I am reading Craig Van Gelder’s book entitled: The Ministry of the Missional Church – A Community Led by the Spirit. The link is on the left under Books Read. I recommend it for a variety of reasons. It does broach some important questions.
Here is one: What role does the Holy Spirit play in missional activity? In Church planting? Not only theologically (that is important), but also practically?
I would love some input because most of the missional conversation gravitates around a sound, more practical Christology, which is of no small importance, but some is a bit monistic. I think we must live the Spirit-led life out in all of its dynamism if we hope to be truly missional.
Let me know what you think.
Spirit’s role in mission has been on my mind a lot, and some quick thoughts:
1. The role of the prophetic needs to be tapped into – much more than the critiquer of culture, pointing out of sin, foretelling, etc. We need to integrate the listening of those that move in prophetic giftedness, and that are pray-ers.
2. I think we ask more and more for the gift of discernment as we mission. We learn the ways of discernment in community from groups who have the praxis in this arena down (e.g. the Friends Church).
3. What happened to our expectation of God’s power amid mission? Seems we’re afraid to set out with expectancy that God might answer prayer as we take the gospel amid the lost – healing, words of knowledge, deliverance in some cases, etc.
4. Lectio Divina in local communities targeting specific missional texts of Scriptures.
5. I think the old random acts of kindness should maybe be oriented to intended openness to bless as God leads, but to do this as personal acts of worship that we tell no one else about. This trains the heart to serve when no one is watching and when there’s no ego stroking later as we talk it up among others.
6. Sometimes I wonder if God wants us to be in a place more often where if he doesn’t move, we’re in a real pinch. Desperation praying when we’re at the end of our own shows us the beginning of his power at the end of ours. Maybe it would be better if we experienced the beginning of his power at the beginning of expeneding ours?
…better stop here as I’m supposed to be focusing on Ann and the girls while here in Seattle.
Dan
Thanks for the input. It seems like it is a topic that must be plumbed further. Even the charismatics today usually act as if they are not so they don’t come off “un-cool.”
Rob, I think you are onto something when asking the role of the Holy Spirit in missional activity, interestingly it seems I meet a lot of post-Charismatic/post-pentecostal types that are in the missional conversation and I wonder if because of it there is almost a bit of a bias due to burnout from the idea that the Spirit provokes our missional activities.
It seems clear from the book of Acts that the Spirit is the instigator of all missional activity, sometimes in spite of well layed plans, other times in conjunction.
For me I think this is manifest in trying to act out of a belief that every interaction is quite possibly being set up by the Holy Spirit. At the least this might lead us to wondering whether there may be times that God through the Spirit is leading us down a seemingly divergent path, which may still lead us to the same destination, only in a way never imagined.
At the least the Spirit must play a formative role in developing us into the sort of person who lives on mission.
Also, Jesus told his disciples to wait for power from the Holy Spirit before ever going out to plant the first churches… it seems to me that the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit is vital to evangelize and disciple new communities of believers.
Practically speaking if we do it without the guidance and influence of the Holy Spirit, we are doing it minus God’s guidance and influence. I don’t think you can separate them. The fruits of the HS that grow in us as a result of being in relationship with God are what our missional activity needs to be born out of and as we keep in step with the HS, we are doing God’s work and not our own.