Charismatic Christianity and the explosion of independent churches: From Charismatic Renewal to Network Christianity, AD 1960-2000

Between 1960 and 2000, Pentecostal spirituality moved decisively beyond the organizational boundaries in which classical Pentecostal denominations had consolidated it and became a transdenominational, transnational force. This chapter reconstructs that transformation through memoirs, movement literature, papal and denominational sources, ecumenical documents, archival and institutional histories, and modern scholarship on Pentecostalism, charismatic Christianity, media religion, megachurches, prosperity teaching, and independent networks. Beginning with Dennis Bennett's 1960 public testimony in an Episcopal parish, it traces mainline Protestant renewal, lay and para-ecclesial networks, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal after the 1967 Duquesne retreat, the Jesus Movement, Calvary Chapel, the Shepherding controversy, John Wimber and the Vineyard, the Third Wave, Word of Faith teaching, televangelism, prosperity theology, megachurch and seeker-sensitive models, late-century revival networks, and the emergence of apostolic-prophetic forms. The chapter argues that these developments were genealogically related without constituting one movement or one line of descent. Their common significance lay in a relocation and multiplication of religious authority: inherited office and confession remained important, but spiritual experience, ministry gifting, media visibility, entrepreneurial leadership, voluntary networks, and claimed prophetic or apostolic authorization acquired new translocal power. These changes became increasingly polycentric in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, where indigenous agency transformed imported models and generated new forms. A Sola Scriptura assessment affirms prayer for healing, spiritual gifts, missionary expectancy, accessible worship, accountable lay participation, and contextual mission while rejecting any prosperity formula, coercive discipleship system, prophecy, apostolic claim, sacramental synthesis, or charismatic experience that binds conscience beyond or contrary to Scripture. By 2000, denominational borders had become substantially more porous, preparing the networked and digitally amplified Christian landscape of the twenty-first century.
Keywords: charismatic renewal; Catholic Charismatic Renewal; Jesus Movement; Third Wave; Word of Faith; prosperity theology; megachurches; network Christianity