The Spirit Calls, Gathers, Enlightens and Sanctifies God’s People Overcoming Church Cultural Barriers Today The book Mission at Nuremberg by Tim Townsend tells the story of Lutheran U.S. Army Chaplain Henry Gericke, who was assigned to minister to the Nazi war criminals at the 1945 Nuremberg trials. He became respected and effective, at least as measured …
The Spirit Calls, Gathers, Enlightens and Sanctifies God’s People Calling to a Culture or to a Relationship With Christ? Martin Luther divided the work of the Holy Spirit into the four functions of calling, gathering, enlightening and sanctifying followers of Christ. These next reflections address ministries of calling. A calling to follow Christ seemed so simple …
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Humble Yourself with a Discipline During the pandemic, I would drive by a house with a yard sign announcing, “I Am A Health Care Hero.” What an odd thing to boast about. Real heroes don’t brag. Certainly, front-line health care providers are heroes. But it’s like combat veterans whose bravery was recognized by a medal, …
Trust God in a New Venture My focus is on Six Practices for Spiritual Growth. My intent is to make the basics of such formation by the Spirit as practical as possible. The fifth preparation is learning to trust God. Everyday life teaches lessons of trust for believers as we learn to accept what appear to …
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Are you an evangelist? Probably not. We hear stories of someone on an airplane talking with a seatmate and leading them to Christ. Most of us feel guilty when we are challenged to do such ministry. It is one of those “shoulds” that are often laid on us but really don’t change our behavior. By one estimate, much less than …
Military history fascinates me. It presents real-life stories of leaders making decisions and facing the consequences in terms of reaching some objective. The strategos, in Greek, is the general who makes the big decisions about where to place troops and equipment and when to go into action. In the Korean War, the Allied forces were …
“Nothing has a greater impact on spiritual growth than reflecting on Scripture.” Such is the conclusion of a massive study that gathered data from participants in 1,000 congregations of a cross-section of Protestant denominations. Note the keyword “reflection” on Scripture. God’s Word comes in two forms. One is the familiar Bible of almost 800,000 words and over …
The Great Passion by James Runcie is a novel about the family and work of J.S. Bach set in the 1730s. He was the hard-working organist and music director at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, Germany, and is now recognized as one of the greatest composers of all time. Striking in the novel was his …
Growing in the Benefits the Holy Spirit Offers Us Read More »
James Loder had a transforming moment early in his career as a professor at Princeton Seminary. He spent the rest of his academic career explaining it in biblical and psychological terms. His moment came on September 2, 1970, while traveling to Canada for a family vacation. He saw a woman standing on the roadside near …
The answer to what is a “fellowship of the Spirit” was easy in Paul’s times. Believers met together weekly in house churches, which could accommodate perhaps about thirty or forty people. The number was small enough that everyone could know each other, their background stories, their struggles and their hopes. Fellowship, or koinonia in the …
Newer Approaches to Building Up Fellowships of the Holy Spirit Read More »
Almost all (85%) Christians talk to God in their own words. This finding is from a major research project I did years ago on the prayer practices of ordinary Christians. What they do can be called conversational prayer. One respondent explained that while he does have time set aside for prayer, he enjoys spontaneity. “I try to talk …
The poet T. S. Eliot famously observed, “We had the experience but missed the meaning.” All practicing Christians have had experiences of the Spirit. Most Christians in traditional churches weren’t taught the meaning. That’s because we were taught to look for statements or propositions of truth in doctrinal languages, like “God is love.” Yes, but …
Developing a Church Culture that Affirms the Holy Spirit Read More »
Why Does The Spirit Always Work Through God’s Word? Name the Holy Spirit is the first step in re-energizing personal and congregational spiritual life. The second is to Share such Spiritual experiences for mutual encouragement. And the third is a commitment to Seek More such experiences through practices that the Spirit can use to draw followers …
NAME, SHARE, SEEK MORE: Encourage Others by Sharing Your Experiences of the Holy Spirit Read More »
Why Does The Spirit Always Work Through God’s Word? 1054 A.D. was a significant milestone in the history of the Christian church. That’s when the split occurred between the Latin-speaking Western church and the Greek-speaking Eastern church. At issue was the role of the Holy Spirit in the Trinity. Does this Third Person proceed from …
Have you ever had the notion pop into your head that you should go and visit someone? Could the Holy Spirit be planting that whisper? I experienced a loud whisper from the Spirit in work with our sister church body in Haiti. On a trip to a church site damaged by an earthquake, we were …
When I was leading a group on a tour of Israel, we went out on the Sea of Galilee in a tourist boat. We could see many of the special places where Jesus taught and ministered. The operator then played a recording of “How Great Thou Art” at high volume. We sang all three verses—with …
Founder of the modern discipline of Psychology, William James gave the classic descriptions of religious experiences. He used such phrases as “an incomparable feeling of happiness which is connected with the near presence of God’s spirit,” and “a sense of presence, strong and at the same time soothing, which hovers over me.” Add to these …
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Anthropologist T. M. Luhrmann concluded from her study of two Vineyard Fellowships, “Coming to a committed belief in God was more like learning to do something than to think about something. I would describe what I saw as a theory of attentional learning—the way you pay attention determines your experience of God. Clinical Psychologist J. …
Consider fresh perspectives on the challenge of re-tooling our inherited ministries. And the emphasis is indeed on ministries, not just academic theology alone. Theologians like to make distinctions, but if a distinction doesn’t make a difference in ministry, why pursue it? Social anthropologists define a culture as a set of beliefs, values and behaviors passed …
The prophet Ezekiel gave us the image of the Word of the Lord breathing new life into old, dry bones. He assured, “I will put my Spirit in you and you will live” (Ezekiel 37). Traditional churches are in danger of seeing their bones go dry in our times. We need the Spirit to refresh us. The way he …