When I was little I asked my Sunday school teacher, “What is the Holy Spirit?” “I don’t know,” she told me and I wondered, if she couldn’t tell me, who could?
A few years later we moved to Kelowna B.C., and began attending the Presbyterian church. I still remember our first Sunday. I was watching a girl about my age (fourteen) sitting in the front row of the senior choir, and not paying much attention to the sermon when suddenly a man in the congregation shouted, “Amen!”
I sat up straight. Had God finally sent me to a church that could answer my question?
My parents and I attended St. David’s for years and I learned so much from David Stewart (St. David’s minister at the time), the congregation and the activities of the Presbyterian Young People’s Society, about the life and ministry of the Holy Spirit. My life was changed and I will forever be grateful to God for our years in Kelowna.
Today I was speaking with a young minister from B.C. While my memories of B.C. abound with excitement and dynamic spiritual growth, his experience is very different. Sadly, he sees congregations struggling and dying for lack of youth and young families. And he grieves for the future of the Presbyterian churches in his part of BC.
Why are our churches shrinking?
Is there a correlation between my youthful experience in Kelowna and its emphasis on the ministry of the Holy Spirit among believers? Conversely, is there a correlation between the lack of growth in our congregations and a lack of teaching about the Holy Spirit?
One of my goals here at General Assembly was to tap the vast resources of our church to find Bible resources for my ladies’ Bible study group. They are hungry to learn more about the Holy Spirit and I thought, “What better place to look?”
Imagine my surprise when I could not find one single book in the book room on the Holy Spirit. Nor could I find a minister who could recommend a resource he or she had used.
An elder from Brampton Presbytery today asked Harvey, “Why are we ignoring spiritual issues and not discussing the spiritual condition of our churches?”
The young minister form BC lamented, “How can we spend so much time discussing money and not evangelism?”
Could it be, the Presbyterian Church in Canada is struggling because we are ignoring the Holy Spirit?
