HOME A Spirit Built Church Is . . .
A Spirit Built Church Is…
By Pastor Tim Snell
An Introduction to Spirit Built Ministry
Over the last several years, God has been transforming our approach to ministry into what Jack Hayford has termed a “Spirit formed” ministry.[1] This term is both very appropriate and speaks to a Biblically rooted dynamic we find throughout the scriptures. Here at Christ’s Church of the Valley, we use a similar term, “Spirit built” ministry, to describe our approach to ministry. Spirit built ministry is a philosophy of ministry we believe to be profoundly Biblical and a vital component of authentic spiritual renewal in the body of Christ.
What is Spirit formed, or Spirit built, ministry?
To begin with, it is probably helpful to clarify what Spirit built ministry is not.
When we speak of Spirit built ministry, we are NOT speaking of another mechanical model for church growth. This is important to understand. While Spirit built ministry inevitably leads to the growth of God’s Kingdom because that is God’s heart and His promise, the idea of a ministry literally being fashioned and built by God’s Spirit is something wholly other than what is generally referenced by the modern church growth movement. As such, Spirit built ministry should not be equated with (nor seen as inherently in contradiction with) any of the popular ministry philosophies currently being discussed in the marketplace today - be they seeker driven, purpose driven, emergent, or something else. Spirit built ministry speaks to something much deeper than simply church growth principles or the organizational methodology a church might employ in ministry.
Neither is the Spirit built philosophy to be understood as a better man-oriented, human-dynamics centered approach to ministry than what is currently available. While Spirit built ministry certainly realizes the important role of humanity in God’s kingdom here on the earth, Spirit built ministry speaks to an entirely different foundation for ministry other than what transpires merely through human effort.
So what is Spirit built ministry?
At it’s core, Spirit built ministry speaks to a ministry being shaped by and formed by God Himself. This is the basic idea. It is Spirit built in the sense that ministry is happening as an overflow of what God is doing, and it is Spirit built in the sense that the very shape, texture, and formation of all ministry happenings are an overflow of God’s unique plan and design for that particular church. They aren’t merely predetermined by some external philosophy or model.
Paul painted a picture of the concept of the church being Spirit built with these words in Ephesians 3:21-22:
In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.
To be Spirit built then, speaks to a dynamic, where what transpires in terms of authentic spiritual growth, numerical growth, and even the programming choices of a church, are born out of God’s unique heart and call for that particular body. As such, the Spirit built ministry paradigm is best seen as a living, breathing Spirit-empowered movement of God lived out through a local body as HE determines. This is why we say that a ministry which is built and constructed by God’s Spirit is something different from mechanical models of church growth or man-oriented, human-dynamic centered approaches to ministry. It is the reconnection of the church to the spiritual overflow of the authority and power of God Himself.
I think most of us today long for the spiritual vitality we find in the pages of the New Testament. There we find a church which was growing unbelievably, authentic discipleship was taking root in the hearts of God’s people, an amazing sense of spiritual urgency permeated everyone who called Christ their Lord. Reading Acts, one is left with the feeling of having read the greatest epic ever written. God himself was turning the world upside down! Who wouldn’t have wanted to see it firsthand!?
Yes, all of us want that again today - freshly. Unfortunately, we have often settled for something less. We have settled for human-dynamics models which grow institutions but don’t effect true spiritual change in the hearts of people. We have settled for theological intellectualism rather than the transforming power of God which redeems lives and sets the captive free. We’ve settled for what programmatic offerings can produce in people’s lives, rather than the resurrection power of Christ that turns the entire world upside down.
If you’re tired of the spiritual impotence resulting from such short-sighted efforts, join the club! It is time for a change, a return to the power and dynamic of true New Testament Christianity!
In the scriptures we find the key. It was HE who was the impetus behind the church’s vitality. It was God himself, in the Holy Spirit, who was empowering the church forward in ways that were changing the world! Not simply the latest programs or the newest principles. It was not simply better human strategy or more effort. It was the great I AM Himself. The truth is that when the church was empowered, molded and formed by the Spirit of God – there was a vitality and life there.
Think about it. It was as God showed up in Acts 2 that the believers became empowered for ministry and powerful Kingdom growth happened. It was as God’s Spirit worked miraculously on a lame man in Acts 3 that the name of Jesus was glorified. It was as God showed up in Acts 5, dealing with the deception of Ananias and Sapphira, that the church grew in the fear of the Lord. It as the Spirit of the Lord moved powerfully through Philip, that the gospel took root in Samaria. The story is continued in chapter after chapter throughout the book of Acts.
Yes, God’s people had to cooperate with Him. But the genesis of the church’s spiritual life and dynamic vitality wasn’t in the people themselves, or in their programs or organizational principles. It was in GOD. THAT is the spiritual dynamic of life we need to recover. This is what Spirit built ministry is all about. It isn’t that we need to get rid of all of our programs or church growth principles. They aren’t all bad. It is just that they aren’t foundational. We need to recover something deeper than them, something out of which everything else in ministry flows. We need to reconnect with the power of God’s Spirit flowing through us and shaping our ministry so that our ministry is truly an extension of Christ himself.
An Overview of the Spirit Built Church
Rooted in scripture, the Spirit built church is a church shaped by, led by, and animated by the Holy Spirit in life-giving and unique ways as God Himself unfolds His life into local, regional and global situations according to His unique design and plan.
Below are some simple statements and descriptions which are intended to give an introductory look into the framework and workings of the Spirit built church.
The Spirit built church is a church that recognizes Jesus as her head (Her owner, director, and the source of her life).
It is true that every evangelical church would hold to the above statement in a theological sense. But in the Spirit built church, this takes on practical reality. Seeing that Jesus is the head of His church (Colossians 1:18), the Spirit built church looks first to Jesus, before anything else, to be the source of vitality and life for the church and makes place for Him to do whatever He wants to do. This speaks to the priority of allowing God to lead through prayer, through empowering the body through spiritual gifts as He determines (1 Corinthians 12) and to an embracing of the different callings and anointings that God may give to various people in the body. (Ephesians 4:11) This speaks to a responsiveness within the body to the leading of the Holy Spirit at every level. This speaks to a fidelity to the Word of God. This speaks to a much more Biblical paradigm of human leadership. Suddenly leadership isn’t measured in terms of the vision or the potential of the pastor, or to some linear goal-oriented approach (“Let’s get to the promised land now!”) so much as it is in the pastor’s readiness and willingness to call people to whatever it is that GOD himself is calling the people to step into (whether that means leading them into the desert for the next 40 years, or going and marching around Jericho seven times). Suddenly the pathway forward isn’t determined solely by human strategy, but by a listening ear for what the voice of God would say freshly.
The Spirit built church takes serious the notion that we, as the people of God are here to be His servants – to be used in His plan as He wills for our specific time and place. Since He designed the church, died for it, and desires her to be vitally alive, the Spirit built church begins by asking Jesus what HE wants to do within and through the body. The church isn’t about what the pastor wants to do. It isn’t about the pastor dreaming a big dream and getting the church behind it. It is about getting the body of Christ in front of her Lord again, and finding out what JESUS wants to do freshly.
As such, the Spirit built church is first of all seeking Jesus. She is on her face before Jesus. She is asking Jesus to be the source of life. She places herself in a position of absolute dependence upon Him. She is asking for the spiritual vitality of His life to flow through her as HE would choose today, always in harmony with the Word, but freshly for the situation at hand. This is the foundational concept behind all Spirit built ministry.
The Spirit built church is a church bathed in, and engaged deeply in, prayer.
It almost goes without saying that if the church understands that her life and vitality are the overflow of God’s direction and activity rather than merely an overflow of human ingenuity and ability, then prayer becomes a center point for the life and ministry of the church. Literally, the Spirit built church will be characterized by a deep culture of prayer throughout the body. Rather than looking first to some program or principle to produce vitality in the church, the church looks directly to the source, God himself. As such, the Spirit built church will be a church characterized by prayer, fasting, and a whole-hearted seeking after God.
Again, a brief look at the New Testament will show that the early church viewed prayer as “key” to her vitality. Leadership put other things to the side in order to prioritize prayer. (Acts 6:4) Evangelism, discipleship, the growth of the body, and even the circumstances affecting individual members were seen in direct relationship to prayer. (Acts 4:23-31, 12:1-18, 13:2ff; Ephesians 1:15-23, 3:14-21) It wasn’t just a matter of instituting the latest strategy or program. Rather they got on their face before the Lord and asked Him to show Himself powerful. The result? Explosive evangelism, deepening discipleship, a church walking in the holy fear of God, and a world being turned upside down for Christ. The result was a church throbbing with spiritual life!
The Spirit built church takes Isaiah’s prophetic call to the church seriously: You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth. Isaiah 62:6-7
The Spirit built church is a church centered on authentic worship.
The manifest presence of God among His people is an important concept in the Spirit built church. (Ephesians 2:22) As such, worship takes on a special priority within the ministry seeking to be formed by God’s Spirit as it creates a context in which God’s people are bowed before His ultimate sovereignty and supremacy, with the intent of Him receiving all glory as He does His work in and through them. They are literally inviting the presence of God to dwell among them to accomplish His purpose and will.
Hayford puts it this way in his book Glory On Your House: “There is, then, a fountainhead concept that opens the floodgates of God’s glory into human circumstances; prayerful, praiseful, worshipful openness to His rule and His way.”[2]
This certainly speaks to the priority of worship as it is expressed through the “praises of our lips” when the body comes together corporately. The worship of God becomes a deep and intentional engagement with Christ in the Spirit built church, for she recognizes that her life flows out of His presence among them. This same worship then, extends into the lives of God’s people as they are lived worshipfully 24/7, bowed down before the glory and holiness of God. (Romans 12:1)
The Spirit built church rightly places Christ at the center of all attention, love, devotion and worship. She believes her life flows from being tapped into the Vine (John 15:1-8), from being pressed in close to Him. While human strategy and program are still utilized within the body, they become the overflow of the greater dynamic of “God among us,” (John 1:14) not the dynamic itself. In the Spirit built church, rather than serving programs or merely growing the church in some institutional sense, God’s people are making room for God to come and move among them, to manifest his glory so that the world will believe. They see God’s presence as the fountainhead of being spiritually dynamic in our fallen world.
The Spirit built church is a church rooted in and grounded in God’s Word.
Because the Spirit built church believes that her vitality and life are an overflow of God’s presence and His truth, one will find that the Word of God, given through inspiration, is given great weight and priority in such a body. The Word of God, as it is pressed into individual hearts, as well as into the corporate life of the body, is literally God’s breath being imparted to produce life. (2 Timothy 3:16, Genesis 2:7) It forms a foundation for all that God would do. Any church that is truly formed by God’s Spirit sees the Word of God in such a light.
While believing it is vital for the Spirit to blow freshly in all lives and ministries today, the Spirit built church realizes that this need not – and must not - unmoor us from the truth of God’s Word. Instead, all things of the Spirit (and all things of life and ministry) must be grounded in the Word of God, practiced in accordance with the Word of God, and discerned by the same. Being Spirit built is not a call to abandon a solid grounding in God’s Word for the shifting sands of emotionalism. Nor is it a running after the fanaticism, disorderliness, and foolishness many have claimed in the name of the Holy Spirit. Instead, the Spirit built church will be a church that continues to be rooted in the timeless truth of God’s Word and the historical Christian faith. The Word and the present-day work of God’s Spirit will always flow in harmony, as they are both from the pneuma (the Spirit or Breath) of God (2 Timothy 3:16, 1 Corinthians 12:7). The Spirit is complementary to the Word, not contradictory to it nor usurping it. God’s Spirit will not cause us to stray from God’s written Word, nor will it lead us into something flighty. Rather, He will reinforce the Word of God and call us to live under its truth and authority, staying solidly grounded.
The Spirit built church embraces the full work of the Spirit.
While recognizing the importance of the Word of God, the Spirit built church is also a body that acknowledges the importance of the present day ministry of the Holy Spirit. Recognizing that it is Jesus who pours out the Spirit, the Spirit built church recognizes all of the Spirit’s work is ultimately God’s activity and His idea. In fact, the Spirit is HIM. Because of this, the Spirit built church embraces all God would do through His Spirit. This is not a call for embracing the bizarre or the unrestrained hoopla that misses the Biblical mark. Certainly the Spirit built church would insist on Biblically based order in all aspects of her body life. But within the framework of the Scriptures, the Spirit built church desires to see the Son of God release all of the life of the Holy Spirit into His people, believing that such a flow of the Holy Spirit is vital to the life of the church and our call to be disciples. In such a context, the gifts are not seen as simply a side-show, or simply there to entertain, but are seen rather as vital God-ordained vehicles to accomplish His divine purpose in and through the body, both individually and corporately.
As such, the Spirit built church will be a church that welcomes God’s life among them as it is manifested through all of the various grace gifts. Since Christ is the head of the body, the Spirit built church considers it vital that He should be given room to order the body according to His divine design through the charisms (1 Corinthians 12) so that the life He would release through them be brought forth. (1 Peter 4:10) It is as the Holy Spirit is given room to operate as GOD determines, that the church will once again be animated and empowered by the Spirit as she was in the New Testament, resulting in an unmistakable dynamic of spiritual vitality and growth.
Just as we find that the New Testament church’s life flowed from the presence of the Holy Spirit among them, blowing freshly – so it is today. Just as it was the Holy Spirit who directed the ministry of the church (Acts 31:2); just as it was the Holy Spirit who brought multitudes to faith in Christ (Acts 2:1-41); just as it was the Holy Spirit who arranged divine encounters (Acts 8:26-40; Acts 10); just as it was the Holy Spirit who provided spiritual victory over the flesh (Galatians 5:16) and generated a Holy fear of God (Acts 5:1-11); just as it was the Holy Spirit who confirmed the message of the gospel with power (1 Thessalonians 1:5); and just as it was the Holy Spirit who was the fountainhead of empowerment for ministry in the New Testament believers (1 Corinthians 12:7-11)… In the same way the church today, when desiring to be authentically Spirit built, understands that the vitality and dynamic of her ministry must rest on the activity and life of the Spirit as He is allowed to flow freshly through us today.
The Spirit built church opens her heart and cries, “Come Holy Spirit, come!”
The Spirit built church is a church which nurtures and uses the gifts of the Spirit within Biblical guidelines and principles.
As was stated above, one of the hallmarks of the church empowered and led by God’s Spirit is that there is a deep desire for the Spirit to move in their midst freely according to God’s will. The rich and full expression of all God would choose to do through His Spirit in the area of the grace gifts is understood to be vitally important. Yet, such a realization does not lead the truly Spirit built church down the path of disorderliness, abuse, or just plain silliness.
Because of the conviction that the grace gifts are to be vehicles of God’s life to His people, the Spirit built church not only nurtures and uses the gifts in the natural course of her life and ministry, she also insists that all such gifts be used in an orderly way and in love. Such common abuses of the gifts as seen in Corinth (and often today in many charismatic circles) are addressed in a loving and Biblical way so that the body has a sense of solidity and foundation even as God’s Spirit breathes in her. The embrace of God’s Spirit never should have to mean an embrace of the flighty or the abusive. Nor should we tolerate either that which is pompous or childish. Such things are not born of God, nor are they embraced in a church that truly seeks to be fashioned and formed by God’s Spirit in accordance with God’s Word. The practice of the charisms are eagerly desired (1 Corinthians 14:1), but Biblical order and discernment is insisted upon in all cases.
The Spirit built church is a church that values the body.
To speak of the value of the spiritual gifts in the Spirit built church is also to begin to speak to the priority of the body life of the church. Paul said that we are all one body, but we are also each a unique part of that one body. (1 Corinthians 12) Because of this, the Spirit built church, while embracing all of the gifts, also embraces each gift, and each person with their unique gifts, as uniquely important. The Spirit built church is not just about “tongues” or “prophecy,” but – while valuing those gifts – also values those with the gift of hospitality, administration, helps, and so forth, believing they too are just as vitally important. The Spirit built church believes that since GOD is arranging the body as HE sees fit, it is as ALL the gifts God bestows within a body are given their proper place that the body will be Jesus’ hands and feet most effectively.
In this same spirit then, the Spirit built church need not demand some gift-based litmus test for “having God’s Spirit.” While over the years many who have embraced the movement of God’s Spirit through the gifts have believed that all who are filled with God’s Spirit must manifest the gift of spiritual language, this need not be the case. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12:30 “Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?” In the Spirit built church it is the diversity of gifts given according to God’s choosing that is significant.
Tied to the understanding that all the various gifts are significant is the understanding that each child of God is significant to the body as well. Because of this, a Spirit built church is a church that is committed to a vibrant body life: to loving each other, to providing regular opportunities for fellowship, and to ministering to the needs of the body so that the entire body is built up according to God’s design. The Spirit built church is a church that values each part of the body of Christ.
The Spirit built church is a church which hungers for Biblically authentic victory to be seen in the lives of people.
The value of the Spirit’s ministry through the grace gifts, and ultimately the desire for all aspects of Spirit formation, springs out of a deep awareness of our brokenness as people because of sin, and out of an understanding of the victory Jesus won on the cross which “disarmed the powers and authorities.” (Colossians 1:15). If you are tired of seeing people walk in bondage… If you are tired of watching people walk in spiritual impotence… If you believe Jesus came and died to “bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners…” (Isaiah 61:1) If you believe you read in scripture about a level of life and spiritual vitality which you long to see God’s people walk in…but often find they do not… . …Then you are hungry at a Biblical level for a greater work of God’s Spirit. Your heart is ripe for Spirit formation. It is such a “holy discontent and yearning” which will allow you to be done with human-dynamic centered concepts of ministry (which may grow institutions, but will leave hearts empty and the people walking in a sub-Biblical level of victory) and embrace the call of God to allow Him to come and impart the life that can only come from Him through His Spirit.
The Spirit built church is a church which engages in spiritual warfare.
The Spirit built church takes seriously Paul’s contention that the reality of our situation is not primarily about the stuff of earth, but instead is a battle “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12) It is precisely in the understanding that what transpires spiritually here on the earth is far more determined by the spiritual realities rather than simply the physical realities, that the Spirit built church desires to engage spiritually to facilitate redemptive change in the lives of men and women. We understand there is no other way. This is why such things as prayer, worship, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit take on such an importance in the Spirit built church.
As such, the Spirit built church will be a church that will find itself engaged in the very kind of spiritual battle we see playing out on the pages of the New Testament. At every turn the enemy will seek to oppose her because He knows that a spiritually empowered church puts his Kingdom at risk. While the enemy may sit idly by while a church engages in endless attempts at human-based efforts to “grow the church,” once the church engages spiritually and invites God to come and show Himself powerful, he takes the gloves off. He knows that what endless programs might never get done, can be accomplished by the power of God through the Holy Spirit.
It is not uncommon, because of this, for the Spirit built church to regularly engage in confrontations with the enemy which will require deep intercession, confrontation with demonic powers, and the need for the power of God to break forth in tangible ways to provide restoration and deliverance. She engages in these things, always understanding that the present work of ministry is ultimately the extension and application of the ultimate spiritual victory won on Calvary.
The Spirit built church is a church that is mission focused.
Jesus said in John 16:7-8:
It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.
The ultimate goal of all Spirit formation is so that people come to know Jesus Christ as Lord. Because of this, the Spirit built church is a church with a passion for the lost, and is committed to reaching the lost. The unique way this plays out in the Spirit built church though, is that reaching the lost is not reduced to some linear function achieved merely through strategy, human effort, or sharp programming. Rather, in the Spirit built church, while strategy and programming and human effort are all employed, they are employed only in the context of intense prayer, discernment, and the hearing of God’s voice. The Spirit built church recognizes that the work of evangelism is first of all God’s work. It is the Spirit who draws men to Christ. (John 6:44) And so while various programming may be employed, what is MOST IMPORTANT is that there be a free flow of God’s Spirit.
Again, a brief survey of the New Testament church shows that evangelism was primarily an overflow and outgrowth of the Spirit’s presence and ministry – not programmatic ministry. It was as the Spirit touched those in the upper room in Acts 2 that thousands gathered and put their faith in Christ. It is as the Holy Spirit instructed Saul and Barnabas to be set apart for a missionary trip in Acts 13, that the greatest church planting adventure ever undertaken was launched. It was as the Holy Spirit worked through Philip in Acts 8 that the Samaritans believed. And it was as the Holy Spirit spoke to both Peter and Cornelius separately, that He arranged a divine encounter leading to faith in Christ.
In a similar way, the Spirit built church is committed to recapturing this dynamic of Spirit empowered and energized evangelism. It is committed to surrendering the church back to her rightful owner so that HE can accomplish in us and through us what HE desires in HIS way. This will always involve a mission oriented focus. It will also be done with and through the power of God.
“’Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” Zechariah 4:6
Concluding Thoughts
I believe the church is at a new dawn, a dawn in which the Lord desires to restore a beauty and balance to his church that results in an explosion of ministry. It is badly needed. A recent study showed that there has not been one county in the US, over the last ten years, that has had positive church growth - not one.[3] Despite our reliance on the best church growth principles, despite our investment of millions of dollars on “better” outreach, the end result is the church has wallowed in impotence. Yet the Lord is faithfully bringing His bride into a new season in which His original intention for His church functioning in the power and life of the Spirit, and in the truth and authority of God’s Word, will be restored.
This is but a sketch. I have offered only a brief overview of what it means to be a Spirit built church. Surely others will improve on what is written here, and deepen the perspective which has been offered. It is my heart that what is written here will be only a beginning, a place where those reading may have found their heart drawn to a deeper and fuller place out of which they may begin to approach ministry from a rich Biblical spiritual reality that results in a revitalization of the church as God once again breathes His life into her through the Spirit.
Given that Pastor Jack Hayford has been so influential in helping shape these concepts in my own heart, and in the hearts of so many others, I thought it was fitting to close with some words he wrote in his book Living the Spirit Formed Life.
“I believe this new era will be hastened in direct proportion to the Spirit-fullness manifested among those of us who seek full-dimensional spirituality –
where Jesus is exalted and is central to all,
where God’s Word is honored and authoritative to all,
where the Holy Spirit is welcomed and free to work in every way and
where spiritual dynamics and spiritual disciplines are joined by all.
What a time! What a goal!
Join me. Let’s go for all of it!”[4]
[1] We would be remiss if we didn’t credit Dr. Jack Hayford for his wonderful work in fleshing out the Spirit formed ministry paradigm. He has done this through his preaching, in numerous articles and conference tapes, as well as some of his books. An excellent resource in this area is one of his earlier books, Glory On Your House. While we at CCR have undoubtedly fleshed the idea of Spirit built ministry in our own unique ways, we want to be sure to express our debt of gratitude to Dr. Hayford for his work in this area which has shaped our hearts and minds so significantly.
[2] Hayford, Jack. Glory On Your House (Chosen Books, 1982, 1991), p. 39.
[3] Source: The North American Society of Church Growth.
[4] Hayford, Jack. Living the Spirit Formed Life (Regal books, 2001), p. 10.
