QC and SG accountability (25/11/16)
As we shared our experiences of the Holy Spirit it seemed clear to me that we had a range of spiritual encounters - from relatively brief times of conviction of sin and awareness of God's presence, to a more sustained time of unusual closeness to God. I feel that the former types of experiences are somewhat usual in the experience of all of us, but the latter would be more of what I think constitutes 'filling' of the Spirit. These times are characterized by a desire for intimacy with God in renewed desire to pray, boldness in witness, victory over temptation and wanting to meet with other Christians. Sometimes (as in Joyce's and my experience), these were preceded by a time of unusual hunger for God's presence and power. Sometimes (as with Eugene), God worked somewhat suddenly.
As we 'build the altar' while waiting for God's sovereign move of the Spirit in our lives and the life of our church, one of the ways that shows how we hunger for God is to fast - from food, or from other legitimate things, to seek God wholly.
Our conversations led to the practice in retreats and youth camps of planning for God to work powerfully in the lives of campers on the last night. We felt that it was right to give space for God to move, and to plan logistics accordingly, but to also make every effort to prepare spiritually by prayer and personal interaction with campers. We must not assume that planning alone will achieve what we would like God to do. I said that Christian retreats, with fellowship, teaching, distancing from sin, and worship, are like foretastes of heaven - this constitutes a mountaintop experience. Jonathan Edwards said of preaching (and it may be fairly said of worship leading and camp planning) that it was his aim to lift the emotions of his hearers as high as possible - but only with the truth, and only in proportion to the truth. This guards us from being manipulative in our approach to 'last night' programming.
We spent time also talking about how the church can be more accessible to non-Christians attending. Wen Ai and Shawn shared good ideas about using FFMC as a city church ministering to city workers, as well as how to make newcomers more welcome. We discussed 'seeker services'. Apart from the semantic problem of knowing that "no one seeks God" (Rom 3:11, quoting Ps 14, 53), church services are mainly for Christians, not non-Christians. So constant conformation of a service to make it more accessible to non-Christians can result in a loss of all a service is meant to be for Christians. This would include a diminishing of historical (e.g. credal) elements, hymns and sacraments. Services can and should be sensitive to non-believers without being centered around them.
As we 'build the altar' while waiting for God's sovereign move of the Spirit in our lives and the life of our church, one of the ways that shows how we hunger for God is to fast - from food, or from other legitimate things, to seek God wholly.
Our conversations led to the practice in retreats and youth camps of planning for God to work powerfully in the lives of campers on the last night. We felt that it was right to give space for God to move, and to plan logistics accordingly, but to also make every effort to prepare spiritually by prayer and personal interaction with campers. We must not assume that planning alone will achieve what we would like God to do. I said that Christian retreats, with fellowship, teaching, distancing from sin, and worship, are like foretastes of heaven - this constitutes a mountaintop experience. Jonathan Edwards said of preaching (and it may be fairly said of worship leading and camp planning) that it was his aim to lift the emotions of his hearers as high as possible - but only with the truth, and only in proportion to the truth. This guards us from being manipulative in our approach to 'last night' programming.
We spent time also talking about how the church can be more accessible to non-Christians attending. Wen Ai and Shawn shared good ideas about using FFMC as a city church ministering to city workers, as well as how to make newcomers more welcome. We discussed 'seeker services'. Apart from the semantic problem of knowing that "no one seeks God" (Rom 3:11, quoting Ps 14, 53), church services are mainly for Christians, not non-Christians. So constant conformation of a service to make it more accessible to non-Christians can result in a loss of all a service is meant to be for Christians. This would include a diminishing of historical (e.g. credal) elements, hymns and sacraments. Services can and should be sensitive to non-believers without being centered around them.
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