We think of surrendering to the Holy Spirit as an individual thing, but perhaps it is also something that we need to do when we meet together as a church. Perhaps we need to yield our program and our agenda to the Spirit and let Him personally direct the meeting according to His plan and program instead of ours.

If a group of people can spontaneously move to music on a dance floor without a choreographer telling them what to do, then, perhaps, a group of Christ-followers can move together with the Spirit without a professional on a platform telling them what to do. There is a time for choreographed dancing, but there is also a time for spontaneous dancing. There is a time for choreographed church meetings, but there should also be a time for spontaneous, Spirit-directed meetings without human control.

“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy.” Acts 2;17.  Do our church meetings allow for the fulfillment of this Scripture? Are men and women allowed to speak out in your church as they are prompted by the Holy Spirit? Or are they compelled by program, custom, and tradition to stay seated and keep quiet?

When you see the living Jesus in the faces, actions, and words of other people, His presence becomes contagious, creating a chain reaction as people begin to spontaneously obey the New Testament “one another” commands like: “spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” Spirit-led, participatory church creates an environment where everyday people are free to let Jesus flow through their faces, actions, and words.

While visiting with my mother-in-law recently, she handed me a pamphlet and said, “You might want to look at this.” (She’s never done that before.) I flipped it open and the first thing I saw was this:  “The Holy Spirit today is on the outside of the church, and through individuals here and there, He is addressing the church and calling the church to repentance…The church today has rejected the Divine leadership of the Holy Spirit and substituted so-called scholarship for leadership.” –L.R. Shelton

Perhaps now is the time to set aside our own choreography and “scholarship” and instead allow the Holy Spirit, Himself, to personally lead and direct church meetings.