This series of posts is about how God has brought me to a good place, but not at all one which I would have expected. It’s a long one, but very important and worth a read.
THE BRETHREN
I think I have described in earlier posts how my parents were missionaries. They were with the Brethren churches, sometimes known as The Assemblies, but not to be confused with the pentecostal Assemblies of God.
The distinguishing features of the Brethren are:
Evangelical (ie justification is by faith in the substitutionary death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ)
The supreme authority of the scriptures in all matters.
There is no overall structure. Each local church is autonomous.
There is no clergy. There are no ‘Reverends’. The principle is the universal priesthood of all believers.
Each local church is governed by a group of Elders, supported by Deacons. The group invites suitable persons to join them as Elders from time to time.
There is no order of service. Meetings are lead by the Holy Spirit.
People are baptised when having been born again they ask for baptism as a sign of their faith. This obviously excludes infants.
The gifts of the spirit were for the Apostolic era and ceased when the canon of scripture was complete.
Dispensationalism
Mostly Calvinist with regard to election.
I grew up in this environment very happily. My parent’s faith was real and dynamic, and was substantiated by the daily miracle of their non-salaried existence and heir holy lives. I owe an incalculable debt to my parents for introducing me to the Christian faith and providing such an excellent example. I was born again at the age of 5, and baptised as soon as they would let me at 13.
Meanwhile, since they lived abroad but wanted their children to have a Christian education, we were sent to a Christian boarding school. This offered reduced fees for missionaries. Most of the staff were either Brethren or linked to them.
At the school there was a strong Charismatic influence. On Sundays pupils could choose to attend the village Catholic church, an Anglican church in town, or the Brethren assembly in town. Most chose the latter. Those of us who were Christians also attended the youth fellowship there.
Now key staff members, who were members of this church, and also the leaders of the youth fellowship, believed in the charismatic idea of a filling with the Holy Spirit. Clearly, you are filled with the spirit the moment you are born again, by definition. But this related to an opening of the sluice gates, an flooding of the life with the dynamic Holy Spirit in power. Thus one is not so much a metaphorical glass full of the Holy Spirit, more a river channel full of the Holy Spirit flowing through and beyond to bless those around you as well. Part of this included the use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
At this stage I was an observer only of these things. I was more taken by the style of worship. In the church meetings it was the usual hymn-prayer-hymn-notices-hymn-sermon-hymn-closing-prayer-this-is-not-a-liturgy-it-is-led-by-the-Holy-Spirit-but-if-you-do-anything-different-from-last-week-boy-are-you-in-trouble. On the other hand the youth fellowship and the school Christian fellowship were full of something new to me. Not hymns about God, but worship to him. Not starchy heaviness, but freedom to communicate as you wished with your maker. People were raising their hands to God. People found that singing a song once wasn’t enough – you had let the words out of your mouth and they were gone before you had been able to meditate on them. So the songs were sung until fully appreciated, and then we would move on.
At this stage I could not handle the charismatic doctrines, but I knew that the worship style was right.
After this I moved on to another boarding school – state run. I have described this in previous posts. I was the only Christian boarder there, and there were only about 4 others amongst the day pupils and they were dubious. During this time I attended another small Brethren Church. My brother was at college and joined the Charismatic movement. He leant me a book called “The Holy Spirit and You” by Dennis and Rita (?) Bennett. I disagreed with much of it, but followed its instructions for baptism in the spirit, on my own in a depressing study room. There was no noticeable effect – except that I prayed for a record 15 minutes. Disillusioned, I steered away from charismatic things.
I moved on – left school, went to college, got my first job, and settled in London. Went to the local Brethren Church.
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