Empowered Minister or Passive Audience?

Now this may sound like a strange question – but why do we come to church each week and sit in chairs as if we are watching something as a passive audience? As empowered ministers, we should follow Jesus’ example and have the faith and confidence to demonstrate the power we have in the Holy Spirit.

As we continue to search how to Be The Church, we we want to explore what it means to live as empowered ministers and not be influenced by the things of the world that can turn us into a passive audience. Before we get too far, we want you to know that a lot of these concepts have been expanded from John Wimber and Kevin Springer’s book Power Evangelism which is a great read.

In a simple way I think it works like this:

If we believe in Jesus, we must live as Jesus lived (1 John 2:6)

Jesus said we will do even greater things than He did (John 14:11-12)

If we look at His life it was full of miracles that demonstrated His power (Read about Jesus miracles here)

We can do the same things as Jesus because we receive power when we are filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8)

The Spirit manifests itself in many ways including spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:7-12)

We do all this to demonstrate God’s power to the world (Acts 1:8)

Let’s not just talk about it but let’s do it (1 Corinthians 4:20)

In some ways we have an excuse for not living like this. When we look at the patterns of the world there is a lot of stuff that gets in our way:

Rationalism: we need a rational explanation of every experience we have. The problem is we reject something if we can’t explain it, so often we discount supernatural power associated with things like angels or demons or receiving a prophetic word or healings.

Individualism: since the Age of Enlightenment humanity has placed importance on the individual and our ability to control our own destiny. We are self reliant, independent and want to control as much as we can. It  extends to our democratic society where we make decisions based on the individual views of the majority. The problem is that as followers of Jesus we actually live in God’s kingdom, where there is one ruler and our job is to serve His purpose.

Relativism: denies there is absolute truth, saying that all truth is based on personal experience. The problem with this is that if you have an encounter with God, others can disregard it because they didn’t experience it.

Materialism: we need to see, test and prove something is real. The problem is that we then believe in the material world more than the spiritual world which blinds us to the supernatural.

Consumerism: in our world the consumer rules. We have choice, rights, entitlements and options. The problem is, we can miss the point that the spiritual gifts we receive from God are actually about using them for other people.

I could go on as other things such as hedonism and capitalism come to mind – but the point is that if any of these things creep into our walk with Jesus or our churches it can disempower us – turning us into a passive audience.

So, if you want to be an empowered minister and explore what it means to be an active follower of Jesus and not just part of a passive audience – then stay in touch and join us to Be The Church.

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