I grew up in what I call “freaky floppy churches”. The kinda church that perhaps a Mennonite or Lutheran would go to and feel completely uncomfortable in. It’s the slain in the spirit, dancing, speaking in tongues, faith healing, miracle working, prosperity preaching, demon fighting, hands shaking kinda church. People fall on the floor and shake, people moan or laugh or cry. I’ve even heard very very loud growling which frightened me beyond belief.

There were many time that I thought this was happening to me, many times I wanted it to happen to me, many times I KNEW it was happening to me and many times I was told it would happen more just if I were more _______.

When I went to Bible college I thought I would be amongst what I called “spiritual giants” (which is so funny to me now) and these people would most likely ALWAYS be flopping on the floor like a good Christian should. I didn’t really know what the word “Mennonite” meant when I went to college.

Our first chapel was about to begin and I was revved up. We were gunna get in some good worshiping, we were going to dance and cheer and lallygag about the place in the name of Jesus Christ. I was eyeing for the flags…where the heck did they keep them? Once the music started everyone just stared at the front, blank faced, serene, bored even. I was astonished at all the spiritually “dry” people around me. Where was the Holy Spirit in this boring kind of worship? Didn’t they know that you were supposed to get excited for it to REALLY be worship? I thought my school needed a revival. How come no one held their hands up high?

After spending two years in that college with a bunch of Mennonites and MARRYING a Menno I learned that there was another form of worship, more serene, more thoughtful, more whatever. I learned it was still worship though, that you can just stand there blank-faced and still love Jesus. As crazy as that might sound.

It got me thinking. How come the HS didn’t knock these people over as He did in other places? Was it because they didn’t welcome it? I think it was a mixture of a lot of things.

I began to reflect a lot on my emotions in those freaky floppy worship sessions.  I began to ponder the POWER of those emotions.  Could this be all in my head?  Is this just loads of hype?

When my husband and I were dating, I took him to a faith healing conference one evening, just to show him what it was like.  As we seated ourselves, the lady in front of us was already convulsing in her seat.  The seats filled, we sang worship songs and then the speaker came up.  By then most people were pretty revved up.  There were many people yelling and growling and moaning in the crowd.  One thing I noticed, though, is that their moans grew louder as the speakers voice got more excited.  Whenever the speaker yelled, the people also yelled and shook and moaned.  Like the HS gets stronger with a louder voice?  This made me really think it was a LOT of hype.

I can count a few times where I know it was real and a few times where I know it was ALLLL hype.  I’ll admit, my mind is pretty powerful, I, too, can give into the power of suggestion. But I KNOW some times were real.  I know it with all of my heart.

I think God speaks our language.  If we need certain things to feel loved by God, I think he’ll provide them for us.  Some people really feel his love by flopping on the floor and others feel it in a instrument free environment where they can chant and sing and not be bothered by the opposite sex who’s sitting on the other side of the church.

My beef with the freak floppy movement is that people start to feel like they’re doing something wrong when nothing happens to them.  If they aren’t so easily fooled by the power of the mind, they’ll never flop or shake or moan.  I know someone who left the church because she couldn’t feel anything like the rest of us did.  How sad.  How sad to suggest to a person that they need to do MORE for God to make them shake about like the “normal” church goers.  How sad to suggest that something is indeed wrong with them if they’re not babbling along in tongues.

Let me tell you, I’ve found many a great Christian in my time who’s never flopped or babbled, and they don’t feel like they need to either.  I love the peace that comes along with feeling like I don’t need to anymore.  In fact, I’d find that church setting rather uncomfortable now.

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