Some Good Advice

“Pastors need to revise their church role and return to their biblical job description -- as a trainer of the laity. Until this happens, we can pray endlessly for the latter rain, and it will not fall.  There must be action as well as prayer to restore the church to its biblical base, with laity and clergy working together as a team.

'The work of God in the earth can never be finished until the men and women comprising our church membership rally to the work and unite their efforts with those of ministers and church officers.'  -- Gospel Workers, pp. 351, 352.

Let’s explore both the need for receiving the Holy Spirit and the involvement of the laity in the work of the ministry.  We have somewhat neglected the involvement of the laity.  Yet we cannot ignore the connection between the two.  Before we examine a new understanding of the involvement of laity in the church, we first need to discover our great need of the Holy Spirit.  

Some may believe that the reception of the Holy Spirit will take place in a large meeting of the church.  These perhaps imagine a warm, glowing feeling possessing us, tears being shed and sins confessed, and the church leaving such a meeting with renewed power.

Without denying that the Holy Spirit could be poured out in such a manner, we must understand the purpose for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is not given to create warm feelings but to renew us with power for witnessing.  That is why it is hard to imagine the outpouring of the Holy Spirit without an enlightened and involved laity.”  --  Russell Burrill, Revolution in the Church, p. 13