Cultivating a Spirit-Filled Church

I am currently attending a breakout session called "Cultivating a Spirit-Filled Church" by the conference host Jack Stepp, Pastor of South Hills Assembly. I'll be blogging notes as he teaches. Here goes:

Cultivating a Spirit-Filled Church

Beginning in the mid 1990s came what we might call "the relevant church movement."

The charismatic gifts are an integral part of the New Testament...,and Paul considered spiritual languages a desirable and delightful part of personal Christianity.

Can we merge the two? The relevant church movement and the charismatic movement? How can we be Pentecostal and still reach out with a cultural sensitivity?

Cessationists say that the gifts and languages of the Holy Spirit ceased with the close of the New Testament.

Are we Pentecostals becoming practical cessationists? Not doctrinally, but practically.

The disuse, misuse, and abuse of the gifts, along with immersion into the relevant church movement, can turn us into practical cessationists. In our attempts to adopt the valuable principles of the relevant church movement, we must be careful to not neglect our Pentecostal calling and heritage.

There is a road between two ditches. The ditch on one side is where we no longer encourage or operate in the Biblical manifestations of the Spirit. The ditch on the other side of the road is sensationalism. The ditches are to be avoided.

We should not think that the postmodern culture could not be interested in spiritual languages or the gifts of the Holy Spirit. More than likely they would like to experience God's power in their lives.

Our goal is to cultivate a Spirit-Filled/Relevant church.

To cultivate the Spirit-Filled/Relevant church, we must believe that the Spirit-Filled life is the key to the better life in Christ.

How can we develop a Spirit-filled/Relevant church?

1. Dig deeply into the life with the Holy Spirit
2. Give people consistent and regular opportunities to experince God.
We must continually ask the Lord to use us in his gifts.
3. Cast the vision of what a Spirit-Filled/Relevant church looks like.
4. Guide you leadership in strategic planning and include numeric goals for the infilling with the Holy Spirit.

He references Jim Collins' hedgehog concept diagram.

The intersection of 3 circles determines your "sweet spot" as a church. These are 1. What you're best at (as a church), 2. What you are most passionate about, and 3. your time , energy, and resources (different from the business model which would be "what drives your economic engine").

This was a very good workshop. Lots of great insights into building a Spirit-Filled/Relevant church.