Each week this month, BuildingChurchLeaders.com is considering how different expressions of Christianity can more faithfully embody the calling God has placed on them. These letters are patterned off the words of Jesus in Revelation 2–3. While they lack the authority of Scripture, they contain many convicting insights brought in the spirit of humility and love for the church. This letter, written Todd Hunter, church planter and former national director of VineyardUSA, goes out to the congregations he knows best.
From the ascended and glorified Lord Jesus Christ—who sent the promised Holy Spirit, that out of your innermost being shall flow streams of living water for the sake of the world. I know your century-long praiseworthy acts. Even when most of the world and some of the church believed that I merely spun this world into existence like a child’s top and then walked away, you faithfully and passionately embraced the visible, mysterious work of the Spirit. You demonstrated that I still have a daily, real relationship with Christians through the Holy Spirit. By welcoming my presence you have demonstrated to those who have eyes to see that confidence in my loving deeds—of healing, releasing the oppressed and demonized, proclaiming the favor of my kingdom, and humbly practicing the gracious gifts of the Spirit—produces vibrant, worldwide, disciple-making churches.
Yet, I hold this against you: You pit preaching and “ministry in the Spirit” against each other as if they are opposed. But the Bible is the Spirit’s book. God always works in agreement with his Word. The Spirit inspires it, he shines God’s light on it, he speaks through it, and he gives us the power to obey it.
So, preach the Word! Test the spirits. Don’t fear thinking. These three produce discernment, which counteracts gullibility and faddishness. Having done these you will make disciples that are well nourished and properly fed, able to be salt and light and my “good seed” sown in the soil of the world.
Therefore, don’t say, as if proud of it, “The move of God in the service was so powerful today that I didn’t even get to preach!” When that happens too often, my followers develop habits of living that leave me at church and out of the routine of their lives—the very place my Word and Spirit should have their most profound impact.
Keep following my voice. Apprentice yourself to me, Word and Spirit. Pursue my new way of living in the righteousness and power of my kingdom. Disciple others to do the same.
Hundreds of millions strong, you are a powerful force to express my kingdom as you hold my Word and works together for the sake of lost people. Experiencing my presence and training yourself to walk with the Spirit is, by my design, a strategic sign of my kingdom.
When others discover the emptiness and loneliness of believing in a distant God, they will begin to look for expressions of faith in the real God who is tangibly present and evidenced in your lives. Be humble people. Be experientially connected to me. Demonstrate growing character in me. Order your lives around thoughtfully living out my Word as your intelligent guide for life. Make it your intention to be communities of faith that will themselves be compelling evidence for Christianity in a world spinning out of control.
Excerpted from our sister publication Christianity Today, © 1999 Christianity Today International. For more articles like this, visit www.ChristianityToday.com/ct.
