Digging Out the Embedded Church - The Maranatha Community

ut it is not, because of the Church’s past history. But the present moment is the time to
begin to make it a reality.
In the 1960s, when the Charismatic Movement influenced churches not traditionally
Pentecostal, Gee was wise enough not to look askance but, rather, to develop contacts with
churchmen and bodies outside the mainstream Pentecostal movement, even to going as an
observer with David du Plessis to the Faith and Order meeting in St Andrews in 1960.
To a Roman Catholic priest Gee wrote in 1960:
„I am more convinced than ever of the essential unity of those truly in Christ, even
when members of communions are as utterly diverse as Roman Catholic and
Pentecostal. This is really an amazing thing. Perhaps more of a “miracle” than some
of the things we mutually call “miracles.” You have enriched my own spiritual life
very much by this gesture of love and fellowship. In the Pentecostal Movement I am
trying to inculcate a bigger vision in many ways, and I am sure the atmosphere is
changing in that direction. In both the Roman Catholic and the Pentecostal groups
there are extremists, which we must both deplore. I fear there are some among us who
almost equate “Protestant” with “Christian” and there is almost as much ignorance
and prejudice where the Orthodox churches are concerned. It is my privilege to teach
Church History to the students here, and so I have some golden opportunities to
inculcate a more balanced view.‟ 162
The Charismatic Movement held a ground-breaking gathering of Christians of various
denominations in Kansas City in 1977, all from within the movement, but including
representatives of Episcopal, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, Roman Catholic and
other denominations.
Between the 1950s and 1980s, Billy Graham, an American Southern Baptist minister,
preached to enormous crowds through his worldwide „Crusades‟. In the UK he not only
brought together Evangelical Christians from many denominations, but earned the respect of
church leaders who were not Evangelical. It can even be demonstrated that his influence
throughout those years was such that the number of ordinands in Evangelical Colleges
increased.
When Graham began his Evangelical ministry, for some years he was anti-Catholic, and
Catholics on the whole were not at all disposed to support him. Yet in 1981 he had an
interview with Pope John Paul II, and by that time he was glad to include Roman Catholics
on his Crusades and accept the support of Catholic Churches.
Some Protestants regard his change of heart as a betrayal of the Gospel. How could a
thorough Evangelical like Graham conscientiously have fellowship with Catholics who held
unbiblical doctrines? In the next chapter we shall look at this issue.
For Evangelicals, Billy Graham and his Evangelistic Association were uniting influences in
promoting worldwide mission. In 1974 an International Congress on World
Evangelisation was held in Lausanne, Switzerland. There were 2,500 delegates from about
150 nations meeting under Graham as honorary Chairman „to frame a Biblical declaration on
162 Massey, Richard, Another Springtime, Highland Books, 1992, pp 173ff.
Page 129