A New Kind of Charismatic
Chris Backert
October 16, 2023
There are many things that are hard to predict about the future of the church in North America, but one thing is clear: the future church is more charismatic.
I’m not sure how that statement strikes you, but consider the growth of the church around the world – most of it has a Spirit-filled underpinning. This growth, once primarily happening outside Western contexts, is now steadily increasing in places like the UK, Australia, and especially the United States. At the same time, the non-charismatic parts of the church are shrinking, especially in the Western world.
We all know that the mainline church (UMC, PCUSA, Episcopal) is by and large a generation away from the edge of extinction. But what is most striking in the data is that while the evangelical church is holding steady, the families of churches that hold to some practice of “the charismatic life” are growing. Even evangelical churches and communities that once would have been found lacking in their charismatic orientation now have clear, regular examples and bodies of teaching around the Spirit-filled life. Whether it is the Anglican Church, the Reformed Calvinist movement, Spirit-Oriented Mennonites, former United Methodists, or more multi-denominational groupings like Exponential, there is hardly any corner of the church that is not MORE charismatic than it was in previous generations.
One has to step back and wonder, “ Why might this be? ” This is certainly not something that aligns well with the values of our broader culture as so many changes tend to be. Instead, we ought to think that perhaps this wave of the Spirit is something that God himself has initiated for this time. If God himself has initiated this, then we might ask ourselves, “ How do all of us take steps into what God is doing? ” After all, you need not consider yourself charismatic to take a step forward into the life of the Spirit.
You need not consider yourself charismatic to take a step forward into the life of the Spirit.
In my own journey, I have often described myself as a “British charismatic.” Mainly, what I have intended to mean is that I have a “subdued” expression of life in the Spirit. I am still uncomfortable in contexts where the “full gifts of the Spirit” are displayed. Yet, I have found that learning to hear God, to give and receive prophetic words, and to discern the action of the Spirit in a setting, have been indispensable to my life and leadership. I’ve also been fortunate to be part of just a few “miraculous” circumstances. I always hope for more of those, but it doesn’t phase me when less of them happen. There are more than enough reasonable, theologically informed, reasons why we don’t see more miracles than we do.
What resides in my heart for my fellow Ecclesia leaders is that you would not miss what God is doing in this moment, either because of any past or present experiences with those who are “Pentecostal or Charismatic” or that you would regard your own personality and way of being in life to be at odds with what we generally experience to be a more “expressive” version of the Christian faith. If we miss what God is doing in this season, I believe there are at least three profound things we will miss.
First, you could miss a more dynamic and faith-filled personal life of faith. Second, you may miss the longing expectation for the surprising work of God that accompanies the vast majority of where the church is growing in witness and maturity around the globe and ALSO in Western nations that have left a concern for authentic, orthodox Christian witness. Third, and perhaps most importantly because it serves as the foundation of the first two, you will miss out on living and leading with the authority and boldness that accompanies the call of a Christ-follower and is necessary as part of your profession in a time when the winds of society are most certainly blowing against you.
As I look across all my experiences with planting, pastoring, multiplying leaders, building networks, and working with various denominations across the continuum of the church in North America, one thing I know for sure is that the only wind that can withstand the winds of our current secular, increasingly antagonistic context to authentic Christianity on the one hand, and the current nationalistic, increasingly antagonistic context to authentic Christianity on other is the wind of the Spirit. We must have the confidence that God is with us, in the power of the Spirit, to have the courage to face these twin headwinds coming against all of us for the foreseeable future.
So, how do we take a step into this moment?
First, I would recommend to any leader three books that I believe create a pathway for anyone to incrementally grow in their life in the Spirit – Surprised by the Power of the Spiri t and Surprised by the Voice of God , both by Jack Deere, and Hearing God by Dallas Willard. You might have read Hearing God in a previous season in life, but I would invite you to read it through the lens of the “charismatic life” and see how it hits you differently.
Second, I would recommend that you simply ask God to continuously reveal the person and work of the Spirit that Jesus sent to accompany and empower you. There is more to be said for sure, but I don’t know of any circumstance where someone has genuinely asked God to reveal the Spirit to them and God has not in due course answered. The question for us is “Do we want more of the Spirit?” It surely seems like it would be wise to say “yes.”
In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s shooting, social media has been filled with perspectives, as is typically the case. I am reluctant to add mine as there seems to be no lack one way or the other. To be clear, this is not just about Charlie Kirk, this is about violence across the board. I did not feel led to write this because it was Charlie Kirk specifically, but rather another in a long and winding line of acts of violence, that my ministering at Va. Tech gives me a bit of personal experience with. But as I have just finished teaching two classes on Christian Ethics, and as I was encountering again the spread of responses from my Christian sisters and brothers, I felt led to look at this event through that lens. Ethics, at its base, seeks to answer the question, “What is better or worse? Good or bad?” As a follower of Jesus, this is what seems right to me… 1. We never celebrate harm. Whatever our disagreements, rejoicing at a shooting violates the bedrock claim that every person bears the imago Dei (Gen 1:27). Scripture is explicit: “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls” (Prov 24:17); “Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5:44); “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21). I don’t love blasting verses like this, but you cannot get away from them if you are reading the scriptures. 2. Moral responsibility sits with the shooter—full stop . Saying “his rhetoric got him shot” smuggles in a just-world logic that excuses violence. As a contextual theologian, I have an enormous amount of respect for the impact our various narratives have in shaping our understandings of the world around us. They are inescapable. But that is not what I am talking about here. Ideas can be wrong, harmful, or worth opposing vigorously, but vigilante ‘payback’ is never a Christian category. My primary gig is that of a consultant for churches and non-profits. Today, in my meetings and among friends, I have heard some variation of “He got what he deserved,” and “I vote for some very public justice for the shooter.” Both of these views speak of revenge; the follower of Jesus is called to lay these down as our Messiah did. Not asked to, told to. 3. Grief and outrage about gun violence are legitimate; schadenfreude is not . Channel the pain toward nonviolent, concrete action (policy advocacy, community intervention, survivor support), not dehumanization. Here are four thinkers who have had a profound impact on the Christian ethic I try to work out in this world. As I share them, three things are worthy of mention. One, I certainly do not claim to follow their guidance perfectly, and at times I do not even do it well, but they have all given me what seems like a Jesus-centered and faith-filled direction to move in. Second, I do not claim to speak for them in this particular matter; I am merely showing how my ethical lens has been formed. Third, clearly I am not dealing with all the components of our response to these types of violence, this is not a comprehensive treatment, merely the reflections in the moment. Stanley Hauerwas : “Christian nonviolence is not a strategy to rid the world of violence.” It’s part of following Jesus, not a tactic we drop when it’s inconvenient. Stanley Hauerwas, Walking with God in a Fragile World, by James Langford, editor, Leroy S. Rouner, editor N. T. Wright : “The call of the gospel is for the church to implement the victory of God in the world through suffering love.” Simply Good News: Why the Gospel Is News and What Makes It Good. In other words, we answer evil without mirroring it. David Fitch : Our culture runs on an “enemy-making” dynamic; even “the political rally… depends on the making of an enemy. Don’t let that train your soul.” The Church of Us vs. Them. Sarah Coakley : Contemplation forms resistance, not passivity. For Coakley, sustained prayer trains perception and courage so Christians can resist abuse and give voice against violence (it’s not quietism). “Contemplation, if it is working aright, is precisely that which gives courage to resist abuse, to give voice against violence.” Sarah Coakley, God, Sexuality, and the Self. Coakley would say that far too often we react before we reflect. This is the problem that Fitch is getting at in much of his writing, that our culture actually runs on antagonisms, the conflict between us. We need to find a better way.
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