Charism by Stewart Perry
This Sunday we celebrate the feast of Pentecost, along with churches of different denominations, all around the world. Pentecost particularly pays attention with intention to the Holy Spirit and the way the Holy Spirt works in and through followers of Jesus and in and through the Church.
The words ‘charism’ and ‘charismatic’ are often used in association with the Holy Spirit. If a church is called or known as a ‘charismatic church’ you’d expect that some of the gifts and expressions of the Holy Spirit might be a bit more obvious… but the Holy Spirit is at work in every church and in that sense every single church, including ours, is charismatic.
Often churches are said to have a particular ‘charism’ which refers to a particular gifting of the Holy Spirit that sets them apart from other churches. It doesn’t mean that a church only has one gifting or that other churches don’t have that gift or that if a church has a ‘charism’ then there aren’t many other gifts of the Holy Spirit evident in the community. Like individuals, churches too can have personalities, gifts, talents, strengths and of course weaknesses.
I wonder if you’ve ever thought – what is the charism of our church? You might not have used that exact expression.
Perhaps an even more challenging question is to ask: what is my personal charism? But that’s a blog for another time…
Last year we began a journey of thinking forward to the future… we didn’t call it strategic planning but it was strategic planning adjacent. We started with the church wardens, then our staff team, and then our staff team again earlier this year with the inclusion of Rev’d Eron from Burleigh Heads and then back to the wardens and then to Parish Council.
So what was the result of all that planning, discussion, visioning and reflecting…
One simple phrase…
It might not seem like a lot but this is an important phrase because we didn’t realise that what we were trying to do was answer the question: what is the charism of our church?
We do a lot of things like other churches, we do some things better than some churches but a lot of things we do don’t seem like they are as good or as effective as other churches.
We are a pretty mixed and diverse church and so we don’t have a monochrome identity that some churches do and so I think we are difficult to label as “this” type of church or “that” type of church.
One thing that does set us apart from other churches I’ve experienced is that we have a charism for trying things even if they might not work out as we hope. I know no-one really loves change in “church world” but we do change better than most. This is no small thing.
We are brave.
Bravery is not reckless, things are thought through and have a sense of intentionality and most importantly they are always tied to a purpose… I’m not sure there’s a theological or biblical foundation for being brave to make ourselves feel good, to get more comfortable, more recognised or more attention. There is however, a strong theological and biblical foundation for being brave so that others might feel good, get more comfortable, more recognised or more attention.
Loving and serving others is something that every Christian and church should be doing but we seem to do it in brave, new, different and dynamic ways.
So what is our charism? What was the simple phrase that emerged from all that planning?
We are brave for the benefit of others.
Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be unpacking this overarching narrative in my sermons. We’re not all the way there and we’re not that all the time, but this is our calling and this is our charism.
I wonder how you feel about answering the question: what is different about your church… with: “we’re brave for the benefit of others.”
Happy Pentecost!
Stewart