Is American Christianity Turning Charismatic? | Church Executive.com

Apparently Charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity is not just growing world wide but in the US also. Often it is viewed as a primarily third world phenomenon with a smaller number of adherents in the US. Not so. A couple of interesting stats .... "Many people believe that charismatic Christianity is almost exclusively a Protestant phenomenon. However, the research showed that one-third of all U.S. Catholics (36%) fit the charismatic classification. Framed differently, almost one-quarter of all charismatics in the U.S. (22%) are Catholic." "The growth of Pentecostalism, however, has crossed denominational boundaries in recent years. For instance, 7% of Southern Baptist churches and 6% of mainline churches are charismatic, according to their Senior Pastors." Charismatic churches tend to have larger budgets but pay their pastors less. Their clergy also tend not to be seminary graduates. I think I'm pretty much out of the closet on this one: I like charismatics and feel real at home with them. On a personal basis, I really enjoy being with Charismatic Catholics, though I won't be joining the Catholic church any time soon. I like how they live out their faith and I just like being with them. My ideal church exists only in my mind but it's charismatic, and flexibly liturgical, and sacramental with contemporary worship, serves wine with the Eucharist, is Benedictine/monastic flavored with a spice of Anglicanism and John Wesley. It's extremely light on Augustine, Baptists and John Calvin.