WHAT I WISHED I'D PREACHED MORE OF WHEN I PASTORED

"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." (Acts 1:8)

As I begin this posting, I think it's important I do so with a quick disclaimer! For a long time following the closing of the church I pastored in Framingham, MA, I whined and whined about its closing, lamented it, and tried to do everything I could to be back preaching and pastoring in Framingham again. That is NOT what this is about, at all! God has done a work in my heart (well, in my spirit) and that is over. I have totally been released from that ministry and calling. I support what Pastor Dan Condon is doing with the "re-start" church called "Meeting Place Church". (If you want more info. about Meeting Place Church, just do a Google search for: Meeting Place Church, Framingham, MA and you should be able to find their website, Facebook page, and get all the information you need.)

That pastorate is in the past, but listen, when you're used to preaching from the pulpit on Sundays at least forty times a year and you go from that to not preaching at all (last time was as a guest speaker 14 months ago) it does cause you to do a lot of reflecting. I spent a wonderful day yesterday (Thursday, January 3, 2012) at our Assemblies of God District Office in Charlton, MA. (Well, it's actually now called the "Assemblies of God Ministry Network Office!"!) This was the District's annual Day of Prayer and Fasting for the ministers. I had not gone for a few years. In fact, I don't think I've gone since the church closed. I was truly blessed in that yesterday I had a full day off from my answering service job. There's not enough room to write about all of the worship, prayer, fellowship, and public exhortation from many of our pastors and leaders that took place. So much was so good. The District is divided into geographic Sections. Each Section is led by a seasoned pastor in that Section called a "Sectional Presbyter". The Sectional Presbyters took turns speaking, challenging us, and leading us in prayer.

All of the Sectional Presbyters had good things to say, but by far, the one who touched and moved me the most was Karen Rydwansky, pastor of Crossroads Church in Weymouth, MA. Yes, she's our only female Presbyter. It's ironic that I have several minister friends who are women, but I've had a hard time with the idea of a woman being a Presbyter- Yes, I've still struggled with all of that male headship stuff proclaimed by the Apostle Paul. (We'll leave the "women in the hierarchy" thing alone for another day!) Well, this Presbyter may be a female, but she's a female in the spirit of Deborah of old. I could sit under her ministry anytime! Karen Rydwansky shared emotionally about our need as pastors and churches for a genuine move of the Holy Spirit and that no program or gimmick or anything else can substitute for that. Listen, Karen Rydwansky spoke as a prophetic voice in the U.S. Assemblies of God yesterday- much as the late Central Bible College Professor Opal Reddin did on a number of occasions! She's absolutely right!

I did a lot of things right as a pastor and I did a lot of things wrong as a pastor. There is nothing I would more like to have a "do-over" on than the chance to preach regularly in a church again, and if I ever do, I will preach a lot of sermons on the Baptism in the Holy Spirit! I don't know why we in the Assemblies of God have seemingly become so afraid of preaching on the Baptism in he Holy Spirit and almost embarrassed about it, in some cases. I preached about the Baptism in the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday, and had altar calls for the Holy Spirit Baptism on Pentecost Sunday, and maybe...MAYBE I'd preach on it one or two other times a year. And that was it. Most of the time at our church we appeared to be (for all intents and purposes) a very good, solid, middle-of-the-road Baptist Church! Listen, I know: in the past, many Assemblies of God churches became too experience oriented. They were Biblically weak. The people were Biblically illiterate. We had the proverbial "people swinging from the chandeliers". So many pastors had disdain for that, and understandably so. I did. And, so many of us were so determined to be Biblically sound that somehow we forgot that preaching the old-fashioned Baptism in the Holy Ghost with the initial physical evidence of speaking in outer tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance is Biblically sound!

Preaching on the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and leading people into the Baptism in the Holy Spirit can be difficult. It can be stressful. Listen, back in 1976 on the night I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, there was all kinds of yelling going on around the altars...all that "hold on!" and "let go!" stuff. I finally had to mentally block all that out of my mind after forty-five minutes at the altar. That's the only way I got the Baptism in the Holy Spirit- when I blocked all the other stuff out. Yes, you can have people yelling "repeat after me" then babbling nonsense, and then expecting that if someone repeats it, they get the Baptism. Finally, you can have a lot of disappointed people asked why they prayed for the Baptism and nothing happened. As a pastor, you just don't want to have to handle all the phone calls from disappointed people who didn't get the Baptism, so it's easier to just not offer opportunities to pray for it!

Wrong!

In a Pentecostal Church there couldn't be any more incorrect thinking!

So, if I ever pastor again, there will be a major emphasis on the Holy Spirit Baptism in my ministry.

My Pentecostal brothers (and sisters) in ministry, I hope you'll take this to heart. And, far more, I hope you'll take the words of the Rev. Karen Rydwansky to heart!