by Al Shaw

Created on: June 13, 2009   Last Updated: June 17, 2009

For a movement that has at least three distinct strands within its history, we should not be surprised to see the charismatic movement developing and evolving today in a variety of different directions.

The movement that broke upon the Christian church in the west during the 1970s represented on the one hand a broadening in influence of the Pentecostal movement that began in the early 20th Century. The growth of individual Pentecostal churches and denominations and their influence in wider circles within Protestantism has been vital in explaining the growth of the charismatic movement, even though the latter has not uncritically adopted all of the theology or style of the former.

A second strand to the charismatic movement was a re-emphasis in the second half of the twentieth century of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit by Christians of a Reformed persuasion. Martyn Lloyd Jones, minister of Westminster Chapel in London between 1943 and 1968, for instance, articulated a doctrine of baptism in the Spirit through his expositional preaching on Ephesians and Romans, though he never lead The Chapel into a fully-fledged experience of charismatic life. More recently, Baptist and Reformed theologian Wayne Grudem has exercised an important role in the United States as something of an apologist for the charismatic movement.

Thirdly, individual leaders within historic denominations began in the 1960's and 70's to experience their own personal experience of the Holy Spirit in ways that were new and, in some cases, dramatic. Anglicans David Watson, Michael Harper and Dennis Bennett, and American Lutheran Larry Christenson were among some of the leaders within this early strand of the charismatic movement. As leaders began to find one another, new networks, conferences and initiatives began to spring up within and between these charismatic Christians.

As the charismatic movement finds itself now in its third generation, what strands can we see in its current evolution and development?

1) Neo-Pentecostalism

With an estimated global membership of 115 million worldwide, Pentecostalism remains a major force in world Christianity, especially in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia. The largest single local church in the world, for example the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul South Korea has approximately 800,000 members and is Pentecostal in theology and affiliation.

Many of the largest churches in Western nations are also Pentecostal including the Hillsong

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