[The following essay was posted to our discussion group by a pastor in our group.
I am reposting the pastor's comments here with his permission.]
The most neglected Sunday of the year is Pentecost Sunday, according to David Bratcher, who leads a service that assists churches in preparing liturgies for worship. While arguments could be made that post-Lent and Holy Week fatigue have a role in this effect in some places, the absence of emphasis in Pentecostal churches is inexplicable. The very churches that exist to bring renewed emphasis to the present day ministry of the Holy Spirit equally neglect the importance of this Sunday on the Church's calendar.
This year [2007] with Pentecost Sunday coming on Memorial Day weekend found more emphasis on the latter than the former. Add to this the fact that few Pentecostal churches preach on the Baptism in the Holy Spirit nor give any opportunity within their services for receiving this biblical experience there can be little doubt as to the reason for a quickly declining number of Christians who testify of this experience or practice praying in tongues. George Barna recently reported that only 18% within Pentecostal churches report that they pray in tongues. In many places it has become an embarrassment, and this practice is either greatly limited or forbidden.
The reason for this is clear. There is a lack of conviction on the part of the current generation of pastors. The pulpit is devoid of biblical preaching in general and on this experience in particular. Instead of deep personal conviction that "the promise is to you and your children, and to as many as the Lord our God shall call" the old non-pentecostal view of "seek not forbid not" is in vogue.
The leading influences within the evangelical churches are non-pentecostal highly visible personalities. Growing the church, which is God's work, has been usurped as the church's work, and the teaching of the observation of all Jesus commanded, which is our work, is neglected.
When God's people are filled with the Spirit, when all of the Gifts of the Spirit are fully functioning, and the life of the Risen Lord is evident the sought-for evangelism will be explosive. After all, didn't Jesus promise that believers would receive power and be witnesses to the ends of the earth when the Spirit came upon them? Just a brief period after John Chrysostom wrote in the late 4th century that the church no longer expected converts to speak in tongues when hands were laid on them to receive the Spirit, the Church along with culture tumbled into the Dark Ages.
Today there is a fear that disorder will occur and leaders are uncertain as to how to handle such situations. There is a greater effort to make sure that nothing untoward will happen than a burning desire that the Spirit will have His rightful place to be manifest among God's people.
One of the reasons for this is the rearrangement of the Church's life. Sunday morning historically was the gathering of believers for worship and Sunday evening was viewed as evangelistic. With Sunday evening nearly gone Sunday morning has become more and more geared toward unbelievers, and there is no specific gathering for believers except in small classes. I Corinthians 14 is referred to as a relevant teaching on order which of course it is. However, Paul treats the situation as a believers meeting and gives instruction on comportment should unbelievers come into it.
Today Pentecostal emphasis is kept alive by Youth Pastors. This occurrence would be almost totally missing if it were not for retreats, camps, and all-night prayer meetings in which young people receive the Baptism in the Hold Spirit, and smaller churches that still have altar times. Because of my present malady, I have been out of the pulpit for 5 years. I have not heard a message on the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, since the last time that I preached on it myself.
Jesus said that these signs would follow believers. The question we must ask is do we believe this? Are we ready to practice it?
Tired of cursing the darkness of historical neglect, my family (much influenced by my wonderful German wife) has lit candles to celebrate Pentecost with whatever congregation we have worshipped, so I appreciate the Pastor’s comments regarding the non-observance of Pentecost Sunday.
ReplyDeleteThe emphasis in classic Pentecostal congregations on present experience and expected promises might obscure any examined past. Given God's revealed identity in Christ Jesus as being He who was, is and will be, should we not embrace historical observation in our church life along with the immediate encounter followed by challenging call typical of classical Pentecostal worship? The uncertain place of history in our hermeneutics and theology (is there a difference?) may be a contributing factor to the phenomenon about which the Pastor writes.
I find the word "small" in the Pastor’s essay to be significant. How much has been lost in our lust for growth? Why is smallness despised? Masses of people may be moved by the Spirit (see the second chapter of Acts) but I wonder whether God prefers no t the many, but the few? “Two or three come together in my name,” “many called, few chosen,” Gideon’s Army, the select few men Jesus chose to be his 12 disciples. Church meetings militate against small group interaction and seem to stifle rather than support the cultivation of relationships. We are strangers to one another and know not one another’s name. How do we agree on anything if we never have a conversation? Perhaps speaking in tongues is a sign of true fellowship, for it is the Spirit that keeps koinonia common among Christians. In a recent conversation with my brother, I wondered how the family metaphor might help us understand how we may be the Body of Christ. Might the "two or three" gathered in Jesus' name form the first figuring of Christ's Church? The cultural identity of a Christian group is first in the name of Jesus, for in Christ, we are brought into the family of God and are identified with God in Christ – we are one in Christ. Yet this unity still allows for diversity; just as family members share the family name while remaining individuals each with one’s own name. As those joined with others cooperate in becoming imitators of Christ as a group, those in that group find themselves forming relationships with one another that begin to cultivate a cultural identity unique to that group. The group may find itself named by others (cf. the name “Christians” given by others in Acts to those who follow the Way) or choose to name itself (cf. how CS Lewis announced he wanted to be called “Jacksie”). The Church is Bride to Christ’s Bridegroom and has taken on His Name; parts of the Body may be named to identify form and function or facilitate understanding, but the Body is identified by the whole, not the parts. I am one whole person, not just Hand or Foot or Kneecap. Neither is merely Lutheran, A/G, or Roman Catholic or whatever; one in the Body of Christ is Christian (even that nomination is subject to what God the Father rather wills to call us).
ReplyDeleteWhat is specific about any "gathering for believers"? Jesus said about those two or three who come together in his name that "there I am with them." Such "gathering" occurs in the Name given above every other name. When believers gather, they gear their meeting toward Jesus NO MATTER WHO ELSE IS PRESENT. It was the Spirit of the LORD being present that let it be known that God favored the congregation of Israel, distinguishing them from all the other people on the face of the earth. Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. The rock upon which the church is built follows God's people from age to age; on that solid rock we stand or stumble. Eating the same spiritual food, drinking the same spiritual drink, let us become the Body through which God's glory, expressed perfectly in Christ Jesus, is made manifest. It seems to me that whatever the form such a manifestation takes, the function is the same – to reveal the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The Pastor writes that "Jesus said that these signs would follow believers." Then he asks two questions: "The question we must ask is do we believe this? Are we ready to practice it?" Practice must follow belief, and belief must be in the name of Jesus. Our meetings must follow his agenda, not ours. The signs following signify the lordship of Jesus Christ. If we should expect otherwise, we would be like Herod, who "had heard many things about Jesus, and he hoped to see some miracle done by Him." But when Herod questioned Jesus with many words, He answered nothing. "Then Herod, with his men of war, treated Him with contempt and mocked Him ... ." There is only one Lord – those who gather in the name of Jesus must be willing to submit to whatever the Spirit may desire to do among them. Perhaps the Spirit does not move because we will not yield to be moved beyond our selfish will. Control rather than contrition carries Christian congregations away from instead of toward the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and all that may follow from such fellowship.
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