Puddle Jumper said:
Has anyone here ever had any experience with charasmatic churches? I'm wondering what they're actually like. I've seen them depicted on tv with shouting and dancing and "Hallelujah's" all over. I don't know if that's accurate or not. I know a couple people who attend a Charasmatic church and have very strong Christian beliefs yet they have foul mouths as well. They also talk about getting drunk as if it's a normal part of life and a good thing. I also heard someone comment that the kids who attend a Charasmatic church school are among the most foul mouthed kids they had ever heard and left some sporting event they were at because they were offended by it. Is that something common among Charasmatics or are these isolated events?
The last church I went to was a Charismatic church. It was non-denominational, although it tended toward the Pentecostal way of thinking.
The people there were wonderful people, and the ministries were manifold. They used to have a food ministry (I don't know if they still do or not) where you could get free food from them certain days of the week. You didn't have to belong to the church and you could get free food from them every other day, if you wanted to. There were no time limits, in other words, like there are with many food ministries.
The part you mentioned about being drunk, if I'm not mistaken, refers to the baptism of the Holy Ghost, in which people have a tendency to feel like they're drunk. They have trouble walking, talking, making sense, etc. I myself have experienced both the intoxication of wine and the intoxication of the Holy Ghost, and I would much prefer the latter (no hangover to worry about afterward).
The visual depictions of these churches is somewhat correct, from what I've experienced. People do dance around in the aisles and there is a lot of shouting 'Hallelujah' or 'Amen' or 'Glory'. There is also a large amount of speaking in Tongues, prayers for bodily healing, and other forms of deliverance in these churches.
The one thing I've noticed that I don't much care for in the church that I attended, was that they liked to make it sound like the only sign that someone had the Holy Ghost, was if they spoke in tongues. The Bible is very clear that speaking in tongues is a gift of the Holy Ghost, but not the only gift. But the way they preached it, it sounded as though the only gift was tongue-talking, as some people call it.
I don't think the people in a Charismatic church are crazy or strange in the least bit. They're people just like anyone else. They just worship the Lord differently than I was raised to. (I was raised Baptist.)
Overall, I thought the Charismatic church I attended was a decent church. There were some teachings that were not in-line with Scripture, but then again, I've noticed that most every denomination has teachings like that somewhere in their belief systems.