Here’s an honest question to ask in church: “Is this that?”
On the day of Pentecost Peter proclaimed: “This is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel, ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.’”
2,000 years later, is this Sunday morning “service” that we call “church” still that same outpouring of God’s Spirit where everyday people prophesy, see visions, and dream dreams? Is this programmed religious meeting the same Spirit-released celebration that made the first Christians seem like they were drunk on the day of Pentecost?
To answer honestly, I have to answer with a “no.” I searched for decades for a church service that would make me cry out like Peter, “This is that!”
I encountered the risen Jesus in a “this is that meeting” in a college dorm. We experienced His presence guiding us every time we gathered. It was Spirit-led and indescribably awesome (like the Asbury Awakening 2023). I was ruined and could never be satisfied without that again, so I searched for that in churches. I attended all kinds all around the USA and I even graduated from seminary and pastored several churches, but no matter how I tried the attendees didn’t appreciate my attempts to turn their this into God’s that.
And then one day The Salvation Army approached my wife and me and asked us to start a “non-traditional church” in a violent inner-city neighborhood. We jumped at the chance. For ten years we met on Sunday mornings with no program or agenda, just trusting the Spirit to prompt ordinary people to share testimonies, Scriptures, revelations, prayers, prayer requests, gifts of the Spirit, short teachings, etc. And wow! We went home every Sunday overcome by the “this is that” feeling and astonished by that which we had seen the living Jesus do in and through everyday people.
I’ve never understood how someone can read the book of Acts and believe that it is describing a typically arranged church service. What happened in Acts and what happens in the average church service seem totally different to me. My heart cries out, “Lord, enough human organization and lukewarmness. We desperately need that which was spoken of by Peter and by Joel!”
So, if this (a typical church service) isn’t that, where can we find that? The key to that which happened at Pentecost (and at Asbury in 1970 and 2023) is people letting Jesus give them a hungry, honest, humble, open, obedient, repentant, and surrendered heart. Without that, we’re just programming to suit our own desires.
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