My customary posting on CHC

[cicada84]

I've been raised to have a strong aversion towards Charismatic Christianity. At the mere mention of 'Charismatic', my mind would be filled with images of worldly, satanic prayer and worship, and the obsession with money and wealth. Lately, having read an article on the socio-economic dimensions of this issue, I found out that I actually belong to

Comments

[nikheart]

Mmmmm... I think I meant something a little different. Yes, most people in all churches don't really keep tabs on where their donations go - that is true. It is based on trust in the leaders.

But the difference between a place like CHC and say the Methodist Church, is that among the leadership themselves, there are structures and ideology that guide the stewardship process. In other words, the leaders themselves have mechanisms to hold themselves accountable. CHC, so far as it seems as of now, has some semblance of such governance structures, but they face the disadvantage of an authoritarian leader that more or less overrides all decisions as well as underdeveloped theology that prevents even any informal code of conduct for the highest echelons. The Methodist church in contrast does not have either of these advantages - the Bishop is like our Singapore President, a figurehead and powerless, plus you can bet your life there is a code of conduct for all clergy.

Therefore, for a church like the Methodist church where we can make an argument that church does not stop at the offering bag (because theological teachings extend beyond it and the individual believer is trusting the entire system upon donation), the same argument can't be made for CHC at least to the same extent because there is nothing to trust or distrust beyond the offering bag in the first place!