Raised hands and spoken tongues are showing up in churches that once prided themselves on dignified, liturgical services from Greenville to Trolley Square. Longtime members wonder if the shift is genuine revival or imported trend.
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Add your commentI grew up going to a little Episcopal church off Pennsylvania Avenue and I remember one Sunday in maybe 1991 when old Mr. Harrington — deacon for like 30 years — very quietly raised one hand during the doxology. Just one hand, barely shoulder height. Three women turned around and stared at him like he'd stood up and started juggling. He put it right back down. I never forgot that. I've thought about it a lot lately reading stuff like this. We called it dignity. Sometimes I wonder if it was just fear.
Born and raised in Wilmington, confirmed at Immanuel on the Brandywine, and I'll say this plainly: there is a difference between reverence and rigidity. If the Spirit is moving in these congregations, who are we — who are ANY of us — to stand at the door and say 'not like that'? My grandmother used to say the same thing about guitars in church back in 1974. The church survived guitars. It'll survive raised hands.
I attend one of the congregations being discussed here and I want to push back on the framing of 'imported trend.' Nobody bused in outsiders. These are MEMBERS. Longtime members whose faith has deepened and changed. My own prayer life looks nothing like it did six years ago and yes that has changed how I worship on Sunday mornings. Why is spiritual growth only acceptable if it looks exactly like what we inherited?
This is precisely the kind of question that gets muddled when we fail to distinguish between STYLE and SUBSTANCE. Speaking in tongues during a traditionally liturgical service isn't just a stylistic preference — it represents a genuine theological shift about the nature of worship, the role of the gathered body, and ecclesiastical order. The Brandywine Valley church tradition has deep roots in Anglican and Presbyterian polity. Those roots matter. Asking whether this is 'trend or revival' is actually the wrong question. The right question is: does this align with the confessional commitments of the congregation in question? If a PCA church in Trolley Square is suddenly practicing full charismatic expression, that's not a Holy Spirit question, that's a church governance question.
Fun fact for anyone who thinks charismatic worship is theologically incompatible with liturgy: the Catholic Charismatic Renewal has been officially recognized by the Vatican since the 1970s. Pope Francis has personally addressed charismatic gatherings. So the idea that you must CHOOSE between structured liturgical tradition and charismatic expression is just historically incorrect. They have coexisted for over fifty years in a tradition far older and more liturgically rigorous than anything in the Brandywine Valley. Just wanted to put that out there before this thread gets any more 'either/or' about it.
Nope. Hard disagree. Tongues without interpretation is explicitly addressed in 1 Corinthians 14. Paul was NOT a fan of chaos in the assembly. Order is itself a form of worship. Saying 'the Spirit is moving' doesn't exempt a congregation from scriptural accountability.
what gets me is that charismatic worship style actually originated with the Azusa Street Revival which was rooted in African American Holiness tradition — so when predominantly white congregations in Greenville DE act like this is some foreign invasion they might want to sit with the irony of that for a minute
Genuine question for the charismatics in the thread: at what point does individual expressive worship become a disruption to the gathered community? I'm not asking rhetorically, I'm actually asking. Because I have a family member with sensory sensitivities and unpredictable loud vocalizations during a service are genuinely difficult for her to process. Reverent worship serves a function beyond personal expression. It creates a shared space. Shouldn't that matter too?
ok so I just moved here from Charlotte about eight months ago and honestly the first Sunday I visited a church in Greenville I thought I walked into a funeral by mistake lol. not criticizing!! but like. coming from a church where worship was loud and physical and just ALIVE, the silence felt strange to me. now I'm hearing some of these same congregations are loosening up a bit and honestly good for them. the Holy Spirit doesn't respect zip codes
lol at the idea that anything happening in Trolley Square right now is a 'revival.' no shade to Wilmington but let's be honest about the scale we're talking about. revival is Azusa Street. revival is Asbury. a few raised hands at a sunday service is just... Tuesday in literally every evangelical church in America. calm down everyone
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