After his conversion, the Apostle Paul spent a number of silent years at home in Tarsus. I envision him sharing his personal story of God’s grace and the impact on his life, even going out on weekends to spread this new Good News.
He was a genius at learning to pare down his message to its basics. He recognized that God’s grace was the essence of the Christ story, as he explained over and over again. He also observed lives being changed among the thousands of believers he had contact with over the years. His explanation was that Christ’s Spirit changed them in their “inner being” so they experienced more, love, joy, peace and hope. Such change, too, was a free gift available in the Spirit.
My point is that Paul was doing evidence-based ministry even before he went public. “Evidence-based findings” has become a key phrase in refining medical practice and educational policy. Paul remained so excited about his mission because he saw that it works for changing lives.
The Protestantism I know unnecessarily limits the evidence for our ministries today. We joyfully retell the evidence in the Bible and affirm the truths basic to living the life God intends for us. We affirm that the Gospel “works,” but we don’t share much evidence in lives actually changed.
Martin Luther rediscovered Paul’s central truth of justification by faith without works. But historic mainline churches never got the centrality of Paul’s emphasis on the Spirit active today, even though he wrote much more about things done “by the Spirit” than he did about “in Christ.”
Many Protestants do share evidence of impact on lives today. They expect and affirm conversions from an old life to a new life in Christ. Most get good at telling their conversion story. For important theological reasons, mainline Protestants baptize infants and later expect them to confirm their faith, as they are taught. But rarely do we tell stories of big changes in believers we know around us. In the process, we deprive ourselves of evidence that the Good News of Christ and the Spirit is working well today in changed lives.
Stories of personal conversion provide evidence of changed lives for born-again Evangelicals. Compare that to the promise-based message typically offered in mainline churches that do not feature how lives are being changed now in Christ by the power of the Spirit. The contrast gets sharper in comparison to Pentecostal churches that thrive on evidence of the Spirit as God’s empowering presence. If individual lives are not being changed in mainline churches, the reason for decline becomes apparent. I personally believe in the power of God’s Word. We just have to look harder to find and celebrate the evidence.
Gordon F. Fee did a detailed study of Paul’s 143 references to the Spirit that was formative for my fresh understanding. He writes, “It is certain that the Pauline churches were ‘charismatic’ in the sense that a dynamic presence of the Spirit was manifested in their gatherings. And even where power means that believers apprehend and live out the love of Christ in a greater way, Paul recognizes here a miraculous work of the Spirit that will be evidenced by the way renewed people behave toward one another.”
Further, “It is this dynamic, evidential dimension of life in the Spirit that probably more than anything else separates believers in later church history from those in the Pauline churches. Whatever else, the Spirit was experienced in the Pauline churches; the Spirit was not merely a matter of creedal assent.” (824)
Can mainline churches give evidence that the Spirit is still working today? Yes, if we know what we are looking for.
“Awakening” is a historic word for change, better than one-time “conversion.” The Spirit can and does bring little awakenings to deeper meaning as well as larger re-orientation of lives in big Awakenings. The Spirit can and does evoke strong emotions among mainline Christians, and many others beyond pastors do experience a call to their role in life.
We can tell and celebrate those stories, but it will take intentional leadership to change mainline church cultures to learn and share them.
Pastor David, your insights are simple clear and I believe right on track. This is one place where mainline Protestants need to learn from our Evangelical brothers and sisters. Thank you for your insightful way of framing this–“evidence based”–as that captures it well. If we believe the Holy Spirit is still at work in our world and in our lives shouldn’t we be able to point to some evidence of that work?
Thanks for your affirmation. That the Spirit is as work around us cannot be proven scientifically. Nor can it be disproven. Faith is being certain of what we do not see. Paul talks about the eyes of our heart. Changing hearts is the Spirit’s special role. Rationally this is a circular arguments. But ultimately true faith is not rational. But we can rationally try to explain what is happening. That’s what I am trying to do.
Dave
I have witnessed the hands & heart of God through His Spirit countless times over. He is doing miraculous things each and everyday and not just in a general way. Yes His beauty and might are witnessed everyday in His creation around us, but that doesn’t help build an intimate personal relationship unless we witness what He is actively doing in people’s lives.
What has worked to do this so well is PACK (Planned Acts of Christian Kindness). You unselfishly put you and your group out in busy public places and you start doing pre-planned acts of kindness for everyone that His Spirit sends your way. A basic helpful service or a simple practical gift and a Connect Card and the recipients experience Jesus reaching out to them. His love and desire to have a closer walk with them. In the free act of kindness comes a small taste of what His grace is like which can’t be earned or bought. The card also invites them to your church/school/youth activity… In a very simplistic way you are allowing God’s Spirit to use you to accomplish miraculous things. This is after all His promise to us we unfortunately need to experience it firsthand before it becomes “real” to us. This comes through “exercising” our faith.
Through these simple easy to do acts of kindness done in Jesus name will come amazing testimonies from the everyday recipients that appear to be doing just fine, but like a switch the tears well up because the Holy Spirit is able to open their heart and reveal what is happening within. The timing of how these moments even come to be leaves no doubt as to His divine presence! The Lord is working through you to accomplish so many different missions the most dramatic can be the immediate crisis someone is in the midst of that God wants them to feel His love, peace and hope at that very moment; maybe to experience His love for the first time; to show His love to a faithful servant to let them know He loves them so very much; to boost the faith of someone who may be beginning to doubt God is really there for them; or an encouragement to come back to church. Through it all the greatest blessing comes to the doer of the PACK because you witness God at work in so many miraculous ways which works to seal your own faith forevermore. This is what the Lord promises to all who unselfishly serve in His name and when you do it in this way His loving & powerful presence becomes more apparent! Recharge those faith batteries! PACK is a totally FREE program and is now at work in 109 countries. Get your free download at http://www.acts18.org. God bless!
Again, I gladly endorse PACT. It is a very practical and effective witness for Christians today. Getting it organized in a congregation is the challenge. The ability to organize and administer is a special Spiritual gift. When this ministry gift is absent among participants in a church, good intentions lead to frustrations. I think this helps explain why more congregations are not doing this.
Our Royal Redeemer Servant Saturday is in two weeks. As always I am eager to see how many show. Usuallyl it is about 300 adults and children and we do about 25 projects on that Saturday morning.
Dave
Ironically, it isn’t that we need to “learn from our evangelical brethren;” we just need to remember our Confession.
[VI. Concerning the New Obedience]
[1] It is also taught that such faith should yield good fruit and good works and that a person must do such good works as God has commanded for God’s sake but not place trust in them as if thereby to earn grace before God. [2] For we receive forgiveness of sin and righteousness through faith in Christ, as Christ himself says [Luke 17:10*]: “When you have done all [things] …, say, ‘We are worthless slaves.’ ” [3] The Fathers also teach the same thing. For Ambrose says: “It is determined by God that whoever believes in Christ shall be saved and have forgiveness of sins, not through works but through faith alone, without merit.”
Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 40.
[XII. Concerning Repentance]
[1] Concerning repentance it is taught that those who have sinned after baptism obtain forgiveness of sins whenever they come to repentance [2] and that absolution should not be denied them by the church. [3] Now properly speaking, true repentance is nothing else than [4] to have contrition and sorrow, or terror about sin, [5] and yet at the same time to believe in the gospel and absolution that sin is forgiven and grace is obtained through Christ. Such faith, in turn, comforts the heart and puts it at peace. [6] Then improvement should also follow, and a person should refrain from sins. For these should be the fruits of repentance, as John says in Matthew 3[:8*]: “Bear fruit worthy of repentance.”
[7] Rejected here are those who teach that whoever has once become righteous cannot fall again.
[9] However, also condemned are the Novatians, who denied absolution to those who had sinned after baptism.
[10] Also rejected are those who do not teach that a person obtains forgiveness of sin through faith but through our own satisfactions.
Also rejected are those who teach that “canonical satisfactions” are necessary to pay for eternal torment or purgatory.
Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 44–46.
Even the Small Catechism affirms this:
The Third Article – Sanctification
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
What does this mean? I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.
In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.
In this Christian church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers.
On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.
This is most certainly true.
Luther, Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2017), 17–18.
The problem is that we don’t believe what we teach and confess, and so enthusiasts look more appealing because we think that they have something that we lack, when in fact it is the exact opposite. They rely on what they see. Philippians 3:17–21 (ESV) — 17 Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. 18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
“Their god is their belly” – not that they are gluttons, but that they look inwardly instead of upwardly. They look to themselves and justify themselves by themselves, even while they claim to be doing so “in Jesus’ name.”
We don’t deny the existence of “the fruit of the Spirit.” In fact, we do the opposite in our Confession. Our problem is that we don’t believe what we teach, don’t teach what we confess, and don’t confess what we believe. We can do so much better, we can Be so much better than that, for the Holy Spirit, Who was given to us in Holy Baptism, IS with us and in us, calling us, preserving us, sanctifying us, and empowering us, to the praise of His glorious grace.
Continue to remind us, Pastor Luecke, of what glorious gifts have been given to us by the Holy Spirit, and keep pushing us to meditate upon these things, to give ourselves to them, and to remember them, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Beautifully put! In the last couple years especially, I have realized the same thing! Luther and the Reformers were not only very well versed in Scripture and church history, but they were what I now call “Jesus Freaks.” I was a convert in the Jesus Movement of the late ’60s and early ’70s and although I became a new creature in Christ and knew Him as my Savior, for the most part I was theologically ignorant at the time having been raised in a non-Christian home. But I had a zeal and love for the Lord that refused to sit down and shut-up. I could tell others about His love and forgiveness without a lot of other theological knowledge.
After I had been a Christian for 12 years I was exposed to a loving LCMS church and read Tappert’s edition of the Book of Concord. I saw the same spirit in the Confessions that I had lived by and experienced in the Jesus Movement. A Spirit-empowered boldness for Christ and God’s Word was obvious! Fortunately, in the Lutheran Confessions, we have good theology that includes clear statements about the Spirit’s work in our lives.
I am glad you are getting into the Lutheran Confessions. You are doing what I see myself doing–taking Lutheran theology and applying it to the work of the Holy Spirit today. It is the 20th century Pentecostals who have highlighted this new appreciation for the Third Person of the Trinity. You have experienced many excesses among them. The role of the Holy Spirit was not at issue in the 16th century Reformation. So the biblical teachings were not thoroughly explored.
Join the effort to more rationally and biblically appreciate the Spirit, who is the true source of re-energizing withering churches today.
How is your ministry going in your Gary IN congregation?
Dave
Hello Dave,
Quite a few comments about your challenging article. It is always a joy to hear your passion for the Holy Spirit and how inner change is possible through the Spirit’s probing. I appreciate the reminder that we only have to look around us and can see the Spirit at work. Even if it is only doing a small courtesy to another, from the inner heart, that causes one to feel an inner glow or warmth. Do we recognize that that inner probing is the Holy Spirit? Everyone time I read your articles, a smile always forms and it is one of thanksgiving for the time you take to share so much with so many . Thank you.