Pentecostal Courage
by Kevin Butler
A message from Baptist World Alliance General Secretary Neville Callam
Pentecost marks the season of the Spirit.
As at the first Pentecost, the Spirit blows and the result is a remarkable empowerment. The weak are made strong, the timid made brave and those who fall silent in the face of perceived threat to their personal safety now burst the bonds of concern for self and bear potent witness to unvarnished, life-transforming truth.
Filled with the Spirit, the disciples escape the grip of fear and timidity and speak a word in the name of Christ calling all who would listen to the new life God makes available to all who repent and believe the Gospel.
Holy Spirit-inspired courage is badly needed in our world today.
It is such courage that will help Christians express their views on the meaning of the shuttered doors to former sacred spaces in centers which once claimed competence to interpret the mind of Christ and to disseminate it to those not so fortunate to be able to clearly discern that mind.
It is such courage that will help people of faith to discuss how the fortresses from which flowed voluminous literature clarifying how to do ministry now seem to crumble before the weight of a constantly growing secularism that threatens to push religion permanently to the margins.
Meanwhile, the weak find strength to raise their voices, without knowing whether anyone will listen and hear. By their liberation to speak, as the Spirit empowers them, they create holy mayhem that upsets the established order.
Pentecost summons us to rise up and speak courageously, to recognize that it is only in the power of the Spirit that we can speak truth to power, bear witness to the convictions we have been led to hold and to live authentically as people whom God is constantly renewing.
Pentecost calls us to be people of real courage, not because of who we are, but because of Who possesses us. Let us not forget, however, that when the Holy Spirit empowers us to act courageously, some may feel threatened by the prospect of losing their position of privilege. This may cost us dearly. Yet, what price can we not pay to live as God's pentecostal people?
Pentecost 2009
Pentecost marks the season of the Spirit.
As at the first Pentecost, the Spirit blows and the result is a remarkable empowerment. The weak are made strong, the timid made brave and those who fall silent in the face of perceived threat to their personal safety now burst the bonds of concern for self and bear potent witness to unvarnished, life-transforming truth.
Filled with the Spirit, the disciples escape the grip of fear and timidity and speak a word in the name of Christ calling all who would listen to the new life God makes available to all who repent and believe the Gospel.
Holy Spirit-inspired courage is badly needed in our world today.
It is such courage that will help Christians express their views on the meaning of the shuttered doors to former sacred spaces in centers which once claimed competence to interpret the mind of Christ and to disseminate it to those not so fortunate to be able to clearly discern that mind.
It is such courage that will help people of faith to discuss how the fortresses from which flowed voluminous literature clarifying how to do ministry now seem to crumble before the weight of a constantly growing secularism that threatens to push religion permanently to the margins.
Meanwhile, the weak find strength to raise their voices, without knowing whether anyone will listen and hear. By their liberation to speak, as the Spirit empowers them, they create holy mayhem that upsets the established order.
Pentecost summons us to rise up and speak courageously, to recognize that it is only in the power of the Spirit that we can speak truth to power, bear witness to the convictions we have been led to hold and to live authentically as people whom God is constantly renewing.
Pentecost calls us to be people of real courage, not because of who we are, but because of Who possesses us. Let us not forget, however, that when the Holy Spirit empowers us to act courageously, some may feel threatened by the prospect of losing their position of privilege. This may cost us dearly. Yet, what price can we not pay to live as God's pentecostal people?
Pentecost 2009
posted by Kevin Butler at
2:58 PM
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