vice began, at the Urban Church. Once accepted, pastors at both churches
reiterated and/or interpreted spiritual messages, holding them up as a dis-
play, and marking them as legitimate.
Public expressions of the Spirit that were accepted by the congregation and
pastors at the Suburban Church emanated from the seat where the speaker
was worshiping in the congregation “spontaneously.” By spontaneously, we
mean that congregation members did not have to receive formal permission
to speak in this church and did not have to move up to a microphone at
the front before doing so. At the Urban Church these same expressions if
vocalized from the parishioners’ seats would be judged illegitimate because
prior permission had not been granted and they had not moved up to the
microphone.
Pastors in the Suburban Church publicly judged the legitimacy of these
expressions, as they occurred from the seats – by offering interpretations for
them, calling attention to them – or when they were discerned to be illegit-
imate – by turning attention away from them. If the expression was spoken
in tongues, an interpretation had to follow for it to be accepted as legitimate.
If the pastor discerned that it was legitimate and an interpretation from the
congregation did not follow immediately, then the pastor would ask for an
interpretation, or produce one themselves. Either the original speaker or
another person interpreted publicly spoken tongues.
At this Suburban Church the message in tongues and its interpretation
were not evaluated for a “proper fit” with one another. During an interview,
a pastor reported that the message in tongues could be five minutes long,
and the interpretation could be as short as “God sends his blessings to us.”
While this was intended as an exaggeration, his point was that translations
are not word for word, but renderings of the underlying meaning.
Pastors expressed acceptance of a spontaneous spiritual expression in two
ways. First, when spoken tongues were immediately followed by an inter-
pretation that was accepted, or when a prophecy was accepted, the pastor
would restate the message for the congregation. For example, on one occa-
sion a woman gave the following interpretation of tongues:
You came here worried about your child. Your marriage troubles you. A trav-
eling friend is on your mind. Give your cares to me. I will care for your ail-
ing leg, missing loved one and your broken heart. Lay your burdens on me.A pastor repeated the message from the pulpit: “For those of you who did
not hear the message, it was that God knows your burdens and wants you
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