This is a generous and honest take. I appreciate your commentary. As a curmudgeon by nature but charismatic by practice, study, and experience, I can resonate with everything you said here. I am from this area and had a chance to be there for a day. By all charismata standards, it was actually pretty tame. I was in the service where the international student was flooded with cash. In honesty, it was a beautiful microcosm of the whole thing: such an eager, generous spirit in reflection of a good and generous God. My husband had the opportunity to serve on one of the worship teams, which gave an even greater behind the scenes picture. We were extremely impressed with the humility and wisdom of the leadership - a quiet vetting, a sober stewarding. Your words were fitting: "earnest, humble, hopeful."
Do weird people show up? Yes. Does the flesh sometimes get in the way of the spirit? Yes. (But in my humble opinion, no more than it does in a pious, curmudgeon service😉).
I agree with your take that the good outweighs the bad, that the ripple effects can be weighty and history-altering. And when it comes right down to it, I'd rather be in the messy, hungry crowd, than on the sidelines with the religious elite missing meals and miracles because I don't recognize the Lord of the Sabbath right in front of me.
Similarly, everything going on at Asbury sets many of my natural alarm bells ringing. But I kept being pulled back to it, feeling deeply moved and hugely impressed by how the thing was managed. I was preaching on the Parable of the Two Sons in Matthew 21:28-32 to our 14-18s at church on Friday night, and ended up using a clip of Asbury as an illustration. I prefaced it with a LOT of caveats, but my point was that, although I'm a sensible, British, card carrying Calvinist, church history nerd who wants to dot all his theological i's and cross his doctrinal t's, the fact is that I reckon a whole lot of these enthusiastic American, Gen Z, charismastic Methodists are going into the kingdom of God ahead of me if they're actually going about doing stuff I fail to do - confessing their sins unprompted, praying for those in need, and going on to whatever comes after this.
Having become a Christian at the back end of the Jesus movement that began in the 1970's, I was glad to see college students HUNGRY for more of what comes with the intangible glory falling in a certain place in time.
These events don't really translate on video, but for me, I could see something different was happening there. And in my kitchen I cried out "Come Holy Spirit, fill me with fresh anointing!!"
Thank you for covering this Bethel, I love your writing style and takes on any number of subjects.
I first recognized your genius during some interviews with Becket Cook (who is AWESOME).
And I'm now subscribed to your Substack...Godspeed!!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and questions. And for recognizing your epistemological limitations. In this case as in most, it isn't true that "everyone is entitled to their own opinion." Everyone may HAVE an opinion, but only those with firsthand experience of the event are ENTITLED to one. And even they only know a small part of all that went on, in both the seen and unseen realms.
This is a generous and honest take. I appreciate your commentary. As a curmudgeon by nature but charismatic by practice, study, and experience, I can resonate with everything you said here. I am from this area and had a chance to be there for a day. By all charismata standards, it was actually pretty tame. I was in the service where the international student was flooded with cash. In honesty, it was a beautiful microcosm of the whole thing: such an eager, generous spirit in reflection of a good and generous God. My husband had the opportunity to serve on one of the worship teams, which gave an even greater behind the scenes picture. We were extremely impressed with the humility and wisdom of the leadership - a quiet vetting, a sober stewarding. Your words were fitting: "earnest, humble, hopeful."
Do weird people show up? Yes. Does the flesh sometimes get in the way of the spirit? Yes. (But in my humble opinion, no more than it does in a pious, curmudgeon service😉).
I agree with your take that the good outweighs the bad, that the ripple effects can be weighty and history-altering. And when it comes right down to it, I'd rather be in the messy, hungry crowd, than on the sidelines with the religious elite missing meals and miracles because I don't recognize the Lord of the Sabbath right in front of me.
Similarly, everything going on at Asbury sets many of my natural alarm bells ringing. But I kept being pulled back to it, feeling deeply moved and hugely impressed by how the thing was managed. I was preaching on the Parable of the Two Sons in Matthew 21:28-32 to our 14-18s at church on Friday night, and ended up using a clip of Asbury as an illustration. I prefaced it with a LOT of caveats, but my point was that, although I'm a sensible, British, card carrying Calvinist, church history nerd who wants to dot all his theological i's and cross his doctrinal t's, the fact is that I reckon a whole lot of these enthusiastic American, Gen Z, charismastic Methodists are going into the kingdom of God ahead of me if they're actually going about doing stuff I fail to do - confessing their sins unprompted, praying for those in need, and going on to whatever comes after this.
Having become a Christian at the back end of the Jesus movement that began in the 1970's, I was glad to see college students HUNGRY for more of what comes with the intangible glory falling in a certain place in time.
These events don't really translate on video, but for me, I could see something different was happening there. And in my kitchen I cried out "Come Holy Spirit, fill me with fresh anointing!!"
Thank you for covering this Bethel, I love your writing style and takes on any number of subjects.
I first recognized your genius during some interviews with Becket Cook (who is AWESOME).
And I'm now subscribed to your Substack...Godspeed!!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and questions. And for recognizing your epistemological limitations. In this case as in most, it isn't true that "everyone is entitled to their own opinion." Everyone may HAVE an opinion, but only those with firsthand experience of the event are ENTITLED to one. And even they only know a small part of all that went on, in both the seen and unseen realms.