Posted on 08/16/2010 6:38:53 PM PDT by learner
No. It's not very emphasized in our congregation. Folks pray in tongues . . . sometimes a msg in tongues is given and there's an interpretation--as often as not--interpreted by the Pastor.
Do you sing in tongues? (I've heard this, years ago, in Pentecostal or Catholic Charismatic churches, and thought it sometimes quite lovely--- I'll tell you a story about that sometime.)
Would love to hear the story. Certainly some of the most impressive GOD SHOWING UP/MANIFEST PRESENCE OF GOD MOMENTS was during a spontaneous breakout of that in a large gathering--where spontaneously over the whole room folks broke out in singing in various melodies in various kinds of tongues--all blended, orchestrated, symphonized masterfully obviously by HOLY SPIRIT HIMSELF AND ONLY BY HIM. GADS THOSE TIMES ARE INCREDIBLY SPECIAL.
I can't really sing well any more but I occasionally make a joyful noice, occasionally in more under my breath than anything. Sometimes the congregation sings in tongues--maybe once in 3 months--though it may be getting more frequent the last 6 months.
Do you keep the rule that only two or three, at most, may speak in tongues: only one at a time, and only with someone to interpret?
Sure.
Do you keep the rule that no woman should speak?
We don't have women seated in a woman's section only yelling across the group to hubby to explain what the speaker was saying as in the NT times.
And, we take the verse about neither Jew nor Greek, nor Male nor Female in the Body of Christ. Our pastor is a woman with a very powerful prophetic gifting and probably the office of a prophet. Some prophetic sources believe her gifting and office are more that of prophet vs pastor. She does a well above average job as both. Will see what happens.
Thanks for the honor of your civil and reasonable questions. I've tried to answer them in kind. Blessings.
“The Church hierarchy has functioned through grace...”
.”Church hierarchy” is unscriptural, and thus has no legitimate function.
A congregation has a pastor (teacher), or at least shares one with another congregation possibly, but there it ends. The body of Christ is glued together by Christ himself, not by the illegitimately assumed authority of fallible men.
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I overwhelmingly agree . . .
though I might not agree 1,000% in all the relatively petty details of such issues.
Later for the story.
:o)
I certainly never intended to get involved in a theological debate—heaven knows I’m not equipped for it—but I can honestly see how Christians ended up torturing each other and burning each other at the stake.
Wincingly true. That’s why I’m bowing out. This forum has increasingly become (in the parlance of my church) a “near occasion of sin.”
“I certainly never intended....”
Religious threads are always tarbabys.
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If the dogma had been properly on a lease, he would not have been ridden over by my karma.
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