We’re coming to the end of my series on Bethel. I’m going to be sharing everything together as an E-book tomorrow. What I wanted to do here was to pick up on one question that has come up. It’s whether there is good in Bethel. Can we throw out the bathwater without losing the baby?
In terms of the positives, the primary things people tend to focus on are: the hunger for revival and the supernatural, significant experience of that in terms of miracles, healings and manifestations and a loving welcome. Now, some of us might dispute whether some of the positives we hear listed are present or whether they are positive. However, let’s assume that we do accept all the positives. What does it mean to keep the baby and not lose the bathwater? Well, there’s a range of possibilities.
- That we align closely and relationally with Bethel whilst ignoring the differences.
- That we align/partner but overtly make clear the differences.
- That we welcome speakers to our own churches and events.
- That we are happy to attend events where Bethel people speak.
- That we read books/listen to talks with discernment.
- That we use the music
- That we pick up on and teach the good stuff, acknowledging lessons learnt from Bethel whilst critiquing them.
- That we pick up on the good principles and teach those things/live by those values in our own churches but don’t draw on Bethel/make Bethel links when these should be things we could work through for ourselves and where others have done.
I guess that we might line up differently on this. For what it’s worth I don’t think option a is really viable at all. The silence on the differences means that you might not be taking on board the bad stuff but others around you will be.
For the record, I’m somewhere around about e to g on this. That probably reflects too how much weight I give to the supposedly good stuff.
Where do you land?
Faithroots 