In Search for a Paradigm

I’ve discovered something. People don’t comment here when I say something particularly profound. Or at least, they don’t comment when I talk about something esoteric and theoretical. The only assurance I have of a good readership happens when I talk about making a fool of myself.

Fortunately for all of us, I’m in no danger of letting up on the foolishness.

Unfortunately, for nearly everybody, the sort of things I really like talking about are a little bit obscure. I apologize for that. I think about my experiences, including the experience of reading what I read; and I really like to talk about what I think.

Mostly what I’ve been thinking about is what I’ve been reading, and I’ve been reading a lot.

Right now I’m taking two seminary classes by correspondence and doing a lot of blog-reading on theology and Christian practice from a lot of backgrounds. There’s a reason for this: The more I think about it, and the more I pray about it, the more I come under a full conviction that I’m called to “full-time ministry.” (woo.) I don’t know if that means working in a church, or teaching in a school, or what, but the gifts and callings of the Lord are without repentance. If I was called 8 years ago, I’m probably called now. For whatever reason, the He’s taken me the long way ‘round, but that’s okay. I’ve learned a lot by going the long way ‘round.

One of the things I’ve learned, or at least come to the conclusion of, is that the tradition I grew up in doesn’t have it all together. There are a lot of things that non-denominational Charismatics have got right, but they seem to have a few inherent flaws.

The first one is that total independence of each church from every other is not necessarily a good thing. I’ve heard lots of people from the non-denom tradition criticize all the denominations in a lump for being “sectarian.” I’ve even heard the epithet “demonations.” And there is some truth to the criticism. My pastor, for instance, warned me carefully when I was choosing a seminary, that I should really pick a Baptist seminary, because a Baptist church would be very reluctant to hire me if I didn’t have a degree from a Baptist school. However, I’m not so desperate as *that* for a job at a Baptist church.

Sectarianism *is* a problem. It’s silly to look down on another group just because they’re not a member of *your* group, or because they don’t say exactly the same thing as you when you baptize people. But total independence is not the right solution. A totally independent church can be just as sectarian by refusing to work in conjunction with any other church in town—a typical problem for independent megachurches. What’s more, a totally independent church can be put at a loss to *find* a church that wants to coordinate with them, which is a more normal problem for smaller independent churches. For instance, I just think youth camps are better when they’re run by a conjunction of 3 or more area churches who are in agreement.

The other thing that non-denominational churches tend to miss is theology—though, I understand this is a more widespread problem. Charismatic non-denoms have teaching (oh, have we got teaching!), but what they’re lacking is a really thorough systematic understanding of what they believe. I’m not looking for a set of doctrines that says it’s got every corner nailed down (I checked into and rejected a seminary that listed its precise creed, and proceeded to announce that every professor had to sign agreement with the creed and announce if their opinions ever changed.), but it would be nice to have a fleshed out structure, rather than a pointilistic faith.

An example: I confessed my faith in Jesus Christ and was baptized when I was somewhere around 4 or 5. I had a “salvation” experience when I was around 11 or 12, where I realized how thoroughly bad a sinner I really am, and asked for His power to come and change me. I think I was around 19 when I started to do some real research on what the gospel really means and how it really works in people’s lives. I had to do that research myself, though, because “doctrine” was not really a matter of discussion—even in the ministry school I was attending!

So I’m doing a lot of reading right now to see what I can do to counteract these flaws. There’s no sense reinventing the wheel, so I’m checking into what as many people are saying as possible to see if I can get a better picture. In the next couple of days, I’m going to be doing a roundup of the sorts of things I’ve been leaning and discovering. I don’t know if that’s interesting to anybody else, but it’s interesting to me, and the things that are interesting to me are the ones I’m going to talk about.

Author: KB French

Formerly many things, including theology student, mime, jr. high Latin teacher, and Army logistics officer. Currently in the National Guard, and employed as a civilian... somewhere View all posts by KB French