Flame of Love suggests that from the Day of Pentecost the early Christians experienced the tremendous power of the Holy Spirit. They were filled with unexpected sacrificial love, freed from the powers of this world, and given a new kind of ministry of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:3-9). The works of the Holy Spirit did not simply “disappear” after the apostle died rather the Holy Spirit needs to reappear in the 21st church.

Pinnock compartmentalizes the work of the Holy Spirit in seven sections: Spirit and Trinity, Spirit and Creation, Spirit and Christology, Spirit and Church, Spirit and Union, Spirit and Universality, and Spirit and Truth.

For example, in the Spirit and Church section, Pinnock argues hard for a “recovering and reclaiming” of the sacraments, the Charism, and a mission focused church. He sees the sacraments as a ‘tangible’ sign and symbol. Charisms are located and described in 1 Cor. 12 and 14, Eph 4, and Heb. 2. These gifts are given to fulfill the mission and vocation of the church. The Charisms equip the ministers to orchestrate ministry while giving authority and power. (Eph 4:11-14) The church needs to have a mission of healing, evangelism, and justice. The Spirit is the source of empowerment that paves the way for the Spirit to speak, teach, brake strong-holds, work, heal, and minister.

Pinnock clearly articulates that the Holy Spirit is missing in the 21st church. In a sense, the church has forgotten about the Spirit, which leads Pinnock to argue that there needs to be a re-examination and a furthering reconstruction of the theology of the Holy Spirit (pneumatology). It is imperative that the church finds an understanding on how to practically theologize the Holy Spirit functionality in and out of the halls of the church and academics. He strongly argues that the gifts are the main push for activating the mission and vocation of the church.

Questions I have based off of Flame of Love?

What is the significance of being filled with the ‘Holy Spirit’?
I think there is an experience, often subsequent to conversion, of being ‘filled’ with the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18). This experience is primarily for the purpose of empowering a believer for ministry (Acts 1:8)

Are the ‘Gifts of the Spirit’ for Today?
I think the gifts of the Spirit are for every believer today, though they are not to be used as ‘criteria’ of one’s spirituality. They are to be used in appropriate contexts and within the New Testament guidelines (I Cor 12-14).

Are ‘Tongues’ the evidence of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit?
I deeply value speaking in tongues for those who have the gift. However I deny that it is the single necessary ‘evidence’ of receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

What about ‘holy laughter’, being ‘slain in the Spirit’, and getting the tingles?
I acknowledge that various extraordinary manifestations of the Holy Spirit are possible. I deny that they should be made into any sort of spiritual criteria. When you invite the Spirit in and watch Him move, who knows what will happen? Maybe power, transformation, and reconciliation?

How Do I Let The Holy Spirit Do His Work Without Getting Weird and Crazy?
It is all about balance. Catholics focus on the Father. Protestants focus on Jesus. Pentecostals focus on the Holy Spirit. Not too much, but not too little, but just enough.

© 2009, Jeremy Zach. All rights reserved.

I am seat belt Charismatic.  I believe the Holy Spirit is alive and active in today’s culture and church.  Jesus does heal.  I strongly argue that the prompting and leading of the Holy Spirit needs to be the fuel of our youth ministry philosophy, programs, models, and teachings.

The youth ministers that really understand the power of the Holy Spirit in and through their youth ministries are the Vineyard, Four Square, and Assemblies of God folks.

But the problem is certain charismatic movements have used and abused the Holy Spirit, which has given types of Holy Spirit ministries a bad name.

It is healthy to have a balanced view of the Holy Spirit in our youth ministry.  The study of pneumotology would not be a bad idea to consider.  Veli-Matti Karkkainen has a wonderful book titled:  Pneumatology:  The Holy Spirit in Ecumenical, International, and Contextual Perspective. Also Clark Pinnock has book titled:  Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit. I actually wrote a review here.

I don’t think it would be a bad idea to have more of a Trinitarian presences in our youth ministry–Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit.  A healthy youth ministry paradigm would be:  Jesus, Apologetics, Prayer, Fellowship, Food, Social Justice, Sacraments, Scripture, Doctrine, Worship, and Missional work in the city.

___________________________

Questions to wrestle with:

___________________________

1.  Are you teaching on the Holy Spirit?  If so, are teaching through Acts?  And talking about the sign and wonders of our age?

2.  Are some of your students more spirit sensitive?

3.  How many of your students have dabbled with dark spirits, namely wigi boards, fortunetellers, palm reading, tarot cards?  You would be surprised.

4.  How often is the Spirit leading your youth ministry outside of the church walls?  What if the Spirit is not calling your youth group inside of the church?  What if He wants you to leave the youth room and go into your city and start praying for people?  Think Acts!

5.  What are some of the spiritual gifts your students possess?  Any tongues?  Any healing?  Any interpretation?

6.  Do you provide environments in your youth ministry for your students to listen to the Holy Spirit? Mike King in his book:  Presence-Centered Youth Ministry suggests taht listening prayer in silence and solitude is a great place to start.  Start with two minutes of silence during a gathering, and gradually increase the time as your youth become familiar with the practice.  I read his book here

7.  Is your worship leader willing to worship for 1 hour if he/she is sensing the Spirit is moving?

8.  How programmatic are you?  Do you tightly schedule your youth program?  Do you have to write down prayer in your schedule?

9.  How much are you (the youth pastor) seeking the Holy Spirit and asking Him the direction and mission of your youth ministry?  When is the last time you were stirred like Nehemiah was?  Nehemiah was deeply burden by the sin around him and he was so moved that he moved back to Jerusalem to rebuild a wall.

___________________________

My point:  I don’t think many youth pastors have been “stirred” for a long time.  It is so easy to go on auto-pilot and be comfortable with our youth ministry, our office, our nice church kids, and our some-what nice YM budget.

My comforting challenge:  Take a prayer walk through your city during the night hours.  Pray for your town, your family, your church, and your students.

© 2009, Jeremy Zach. All rights reserved.

Like all across the globe, more and more USA youth ministries will begin to embrace the power and miraculous works of the Holy Spirit.  Youth ministry will do this not because of “some cool new idea”, rather youth ministries will be forced to rely on the miraculous works of the Holy Spirit.

Our existential students desire and thrive on experience.  Thankfully the miraculous works of the Holy Spirit generate remarkable experiences for students, which they will never forget.

I suspect many students in our YM have:

*  seen dark angels

* not experienced the transformative power and manifestations of the Holy Spirit

*  toyed with some of the new agey spirituality, including wigi boards, tarot cards, palm reading, and psychics

*  a type of demonic suppression that has a deep strong hold on them, namely depression, pornography, suicidal thoughts, identity crisis

*not seen a miraculous deed

* not participated in an intense intercessory prayer session

The New Testament church heavily relied upon the renewal in the Holy Spirit, a willingness to accept the presence of signs and wonders, a belief in the reality of the demonic, and a willingness to enter into intercessory fasting and prayer in order to make a difference in the Spiritual realm.

I don’t care what tradition you come from or what seminary you attended:  the spiritual realm is alive, present, and very active TODAY.  There are many forces working against us (include the dark force).  We must abandon the cessationism tradition.  There are too many crazy spiritual phenomenas happening all across the globe, which we must accept.

Our youth ministries must become very familiar we naturally dealing with the supernatural.  Dallas Willard says that we should come to a point that we expect to see the miraculous outbreak of the Kingdom take place as an “ordinary” part of our “extraordinary” Christian lives.

Bottom line:  if a student encounters the Spirit of God in real ways, then we don’t have to articulate a case for faith.  This is why teaching students how to pray  is insanely important!  If we can teach students to push back on the dark forces in their life, this is sooo huge!!

I think all of us have much to learn about the Kingdom’s supernatural power.  Unfortunately, I am having to learn on the fly because in my present context we have seen a lot of crazy spiritual phenomena happening with our students.

Would you be freaked out if I told you, I had to pray for a student who was channeling dark spirits; and the Holy Spirit manifested itself in this student pretty intensely?

I think the best youth ministries are the youth ministries that can stimulate the students’ mind, heal their soul, and provide environments where they can encounter and experience the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

© 2009, Jeremy Zach. All rights reserved.