There are, of course, other associations to the term. We may distinguish three main meanings in popular usage: the sociological, the religious, and the biblical. 2

     The sociological meaning traces back to the German sociologist Max Weber and is commonly expressed today in reference to a “charismatic leader.” Whether active politically or religiously, this person exhibits a personal magnetism more or less independent of official status or position. While this meaning distorts the biblical origin of the word “charismatic,” it ultimately springs from that source. 

     The popular religious meaning is also a distortion of the biblical basis, both because of its almost universal association with tongues and because of the related notion that charismatic gifts are always dramatic and in some sense ecstatic or undisciplined. There is, however, an important biblical meaning of “charismatic.” The popular sociological and religious uses make it difficult for us to understand the root meaning of the term and compel us to go to Scripture with our questions.
 

     The word “charismatic” derives from the Greek word charisma, “grace gift,” and finally from charis, “grace.” A related word is the verb charidzomai, “to give freely or graciously as a favor.”

     These words bring us to the heart of the gospel. “For it is by grace [charis] you have been saved,” Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8—9, “through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” God is graciously self-giving. His mercy and grace toward us as sinners and toward the Church are the foundation for the life of the Christian community.

     This truth comes through clearly in several of the instances of charidzomai in the New Testament. For example, Romans 8:32: “He who did not spare his own Son, hut gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give [charisetai] us all things?” God’s gift of his own Son is the supreme manifestation of his grace and assures us that in Christ we will be given “all things” necessary to full Christian life and experience.

     Paul frequently underscores the fact that salvation is a gracious gift, not a matter of works or law. So he argues in Galatians 3:18, “For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave [kecharistai] it to Abraham through a promise.” Like Abraham, the people of God today are justified and live on the basis of a gracious promise. 

     Therefore the church is charismatic in this fundamental sense. It is formed and lives by God’s grace. It has received the gift of God, which is salvation through Jesus Christ. The gift is, in fact, Jesus Christ himself—and therefore the Holy Spirit himself. Biblically, this is the indispensable foundation for dealing with the question of the charismata (“grace gifts,” the plural of charisma). God’s primary gift is not an “it,” a thing, or even a status or position. God’s gift is a Person and a living, healing relationship with that divine Person.3

     But it is not enough simply to accept the word “charismatic” in this redefined and more basic sense. We must go on to ask how the gifts of the Spirit mentioned in the New Testament relate to the fact of the gift of the Spirit, of salvation by grace through faith. For the church is also charismatic in the sense that God has apportioned a special measure of grace and giftedness to each believer (Eph. 4:7—8). God promises and gives gifts of the Holy Spirit to build up the church. This is consistent with the gracious work of the same Spirit in regeneration and sanctification.

     This perspective underlies the familiar Pauline passages on the charismata (Rom. 12:4—8; 1 Cor. 12—14; Eph. 4:7—16) and related passages such as Hebrews 2:4 and 1 Peter 4:10—11. Ephesians 4 indicates that the unity and oneness of the church (4:3—6) are balanced by the diversity and mutuality of its members as a gifted, charismatic community (4:7—16). This understanding of the charismata is basic to Paul’s whole concept of the church as an organism created and sustained by the grace of God.

     An examination of Ephesians 3:2—11 underscores this point and shows how closely charis and charisma were linked in Paul’s thought. Paul says that his hearers know of the “administration” or “economy” (oikonomia) of God’s grace (charis) that had been given him (3:2).

     Paul was given a special understanding of God’s grace and a commission to reveal and proclaim this to the church and especially to the Gentiles. In verse 7 he says, “I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.” Paul’s phrase here is dorean tes  charitos—literally, “gift of the grace” of God—rather than charisma. Still, the meaning is clear: Paul himself had received a special charism, a gift of grace, to proclaim the full meaning of the gospel. In verse 8 Paul says that “this grace [charis] was given me to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” Here he substitutes the word “grace” for “gift of grace.” For Paul, the charismata and God’s grace were so intimately associated that he could sometimes use charis in the sense of charisma.

     Thus Paul saw his own ministry in charismatic terms. We know he was very conscious of his apostleship, and further that he considered apostleship one of the charisinata—in fact, as the preeminent charismatic gift (1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 4:11). His description of his own ministry as “grace” and “gift of grace” underscores the fact that Paul understood his own apostleship in charismatic terms.

     We see here also that Paul uses “grace” in two distinctive senses. In Ephesians 2:8—9 he refers to the grace of salvation, God’s gift through Christ by which we are saved. But in Ephesians 3:8 and 4:7 “grace” is synonymous with charisma, that is, “spiritual gift.” Thus in Ephesians 4:7 Paul says, “To each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it,” and goes on to speak of spiritual gifts. This distributing or apportioning of God’s grace to individual believers for edification and ministry is basic to the discussion of 1 Corinthians 12, especially verses 4—7, and reminds us of the reference to “distributions of the Holy Spirit” in Hebrews 2:4.

     Note the progression of Paul’s thought in Ephesians 4:1—7. You have already been saved by God’s grace, and so made one, he says. But within this unity is diversity. Grace has been given not only for your salvation, but also in the form of special endowment to enable each believer to be a useful, functioning member of the Body of Christ. What follows, logically, is a discussion of the gifts of the Spirit.

     Therefore the church is charismatic in these two senses. Fundamentally, it is charismatic in that it is called into being and constituted by God’s gracious work of salvation effected by the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ. Secondly, it is charismatic in that God by his Spirit works graciously in the church to build up and equip it for ministry through the distribution of a variety of spiritual gifts.

     Several truths follow from this perspective. First, spiritual gifts are not a peripheral or unimportant aspect of the church’s life, but are linked to God’s gracious action in the events of salvation. Second, this perspective underscores the ecclesiological importance of spiritual gifts. Gifts are not given for private spiritual enjoyment only, but for building up the Christian community. Conversely, gifts are not only a matter of the corporate life of the church but are a very real part of personal Christian experience. In fact, both sanctification and spiritual gifts have this in common: Individual Christian experience builds up the Body, and the church nurtures the lives and ministries of individual believers through the building of a charismatic, sanctifying community. This is the meaning of Ephesians 4:1—16.

     In this sense both Christian experience and the church are charismatic. Christian experience is the experience of God’s grace in the life of the Christian community.

     What, then, is the primary meaning of “charismatic”? We see that biblically the term applies first of all to the church, the community of believers, and only secondarily to the believer as an individual. Biblically, “charismatic” describes what the church is like.

     By way of summary, and to set the stage for the discussion in later chapters, we may identify four aspects of the charismatic nature of the church. These four points constitute a kind of model of what “charismatic” means in this book and provide the perspective for discussing “the charismatic question” as it applies to our churches today.

     1. The church exists and lives by God’s grace (charis). The church is the special sphere and evidence of God’s working graciously by his Spirit to convert, sanctify, equip, and minister through believers “to the praise of his glorious grace” (Eph. 1:6). The church is charismatic because it is fundamentally a grace-endowed organism, not a legal or primarily institutional structure.

     2. The church lives and functions by the action of the Holy Spirit and the distribution of the Spirit’s gifts. The charismatic nature of the church underscores the importance of the Holy Spirit’s endowment of believers with his gifts. The work of the Spirit is, of course, much broader than the distribution of gifts, as Wesleyans are quick to point out; but one cannot omit or downplay the role of spiritual gifts without doing violence to the New Testament.

     3. The charismatic emphasis focuses attention on the church as community. The church was meant to be an intimate community of mutually dependent believers who together make up Christ’s Body. But this koinonia is often lost due to the gradual drift toward institutionalism that seems to plague all churches, including those in the Holiness tradition. Decline in the knowledge and use of spiritual gifts often goes hand in hand with a decline in koinonia. Similarly, recovery of a balanced biblical emphasis on the charismata tends to deepen the awareness and experience of true Christian community. It is no accident that many branches of the Charismatic Movement have led the way in the recovery of a deeper level of Christian community. Many believers who have been attracted to the Charismatic Movement were initially drawn less by the emphasis on tongues or other gifts than by the caring, mutual love, and community that they found among “Charismatics.”

     4. Finally, the charismatic emphasis implies some inevitable tension with institutional expressions of the church. The tension between Spirit and structure is ever present in the life of the church (unless all life has vanished!), as the Wesleyan and Holiness movements can well testify.4  This does not mean, of course, that every “Charismatic” manifestation is necessarily of the Spirit or that institutional structures are wrong. It does suggest that whenever the Spirit moves in the church, tension will arise between “wine” and “wineskins.” The very immediacy of the work of the Spirit in human experience produces tensions with established patterns of life and order.
 

1. How have you usually understood the word “charismatic”? What kind of emotional response did you experience when you heard this word used?
2. The word “charismatic” is almost universally linked with the practice of tongues-speaking, even though in the Bible this word refers to many gifts of grace. Has this misunderstanding influenced your beliefs about the importance of the various gifts of the Spirit, or gifts of grace? How?
3. Think about the idea of Jesus as a “charismatic leader.” In what sense might the life and ministry of Jesus be considered a gift of grace?
4. To what extent does your own church use or exercise the gifts of grace? How crucial are these gifts to the survival and effective ministry of your church?
5. Is your church “charismatic”? In what sense?

2 See the helpful discussion in John Howard Yoder, “The Fullness of Christ: Perspectives on Ministries in Renewal,” Concern 17 (February 1969): 63—64. For a discussion of “charismatic fullness” as this term was used by Daniel Steele, see Delbert R. Rose, “Distinguishing Things that Differ,” Wesleyan Theological Journal 9 (Spring 1974): 8—11.

3 Note also Philippians 2:9; Colossians 2:23; 2 Corinthians 2:10 and 12:13; Ephesians 4:32. The fact that charidzomai can also be translated “forgive” (as in the last passage) further underscores the essential nature of this emphasis and its ecclesiological importance.

4 See Jaroslav Pelikan, Spirit Versus Structure (New York: Harper and Row, 1968).