In services, they sit quietly and when one feels that the Spirit has led him, or her, to speak, they would get up and do so.
A few "spoke a word from the Lord", ie, Scripture, but then the other stuff would start.
long ramblings about oh I don't know, love and butterflies, and cookies, and kittens, it was ok, but on and on, no one ever makes them stop.
Later I talked to one of the women who did seem more grounded and she said that a year or two before, they had to shut it all down-- people were getting up and jumping around and confessing and accusing others, and pretty much using the church as some sort of psychological therapy, so they halted everything and started over.
well I had seen enough--but I just wonder what goes on in these places where no one brings a halt to it.
This is not the Spirit of God, because the HS edifies and builds up, He does not cause chaos and divide churches.
However, Holy Spirit very rarely speaks as thunder from Heaven directly.
And in this church era . . . He chooses to use very flawed humans . . . maybe because there's no other kind available and He's not doing much 3-years-wilderness-back-side-of-the-desert-training-sessions with most of us.
And that jangles us OCD [Obsessive Compulsive Disorder] folks a lot until we let go of our OCD junk.
I'm skeptical that the best of Christian Congregational life will be otherwise than MESSY this side of Christ's return.
The challenge is, will we demonstrate loving God foremost and others as ourselves in the midst of the confusing messiness? . . . . or not?
Personally, I believe God's design is in this.
This state of affairs insures that at least the wiser, those with an authentic heart seeking God and His Highest--will always be throwing themselves on God's mercy and seeking His face to sort out their daily life decisions and actions.
It seems to me, that's a HIGH PRIORITY TO GOD. He knows, that training us to do so is vital for our security, our health, our safety, our righteousness, our eternal lives and reigning with Christ.
If things were more tidy and less complex, folks would resort EVEN MORE THAN THEY DO, to ritualized pretend tidy little boxed behaviors and rituals as substitutes for RELATIONSHIP with God.
The complex, sometimes confusing DANCE requires that those of us who follow our LEAD, are always intensely attentive to HIS slight nudges, directions, glances of His eye.
HE LIKES THAT.
HE KNOWS OUR LIVES MUST HAVE THAT FOCUS for our survival and health.
We delude ourselves when we think that Proddy traditions and our unique personal or IN-GROUP comfort zones = righteousness and authentic Christianity.