Recovering from the Drift of Charismatic Theology

Our movement may be wandering, but with humility she can be brought back on course

I criticize the Charismatic church because these are my people. I let the Baptists deal with Baptist issues, and the Methodists can navigate their own waters. My Charismatic CV stands up to anyone else’s, so I’m talking about my people. And people, we’ve got problems.

I recently spoke with the former regional leader of an international fellowship of Charismatic churches about this. I was expecting pushback, but he told me a story that made my head spin.

At one of their pastors' conferences, a debate emerged about whether Jesus was divine. They were so fixated on one attribute of the Father that they were not sure where that left Jesus. After three days of meetings, thankfully, they came to the same conclusion Athanasius penned in 335 AD. This leader told me the group felt like some holy revelation had come upon them, and there was awe in the room about what they had discovered.

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I wish this were some isolated story, but unpack the most famous leaders of our camp and you get equally head-scratching teachings. Somewhere along the line, we traded the timeless story of God for personal experiences and theologies built on conjecture. This is a spiritual crisis that demands we pause and take an honest look at where we’ve come from and where we are headed.

If you read nothing else, here is my point: The Charismatic movement's theological ambiguity has created a vacuum where subjective interpretations and personal experiences take precedence, enabling personality-driven leadership to overshadow the Tradition and shift the focus from Christ to individuals. This has caused the Church to become a fragile, leader-centric institution, prone to isolated camps, disjointed theology, and doctrinal incoherence.

The Lost Compass of Theological Dogma

Dogma is the Church’s decreed interpretation of divine revelation. It provides clarity, unity, and direction for the Church, serving as a safeguard against error and a guide for faithful living. Historically, the Church has used dogma to define its identity and anchor its theology in truths established over the course of 2,000 years.

In the Charismatic movement, we have often ridiculed historical, orthodox dogma. While this has been championed as a freedom to follow the Holy Spirit without constraint, it has created a dangerous vacuum where theology is shaped more by subjective experiences than by objective truth. Without clear doctrinal boundaries, leaders and congregants alike are left to navigate complex theological questions with little more than intuition or tradition-defying "revelations."

This theological ambiguity leaves all doctrine open to personal interpretation. Without a unifying theological framework, individual churches and leaders emphasize what seems most clever to them.

Traditions with doctrinal statements have used these frameworks to foster collaboration, accountability, and unity. Their creeds and confessions act as theological guardrails, ensuring that personal charisma or novel interpretations do not overshadow the Gospel’s core message. Things may move slow in these traditions, but when done well, they move purposefully.

The lack of dogma not only weakens our movement’s ability to protect itself from heresy but also leaves believers unfounded in the timeless story of God. Instead, their faith becomes rooted in the personal priorities and interpretations of their lead pastors, shaping doctrine based on individual preferences. This creates a path for the cult of personality, where the leader’s personal experiences and "vision" shape the Church’s identity instead of being centered on the Gospel.

Building the Church in Their Image

The Charismatic Church has replaced theological education with charismatic leaders and their personal revelations. The average churchgoer doesn’t need to attend Bible study, learn hermeneutics, or truly study the Bible at all. Instead, they are taught to align themselves with the leader, who becomes the central source of authority. These leaders shift the primary means of knowing God to focusing on their own life experiences, whether real or imagined. The result is a church shaped by the leader's personal priorities, creating a distorted reflection of the Gospel.

There is a massive Charismatic church that is led by two world-famous leaders. One has a gift of healing and the other has a gift of prophecy. So guess what the folks in that stream think the central message of the New Testament is? Every believer is supposed to heal the sick and prophesy. When the apostle or prophet individually sets the doctrine, the church gets built in their image. And this is a massive problem.

Paul’s warning to the Corinthians cries out here: “I am of Paul; I am of Apollos.” What was once a rebuke against factionalism has become a functional reality in the Charismatic world. Followers align themselves with apostles and prophets for their own personal mission. This creates a dependency on the leader’s unique worldview rather than encouraging believers to engage directly with God’s Word, Spirit, and Church. Paul displayed humility in not allowing himself to be elevated. We desperately need leaders with this type of self-awareness and ethic.

The cult of personality fosters spiritual immaturity among believers who are denied developing their own theological convictions or spiritual practices. It also fractures the broader Body of Christ. Ultimately, it shifts the Church’s foundation from the eternal truth of Christ to the shifting sands of human charisma.

When the Church Forgets the Body

The cult of personality within the charismatic movement has led to a profound absence of biblical ecclesiology, a framework for understanding how the Church functions together as the Body of Christ. The Bible is pretty clear that silos of revelation result in bad practices. But modern apostles and prophets are a community unto themselves.

Moltmann argued that our doctrine of the Trinity directly carries over to how we view the Church. The more you believe in a hierarchal nature of the Godhead, the more likely you are going to embrace a hierarchical structure of the local church. This leaves leaders open to promoting crazy theologies based on their own thoughts.

A popular one today is that Jesus being called the Christ is an allusion to the man Jesus being smeared with the Holy Spirit to do miraculous works. Another massive charismatic ministry was built on the idea of praying Jesus back to earth to judge the unrighteous and save Israel through their intercession.

What is all this based on? In each case, it is one man's personal revelation. It should surprise no one that the latter spectacularly collapsed, leaving thousands wandering confused. Unfortunately, our movement is filled with similar stories of tragic failures.

I'm not just a dude saying we need more book study because I went to seminary. This causes real harm. The leaders of these churches allow themselves to be portrayed similarly to their Christ, a man who has been smeared with the Holy Spirit in a way you aren't. They are now the anointed of God to be followed and not questioned. Considering Paul took a trip to have his doctrine examined, this makes them more anointed than Paul!

The Fallout of a Broken Foundation

This isn't some doomsday conjecture from a cessationist. I cut my teeth on Toronto and Brownsville. I've been to more impartation services than I care to list. I have seen and experienced every type of miracle, and I believe all the stuff in the Book. But I have seen the fallout from these movements. There are so many disaffected believers who have no theology of suffering because their pastors refuse to learn one. So when the inevitable suffering of this world comes, their only recourse is to deduce that this whole thing was a scam.

Finding the Way Forward

We have to find a way forward. The Charismatic movement desperately needs ministers with a robust understanding of Pentecostal doctrine—ministers who are not only grounded in the Spirit, the Scripture, and the Tradition but also aware of the theological weaknesses that have led us here. This requires a commitment to deep theological study and an honest reckoning with the movement’s history.

First, we must re-anchor our theology in the timeless story of God. This means prioritizing the teaching of sound doctrine over the latest trends or personal revelations. Ministers should be trained to interpret Scripture within the broader context of Church history, understanding how the Spirit has worked through the Church over millennia. We should expect church leaders to articulate sound theology.

Second, we must confront the cult of personality. This means leaders turning from presenting their favorite doctrines as mandates from God. Leaders must remember they are servants within the Body of Christ, not kings over it, and teach the whole counsel of God.

Finally, we need an ecclesiological renewal. Churches must embrace a biblical understanding that their leaders are part of the Body, not separate or above it. The focus must return to Christ as the head of the Church, not the apostle or prophet who claims to speak on His behalf.

The way forward is clear: Spirit-filled discipleship grounded in Word, Spirit, and Tradition. By addressing these foundational issues, the Charismatic movement can recover its original vibrancy and align itself once again with the mission of Christ. But in order for this to happen, the superstars of our day must step out of the limelight and point the Church back to its true head: Christ Himself, who came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Until we rediscover that humility and mission, we will continue to stumble in the darkness.

(Note: I am for open dialogue in the comments, but I am talking about my people the Charismatic / Pentecostals. I’m not really open to debating the legitimacy of the movements.)