An article came out in the NOVEMBER CHARISMA magazine that I recently wrote a review concerning how to be less crazy in a charismatic church. I appreciate Charisma printing about 1/8 of the review and I genuinely consider it an honor that they would print that much of an unpublished pastor. However, a couple of important point were edited out and so I am going to post the whole review for those interested.

REVIEW OF ARTICLE, "How to be Charismatic without being Crazy", by GREG SURRATT; CHARISMA MAGAZINE, November 2010.

As a pastor in the same region as the author of the above article, I read with interest the insight he offers in regards to Charismatic churches. His thoughts solicited some ideas that I thought might be a worthy review of the article and additional thoughts for the churches he addresses.

First, let me say that I agree with much of the analysis part of the article. I too, am frustrated and embarrassed by the hypocrisies, inconsistencies, and fabrications of the charismatic movement. After pastoring people for 27 years, I can share my own horror stories of embarrassing moments watching people act and minister in bizarre ways claiming that it was "the Lord". The greatest singular criticism we face as a movement is the one that looks askance at us and says, "You all are just too weird for me", and never gives us the chance to demonstrate true faith. I also appreciated Greg's testimony and was genuinely encouraged by reading it and finding out the journey he has walked and the issues he has faced that has led him to his "church life" conclusions and ultimately raising up a large and influential church.

Having said that, I do have some critiques that I believe would add to the discussion the article solicits. My hope is that this can be understood in the light of what Greg mentioned as "healthy debate" (p.44). My greatest concern is that somehow I become an apologist for doing church "the crazy way" or be seen as one who is simply anchored to the old way of doing things. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just as I would affirm that Greg is not trying to coral the Holy Spirit; I am not trying to advocate for a three ring circus either.

My critiques would be the following:

1. I think Greg has fallen into the ditch many a philosopher has found by analyzing the landscape accurately, but answering it with faulty solutions. Critique is somewhat easy because human nature can always "pick at specks" in other's eyes or even the churches practices. The hard part is a solution. The word "crazy", for example, is a slippery concept. No one wants to be thought of as "crazy", yet there are a lot of "crazy" things that happen to believers now, through history, and in the Bible. In fact, most of the times God moved in Scripture supernaturally it tended to look "crazy" to the natural mind. Even the Acts 15 illustration that was used to support the notion of moving the church to a more "seeker-friendly" environment left out one important point. These new gentile believers in Antioch were not only uncircumcised which was a doctrinal debate, but they were spontaneous, edgy, outrageous, and passionate in their worship expressions and practices (by first century standards) in contrast to what was normal for Jerusalem. You would have a hard time labeling Antioch as "seeker-sensitive". Translation: They looked "crazy" to a lot of people. There is also no doubt that the Corinthian church was crossing lines of decorum because Paul had to bring correction to it (I Cor. 12-14). Yet, even in his correction, he never stifled the work of the Holy Spirit in their midst, but affirmed it. However, I wonder how many seeker churches would he have to correct the other way? I can assure you that few "seeker" churches today would even find it necessary to deal with those chapters because they are nowhere near that expression. Perhaps a better title for the article would have been, "How to be Charismatic without being Carnal?"

2. The definition of "seeker-sensitive" fascinated me. It was defined as, "thinking more about our neighbors than ourselves" (p.43). That is certainly a good thing as well as a Kingdom value. I would hope that is a value in every professing Christian's life. However, the real question should be, "WHO are we to be thinking about when it comes to worship; God, or our neighbor?" I know a church the size and scope of Seacoast has wrestled with and heard ALL the debate about philosophy of worship. I personally "get" the point that the sheer size and influence of Seacoast seems to affirm the current measuring stick of success and therefore tends to validate its philosophy. However, I would challenge again the philosophy of church worship that gathers strictly for the "non-believer". We are not there to appease a sense of tradition or comfort for the non-believer. In fact, if God shows up and conviction in hearts manifests, it will get real uncomfortable. You see the problem with "seeker-sensitive" philosophies is that they tend to want to "manage" or "handle" the work of the Holy Spirit in such a way as to not offend the senses of man. We literally want to be the Holy Spirit's agent and Public Relations director so no one gets challenged. Now I have no problem acknowledging that people make "decisions" in that environment, but the real question is, "Are they truly converted?" Without the transforming presence of God, what remains is religious activity.

3. The end of the article it was mentioned that "'Easy' is not a dirty word. Why do we think it's more spiritual to make it difficult for seekers." (p.45) You are right to an extent. Any man-made hoop that we require a seeker to jump through just for difficulty's sake is out of bounds. However, the word "easy" is only found 4 times in Scripture (3 if you use a modern version). Again, no one I know would argue for the complex. Salvation is by grace through faith and is so easy that a child can comprehend it. I will even go one step further and declare that Jesus' "yoke is easy and His burden is light" (Matt.11:30), which I understand to mean that His ways will not crush a person but ultimately liberate me (Gal. 5:1). Having said that, I checked and found over 45 references to the faith being "hard". This does not count the teachings on the "wide and narrow paths" (Matt.7:13-14), or "taking up your cross" (Lk.9:23-25), or even "counting the cost" (Lk.14:26-31) to name but a few. Understanding and the initial response to salvation is "easy" in the sense that we exercise child-like faith, but obedience and walking that out is indeed "hard" and at times costly. It does believers no service to leave the impression (as many in the seeker movement do) that Christianity is "easy-believism". This, along with a faulty instruction of eternal security is leaving people with the false impression that they are spiritually OK, when in fact they are not. Demons "believe" in God and are orthodox in their beliefs (James 2:19), but that intellectual assent will not "save" them. Salvation is certainly free and easy; but at the same time costs everything and is to be worked out in fear and trembling.

Contrary to what people might think, I actually have a tremendous respect and admiration for what Greg and Seacoast have accomplished. I too, like Greg, have been disillusioned by much of the Charismatic silliness. I have pondered on more occasions than I can count just how "edgy" and "crazy" a church should be. As I read the article I had to wonder if the experiences of Greg's past somehow "clouded" his solutions for today. I, personally, have come to this conclusion; I cannot allow my disappointments to turn into disillusionment and become the basis or foundation of my church life philosophy. As pastors, we all will stand before God and answer for ourselves what it is we did when it came to shepherding His sheep. It is not mine to judge Greg and his conclusions, however, it is mine to enter into a "healthy debate" and see if we can find the truth.

I believe that one of the greatest mistakes pastors make in our current era is to embrace the trendy and not see the eternal. It is easier to rest a ministry on management theory with occasional Scripture sprinkled in than it is to rest it on the whole counsel of God. No pastor wants to be "seeker-alienating". No pastor likes seeing people walk out the door. However, every pastor needs to remind himself (herself) that this is God's House and HE needs to be the most comfortable Person there.

KEVIN R. BAIRD; D.Min.

Senior Pastor - Legacy Church

1401 Sam Rittenberg Blvd.

Charleston, South Carolina

(843) 766-1787

www.legacychurchsc.org