Eric started his prayer with humility and it soon became clear that the Holy Spirit was with him in a powerful way. He communed with God for several minutes, the crowd mesmerized. People and issues unknown to this man were being prayed for. Once finished with this obvious connection with the Holy Spirit a conversation about supernatural things broke out. People discussed the desire they had for supernatural experiences like we had just witnessed. No one spoke in tongues and fell on the floor but everyone in the room knew we had just been in the presence of the most neglected aspect of the Trinity. Yet with all the talk about ecstatic emotional interaction with God I was struck with the life God has asked me to live. I am the parent of 13 kids ranging from 19 to a newborn. I made a comment that I have a supernatural experience each day I wake up and realize I have made it through another day on this incredible journey God has asked me to take. I would not be on this journey without God’s prompting and it would be impossible to continue without the Holy Spirit and the refreshing I am given each day. Yet, I know there is more to the Holy Spirit than a refreshing energy, but where is its expression in the emerging church?

We are in the midst of one of the most volatile and creative times in the history of the church. The Holy Spirit is evident in our new creations of community and theology. People are open to explore new ways of being and doing. It has to be the result of our embrace of the Spirit of God. Each essence of our Triune God has existed at one time as an immanent being. When Israel was called out of Egypt God the creator was with them. He wrestled with Jacob, illuminated Moses and his mission, struck dead enemies and those in defiance to him. God was a pillar of fire, bread each day, water for a thirsty people. Even with the Creator in their midst the people rebelled. There boldly before them stood the God who had created all things and they ignored it. They frolicked and built altars and idols. Eventually they succumb to God’s call and became a nation, yet never truly embracing their God.

Years later after success and dismal failure God became real again. In the Son, God was continuing his face to face interaction with a rebellious people. Even with God in the form of a person there were those who ignored. A few bewildered followers tried to believe but even they had doubts. They ate meals, shared beds, told stories of pain and joy, saw and preformed miracles and still denied God. When it came time for the Son to fulfill his work he spoke of one who would come after, an advocate. This advocate was to be our source of strength, a well to drink deeply from and refresh us on our journey to creating a new thing. Yet we have neglected and shunned this God. A few have embraced it yet they have found ways to create an aura of superiority surrounding personal interaction with this Spirit.

Paul warned us that this new and mysterious aspect of our God needed careful and thoughtful handling. The church in Corinth had gone too far with their embrace of the Holy Spirit and Paul’s words to them have forever relegated the Holy Spirit to a subservient role in most Christian communities. With our need to control and limit mystery we have put the Spirit in a closet. Paul never said we weren’t to embrace the Spirit. He never denied its powerful and expressive nature; in fact he too stated he spoke in tongues. Yet, we have even in our new emerging forms of community neglected the God who blows where he wants. It seems that as long as our interaction with the Spirit is private and internal we can say it is authentic and safe. Yet when it comes to outward prophetic utterances we shy away fearful that we may be seen as creating a hierarchy.

Can we embrace and use only the aspects of the Holy Spirit that we are comfortable with? The emerging church needs to understand that our times need a prophetic word. We need tongues to be spoken and inform and edify God’s people. Our churches are dying and our culture is celebrating. Around the world communities who embrace the outward and ecstatic essence of the Holy Spirit are growing. People are being transformed, lives saved, communities reborn and God honored. We need to free ourselves from the fear that just because at some time in the past a group or a person has used prophetic gifts to manipulate others and that we may do the same. If we are using the creative inspiration of our God to construct new ways of being the church we must embrace all the expressions of the Holy Spirit. We must as Paul encouraged speak in tongues but doing it with care and maturity.

It scares me to think about speaking in a way that I am directly communicating with God. But if we heed Paul’s words there are to be others there to help us interpret and understand what we are saying. I have never spoken in tongues but I know a time may come that I will and I am ready for it. I want to be part of a community that explores who and what our God is with a desire to truly understand all we can. I am tired of people who only take the things they can or are willing to understand. There is so much I can not explain about God. But does that lack of knowledge need to limit my embrace of God?

I pray that the emerging church will begin to explore prophetic gifts in a positive and open way. I pray that we will make their use part of our communities. I pray that we will overcome our fear and create places where those who have been asked can speak in tongues and those who are to interpret can and that those who are watching are encouraged and transformed. Our God is full of mystery and we need to open ourselves to that mystery. Imagine a church where the Holy Spirit is a real and immanent being. Imagine a church were those who can speak in tongues or prophesize or heal do so with the support of the entire community. Imagine a church where those gifts are embraced by all and in turn transform our world. That is the church that can and must emerge.

Thanks for this article.....it was very well written. I am one who has been in search for a deeper Christian life...a closer relationship with God. I have come out of a fundamentalist type Christianity and I know that there is much more to my relationship with this Almighty than what one appears on the outside to be. There is more than just believing or holding to a set of creeds and rules. Though I have been saved since a child, God has recently burned a desire on my heart to seek His glory, to sit on His "lap" and to enjoy His presence intimately.

That's my background, now commenting on your article: I hesitate to divide the workings of the Trinity to the degree that you have. Yes, the Father's presence was more evident in O.T. times, the Son was physically present during N.T, times and the Spirit is present now. I have no argument there. However, it is very important to acknowledge the redemptive purposes of God.....He purposed to send His only Son to redeem sinful mankind....everything in the O.T. pointed toward this event. Everything in current history points back to this event. I'm sure you would not dispute that. The Holy Spirit's role is to point us to the greatest event on earth (and in Heaven). He doesn't want the glory.

I found in my search over the past year and a half that there is an unbalanced emphasis on the power of the Spirit and the power we can receive from Him. Who's Spirit is He? Of course he's the Spirit of Jesus. He's not some separate “Being” floating around. He's Jesus. Everything He does points to Jesus. I've gone to many charismatic churches, in fact I now attend one, and having been raised Baptist, that's pretty amazing. But, unfortunately, I haven't found many that emphasize Jesus. They emphasize the Holy Spirit. Is this right? There is one particular, large, well known church in Toronto that I have attended numerous times, and each time that I go, I find that they refer to the Holy Spirit and His workings and powers, and to the love of the Father but very seldom do they speak primarily of Jesus. Are we to lead the unsaved to Jesus, only to then tell them that they must worship the Spirit? No, it is Jesus that gives us power and gifts.....He uses His Spirit to do that, since Jesus is physically in Heaven; it is His Spirit that does the work. But should we praise the Spirit, or the Man? I thank God that Jesus has left us His Spirit.....I thank Jesus for what He has done for me, redeeming me in His precious blood. I thank His loving Father for giving Jesus to save me. Each person in the Trinity is as important as the other, but to praise the Spirit more than the Son is not His desire. The Spirit's desire is that we be pointed to Christ.

I found that in my fundamentalist background churches, we denied, or at least minimalized, the workings of the Spirit.....but I find in charismatic circles, the workings of Jesus are pretty much minimalized. Which is worse? Do we need to seek more of a proper balance?
--Janice ( jhagan at wightman dot ca ) on 8/29/2004; 12:56:04 PM

John,
Really enjoyed this, I agree that the emerging church needs to be more open to the power of the Holy Spirit through his supernatural gifts.
Thanks for voicing this.
--Joe Long ( wakeupdeadman at gmail dot com ) on 8/24/2004; 2:02:17 PM

This article and the comments are both helpful to me. I can add nothing to them except to say thank you for sharing. The things you spoke of have been very much on my mind for some time.

I am very fotunate to be surrounded by genuine believers. In my family, at work and church I have real friendship with commited followers of Christ. They are the Body of Christ to me. We often act as a healing, encouraging community for each other. But I know by reading the Scripture that, to some degree, we lack the power that was active in the first century church.

I want very much to be a part of a prophetic community where Christ still opens blind eyes, heals broken hearts and sets captives free. I am sure that, on some level, most believers want to live like that. But we are either afraid because of the abuses, excesses or outright imitations of the maifestations of the Holy Spirit, or we simply don't know what to do or where to begin on this journey.

Thank you for the article and comments. You have encouraged me to be more intentional, prayerful and watchful about what the Holy Spirit wants to do in the community of believers around me.
--Sam ( morrow54 at bellsouth dot com ) on 8/14/2004; 7:59:33 AM

john,

always enjoy your thoughts :)

I am standing at the other end of the pendulum, having come out of a hyper-charismatic setting and looking for the "radical middle." This journey toward the center from the other end has different signposts, different risks, and different needs, but it is also a journey toward truth and life.

From this end we are less likely to trust the prophetic, except when it comes to us through good friends or through our own dreams, pictures and illumination. But we are still ready to pray for healing, we still expect the Lord to show up when we pray, and we still expect him to speak (he is the Word) in ways both extraordinary and common.

We have seen that valuing the wild and untamed dimensions of God, welcoming the Wind, is no guarantee that the other elements of emergence will be honored. We still need new ways of leading, new ways of being the people of God together, and new ways of sharing the journey. God can be as easily boxed on the charismatic side as on the fundamentalist. Our communities can still be event driven, or leader centered. The forces of modernity and our own conditioning still require us to be vigilant.

But we remain convinced that, as an English cleric phrased it many years ago,

with the word alone we dry up
with the spirit alone we blow up
with the word and the spirit, we grow up..
--Leonard Hjalmarson ( lenhjal at telus dot net ) on 8/13/2004; 4:16:59 PM

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't tell you how long I've been looking for an article like yours. I'm in the process of birthing an emerging worship gathering in our charismatic church, as an alternative service and the issue of how we handle the gifts of the Holy Spirit has been quite the issue for many of us who are involved in leading this. We want to be able to connect to our culture, yet not deny our heritage of pentecost, but we also know that much of what is done some times in the name of "the leading of the Spirit" is not done in a spirit of respect for those who are new or don't understand. I have looked for articles like yours of those who are willing to explore these issues, and yet still reach out in a spirit of humility to our culture. Thank you again.
John
--John Carnes ( jjshome at peoplepc dot com ) on 8/12/2004; 1:09:46 AM