Adrian Warnock is posting extracts from Terry Virgo's new book The Spirit Filled Church on his blog. You can read the full extracts there.Here's the Introduction.
The first extract.
The second extract.
Terry Virgo’s Introduction to The Spirit-Filled Church
Today I share the introduction to Terry Virgo’s outstanding book The Spirit-Filled Church. Please buy the book, and consider attending the next 300 Leaders conference where Terry will be teaching material from it. This really sets the tone for the book, which is like a personal manifesto from a master-builder to the global church. You will not have to agree with every word of this book to benefit from reading it.Introduction
I am sometimes asked if I am a conservative evangelical. My reply is that it depends what you mean by “conservative”. If by conservative you mean “cautious”, then I guess I am not, but if you mean that as an evangelical I want to conserve biblical Christianity, I most certainly am.
I have occasionally been asked to fill in a questionnaire in which I am required to state whether I am a charismatic or Reformed evangelical Christian. I don’t want to confuse people but, like the apostle Paul, I aim to be both! I believe in an awesome, sovereign God and see no reason to suppose that spiritual gifts as described in the New Testament have been withdrawn from the church.
It is my conviction that local churches hold the key to world evangelization. The early apostles, told to go and make disciples, instinctively went and planted churches where discipleship could take place in a community of love cared for by called and gifted elders. The promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit galvanized them into action. Soon they gained the reputation that they were turning the world upside down!
The gospel of the grace of God set people free and formed them into communities of believers shaped by apostolic doctrine and energized by God’s empowering presence. It is my conviction that the model of the early church still holds the key to 21st-century world evangelization.
The worldview of the average man or woman in the West has been radically transformed in the past century, making the modern mission field look very similar to the one which Paul and the early apostles encountered as they travelled among the nations. Christendom, with all its vague endorsement of Christian values, has gone. Secularism rules, sometimes urged on by aggressive atheism. The church has to rediscover its early zeal, power and gospel clarity. Local churches will need to be seen as relevant to this generation, providing genuine answers, not merely religious platitudes.
A fragmented society, characterized by individualism and loneliness, needs to discover churches in which groups of people have discovered genuine answers, know how to relate in love and trust, and have found God in terms that can be understood and embraced with joy.
Can God be known? Can He be experienced? Are there people on the planet who are genuinely experiencing Him? Few enquirers into Christianity anticipate that they will meet such people. They tend to regard us as merely religious types who have opted out from the real world and embraced a pre-set formula of rules and regulations. Most are unaware of churches filled with people who themselves were formerly unbelievers but who have encountered God, experienced the lavish outpouring of His Spirit and been built into loving communities.
May God help us to continue to make the gospel known to our generation and build relevant churches for His great glory. The following chapters highlight some experiences and biblical principles which have been impressed upon me over the last few decades and which have resulted in the planting of hundreds of churches in many nations.
Copyright. Used by permission of Monarch Books.
Guest post extract from Terry Virgo’s new book
Today I begin a serialization of Chapter 4 from The Spirit Filled Church. Pleas buy the book and consider joining Terry Virgo in person at 300 Leaders.Empowered by The Spirit And The Word
For me, being baptized with the Holy Spirit was like the knocking over of a first domino in a line of dominoes which are still falling. The implications for my church life were radical.
At the time of the early outbreak of charismatic life there were two schools of thought. One was that this was a private and personal experience which need not interfere in any way with your normal experience of church-going. The other was a realization that something fresh and new was happening that demanded a new wineskin to cope with the new wine.
Jesus warned about the dangers of pouring new wine into an old wineskin and said that no one used new cloth to sew up an old garment. The presence of the Holy Spirit was fresh, exciting and attractive. Jesus was so much more manifestly present amongst us. Surely we were not meant to interpret this experience in purely private ways. The Scripture says that the manifestation of the Spirit is for the common good (1 Corinthians 10:8). Evidently, if others were to benefit, there had to be a sharing of the gifts in a public context, not exclusively in private.
The gathered church is meant to be a place where the presence of the Holy Spirit is evident; you can’t miss Him if He is manifest! We are expected to be a Spirit-filled community, “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody” to the Lord with all our heart (Ephesians 5:19). As Gordon Fee argues, “Perhaps most noteworthy from the available evidence is the free, spontaneous nature of worship in Paul’s churches, apparently orchestrated by the Spirit himself. Worship is expressed in a variety of ways and with the (potential) participation of everyone (1 Corinthians 14:26)” (Gordon Fee, Paul, the Spirit and the People of God, Hodder & Stoughton, 1997).
Things must change
Structures had to change. Space had to be made for God to freely work amongst us. Gradually it became clear that the widespread growth of charismatic life was resulting in fresh expressions of church. People who had no previous experience of this kind of church began to gather in homes and informal contexts to worship and celebrate the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Those “heady” days seem long ago now. Many of the house churches which I helped to get started have grown to a substantial size. Several that began with one or two dozen people are now in their several hundreds, and what for many began as “the house church movement” seems to be rapidly becoming the “warehouse church movement” as worshippers crowd into premises formerly used for industrial purposes but now packed with enthusiastic worshippers of God.
Lessons learned in the informality of private homes had to be translated into a new setting. Relaxed intimacy could continue but the developing of relationships had to be pursued in multiplied small groups.
Worship inevitably became affected by the new setting and the growing numbers. Musical instruments, PA, platforms and overheads all had to be brought into use. Nevertheless, the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit is non-negotiable. Paul defines the true people of God as those who “worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3).
Paul describes church life as awash with the Holy Spirit. In Corinth he urged that things should be done decently and in order so that, for instance, there should only be two or three prophesying, and two or three speaking in tongues and being interpreted. The New Testament church was profoundly aware of the presence of God. Even outsiders would be undone and uncovered, “declaring that God is certainly among you” (1 Corinthians 14:25).
Sadly, this had not been my previous experience as a member of a good evangelical church which was greatly enriched by the outstanding preaching ministry of its pastor. I had often been arrested, convicted, comforted and inspired by his superb preaching gift, but during the hymn-singing that preceded his teaching one never encountered the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
Clear biblical factors rooted in the presence of the Holy Spirit were missing in our church life. There was need for restoration in the church, not merely personal renewal or even revival but structural restoration. Foundational issues had to be addressed. Things had to change!
Copyright. Used by permission of Monarch Books.
Guest Post from Terry Virgo’s The Spirit Filled Church
Following years in Bible College, I found myself invited to become the pastor of a Free Evangelical Church, and as I set my course for major change I was drawn to such scriptures as Ezra and Nehemiah and the prophets who endorsed, encouraged and exhorted those men and their companions.Restoring Zion
I notice that Israel, which had formerly celebrated the presence of God not only on their wilderness journey, but also particularly in the Jerusalem Temple, had been finally exiled through their disobedience. Ezra and Nehemiah represented restoration figures. They wanted to see the city of God rebuilt and the house of God restored. They were prepared to make the long and costly journey to re-establish Zion.
Nehemiah was heartbroken when he heard that Jerusalem’s walls were down and its gates burned. Anybody could walk in and out. All distinctiveness was gone. It was open country. The glory of Zion, as described in David’s psalms, was lost. Nehemiah burned with passion to rebuild the city. He and Ezra longed to see the Temple freshly established. Urged on by Haggai and Zechariah, they went about their task with the promise from God that the glory of this latter house would far surpass the glory of the former.
Such scriptures profoundly affected me. I wanted to see not simply a personal enjoyment of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I wanted to see a glorious church. I wanted to see the city of God reborn.
Of course, Nehemiah and Ezra and their fellow countrymen were not simply facing the problem of architecture and a physical building programme. The nation had been in exile in Babylon, away from God’s presence. God had finally judged them, as the prophets had repeatedly warned them that He would.
Exile was the ultimate judgment. Just as Adam and Eve were banished from Eden, so Israel was ejected from the Promised Land of blessing and God’s presence. Psalm 137 tells us that by the waters of Babylon they sat down and wept when they remembered Zion. Their captors mocked them, inviting them to entertain them with some of Zion’s favourite songs. But they mourned, “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137:1–4).
As we began to welcome the presence of the Holy Spirit, and one by one a congregation of believers became filled with the Holy Spirit, our church life was transformed. Our worship became full of God’s presence and virtually unrecognizable compared with what we had previously experienced. The presence of the Holy Spirit changed everything, not only in the life of each individual but in our corporate experience. As we more and more felt the presence of God, we began to understand that we were fully accepted sons by grace.
Later, a rediscovery of the doctrines of grace underlined our acceptance and set us completely free. We could wholeheartedly identify with Psalm 126:1: “When the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with joyful shouting.” Yes, we found that we could laugh and shout in the house of God. We were coming out of a kind of exile back into the presence of God, and discovering that for freedom Christ had set us free in His wonderful presence.
The gospel in Word and power
Paul described his apostolic ministry as bringing about “the obedience of the Gentiles” (Romans 15:18). Nations locked in disobedience would be confronted with his call to return to God and to be “obedient from the heart to that form of teaching” which he brought (Romans 6:17). Paul was incredibly effective in his task. He impacted great cities steeped in pagan cultures and established strong, outgoing churches. For example, the Thessalonians turned “from idols to serve a living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9) as a result of his ministry. How did he enjoy such incredible success? When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he commended them for their faith and reminded them that his gospel had come to them not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 1:5).
To bring about the obedience of faith among modern heathen cultures, we need the same crucial ingredients in our message. Paul’s method was not only “words”. Words alone can be totally ineffective. As Eliza Doolittle cried out in total frustration, “Words, words, words. I’m so sick of words… Show me!” Modern people might well have the same problem with a gospel that is “word only”. And yet I must point out that words are crucial. How can obedient faith be established without a message being heard? In days of increased spiritual experience and manifestations of power, we must not turn our backs on the role of biblical doctrine.
The gospel comes in word. It is good news that has to be understood. You don’t just catch Christianity like catching influenza; nor do you simply attend exciting meetings, hoping simply to get caught up in the euphoria. Philip’s first question to the Ethiopian was not, “Do you feel it?” but, “Do you understand?” Jesus said that the unfruitful pathway in his parable represented those who did not understand the word. The Thessalonians, in contrast, received the word “not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). They understood it, believed it, respected it and found that it “performs its work in you who believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
So fundamental was the spread of the word in the New Testament church, that Luke described the growth of the church in these terms: “The word of God kept on spreading” (Acts 6:7); “The word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied” (Acts 12:24); “So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing” (Acts 19:20) (all italics mine). Luke could have said that the churches multiplied, or the number of disciples grew, but on these occasions he spoke about the ever-increasing impact of the word of God. The whole world has been lied to and it is the church’s responsibility to bring the truth to it.
The apostles regarded preaching as crucial. They filled Jerusalem with their doctrine. When forbidden to speak any more, they pleaded for boldness to open their mouths. When blessed with numerical success and the growing practical problems associated with that success, they insisted that others looked after practical matters. They were determined to give themselves to the word of God. Even after His resurrection, fully equipped with a body that could appear and disappear at will, Jesus did not overwhelm His disciples with supernatural tricks, but, opening the Scriptures, “explained to them the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). This was consistent with His earlier ministry, during which “He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things” (Mark 6:34).
Copyright. Used by permission of Monarch Books.
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