I just wanted to share a little about what's happened in my life recently. I have a good brother who attends
Sovereign Grace church here in Chesapeake Virginia. Sovereign Grace is a pretty big church that has a contemporary style service. Their sanctuary is in an auditorium and their praise band and singers jump up and down and it's a very energetic, happy clappy style of service. Almost like being at a contemporary Christian concert. People in the congregation are also jumping up and down and of course holding their hands up and clapping. Sovereign Grace's main spokesperson and theologian is
Wayne Grudem and has developed a doctrinal style that follows Grudems attempt to merge reformed soteriology with charismatic/vinyard beliefs.
Sovereign Grace also holds Charles Spurgeon up on a very high pedestal. They also believe in believers baptism.
They have a very strong focus on family and youth and have two very big ministries that reflect this. Their youth ministry and their growth group or small group ministry.
They also have a pretty big book store in the church that has books for sale by Sproul, Packer, Schaeffer, Hodge, Vos, Pratt, Edwards and so on. So they do have a pretty big focus on reformed theology. Their sermons are expository for the most part.
So, it is a pretty edifying church in my opinion. But they still incorporate the Charismatic element.
So with saying all of this, my friend who introduced me to the reformed faith, himself has been in the Vineyard church for a very long time. So it makes sense to me that he would be drawn to this church. But we still communicate on a regular basis, we are very good friends. But there is a distinct line between us and that is that I'm a cessationist and he is a charismatic. So we have both just agreed to disagree on this issue. That doesn't mean that we can't continue to grow in our faith with each other, it just means that we don't see eye to eye on certain doctrinal issues. But after long discussions on this point, it has become clear to me that people are different and they are going to naturally be drawn to a style of doctrinal beliefs. As I have been recently studying early American history I discovered that there was a noticeable split between the protestant church that I hadn't realized. That of the Quakers and the Puritans. The Quakers being "spiritualists" and more charismatic and the Puritans being more focused on doctrine and the Word.
I work in a SB Christian bookstore, Lifeway, and there are a couple of young black girls who are pastors daughters that I regard as being very well grounded in their faith. It has been very pleasant to work with them and they continue to empress me with their bible knowledge and their faith. But they are both charismatic and both claim to have the gift of tongues. So at the end of the day, I have to admit that there seems to be those who are going to be naturally drawn to a more charismatic spirituality and those who are not. It has become apparent to both me and my good friend that we are not going to change each others minds. He is going to continue to be charismatic and I am going to continue to be a cessationist. We have both explored this aspect of our faith, we've read scripture, we've read commentaries and so on and we both come to different conclusions.
Y.C.I.C,
Dave.
