Some would say that when I start rapping we're utilizing the gift of unknown tongues…

Ha.

But no at present it is not a part of our worship gathering. Part of it is doctrinal, part of it is the design of the gathering.

For me PERSONALLY, though, tongues is an available and daily spiritual gift (along with the others). I'm not one of those who believes that God took those gifts back. Nor am I one of those people who believes you have to operate in all or any of the gifts to be "fully" saved. I'm probably just a middle of the road Follower of Christ with a slight lean towards my "charismatic" upbringing.

Great question.

I like your idea of "light & fluffy"

At our current church it is not (unfortunately). We are a non-denominational that was started by people from very diverse backgrounds and the notion really freaks some of them out. The meetings where we put together the statement of faith was really *fun* when we got to that topic! (I almost walked out never to return).

Personally though, speaking in tongues *does* happen at our church I just keep it quiet and step away from the mic when I'm doing it. It is a part of who God has created me to be, and a gift that He gave me so I'm not going to cease to use it when I feel I need to, I'll just do it in a way that does not offend others. It happens away from church too (just to clarify).

I've learned to show restraint in that area as I'm married to a former free methodist turned baptist turned calvary chapel. Should have see his grandma when she learned that I have received that gift… it was like satan had just walked into her house. Spent an hour explaining it, how it feels, etc. while my brother-in-law stood behind her laughing (and refusing to add in his version of it). I'm from a slightly more charismatic background… but I no longer believe that you have to have it to be filled with the Spirit, as I was taught as a kid.

Just a light & fluffy response…

light and fluffy, eh?

the answer for me is yes. and i love it that way. when i was 15, i was saved into a baptist church in houston. it was a 'liberal' baptist church by baptist standards, which welcomed the idea of gifts but with certain levels of assigned propriety. they had healing services every other sunday night or something like that. but it's not the charismatic, benny hinn type of stuff. very reverant.

anyway…flash forward to my college years. 2nd semester, freshman year. i joined a charismatic bible study on my campus and eventually opened my heart up to what we here often call the 'baptism of the Holy Spirit'.

ever since then it's been a huge part of my life, my day, my church services.
and with yesterday being Pentecost Sunday, we had an awesome time and just soaked in God's gift.

(i will say that i don't believe it is required for salvation. i do think it's unfortunate that people choose to close their minds and hearts to something so powerful and intimate with the Lord simply because they do not fully understand it.)

Yes!

As a tongue-talkin' Pentecostal, I can say that tongues are certainly a part of our services. Not that they are scheduled or anything. (10;30-11 Worship, 11-11:15 Tongue Time…)

But, there are times during worship (or at other times) that someone will have a word in tongues (and someone translates.) Corporate prayer often involves tongues. My personal prayer almost always involves tongues.

In our church there is definitely room made for those who have a prophetic word.. which is cool… and those are some of the most powerful services when there is a "word" brought forth.. can i get a amen.

I definitely believe that speaking in tongues is for today.

Hmmm … I read through these comments and was about to reply when I saw you had 'unknown' in parenthesis. For clarification? Or do you mean a specific usage of tongues.

Tongues do make it into our services – mostly in the middle of corporate prayer (thus personal tongues), but occasionally from the pulpit, and only very occasionally from someone in the midst of the congregation. Our church definitely does believe in tongues – I have never been taught (although I have heard that it is) that tongues are required for salvation. And … per my current study I would have to say that I agree with that understanding.

The group I travel and minister with, yes…..I believe in openly, and corporately worshiping in tongues IF everyone is like-minded. It is a gift. I don't believe you need to to be saved. I think tho, that it is there for everyone who desires it and asks for it. I believe it is for today, and it's simply letting go of that last little part of us that we want to control. I love to pray in my prayer language because I don't know what I'm saying. It is spirit to Spirit, with no thought out agenda….

They are not. One…because we are Presbyterian and I think people would pass out if someone was speaking in tongues. But also because tongues when used in a larger gathering needs to be interpreted and we're too programmed to allow for something like that to occur at this point.

In my old church, yes. Both personally during prayer or singing, and sometimes from the front. But always we asked for an interpretation. Most of the time we got one. Likewise with prophecy, we had a service leader (usually one of the elders or a member of the leadership team who wasn't preaching that day) so people could go up and speak to them if they thought they had something God had given them to share with the congregation. That way the gift of discernment could be used, but also it meant that the leader could coordinate things by giving space for people to share what God had given them to share with the church. Does that make sense?

I have a gift of speaking in tongues, but try to be sensitive to those around me while using it. I find it really helpful when I'm praying and interceding for others when I've either got so much to say I don't know where to begin, or I can find the right words. It's almost like the Holy Spirit helps me along I guess.

And I just realised I put my URL wrong. it's blogspot not wordpress sorry!

Thanks for sharing this Jennifer – I know it's a heated topic for a lot of churches and believers. And it sounds like you know all about using the gift of wisdom in conjunction with the gift of tongues

Can I just say, I LOVE everyone sharing their personal experiences with tongues as well as their church experiences.

And I've already mentioned on your blog that I totally forgot it was Pentecost Sunday this week. D'oh!

Totally agree about the tongues/salvation thing too. That's a whole other discussion.

Tongue Time…love it!! haha. How loony would that be…"Join us for our 11.15 Tongue Service" Eww.

Amen and Amen!

My inclusion of unknown in parentheses is partly for clarification, but partly because I mainly read the Amplified version of the Scriptures, and that's how it defines tongues from just speaking in other languages of the earth.

I haven't read the first instalment of your gifts study yet Annie (so I don't know whether tongues gets in there straight up) but I'll be interested to see where it takes us. I have a clear view on the tongues / salvation relationship … it's the tongues / baptism of the Spirit link that often causes further "light and fluffy" discussions

Just to clarify Debs – when you typed "I don't believe you need to to be saved" – did you mean "I don't believe you need IT to be saved" ?

And I love what you wrote about it being part of us letting go. Yes!

You'll possibly be fascinated to learn that the first person I heard speak in tongues was a Presbyterian.

Though it wasn't in his church…and certainly not during a worship service.

The interpretation aspect is v.important. A little more on that in my comment about our church below…

No worries at all – thanks for clearing it up Laura.

And your explanation of tongues/discernment/sensitivity makes perfect sense. And I believe it is the Holy Spirit helping you along in accordance with Romans 8:26-27

Oops…yupper, thanks for the catch. You don't need IT to be saved….

OK, so what's the experience at Harbourside?

Similar to a lot of you – we experience both the personal gift of tongues in worship, and messages in tongues (which need interpretation) from the platform. In my worship posts, when I talk about free-worship – the vast majority of the time this is mainly in tongues, though it will often break out into prophectic worship in English (or occasionally one of the other languages spoken by our megamulticultural congregation, such as Armenian or Italian)

It's not programmed, and it's not actively encouraged…it just happens. I never know why it happens when it does, but I always go in with an expectation that it will, and prepare the worship team with this in mind as well.

I love what Debs wrote about it being a sign of our submission and surrender to God. I hadn't really thought about that before, but it sits well with me.

A little more on the interpretation aspects. In services, a message in tongues would only be given by the pastors, with interpretation from one of the pastoral team (some churches might call these elders). If any random person interpreted, it would need to be tested & discerned by someone in that team.

Also, when the personal worship gift of tongues is used by the team, we tend not to sing directly into the mics…so it just blends with the congregation lifting their new songs of praise and worship in (unknown) tongues. When it turns prophetic (ie: in English) then we lift the mics again.

I've often wondered, is this interpretation of the tongues worship??

I would have to say "yes." Nowhere is New Testament worship confined to singing.

If we worship God in Spirit and in Truth, then tongues can certainly be a part of that, as they are a "spiritual" language.

From what I've seen Russ, there's not a lot of middle of the road about you.

And our main rapper (you'll be relieved to hear it's neither me nor Diane) has rapped in tongues before (as I give away a little bit of our church experience of tongues…)

In re-reading my reply, I think my last statement was unclear. I meant that I agree with the understanding that tongues is not a requirement for salvation. baptism of the Spirit – yes. light and fluffy. I honestly don't know if we'll touch on that in my study. I guess we'll see when we get there!

I agree with Mike here!

Coolness – that's what I thought you meant Annie, but I wasn't 100% certain. And since I touched on it with Debs comment below, I thought I'd leave it til we get to it in your study, or not. The Holy Spirit will surely guide, He's good for that.

Me too.

I actually wasn't very clear with what I was asking? What I meant was…is the "sung-in-English" worship which follows the tongue worship, maybe interpretation of some of the sung tongues (wow this is getting confusing).

I certainly agree with both you and Mike that worship isn't music – it's life (or should be…another old post of mine, either on here or on Worship The Rock), music can just help facilitate a worshipful lifestyle more easily.

no, (unknown) tongues is not a part of our worship services. though, i do not believe the language of unknown tongues is dead as most baptists do. i think there is a time and a proper place for tongues (ie. when there is an interpreter present, etc.). my mom, for example, has the gift of tongues, but she pretty much only uses it as her prayer language when she is alone. she has never once spoken tongues in front of me, because i do not possess the gift of interpretation. i don't believe it is a practice that should be done wildly and openly, without order.

and just like with any of the spiritual gifts, i don't think we all possess each one. i know i have attended a service a time or two (at different churches) where almost every person in the congregation and on stage were speaking in tongues during worship or during the message. and it was actually frowned upon if someone couldn't (ie. someone like myself who doesn't possess this gift). and there was no one interpreting. we are all equipped differently and to think or assume that every person should be able to speak in tongues (IMO) actually goes against what the bible says about tongue-speak and spiritual giftings as a whole.

I'll just note here that I believe there are different manifestations of tongues and not all need interpreting. But all require wisdom in how they should be used.

I agree with your tweet though, it's too early to get riled up about it It's always too early to get riled up about it IMO.

"It's always too early to get riled up about it IMO."

Indeed.

I think there needs to be a distinction made when we talk about tongues. I believe that there are two occasions when tongues are used. The first is when it's the Gift of Tongues in that a message is being conveyed prophetically to the congregation – this is what needs to be interpreted otherwise it's an exercise in futility and confusion. It's also better if someone other than the tongue-speaker interprets (someone trustworthy).

I also believe that there is what is considered an outpouring of tongues, as one of the evidences of baptism in the Holy Spirit. Without getting too deeply into doctrinal issues, as even Pentecostal churches disagree on this one, but I did say one, not the. This tongue is also known as a prayer language, when the Bible talks about the Spirit interceding for us in groans and utterances (Romans 8:26,27) because sometimes (no, make that often) out own language is insufficient to express the innermost longings of our being. That's not to say that praying in English (or whatever mother tongue) you have is powerless, not at all, but I find myself at the point where I just don't know what to pray, and it's then that I have to rely on the Holy Spirit to take over. While praying like this or speaking in tongues in this manner may occur in a corporate situation, it's not the same as someone giving a message in tongues for instruction/prophecy – rather is is for edification and as another way in which to worship God, in Spirit and in Truth. Also in a 'spiritual warfare' situation (call it what you will!) it's a language that satan doesn't understand (take that! The middle finger of grammar!) and it gives us the upper hand when we know the mind of God for the particular situation. We are dealing with the mysteries of God, a subject that tends to get brushed under the carpet in today's post-post modern Christianity, where the Spirit can be interceding for a sickness, an issue, ANYTHING that our physical mind may not even know is happening, but that's the power of God for you.

I just felt that the distinction needed to be clarified, as I thought there was some misunderstanding. For me, I find that when I pray in English, my intellect tells me when I should stop. When I pray in tongues, it can carry on and isn't dependent on my own mindset or condition that day.

Anyway – I've broken out into a drug-induced sweat after all that thinking, go Dreamy Sleepy Nighty Snoozy-Snooze generic Tylenol PM type painkillers Let me know if I put anything in there about pink elephants, ok?

Middle fingers of grammar.
Pink elephants.
Semi-obscure Father Ted references.

This comment has it all darling

Sounds like my upbringing right there sister.