Carl Tuttle

Many years ago, I was part of a revival of sorts, we wouldn't have called it a revival, we really didn't have a term for it, but the presence of the Lord as we gathered was evident and beautiful.
Eventually a group of people who had been involved in church and ministry for years were rediscovering their 'first love', it was a remarkable time.
Eventually this group was released to start a church albeit reluctantly by the mother church, we went with a blessing.
This was not something you could have identified as being Pentecostal or charismatic although it certainly draw people of those backgrounds, but it wasn't our background, we were basically conservative Evangelicals who were being touched by the Holy Spirit.
The fact is we believed in the modern day work and ministry of the Holy Spirit, we didn't believe the gifts had died out with the closing of the Canon, but up to that point we hadn't seen any model that resonated with us. It's interesting thinking about growing up in the evangelical part of the church, you never read about any miracles or virtually anything supernatural, it was as if those things no longer happened.

We visited Charismatic and Pentecostal meetings and simply could not embrace the theatrics and the hyperbole that were characteristic of these gatherings. Our leader was John Wimber, John looked at the current models and was determined to embrace the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit but not the hype. As we continued to gather and grow, a new model for ministry emerged that was very different from what we had seen on Television or in the meeting we had attended. There was never a time John made an entrance to crescendoing music with an entourage in his wake. John didn't platform ministry, but allowed for the ministry to take place right where people were seated or they were invited into a side room to receive ministry from one of dozens of lay people who were willing to trust God to use them in this kind of ministry. There were never any prayer lines, where people lined up to be prayed for by a specific anointed minister. There was a clear effort to protect the dignity of the individual and not exploit them for the purpose of stirring up the crowd. No slaying in the spirit, or claiming a healing or deliverance, things were 'dialed' down and religiousness was discouraged. What I mean by religiousness is changing character, voices and language, people were encourage to just be who they were and let God be who He is. Prophecy, what we would call simple prophecy was not only allowed but encouraged at every service. By simple prophecy I mean words of comfort, exhortation and edification, 'thus sayeth the Lord's' were discouraged and it was even suggested that you might begin your 'prophecy' with the disclaimer, 'I think the Lord may be saying this to us today' again in plan and simple language.
I write about all this because I have been thinking about that period of time and contrasting it to what I hear about, read about and see today. The fact is what I see today isn't any different than what I was first exposed to 30 years ago, except for with the Internet word gets out faster to more people. I am asked by friends what I think of the latest 'hot spot' and my only response is 'it is what it is'. That doesn't mean I accept or reject these things out of hand, for the most part these things don't catch my interest, I don't see or hear anything different than I have heard for years. Another thing that factors in for me is the fact that I have watched some people go to every new place where 'the Holy Spirit is moving', and in almost every case there is no discernible long lasting difference in the lives of these people. Especially when I contrast them with the lives of people I know who haven't attended a single meeting and are as spiritually mature as any of these people and in some cases more so. So do I believe God isn't doing anything or that the Holy Spirit isn't moving? I am convinced at many times and many places He is, but more importantly the people who attend believe He is and I believe their faith is engaged and rewarded.
All that said I believe to this day that the model and methods that John helped to shape and implement in the years gone by was a wonderful approach to ministry. It was much easier to discern then between what was actually happening to person, whether God was doing something or whether the person was in some way acting out to draw attention to themselves.
I simply believe that we don't need to add anything to what God is doing, the music doesn't need to change, the lighting and the mood don't need to be set, no extravagant claims or proclamations, when God is working and doing something in the midst of His people, that is sufficient, in my opinion.