How do we know whether the Holy Spirit is in the Church?

We were studying Acts Ch2 and thinking about the differences between the first church and ourselves. Do we receive the Holy Spirit at Baptism or does He come separately as it were? We do receive Him at Baptism but that is only the beginning of our journey with Christ and many of us go deeper, receive more as we ask or need, in order to follow
where He is leading us.

He also gives gifts to us either in the Church or to those He is calling in. Indeed we sometimes hear of individuals or even groups who are found by God, like the the man, who told his story on the BBC programme Songs of Praise. He was in a prison cell, knew he was in the pit and could sink no lower. Seeing a Gideon Bible (but not opening it) he yelled for help from the God he did not know -and received the gift of tongues and a new peace. It was a Christian Social Worker who told him what was happening! What seems clear is that it is God's initiative not our own, and often it is only when we acknowledge our weakness that we receive. We thought about what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12-14 and found the emphasis is not 'tongues' which is often rather a contentious issue and that many people exercise the gifts not in a Sunday Service but in daily life, and in small group meetings, and these are often quite humble but important, like hospitality, sharing a meal with others as Jesus did.

So how do we recognise the presence of the Spirit in the Church? Not by the style of worship, piety, religious language, 'contemporary worship' or any other ways of working along with contemporary culture, but 'by how we love each other'.

 I was in Bradford in 1966 when the Renewal movement was well underway and went to the local church. It seemed the same service as I was used to- kind of middle of the road evangelical Anglican - but there was  warmth and perhaps joy hovering there. I was welcomed at the end of the service by a couple, and when I commented on this they invited me to their home group where indeed the Spiritual gifts were recognised, and they informed and indeed educated me about what was happening, for they were mature in the Spirit. Not everybody was so aware in that Church but the love of God was around and within us.
So perhaps mission is happening when we live in God's love--?

Hanging on to the 'elbow of God'

Praying for the Transformation of the Church in the power of the Holy Spirit--starts with me! Sadly I accept that it is no use grumbling I have to get on my knees-and they're creaky!
Todays meditation from CDP was about zeal

'BE PATIENT AS FAR AS IS COMPATIBLE WITH ZEAL
Zeal is defined as ardour, energy, fervour. Patience s well and good, but not if it swamps zeal and extinguishes direction and energy. Where it is not possible to direct that zeal into action it can be channelled into urgency of prayer, grasping the right arm of God by the elbow to reach and open doors of opportunity fastened tight shut by our prayerlessness.
When zeal abates or evaporates we need to discern whether we were wrongly counselled to 'have patience' or whether the original fervour was misplaced or immature and would have energised some misdirected scheme embraced in rash enthusiasm.It still remains true that it is easier to alter the course of an already moving vehicle than to 'push-start' one that has forgotten how to even let its engine tick over. We need hearts consumed with passion to activate the coming of the Kingsom, that will not rest until its brightness appears as the noon-day sun'

Churches learning to pray?

I've just discovered the website of Selsdon Baptist Church in Croydon ( I was actually on a Roy Searle website and he has been speaking there recently). The name leaped out at me because my earliest memories are of living in Selsdon and my baby brother being Dedicated there. I disgraced myself by yelling because they gave my parents hymnbooks but not me- I couldn't read but was furious at being ignored. Quite humbling to realise why I remember the occasion so well!
Anyway I was interested to explore the way the church is growing. It struck me that if I was still a local I would be glad to join them for they seem to be alive in the Spirit and particularly place prayer at the centre of their life as a church family. This is what they say on the subject.

Prayer as part of Sunday services

Each Sunday worship service contains some elements of prayer within it. We have prayers of praise and worship, reflective prayers, time for open prayer, meditation prayer, silence for prayer, prayer of confession, intercessory prayers, pastoral prayers, healing prayer, personal prayer, liturgical prayer .... and lots of other prayers too. Because each service is different, no service will have every form of prayer within it. Some prayers are taken by the minister, some by members of the congregation who have prepared them in advance, and some are spontaneous. In a church service, we enjoy a variety of forms of prayer.

Private Prayer

Prayer that is confined to church on Sunday is not an adequate diet of prayer for an active Christian. We assume that people, in their own ways, and using their own patterns, will have a life of prayer that happens in the week, and not just on Sundays.

Selsdon Baptist at Prayer Together

Each month on the 3rd Sunday, we have a prayer event for the whole church entitled 'Encounter', at 6 15 pm.

There is a prayer room at the church which is used on Sundays for prayer before services and can be used at other times by anyone else on request.

Prayer in Homegroups

The church operates a system of home groups, and people are strongly urged to find a homegroup that suits them. Prayer is a vital part of the homegroup meeting and each group will make time for prayer during their time together. This is a good place to start praying with others in a small group.

Prayer with the Ministerial Team

We believe in fulfilling the injunction of James 5:14, so we are happy to respond to any request to visit a person and pray for them, whatever their circumstances. All you have to do is ask. Requests for prayer can be totally confidential, and if you need that assurance then all you have to do is ask.

The Prayer Chain

We operate a prayer chain which mobilises a number of people to pray should a situation or emergency arise that needs covering in prayer. All that has to be done is to phone the prayer chain leader (the office will pass on your request) and this request will be phoned through to a number of people who will pray with you about the request you have made.

Prayer after a Church Service

At Addington Road, we give people an opportunity to have someone pray with them after a morning service. A person may feel 'spoken to' by the service that has just finished, or may have concerns about themselves or someone else that can be brought to God in prayer. It may be that a person is facing some challenge in the coming days, such as a visit to hospital or an interview. All these, and any other topics, can be prayed for and we are offering a team of people to pray with individuals who ask it after the morning service. At Addington Road, those available to pray with people will be at the back of the church after the service wearing a 'Prayer Team' badge.

Prayer Diary

Most months we produce a prayer diary, identifying a specific topic for prayer each day. This is produced as a printed leaflet, available from church at the beginning of the month. An electronic copy is also available on the website, at the top of this page

Praying before services in the Addington Road Sanctuary

It has been traditional for some time for the leaders of the church and those involved in leading the service to meet in the prayer room for 10 minutes before the service to pray. We now want to extend that invitation to EVERYONE, so that now anyone is welcome to come into the prayer room, for 10 minutes before the service starts, to pray for the service and those involved in it. Any time you are free, come in and share in prayer.

And so on

Prayer does not stop here. So much of what we do as a church involves prayer. Most meetings include a time for prayer, Church Members' meetings have prayer times in them, and many pastoral conversations end up in prayer. Prayer is almost as natural for a Christian as conversation, and prayer will therefore be an important element of almost everything we do'

SBC

21st Century Church -maintaining the Institution or training for mission?

This is a summary of the talk given by Jason Curtis at the annual workshop of South East Edinburgh Churches in November 2010 published in their newsletter PULSE Jan 2011

The message of the Church is one of Life! It is a life and death issue. How is it that the church is perceived as it is today? People who are asked about what the church means to them in casual chats are generally disinterested or find it irrelevant and walk away.

But not everybody followed Jesus either! So we are in good company. However, we have the words of life in him. If we pour our lives into those around us, inside and outside the church, surely something will happen! Surely something will happen in SE Edinburgh! Surely God’s spirit will work when God’s people open their hearts to him and ask him to move.

Be encouraged! The Bible is filled with stories of times of great darkness, when God was silent and his people were marginalised. It seemed that nothing would happen. But take a story like Chronicles 2:20. An amazing story where God’s people got together and asked God for help and the spirit of God worked in dramatic form!

The spirit of God is like the wind. We just want to be there when the spirit shows up, but what we really need to do is to give ourselves for the spirit to show up!

Underlying everything I want to say is that God has not called us to a maintenance ministry but he has called us to a missional one. A maintenance ministry is intent on preserving the institution of the church in all its particular forms. It often focuses solely on what we do on a Sunday and this often focuses on getting people into church buildings with the hope that they like what they find. It has been the model for Church since Constantine/beginning of Christendom. Foreign missions have essentially followed this model as well. But eventually, it became apparent that the shape of that foreign mission was synonymous of a western style church. To believe in Jesus was to do church in this way. This Church centred mission goal is to get people into church but often it does not work as we would like. The assumption is that we get converts by getting them into our churches and so the institution must be preserved. However, far from being the centre of mission, the Church is the instrument. God is a missionary God. The Church becomes a critical instrument in God’s work to be a blessing to all the nations (Abraham), not that it will become a great institution in itself.

So an important question is what is God up to in my own church? How do we engage in God’s mission in the world?
The church has to listen to the Spirit’s word. That should be the mindset, not maintenance. The church can be at the centre as long as there are enough people to sustain it. Where churches are full that works for a while and we don’t have to think about mission and evangelism. But now, hardly anyone attends church and often churches have more listed elders than attendees. We have been forced to consider mission even though we still structure our churches in a maintenance mode.

Furthermore, the language of the Bible and the Church has disappeared from society at large and even inside the church. Non judgemental language of empathy and understanding has replaced it. The teaching of the church (Biblical literacy) has basically disappeared from inside the church as well as well as in society.

Churches react to this in a couple of different ways.
Some resist changing the form of the institution as this is being faithful to God, and so they carry on with the forms they  are comfortable with even though the reasons for them so often have been long forgotten. Another way is to find cool ways of doing church to attract new and younger people. The mentality of this group is that the more programmes we put on, the more people we can get into the door. Often the motivation is the same, to get more people in order to sustain the institution in its present comfortable form.

This Church centred mission goal is to get people into church but often it does not work as we would like. The assumption is that we get converts by getting them into our churches and so the institution must be preserved.

Ephesians 4 tells us to equip the people to do the work of ministry/service. The work of service is to build up the body of Christ to reach unity in faith and knowledge and to become mature or, as Mathew 28 says, “to make

disciples”. In other words, what we need to do is to equip leaders to serve, paid and unpaid alike, who will lead and walk the journey of life as disciples.

Biblical leaders are those who are honest with people about living in a world which is full of worry and greed and they lead others into a life which is being a disciple of Jesus. They are people who are living out the eternal life now.

One of the biggest problems in transformation is that we are not bothering to think about our lives as disciples. We are just doing church! However, we can connect when there is army of disciples who can turn people to Jesus

and who make worry and greed not ways of life but rather of death.

Disciples are made as we move away from single leadership and follow the guidance of Ephesians. Discipleship needs to get in our blood so that we are not only thinking of our own transformation but how can we help others

to transform as we make our own personal journeys.

Leaders should have three things: They need a deep sense of calling. This needs time and patience. Secondly, they must be of the strongest Christian character. This includes willingness to be led, readiness to admit faults

and to forgive and to reconcile, willingness to serve others behind the scenes without any praise, and thirdly they must be competent in the content of gospel.

Mission only takes place when we dig, study, learn and grow and become competent in the content of the Gospel and have something to give. It is more than just knowledge. What the people inside the church think they need and the people outside the church think they need does not drive a missional church. A missional church is there to guide the church solely in the direction of what God is doing in this world!