Charismatic Churches

Worship and Sacred Actions Throughout the Year in Charismatic Churches

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Charismatic churches often began in a reaction against the formalism of historic denominations, and the charismatic movement as a whole has shown little interest in any parts of the traditional Christian year outside of Christmas and Easter. However, many of these churches have begun to recover aspects of the Old Testament festal calendar, and there is renewed interest in the historic Christian calendar as well.

Observance of the traditional Christian year has been all but ignored by the churches in the charismatic tradition, with the exception of the special celebration of the Christmas and Easter seasons. As Christians from various traditions encountered the work of the Holy Spirit in a charismatic way, many clustered themselves into new fellowships and left the Christian year behind. They preferred an open, informal format with little or no structure so that the Spirit would move in whichever direction he wished, regardless of the liturgical season. Many new charismatics who had exited denominations that observed the traditional liturgical calendar rejected it as part of their former church’s “dead form.”

In their newfound freedom, however, these charismatic fellowships began to introduce new “seasons” of their own. These seasons were built around the preaching topics or ministry emphases of the local church, such as spiritual gifts, healing, praise, and worship, the end times, the prophetic church, the family, evangelism and outreach, building programs, and so on. The church would focus on these concerns and emphases for several weeks through various means: preaching, worship choruses, special times of prayer, conferences, and visiting speakers or ministries.

The charismatic community has continually valued the “now word” or rhema of God in addition to the Word or logos. As a result, flexibility to the movement of the Spirit has been the watchword, even in the midst of a special series or emphasis. God is given the opportunity to reveal his in-season word for the church, the word that speaks to the need of the hour and the current work the Lord is doing in the body, both locally and globally.

The principal celebrations of Christmas and Easter often involve special cantatas or musical-dramatic productions with a primary focus on evangelism and outreach to the community. Some churches are locally or regionally known for these large-scale productions that run for several nights and draw many from outside the congregation. One such church, Full Faith Church of Love in Kansas City, has in recent years offered the same program every Easter season, “Behold the Lamb.” With a large cast, extensive costuming, and elaborate special effects, this event reaches many people with the message of Jesus Christ.

While distancing themselves from the concept of following a liturgical year, many charismatic churches have adopted the celebration of some Jewish feasts. Charismatics have been especially interested in the types and models of the Old Testament, including the spiritual and prophetic significance of the Israelite feasts—a fascination that has led these churches to be more predisposed to celebrating the festivals of the Old Covenant instead of many of the traditional Christian year. The tabernacle/temple model of worship, with its progression from the outer court through the sanctuary into the holiest place and the proliferation of Messianic congregations have been other factors leading to an interest in the biblical festal calendar. Some charismatic churches have celebrated Passover meals and the Jewish Pentecost in an effort to understand the Hebraic roots of Christianity. Each year in October, thousands of worshipers from around the world gather in Jerusalem for the Christian Feast of Tabernacles, a festival noted for its outstanding music, colorful dance, and high pageantry. Some local churches in North America have also begun to schedule an annual Feast of Tabernacles, a time of heightened celebration of the Lord’s glory in praise and worship, incorporating dance and other worship arts.

Resistance to following the traditional liturgical year is still quite strong in charismatic circles. Most leaders fear that recovery of traditional seasons and days would reintroduce “dead form” to the church. One charismatic pastor who became part of a branch of the historic church responded to this concern by noting that “form isn’t dead or alive, it’s either true or false; people are dead or alive!”

In recent years a few celebrations, in addition to Christmas and Easter, have begun to be integrated into charismatic worship. Maundy Thursday observances of the Lord’s Supper have become more and more common; some churches have used a dramatic reenactment of the Last Supper as a tool in evangelistic outreach. Pentecost is now being observed in some congregations with banners, pageantry, and dance in celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the body of Christ.

For several reasons, pastors have begun to seriously consider the use of a Christian calendar in worship, as well as other aspects of a more traditional liturgy. They have seen their churches becoming lethargic, with members wondering, “Is this all there is to the Christian life?” People from all segments of the charismatic community are expressing concern to their leaders about a lack of stability and safety in their walk with God, and the need for more substance in their pursuit of a relationship with the Lord. While these concerned worshipers are often unable to articulate exactly what they need, many leaders are identifying a desire to return to the traditional values of the early church while not surrendering the emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit. The implementation of a Christian calendar is one movement within the church that is beginning with the clergy. The laity, for their part, are responding in many places with a new enthusiasm for the pattern of the church year, especially where pastors take the time for adequate teaching on the meanings and practices of each season.

The International Worship Symposium, led by its directors, Barry Griffing, Steve Griffing, Larry Dempsey, and David Fisher, has begun to incorporate teaching about the church year into its worship conferences, in the belief this practice needs to be recovered. One of the difficulties encountered is the shortage of people within the charismatic community who are familiar with the church year and able to bridge the gap between traditional practice and the newfound interest among charismatic worshipers.

Another factor inhibiting recovery of the liturgical year is the lack of appropriate music in contemporary worship-chorus style. During the Christmas season, for example, many churches seem to abandon their distinctive praise-and-worship format for conventional Christmas carols, resulting in a disconcerting shift in the ambiance and thrust of worship. Charismatic composers need to address this deficiency by creating new music for the various Christian festivals.

Some charismatic leaders are rediscovering the Christian year through personal devotions. They have discovered that a certain amount of structure has added vitality to their individual spiritual life. In the 1970s, the use of The Book of Common Prayer was instilled in many students at Oral Roberts University by then-campus chaplain Bob Stamps. As these men and women went out into prominent ministries, this practice went with them and was passed along to others. In the BCP and the Common Lectionary, these charismatic believers discovered an antidote to lack of organization in their personal worship. Since the lectionary readings are based around the traditional church year, the idea of a “year of grace” falls into place through the use of such tools. From their personal pilgrimage through the year in daily devotions, many charismatic Christians have become aware of the value for the whole church in experiencing this journey.

The Arts in Charismatic Churches

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With its roots in the Pentecostal movement, which had rejected most of the fine arts as worldly, the charismatic movement has only more recently begun to explore the full range of artistic activity in worship. Although the visual and literary arts largely await development, both dance and drama have found increasing acceptance in some charismatic circles. Most importantly, charismatics have become leaders within the Christian community in the creation of contemporary worship music.

Music

Whether or not music is the universal language, it is the one art form universally found in the charismatic churches of North America. A virtual explosion of new worship music has taken place over the past two decades, sparked by the charismatic renewal of the 1960s and the “Jesus movement” that followed, especially among young people on the west coast. These new believers’ search for ways to express their love and devotion to the Lord became the seedbed for a musical revolution. Reacting to a perceived irrelevance of the worship style of most churches to their quest of the living Jesus, the young men and women of the Jesus movement abandoned more traditional musical forms in favor of shorter choruses that described in contemporary idiom their personal relationship with the Lord. Simultaneously, the Catholic charismatic movement began to produce its own variety of contemporary musical settings for the increasingly popular folk masses.

The charismatic Jesus movement took the gospel out of the church and into the world through street witnessing, concerts, festivals, coffee houses, Christian communities, and home groups. The music for this movement had to be portable, accompanied by the acoustic guitar. As the influence of the Jesus movement was felt in charismatic churches, the guitar displaced the traditional organ and piano as the instrument of choice in accompanying worship. Jesus bands and soloists began to emerge everywhere, especially through the local coffee houses and Jesus communities.

Another revolution began with the work of Ralph Carmichael, a popular composer-arranger. Noting the gap between youth and the church, he wrote several contemporary musicals, introducing drums, guitars, electronic keyboards, and rock style to the music of local churches, in order to attract and hold a younger generation. Others followed Carmichael’s lead.

The last decade has seen the emergence of the worship team or praise band, an ensemble modeled after the instrumental groups which back up popular recorded music, consisting usually of guitar, keyboard, bass, and drums. Within this model, the synthesizer has emerged as the preferred keyboard. Along with this development, a much broader range of instruments, from the orchestral to the ethnic, has become not only acceptable but popular for accompanying worship music. Some larger charismatic churches have been able to form symphony orchestras to accompany worship. An increasing musical sophistication is evident in the use of music by Bach, Handel, or other classical composers.

The advent of “praise marches” or “public praise,” taking worship outside the walls of the church as a means of evangelistic outreach, has called for a type of song suitable for marching. Many songs written for this purpose have been incorporated in charismatic worship, giving it an often militant stamp. In addition, the melodically and theologically simplistic songs of two decades ago, such as “Father, I Adore You” (Terrye Coelho) and “God Is So Good” (traditional) are now accompanied by more sophisticated newcomers such as “Shine, Jesus, Shine” (Graham Kendrick) and “Let There Be Praise” (Dick and Melodie Tunney).

Another trend is the rise of “prophetic praise.” In this act of worship, an individual either sings spontaneous praise to God or sings a prophecy under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is more frequently heard in churches affiliated with the “restoration” or “Davidic worship” movement, as well as churches that have been more active in prophecy in general, such as the Vineyard churches.

The publishing and recording industry has helped to raise the professional level of musical activity in charismatic circles. Worship songs, musical dramas such as Steve Fry’s Thy Kingdom Come, and other types of music have been disseminated through cassettes and compact discs. Prominent in this industry are firms that originated within the charismatic community, such as Integrity’s Hosannah! Music or Maranatha! Music. Maranatha was the first publishing company to focus exclusively on contemporary worship music. Integrity has made contemporary praise and worship music available to the public through recordings of actual worship settings that feature congregational singing as directed by a prominent worship leader and backed by professional singers and instrumentalists. Through these recordings, together with lead sheets, chorus books, and other products, fresh worship resources have been made available even to individuals and fellowships in rural areas or other places remote from the influence of contemporary worship. Christian Copyright Leasing, Inc. and other organizations provide copyright clearance to local churches for this new music and supply overhead transparencies and other aids.

In the evangelical church at large, it has been charismatics who have taken the lead in creating a style of music reaching a wider audience. The work of composers such as Bill and Gloria Gaither or Twila Paris and of performers like Sandi Patti or Larnell Harris has become standard fare in the spiritual life of the evangelical community. Music by composers and performers of charismatic background is widely featured in Christian broadcasting, even by stations representing points of view theologically opposed to the charismatic movement.

Dance

If music is virtually universal, the art form of dance may be almost as universally divisive—at least among charismatic churches. Positions toward this expression range from the highly positive to the highly critical. Outstanding dance ministries such as those of Randall Bane (interviewed on CBN’s “Heart to Heart” in November 1991) and Ballet Magnificat spend much of their time in charismatic churches. Both of these were featured in the cover story “Praise Him with the Dance” in Charisma, March 1989. At the other extreme, the Assemblies of God published a negative position paper on dance in the November 1986 issue of Pentecostal Evangel. That article, written by T. Burton Pierce, both acknowledged the continued practice of dance among some Assemblies of God churches and took a strong position against such practice.

At least some of the disagreement is related to the difference between spontaneous, individual “dancing in the Spirit,” and orchestrated, rehearsed “dancing before the Lord” (a distinction made by Kenneth Hagin, and quoted in the Charisma article). Some large and influential churches have championed worship dance. However, many charismatic groups, such as charismatic Baptists, while not being as critical of dance as the Assemblies of God, nevertheless have taken a cautious attitude. There is some uneasiness about dance in charismatic circles and tension over this issue may increase before consensus is reached. In any case, dance is growing in acceptance, largely through workshops sponsored by charismatic churches and led by nationally or regionally recognized talents such as Mikhail Murnane or Pamela Smith. Special resources for the movement arts in worship, including costuming, flags, and streamers, are produced by Pazaz, a ministry in the greater St. Louis area.

Interestingly, outside of North America, the charismatic church is using worship dance effectively in evangelism and outreach. Dance in this context has been particularly well received in Mexico and in many nations of Europe and Asia. In these areas, evangelistic teams of Youth with a Mission (YWAM) often use dance to make contact with the unchurched. When asked the reason for its effectiveness, Kirk Dearman, who headed Project Exalt in Europe, explained that because dance is perceived as a cultural or fine arts event, it is much better attended than an event billed as an evangelistic rally. More people are then open to hear what the artists have to say. The annual Christian Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem reaches an Israeli audience, as well as Christian attendees from around the world, with the worship dance ministry of artists such as Randall Bane and Valerie Henry.

The South African arts group Friends First is another example of an organization that uses dance both inside and outside of the walls of the church. During the mid-1980s this eclectic and interracial ensemble became widely known for its impact in worship in its own country and traveled to England and the United States as well. This group successfully combined traditional dance movements from the heritage of several tribes in their region with original, more contemporary, choreography.

Visual Arts

While the realm of the visual arts (including painting, sculpture, and architecture) yields less to consider within charismatic circles, this also has been an area of controversy. Divergence of opinion is found even in one area where charismatics have been most active: the creation of banners.

Banner-making, which began to impact the mainline churches about three decades ago, has now become a popular art among the charismatic churches. Banners, which may depict sacred symbols such as a cross or crown, or carry verses of Scripture or ascriptions of honor to the Lord, are often displayed in the place of worship. They may also be carried in procession, as in the “praise marches” that have become quite well known in England. However, Anne Gimeneyz of the Rock Church went on record as equating them with the paganism of the Israelites’ golden calf, arguing that the antecedent for banners was the flag making in ancient Egypt (Ministries Today, May/June 1990). The use of banners as a vehicle for pageantry seems to be growing, however, as part of the movement to apply the artistic expression to the exaltation of the Lord. Through their use in worship conferences such as the International Worship Symposium, some outstanding works of banner-making art have become regionally well known.

Occasionally one does hear of charismatic churches commissioning works of visual art for their worship environments, such as a multimedia mural by a sculptor/parishioner at Church in the City Vineyard Fellowship, Houston, Texas, and the series of ten-foot-square paintings at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Decatur, Georgia. Thus far, these seem to be isolated instances, only the precursors of a possible trend. The demographics of the charismatic movement have been such that professional artists in the visual media, such as painting and sculpture, are less often found in these circles than within the orbit of the mainline or sacramentally oriented churches. However, one popular form, T-shirt art, has flourished since being taken up by the Jesus movement.

In the realm of church architecture, two observable trends seem to emerge. One trend is toward the low-cost, high-utility warehouse-cum-auditorium structure favored by groups impacted by the church growth movement. The other trend is to the more opulent theater setting, evident especially among the “faith” churches. The classic Pentecostal denominations (Assemblies of God, Pentecostal Church of God, Foursquare Gospel, and similar groups) tend to erect buildings not dissimilar from those of their noncharismatic Protestant siblings, but often reflecting one of the trends mentioned above. In erecting new places of worship, charismatic congregations show a growing tendency, shared with Christians of other traditions, to arrange the worship area in a more open in-the-round or semicircular fashion, as opposed to the older lecture-hall style of church construction. Many charismatic churches started meeting in rented quarters such as school gymnasiums, often with the worshipers facing the long wall instead of the end. The ambiance of this arrangement, which brought the worship leaders closer to the congregation, affected worship style and may have motivated architectural preferences.

Drama and Mime

Drama was one of the fine arts that did flourish at an early stage in the charismatic movement. David Watson, a charismatic Anglican from London, had a strong drama group in his church called Riding Lights. In North America, national ministries such as The Lamb’s Players, Covenant Players, and Jeremiah People influenced many churches, both charismatic and mainstream, to incorporate both drama and comedy skits into their worship. The medium of drama was also used by parachurch organizations such as Youth with a Mission in their outreach and street ministries.

In the ongoing life of charismatic churches, the greatest amount of dramatic activity occurs in connection with the seasonal Christmas and Easter pageants. These presentations, for which some congregations are locally famous, may involve elaborate lighting, costuming, sound systems, and the other trappings of professional dramatic productions, along with extensive orchestral and choral resources. Easter pageants are especially common and function as the charismatic equivalent of the passion play, the stations of the cross, or other traditional ways through which Christian worshipers have participated in the reenactment of the drama of salvation. In this sense, when performed with a high degree of Christian commitment and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, they may have a “sacramental” quality. Where a church has a tradition of these productions that attract the larger community, this fact may influence the architecture of the church auditorium. Short skits are occasionally used in charismatic churches, usually to publicize an upcoming event (a week of prayer, Vacation Bible School) or to promote a special emphasis (world missions, evangelism).

Related both to dance and to drama, the art of mime (or pantomime) is coming into wider use in charismatic circles, propagated through national and regional worship conferences. Mime is usually a visual accompaniment to music recorded by Christian artists, especially where the song tells a story. A high professional standard has been set by artists like Todd Farley, a student of the famed French mimist Marcel Marceau.

Film and Video

Film and video works that employ the dramatic arts are rarely used in the context of the worship service. They are more often used in the Christian education program with specialized groups such as youth ministries or for evangelistic outreach. Most of these resources are not specifically targeted toward a charismatic audience but are produced by ministries or firms serving the greater Christian public. Examples include James Dobson’s Focus on the Family productions, Chariots of Fire, China Cry, or music videos by popular Christian recording artists. Occasionally a film shown to the entire congregation may substitute for the regular Sunday evening or midweek service.

The Pentecostal movement of a generation ago was opposed to motion pictures, in reaction to the values propagated by the film industry and the on- and off-screen excesses of Hollywood personalities. The charismatic movement, as it evolved among non-Pentecostals, exhibited a more relaxed attitude. Charismatic leaders also eagerly embraced the video medium for the broadcast of worship services or for programs in evangelistic, talk-show, or guest-artist format. However, there was never a great artistic thrust to such programming, and its influence (with some exceptions) has recently been in decline due to the well-publicized excesses of some of the major figures involved.

Literary Arts

In North America, expression by charismatics through the literary arts (fiction, poetry, essay) has not been a major factor in the worship setting. Again, the historic demographics of the charismatic community do not suggest that one would normally encounter the degree of literary activity found in churches long associated with institutions for higher learning and the intellectual community in general. However, this would be an area to watch for future trends as the charismatic church continues to mature. Colleges and universities such as Oral Roberts University and Regent University have developed largely from within the charismatic community, and scholars associated with these and other institutions have begun to make significant contributions in the fields of biblical and systematic theology and in other academic disciplines. Writers and publishers with charismatic backgrounds are now producing important material in the field of worship studies.