Something More, Yet Something Safe

Several years ago, I became aware of Doug Banister’s book, The Word and Power Church (Zondervan, 1999), which is an attempt to bridge the perceived divide that exists between Evangelicals and Pentecostals. As Banister sees it, one side champions the Word, the other the Spirit. The question he explores is “Are the Word and Spirit really in conflict or doesn’t the Lord’s ideal include both sound biblical teaching and the power of God to be experienced?”

Banister’s journey started as a man of The Word. He was a confirmed cessationist concerning the spiritual gifts. However, a nagging problem was growing. As he puts it, his church was beginning to feel more like a classroom than a sanctuary and people only seemed to know God propositionally rather than personally. He knew something was missing and he longed for more.

After reading a copy of John L. Sherrill’s They Speak With Other Tongues and re-examining 1 Corinthians 12-14, Banister concluded that cessationism couldn’t be true. Shaken in his faith yet drawn to pursuing a more tangible experience of God, he spent a night fasting and seeking God. He recalls his prayer: “I’m tired of knowing you from a distance. I want to know you intimately, personally. I don’t just want to know about you, I want to know you” (p. 18). Suddenly, he felt his soul begin to worship God with a torrent of words in a language he had never learned. He was praying in tongues!

Now Banister is an advocate of finding the radical middle way between Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism. In fact, he believes that God is currently blending the strengths of these traditions across North America. These churches, says Banister, are “Word and Power” churches (p. 21). He has observed reticence in some who are exploring the power of the Spirit for the first time. “Our guests are drawn to the power,” he says, “but afraid of it too. When the power is matched with the Word, they feel safe” (p. 39).