In honor of Reformation Day, here are some complaints I\u2019m nailing on the Wittenberg door.<\/p>\n
Long before there was an Occupy Wall Street, Martin Luther staged the most important protest in history. He was upset because Roman Catholic officials were promising people forgiveness or early escape from purgatory in exchange for money. So on October 31, 1517, Luther nailed a long list of complaints on the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany.<\/p>\n
Luther\u2019s famous 95 theses were translated from Latin into German and spread abroad. Like a medieval Jeremiah, Luther dared to ask questions that had never been asked, and he challenged a pope who was supposedly infallible. Through this brave monk, the Holy Spirit sparked the Protestant Reformation and restored the doctrine of grace to a church that had become corrupt, religious, dysfunctional, political and spiritually dead.<\/p>\n
I am no Luther, but I\u2019ve grown increasingly aware that the so-called \u201cSpirit-filled\u201d church of today struggles with many of the same things the Catholic church faced in the 1500s. We don\u2019t have \u201cindulgences\u201d\u2014we have telethons. We don\u2019t have popes\u2014we have super-apostles. We don\u2019t support an untouchable priesthood\u2014we throw our money at celebrity evangelists who own fleets of private jets.<\/p>\n
In honor of Reformation Day, I\u2019m offering my own list of needed reforms in our movement. And since I can\u2019t hammer these on the Wittenberg door, I\u2019ll post them online. Feel free to nail them everywhere.<\/p>\n
1. Let\u2019s reform our theology.<\/strong> The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He is God and He is holy. He is not an \u201cit.\u201d He is not a blob, a force, or an innate power. We must stop manipulating Him, commanding Him and throwing Him around.<\/p>\n2.<\/strong> Let\u2019s return to the Bible.<\/strong> The Word of God is the foundation for the Christian experience. Any dramatic experience, no matter how spiritual it seems, must be tested by the Word and the Holy Spirit\u2019s discernment. Visions, dreams, prophecies and encounters with angels must be in line with Scripture. If we don\u2019t test them we could end up spreading deception.<\/p>\n3.<\/strong> It\u2019s time for personal responsibility.<\/strong> We charismatics must stop blaming everything on demons. People are usually the problem.<\/p>\n4. Stop playing games.<\/strong> Spiritual warfare is a reality, but we are not going to win the world to Jesus just by shouting at demonic principalities. We must pray, preach and persevere to see ultimate victory.<\/strong><\/p>\n5. Stop the foolishness.<\/strong> People who hit, slap or push others during prayer should be asked to sit down until they learn gentleness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n6. End all spiritual extortion now.<\/strong> Christian television ministries must cease and desist from all manipulative fundraising tactics. We must stop giving platforms to ministers who make outlandish claims of supernatural financial returns, especially when Scripture is twisted, deadlines are imposed and the poor are exploited.<\/strong><\/p>\n7.<\/strong> No more Lone Rangers.<\/strong> Those who claim to be ministers of God\u2014whether they are traveling evangelists, local pastors or heads of ministries\u2014must be accountable to other leaders. Any who refuse to submit their lives to godly discipline should be corrected.<\/p>\n8. Expose the creeps.<\/strong> Churches should start doing background checks on traveling ministers. Preachers who have been hiding criminal records, lying about their past marriages, preying on women or refusing to pay child support should be exposed as charlatans and shunned if they do not repent.<\/p>\n9.<\/strong> Stop faking the anointing.<\/strong> God is God, and He does not need our \u201chelp\u201d to manifest Himself. That means we don\u2019t sprinkle glitter on ourselves to suggest God\u2019s glory is with us, hide fake jewels on the floor to prove we are anointed or pull chicken feathers out of our sleeves to pretend angels are in the room. This is lying to the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n10. Let\u2019s return to purity.<\/strong> We\u2019ve had enough scandals. The charismatic church must develop a system for the restoration of fallen ministers. Those who fall morally can be restored, but they must be willing to submit to a process of healing rather than rushing immediately back into the pulpit.<\/p>\n11.<\/strong> We need humility.<\/strong> Ministers who demand celebrity treatment, require lavish salaries, insist on titles or exhibit aloofness from others are guilty of spiritual pride.<\/p>\n12.\u00a0 No more big shots.<\/strong> Apostles are the bondslaves of Christ, and should be the most impeccable models of humility. True apostles do not wield top-down, hierarchical authority over the church. They serve the church from the bottom up as true servants.<\/p>\n13. Never promote gifts at the expense of character.<\/strong> Those who operate in prophecy, healing and miracles must also exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. And while we continue to encourage the gift of tongues, let\u2019s make sure we don\u2019t treat it like some kind of badge of superiority. The world needs to see our love, not our glossolalia.<\/p>\n14.\u00a0 Hold the prophets accountable.<\/strong> Those who refuse to take responsibility for inaccurate statements should not be given platforms. And \u201cprophets\u201d who live immoral lives don\u2019t deserve a public voice.<\/p>\n15. Let\u2019s make the main thing the main thing.<\/strong> The purpose of the Holy Spirit\u2019s anointing is to empower us to reach others. We are at a crossroads today: Either we continue off-course, entertained by our charismatic sideshows, or we throw ourselves into evangelism, church planting, missions, discipleship, and compassionate ministry that helps the poor and fights injustice. Churches that embrace this New Reformation will focus on God\u2019s priorities.<\/p>\nJ. Lee Grady<\/strong> is contributing editor of\u00a0Charisma<\/em>. You can <\/em>follow him on Twitter at leegrady. He expounds on these topics in his 2010 book\u00a0The Holy Spirit Is Not for Sale<\/em><\/a> (Chosen).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"J. Lee Grady, at Charisma magazine, proposed a Reformation within the ranks of the charismatics, and I\u2019m swiping the whole post. (It\u2019s Sunday, after all, and he says to nail these everywhere. Brother, I\u2019m nailing them here at Jesus Creed.) In honor of Reformation Day, here are some complaints I\u2019m nailing on the Wittenberg door. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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