Remember the Holy Spirit

By now in your school year you’ve done lots of ministry. You’ve probably had 15-20 weekly meetings, led at least that many small group lessons, and been on dozens of discipleship appointments. In addition, you’ve probably been to at least 2 major conferences with Cru. In all that activity, sometimes I wonder if we tend to leave out something that’s been a hallmark of Cru since the beginning. In all those activities, what percentage involved teaching on the person and work of the Holy Spirit?

Perhaps as you look at your teaching, training and discipleship over the past semester, you realize that the ministry of the Spirit hasn’t been a hallmark of your movement. Perhaps you’ve forgotten Him. So, what can you do to really make Him central to your ministry? Here are a couple ideas:

1.  Talk about Him a lot.  Dan Hayes (author of  “Fireseeds of Spiritual Awakening” ) used to say that he could tell things were going well on a campus when staff and student leaders were talking about the Holy Spirit. It sounds simple, but do you talk about Him and His work in your life with your disciples? Does He often come up in conversation?

2.  It takes more than one weekly meeting talk for people to get it.  True confessions: I don’t think I understood the ministry of the Spirit until my second year on staff. Now, granted I am a little thick-headed, but I don’t think that one Cru meeting where we talk about His work in our lives will cut it. And, simply adding a small group lesson won’t do it either. I am convinced that we need to teach on the Spirit multiple times and in multiple ways for people to really get it. That’s why, a couple years ago on our summer project, we decided to take the first 6 weeks and emphasize the Holy Spirit. So, I created a 5 part talk series on Him and His role. In addition we use the Thirsty devotional ( available right here on CPG ) in our small groups each week. We also train our staff and students how to use the Satisfied Booklet and ask each disciple to have a conversation using Satisfied in one of their discipleship times. I think it takes at least that many touch points for it to sink in.

3.  Become an expert in using the Satisfied booklet.  Satisfied was designed to help make conversations about the Spirit Filled life easy and frequent. In fact, I would tell my staff team that in the first few weeks of campus they ought to be sharing the Knowing God Personally booklet like crazy (we usually had a goal of 50 conversations in the first 6 weeks). Then, once you have surfaced a few students who want to grow, I would tell them they need to be sharing the Satisfied booklet like crazy. But I knew they wouldn’t unless they were very comfortable using it. Have you trained your staff and students to use Satisfied? Have you sat down with each of your disciples and gone over it with them? Have you observed them using it with the people they work with? My guess is that it will take using it 25-30 times before you really feel like an expert. If you’d like to see my presentation of the Satisfied booklet, it’s available  here .

There are lots of things you can emphasize in your movement-evangelism, men’s issues, social justice, community-but those are all secondary to an emphasis on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. I’d love to hear your comments on this. Specifically, what do you think keeps us from making the ministry of the Spirit more of an emphasis? And, what ideas do you have for making Him more of an issue?