Charismatic Leaders Fellowship 2025

The 2025 Charismatic Leaders Fellowship Conference (CLF) met again at the Alleluia Christian School in Augusta, Georgia, on February 17-20. The CLF originated over 50 years ago as a fellowship of charismatic and Pentecostal leaders concerned with keeping the Charismatic Renewal within the bounds of biblical orthodoxy and practice. One of the original concerns was the “Discipleship” controversy of the 1970s, involving the famous “Fort Lauderdale Five.” The CLF has developed over time into a fellowship of Pentecostal, charismatic, leaders and pastors to encourage and inform one another.

The theme this year was “Deeper in and farthest out – Learning from the Early Church.”  The theme was suggested by the fact that the year 2025 is the 1700 anniversary of the Council of Nicaea. That council set the standard of orthodoxy for believing in the divinity of Jesus and rejecting the Arian view that Jesus was a created being.

This year’s CLF began with an introductory sermon by Pastor Scott Kelso, author of several notable charismatic books.  His theme was that Deut. 4, is a recap of the Old Testament – Love God, be obedient to the Law, and avoid idolatry. Pastor Kelso pointed out that this was the book of the Bible most cited by our nation’s Founding Fathers.

The first formal session of the conference was delivered by Dr. John Gresham, retired seminary professor (Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St Louis).  Dr. Gresham came to faith in the California “Jesus’ People” movement and eventually migrated from Pentecostalism to Charismatic Catholic in his beliefs. His presentation was entitled, “What the Early Church did right.” In his view, the Church’s careful attention to discipling was a key to its survival and growth under persecution. Early Christians usually underwent a three-year period of instruction and deliverance ministry before they were baptized. This produced Christians who were discipled and not just converted.

I would inject a note of caution about this generalization, as the Book of Acts recorded immediate baptism upon conversion – note the accounts of Ethiopian eunuch and the household of Cornelius. But Dr. Gresham’s point is well taken, that the Church was strong because of its attention to discipleship. He also pointed out that Early Church thinkers and theologians “plundered the Pagans,” as the Israelis had done in fleeing Egypt. That is, they accessed the wisdom of the Pagan philosophers to create a distinct and effective Christian theology which did much to convert the Greco-Roman world.

Sessions 2 and 3 were presented by Dr. Dan Keating, seminary professor and Fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. His objective was to explain the process and importance of the Council of Nicaea. His noted that the creeds are “medicine” against today’s modernist tendencies to relativism and fluid doctrine. His detailed description of the Council was a revelation to most of us. What we call the Nicene Creed was formed in two stages. The original draft was forged in 325 A.D. to counter the heresy of Arius, a priest in Alexandria, who taught that Jesus was a created being (i.e., not God). This draft was short, and included a mention of the Holy Spirit, affirming that the Spirit too was God.  But Arianism continued to spread, and in 381 A.D. a second council added clarifying statement to flesh out the Creed as we know it today.[1]

Session 4 was by Anthony Martini, a member of Faith Village which forms the core of the Alleluia Covenant Community. Martini gained a master’s of sacred theology from the Collegium Augustinianum. His presentation was on the Church before Nicaea.  He showed from the earliest writers that Church organization and theology was fluid in the first century, but by the Third century had arrived at a “proto-Catholic” consensus. This was due, according to Martine, to the influence of St. Paul as well such pivotal writers as Polycarp and Clement.

The next lecture was given by Dr. Timothy Cremeens, a priest in the Orthodox Church of North America. Fr. Cremeens has been a regular attendee at the CLF for a decade, and has at different times described the difficult road that the Pentecostal/charismatic movement has in establishing itself in traditional Orthodoxy. This time he showed how the Orthodox churches have not changed their theological or doctrinal prospectives from the time of Nicaea. He explained how Orthodox clergy sees the non-Orthodox world as one of chaos, as it flounders in Protestant liberalism and other modernist heresies.

Session 8 was led by a lay Catholic woman Mrs. Kim Catherine-Marie Kollins.  She has been European coordinator between Catholic and Protestant charismatic groups for over four decades. She told the story of how difficult inter-faith cooperation was when she started her work, and how now it has come into a fullness and ease of cooperation that few would have expected in the 20^th century.

The last information session was led by Dr. Richard Roberts, from Dorset, England. Trained as a physician, Dr. Roberts developed an interest in Celtic Christianity.  His talk began by describing the woeful plight of the churches in the UK.  Only about 7% of the population go to church on Sunday. Yet there are areas of revival, as manifested in the African, especially Nigerian, congregations in London and other parts of the UK, and which are influencing many other churches.

Dr. Roberts’ focus turned to the question of what sort of leadership is needed to bring revival in the UK.  He suggested looking that Celtic Christianity and its founder, St. Patrick. The scriptural context is Rom. 5: 3-5 – suffering for Christ. Here St. Partick’s life and marvelously effective ministry demonstrates the point.  St. Partick was kidnapped out of an aristocratic family in Wales, suffered severe privation as a slave in Ireland, escaped, but returned as bishop-missionary to his land of captivity.

Besides the excellent praise interludes before every session, the conference was interspaced by two sessions of ministry. One was a period of prophecy and praying for one another. Another was a discussion of exorcism and deliverance. This was led by Chuck Hornsby and Bob Garrett, the former an experienced deliverance minister, and the latter the coordinator of the Alleluia Community. The team discussed the ministry of deliverance and exorcism as it pertained to Catholics and Protestants. We were then broken up into small groups to clear up any personal deliverance issues we had. This seems improbable. Why would charismatic and Pentecostal leaders need deliverance ministry? Actually, yes: the demonic attacks with special vehemence all Christian leaders. Often this results in areas of demonic infestations even among the most effective and sincere leaders. This manifests publicly when scandal breaks out, as when a famous leader is exposed for long-standing sexual or financial failures.

This year’s conference was one of the best I have attended. As always, the fellowship was a blessing, as was the hospitality of the Alleluia community. But the goal of the conference, reminding us of the orthodox resources of the Early Church was well met. I believe that many of the participants left with a better understanding of how the struggles of the early church can inform and strengthen the present Christian struggle against the various forms of heresy and weak faith that afflict many denominations.

Next year’s conference will be held at the same place, on Feb. 23-26.  If you are a church leader or elder and wish to come to next years’ meeting, contact Bob Garrett at, bobg@yeslord.com

 

PR

 

Notes

[1] Making creeds is something like making sausages, something to be celebrated but not nice to see. For a splendid and engrossing account of how Orthodoxy triumphed over Arianism see Philip Jenkins’ work, The Jesus Wars (New York; Harper Collins, 2010).

Tags: 2025, charismatic, charismatic catholic, CLF, Council of Nicaea, fellowship, Ireland, leaders, St. Patrick

Category: Ministry, Winter 2025