Posted on 05/18/2008 9:24:08 PM PDT by Between the Lines
It can be a little intimidating in a Reformed context to admit that one is Pentecostal. It's a bit like being at the ballet and letting it slip that you're partial to NASCAR and country music. Both claims tend to clear a room. And yet I happily define myself as a Reformed charismatic, a Pentecostal Calvinist.
It's been said that testimony is the poetry of Pentecostal experience, so permit me to begin with a personal poem to provide some background. I wasn't raised in the church; rather, I was quite "miraculously saved" the day after my 18th birthday through my girlfriend (now wife!), who was doing a little missionary dating. I received my earliest formation among the Plymouth Brethren, in a sector that defined itself as anti-Pentecostal and took a certain pride in knowing that the "miraculous" gifts had ceased to function with the death of the last apostle. Through a path that is convoluted and riddled with hurts, our spiritual pilgrimage eventually took us across the threshold of a Pentecostal church where we were welcomed, embraced, and transformed.
There, in that Pentecostal church in Stratford, Ontario—once home to Aimee Semple McPherson—God showed up. Encountering him in ways I hadn't experienced or imagined before, God shook my intellectual framework and rattled my spiritual cage at the same time.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
I miss dancing in Church, I really do. More power to you!
I just read online that Harald Bredesen pastored the First Reformed Church in Mt. Vernon, NY. Since he was ordained a Lutheran, I don’t know if that pastorate qualified him as being Reformed (Calvinist) as such, but he was definitely Pentecostal/Charismatic.
Bump
Interesting article.
Some people are more readily approached by Christ through emotion, rather than through cold hard facts.
Some people are drawn to him by evidence and reason, and view emotion as inferior.
God works in the lives of both types. I too am a Charismatic Calvinist.
Ping to an interesting thread.
That's right. Said differently, some people are more readily reached through the heart rather than the brain. Consider the woman at the well (John 4:4-30). In her case, ten minutes spent with Christ was better than ten hours simply reading or, more likely, hearing about Him.
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