So, you are wrong. I went to Pentecostal/charismatic churches for my first 15 years as a Christian. I was active in them, so was my husband. I taught Sunday School, led worship and played in a 40 piece orchestra in the last tongues-speaking church I was in, for quite a few years.
I spoke in tongues for that whole time. I also read my Bible through once a year, making that 15 times I read through it during that period. I also prayed a lot.
As I read my Bible, I began to see a disconnect between what I was reading, and what I was hearing in these churches. I heard more sermons on Acts 2 and the other 4 incidents in Acts of speaking in tongues, out of the other 28 chapters. And other than correction that Paul has to write in his first letter to the Corinthians, not a lot morels in the Bible in tongues. Acts 2 is the birth of the church, when the Holy Spirit was given to the church. We have always had the Spirit since then!
I was reading about the birth of the church in Acts, and how their numbers grew. Not because of tongues, but because of the gospel being preached in their language, (after the day of Pentecost, of course!) and the fellowship and caring for the newcomers.
I was reading the most amazing systematic theology in Romans in my Bible, and never heard a reference, positive or negative in church. I got sick of the shallowness of the preaching, the judgement that if "fire did not fall from heaven" then God was not there. If there wasn't group praise in tongues, the service was flat.
I heard people telling unsaved people all they need was to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, when these people didn't know the name of Jesus! I think biblically, you really do have to believe, before anything else.
I began to reflect on my salvation experience. From the moment God saved me, the Holy Spirit was there in power to lead and guide me. Then everyone started telling me I need to have the Holy Spirit, and speak in tongues. I was sure I did have the Holy Spirit, but as a new Christian, I thought these people knew more than me.
I later learned, we could not be saved, without the Holy Spirit, no second attempts necessary.
I prayed, tried to hide my doubts, which were very serious, as to whether the whole thing was fake. Then a couple of incidents at that Pentecostal church and a Vineyard church, where I was point blank lied to by a pastor, convinced me I was not dealing with mature, educated (in a spiritual sense, this was long before I went to seminary) Christians.
And really, how could anyone grow in that kind of atmosphere, when the Word was never expounded? Including the pastors. The tongues seemed more and more forced. I stopped speaking in tongues, prayer language or otherwise, and just talked to God. Sometimes I groaned, when life was bad, which was a far cry from the fake tongues I and everyone else had been pretending to speak in. Of course, they thought it was real, as I once had, before I woke up and realized it was a lie!
We changed to an Evangelical Free Church, and it was night and day. People were so much more loving and caring. People helped me with my RA. The pastor went through so many books of the Bible, over the next 5 years we lived there. He taught doctrine. What I was reading in my Bible, was being preached in Sunday morning. Later, we attended Baptist churches, no charismatic churches, were I grew more as a Christian in a month, than in 15 years in tongues speaking churches.
I would love to see more people freed from tongues, the way it is practiced today. I pray they will read their Bibles, and reflect if the whole Bible, and question whether many doctrines are being taught, or just tongues, which doesn't even begin to touch on the work of the Holy Spirit.
So, until you can break free if your experiential addictions, and seek the whole counsel of God, you will never see how this kind of church, and what goes on in them, are not a step forward, but a stagnant and unbiblical emphasis which literally hold people back from walking with God and being transformed into the image of Christ!
PS For those that think that non tongue speaking churches are "dead" churches, lose the addiction, and you will find a much richer, dynamic and creative worship and teaching when the nonsense babbling is stilled, and God is truly free to move among his people!
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