Speeches
"Do not put out the Spirit's fire" - On the Church's relations with Charismatic movements
Bishop Martin Schindehütte, Vice-President of the EKD Church Office
January 19, 2010
Dear sisters and brothers,
Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you today. I would like to share some observations and considerations with you, which have become important to me during my travels as bishop for ecumenical relations and ministry abroad, but increasingly so also in my ministry in Germany.
I am referring to the manifold renewal movements all over the world displaying a new, open-minded attitude towards religion also within our Christian faith, leading to new forms of congregational life and church structures. As so-called "historical churches", we are also facing new questions and challenges in Germany.
It is obvious that these movements are particularly interested in the third article of our Creed. They ask about the power and the work of the Holy Spirit. As we all know, the Spirit moves where it will. And this is why these movements are so difficult to relate to the evolved and existing structures of the churches. After all, one of the constitutional elements of these movements is their tendency to distinguish themselves from the historical churches and find them lacking in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The historical churches seem for their part to have difficulties dealing with these new religious movements and are themselves all too ready to dissociate from them.
I would like to avoid this reflex in my talk. This is why I chose for my title Apostle Paul's admonition, "Do not put out the Spirit's fire!"
It is well worth also considering the next two verses, 20 and 21, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 19:
"Do not put out the Spirit's fire.
Do not treat prophecies with contempt.
Test everything. Hold on to the good." (NIV)
I want to respond to this challenge. To test everything and to hold fast what is good.
However, this admonition also triggers a first critical question for our church in its past and present times. Have we quenched the move of the Holy Spirit? Is the personal faith of an individual Christian recognisable as a gift of the Holy Spirit, and does the form of the whole church display the constant process of renewal undertaken by the Holy Spirit? For only then will it stay in a position to testify to God's loving care for all the world appropriately and comprehensibly in every historical and cultural situation. If we examine ourselves, we have to acknowledge that even the theological discussion of the third article of our Creed is not pursued with particular rigour here in Germany. We are strong on the doctrine of the creation and the doctrine of Christ. But do we have a comprehensive and detailed doctrine of the Holy Spirit?
And yet, the Bible is full of references to the Spirit of God, the word Spirit is mentioned almost 500 times.
For the first time, it is mentioned in the very second verse of the Bible, "And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" (ESV) - this is about God's creative work.
And for the last time in the fifth from last verse of the Bible, "The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears say, 'Come.' And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price." This is about the redemptive power of the Spirit.
It is always about the basic statement of faith, that through his Spirit, God is effectively at work in his creation, in his history with us human beings, in our history as human beings and in every single person, that he is transforming us, renewing us, giving us a power which does not originate from within us.
In the New Testament, the gospels as well as the epistles customarily refer to the presence of God's Spirit, and of his work in individuals and in the church.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus says to Nicodemus, "unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." (John 3:5; ESV).
The Acts of the Apostles contain not only the story of Pentecost, but are imbued with stories and people directed by the Holy Spirit.
The gospels are full of healing miracles of Jesus and also of his disciples. Jesus often says to those healed, "Your faith has made you well." And Peter and John say to the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, "I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" (ESV)
Also the Apostle Paul's writings are incomprehensible without a theology of the Spirit, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." (2 Cor. 3:17)
"All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God." (Romans 8:14; NRSV)
Pentecostal movements and churches around the world today, as well as the Charismatic Movement, ask about this work of the Spirit and want to experience its manifestations. This question is legitimate and necessary, also and especially for us in the historical churches. At the same time however, this question also challenges us to explain how these religious experiences are to be understood and accounted for theologically, and how they can be related to the other dimensions of our human existence. For we as human beings were created by God to be endowed with reason and to live in communities of diversity.
In a first approximation, one can describe the quite ambivalent appeal of the Pentecostal-Charismatic approach as follows:
With its offer of experiences, Charismatic spirituality can provide an answer to our human desire for assurance and unambiguity in a confusing religious and ideological diversity. It offers clear guidance on questions of life-style in the face of a dizzying and conflicting variety of ways of life. It seems to offer a solution for the worrying dissolution of the norms governing our personal and social co-existence, a situation many are aware of and concerned about. The simple answer now given the disconcerted contemporary and Christian may be phrased as follows, "You do not need to try out a whole multitude of possibilites. You do not need to consider profound questions to find and give expression to your religious identity. You can have a real experience of God's power. If you call out to Jesus, if you call out to the Holy Spirit, then you will be given visible and tangible signs of his presence. You will be lifted up and overwhelmed by God's Spirit flowing through you. You can be healed. You will have visions. You will go into ecstasies and have amazing experiences. You will speak in tongues. You will be sure that God is with you and in you."
Pentecostals speak to people's emotional side. They encourage them to embrace a holistic form of religiosity, which can be experienced individually, in front of and together with others.
Pentecostal-Charismatic spirituality brings the miracle back into the reality of our praxis of faith. It rebels against an understanding of reality and faith, which apparently or factually conforms to the scientific-rational understanding of modernity, which has become void of mysteries. "The poverty of experience in everyday life in secular industrial societies, and the great loss of a living Christian spirituality are the causes of the great response to this remedy. This is why over-worked academics, engineers and businesspeople, whose lives are determined by the compulsions and constraints of our performance society, are discovering prayer in non-rational language - namely speaking in tongues - as a helpful corrective for their one-sided understanding of reality, which mainly focusses on its predictability. This is also the reason for healing prayer to become predominant in the battle against sicknesses, as the limitations of modern medicine become obvious, and for these prayers to become connected with the expectation that the truly faithful will receive the miracle."(p. 461)
For an understanding of these phenomena of the Holy Spirit's manifestations, the 14th chapter of the Apostle Paul's first letter to the Corinthians proves highly significant. I would like us to take a brief look at this chapter to render the biblical background of a fundamental debate in the Christian Church today a bit more comprehensible, and to establish the essential criteria for the question of how we are to deal with these phenomena.
The first few verses already identify the theme the apostle develops in the whole chapter.
"Pursue love and strive for the spiritual gifts, and especially that you might prophesy. For those who speak in a tongue do not speak to other people but to God; for nobody understands them, since they are speaking mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, those who prophesy speak to other people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. Those who speak in a tongue build up themselves, but those who prophesy build up the church. Now I would like all of you to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. One who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up." (1 Cor. 14: 1-5; NRSV)
The first sentence is essential: Pursue love. Paul first establishes love as the decisive criterion, before he discusses the gifts and experiences of the Spirit. Love means accepting what is different and unfamiliar. Love means staying in fellowship and not only rejoicing over what we have in common, but putting up with what troubles and separates us and staying together.
Then, the apostle encourages us to strive for the spiritual gifts and does not discredit any one of them. But he instantly establishes an order of priority according to the criterion of love. First, strive that you might prophesy. And he describes different aspects of prophecy and what it can achieve: It can encourage, admonish and comfort. Different to an understanding of prophecy common among us, prophecy appears here not only as a way of admonishing people, of denouncing a deplorable state of affairs, of challenging Christians to stand up for peace, for human rights, for the poor and for the climate; and of sharply criticising our persistence in the old ways. In the apostle's understanding, prophecy is also edification, i.e. re-assurance, encouragement, building up and building community. And consolation, staying together, whenever one suffers or all suffer.
Only then does the apostle mention speaking in tongues. This is a state in which one prays to God and praises God in a non-rational language, in incomprehensible articulation, possibly even in an ecstatic state. To us overly cerebral Westerners, this seems very unfamiliar. In other cultures, these phenomena still occur today. Paul does not disapprove of this state. For him, this is also a gift of the Spirit, a manifestation of the Spirit. But one intended only for one's own edification. This is not discouraged. But it appears very limited. It is not relevant for the whole of the church, for the community of those who simply have to communicate with each other in a comprehensible fashion, using recognisable and understandable logic.
For me, Paul's considerations also reveal the main criteria for us as historical churches and our way of dealing with Pentecostal churches and Charismatic movements.
To accept one another in love.
To communicate with one another in such a way that we can understand and support each other.
To allow the other's enthusiasm to question what we hold as our own.
To be prepared to change, so that God's Spirit will renew his church.
If we look at the context of chapter 14, then it is clear that the apostle communicates this correlation also through the composition of these chapters.
Chapter 13 speaks of the Lord's Supper celebrated together, of the "many members, yet one body", of the "varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit", and concludes with the Song of Songs of Love.
"If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." (NRSV)
Chapter 15 is the great chapter about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as God's historic act of reconciliation, which will finally renew all of creation.
Already in New Testament times, the work of the Holy Spirit caused tensions and unrest in the church. Paul's letters and his efforts to keep the churches together are moving testimonies of this. This unrest, this critical potential, this sense of striving and looking for more are not necessarily bad. On the contrary, only several poles or centres of force can generate a force field, which keeps us, the Church, moving and can break up tired or rigid structures.
What we are currently experiencing in our conflicts with Pentecostal churches and movements, is not new in the history of the church. The Church in its respective institutional form was always accompanied by anti-institutional movements, which often gave it new impetus and new ideas, but which - God have mercy - were brutally suppressed time and again.
Reformed theologian Lesslie Newbigin finds three basic answers in history to the question what it is that constitutes the Church. The Catholic type of church says: the Apostolic Constitution. The Evangelical type of church says: the Apostolic Message. The Pentecostal type of church says: the real experience of the Spirit.
The Pentecostal type was probably never dominant in history, but it was very effective in expressing itself.
In the 2nd century, Montanism was marked by rigorous ascetism and strict church discipline with a heightened expectation of the imminent beginning of the end-times.
The Middle Ages saw the rise of monastic movements with leading figures such as Francis of Assisi and Elizabeth of Thuringia, whom we all find fascinating even today.
In Reformation times, it surfaced in the so-called "left wing" of the Reformation. Thomas Müntzer was one of their leading figures. Martin Luther affirmed that "faith is a divine work in us . and makes altogether different men, in heart and spirit and mind and powers, and it brings with it the Holy Spirit." (Lecture on Romans). However, he took assertive action against the "fanatic enthusiasts" ("schwärmerische Kräfte"), as he called them.
Pietism rediscovered this transforming and reviving power of the Holy Spirit. Lutheran theology with its positive and affirmative scepticism towards any misguided monopolisaton of the work of the Holy Spirit as the theological foundation on which Pietism was built, saved Pietism to a great extent from drifting into divisive positions.
And now the new Pentecostal movements, which have been growing dynamically for about one hundred years, have established themselves all over the world and are demonstrating a profound change in Christendom.
I will briefly describe their development and main characteristics.
When looking for historical focal points in the genesis of the Pentecostal movement, we are directed to two main events:
In the Bible College established by the Methodist healing evangelist Charles F. Parham in Topeka, Kansas, glossolalia, that is speaking in tongues as described in the Acts of the Apostles, was regarded as a sign and proof of a believer's baptism with the Holy Spirit. After fervent prayer with the laying on of hands, 18 year old Agnes Ozman experienced glossolalia and an ecstatic state of mind on 1st January 1901. This experience attracted much attention.
On 9th April 1906, a student of Parham's, the black Baptist healing evangelist William S. Seymour, started healing meetings in a disused Methodist church in Los Angeles, which became an example for Pentecostal revival. The meetings lasted from 10.00 a.m. to midnight. Many reports of deep religious fervour circulated. Great media attention led to the news spreading like wildfire. Many people went on a pilgrimage to Los Angeles and carried the experiences all over the world. In the initial phase, social class and racial segregation seemed overcome. In a sociological perspective, it is obvious that mainly the lower strata of society and ordinary people were drawn to the meetings. Until today, poverty and marginalisation are important factors in Pentecostal movements. The experiences appear like a liberation from a previously hopeless social situation and from low status marked by a lack of social acceptance.
The rapid and sustained spread of the Pentecostal movement until today makes it a kind of new trend in Christianity, so to speak. We have to look beyond Europe in order to understand this. I have just been to Latin America, where Pentecostal churches have become a serious threat to the monopoly of the historical churches. In Brazil, the proportion of Catholics in the population has decreased from 83 to 72% in 10 years. However, Pentecostal churches have grown dramatically. In Chile, the historical Protestant churches gather not even 1% of the population. The diverse Pentecostal free churches now have a share of 13% of the population. In discussions, the chairman of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Argentina, Cardinal Bergoglio admitted that the Catholic Church has begun to take this development very seriously and to look for strategies how to stem this severe bleeding. Not only in Latin America, but similarly in Africa and Asia we see rapidly increasing numbers. Many estimate the number of Charismatic-Pentecostal churches at more than 500 million. This figure may be too high. However, we can only give an estimate because it is in the nature of these movements with their floating stuctures that they are not easily captured. They simply do not adhere to the expectations of residents' registration offices and church tax lists.
When visiting North America last year and Latin America in April, I had a very vivid experience of this development I had only read about. After about 100 years of existence, Pentecostal churches have gone through a maturing process. At least this is how we would describe it as historical churches. Growing numbers, the task of passing on achievements to the next generation, the discovery of diaconal responsibilities call for a consolidation of internal structures. Questions of qualifications for those involved in the ministry of the Word, the professionalisation of diaconal ministry, questions of theological reflection on experiences are gaining in importance. In Santiago de Chile, I met with the association of Evangelical Churches in Chile. It is remarkable that this association actually exists. Here, Pentecostal and historical churches are working together. Finding out what they expected of me, i.e. of the EKD, was even more remarkable. They asked for a lecture tour by visiting German theologians, who would give them an understanding of the theology of Luther and other reformers. They felt that it was indeed necessary to develop theological criteria for the ministry in their churches. And they are all working together in the joint organisation of a programme for Reformation Day, which - to my great surprise - has been celebrated as a national festive day in Chile for several years. It is not a public holiday, but it is a festive day introduced by previous President Lagos and explicitly affirmed and supported by the current President Michelle Bachelet, a self-confessed agnostic, in conversation with me. In short, these older Pentecostal churches are seeking contact with historical churches on a number of issues, because they perceive that their experiences may be quite useful to them after all.
However, we need to distinguish clearly between these and more recently established Pentecostal movements, towards whom these "historical Pentecostals" have a very critical attitude. So-called mega churches have emerged which attract great crowds of people, who finance these mega churches with their last penny. Thousands, even ten thousands of people come to services in stadia or especially erected pompous centres. In these movements, the question of social and cultural status seems to be of even greater importance. Faith is connected with economic success. Faith will lead out of poverty. If you only have enough faith, you will not only be healed, but you will also have economic success. Religion and success, religion and prosperity enter into an unholy alliance. Some already speak of "prosperity religion". These movements are entering into competition not only with historical churches, but also with Pentecostal churches established in the initial phase.
In February this year, the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches said in his report before the committee, "Many of the member churches are struggling with the speed and scope of the growth of Evangelical, Pentecostal and Charismatic communities, and also of non-denominational congregations and mega-churches. The realities around the churches, the forms of social organization, and the ways in which faith is expressed and incarnated in daily life are changing."
The Professor of Theology at Pacific Theological College in Suva (Fiji) asserts that "all the Christian denominations and para-churches that have grown rapidly since World War II display striking similarities to transnational business corporations." His study substantiates Peter L. Berger's hypothesis that "evangelical Protestantism, especially in its Pentecostal version, is the most popular movement serving as vehicle of cultural globalization". It is sustained by the outreach of global media and the intensive use of television and radio programmes. Manfred Ernst explains that "conversion to a certain type of Christianity transforms people's attitudes towards family, sexual behaviour, child rearing, work and household economics. It can be argued that the recently arrived type of religion in its Pentecostal, neo-Pentecostal, evangelical-fundamentalist form promotes an attitude and morality singularly appropriate for people seeking to progress in the blossoming and dominant stage of current global capitalism."
This development is part of a profound change worldwide. After all, globalisation is not only happening in the economic sphere and in financial markets. On a deeper level, globalisation is a radical cultural change on an unprecedented scale. Traffic and media are its preconditions. This process of globalisation seems to foster an Americanisation of global Christianity. The songs, worship patterns and attitudes of Evangelical and Pentecostal communities follow a basically US-American model. One can clearly speak of a homogenisation of global cultural trends.
If this homogenisation takes on fundamentalist traits, and even becomes politically charged and is connected with a global claim to political hegemony, then quite an explosive mixture emerges. Such politicised fundamentalism exists not only in Islam, but unfortunately also in Christianity.
Nevertheless, there are also counter-movements. During my visit in Latin America, I realised that Pentecostals of the second and third generation see the need to withdraw from this tendency towards globalisation and to be rooted in the cultural and social realities of their individual countries and regions. The older these Pentecostal churches are, the more they show a growing commitment to diaconal ministry. The questions of structure and management connected with it are becoming increasingly similar to those in the historical churches.
At the same time, we have to appreciate that this Charismatic spirituality is increasingly influencing traditional main-line churches. It is interesting to note that those churches that have given space to Charismatic movements and their worship patterns and spirituality in their own denominations show more stable figures. So one can say that there is some movement on the side of historical churches towards Pentecostal churches through their incorporation of spiritual beliefs and practices in theological responsibility.
In my view, there are increasing chances to enter into productive dialogue with "more mature" parts of the Pentecostal churches. However, this dialogue will then have to be established at all levels. Last autumn, a first but very promising attempt was made at WCC level with the Global Christian Forum in Limuru near Nairobi. The dialogue had a successful start because the participants did not discuss structures and basic theological beliefs, but opened up to each other as Christians of diverse church affiliation and shared personal testimonies of faith. This way it became obvious that even bishops in historical churches can be quite spiritual people, who are in no way mere guardians of a traditional but lifeless deposit of faith.
I believe that the biblical considerations and description of the phenomena of religious movements show that the so-called "mainline" churches in Germany and also in Indonesia are challenged in a major way. We are confronted with a theological task we cannot refuse, which is to ascertain the biblical-theological dimension of the work of God in his Holy Spirit, and to testify to the power of God's Spirit within the context of our faith in God, the creator, and in Christ, the redeemer and reconciler. Similarly, we are faced with the challenge to make this visible in the form and life of our church.
However, we have now certainly moved beyond the initial stages. Please allow me to mention only two observations which indicate in my opinion that our churches are already changing.
It is obvious that the dimension of an Evangelical spirituality is becoming more important in our church. In many congregations, new forms of worship are firmly established and meet with an excellent response. These instances of spiritual renewal have not yet become mass phenomena. Perhaps they do not need to. But they are visibly influencing our church life.
Since the EKD Synod in Leipzig in 1999 the issue of the missionary competence of the churches has returned to the agenda of the German Protestant churches. I can see first signs of new beginnings. Liberating faith from the private and hidden sphere, becoming articulate about faith, standing up for one's faith personally and publicly, making it visible and tangible, have now become main concerns within our church.
It is important to me that we commit ourselves to responsible theological reflection on these processes. The basic insight of the Reformation, that we are justified by faith alone through the grace of God, is in my view the essential counter-argument against any religious phenomena, in which religious experience is considered proof of the attainment of a religious state, and which serve to elevate and distinguish an individual over against other human beings. In our commission to proclaim the gospel to all the world, our faith obliges us to practise tolerance with everyone.
Lecture presented on January 19th, 2010 at the School of Theology (STT) in Pematang Siantar, Sumatra, Indonesia.