The Evangelical Church of What’s Happening Now III: Spiritual Gifts

I’ve mentioned American Evangelicals are prone to fads.  A huge fad in the 80’s was an obsession with spiritual gifts.

The Charismatic movement grew in evangelical churches (and also amongst Catholics and Anglicans) in the 70’s.  And one result is that even churches opposed to the movement saw they needed to pay attention to Biblical teaching on spiritual gifts.

And that was a good thing.  The passages on spiritual gifts had been neglected for . . . , well, for centuries.  But the emphasis on spiritual gifts soon got out of balance in the other direction.  I know.  I was caught up in it.

It wasn’t just that I was taught frequently on spiritual gifts.  I was also given at least one self-administered survey to assist in finding one’s spiritual gift.  Yes, there was much exhortation to find one’s spiritual gift(s) back then. Now, of course, it can be helpful to find out what one is good at as well as what one is not so good at. But usually the best way to do that is to get out there, get involved at a good church, and find out how you can best help out there.  On the other hand, navel gazing such as those spiritual gifts surveys too easily tends towards self-centeredness and self-deception.

And I remember the survey leading me to both – or to be exact, making both those negative qualities in me worse.  I remember concluding from the survey that I had the gift of discernment.  Hoo, boy.  In hindsight, at that time in my life, I did not have much common sense, much less discernment. But I sure thought I did. And that survey fed that inflated self-deception.

What I needed to taught on more was the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5: 22, 23), and that said fruit are more important than spiritual gifts (as indicated by I Corinthians 13).  And I was taught that and knew that.  But I didn’t know it well enough.  So it is probably more accurate to say I should have listened and taken it to heart more intently.  But the navel gazing on spiritual gifts was more alluring and interesting than becoming more mature along the lines of Galatians 5:22, 23.

It ironically stunted my spiritual growth. A teaching of the Tractarians that does not get much attention is that it is wise to exercise reserve in imparting spiritual truth, even scriptural truth.  In other words, you do not feed a big steak to a new born.  There are some teachings, even in the Bible, that many Christians are not yet able to handle well.  Wait until they are mature enough to handle them well.

Accordingly, I suspect spiritual gifts is a subject that should be selectively and carefully taught, not broadcast.  The over-focus on spiritual gifts in the 80’s was not something I handled well.  It was too easy to slip into self-centeredness and self-deception. And there were more important aspects of the spiritual life that called for my attention.  

I am surely not the only one who can say that.