Speaking in Tongues

Though not as disastrous as the nursing home experience described in my last post, the other leadership roles I assumed as part of the Supervised Ministry class I was taking at seminary were hardly an unqualified success. For instance, despite my earlier reservations, I began leading one of our church’s family groups. And trouble was not long in brewing.

Shortly after I became the leader, our small group ended a meeting in prayer, as was the custom. Different individuals would voice out a prayer as they felt inclined, then I would wrap things up. Normally, the closing prayer time was uneventful, but on this particular night, a member of the group named Ben decided to begin “praying in tongues.”

This odd phrase refers to speaking or praying in an unknown, ecstatic language, a New Testament practice that is common among Pentecostal and “charismatic” Christians but decidedly frowned upon in Southern Baptist circles. Baptists tend to believe that tongues were okay for the early church but—to spare the theological niceties—are a bit kooky for today’s world. But our congregation had started attracting folks from across the spiritual spectrum, and Ben wasn’t one to be fettered by an inconsistent approach to biblical literalism.

However, Jeffrey—another member of our little group—was one of those Christians who felt that tongues were best left in the pages of the Bible, and he became deeply offended at Ben’s unexpected outburst. I saw them in animated conversation after the meeting was over and could easily guess the subject of the debate. Being a decisive leader, I quickly determined that Ben and Jeffrey would be best served by having the freedom to work through their differences themselves, so I made a beeline for the other side of the room.

Unfortunately, Jeffrey was not content to leave me out of it, and he called me later in the week to request that I serve as a mediator of sorts between Ben and himself. The next day, the three of us gathered at a coffee shop, and I tried to find some theological middle ground. On the one hand, I pointed out that, according to the Bible, there was a clear precedent for Christians to speak in tongues, so Jeffrey may have overreacted to Ben’s prayers. But, on the other hand, I noted that each individual believer has the responsibility for thinking about how his or her actions affected others, so Ben might want to put a sock in it during group time. To my relief, this solution was agreeable to both parties.

But more trouble was coming.