The Disruptive Spirit

The language of Pentecost is more than a little frightening to those of us who love ordered and predictable worship that last no more than an hour.  What is set forth in the early verses of the second chapter of Acts is a church being birthed in a room where overwhelming chaos seems to be the order of the day.  Those gathered were praying when suddenly it was as if heaven had been blown into the room by a wind that shook everything loose that was nailed down.  Along with the wind came what those present could only describe as tongues of fire causing strange words to pour forth from their mouths.  If we were in the midst of our ordered Sunday morning worship and such happened, we would run for the door!   

None of this says to us that there is something fundamentally wrong with the worship we experience on Sunday morning, but it is to say we should be careful not to dismiss the possibility that the Spirit might have plans other than ours for our Sunday morning gatherings.  We are afraid of disruptions to the planned order when the disruption might be the Spirit at work.  I remember going as a part of witness team during the Asbury Revival of 1970.  We arrived about an hour before a revival service on a college campus.  As complete strangers we walked into the pastor's office, told him briefly about the revival, and asked for a few minutes to share what God was doing.  He said we could have ten minutes.  The revival preacher never got to preach.  Before the ten minutes had been used up, the altar was full of college students who had not even been invited to come and kneel.   

Things could have been so different had the pastor not been bold enough and discerning enough to consider the possibility that the disruption we brought was of the Holy Spirit.  Lives that were changed that night might not have been changed.  What we can never forget when we gather for worship is that our agenda can never take precedence over the agenda of the Spirit.  The Spirit might want to do something in the gathering that is not on the printed order of worship and it would be a great loss to miss it.