Shakina: Revival Meeting or Charismania?

Have you seen windshields with Shakina written on them?

So Shakina is supposed to be about bringing all churches in the Puget Sound area together in a revival meeting.  Unfortunately when you meet at UW, it sends the message that it’s organized by students for students.  Besides a few curious adults and undercover pastors, it’s pretty much just students, students and more students.  Curiously, although there were some caucasian churches listed on their web site like Overlake Christian Church and Mars Hill, if you look across, it’s pretty much black heads all over.

The worship leader had a very David Crowder-esque voice, and his guitar skills were impressive.  However, some of his songs were very unfamiliar, so at times it felt more like a concert than a worship session.  He tried to crack a few jokes, some of which seemed rather awkward that sent people frowning.  There were also many references to “healing”, including if you just worship, you will be healed.

I must say I admire the gesture of the people wearing blue Shakina T-shirts, who I assume are from Jubilee.  They kneel on the floor at show their humility without caring about how they’re perceived.

Including bowing head to floor.  I wish I had the boldness and courage to do that before thousands of people.

Now Shakina is organized by Jubilee church, and there have been some concerns regarding charismatics.  The most curious story was that some pastor prayed for mother and child in QFC when all of a sudden, lightning striked, and they were both healed.  There were two unnecessarily long testimonies, and by the middle of the second one, it was pretty cold so we left for dinner.  When we got back, people were just doing a little talking, a little praying, and a testimony about a sister being “freed” along with a bunch of “amens”.

I will get into more details tomorrow regarding my view of the charismatic church versus the conservative church.