How can I be filled with the Holy Spirit…?

This week we are tackling the topic of ‘how can I be filled with the Holy Spirit’. Hopefully by the end of this we might all have a little more clarity or just be as confused as before we started. We may even get to the point where we want to try this out…

Let’s start by being honest. For some/most people the Holy Spirit simply freaks them out. This leads to them finding a way of avoiding this topic of conversation altogether (if there is no one there on Sunday I won’t take offence). It’s understandable because there is a whole load of information out there that is not very helpful and has caused a lot of damage to people over the years. I have experienced some awful manipulation take place in order to ‘manifest’ the Spirit among people and these kind of things can lead to people throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Let’s start then with how you can be filled. Here is a little story to get us started…

You are sat in a pub/bar/restaurant/café with your friends. You are talking and sharing life together and having a good time. You look down at the table and you notice that your glass/cup is empty. You think to yourself, that isn’t right and go about remedying the situation.

How do you get it filled?

I’m hoping that most of you have come to the same answer. I will wait till I see you on Sunday to find out if that is right.

So that deals with the how, now to tackle the why.

It seems to me that far to often the church wants to focus on the being filled bit and forgets about the purpose bit. We like the first four verses of Acts 2 but shy away from the other 26 chapters in Acts. I don’t think Jesus sent his Spirit just so we could have ‘spiritual highs’. They may be a good side effect and offer important experiences but I am not sure these are the point. If I read the book of Acts and other bits of the New testament I think that being filled with the Spirit looks very different from what large chunks of the church thinks it does.

From my reading of Acts and other New Testament books we need the Spirit in order to fulfil a purpose. If I wrote all I could on this then some of you would not get past this point (if you have even made it this far) so I am just going to list them and hopefully our conversations will open these up more.

Witness – Word and deed

Speak

See and act

Restore

Finally, a warning. A number of the stories we read of people being filled with the Spirit are told from a place of challenge. The filling is accompanied by challenge, imprisonment and in a number of cases death.

So, questions and we are straight in at the deep end.

Would you call yourself a follower of Jesus?

Is there any moment in your life that you would say you have felt led, moved, inspired, challenged, by the Spirit?

Do you think the church has focused on the wrong thing? experience over purpose?

What do you think a Spirit filled follower of Jesus looks like?

See you at the Crescent Club at 8pm

Ambivalence…

Hi folks, this week we are checking out a new venue again… we’re meeting in Copperfields in Tynemouth… if it’s busy we will be in the lounge of the Grand!

I wonder if you have noticed something? Did you know that you had to have a definitive view on EVERYTHING!!! Thats right… everything… Brexit… God… who to vote for… marmite… North Korea… We are to look at the world in black and white. Well actually… it’s not that simple… there seems to be a forgotten word in the english language, that is ambivalence! I think it’s a word I could learn to love!  But for much of our lives we are pressured to find the ‘answer’, to have reached a conclusion…

Ambivalence means “undecided” I wonder if we are undecided on many issues in the world, in our communities and maybe in our own lives. But being ambivalent is a state that is thought of as negative or weak, to be avoided, it’s considered as being about not caring… but I wonder if it is a sign of strength. To not have a view of something means that you are open… open to have your ideas and views changed, open to see that there are many grey areas, open enough to see the various sides of an argument.

Within my own Christian journey I have become more ambivalent, coming from a more conservative evangelical perspective I was supposed to hold on to some sense of certainty on many issues… but I find myself in a very different place now… a place where I’m able to sit on the fence if you like… neither for or against. I want to see things from others perspectives… Don’t get me wrong, there are things I have a view and an opinion about… but I wonder if we need to be brave enough to say actually I’m not sure. On a recent episode of question time one of the guests was asked to give a view about assisted dying… his reply was short… he said he doesn’t have a strong view and told David Dimbleby to move on to someone who does… I loved it! He wasn’t going to make up a view for the sake of it…

So some questions…

Marmite… Yes… No… ambivalent?

Peanut Butter…?

How do you see/understand ambivalence?

What issues are you ambivalent about?

What issues do you have a strong view on?

Can you think of examples where followers of Jesus should be ambivalent?

Peace Rob

Childhood Memories…

This week we are meeting in the Crescent Club ‪from 8pm‬. In case you haven’t been before we meet in the upstairs bar at the front of the club.

Childhood memories…

I can’t remember much about my early years and I certainly only have a few memories from primary school… I remember being taken round the whole school by the head teacher when I was about 7 after I stole pipe cleaners from Mr Foster’s cupboard (to make myself some funky pipe cleaner glasses!). I also remember being top of the class when I was in year 5 after my mum promised I could get my ears pierced if I came in the top 3 – Michael Burn was very cheesed off as he normally came top. I also remember some of the weird meals I was made to eat as a child – ‘kid’s casserole’, ‘branflake mince’ and spam fritters.

In terms of my Christian journey I remember being made to go to Sunday School every Sunday and singing songs about Zacchaeus being ‘a very little man’ and other classics like ‘he’s got the whole world in his hands’. I also remember being in various nativity plays and waving palm crosses at Easter. When I was 16 and came out the top end of Sunday School I was asked to be a Sunday School teacher and of course said yes as it meant I didn’t have to stay in church for the full service. I can honestly say that I had no real idea about the meaning of the cross or that I could have a personal relationship with Jesus at that age. It wasn’t until I was at uni that I started to understand the personal nature of the Christian faith. I’m still not sure I understand a great deal more than I did when I was a teenager but I’ve certainly got a different view of God – he’s not a white man with a big beard sitting on a cloud anymore.

So some questions….

What is your earliest memory?
What is the naughtiest/funniest thing you did as a child?
What culinary horrors did you have to endure?
How did you view God when you were growing up? Has this changed?
What do you remember being taught about God/Jesus etc?
What messages do we/society give children about God/faith?

Feel free to share your childhood photos on here or bring them along on Sunday night when we’ll be discussing these questions.