congregations that expectations regarding local orders of practice develop.
What is to be considered orderly? When is the appropriate time and place?
Which are appropriate messages? These are all matters decided by the con-
ventions of local orders of practice.
In singling out local practices in details and discussing their legitimacy or
illegitimacy we have followed the practice of the congregation in question in
each case. In cases where pastors and congregation members displayed their
acceptance of the expression of spiritual gifts as legitimate, these spiritual
expressions were treated by usas having been appropriately produced for
that social situation.^11 Conversely, when pastors and congregation members
displayed their rejection of the expression of spiritual gifts, we treated those
spiritual expressions as inappropriate for that specific social situation. We did
not attempt to take a so-called “objective” stance. The legitimacy or illegiti-
macy of practices is a local matter determined by entirely local criteria. The
participants are the experts in this regard and their judgment is the relevant
objective judgment. As researchers, therefore, we attempted to understand
how parishioners were making their judgments on the basis of how practices
were performed and describe this process and its implications.
We describe the characteristics of appropriate expressions of the Holy Spirit
first and then go on to describe the cases of inappropriate expressions of the
Spirit that we found. We found that appropriate expressions of the Spirit
occurred at a specific “point in the ritual process,” in a certain “physical
space,” and used a “particular tone and content.” Those spiritual expressions
that were not demonstrably accepted as legitimate did not fit this pattern.
The Process of Spiritual Discernment
During the period of this study, public expressions of the spirit were dis-
cerned through different social mechanisms at each church (discernment is a
process of accepting or rejecting messages; this is performed by pastors).
Pastors at the Suburban Church discerned the messages in open view of the
congregation, while this process was carried out in private, before the ser-
268 • Bonnie Wright and Anne Warfield Rawls
(^11) We are using the term legitimate to refer to a visible public acceptance of a prac-
tice. This is distinct from Max Weber ’s use of the term in which he connects ideo-
logical justifications of leadership to ideal forms of authority structures. Legitimate is
not a state of ideas – but of practices. Our research and analysis remain in the con-
crete situation of observed social practices. If the expression of a practice does not
occasion problems, sanctions, or repair, then we consider it to be legitimate.