Our Life Together Vol. 3 Nr. 12 March 25, 1975

When this issue was posted on Facebook about a week ago, the most feedback concerned the emphasis that Ken Pagaard placed upon Scripture reading and memorization. I agree with those who mentioned this. Ken always place a heavy emphasis on Bible Study. Certainly my interest in the Scriptures was renewed under his ministry. We felt then and I still feel that one of the major emphases of the Charismatic Renewal was the study of Scripture. This seemed to be a hallmark of what "being filled with the Spirit" was all about.

I remember in those days in community seeing young people all around the church carrying and reading their Bibles. The didn't carry little pocket Bibles. The toted large Bibles. They were not just decorations. They were eagerly read. Groups of young people would be actively discussing their recent understandings from the Word. This was an interesting time. As an "old person" (in my late 30's) I was really challenged by these young people.

Ken also really challenged the people (and me) with memorization. I was very active in memorization for several years, even after I became pastor at the church. This has been very helpful to me in my ministry. When the Word is memorized, it seems to flow out of your mouth when confronted with an appropriate situation. Tim Pagaard mentioned (on Facebook) that he was grateful to his father for this -- I am too.

Gary Bell discusses "tongues" and the value of this gift. Both Ken and Gary were really writing after the ministry by Dick Mills at the church. Mills had a ministry whereby he gave individual prophecies to people using scripture (memorized) to provide this word to the individual. Of course, "tongues" was the controversial gift whenever the Charismatic Renewal was discussed.

Finally, Clay discusses one particular "cult", the Local Church based upon Watchman Nee's writings. I find this interesting because the subject of cults was a big one throughout the 70s. Of course part of the interest for us was that we were often labeled as one of those cults. This made us somewhat defensive -- and we were always on the lookout for what we felt were cults. We really didn't (and I still don't) feel that we were a "cult". We really strove to maintain our orthodoxy.