Is getting people to faithfully attend a Sunday morning Christian meeting planned and directed by one man, and to passively listen to a sermon by him each week, effectively inspiring people to be filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom? Is the word of God spreading? Are the number of disciples in increasing rapidly? Are a large number of religious people becoming obedient to the faith? If the answer to any of these questions is no, perhaps we need to change the way we present Christianity.

The traditional methods of presenting Christianity target the mind. Perhaps it’s time we aimed for the heart. Presenting church attenders with religious information isn’t filling them with wisdom. Running church people through a weekly religious routine isn’t filling them with the Holy Spirit.

We need to go beyond church as usual. We need to train people to open their heart and to “hear what the Spirit is saying to the ‘ekklesias.'” It’s time to shift from the human programming and control of church services to Spirit-led gatherings where anyone present can say and do what the Spirit tells them to.

After the apostles (sent ones) had all the rest of the Christ-followers choose 7 “table servers” (see Acts 6) who were “full of the Spirit and wisdom,” the Holy Spirit took over and two of those waiters (Stephen and Phillip) begin to boldly proclaim the risen Jesus and to do signs and wonders among the people. Suddenly all the Christ-followers (except the apostles/sent ones) were being scattered everywhere preaching as they went, and the Christian movement was launched from Jerusalem and sent to the ends of the earth.

I believe that if Christians in America and other Western countries continue to hold back and box up God’s Spirit with our religious traditions, programming, control, and comfort zones, we will begin to experience persecution that will shake us up to such a degree that we will cry out to the living Jesus like never before. Then Jesus will begin to show up with great grace and great demonstrations of His presence and power.

Here are my questions: Why wait for persecution? Why not break out of passive religious formalism now?