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A Tale of Two Churches: Why Being Both Missional & Pentecostal Matters
IS IT POSSIBLE for the Church to be Pentecostal and missional at the same time? Acts 2 gives a clear answer of “Yes!” These two qualities were intertwined, seemingly inseparable pieces of the birth of the Church. It is clear God wants his church to be missional, focused on reaching lost people, and it is just as clear Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to empower us for this task. The rest of this book attempts to answer that question, and both Josh and I hope you will join us on the journey.
133 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 2, 2018
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January 16, 2021
The author’s main reason of writing was to answer the question of “If the Holy Spirit was sent by Jesus to empower the church to be effective in the mission of reaching people, how can we be both missional and Pentecostal?”
“Going without knowing…is a recipe for some serious mission drift” (Ross, 2018). Mission drift is something that I have found myself in not just once but multiple times in the 15 years of ministry. It was not until recently that I stopped and asked myself the question, “why am I doing what I am doing?” What is my mission? I had mission drifted off of what the mission of God was doing anything and everything and really doing nothing. Now am thinking more of how I can personally engage people not just inside the church but outside. I have taken more time to equip myself through daily quiet times with the Lord and finding that I have been encountering him more than just on a Sunday. I now take time to focus on how I am doing in these three areas of engaging people, equipping lives and encounter God. By doing these three things I will know where I am headed and know when I am mission drifting.
“Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit not to make us feel good, but to be empowered to reach the lost” (Ross, 2018). Acts 1:8 is a very familiar passage to a Pentecostal individual. Yet I don’t know if it has been embraced as much as maybe it should. However, after taking time to let the words “empowered to reach the lost” sink in for more than just a passing moment I have come to the conclusion, that unless I encounter a powerful God I will not engage or “reach the lost” in my Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria or even the ends of the earth without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that empowers me to step out in boldness even when it feels risky. Reaching the lost can be risky business and the question is, is reaching the lost worth risking everything? Jesus said to “deny oneself, take up his cross and follow him.” He never said it would be easy or that there would never be hard times. But with the Holy Spirit guiding and directing we can once again step out in boldness.
Another insight that I will be taking away from this book is that “you – Pastor Paul – are the cultural architect of your church and being both missional and Pentecostal matters” (Ross, 2018). Notice that I made this personal because this is one of the areas that I am really trying to focus on. I am the one who sets the tone on if we follow the mission that God has set before us as a church and if I follow the mission that I have individually. The mission is the heart beat of the church at large and for the local church. It is the pulse of God and how we reach that mission will look different from church to church. But we cannot move the mission without the Holy Spirit’s insight. I will not know how to engage people more, help equip lives or ways to help people of all ages encounter God. So, the take away for me is that in order for the local church to be missional and Pentecostal I must take time to be with the Father and really get to know his heart through the Holy Spirit.
On a scale of 1 to 5 I would give this book a 4. On a personal note this would not be my first book to pick up off the shelf and would not have read it had it not been for a class. However, saying this I did find the book to be very insightful, practical and also handled with care regarding the many topics and ideas that are out there regarding the Holy Spirit and being missional. I would recommend this book first to lead pastors and/or campus pastors. This would also make a great staff reading that you could come back to weekly to talk through the content in order to wrestle with ideas a little more deeply. Overall a good read and gleaned a lot from this book.
“Going without knowing…is a recipe for some serious mission drift” (Ross, 2018). Mission drift is something that I have found myself in not just once but multiple times in the 15 years of ministry. It was not until recently that I stopped and asked myself the question, “why am I doing what I am doing?” What is my mission? I had mission drifted off of what the mission of God was doing anything and everything and really doing nothing. Now am thinking more of how I can personally engage people not just inside the church but outside. I have taken more time to equip myself through daily quiet times with the Lord and finding that I have been encountering him more than just on a Sunday. I now take time to focus on how I am doing in these three areas of engaging people, equipping lives and encounter God. By doing these three things I will know where I am headed and know when I am mission drifting.
“Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit not to make us feel good, but to be empowered to reach the lost” (Ross, 2018). Acts 1:8 is a very familiar passage to a Pentecostal individual. Yet I don’t know if it has been embraced as much as maybe it should. However, after taking time to let the words “empowered to reach the lost” sink in for more than just a passing moment I have come to the conclusion, that unless I encounter a powerful God I will not engage or “reach the lost” in my Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria or even the ends of the earth without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that empowers me to step out in boldness even when it feels risky. Reaching the lost can be risky business and the question is, is reaching the lost worth risking everything? Jesus said to “deny oneself, take up his cross and follow him.” He never said it would be easy or that there would never be hard times. But with the Holy Spirit guiding and directing we can once again step out in boldness.
Another insight that I will be taking away from this book is that “you – Pastor Paul – are the cultural architect of your church and being both missional and Pentecostal matters” (Ross, 2018). Notice that I made this personal because this is one of the areas that I am really trying to focus on. I am the one who sets the tone on if we follow the mission that God has set before us as a church and if I follow the mission that I have individually. The mission is the heart beat of the church at large and for the local church. It is the pulse of God and how we reach that mission will look different from church to church. But we cannot move the mission without the Holy Spirit’s insight. I will not know how to engage people more, help equip lives or ways to help people of all ages encounter God. So, the take away for me is that in order for the local church to be missional and Pentecostal I must take time to be with the Father and really get to know his heart through the Holy Spirit.
On a scale of 1 to 5 I would give this book a 4. On a personal note this would not be my first book to pick up off the shelf and would not have read it had it not been for a class. However, saying this I did find the book to be very insightful, practical and also handled with care regarding the many topics and ideas that are out there regarding the Holy Spirit and being missional. I would recommend this book first to lead pastors and/or campus pastors. This would also make a great staff reading that you could come back to weekly to talk through the content in order to wrestle with ideas a little more deeply. Overall a good read and gleaned a lot from this book.
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