Acts 2.
Pentecost isn't a sensational event from long ago that we recall with fond awe and an inkling of envy. We mark Pentecost because it is the truth of the life of the Church; the Spirit came with power and promise – and never left.
But familiarity breeds contempt, or more likely, complacency, and so Pentecost is a much needed annual reminder that the Spirit of God is with us still and always: disruptive, invigorating, confronting, comforting, formative and transformative.
What each generation and context notice and record might change, but the Spirit is constant; shaping our life together so we can follow Jesus, and worship, and receive, and give, and witness to our experience that Christ is risen and alive among us.
Pentecost doesn’t mean “wild Spirit happenings” or anything like that. It comes from the Greek word meaning “fiftieth” and was an existing Jewish festival 50 days after the end of Passover. Originally it was a harvest festival for Israel, and then took on the additional significance of marking the giving of the Law on Mt Sinai. It was a festival when faithful Jews from all over came to Jerusalem.
And it is on this day that the first followers of Jesus find themselves listening to a sound like violent wind, watching what seemed to be tongues of fire resting among and on each of them, speaking in languages not their own, and being understood.
Bystanders are either awed or scathing, but Peter uses and adapts slightly the words of the prophet Joel to explain what is going on.
I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
Peter does not seem to understand prophecy as “predicting the future”. The prophecy he identifies in the life of believers is truth-telling about the here and now, naming the presence and activity of God in and around them.
In a time before mirrors hung on walls, before window panes reflected, and when a photo, never mind selfie, was inconceivable, what strikes me every year about the flames over each of them is how they need each other in order to see what God is doing. Without a community, a gathering, to show and tell, one lone individual might assume she had merely stumbled upon a possessed house.
Instead Jesus’ followers realise that something is going on among them; these flames, this presence, this Spirit is bound up with them collectively.
I certainly believe the Spirit is at large in God’s world, by no means confined to the church and to followers of Jesus – but I also believe there is something in intentionally seeking, intentionally receiving, that sharpens sensitivity to the Spirit.
With the fabulous theology that comes to us in Ascension and Pentecost – Jesus physically removed yet by his Spirit present – and with the Assembly Council Listening Hui and invitation to discern what kind of leadership our movement needs, it’s a good time to articulate for ourselves the ways an ordinary congregation goes about the lofty business of discerning, by the Spirit, the leading of Christ among us.
Now, obviously, I’m a Baptist minister in a Baptist church – so I’m interested in the particulars of how Baptists understand the task of discerning the mind of Christ. I love our Baptist theological inheritance but I honestly believe it would be tragic if every follower of Jesus was a Baptist – so I hope you’re not getting a hint that the Baptist way is the One True Way! It is the way that church members commit to for the sake of this community – but in another time and place many of us could authentically commit to something else.
Baptist church governance, without bishops or authoritative ruling bodies, is built on the confidence that the Spirit is at work in our midst as gathered followers of Christ. By and large Baptists are known for pragmatism not mysticism, with buildings like large shoe boxes and services like school assemblies, but gathering, being together, knowing Christ is in the gathering, is our holiest practice.
Some Baptist congregations, maybe many, have moved away from a notion of congregational governance through discernment because it’s time consuming, hard to sustain when people aren’t passionately Baptist or don’t land in a church culture that inspires and equips them, and of course, often people’s experiences of church meetings highlight a mismatch or hypocrisy between the theology of gathering and the reality.
Stuart Blythe gives some guidelines for thinking about discernment in his chapter “Your Will be Always Done” (you can read it here). I’m both quoting and paraphrasing Stuart Blythe (pp 86-87) in what follows, as well as drawing on “Knowing together the mind of Christ” by Stephen Holmes, which I referred to last week (you can read it here).
Take time.
Bask in God’s expansive love known through Jesus.
Listen.
Seek all voices.
Expect to have assumptions challenged.
Expect to have ego challenged.
Expect Christ to be there.
As we prayed after our recent of “Who the hell are ya?” introductions, recognising that we are bound to each other and to the life of God:
...We celebrate our sacred relationship
with our companions in discipleship:
to watch over each other
and to walk together before you
in ways known and still to be made known.
Pour down your Spirit on us.
Help us so to walk in your ways
that the life that we live together
may become an offering of love,
our duty and delight,
truly glorifying to you,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
(Prayer from: Gathering for Worship, Baptist Union of Great Britian)
Pentecost isn't a sensational event from long ago that we recall with fond awe and an inkling of envy. We mark Pentecost because it is the truth of the life of the Church; the Spirit came with power and promise – and never left.
But familiarity breeds contempt, or more likely, complacency, and so Pentecost is a much needed annual reminder that the Spirit of God is with us still and always: disruptive, invigorating, confronting, comforting, formative and transformative.
What each generation and context notice and record might change, but the Spirit is constant; shaping our life together so we can follow Jesus, and worship, and receive, and give, and witness to our experience that Christ is risen and alive among us.
Pentecost doesn’t mean “wild Spirit happenings” or anything like that. It comes from the Greek word meaning “fiftieth” and was an existing Jewish festival 50 days after the end of Passover. Originally it was a harvest festival for Israel, and then took on the additional significance of marking the giving of the Law on Mt Sinai. It was a festival when faithful Jews from all over came to Jerusalem.
And it is on this day that the first followers of Jesus find themselves listening to a sound like violent wind, watching what seemed to be tongues of fire resting among and on each of them, speaking in languages not their own, and being understood.
Bystanders are either awed or scathing, but Peter uses and adapts slightly the words of the prophet Joel to explain what is going on.
I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
Peter does not seem to understand prophecy as “predicting the future”. The prophecy he identifies in the life of believers is truth-telling about the here and now, naming the presence and activity of God in and around them.
In a time before mirrors hung on walls, before window panes reflected, and when a photo, never mind selfie, was inconceivable, what strikes me every year about the flames over each of them is how they need each other in order to see what God is doing. Without a community, a gathering, to show and tell, one lone individual might assume she had merely stumbled upon a possessed house.
Instead Jesus’ followers realise that something is going on among them; these flames, this presence, this Spirit is bound up with them collectively.
I certainly believe the Spirit is at large in God’s world, by no means confined to the church and to followers of Jesus – but I also believe there is something in intentionally seeking, intentionally receiving, that sharpens sensitivity to the Spirit.
With the fabulous theology that comes to us in Ascension and Pentecost – Jesus physically removed yet by his Spirit present – and with the Assembly Council Listening Hui and invitation to discern what kind of leadership our movement needs, it’s a good time to articulate for ourselves the ways an ordinary congregation goes about the lofty business of discerning, by the Spirit, the leading of Christ among us.
Now, obviously, I’m a Baptist minister in a Baptist church – so I’m interested in the particulars of how Baptists understand the task of discerning the mind of Christ. I love our Baptist theological inheritance but I honestly believe it would be tragic if every follower of Jesus was a Baptist – so I hope you’re not getting a hint that the Baptist way is the One True Way! It is the way that church members commit to for the sake of this community – but in another time and place many of us could authentically commit to something else.
Baptist church governance, without bishops or authoritative ruling bodies, is built on the confidence that the Spirit is at work in our midst as gathered followers of Christ. By and large Baptists are known for pragmatism not mysticism, with buildings like large shoe boxes and services like school assemblies, but gathering, being together, knowing Christ is in the gathering, is our holiest practice.
Some Baptist congregations, maybe many, have moved away from a notion of congregational governance through discernment because it’s time consuming, hard to sustain when people aren’t passionately Baptist or don’t land in a church culture that inspires and equips them, and of course, often people’s experiences of church meetings highlight a mismatch or hypocrisy between the theology of gathering and the reality.
Stuart Blythe gives some guidelines for thinking about discernment in his chapter “Your Will be Always Done” (you can read it here). I’m both quoting and paraphrasing Stuart Blythe (pp 86-87) in what follows, as well as drawing on “Knowing together the mind of Christ” by Stephen Holmes, which I referred to last week (you can read it here).
- Congregational discernment seeks the mind of the living Christ. The first task is to not make assumptions about what is and isn’t worthy of our attention but to discern what issues are relevant to believers being faithful disciples to Jesus Christ, whether collectively or scattered around their everyday lives. Some decisions can be delegated or even decided by majority rules voting. (As an aside, the practice of democratic voting in Baptist churches started when it was very radical to give every believer, not just male landowners, a vote.) The process of discussing and deciding what issues should be dealt with and in what ways can be seen as a matter for congregational discernment.
- Congregational discernment starts expansively with the rule of God known through Christ Jesus and uses this to guide discernment and decisions. (This might be a good reason to connect church meetings to worship services rather than keep them separate.)
- Practicing congregational discernment is both expressive and formative of discipleship. We commit to discernment because we are followers of Jesus – and discernment shapes us as followers of Jesus. Discernment is not simply a means to an end, but is an end in itself.
- Congregational discernment means encouraging people to be free to speak, free to listen, and free to change their minds. (And doesn’t free for all develop these muscles for us?!) We can remind each other that no one’s statements will be treated as their last word on a topic but as part of a process in which the voice of Christ to this congregation at this time is being sought. The humility to acknowledge that any one or a whole congregation can be wrong, even in sincere convictions, should be recognised as an important part of “attempting to be disciples”.
- A goal of leadership should be to enable congregations to learn to discern in these ways. Leadership needs to facilitate a congregation growing in maturity with respect to its ability to discern what the living Christ is saying to it. Congregations need to learn “obvious” spiritual disciplines like prayer and reflecting on scripture and also less obvious (to evangelical Christians?) disciplines like discussion and disagreement-in-relationship. Congregations and leadership need to be proactive in developing these skills and practices.
- Discussion and discernment can take place in a variety of contexts but there should be intentional, explicit times when a congregation gathers as a congregation to discern.
- Given the nature of the living Christ, we should always be open to surprise, challenge and change. Discernment will not necessarily require all to be bound by a common decision, or even a common decision to be agreed, but the process of seeking the mind of Christ together will still be shaping us.
Take time.
Bask in God’s expansive love known through Jesus.
Listen.
Seek all voices.
Expect to have assumptions challenged.
Expect to have ego challenged.
Expect Christ to be there.
As we prayed after our recent of “Who the hell are ya?” introductions, recognising that we are bound to each other and to the life of God:
...We celebrate our sacred relationship
with our companions in discipleship:
to watch over each other
and to walk together before you
in ways known and still to be made known.
Pour down your Spirit on us.
Help us so to walk in your ways
that the life that we live together
may become an offering of love,
our duty and delight,
truly glorifying to you,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
(Prayer from: Gathering for Worship, Baptist Union of Great Britian)
