Still Here!

This is how this past week has felt. It's been a really good week, but a bit of a whirlwind pace. I don't think I've ever had this much space between posts -- I was starting to get withdrawal symptoms, but since Post-Charismatic went live last week, I've gotten a few extra emails than normal, which has kept me busy.

I've also been putting in a lot of hours at St. Arbucks in the final few weeks before YWAM starts for us -- that IS why we moved here in the first place, after all! And in my "spare time" (yeah, right...), I've been reworking our YWAM base's website. Let's put it this way: I'm not going to link to our base's site until I've fixed it. They haven't had anyone on base with any sort of graphic skills (or software) since 1998. 'Nuff said.

I've already added a text link in the "Articles in Drydock" for the Post-Charismatic project, and in the next couple of weeks, I'll probably delete the big blocky image for it.

The responses I've been getting via email have been humbling, encouraging, exciting, and thought-provoking. Thanks to all for commenting here, in the Post-Charismatic Forum, and in email. I'm a bit overwhelmed by the reaction at times, to be honest. I knew quite a few post-charismatics in the analog world already, but the online/email responses have taken it to a whole 'nuther level. A special thanks to Emerging Grace, who took the plunge and posted the first personal story in the Forum. Yes, I did ask her to, but I'm glad she took me up on it!

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Last weekend was Trisha Robins' CD release party for Lauren's Song; I had the privilege of playing bass on this album (Andrew Smith produced it), and as soon as I can get a link for the CD, I'll definitely be putting it here. This is a great CD (no, not because I play on it -- Trisha is a great singer/songwriter). Here's a clip from "Dream Thief", which kinda ties into some earlier discussions we had here on dreams and the death of dreams.

There's no deep reason for this picture; Marc over at Purgatorio had this posted a while back, and I just found it really funny. Look at it this way: Imagine Worf in a charismatic "deliverance ministry"... (low growl deep in throat) "Satan... You are weak and have no honour!"

Post-Charismatic Goes "Live"

After just over a year of research and writing, the Post-Charismatic project is now officially "live" on the Internet. It can be accessed via the appropriate link in the sidebar.

"Rather than watch our wounded brothers and sisters turn their backs on the faith or reject genuine spiritual experiences, those of us who identify with the charismatic renewal should determine to help rid our movement of its extra baggage."

J. Lee Grady, editor of Charisma Magazine, wrote these words over a decade ago, as he called charismatics to some house-keeping in their own movement.

Grady also reported that by 1990, there were an estimated 92 million people worldwide who referred to themselves as "post-charismatic". Although current statistics are unknown, it is safe to assume a significant increase in that number since 1990.

The Post-Charismatic project is broken down as follows:

1. A brief historical overview of the developing theology of the Pentecostal, Charismatic, and Third Wave movements,
   
   
2. A de-construction of the background, teachings, and problems associated with the Latter Rain, Word Faith (Prosperity), and Shepherding movements, and
   
   
3. A re-construction (Spirit & Praxis) of the areas most affected by these movements: a biblical view of authority and the "five-fold" ministries, what it means to live by faith, spiritual formation (discipleship), and finally, what it means to be "communities of the Spirit"

Through the web-coding help of Brother Maynard, there is a forum following the Spirit & Praxis section, where conversation can continue to take place for those who consider themselves "Post-Charismatic, but not post-Spirit".

Welcome to the Journey.

Urgent Prayer Request

Hey, all. One of my treasured Journeymates, Emerging Grace, has posted a brief but urgent prayer request on behalf of her husband, who may be in need of emergency surgery.

In the brief time that I've gotten to know Grace, via our blogs and comments, and also the occasional email back and forth, I've really come to appreciate her insights, wit, and wisdom. It's an honour to know her.

Please drop by her blog (via the specific link above) and join your prayers to all of ours.

"Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you've sinned, you'll be forgiven--healed inside and out.

"Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with." (James 5:15-16 The Message)

Pre-Launch

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the Post-Charismatic project should be online soon. This past week has been filled with re-reading and re-tweaking, while Brother Maynard fought off the flu and finished creating a forum to be included in the project.

The project is just too wide-ranging to entrust the comments to Haloscan, which only archives for so long, and would awkwardly place the comments here on the blog but nowhere near the content they're responding to. So to that end, Brother Maynard graciously spent quite a few hours doing what he does oh-so-well: writing code for websites. And now there is a forum attached to the project that will allow discussion and keep things (hopefully) organized.

I've adapted "Robby's Rules" from it's original youth ministry context to apply to the forum. My hope is that the forum will be "a safe place" for people to talk about the issues raised in the Post-Charismatic project; respect and an attitude of seeking to understand will go a long way in maintaining the "safe place".

Stay tuned...

I'm relieved, really.

I took the "Are you a heretic?" test at quizfarm.com. Here's the results:
Not sure why some of the scores even showed up as they did; I've always considered modalism, adoptionism, and nestorianism to be false. I'll have to re-check my historical theology notes, but I'm very sure I don't subscribe to monophysitism either.

I think it's likely that a Calvinist wrote the quiz, because the one question I answered about what is commonly referred to as "prevenient grace" (the grace that God gives all people to enable them to choose salvation) should have earned me the label "Arminian", but some hyper-calvinist friends of mine equate "arminian" with "pelagian". Oh, well.

At any rate, now that I have incontestable proof that I'm not a heretic, I can sleep at night.

"Recycled" Dreams?

In the comments to the Dreams post, Brother Maynard wrote an eloquent and heartfelt comment that said, in part:

"Dusty dreams, reminding him of a recurring prophetic vision... a vision he used to share publicly, a vision of gifts, callings, and dreams that went unfulfilled. He remembered the feeling of calling people forward to respond to this vision, of praying for person after person after person, that God would restore these dreams, dust them off, fulfill them. That these forgotten gifts would resurface, how God hadn't changed his mind, that the gift remains. He recalls how encouraged people were, how touched, and how these prayers sparked new life back into the lives of a number of folk who'd simply grown weary.

"'Was that all a dream?' he muses. 'Was it real? Have I become one of those people?" Who knows...'"

It seems to me that Brother Maynard has hit on a crucial crossroads kind of question: Were those of us who prayed life back into people whose dreams had died or become dormant -- and I remember praying for people about these very things -- wrong to have prayed that way? Were we simply unable to recognize that dreams die and that's just the way it is? And now do we just understand things better, because we've hit the same wall at some point? Or, as Bro. Maynard wonders, have some of us become those people who need others to pray for us, that God would restore gifts, callings, and vision? If people want to pray that way for us, will we let them? Or will we shy away, and if so -- why?

Jo & Andrew Smith

In the comments to the "Corporate Wisdom" post below, Pat mentioned that he didn't know that Andrew Smith had a new CD out. That's a tragedy, because if you thought Andrew was a great musician before, wait till you hear this one!

Andrew Smith and his family have been great friends of ours for many years. I've toured with Andrew all across Canada, we've spent many evenings at each other's houses in Winnipeg and now Kelowna, and my daughter Jo has been dancing alongside Andrew's daughter Emma since they were eight years old.

Andrew's latest album, Escape Velocity, is mostly instrumental, and it's absolutely mind-boggling the alternate tunings, tapping and harmonics, and percussive guitar-slapping rhythmns that the guy does. You won't believe it's one guy, on one guitar -- but it's true.

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And because I "just happened" to mention that Jo and Emma have been dancing together for almost a decade now -- Emma was also in the Creator's Dance Studio production with Jo and her dad -- here's another couple of pix of Jo. She's the one leaping like a gazelle across the stage. After the performance, Tami Smith remarked, "She throws herself into everything with such passion, doesn't she?"

True story, that.