Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 06/Jun/2021]

Robert, Vicki and I have just finished running the 6-week online Alpha course and recently we hosted the Holy Spirit ‘day’ in our home. As we watched the Alpha videos, talked and prayed we were aware of the Holy Spirit’s power and presence with us. It felt very special to be able to recognise The One, true and living God in our meeting together.

I was later reminded of the questions that Martin and the leadership have been mulling over for some months now –what will ‘church’ look like when we are able to meet properly again at HBC? Should it be the same as it was pre-Covid or is this the time to consider what, if anything, needs to be different when we come back together as church? What will attract the ‘un-churched’ to HBC and in doing so give them the opportunity to hear the Good News & meet with Jesus Christ in a personal way? If we need and want to ‘do church’ differently how can we achieve this? What are the challenges to us as we seek to do God’s will? These are important questions and we continue to look for the answers.

What struck me following Alpha is that what we need and have always needed when ‘doing church’ is to be in relationship with the Holy Spirit. Then we will see great signs and wonders and people will come to HBC because they want to know and encounter the power, life and wisdom that only the Lord God Almighty gives. I believe He wants us to seek Him more and more and ask Him in. Not just to our services and meetings but to our homes, and to our frontlines. He is here anyway, present whether we realise it or not. What He asks is that we continue to be prayerful, open and obedient. And to trust in His power.

We need to dare to believe that the Holy Spirit will come. We need to ask, to expect, to wait for Him. Then He will come to us and our gatherings will be transformed. I confess that I never really believed or trusted that this could be so. But I do now.

So what stops us from asking to be filled? Perhaps we doubt that we will receive if we ask (Luke 11:10-13) Perhaps we are fearful and not sure we actually want to receive the power of the Spirit and how that might change things. It’s easier to remain comfortable in what and how we’ve always done things. Perhaps we feel inadequate and think we’re not worthy or good enough. I believe it gives the Father such joy when we seek Him and open up ourselves to Him, ready to receive His breath of life.

If we look back at the early church we see the sort of people that God called & we can be encouraged. They were ordinary and unlikely people who were ready to be filled and re-filled with the Holy Spirit. In doing so they did extra-ordinary things in the name of Jesus and many believed and followed Him.

So my question to you is… do we need to further nurture an attitude of openness, expectation, excitement, welcome?

Our vision statement says that we are to be a beacon of hope – a light that cannot be hidden or contained. I know that the Holy Spirit can transform and fill us if we ask Him and only by His power will we be able to be that beacon for Horley and see lives transformed. Amen.

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