The Charismatic Renewal
Profile by Dr CUTHBERT CHIDOORI
My First General Conference of the Assemblies of God
The Congress on Mission and Evangelism held in Durban
W F P Burton and some Congo Missionaries
Nicholas
Bekinkosi Hepworth Bhengu
– His Youthful Dreams
– His Preaching
- Bhengu and Education
- Bhengu and Money
- Miraculous Experiences
- Spiritual Happenings
- The Sanctifying Spirit of God
– His Departure
Bhengu’s “Isinthunzi”
- Government and Politics
– Some Faults, Virtues and the Burden
of His Heart
President Lucas Mangope of Bophuthatswana
William
Frederick Mullan
The Fairview Assembly
Fred Mullan and the Gifts of the Spirit
A Miracle and a Vision
The Revival in Norwood
James E Mullan
Paul O Lange
William Branham in Durban
Oral Roberts in South Africa
Billy
Graham in Salisbury and Durban
The American Missionaries from Springfield, Missouri
C. Austin Chawner and the Portuguese Work
August Kast and the Mount Tabor Mission Station
Colin
La Foy and the Coloured Leadership
The Work in Zimbabwe
Mauritius and Reunion Island
Special
–1
Special
Answers to Prayer – 2
A Beautiful Square with Good Vibes
Prayer and the Hippie Revival
The Young Turks
Tensions within the Group
The Split
of 1981 – Part One
The Split
of 1981 – Part Two
The Beginnings of the Faith Movement in South Africa
The Statement of September 1989
The Charismatic Renewal
The Start of the Pentecostal Revival World Wide and The Swedish Pentecostal Assemblies
Epilogue
APPENDIX 1 : How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit
APPENDIX 2 : The National Church by Nicholas Bhengu
APPENDIX 3 : Article from the Argus 5/02/1981
APPENDIX 4 : Pointers to the future of the Assemblies of God in the New South Africa (10/06/94)
A glaring fault of some para-church organisations is that they often by-pass the leadership of the churches they choose to co-operate with, selecting their own favoured members of those churches whom they feel they can best deal with. They take such as speakers in their conventions, and often select them to be on their committees. Having done so they feel that they have satisfied any ecumenical demands that could reasonably be laid upon them, for had they not been at pains to give the church a voice in their programs? Of course the churches themselves are often not satisfied, since the people so arbitrarily chosen are frequently not held in very high esteem in their own church bodies, who know them best.
When the Charismatic Movement which swept through South Africa in the 1970s
first began to gain momentum its leaders did precisely that. In consequence
some of us in the Assemblies of God adopted a largely negative stance
towards the movement. It must be said that the greater part of the
Pentecostal Movement never changed from its negative perception of
the Charismatics, and by and large, never co-operated with them. Their
bias might have stemmed from a sour sense of proprietorship in the
Pentecostal churches who regarded things charismatic as their own particular
field of expertise, not to be surrendered now to the very denominations
who hitherto had bitterly opposed them. This peevishness was made worse
by self-satisfied comments from small people in the charismatic fold
who asserted that “the Pentys” had the power while the
denominations had the scholarship, but that once blessed with the gift
of tongues, the Charismatics had both scholarship and power, thus surpassing
and even relegating the unrefined Pentecostals. For their part, the
Pentecostals frequently were shocked at fanatical violations of sound
doctrine and practice occurring in Charismatic circles. Even so respected
a teacher as Dr Derek Prince, himself a leader in Charismatic circles,
voiced an opinion that the Anti-Christ could possibly rise from the
ranks of the Charismatic Movement. Among his reasons motivating such
a statement he cited a disregard for Scriptural teaching, an aversion
to Biblical discipline, and a prevailing craze for miracles.
One often is tempted to think of the Charismatics as being like the Anabaptists
of the 16th century. Of them it is said that among their number were some
of the finest and some of the worst examples of Christian character.
My involvement in the Charismatic Movement stems from an altercation with
Derek Crumpton, a one-time Methodist minister, and the outstanding facilitator
of the several Charismatic conferences which took place in the 1970s. He
charged me with being opposed to the meetings he had been arranging. I
responded that he was inviting speakers from our assemblies who were problematical
to say the least. He confessed concerning one such speaker that his input
had been extremely embarrassing to them; they would never invite him again!
Our discussion ended with a challenge; if I were invited would I attend
their meetings?
I did attend, and found myself in company with several score ministers,
mostly Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians and even a few Catholics. I
was humbled by the calibre, grace, humility and earnestness I observed
in them. I felt a bonding that grew over the several years I associated
with them. I found the Charismatic conferences Derek Crumpton called together
inspiring. It was an honour to be invited onto the executive, organising
the 1979 conference and to speak in 1981 at the conference convened in
the Good Hope Centre in Cape Town, sharing the platform with notable Christian
leaders like Bishop Godfrey Ashbey (a brilliant scholar and speaker) and
Archbishop Bill Burnett, the Anglican archbishop of Cape Town.
I felt an affinity with Bill Burnett dating from a certain prayer meeting
in the Harfield Road Assembly of God. With shame I have to confess that
up to that time in my born again experience there was a rather arrogant
disdain for other churches. Particularly there was a resentment for the
Anglican Church, for I had attended regularly at St Paul’s Church
in Durban, having a deep spiritual hunger, yet no-one had ever bothered
to minister to me. To be fair, Archdeacon Heyward-Harris, the Rector, did
take the trouble to visit my parents to get me to attend Sunday School.
I recognised that as an act of faithfulness on his part. But my Sunday
School teacher seemed to me rather effeminate and he filled in lesson time
by reading the class cowboy stories. Had someone ever said to me, “John,
do you want to know how your sins can be forgiven?” I would have
been inclined to fall down and kiss their feet with gratitude. But no-one
ever did that. Of course my attitude of religious pride and resentment
had to be cured sooner or later. To a large extent it was cured by my contact
with the many fine churchmen I met in the Charismatic meetings.
When I prayed in that prayer meeting I was led to cry out to God in a heartfelt
prayer for the Anglican Church. The terms of my prayer would have made
any devout Anglican wish for a return of the stake for the burning of such
as I, an inconvertible recusant if ever there was one. “Oh God”,
I cried, “You can do anything, no matter how impossible it seems
to me! Can’t you do something for the Anglican Church? I beseech
you to do the impossible.” Within a week of that prayer being uttered,
there were banner headlines in the Sunday Times, “THE BISHOP OF GRAHAMSTOWN
SPEAKS IN TONGUES”. Bill Burnett was the Bishop of Grahamstown but
not long afterwards he became Archbishop of Cape Town, the head of the
Anglican Church. God certainly was doing something for the Anglicans. Bill
Burnett became a prominent leader in the Charismatic Movement. Through
his influence and example, many church people entered into new realms of
Christian experience. Later when he passed from the scene, thousands of
those felt they had to find a new church home. They would not link up with
any Pentecostal church but looked to the new Charismatic churches that
were springing up in the 1980s. Many found refuge in Charismatic Baptist
Churches. Thus the Hatfield Christian Church in Pretoria swelled into a
membership of thousands.
At about that time a book became popular in South Africa. It was “The
Radical Christian” by Arthur Wallis. Wallis said, “The axe
is laid to the root of the tree” meaning that God was finished with
denominational churches. So after nearly 15 years of telling people to
get filled with the Spirit but not on any account to leave their churches,
certain Charismatic leaders changed their tune. They told whoever would
listen that 15 years had been given in which the churches should have embraced
the practice of baptising believers (or adults) instead of sprinkling babies.
They warned Charismatic Christians to now come out of their churches; such
were old wineskins. God wanted new wineskins. I can well credit that some
ecclesiastics might have seen the Charismatic leaders’ volte-face
as a cynical betrayal of a trust that had been accorded them. There were
even instances of ministers or priests arranging for a Pentecostal pastor
to baptise them by immersion, and then they themselves would immerse 30
or 40 members of their congregations who wished to follow their example.
Usually the event would be trumpeted as a victory. I judge it otherwise.
Fervently as I hold to believers baptism and discount paedobaptism, there
are ways of obeying the Scriptures without breaking solemn vows that have
been made in ordination.
But in the excitement of revival that was prevalent in those times, our
thinking was not always clear, and one is forced to accept things that
were done then even if we wish now with hindsight that they had been done
differently.
One such case concerned a Methodist minister in the small Transvaal town
of Nigel. He requested baptism from the local Assembly of God pastor. Then
he himself immersed 30 members of his flock.
This man was an outstanding personality with the dynamism to have been
a key leader in the Charismatic Revival in South Africa. But when God works
Satan works too. The brother failed and had to retire from the ministry,
- a great defeat for the Kingdom of God.
Quite understandably, once he was immersed, he had to resign his pastorate
in the Methodist Church, forfeiting his living. As soon as I heard of his
situation I appealed to the elders at the Harfield Road Assembly of God
to come to his rescue. They undertook to pay him a salary matching that
of an Assemblies of God minister. They did so without requiring him to
join the Assemblies of God and without stipulating any conditions at all.
Their motive was purely to ensure that the Holy Ghost baptism should be
ministered far and wide, no matter by whom. Our good intentions were thwarted
when the brother had to step down from the ministry.
That was not the only instance where we sponsored a Charismatic program
while keeping a low profile ourselves. There was the occasion when the
Reverend Michael Harper visited Cape Town. Arranging his visit was a certain
Captain Dobbie, a fine Christian leader who had been the principal of Glenvar,
the Bible College of the Africa Evangelistic Band, or AEB as they were
called. The AEB were a holiness group with extremely prejudiced ideas on
the matter of speaking in tongues. They taught it was of the Devil. This
idea was a carry-over from the teachings of a certain lady, Jessie Penn-Lewis
(a favourite writer with them) who some think by her influence and teachings
ruined the ministry of Evan Roberts, the outstanding leader of the Welsh
Revival.
I first contacted Captain Dobbie in about 1954. At that time he agreed
fully with the viewpoint of the AEB in their condemnation of anything Pentecostal.
It was a surprise, therefore, when I was posted to Harfield Road in Cape
Town in 1967, to find that the Captain had undergone a change of heart.
He was now actually attending worship at the Harfield Road Assembly of
God occasionally. I learnt that he had gone so far as to publish in the
AEB magazine a frank rebuttal of what he had previously taught about the
Pentecostals, and had expressed repentance for it.
When I learnt of Michael Harper’s pending visit to the churches in
the Western Cape, I persuaded the Harfield Road elders to help Captain
Dobbie promote the visit. At our expense each minister in the Cape Peninsula
was sent an invitation to Michael Harper’s meetings and a copy of
one of Michael Harper’s excellent little books was sent with it.
Nobody was aware that we had paid for this publicity.
Michael Harper was trained as a lawyer as well as in theology. He founded “The
Fountain Trust”, an influential foundation dedicated to promoting
the Charismatic message. The last I heard of him was that he had left the
Anglican Church to join the Greek Orthodox Church in England. Perhaps this
unexpected turn of events is not completely out of character, since the
Eastern pneumatology chimes more closely with Charismatic thought than
does that of the Western church.
By the early 1980s the Charismatic Movement as we knew it in the 1970s
appeared to have run its course. But it has continued in some quarters
both here and overseas. Notably, the Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Brompton,
England is vitally Charismatic to this day. From them comes a flow of exquisite
devotional choruses, rich with theological truth. The Alpha Course was
devised in the Brompton Church. It is an effective way of reaching the
unchurched who are reluctant to attend a normal church meeting.
The ecclesiastical scene is very different today from what it was in 1970
when the Charismatic Movement first came to the fore. When I got involved
with the Charismatic Movement one could not guess the size and force of
the wave about to break over the church at large, including the Assemblies
of God.
A noticeable effect of the visitation is that now denominational and doctrinal
boundaries have become blurred. Church members seem little concerned with
doctrinal issues or denominational differences. They move from one church
to another quite easily without enquiring into doctrine or church practices.
So long as they like the preaching and the music, that is enough. Music
is very important! The selection of churches to choose from seems infinite.
One is likely to come upon mushrooming Charismatic churches wherever one
goes. Their existence testifies to a widespread move of the Spirit having
taken place. But their nature sometimes but not always testifies to a disregard
for Biblical parameters. The individual wishing for a thoroughly Biblical
foundation is left with a sense that even if the Charismatic wave has passed
and gone, he is compelled to swim in surging waters. He is faced with an
unavoidable challenge to adapt to sociological trends but at the same time
to keep Biblical parameters, not allowing ancient landmarks to be moved
by a flood of novelty.
To do this calls for an open mind and a theological awareness, qualities
which are not lacking in the Assemblies of God. The Charismatic Movement
is no mere episode in our history. With gratitude for our past, our eyes
are on the future. In the Holy Spirit’s continuing work, the Assemblies
of God certainly have a part to play. The situation is often confusing,
but the word to us is what Paul said to Timothy, “But you keep your
head in all things!”
After 1980 a regrouping of Charismatic Christians took place. What emerged
bore the name IFCC (International Fellowship of Christian Churches). It
might be said that within that formation were found two main streams. There
was what one could dub the Hatfield connection consisting of believers
from mainline churches influenced by the Charismatic Movement. Then there
was the Rhema connection headed up by Ray McCauley. This seems to have
started with displaced Pentecostal believers, not a few of them out of
the Assemblies of God. After an initial wildness in its start, the top
leadership of Rhema has proved itself discerning and common-sensed, being
willing to moderate its more extreme doctrines. The Hatfield connection
on the other hand has been open to new things even when at times these
have been controversial. Ultimately the radical difference in approach
brought about a division in the IFCC ranks.
The white membership of the Assemblies of God were affected by the flowing
tides in the aftermath of the Charismatic Renewal. Confusion, disarray
and loss of momentum resulted, but our leadership has girded itself anew
and goes ahead with fresh dynamism now.
Brother Nicholas Bhengu supported the Charismatic conferences and SACLA
(South Africa Christian Leadership Assembly). Hundreds of black, coloured,
Indian and white Assemblies of God Christians attended as delegates to
these happenings. But the black work was not so radically influenced as
was the white work. They eschewed the manifestations which whites sought
after and delighted in. They pursued the tent evangelism which has characterised
the Back to God Crusade. It is true that the Charismatic outpouring was
largely a middle-class white phenomenon not radically impacting black churches.
In saying so I quote from an Afro-American professor of theology, Dr Jim
Forbes who spoke eloquently at the 1979 Charismatic Conference. He made
this statement in an executive meeting of the 1979 Conference. It caused
great offence to Derek Crumpton, the convenor, but I think he merely stated
it as an observed fact without wishing to be offensive.
On the same occasion Jim Forbes chided the conference leadership with being
unaware of the basic problems in the black-white divide affecting South
Africa. He singled me out on that occasion. He said of me, “Brother
Bond seems to know there is a problem, but even he does not understand
it; he probably does not even know what the problem is.” I took his
words both as a back-handed compliment and as a statement of fact. Indeed
to this day my bafflement persists.
I can’t really say what was the effect of Forbes’ words on
the majority of the Executive members. Derek Crumpton sobbed his frustration
and a number present knelt beside him trying to comfort him. In all the
commotion a beautiful thing happened. A young advocate was there, the son
of a judge. He aspired to follow in his father’s steps and be appointed
as a judge himself. Already he had presided on the bench two or three times
in an acting capacity. This young scion knelt down among his fellow executive
members, and with tears and prayer he dedicated himself to God, surrendering
there and then his Afrikanerdom. I knelt and wept with him, for I knew
what his action meant to him. In the Charismatic conferences and at SACLA
it had dawned on me that the cultured Afrikaner was often a very frightened
person. The haunting fear was that he would lose his Afrikanerdom, his
language and his culture. Nowadays it seems this fate could be imminent.
The young man’s act of dedication that day was an example of the
nobler fruit borne by the Charismatic conferences and by SACLA. I think
these massed gatherings of Christians occurring in the 1970s actually paved
the way for developments in the social and political framework of South
Africa that made possible the political dialogue of the early 90s, culminating
in the elections of 1994. Certainly they contributed to those developments.
For my part I cherish many memories of the Charismatic conferences. I recognise
that a new dynamism was released upon the whole church. I am challenged
by the widespread need for sound leadership and Biblical discipline, and
I am encouraged by the larger vision, the faith, the enthusiasm and the
impatience with religiosity brought about by the new climate we work in.
On reflection I have to acknowledge that churches today are not what they
were ten or fifteen years ago; nor can one assume that ten years hence
they will be exactly what they are today. A dynamic tide flows all about
us bringing change and challenge together with revival and blessing.