In the last couple of chapters I want to bring us back to some of the core contributions we charismatics can bring to the church of God. Yes we are a young church in the scheme of church history, but there’s no reason to be a baby anymore. In Chapter Nine ‘You Will Receive Power’ we looked at Pete Grieg’s rousing vision. “You See Dry Bones?” he challenged, “Well I See An Army”. It’s a vision that echoes the book of Ezekiel. But to get to the resurrected army of Ezekiel 37 we have to go through Ezekiel 34. 

The meat market: 

Ezekiel, the prophet sent to his own people, who needs a ‘forehead of flint’ to even talk to them, turns his fire in Chapter 34 on the spiritual leaders of his day. He accuses them of running a spiritual meat market. 

The very people who are supposed to be feeding the sheep, preserving the sheep for the master, saving the sheep from danger have the sheep ‘in their mouths’. 

Fast forward to New Testament times where Jesus the Good Shepherd still calls ‘pastors’ to help ‘feed his sheep’. We’re supposed to ‘smell of the sheep’ because we block their path to destruction when they need a rest or start to wander. We’re supposed to ‘smell of the sheep’ as we would lay down our lives for them, imitating the Cross-bearer. 

If there is lamb stew on our breath, or mint sauce on our table, we are in a whole heap of spiritual trouble. 

It’s easy to do. 

Remember Eli’s children who young Samuel replaced as prophets. They were feeding off the sacrifices received for Yahweh. That prophet lost his life because he wouldn’t protect God’s people from his own children’s indulgent appetites. 

Remember Gideon when he had that mighty victory after his half-right rally cry: “For the Lord and for Gideon”? He rightly turns down being King but can’t hold back from the allure of wealth. £650,000+ of gold in today’s prices is handed over to him as thanks for his victory. But it becomes a snare to him and his sons and by the end of the account he is remembered no more. He can’t quite get over the idea that he is owed something for his victory. Maybe he said to himself, “I am doing this for my children”? “I’d fight these battles just for you Lord but my children need xy and z in return.” 

Whether we have responsibility for 10, 50 or 100 of the Lord’s precious sheep the basic questions Ezekiel makes us ask is: 

“Are we letting his people become food for wild beasts or are we defending them?”

“Do we ‘smell of the flock’ or smell like we have been feasting on the flock?”

The reality is there are less and less reasons to get into pastoring in the UK if you want to ‘eat the sheep’. While the rich list of wealthy pastors in the world may be enough to make us all squirm, and accounts like ‘preachersnsneakers’ showing how much preachers pay for their shoes feels like dark comedy we find out this week that 95% of congregations in the Church of England have less than 93 adults on an average Sunday. Add in a demographic time bomb to that (where you are ten times more likely to be 80 than 18 if you are in church) it kinda looks like you’d look elsewhere if you wanted to rich or famous. And add in the instability in the denomination and that basic security of stipend, housing, and pension looks precarious at best. 

The dry bones

Today’s charismatic pastors in the UK are being sent out to a valley of dry bones armed mainly with a key question:

“Son of Man / Daughter of Eve… can these dry bones live?” 

They are surrounded by a cacophony of confused voices who question the very question: 

  • ‘Do these bones really need to live?’ 
  • ‘Surely God loves the bones just the way they are?’ 
  • ‘Who are you to judge that the bones need be anything but a calcium deposit on the ground?’ 
  • ‘God will do what he wants with them anyway won’t he?’ 
  • ‘Isn’t it a bit arrogant to say that these bones are dead?’
  • ‘Why would God want to raise them from their rest?’ 
  • ‘Isn’t the idea of an army a bit outdated anyway?’
  • ‘God loves them just the way they are so who are you to say anything?’ 
  • ‘Surely these dry bones will be just the way they are for all eternity?’ 
  • ‘Why would you think they need your help?’

But may we rebel against the spirit of the age and the confusion spirit gripping the church and join Ezekiel’s simple answer: “You alone know, Lord…” 

You alone know, Lord… so speak your servant is listening. 

And as we do that listening the spiritually attentive among us hear the next two responses. They come from the Good Shepherd and echo through the ages. Can you hear him say: “Prophesy” “Prophesy” 

Firstly speak to the dry bones: “Dry Bones hear the Word of the Lord”

“And then speak to those winds of God:  “Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.”

Word and Spirit come together and REVIVE what has been picked into a carcass by those who should have prophesied long ago. 

That is the gift the charismatic church is supposed to be to the whole body of Christ… not a luller of lullabys helping euthanise a church into a sleep that lasts forever. Not a builder of human empires that cannot be taken with us through the refiners fire that we must pass on the route to eternity.  Not a feeding on the sheep class of shepherds getting fat on lamb stew. Not ‘hired hands shepherds’ who are happy to take a stipend while a church and world heads to a hell that they don’t know if they believe in. BUT A WORD AND SPIRIT MOVEMENT that is marked by a reverent awe of God’s powerful word and knows how to bring life to the slain through the breath of God. 

I have a pastor friend in a well known charismatic network whose church has attracted incomers from both charismatic and conservative churches. The conservatives are great, he says, as they have been so well taught that they sign up for a standing order to tithe to the church within the first three weeks. They’re serious people who know there is a serious task that needs doing. They want to get involved. The charismatics he is naturally fond of frustrate as they often just want to know if the church feels good and float around the edges for a while wondering if they will get their spiritual high. But the ones who have really impressed him are those converted in a church that faithfully preached the word, and ministered in the power of the Spirit in order to reach the lost (not give a therapeutic high). These have integrated seriousness and joy unspeakable in a wonderful way. The tragedy was that they were converted all the way back in the early 1980s under the ministry of John Collins, the HTB vicar who could say ‘all my theology is John Stott’s’ and who looked to John Wesley and George Whitefield for his inspiration. 

That was the era when John Wimber could say ‘we have an army’. Ten years later he was saying ‘we have an audience.’ 

Dear Charismatics: Our contribution to the church is to Prophesy in order to raise up an army not an audience. 

But we need to remember the first prophesy is ‘hear the word of the Lord’. It’s a mighty word to sound out. It’s a powerful word that brings dry bones back together into an army ready for the Spirit to move. While you’re offering a wafer of positive platitudes based on prooftexts plucked from prophets who would have made you quake if you met them you’ll never offer the bread of life. We’re supposed to be the people who make people turn to Scripture on their knees, who memorise the word, eat the word, and use it like a mighty sword (i.e. carefully).

Only then do we get to prophesy to the four winds to come and bring life. Until the word has brought the bones back together the wind would just scatter them further apart. 

Can you hear the roar of heaven? Prophesy … prophesy. Today! There’s an army to be called back together in every parish. It’s time to offer bread of life and see who the Lord brings to feast with you. 

There’s an army that wants rising up, but it’s waiting to hear from you. 

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Previous Posts in this series: Foreword | introduction | Remember The Baby | The Bathwater Needs Flushing | Driven to Distraction by Success | Whoever Pays the Piper | Losing My Religion | Spiralling Out of Control | Look to the rock | Here Come the Generals | You Will Receive Power | The Swamp

HTB Network Thesis in 30 Parts: Featuring: Origins | Renewal | Success Culture | Managerialism | Theology | Trajectories.