In the summer of 2006 I took a sabbatical and traveled the country by train. I spent time with friends and family in Illinois, North Carolina, and Florida. I also visited a different church each week, and then interviewed the pastors – asking a variety of questions about their ministry experiences. I always gave them the chance to end the interview with the last word by asking this question: “Is there anything else you’d like to share?” I recall one answer in particular: Pastor Roosevelt Dunbar of the Amazing Grace Church of God in Christ in Palmetto, Florida said this: “You follow the cloud. If the cloud moves, you move. If it stops, you stop.”
I had trouble understanding what he was saying. It made more sense later when I was studying Exodus 13:21-22, which says, “The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.” God is still in the business of guiding His people. He doesn’t normally provide visible natural phenomena to do it – but that doesn’t mean His guidance isn’t there. The way I see it, there are at least three ways it plays out…
One thing I believe we can always hold on to is this: Christ is present. Jesus said that wherever two or more are gathered together in His name, He’s in our midst. (Matthew 18:20). This is why we don’t have a pope, a bishop, or any singular figure who calls the shots by himself. Christ is present in every baptized believer. His Holy Spirit is upon us. Each of us can discern His will as He guides us. So we’re not alone. Sometimes the Holy Spirit moves in very powerful and spectacular ways (as it was on Pentecost in Acts 2:1-31). Sometimes He moves in smaller ways (as it was with Elijah in I Kings 19:11-13). Sometimes there’s a collective experience for a group of people, and sometimes there are individual experiences – but even there I always hearken back to the expression: “If God can speak to one, He can just as easily speak to two.” So it’s not about any single one of us making the decisions or driving the church forward. Rather, it’s about all of us praying and discerning His will together. And He’s promised us that He’s not going to abandon us along the way.
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Andrew McHenryI am a husband, a Congregational pastor, and a native Kansan currently living in Thermalito, California. In the past I have also been a prison chaplain and a youth pastor. Interests include reading, railroads, prog rock, KU, and the KC Royals. Archives
March 2024
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