When it comes to the charismatic gifts of the Spirit, I am not a cessationist. I just don’t see any good exegetical grounds for it. There are some philosophical reasons, but none that come from the Bible itself.

At the same time, I am not a Charismatic either. A lot of what is passed off as “spiritual” is nonsense and self-centered. But not all of it. Some people express the “spiritual gifts” in quite biblical ways. I have seen some things while on short-term missions trips that I cannot simply pass off as “enthusiasm” either.

The name for this position has been “open but cautious”; open to the possibility of miraculous gifts, but cautious about what we see going on. But that name, while accurate, is somewhat clumsy. Charismatics and cessationists get nice, one word names for their positions. Well, I think I’ve come across one for my position: non-normative. The gifts still function today but they are not the normal experience.

The big problem with coining a name like that is getting it publicized so that other people actually have a clue as to what it means. We “non-normativists” need a big name to write a paper on it or something.