Spiritual gifts do not guarantee the perfect church

"If only we could get the gifts of the Spirit to flow freely in our church, then our church will be just like it was in the New Testament times and everything will be perfect for us!"

This is what many a charismatic has thought before, and I was there myself many years ago. Charismatics seem to think that everything will become perfect when they can just "flow" in the gifts of the Spirit. I am a charismatic myself (I prefer to call myself a continuationist or non-cessationist), so I know what I am talking about. At some point a charismatic will think that the gifts are the answer to everything. Most of them never move on from this point because they have been duped into believing this by their church leadership.

The fact is that no-one knows how the New Testament church really "flowed" in the gifts of the Spirit. Look at tongues, for example. Almost every charismatic/pentecostal church I have been to sees tongues as God speaking to us in some mystical way. However, 1 Cor 14:2 says clearly that "one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God." The thing is that charismatics have an idea of what that "flowing" in the gifts should be like even when no-one knows what it looked like in New Testament times. This is one of the reasons why I have held onto a healthy scepticism concerning the gifts.