| Help for My Thick Head |
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It can take me a long time to really "get it." Maybe it was the years of playing football and getting knocked in the head every week!
I would join with the crowd at pastor's conferences and gripe and moan about how there are so many struggles in the church and none of us were quite sure how to fix or solve the problems. Quite a statement about our Bible college and seminary degrees! We would just continue to swarm the Christian book stores in search of the newest gem with the guaranteed solution to all our problems. "Start up this ministry and sit back and watch the growth!" "Take out high quality ads in the newspaper and watch the people swarm in through the doors!" "Do a demographic study of your area and you will discover the secret to reaching them for Christ!" "Increase your visitation ministry and watch people's problems melt away!" "Make professional brochures and watch people get excited about your church!" And on and on it goes. But the same people wrestled with the same sins. The apathetic people were still apathetic. Marriages were still on the rocks. Sinners were still ignoring the Gospel. The pews were still empty. So, off to the book stores we run again! More ministries were added to the church menu. And nothing changes.
Maybe you have been there or maybe you are there with your church. As we think about the problems in our churches, does it seem like there is a common factor? I think it is what Chuck Smith calls our "declaration of indepndence from the Holy Spirit."
How do we make such a declaration? If people are't volunteering for ministries, we implement a program to guilt them into serving. if people aren't giving, we implement a stewardship program to guilt them into giving over their money. If people struggle with sin, we send them to months of counseling to get to the bottom of why they are doing the things they are doing. If new people aren't coming to church, we implement a new strategy to dump a lot of money into enticing people to give us a try. We set goals. We make plans. We strategize. But when exactly do we cry out for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit? "But we are not pentecostal?" Since when is the Holy Spirit reserved for pentecostals?
The book of Acts amazes me. Untrained, ordinary me and women turning the world upside down for Jesus Christ. How did they do it? They never did a social analysis of their community. They never read a church growth book or attended a seminar. They had no newspapers to advertise in. Microsoft wasn't around yet for the church to copy their corporate growth plans. No seminary training was available. So why were they so different from us? All they had was the Holy Spirit. I think we have everything but the Spirit. We are content to confuse emotional manipulation with the moving of the Spirit!
A.W. Tozer once said (and this was regarding the church of the 1940's and 1950's), "If the Holy Spirit were taken from the church in Acts, 80% of what they did would have ceased and everyone would have noticed the difference. If the Holy Spirit from taken from the church today, 80% of what we do would stay the same and almost no one would notice the difference" (paraphrase). The funny thing about the Holy Spirit is that we cannot plan Him nor can we manipulate the moving of the Spirit.
For years I was convinced that all the other stuff was needed to somehow facilitate the moving of the Spirit. But in reality, we have actually mastered removing the need for the Spirit. If you don't believe me, the next time some struggle or frustration breaks out in your church, watch for what is called for first - will a program or ministry be implemented or will the church cry out for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit? Praise God if you are in a church where the answer is always looked for in the Lord not in the things of men!
2:47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
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