Our First Sunday Back in Taiwan

In a few hours we're about to start our first Sunday service since returning from America. Before we left to America on August 5, 2009 I had just completed my 25th sermon at our newly planted church in northeast Taiwan. All of those sermons mostly focused on who was Jesus and water baptism. At the end of those 25 sermons we had two people that came forward to believe in Jesus and be baptized. Praise God! we now have new believers, but what's next? Where do we go from here?

While we were in America I asked God this question many times. "God, when we get back to Taiwan where in your Word do we go next? What do you want the people of Taiwan to know?" It seemed that everywhere we went in America--every church we visited God always nudged me to pay attention to the level of Holy Spirit involvement at each church. In some cases it was the lack of the Holy Spirit that I was being nudged to notice. By the time our furlough was coming to an end on November 10, 2009 I knew without doubt that God wanted to teach, preach and show all about the Holy Spirit and His role in our new church and in our new believer's lives in Taiwan.

Even though I've been a missionary for six years and a lay speaker for quite some time, I am still very new at pastoring a church or rather leading a flock. Naturally I am quite concerned about what I say when it comes to the Holy Spirit. I don't mean that I know nothing about the Holy Spirit. What I mean is that there are so many different points of view about who the HS is, and what He does. I want to make sure that I get it right.

Does it sound like I'm floundering on my own beliefs about the HS? Yeah, I guess it does, and I'll tell you why. It all started while we were on furlough. Our family had been going to alot of different churches to share our vision and ministry in northeast Taiwan. We traveled from Georgia all the way up to Vermont, and we traveled from Georgia all the way out to Los Angelos, California.

Some of the churches we visited were conservative and some were liberal. Some seemed free to worship, some didn't. Some were exciting and some were dull. Some preached God's Word while others sensationalized God's Word. We saw the whole gammet of differing styles of worship and sermons.

What caught my attention the most was what was being taught and encouraged about the Holy Spirit. In charismatic churches where one would expect to hear more about the HS, we didn't. In fact some of the charismatic churches played down the HS and His work among the congregation. One leader of a use-to-be charismatic church said that the charismatic movement was dead.

To make this even more strange let me tell you what happened when we went to the more conservative denominational churches. We found them, in general, to be more alive, and more willing to indulge into the things of the HS. We visited a Methodist church in Tennessee that was totally and completely on fire for God. The HS was very evident in that place. Their youth was alive and vibrant. They annointed and prayed over pieces of cloth and sent them to the sick to be healed. Their worship team had a representative from every age group playing uplifting, contemporary worship songs. Even their drummer was only six years old, but he kept up with every song just like a grown man.

In another instance, a pastor of a baptist church in Texas told me that on recent mission trips to China they had seen miraculous healings from the HS and all kinds of other miracles. In fact he has been trying to get his church to be more charismatic in regards to the church and the things of God.

Are the roles reversing? Is the HS moving to the old denominational churches? Will the charismatic churches loose their edge on the HS? What is going on? What am I suppose to teach my little congregation in Taiwan.

Now, this wasn't true across the board. We still visited some denominational churches that were still conservative and some charismatic churches that were still charismatic. In fact there was this one charismatic church in California where we shared in their 5th and 6th grade Sunday School classes. After our sharing their pastor came up and asked the kids to come to the altar and to pray for one another's sicknesses and concerns. He also asked if any of them had any visions or word of knowledge from God. Many of them did and many of them came to the front and shared what the HS had given them. And it was on target with God's Word. These kids were only 10, 11 and 12 years old, but they had definite relationships with the HS and with the Lord. These kids came up to our family after the service was over and was laying their hands on us and praying for our safety back to Taiwan and for our mission to grow in God!

So here I am. I am back in Taiwan and it's time for me to start teaching about the Holy Spirit. Our church is not conservative and yet we are not charismatic either. We are a small group of Taiwanese believers that need to know the truth about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. What is the truth? Is the charismatic movement dead? Does the Holy Spirit really speak through kids? If we pray for the sick in our church will the HS heal them? Which direction should we lead our congregation?

I already know what I'm going to do when I get into the pulpit, but before I tell you I would like to give you an opportunity to comment on my delimma first. I'm not trying to stir up arguments, but a good healthy conversation about the Holy Spirit and it's role in today's churches could never hurt anyone.

Richard Roberts