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As a greenhorn itinerant student worker with InterVarsity in Washington, Idaho and Montana I had a lot to learn. What could I possibly do to help students on 21 campuses evangelize their peers? One day my regional director gave me some solid advice: “When you visit a campus, look for what the Holy Spirit is doing. See what you can attribute to the Spirit’s work and not just to human efforts.”

Of course, I knew that the Holy Spirit does not work in a vacuum. He uses human instruments. At the same time, however, I did learn to look for things that could not be accounted for simply on human terms. Where was the evidence that God was truly at work on this campus? Which students demonstrated spiritual authority and integrity? Where did we see students being transformed by Jesus? I had to look for things that went beyond the programs of a well-oiled campus religious machine.

We struggle between the extremes of Holy Spirit dependency and our human cleverness. We mock the preacher who says he doesn’t prepare because the Holy Spirit will tell him what to say when he gets into his pulpit. We also mock the preacher who delivers a lecture packed with academic excellence and homiletic flourishes, but devoid of Holy Spirit passion and insights. How we long for the right balance.

Our mission strategies also chart a narrow course between these extremes. One agency promises short-term teams that they can start a church in a week. Another emphasizes years of language learning and cultural adaptation before trying to start a church. Is one right and the other wrong? How can we tell which one is Holy Spirit directed?

Some critics suggest that we rely too much on sociology and public opinion polls. They say the old-fashioned gospel is the right medicine for all people everywhere, so why change our evangelistic approaches?

Too easily we fight over our methods and distinctives. In trying to set ourselves apart from the crowd—and produce better stories and results for our constituencies—we can easily fall into the trap of copying whatever tools seem to work, whatever their origin and usefulness in other fields. There’s no doubt that today’s missionaries are much better equipped and prepared than those of previous generations, thanks to advances in their education and training, as well as to enhanced technologies of many kinds. However, they risk overlooking the fact that the Holy Spirit’s power and fruit may be missing in their ministries.

The apostle Paul’s cautions perhaps are needed more today than ever before. He attributed his fruit not to mere words, but to the Spirit’s power. He saw his converts rejoicing in the Holy Spirit even as they suffered persecution.

We face great temptations to work the crowds, to produce quick results and to employ whatever gimmicks it takes to show we are successful. Generally, we have not worked as hard to check our results a year or two later. Are the signs of the Holy Spirit’s work still in evidence? Are we willing to allow the Spirit to fashion the church in his ways, which may or may not be like ours?

Can we trust the Holy Spirit to lead our partners into new ways of doing mission that do not copy ours?

We can easily become what the world calls control freaks. Our US business and technological domination creeps into our attitudes. We love to manage because we think we are better at this than people in other places. But suddenly the Holy Spirit sneaks up on us and does some things that do not fit our molds. How refreshing it is to take a world map and put pins in it that say, “Aha! There’s something happening in that place that we can take no credit for. Praise God! He works with us and in spite of us.”

January 25, 2002