Those who occupy responsible places in the structures of churches, schools, and denominations wonder what will happen when an outpouring of the Spirit comes. They are tempted to ask, “What will this outpouring do to our organization?” “What will our donors think?” “What will the literature the spiritual enthusiasts write do to our denominational circulations?” “What if these enthusiasts create a new church, splitting congregations into warring factions?” 1

     The Roman Catholic Church has formally recognized Charismatic renewal as a positive and constructive force. Some of their efforts toward integrating the renewal movement could also be successfully adapted by Protestant churches.

     One Catholic approach has been to allow Charismatic prayer groups to relate to the parish in the same way as other parish organizations, with a priest or chaplain participating only at crisis moments and ceremonial events. A second technique is to appoint a bishop’s representative to the movement as is done for other lay movements. A third approach is for priests to participate actively in the renewal, both as leaders and as participants. 3 Protestant parallels to these three ideas might include: 

• Scheduling Charismatic prayer meetings and recognizing them as official church functions; 

• Designating a responsible church leader to “shepherd” the Charismatic renewal within each church. When the demand is great enough, perhaps an officer or bishop in the church headquarters could accept responsibility to provide leadership and guidance to a denomination-wide Charismatic emphasis;

• Encouraging pastors to participate actively in the renewal, as leaders or participants, and providing them with the necessary training and materials to help them integrate the renewal into regular church functions.

• The unordained elder is an important figure in the tradition of the Church, not an abuse: having unordained elders allows pastoral flexibility and innovation, especially in a new or changing situation.

• The normal way for a renewal community to be related to the Church as a whole is by the ordination of its leader(s) to the presbyterate of the diocese in which the community is situated.

• The renewal community should be drawn upon to make an important contribution to the pastoral strength and the ordained leadership of the Church as a whole. 4

     Giving Charismatic leaders recognition and responsibility within the local church or the denomination is vital because of the community nature of the Charismatic Movement. Of course, such steps must be taken carefully and with some accountability built in. Normally a community is more comfortable choosing its own leaders rather than having a leader assigned to it by someone outside. When Charismatic leaders are not given recognition and responsibility, the usual result is conflict and division. Often this leads to the establishment of yet another church or denomination—which tends to flourish while the parent church stagnates.

     Charismatic leaders who break away from their mother church often do so involuntarily and reluctantly. In most cases they would rather introduce renewal to the parent church. Luther was a devout monk who longed to reform the Catholic Church, not start another. Wesley never left the Anglican Church (although often denied a pulpit) and kept the growing Methodist Movement within the Church of England during his lifetime. Another Methodist, Benjamin T. Roberts, started the Free Methodist Church only as a last resort, having been denied a voice in his own denomination, and only then at the initiative of others who had been expelled from the Methodist Church.

     Numerous other examples could be listed. In many cases schism could have been avoided and parent churches enriched if only those churches had welcomed with open arms the fellowship and the practice of the gifts of grace of their Charismatic brothers and sisters. We have known several churches in our own experience where this has happened, and in fact “Charismatic” and “noncharismatic” believers (in the popular sense of the term) coexist peaceably and supportively in many evangelical churches today. In failing to show this flexibility, churches have often lost the opportunity to guide renewal groups into broader maturity and usefulness. 5

     If the Charismatic and evangelical strains of the new Christian renewal movement [today] come together and unite a liberating energy with a new covenant vision for society, it is possible that a great religious awakening will take place, one potentially powerful enough to incite a second Protestant reformation.

It is also possible that as the domestic and global situation continues to worsen the evangelical / Charismatic phenomena, and the waves of religious renewal that follow, could, instead, provide a growing sanctuary for millions of frightened Americans and even a recruiting ground for a repressive movement manifesting all of the earmarks of an emerging fascism. 6

1 Wayne Oates in Runyon, What the Spirit is Saying to the Churches, P. 83. 

2 See Stephen B. Clark, Unordained Elders and Renewal Communities (New York: Paulist Press, 1976), pp. 2—3; and Donald Durnbaugh, The Believers Church: The History and Character of Radical Protestantism (New York: Macmillan, 1968).

3 Clark, PP. 3-4.

4 Ibid., P. 8.

5 See the discussion of the contrasting “charismatic” and “institutional” views on renewal in Howard Snyder, The Radical Wesley, pp. 125—42.

6 Jeremy Rifkin, The Emerging Order: God in the Age of Scarcity (New York: C. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1979), P. xi.