Holy Spirit in a material world...

Well, there's lots more that could be said about the Holy Spirit conference at HTB. Some others are providing in depth reports and reflections (here and here, for example). And there were some great quotes that I'll probably share in another post, too.

But for now, just some thoughts arising from the seminar stream I went to, on the Holy Spirit and Ecclesiology (doctrine of the Church). First thing to note is how overwhelmingly Anglican the attendees were, when we all introduced ourselves on day 2. Now that possibly reflects the conference as a whole; I fear it also reflects a general lack of interests that persists among us Free Church bods when it comes to anything perceived as churchy.

A lot of the substance of the discussion, both in papers presented and the discussion on Friday, focussed around the role of the "sacraments", specifically communion, but also baptism (intriguing concept in a room full of Anglicans, but nuff said about that). This is something that has been threatening to be a bee in my bonnet for a long time, probably since realising that in our churches, if we're not careful, communion can be seen almost as an "intrusion" into the worship time - by which we mean mainly singing. The fact of the matter, at its simplest is that Jesus never commanded us to sing, but he did command us to break bread and baptise. Simples...

But then you get into the question of what is happening in these human activities. It seems increasingly clear to me that they are more than simply symbols and helpful reminders; rather that God is active in the very materiality of bread and wine and water. I've been hugely helped in thinking about all this by 2 books in particular; The Gospel-Driven Church by Ian Stackhouse, and Promise and Presence by John Colwell. So it was encouraging to be with others whose thinking has moved/is moving in similar ways; as well as some starting from a more sacramental Anglican tradition looking to combine that with more direct experience of the Spirit. And that leads me to my final "Yes, but...". It seems to me that the genius of Evanglicalism initially (in terms especially of the doctrine/experience of assurance) and the Charismatic movment more recently has precisely been that they have allowed for and encouraged a direct, (apparently) immediate experience of God through the Holy Spirit. The challenge surely is to recover the value and priority even of sacrament, God meeting his people, often unspectacularly, through the everyday elements of bread, wine and water, while remaining actively open to His meeting with people in all kinds of other, surprising ways.