn't just express some of the more traditional forms of Charismatic worship, but that that they should, in fact, have a direct experience with God in worship (much thanks to Steve Clouse, an old friend who helped me understand this many years ago). So, while Willow Creek's worship looked polished, The Vineyard's worship kind of just "followed the Spirit", and allowed people to encounter the Spirit... mainly, but not exclusively through, the speaking of tongues.
Since Sandy Miller (HTB's last Senior Pastor, for those who have forgotten) was mentored by John Wimber, I should not have been surprised to witness the kind of charismatic worship I saw last night. I kinda thought the English would be too proper, or skeptical, of such a thing, but, I was apparently wrong.
All of this, to explain my experience today.
After worshipping at HTB Sunday night, we spent the entire (and man, I mean the ENTIRE) day there kind of sitting at the feet of its giants. Tory Baucam, the prof leading the trip, is good buddies and somehow affiliated with Sandy, Nicky, and the gang at HTB, and obviously has been profoundly impacted by them... hence the reason we had access to them all, despite their crazy schedules (Sandy, for example, had just returned from Uganda, and Nicky from Russia this past weekend..... the demand for Alpha is pulling these guys all over the world).
So, in the morning, we spent some time with a number of (mostly) very young people who study at HTB's Theological School (for the purpose of getting ordained in the Anglican church), and that was good fun. But, in the afternoon, we spent our time with Sandy Miller, and that, friends, is where I got stretched. You see, we spent a good hour or so listening to Sandy explain that the real power in HTB's ministry was the willingness on the church's part to be led by the Holy Spirit. He then proceeded to tell us the story of being appointed to Holy Trinity, which in the late seventies was an upper-class, high steeple, liturgical, very liberal, aging congregation. Disturbed by the lack of young people, Miller looked to John Wimber, who in Southern California, was pulling them in by the droves, and asked him to come and speak. Wimber then ushered into Miller's life, the ministry of the Spirit, which is kind of difficult to explain, and this blog is already very, very long.... but in a nutshell, it is a ministry that believes literally that the Holy Spirit can work today like it did in Jesus and the Apostles day. That means healing people (either in body or emotionally), speaking in tongues, the manifestation of other spiritual gifts (like preaching and teaching), and in "words of knowledge" (more on that later).
Anyhow, Miller talked about his own journey, which started with Wimber offering a "Word of Knowledge" (which basically works like this... somebody hears something they are supposed to say from God, like, "I don't know who this is for, but for someone with a colon problem, you need to make an appointment with a GI by Thursday"... and the listeners must discern whether or not this word is for them or not - Hey man, I couldn't make this up if I tried.) about a "young woman who was trying to conceive a child to keep trying". A young woman that night, who had been told she couldn't have kids, stood up, everyone prayed for her, and nine-months later she gave birth to a girl (or a boy.... I can't remember).
After that, Miller began to experiment, at Wimber's prompting and leading, with speaking in tongues during prayer, within a small group of couples who were asked to join the Millers in trying some experimental praying. Soon, Miller, who says that the way you speak in tongues, is to just do so, began to teach about this at this church, and then began to allow for it in worship. That's why when you worship there, occasionally the song you're singing will cease lyrically, and the music will continue while all many (most) of the people around you kind of sing whatever they want... some in their native language, and some in a language that's unintelligible, called glossilalia or "the language of the angels". Soon, many healings were claimed, with much personal testimony from Sandy about people who had been healed through his ministry. Also, the Spirit, in Miller's words, began to lead the church's ministry, improving the Alpha program, and ultimately drawing people to the church from all over the world.
And, quite frankly, you can't argue with HTB's results. Now I think they average over 4000 in worship, have planted 12 new churches all over London, have exported Alpha all over the world, and are the root of a renewal movement happening now in the English Anglican Church.
Anyhow, after an hour of info, we took a break, and Tory asked Sandy to lead us in a time of prayer... where Sandy introduced, at least me, anyhow, to speaking in tongues.
(Note to my brother: I know, right now, you are freaking out. Calm down. The guy leading this wasn't [all] crazy, and I'm still me. So keep reading.)
I came to Asbury because I wanted to experience new ideas. I wanted to see how other pastors did things, and find out what my own leadership style really was. Can't say I ever thought one of them would try to teach me to speak in tongues.... that was a little outside of my expectation, but hey, I've already had a professor who claims to have casted out many demons, so I guess at this point, nothing should surprise me.
Well, he invited us first to sing in tongues, and basically all he wanted us to do was focus on how good God was while listening to our neighbors and allowing ourselves to sing whatever came to our lips. I knew I was in trouble when I heard others singing praise song lyrics, or the name of Jesus over and over, or in some sort of something or another that I couldn't understand, and the only thing I could come up with was...
"Water-mel-on, Water-mel-on, Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Black Eyed Peas"... which was the chorus to a song on "Hank the Cowdog" audiobook we got for the kids. Not real spiritually stimulating stuff.
But I decided to keep trying.....
(part two tomorrow)
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