More than Happy Clappy Steve Waters
One thing mankind has always been good at is causing division. We have got splitting a perfectly happy group of people into several different factions down to an fine art, and nothing lends itself to the expression of that more readily than religion. And nowhere within the realm of religion is this more apparent than in Christianity.
When Jesus ascended to Heaven, he left those who had followed him and believed in him a lifestyle that was unlike any other. It was unique and yet very simple, and knowing human nature like he does, he even made a source of power in the form of the Holy Spirit available to us so that we would have somewhere to turn for assistance when the going gets tough, and worldly lifestyles seem more attractive. In short, he left a group of people who loved him and, acting on his instructions and following his example they lived a common lifestyle that immediately and obviously set them apart from other people. They were Christians united by their faith in and love for their Saviour Jesus Christ.
But now, two thousand years later you cannot simply call yourself a Christian any more. Now you have to be an Anglican, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, Baptist, etc. you have to be slotted into one of the many different denominations which mankind has created through centuries of arguing over interpretations of what Jesus meant by the things he said. And just when it seems things can’t get any worse, we find a new split opening up within the Christian Church. The difference is that this split is not as a result of something that mankind has done, rather this new split is as a result of something that God is trying to do. This new division in the Church transcends even the barriers of denomination, and puts people into one of two camps, traditional Christian or charismatic Christian.
Charismatic
Christianity is nothing new as there have been outbreaks of revival periodically
for centuries, but it wasn’t until the 1960’s in England and the late
eighties in Wales that this phenomenon which has been disparagingly named Happy
Clappy really became noticed on a wide scale.
There was nothing new about what was happening, i.e. people laughing
hysterically, falling into trances, falling to the ground in tears, speaking in
other languages (tongues) etc, all these could be seen in the other revivals
that have broken out previously. What
made this time different was firstly instant communication that has been part of
our way of life since the eighties meant that news of these happenings travelled
all round the world in a short space of time, whereas in the past, news of
outbreaks of revival was confined to the distance that people could physically
travel. And secondly it happened at a time when people were no
longer content to believe the scientific “if you can’t touch see or feel it
then it doesn’t exist” way of thinking. People had started to become more
aware that there was a spiritual side to life on earth.
Another crucial difference between previous outbreaks of revival and the modern “Happy Clappy movement” is that in previous times the lack of world wide communications meant that it was much easier for the traditional church to put the lid on outbreaks of this kind whereas today, so many people get to know about it in such a short space of time that the traditional church can no longer keep such things quiet. Also the Church today hasn’t got the power over people’s lives that it once had, and people today are more willing to question the Church’s stance on things than they were years ago. These two things have meant that the traditional churches have been forced into taking one of two stances regarding the Charismatic movement, either agreeing with and recommending it, or disagreeing with and condemning it. Thus we see the new split in the Church of God today between traditional and charismatic.
The real tragedy of the whole situation is that by distancing themselves from the “Happy Clappy movement” and all it stands for, the traditional churches are missing out on blessings and gifts that God wants so desperately to bestow on it. There was a time in the early days of the Christian movement when miraculous healings as a result of prayer and laying on of hands were commonplace. Singing and praying in tongues was for everyone. It was encouraged and expected, and no-one batted an eyelid about seeing someone in tears because they had been confronted by God about some wrong in their life. And what about clapping and dancing as you worship God? It was Common place in the early Church, but sadly, not so commonplace now.
These things were all part of being a Christian in the early days, gifts given by a loving God to his people. But where are they today? Why are these gifts not as evident in today’s Christian lifestyle as they once were? What has gone wrong? The problem as I see it is that sometime in the Church’s past it was conned into believing that these gifts that are ‘of the Holy Spirit’ and that were so common in early Christianity were a ‘once only’ thing for the early Church and therefore do not apply to today’s Christians. And this is reinforced in my mind by the fact that I grew up with the Anglican Church, it always has been a very strong influence in life, and yet it wasn’t until God got my attention when I was in my mid thirties that I found out something was missing from my Christian life. Growing up as a boy I was never taught in church or Sunday school that ordinary people could speak in tongues or be healed through laying on of hands. I never ever saw people in such close communion with God that they were laughing or weeping. And I was always taught that in church you kept quiet. Clapping and dancing would certainly have got you thrown out.
It seems to me that for so long now the Church, as a result of this con, has in effect only paid lip service to the real power behind Christianity, the Holy Spirit, and believing the lie that the gifts of the Spirit were for the early Church only, it has been trying to spread the message of God under its own power. Now this may have worked very well in bygone times when the Church held a fair amount of influence in people’s lives but you only have to look at the state of most mainstream churches today to see how successful that plan is now. A lot of churches today have a congregation that is at best only holding it’s own and at worst is actually in decline, leading to accusations that the Church is in decline and is irrelevant. But the truth is that the Church is not in decline, far from it. If you really look, there are plenty of Christian churches world wide that are growing at a phenomenal rate, including some churches of the so called traditional denominations, and the one thing that they have all got in common is that have rediscovered the true power of the Holy Spirit and embraced the gifts that he has to bestow. And that is the way forward for Christianity. We have to realise that these gifts were not a once only happening for the early Church. Jesus meant them for every one who turns to him from the day He sent them to us until the day He comes back again. To deny them is to deny what God wants for us his children, and if the Church today wants to be seen once again as a force to be reckoned with in people lives, then it must realise this. The way forward for God’s people today is to realise that there is a spiritual side of life on earth and to embrace it. It’s only when we accept this that we can allow the Holy Spirit to live in us and work through us as He did in the early Church, and that is the challenge for us who are members of the charismatic church. We have to communicate this truth to a world that needs to hear it, we have to persuade people that charismatic Christianity is more than Happy Clappy, more than just a lunatic fringe on the edge of the Christian Church. It has been famously said that there is a God shaped hole in every one us and that only God can fill that hole. Well the truth is that the hole is specifically Holy Spirit shaped and it takes the Holy Spirit to fill it, all we have to do is make people aware of this fact and show them what to do about it.
Simple isn’t it?