This will be a bit controversial, a little close to the edge. I’ve rewritten it a few times in part trying to avoid any hint of passive legalism. My only agenda is ultimately to say, “let’s make some noise!” And we should.
It’s a strange thing, how the very gifts God gives to build us up can become the ones we quietly side-line. Tongues, for me, was the first supernatural encounter I had when I discovered that God was alive and well on planet Earth and wanted me to follow Him, decades ago. It simply amazed me - and still does. When I first started to speak in tongues, I’d wake in the night and pray in tongues - just to make sure it was still there. That it hadn’t slipped away.
These days, in some places, tongues seem to have found their way into the church’s “fragile items” cupboard. Wrapped in bubble wrap. Labelled “handle with care.” As though Paul never said what he said, or as though the Spirit might embarrass us if left unsupervised.
Now, I’m not speaking of extremes here. This isn’t about losing control or throwing words like confetti into the void. But neither am I tiptoeing around the plain witness of Scripture: tongues are a gift. A good one. A necessary one. Not just for a few fiery or eccentric individuals in remote corners of the globe. The whole church can be edified when this vocal, not silent, gift is given room. The whole body encouraged. If only we weren’t so careful.
I’m not asking whether we’ve become anti-charismatic. No, that’s too easy to deny - and we should. What I’m asking is whether we’ve become selective charismatics. Tongues, prophecy, healing… we like them at conferences accompanied by the ‘big worship’, or tucked away in prayer rooms where the volume’s low and the lights are dim. But in the gathered church, where the unsaved might be listening, where the structure must be honoured and the clock is ticking - do we really want the Spirit to speak? Or are we hoping He waits until the Zoom livestream ends? It’s a rhetorical question; we do want the Holy Spirit to have His way, it’s all we truly want.
Paul, writing to Corinth, didn’t once treat tongues as a novelty. He treated it as normal. Grounded. Positive. A help for prayer, a gift for praise, a mystery that blesses both the speaker and the One to whom the praise is directed. “The one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God” (1 Corinthians 14:2, ESV). That alone ought to sober us. We might label tongues as optional, unimportant, or at best, a bonus round for the hyper-spiritual, but Paul would shake his head. Speaking in tongues is a way of giving thanks. A way of blessing God. A way of being built up in the inner man.
Some will argue that Paul prioritised intelligibility in the gathered church. That’s true, but intelligibility is not the same as silence. It’s not a call to strip the church of the very gifts Christ ascended to give. It’s a call to steward them rightly, not shelve them completely. I wonder, have we become so academic, postmodern, and polished that tongues now feel like something from a bygone era, real but rarely relevant? Personally I don’t think so, but we’d do well to keep an eye on the road.
I’m just three steps away from Azusa Street which is why I have a high value on the baptism of the Spirit. I’ve prayed in tongues in deserts and forests (literally) in cities I couldn’t pronounce and airports rammed with busyness. I’ve whispered mysteries to God in places where the gospel has no pulpit. In mosques, in the homes of imams. On flights. On roads in India and Lebanon lined with shrines and strange things. Not as some charismatic badge of honour, but because I value what it does. When words fail - and they often do - He does not.
The truth is, we’re not just teaching people how to behave in church anymore. We’re often teaching them which parts of the Spirit they’re allowed - or encouraged - to access. We can unintentionally disciple them into a kind of safety. A kind of respectability. A faith that fits nicely inside a well-designed service order. And the result? An honourable church, perhaps. But a malnourished one.
I’m raising a question that comes to mind as I look at life in some churches across the UK. A quiet thought: “guys - come on!” Are we making room for the gifts of the Spirit, or are we storing them like heirlooms from a previous generation? If the early church, in the thick of persecution and rapid growth, needed tongues to pray when words ran dry, to praise in the midst of suffering, and to build up their weary souls - what makes us think we don’t?
If my life was on the edge and the grim reaper lurking in the shadows I’d rather hear people calling out to God on my behalf, audibly, certainly in tongues, than listen to the sound of silence! Other Simon & Garfunkel songs are available.
This isn’t a call to chaos. It’s a call to courage. The kind of courage that trusts the Spirit knows what He’s doing. The kind that believes the cross didn’t just forgive us - it filled us. And that fullness still speaks.
Even in tongues.
Good one Jon.! 👍
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