Preach Magazine Issue 3 - Preaching and the Holy Spirit | Page 11

INTERVIEW

to Trinity for many, many years, and
he just wouldn’t come.
Then one day he turned up and I
asked him, ‘Mike, why are you here at
Trinity now? Why haven’t you come
before?’ And he said, ‘Mark, I thought
you were charismatic!’ And I said,
‘We are Charismatic!’ And he said,
‘No you’re not.’ So I asked him what
he understood the word to mean and
he said he associated charismatic
ministries with Rolex watches, Lear
jets and televangelism.
It seems to me that language is
such a powerful thing and it can
communicate, in an ever-changing
world, all sorts of things that we
cannot comprehend. But I have
increasingly realised that the word
‘charismatic’ can be confusing for
some people, and so the term that
we tend to use to refer to ourselves
is ‘empowered evangelicals’. We
absolutely are charismatic in that we
believe in the person of the Spirit, the
ministry of the Spirit, the gifts and the
fruits of the Spirit for the equipping
and empowering of God’s people. But
for some it’s a confusing label.

LWPT8693 Preach Magazine - Issue 3 v3 REPRO.indd 11

WITHIN A FEW MOMENTS I WAS
UP AND WALKING AROUND
AGAIN, NOT HAVING BEEN ABLE
TO DO THAT FOR 12 WEEKS.
IT WAS A TRULY POWERFUL,
VERIFIABLE MIRACLE.

JS Trinity has ‘celebrations’ instead

of services; your evening celebration
is described as ‘informal’ and you
have worship led by bands. Why do
you think openness to gifts of the
Holy Spirit in a corporate setting
so often comes hand in hand with a
certain style of music and meeting
format? Or do you not think there is
any correlation?

We have a vision statement
here at Trinity that says we’re in
the business of ‘making committed
followers of Jesus who change
communities and nations for Him’;
but alongside that we have a strapline
which is simply, ‘Celebrating Life’.

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Within the life of Trinity, in the
midst of the very many challenges
of life, we want to celebrate all
that is good about God. We want
to celebrate his love, his grace, his
mercy, his goodness, his offer of life,
the assurance of his presence. For us
worship is a way of life, and so what
we’re doin