Charismatic Piety: Uncovering the Hidden Impact of the Charismatic Movement

Abstract

If you visited a church affiliated with one of the historic mainline Protestant denominations and looked out into the congregation on any given Sunday morning, chances are that you would not see many hands raised during the singing of songs, hear tongues being spoken, or witness any supernatural healings or other miraculous signs—practices largely considered to be distinguishing markers of Charismatic worship. You might then conclude that the worship of this congregation has remained untouched by the Charismatic Movement. While that is certainly a possibility, the problem with this line of reasoning is that it is based on a presumption that Charismatic worship is readily identifiable by what can be observed— external, visible acts of worship, such as the lifting of hands, the practice of glossolalia, ecstatic praise, singing in the Spirit, and so on. However, those who consider themselves Charismatic do not necessarily worship with such practices, and it is equally possible that the conclusion drawn above is incorrect. Consider, for example, the case of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, once the parish of the infamous Episcopal priest Dennis Bennett whose 1960 public announcement of his baptism in the Spirit is often said to have catalyzed the Charismatic Renewal Movement. Under Bennett’s leadership, St. Luke’s conducted their Sunday services according to the same liturgy that they had used before the Charismatic Movement emerged, despite most of the congregation being Charismatic. In his book Nine O’Clock in the Morning, Bennett recounts how visitors to his parish often expressed their disappointment at how normal and non-Charismatic the service was, wondering where the tongue-speaking was to be found. Such worship escapes the attention of researchers focused chiefly on the visible practices or structures of Charismatic worship—it simply would not register as Charismatic. Yet according to the visitors to Bennett’s church, despite the lack of recognizable “Charismatic” practices at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, it was clear that something was different. Though disappointed by the lack of charismata, the visitors commented on how evident it was in the otherwise normal service that these worshipers “love God” and remarked, “I’ve never been to a mass where people were so intent on the Lord!” Similarly, John Sherrill describes a Presbyterian church in Parkesburg, Pennsylvania that was influenced by the Charismatic Renewal. Sherrill describes the worship of their Saturday night “Pray and Praise service” as follows: “There are spontaneous prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings from the congregation. Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, as well as Pentecostals come from as far away as Washington, D.C., to pack the basement auditorium in a service that lasts far into the night.” In contrast, on Sunday, Sherrill observes that the services