Branded by Fire from a Baptist Preacher’s Perspective
This last week I attended my first Assembly of God or charismatic youth revival service. It was held at the famous Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida. I’ll admit that I had never really heard of Brownsville before this trip, but, like many events within denominations, it is famous within its own group of followers. To those in charismatic circles this place is famous for a series of revival services from 1995 to 2003. During this time it is said that millions came near to God and became filled with the Spirit of God. There was, as I’m told, great preaching and healings during this time. I’m not here to evaluate that specific happening. I am only going to comment, in as balanced a way as I can, the happenings during the week I attended Branded by Fire.
I say this was a youth revival service because it reminded me mainly of youth conferences I have attended in the past within my own denomination. Many teens were present, though there were a significant number of adults as well. There was the typical high-octane music most youth conferences or camps have and there was a lot of contagious excitement as I entered the building with my group of students, who happened to be all male.
I have been trying to decide how to present my thoughts. Rather than simply listing positive and negative thoughts in two separate areas, I will simply go through the activities and give my thoughts on each. Hopefully this helps keep those who tend to be completely negative toward anything charismatic from overreacting and those who are completely positive from being offended. I’ll begin with the Leadership Session I attended.
LEADERSHIP SESSION: I attended one of these on the third day. It was the only one I attended so I cannot comment on the other Leadership Sessions. I preferred to be a part of the sessions my students attended so I could get that same experience. The leadership session I attended was led by Jordan Morris. He said himself that he was not good at leadership, but instead talked from the Bible about Jesus Christ and the need to follow Him. As anyone who has led in ministry would know, and I’ve done so for 17 years, it’s easy to take our eyes off Jesus and begin to do our own thing. We certainly need that reminder to follow Christ and keep our eyes on Him in our personal lives so that we can lead others in that same pursuit. I thought that Jordan did an excellent job. He ended with everyone coming up front for prayer and to give anything to the Lord that was on our hearts. It was good immediate application of the message that was taught.
OPENING WORSHIP: I am separating this from Closing Worship because there was a distinct difference I will describe later. Opening worship, as I stated earlier, started off very high octane. Teens were jumping and shouting and having a great time. For some this may not sound like worship, but it is typical of almost all youth conferences, camps and concerts I have attended. The excitement of our group even got me out there joining in on the experience. I’ll admit it was fun. They did do other calm songs that allowed one to think through who God is and all He has done. I will say that some songs were repeated many times over, more than I am used to. Many tend to frown on such methods of singing, yet when I think of the Bible’s description of the angels singing in heaven, it seems quite repetitive as well. I don’t think it was wrong, though my personal leading of music has been to steer from that. The positive side of it is that with the repeating of words one could take time to think about God, their life and where they were.
For myself, the opening worship was when I made most of my own personal decisions for God. Perhaps it was because some songs were familiar, even from my Baptist background. I wasn’t constantly evaluating, but simply focused on God. For the past year or more I have personally felt so distanced from God and I simply went to my knees in prayer. A teen came up and said, “He said to tell you that He has never left you.” Whether God told her to say that or she says to everyone, I have no idea. I do know that it was helpful to me at the time.
Another experience was the night before when I just felt so low. With recent events and moving from a place of mainly running a ministry to mainly serving under someone and personal past sin in my life, I wondered if God loved me. I knew it, but wanted to hear it. I felt like I needed someone to say it out loud. Right in the middle of a song I asked a fellow staff member and friend to tell me that God loves me. He smiled real big, gave me a hug and said, “God loves you, Layton”. I was so glad he said that with my name. I valued that important reminder.
I will say that the worship there was freeing. Whether I felt like standing at my seat and singing, as I normally felt in the morning, or lifting my hands or kneeling on the floor or jumping up and down; I felt no judgment from others; just complete freedom to worship however I desired. I think I discovered in myself that, as a person who likes to talk with his hands, that worshiping with my hands helps me as well, even when I don’t feel like it.
There were many times the worship leader told us to raise our hands. I will say I don’t really like being told to raise my hands, but I think that’s more my passive rebelliousness than anything. I will say I didn’t raise them every time, but others didn’t as well. I don’t think you had to, though most did. Overall, the opening worship was a great experience and was the time I felt closest to the Lord.
SPEAKERS: This is certainly a time when I would find myself carefully evaluating everything said to see if it was from Scripture, out of context or was simply opinion. There were six speakers during the course of the week while we were there. The first night was Nate Schatzline. He took a common passage and came at it from a different perspective. He did an excellent job of sticking to the text and giving excellent illustrations and application. I would have been comfortable with him speaking at a Baptist church with that sermon.
That was Monday night. Tuesday was the most controversial of days for me in regards to speakers. Trey Myers spoke in the morning. He took a few verses out of context to support his premise, but did use others in context. It took a little evaluating to know the difference. He is also heavy into healing, though only called out things that you couldn’t physically see if they had been healed. Personally, I hoped he would call out my hand and foot, but that didn’t happen. Nate’s mom, Karen Schatzline spoke that evening. Much of her message was on point, though there was a little emphasis on speaking in tongues. From a speaking standpoint, I also felt she went a little long and could have said all she had to say in less time. That’s true of many Baptist preachers as well. Though I have nothing against a woman speaking, she was noted as a pastor, which I would regard as unbiblical. That wasn’t really pronounced so one would probably think of her as someone like Beth Moore. In fact, her speaking style reminded me of Beth Moore. I think many would like her.
Wednesday morning the church youth pastor spoke. I was in the leadership session so I cannot comment on his sermon. Jordan Morris spoke at night and was really good as well. He had said in the morning that he was going to talk about how to heal and raise the dead, but he didn’t talk on that. He talked about how we are all preachers and are to give the gospel to those around us. It was during this time I felt renewed in my passion to preach and desire, or vision if you want to call it that, to travel and preach. I feel I will do that one day, but God is still preparing me. Anyway, I only found fault that he used Mark 16 rather than Matthew 28. As many know, Mark 16 is not in the earliest manuscripts and was most likely added later. He had on a shirt with the verses about those who believe driving out demons, speaking in new tongues, picking up snakes drinking poison and healing people. I don’t get how one applies that all to today anyway, but being it’s probably an addition, I wouldn’t draw my theology from it. He stuck with the part about preaching the gospel, however, which is also found in Matthew 28.
Another thing he said, both in the leadership session and at night which I appreciated, was that speaking in tongues does not mean you have the Spirit and is not necessary for having the Spirit. It seemed some speakers, by the way they talked, may have disagreed on that statement; but no one was rebuked either way. I think it’s an “agree to disagree” type issue among them. I must say that it seemed like there was more freedom here to disagree on issues and not be looked down on. Those in my group know where I stand on tongues, women pastors, baptism of the Spirit, etc. and I was never told to keep my thoughts to myself nor to exit the service. I didn’t make a scene about it either. I only gave my thoughts when asked. I did appreciate Jordan’s comments, though. It seemed to balance things out a little for me.
In regards to the baptism of the Spirit. I know Assembly of God churches tend to teach a second baptism, or it may be the first, after salvation. However, anytime it was mentioned about the Spirit, the term “filling” of the Spirit was used. I think most Baptists would agree that Ephesians 5:18 tells us to “be filled with the Spirit”. I may simply be applying semantics, but I would agree that though we have the Holy Spirit, we need to be constantly filled with Him. I really had no issue with their terminology in this regard.
The last day, Thursday, began with a talent show in the morning. Those there had signed up during the week to give a spoken word, rap, sing, play an instrument, do drama, etc. It was a good break and great to see teens honoring God with their gifts. That night Mattie Montgomery spoke. He was on fire from the get go. He did an excellent job and wasn’t afraid to go against the grain to tell what he had learned in his study of the passage. It was an excellent sermon about continuing to live for Christ outside the church walls. This is an emphasis at most camps and conferences I have been to as well, with good reason.
I would say that, for the most part, the speakers were on point. Most of the sermons were on general principles of Scripture with which we would all agree. I think anyone would get some benefit from listening to most of these speakers.
CLOSING WORSHIP: If there was an area that is most controversial, this one was it. It was during this time people were called to come forward and be filled with the Spirit. Whereas in Baptist churches an altar call would last about the length of a hymn, this could last for a much more extended period of time. During this time the same song would be sung over and over and people could come forward. Some fell to the ground, some “spoke in tongues”, others laughed continuously, while some went into spasms. I started to wonder how they would know if someone was having a seizure or if someone should call 911. These spasms and falling only happened with a few. The last night made me quite uncomfortable to the point that I almost went outside. There was a prayer tunnel. This is where one walks through and is touched and prayed for by many people. You walk through and are prayed for by each one, most speaking in a way that sounded like baby babbling to me. I have went through one of these in a smaller church not long ago. I liked that one better because they asked specifically what you wanted prayed for and prayed for that. Here that was not really possible with so many people. Everyone basically prayed the same thing for everyone with one man walking around yelling, “Fire!” and swooshing his arm toward everyone. Several more fell to the ground on this night and were carried to the side where they lay like they were taking a nap. Blankets were put over them, I assume for decency. It got to the point that you had to step over people. I walked through this tunnel hoping for a unique feeling or vision of my future or healing of my body, yet felt like I had just walked through a strange experience that I doubt I would do again. Later someone with similar beliefs said he didn’t go through the tunnel because he could get the Spirit filling from his seat (One of the speakers had said this as well). Though, I will admit, that sometimes physically doing something helps us realize by symbol the spiritual action taking place. During he night, I began to observe those falling. I noticed a few things that drew me to the conclusion that this “falling out” was less about the Spirit filling someone then it was about ritual or emotional worship.
First, I would say 4 out of 5 of them were girls. Girls tend to be more dramatic and emotional making them more likely to drop when pushed in a way to encourage falling out.
Secondly, I noticed that in our group the same guys fell out or even laughed a few times during the week. It would seem that if they were filled on Tuesday at such an event that they wouldn’t need it again on Thursday.
Thirdly, the act was encouraged by others. It was regarded as a great experience or a spiritual awakening to have this occurrence. Falling out and speaking in tongues, though noted by a few speakers as unnecessary for Spirit-filling, was still viewed in high regard.
My conclusion on this “falling out” is that most, if not all were ritualistic in form. I don’t doubt that for them it was a form of worship, I do doubt that it was necessarily the Spirit causing them to fall down with some special blessing unattained by those who did not. I’m sure for some it was attention seeking, but that is true in any denomination. I’m certain for some it was an emotional decision rather than a real one, which the last speaker did an excellent job talking about; but that is true of any conference, revival or camp. I doubt I will ever fall out on the floor. It’s simply not my form of worship. One teen, after seeing others jumping around during a song, said, “I don’t feel like that is worship”. He preferred to stand in one spot with his hands raised. Should I say that he isn’t worshipping because he didn’t jump? Should I say that they didn’t worship because they did jump and dance? NO! I also don’t think I will go so far as to say that one falling out isn’t worshipping nor should one say that a person who doesn’t fall out isn’t worshipping.
The closing worship was also when “speaking in tongues” took place. I put that in quotes because I don’t believe tongues in the Bible is a form of babbling, but is known languages on the earth. It is like the Day of Pentecost when the apostles spoke and, though they didn’t know other languages, those who were from other countries understood them in their own language. I also believe that those speaking in tongues, as some did there, are to have an interpreter. There was never an interpreter during any point of the conference.
One thing that was good about the closing worship, as well as opening worship, was the freedom to pray for one another. Due to the extent of the worship time and the freedom given, you could literally pray for someone during a song or ask someone to pray for you and not feel like you were interrupting the service. In many Baptist services we attend, sing, watch, listen, sing and leave without any interaction with another person outside our own family, save for a brief handshake. Many pastors may hope for congregants to attend a Wednesday night prayer service, but why not pray for one another when everyone is already gathered together? It only seems logical and beneficial to the body of Christ.
CONCLUDING REMARKS: I have to say that I am very glad I attended this conference / revival week. Many times, as denominations, we only show the parts of services with which we disagree. I could easily see someone taking the prayer tunnel experience and recording that alone to show how foolish a charismatic service appears to a practicing baptist. However, that was a very small part of the week. Most of the week was on point and excellent. Even that had benefits and could be viewed as a form of worship. I truly think it would be great if Baptist churches would bring their youth groups to Branded by Fire or some similar conference. I know that many will think I’m foolish to mention it, but my question is, “What are you afraid of?” Do you fear they will have questions you can’t answer? Perhaps you need study your Bible more so you can. Do you fear they will be exposed to another denomination? Do you think they never will be? Do you fear they will become charismatic? Maybe you have been to surface level in your teaching. Do you fear they will know that there are other brothers and sisters in Christ who worship a little differently? Maybe it’s time they learned and maybe it’s time you and I learned from others as well. I would say the same to charismatic churches. Try attending the conference of a different gospel-preaching denomination. Then be prepared to answer questions. While on this trip one of my guys said, “I don’t know why we need to have different denominations. Why can’t we all worship together?” I told him that I would love for churches to take a Sunday morning and worship together in the park. I may be dreaming, but I think it would show the world that we are one body. Perhaps this is a privilege and ministry of many Christian singers and bands. They bring believers from all different denominations together for worship. Perhaps this is what makes it so special. I told my student, “One day we will all worship together in perfect harmony. I look forward to that day.”
In conclusion, this was an excellent experience that drew me closer to Lord and helped me open up in worship to Him. I was even convicted to read my Bible more. I had some great conversations with my students, wonderful times of prayer and fell in love with the Lord all over again. I’m glad I went and look forward to going back again next year.
