My history with Sam Storms and the Gifts of the Spirit

 


On Sunday, June 15, Sam Storms will be our guest preacher at Wellspring. The first time I ever heard of Sam Storms was some time back in 2010, while I was a member of a small church plant in Denton. Back in those days, Nathan Miller and I were not pastors at a church, but we had gotten swept up in leading a prayer meeting on Sunday evenings. The prayer night was not officially connected to any church, but Nathan and I eventually joined a church in Denton, and the majority of the people in the prayer meeting joined the church as well.

The only catch was that the church fell somewhere between cautious about and suspicious of spiritual gifts. The prayer group, however, had begun experiencing an outpouring of many of the gifts, namely prophecy, healing, tongues, and deliverance (I know deliverance is not listed as a gift, but it tends to come as a package deal with the others). 

When our group joined the church, I ended up becoming somewhat of an associate pastor of the church but without the title... or the pay. The lead pastor and I found ourselves embroiled in a good-spirited debate about whether or not miraculous things like tongues, prophecy, healing, and deliverance were legitimate in this day and age. The lead pastor had me read a book titled "Are Miraculous Gifts For Today?" 

Sam Storms was one of the contributors to the book arguing that the gifts ARE legitimate today. The book consists of four authors writing one paper each arguing their point. Then after each argument, each author gets a chance to respond. It was a great read, and I highly suggest it. 

Reading this book set me up to navigate the waters of Charismatic theology. There are a lot of people out there saying a lot of different things about spiritual matters. It can feel overwhelming to sift through what is correct and what is ALMOST correct. Since reading this book, I committed to learning what to embrace, what to reject, and how to hold teaching in a healthy place of critical caution. 

By the time I was being interviewed for the lead pastor position at Wellspring, I had spent nearly a decade reading about the gifts, listening to sermons and podcasts about how to practice them, and actually practicing them in community. I'm grateful that I had a pastor who didn't just let me run with charismatic experiences but challenged me to look critically and test everything by scripture. 

____________________

Since that time, Sam has written a number of books surrounding the topic of spiritual gifts. Here are a few titles that cover spiritual warfare, tongues, and spiritual gifts in general. 



It is pretty easy to find Sam's books on Amazon or any other Internet search.

Nowadays, Sam is a member of one of the churches Wellspring planted, Convergence OKC, where Michael Rowntree, the former pastor of Wellspring, is lead pastor. 

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