Holy Spirit – Apprentice 2 Jesus

Divine appointments

I had a friend who loved the opportunities he found along the way. He called them “divine appointments.” He would meet someone on a trip and a conversation would spark and after awhile it was clear the Holy Spirit had set something up. What was special about this friend was he didn’t run on aContinue reading “Divine appointments”

Living in the power of the Spirit

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. — Acts 1:8 The POWER has always been about “experience” in Pentecostal terms. But power is so much more. It is powerContinue reading “Living in the power of the Spirit”

Why we are still so LOST as an American church

I am re-reading a classic in my life: The Dynamics of Spiritual Life by Richard Lovelace. I found a used copy online and have begun a fresh journey through these pages. Lovelace, writing decades ago, gets at why we are in such a mess in our current spiritual state in the white conservative American church.Continue reading “Why we are still so LOST as an American church”

My goal for 2022: Create more mess

I’ve spent the last 4 years in flux and transition. I had been in ministry all my adult life and even in that role I was always in flux. Urban ministry was my context and the shifts I had in how I view ministry and being the Body of Christ in that context was aContinue reading “My goal for 2022: Create more mess”

In the (current) age of deconstruction, a cry of my heart

“Whatever version of Christianity we way we’re over is not the true Christian faith. I still long for a place where God reigns, and I still need the Spirit’s power.” — Mandy Smith, Unfettered

The direct line of communication in prayer

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. (Rom. 8:26)

A prayer for this time

In this moment… this “kairos” moment… let us not shrink back. Let us be renewed in the Holy Spirit. Let us be filled with the Spirit in this time. Let us be anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Body of Christ for this time. Pour your Spirit out on your Church and let usContinue reading “A prayer for this time”

Hearing the voice of the Lord

There are phrases that capture my imagination from time to time in my reading. This one takes my breath away this morning: “…we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire.” — Deuteronomy 5:24

Confronting the issues of the American Conservative Church

Yesterday I was in prayer for the American Church. I had read in Mark 11 about Jesus cursing the fig tree and cleansing the Temple, and I was grieved for the Church once again.

We have lost imagination in ministry

I have no sense of imagination. I will miss Eugene Peterson. Peterson saw pastors moving from church to church, often in exhaustion, and identified the problem—a sense of pastor as program director for a church that often viewed the gospel as a way to success, or at least avoidance of suffering. His answer was aContinue reading “We have lost imagination in ministry”