The Greatest need of the Church

By Rod Mitchell in All Sorts

the inportance of the power of the spirit

THE GREATEST NEED OF THE CHURCH:
The Church is passing through a period of chaos and crisis, and not just our own Methodist community. This is not necessarily a bad thing. A
crisis is a challenge to grow. Chaos precedes creation - provided, and this is the big proviso, the Spirit of God is hovering over it.
The greatest need of the church today is not new legislation, new theologies, new structures, new liturgies - all these without the Holy Spirit are like a dead body without a soul. We desperately need someone to take away our hearts of stone and give us a heart of flesh; we need a fresh infusion of enthusiasm and inspiration and courage and spiritual strength. We need to preserve in our task without discouragement or cynicism, with new faith in the future and in the people we work for. In other words we need a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
To put it more concretely, we need people who are charged with the Holy Spirit. Remember the Spirit works through people. Transformation comes through people. "There was a man sent from God whose name was John," we read at the dawn of Christ's coming. A person, not a plan, not a blueprint, not a message. "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given." - God saved us, not through a "plan of salvation" but through a human being, Jesus Christ, a person mighty in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not come down upon buildings but upon people, like you and me; it is people who get anointed, not blueprints. God's spirit circulates in the hearts and spirits of human beings, not in the latest machinery.
So to say that the Church's most desperate need is for a fresh infusion of the Holy Spirit is to say that the Church needs a whole army of spirit-filled people. That is why next year's worship focus will centre on how we can become spirit-filled people.
The problem we face is the problem the apostles faced. They like us, were in need of the Holy Spirit for their ministry. Jesus gave them instructions on how to receive the Holy Spirit. He said, "You must, wait for the promise made by my Father, about which you have heard me speak: John, as you know, baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit, and within the next few days... You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will bear witness for me in Jerusalem, and all over Judaea and Samaria, and away to the ends of the earth."
Jesus said 'Wait'. We can't produce the Spirit. We can only wait for the Spirit to come. And this is something our poor human nature finds very hard to do in our modern world. We cannot easily wait. We prefer to drown ourselves in activities, practical tasks.
Note Jesus said, "You will receive power." Receive is a wonderful word. Jesus does not expect us to produce power, because this kind of power cannot be produced no matter how hard we try. This reminds me of a person who said, "I have attended dozens of seminars at which I have picked up at least a hundred beautiful ideas. What I need now is not more beautiful ideas. I need the power to put at least one of these ideas into action!" We all have received many ideas but we have trouble waiting for the right power to act. Let's help each other in this important task.
Rod Mitchell. (With Thanks to Anthony De Mello for inspiration for this piece.)