Apprentice 2 Jesus

The Charismatic Stream

This next Sunday in our LIFE Group we are looking at the Charismatic stream from Richard Foster’s book Streams of Living Water. Foster uses the examples of Francis of Assisi and William Seymour.

The life of Francis of Assisi is wonderful to learn about. There are several places to learn about his marvelous life on the web. The basic biography can be found here.

The example of William Seymour is more pertinent to our discussion because our movement, the Assemblies of God, can be traced back to the Azusa Street revivals which William Seymour led. The extraordinary example of this humble man of God causes me to seek the Lord in greater ways. A black man in a racist time, he was used to usher in the key movement of the Church in the 20th Century. He did not have a black church. Azusa Street was interracial. He overcame incredible prejudice and demonstrated love for those who thought he was inferior because of his skin color.

Having grown up in the Assemblies of God, I must admit the more I learn of Azusa Street and William Seymour, the deeper the hurt over our history. Thankfully, the Lord is healing some horrible rifts from those early days of Pentecost, but it is clear those rifts did not need to happen. Azusa Street was the opportunity to overcome racism in this nation. Yet, when the dust settled, white preachers were ordained in the Assemblies of God and black preachers were ordained in the Church of God in Christ.

While Seymour believed in the evidence of speaking in tongues, his great concern was love for God and love for others. The truest sign of the baptism of the Spirit was overwhelming love. Yet, when the Assemblies of God was formed, we decided the “Pentecostal distinctive” was tongues.

The Charismatic stream needs to be so much more than it currently is! We need to learn from Francis of Assisi and William Seymour. Their examples are bold.

For notes on all our LIFE session from Foster’s book, be sure to check out our LIFE page at the church website.