by acreage in gated communities and hole up in front of big screen televisions in home theaters where movies and shows provide respite from the complications of daily life. They engross themselves in worlds created by video games. They lose themselves in applications available on their mobile phones. They immerse themselves in the traumas of celebrities or in the battles of their favorite sports teams, living vicariously through the triumphs and defeats of the stars.
Congregations often try to escape the discomfort of anxiety by attempting to make everyone in the church feel comfortable. To do so, they circulate surveys and then build their ministry around the personal preferences of the majority of their members, or make compromises to make the most people happy. They design worship with something for everyone and chase after those who leave the church, assuring them that the congregation will construct its ministry around their specific desires.
Congregations that try to appease everyone may feel harmonious, but their interactions often stay at a surface level. In order to avoid conflict, they often remain passive and avoid making decisions by continually dithering. In order to avoid taking responsibility, they often invest in an outside source of authority that will make decisions for them. They look to the expert who will provide a quick fix, or to the pastor who will save the church.
Other congregations escape anxiety by pretending everything is fine. They hunker down and ignore the changes that have taken place around them. Their participants busy themselves with their individual lives, their individual careers, their individual families and friends. They go to church to have their needs met by the minister who has been hired or appointed to do just that. As long as the clergyperson is doing the job, he or she is allowed to stay. If the pastor begins making them uncomfortable by calling the church to be something more, it is likely that pastor will be fired or reassigned.
Control and escape may provide respite from anxiety in the short-run, but as coping strategies, they do not make for healthy communities in the long-run. Over-functioning by taking responsibility for everything leads to exhaustion; under-functioning by bolting the door against distress leads to loneliness. Keeping harmony leads to superficiality; cutting oneself off from others leads to fragmentation. No matter how much power North Americans gain, how much they buy, how much happiness they pursue, they are left with the nagging truth that they cannot control everything nor can they escape every discomfort that life dishes out.
Prayer calls transforming congregations to solitude rather than escape, to letting-go rather than control. Through prayer, they find serenity, even amid the noise and chaos of change. Prayer connects them to the power and presence of the Spirit that resides within and among them.
Connecting to the Sacred Spirit
Because the Spirit is an invisible life-force, the Bible uses the language of poetry to describe its nature and activity. It depicts the Spirit as a bird that descends from out of the blue,15 as a fire that comes to rest upon individuals, giving them the ability to speak the words of God,16 and as power that fills people up so that the selfish ego disappears.17 It portrays the Spirit as life-giving water that pours out over a thirsty land, like a stream that brings nourishment and growth to dry ground.18 It describes the Spirit as a lover that captivates,19 causing people to lose track of time and overwhelming them with wonder, adoration, and gratitude. It affirms that it is possible to dwell in the Spirit20 and that the Spirit can lift people up out of the mundane like a whirlwind carrying individuals through mystical visions into another reality.21
The Christian tradition teaches Jesus was so filled up with the Spirit that he became a Spirit-Man, both fully divine and fully human. John’s Gospel claims what was possible for Christ is also possible for Christ’s followers: “To all received him, who believed in this name, he gave power to become children of God” (John 1:12). Just as Jesus became a Spirit-Man, other ordinary people can become spiritual human beings filled with the power of God and enlivened by that creative Spirit. For the Apostle Paul, living “in the Spirit” was the same as living “in Christ.”22 Throughout his letters, he interchangeably used the phrases “Spirit,” “Spirit of God,” and “Spirit of Christ.” He understood the presence of the Risen Christ to be the same as the Spirit of God. When the church dwelt in Christ, it could access the energy of the Spirit and live in the fullness of life.
The Bible described the activity of the Spirit as wind and breath: ruach (roo-ach) in Hebrew and pneuma (noo-ma) in Greek. The book of Genesis proclaimed that the Sacred Spirit had been present since the creation of the world when it swept over the waters like a wind.23 That wind-like energy was creative and life-giving but also unpredictable and uncontrollable. “The wind blows where it chooses,” Jesus told Nicodemus. “You hear the sound of it but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes” (John 3:8a).
The book of Acts described the wind blowing through Jesus’ followers, taking away their fear and empowering them to speak with boldness. On Pentecost, the disciples were all together in one place when, suddenly, they heard a sound like the rush of a violent wind. It filled the whole house where they sat. Then flames of fire appeared among them and one flame rested on each one of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability.24 The Spirit came upon the disciples unannounced and enabled them to communicate in a global context.
Centuries earlier, the prophet Joel had heard God speak of such a time when the power of the Spirit would be made available, not to just a few religious leaders, but to everyone.
“I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,” God told Joel.
“Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams
And your young men shall see visions
Even on the male and female slaves,
In those days, I will pour out my spirit.” (Joel 2:28b-29)
The Spirit could not be contained in one nation’s customs or language; it had been set loose in the world and could be found everywhere, if people only had eyes to see it.
The second Creation Story described the Spirit as the breath of life. God breathed life into the nostrils of the adam (human) made from the adamah (humus) and that breath animated the dirt causing it to become a self-aware human being who could think, choose, and take action.25 The Psalmist expressed a common belief of ancient people:
When you take away their breath they die
And return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created;
And you renew the face of the ground. (Psalm 104: 29b-30)
For there to be life, the breath of the Spirit had to be present.
The book of Ezekiel told the story of a prophet who had a vision of a valley full of dry bones. God spoke to the bones through Ezekiel, “I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live” (Ezekiel 37:5b). God laid sinews on the bones and caused flesh to come upon them, but muscles and skin alone did not make for life. It was only when the breath entered the bodies that they lived.26 The breath – the ruach – was the life-force, the energy that caused them to become living human beings who could stand on their own two feet.27
In the Gospel of John we read that the disciples were holed up in a locked room after Jesus’ crucifixion because they were anxious. But Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Then he sent them out to continue the work God sent him to do.28 The breath enlivened them and allowed them to carry on Jesus’ ministry in the world.
The Spiritual Habit
