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| My favourite Bill Johnson book |
So who do I most enjoy listening to and reading? Who opens the heavens for me? Whose teaching does my heart beat an enthusiastic Amen to? To which spiritual strand am I closest?
The answer, oddly--since I left a charismatic church in which I was very unhappy this Easter to move to a mainstream Evangelical church with just a twist of the spirit--is the Charismatic tradition.
I LOVE reading Bill Johnson's books. The way the thinks, talks and experiences faith is similar to mine. Going to an ILSOM conference in Oxford led by John Arnott changed the way I pray. I learned soaking prayer there. I love listening to Heidi Baker, and reading her books. I am fascinated by the 24/7 prayer movement of Pete Greig. I am interested in the teaching of the father's heart and the father's love, as in Mark Stibbe, Arnott, Pioreck.
I also love reading John Piper, Dallas Willard and Richard Foster.
I also love reading John Piper, Dallas Willard and Richard Foster.
I enjoy meat, substance, things to meditate on. I love the places where theology hits life, where the Word and the Spirit meet. There one finds excitement for both mind and spirit. I think wading in the shallows (as is the case with me) or swimming in the depths of the Spirit (as I do occasionally, and want to do more of) is the most exhilarating experience there is.
How about you? Which strand of contemporary Christianity most turns you on?
I think it's often less about a particular "type" of church than the local church that it right for you. I grew up in a baptist church and have tried methodist, united reformed, anglican, non-denominational and have ended up at a charismatic pentecostal church.
ReplyDeleteThe reason for that though was not because I went looking for one. I went looking for a welcoming church where I would be challenged. I don't agree with everything that gets taught, but what that does is it prompts me to check my own thoughts and beliefs, finding the evidence and adjusting & growing as I do so.
Any church that prompts that kind of thinking process is probably the right one to be in. But while someone like me might be challenged by a charismatic, another may be challenged by a more traditionalist church.
The Church (as a whole) is a rich a varied beast; the only thing that saddens me is when one strand sets itself up as in some way better or more authentic than others.
To taste and see that the Lord is good doesn't mean the ecclesiastical equivalent of having fish n' chips every night.
If I say that my top reading combines Rob Bell, Brian McLaren, Peter Rollins, Alastair McGrath and Tom Wright, I suppose I end up as something of a slightly liberal conservative charismatic evangelical.
ReplyDeleteThanks Peter and Simon:-).
ReplyDelete