You can work your hardest to try to make your church grow, but your best efforts won’t lead anywhere if you’re not leading the church where the Holy Spirit wants it to go. The Spirit has a particular mission for your church, and it’s only when you discover and follow it that your church can grow the way God intends.
We know Jesus and we know the Father but fewer know—really know—the Holy Spirit or have a relationship with Him in their daily lives. The Holy Spirit—will revolutionize your ministry if you let Him.
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He is co-equal with the Father and the Son. He is not a mist, a cloud, or a strange feeling. He has feelings just like you and me. He can be grieved. He is sensitive and compassionate. He is powerful and mighty. He is the change agent on the earth—God in action in the world.
As a church leader who seeks to be understand the Holy Spirit’s ministry, get to know the different ways He works in the Bible, such as: demonstrating God’s creative power, affirming God’s intention for His creation, confronting principalities and powers and restraining evil, reconnecting people and restoring community by helping them clearly understand their identity as God’s people, empowering people with gifts and abilities, empowering leadership to guide faith communities into redemptive action, extending mercy and establishing justice, and engaging the world.
Without the Holy Spirit it is hard to perceive revelation of God’s word or discern seasons. One thing is for sure, a church led by the Holy Spirit is one that embraces change. Realize that the contexts in which your church performs its ministry is constantly changing. Rather than resisting change, accept and expect it. Don’t evict the Holy Spirit from your pulpit.
Regularly seek the Spirit’s guidance to adapt well to the changes your church encounters. Anticipate new insights into the Gospel, and expect that the people you reach with the Gospel will change not by your effort, but by the Spirit of God. Expect surprises, interruptions, and disruptions as the Spirit works in your midst, but remember that the ultimate result will always be good – lives transformed for the better.
Adapted from The Ministry of the Missional Church: A Community Led by the Spirit.
