What Kind of Church Are We? - Part 2

Most of us resist being labelled but sometimes it can be very helpful as an accurate shorthand to describe people.  If there were a label for our Church  it would be called a Charismatic Evangelical Church. 

What is an Evangelical?

This means firstly that we take the bible to be our primary authority for our belief and behaviour. 

Secondly there is an emphasis on the need of us all to have a conversion.  This is when we turn away from going our own way, because we recognise that that is a dead end, receive God’s forgiveness through the cross of Christ, turn to going God’s way and receive the Holy Spirit – God’s empowering presence- to enable us to live effectively for him.  That is we start a new life because God now dwells within us. 

Thirdly we place great emphasis on the Cross of Christ which is how God enabled us to have forgiveness and freedom and motivation to live for him.

Other aspects that stem from this are: a great belief in prayer; an encouragement to freedom in worship rather than ceremony and tradition; a commitment to encourage all members of the Church to be involved at every level; and an outward looking focus for our activities.

What is meant by Charismatic?

The Charismatic part comes from the fact that we believe it is possible to be filled by God’s presence in such a way that we encounter him and experience him.  This often means that we have profound times when we are in touch with God which mark us and change us.  It can be emotional but it is not only emotional and nor do we seek to play on people’s emotions.  The outcome of these encounters are changed lives and part of this is that some receive the gifts of the holy spirit particularly those describe in the section of the New Testament called 1 Corinthians where the writer, Paul in Chapter 12 provides the following list.

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,
to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,
to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.

We believe that these can still be exercised in the Church today and so as part of the services we allow space and time for people to use those gifts which are appropriate for the congregation.  The gift of healings is exercised through having the opportunity every Sunday for people to be prayed for and through this we believe God is glorified as people are touched healed and renewed.

In addition to encouraging people to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to use the gifts that God has given them we have a great emphasis on musical worship and the sense of intimacy with God that this engenders.  So at our main service the worship band may well lead our worship using modern songs for twenty to twenty five minutes during which time we settle our hearts and focus on God.  This in itself can be tremendously challenging as well as uplifting.

‘What kind of Church are we 3’ explores these issues in more depth.