perspective shifts

Two truths laid out by Nussbaum that would radically change the attitude of my church if grasped by its members are the following:
1) The Holy Spirit is our possessor and animator not our possession.
2) The “church” is bodies of believers gathered all over the world not the power centers of the West.

It would profit the congregation of Eastwood to live by the truth that each Christian as an individual is to view the Holy Spirit as the Being who has control, gives purpose and requires submission. It is also important to understand that we are not alone in working towards God’s mission in this world. We are joining this collaborative effort with God’s ambassadors from nations all over his world. This should provide encouragement to press on, but should also stand as a reminder that not all Christians “do church” like we do. There is much to be learned from churches of other contexts.

Our church has a “leadership training” day for Sunday school leaders. I think it comes around only once a year, but even so it is a great chance to talk about ways to incorporate missional thinking into small group dialogue. I could suggest to the leader of this meeting that someone (maybe myself) mention the importance of these two particular ideas and how to implement them. One example would be stressing the importance of terminology by pointing out the potential damage in saying, “When you get saved, you have the Holy Spirit.” There are many ways of going about this. It is a matter of looking into all programs of the church and making an effort to intentionally stress certain ideas that have been identified as necessary to needed perspective shifts.