Part 8
When there are gaps between what you say and how you behave, then you need to take a long look in the mirror. Leaders of character must give more than lip service to their values. Character is formed by acting on what you know to be true in you heart, not just by what comes out of your mouth.
—Ken Blanchard
Coauthor of The One-Minute Manager
CHALLENGES
Before I conclude this paper, I would like to address, in my opinion four challenges that face our Fellowship. Challenges that we must face head-on before we can realize the extent of district transformation we are trying to accomplish. I have already touched on some of these issues in this paper, but I would like to summarize them for emphasis.
The first challenge is that of the necessity of God’s Spirit to accomplish His work. It is evident from scripture that Jesus was aware of how important the presence, power, and ministry of the Holy Spirit was to the ultimate success of His church. “I will send you the one my Father has promised, but you must stay in the city until you are given power from heaven” (Luke 24:49 CEV). “But the Holy Spirit will come upon you and give you power. Then you will tell everyone about me in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and everywhere in the world” (Acts 1:8 CEV). In God’s divine plan, the church was to become the agent for God’s activities in the world.
The problem in many Pentecostal churches is that they have so de-emphasized the person, power and ministry of the Holy Spirit that they have become spiritually sterile. In an attempt to fill this “power” void, church leaders have created myriads of programs and activities to try to compensate. Many, once vibrant, churches have become little more than Pentecostal shadows encased in an evangelical shell. The church was born in a wave of Holy Spirit presence and power and was designed to operate in the same way. The experience of the Spirit is not discovered in texts or dogmas but in the experience. Perhaps we should ask ourselves, what ministries would we have to shut down if doing it would be impossible without the personal presence of the Holy Spirit?
The second challenge is that of the need to keep first things first. From the time of the original sin in the Garden of Eden, God’s main emphasis has been the redemption of mankind. Israel was to be an example of a community of faith, which embraced a different standard of moral and ethical truth than the world around them, with God as their sole Ruler and King. This unique model was to become God’s beacon light to the gentile world around them, an invitation to outsiders to become insiders, unbelievers to become believers. Israel failed. They wanted to be the insiders to the exclusion of everyone else.
With the coming of Christ, he began the important process of getting back to basics: the redemption of mankind (Matthew 18:11; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:32; 19:10; John 5:24; 10:10; 12:47). Jesus made it clear that it was the church’s responsibility to carry out and complete His work of redemption (John 17:18; Matthew 28:19, 20; Acts 2:38-47).
While there is still an emphasis on evangelism in the church today, in most cases it is, more often than not, simply one of many programs within the framework of any given church. Few church members today have any sense of personal responsibility for sharing the good news of salvation with their neighbors and business associates, not to mention strangers. Much of that responsibility has been relegated to pastors or certain members with the “gift of evangelism.” There is a serious void of passion for lost souls on the part of the church at large. The Lord did not say, “Go and make converts,” but “Go and make disciples.” Unfortunately, it has become easier to swap sheep than make new disciples. Have we some how forgotten that only converts can become disciples?
The third challenge facing the church today is the matter of disciple making. The key text for this command is Matthew 28:19, 20. These words are Christ’s Great Commission to all his followers of every generation. The purpose is to make converts who will observe Christ’s commands. It was never his goal for the church to simply be satisfied in securing conversion decisions. Jesus had more in mind than enlarging church membership. God has given the church a vast reserve of spiritual power to do more than witness to people. The church is to make disciples who will separate themselves from the world, know and observe the commands of Christ, and follow him with all their hearts, minds and wills (John 8:31).
Unfortunately, little time, energy, or money is spent on making disciples. The church today seems content to concentrate on “numbers” rather than souls. For the Apostle Paul, salvation was more than “getting in,” it included “staying in.” Salvation has to do with “getting in” while discipleship has to do with “staying in.” The church seems to have forgotten that salvation demands more than a conversion experience. It demands a converted life style—living the life of a truly saved person. This includes walking in the Spirit, being led by the Spirit, sowing to the Spirit, bearing the fruit of the Spirit, and exercising the gifts of the Spirit. Salvation affects a person’s whole life, including their worship and their relationship with God, as well as everyday life itself.
There are too few churches today that are seriously focused on convert follow-up—follow-up that introduces new believers to a way of life that reflects the character of God and their purpose in life. Whatever our final district vision statement looks like it must certainly include both evangelism (reaching the lost) and discipleship (a systematic spiritual formation plan for every new convert). Hopefully, every church will follow our example.
The fourth and perhaps the most challenging issue facing the Pentecostal church today is that of the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the accompanying initial physical evidence of speaking in tongues. I believe Acts 1:8 is pivotal in this discussion. The spiritual power Jesus promised his disciples to be able to spread the gospel in New Testament times is also needed to carry out the church’s mission in the world today.
According to French Arrington in his book, Encountering the Holy Spirit: “The verb ‘fill’ points to penetration and diffusion throughout every part. …Filling indicates a full penetration and diffusion of the Spirit. Both terms can be used interchangeably. They both emphasize totality, pointing to the Spirit who claims the Spirit-filled believer in totality” (pg. 95). Just as Jesus ministered in the power of the Spirit (Luke 4:14), God’s plan was that His disciples would minister in the power of the Spirit as well.
The central significance of Spirit baptism at Pentecost is “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and [all] began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance” (Acts 2:4). In other words, all who were filled with the Holy Spirit spoke in tongues, as the Spirit enabled them. Speaking in tongues was simply the sign that they had received the fullness of the Spirit. Therefore, speaking in tongues was the outward or physical manifestation of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. We must never forget that speaking in tongues is not the gift promised by God to the church. Speaking in tongues is simply the evidence of the divine dimension of the work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore the “gift” is the Spirit’s presence and power in a believer’s life for devotion, worship, and witnessing. Our passion should not be for evidence, but for the fullness of the Spirit and a deeper relationship with God. Speaking in tongues is important, but only as the outward sign of a genuine encounter with the Holy Spirit.
For whatever reason, our church has somehow lost its focus on this most important spiritual reality. Reports that I have heard indicate that up to half or more of those who join our Fellowship have never spoken in tongues. What are the ramifications? According to Arrington, “In its beginnings, The Pentecostal Movement often saw itself as a protest movement—a protest against individuals observing Christian rituals without considering their meaning; a protest against spiritual apathy in worship; a protest against the church’s becoming sterile and powerless in the world; and a protest against arrogance, pride, ungodliness, and evil in the church and world.” He goes on to say, “If we are not careful, our success, status and affluence may breed complacency and make us less aware of our conformity to the world. The real danger for us is that of blending in and losing the cutting edge of the original message, which is that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that the Holy Spirit will empower every believer” (383).
The question this raises is: can we actually remain Pentecostal if we continue to de-emphasize speaking in tongues? The baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, while perhaps abused and many times over- emphasized to a fault, has, never-the-less characterized and defined the Pentecostal movement since its inception. Other characteristics include a passion for God, fervent worship, childlike faith, unity of faith, avoidance of worldliness, Charismatic expressions in worship, and the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit. It may be difficult for some to link these distinctives with speaking in tongues. However, if viewed in their proper context, the active presence of the Holy Spirit is vital to our continued success as a movement.
CONCLUSION
I would like to conclude this paper with some of the materials I collected for an earlier report I did for one of my classes. I want to try to look at how all of this comes together. Leonard Sweet begins one of the chapters in his book Postmodern Pilgrims by reminding us of two favorite “web words,” connected and community. He has merged these two words to make one new word connexity, i.e., making connections and building communities. The avid pursuit of individualism has, however, become a barrier to being truly connected in community. The irony, according to Sweet, is this: “the pursuit of individualism has led us to this place of hunger for connectedness” (110). E-bay may just be the closest community experience still available to Postmoderns. Where else can they involve themselves so completely and have their lives changed by the experience? Why not the church?
Sweet strongly suggests that “Postmoderns have had it with religion…convinced that the world needs less not more” (112). They want to participate in something that is “deeply personal but at the same time a [community] experience of the divine and the transformation of life that issues from that identification with God” (112). In other words, they desire divine experience over institutional liturgy. People want to experience God in their everyday lives. But it’s more than simply gathering in the same place at the same time; it’s being connected. Perhaps nothing speaks more for a culture’s desire for connectedness than coffee bars and the Internet. Today, it’s about relationships and partnerships. People are tired of hearing about God, now they want to experience Him.
Christianity presupposes connected, vibrant communities of grace where people of faith can help teach one another to live by faith. The challenge facing the church today is to reinvent and practice the concept of connexity in a shifting culture. The Bible doesn’t say that the early Christians devoted themselves to church growth and cathedral-like buildings. It says they devoted themselves to caring for one another and for others. The result? The world was drawn to them and the church grew. The church must not forget that the process of “building relationships of trust and intimacy in a pre-Christian culture takes time (Sweet 117).
Another term Leonard Sweet used was endtroduction. He opens the last chapter in Post-Modern Pilgrims with this story:
On the night he proposed to the girl of his dreams, a young man decided it was time to tell all. “Before you say yes, my love,” he said, “there is something I must tell you—something that might even change your feelings toward me. You see—I am a somnambulist.”
The young lady thought for a moment and then replied, “Oh, that’s alright. There’s no problem. I’m a Methodist. We can go to your church one Sunday and to mine the next (139).
I believe the time is long overdue for the church to wake up from its long winter’s nap and take a good long look in the mirror. Sleepwalking will never get the job done. In May of 2004 I made this statement at district council: What the South Carolina District needed was not a face-lift but an extreme makeover. Well, that’s exactly what is happening.
It is time to choose between ecclesiastical disintegration and the sweet aroma of new life and growth. Future leaders don’t say, “Stop the world, and let me get on.” Future leaders take a different approach. They don’t want a separated life style from the world, but a sanctified life style in the world. On one hand the church is a distant observer and critic. On the other hand the church has to be connected and passionate. On one hand the church stands at arms length; on the other hand the church must reach out and put its arms around something or someone in what is known as a loving embrace.
Connexity means confronting and embracing experience. Knowing the truth (John 8:32) involves more than gathering facts; it includes participation and partnership in the truth we have already discovered.
A New Normal:
Will there be resistance to what I am trying to do? Certainly! However, prayer is a powerful softener to the barriers of resistance. Therefore, I am also in the process of establishing a district wide prayer coalition to help usher us through this change process. Someone wisely said, “It takes a lot of energy to move a rocket off the launch pad.” It is important, therefore, that we are careful to create positive energy. We need to create new words, new songs, and new prayer models full of positive, scriptural concepts…concepts that are supported by and reflect biblical images such as fire and wind. We need to prime the pump of people’s imaginations with these images in order to revive a deep spiritual passion. What the South Carolina District needs is a “new normal.” I am talking about new insights, new spirit, new models, and new ideas. Why? Because the old normal, the old way of doing things, simply doesn’t work any more.
I am convinced that one of the prime ingredients involved in creating a “new normal” is to recognize and utilize lay leadership throughout the district. I have purposely chosen to include at least three laymen on my fifteen-member South Carolina District Vision Team and more if I can recruit them. I personally believe there is an enormous amount of spiritual potential locked up in the laity of every one of our churches. They are like diamonds in the rough waiting to be discovered. The new normal for the South Carolina District will include a District Training Center for the purpose of training, equipping, empowering, and releasing key laymen and women throughout our district.
Dr. Wayne Lee shared in one of his classes this important truth: “The starting point for Pentecostal revitalization is knowing God and experiencing God. We need to apply the right solutions to the right problems. Jumper cables won’t fix a flat tire neither will evangelical solutions fix Pentecostal problems” (Lee). Corporately we need to move forward and re-experience Pentecost. Until we do, we will never be compelled to let go of the old Pentecost.
One of the quandaries we face as a district is our tendency to shape our mission around our governance, rather than shape our governance around our mission. Too often today’s leaders think they still have plenty of time to get around to developing plans that will fulfill the Great Commission. The truth is just the opposite. The eternal destinies of too many souls do not allow for such thinking. I say a loud amen to Paul Borden’s statement:
The whole point of [leadership] is to enable the Church of Jesus Christ to practice the following:
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Produce radical disciples of Jesus Christ
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Create disciples who choose mission over membership
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Develop leaders who resist control
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Motivate congregations to practice unrelenting outreach
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Empower spiritual leaders to reproduce spiritual leaders
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Select leaders who will get out of the Spirit’s way
Only God can grow the Church—but He insists on our help. I am convinced that He is far more anxious to do so than we are. God, stir us once again with the courage, the commitment, and the daring to become, once again, a Spirit-empowered and Great Commission-focused Fellowship.
…Those who change the world, who make a difference in history, who live life rather than simply watching it, have at least one common characteristic; they do something. When we react, life invades our space, intrudes on our comfort, interrupts our apathy, and forces us to respond. If there is one thing secret to seizing your divine moment, it is that you must take the initiative (McManus Seizing Your Divine Moment, 35).
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