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neighborhood church council wanted to use the kitchen to prepare a community meal once a week for those who were living on the streets; but the leaders rejected the idea because they did not want outsiders using the facility. The local shelter wanted to use the third floor of the church to house families; but the leaders said no because people in the congregation were concerned about germs in the restrooms. A group proposed the congregation host a day center for senior adults; but stairs up and down at every level made that impossible. Some people in the church suggested they hold a lunchtime Bible study in the parlor for students from the community college right across the street; but there was a rule against food in the parlor so the idea was squelched.

      “Finally, we were literally blasted out of the church,” one leader told me. “It was like the Spirit knew we were never going to get anywhere as long as we were in that building. When an earthquake shattered windows and damaged bricks, the building was so structurally unsound, we couldn’t do anything but find a new place to worship.” The church moved up the street where it began sharing worship space with another congregation. Later, the two churches became one merged church. Now, that new congregation engages in many neighborhood ministries.

      The Age of the Spirit

      Theologian Harvey Cox suggests that we in the 21st Century are living at the dawn of a multi-religious, global awakening he calls the “Age of the Spirit.” It is a time when individuals across the world experience a new sense of mystery, wonder, and awe that comes from connecting with the power and the presence of the Spirit, relying on that Spirit for guidance and wisdom, and sharing in its creative work.

      Yet many historic Protestant congregations tend to be skeptical of anything to do with the Spirit. Some shy away from the term “spirituality” because they associate it with the Pentecostal congregation down the street. They do not want to raise their hands or speak in tongues or dance in the aisles of the church. Some confuse spirituality with the metaphysical philosophy called “spiritualism” made popular by Edgar Cayce. They do not want to get mixed up in trying to contact the dead through séances. Some view spirituality as a fallacy based in superstition. They are used to relying on rationality as their primary way of knowing and associate spirituality with the New Age snake-oil they see in the self-help section of the book store.

      Transforming congregations, on the other hand, overcome their distrust of spirituality and unearth a rich and long tradition of Christian teaching related to the Spirit. They develop an understanding of Spirit by first recognizing that it reveals itself through symbols, signs, and metaphors. That means it is not usually perceived through rational logic but through intuitive knowing. To be spiritual is to see with the eyes of the heart, to experience the energizing power of God through whispers, hints, nudges, and insights. The language of spirituality is the language of dreams, stories, and visions—forms that are rather foreign to the Western bias towards objectivity, fact and proof. Yet transforming congregations develop a familiarity with that sort of metaphorical communication and learn to detect those convictional moments when their “hearts burned” in the presence of the sacred.

      Transforming congregations understand that the Sacred Spirit resides within each person, that every human being is created in the image of God,36 blessed by God, and called to live in harmony with the created order. Recognizing that humans often get lost along the way and do not cultivate that divine seed that is their birthright, transforming congregations hold individuals accountable for life-long learning and growth. They teach people how to ground themselves in the sacred presence of God through prayer, to resist evil through acts of justice, and to allow God’s power to work through their lives just as it worked through the life of Jesus of Nazareth.37

      The Spiritual Habit of Waking Up

      Transforming congregations seeking to live in the Spirit claim far more is going in any moment than can be apprehended by the human senses. They recognize the Spirit is at work in the world, freeing the enslaved, energizing the disconsolate, making bold the timid, and bringing peace to the anxious. Yet that Spirit cannot be seen, tasted, touched, smelled, or heard. It can only be known by noticing the results of its work and sometimes those results can only be recognized in hindsight.

      That’s why for centuries Christians have prayed the “Prayer of Examen.”38 They start by “examining” a day, a week, a month, or a year, allowing the events of that time period to play like a movie in the mind. Then, they seek to see the underlying work of the Spirit in and through those events. They notice where the Spirit seemed to be particularly present in their inner thoughts and experiences, in relationship, in systems and structures of the world, or in the environment of God’s creation.39 (See Appendix C for a hand-out on the Prayer of Examen.)

      Next, they seek to discern what the Spirit might be offering by way of wisdom or guidance through those past events. Did images show up more than once? Where were there surprising coincidences that resulted in good? When did a door open or a helping hand show up? Viewing a past event as a sort of waking dream helps the church understand the language of the Spirit which often communicates in metaphor, symbol, or sign. It allows congregations to notice the presence of God and to follow the Spirit’s energy that opens the way forward.

      My friend Doug noticed how the Spirit had been at work, guiding him during an activity as mundane as exchanging a pair of pants at the store. The pants had been sitting around his house for several days but on this particular day, he picked them up and decided to take care of the errand. While he was at the store, he ran into a friend he hadn’t seen for several weeks. The friend was in need of support and counsel and the two of them found a place where they could have coffee and conversation. When Doug returned home his wife asked if his trip to the store had been successful. Doug replied, “Yes. But it was not about the pants.” He saw the events of the day not just as a series of coincidences, but as the Spirit’s guidance.

      When transforming congregations awaken to the presence of the Spirit, they begin to see underlying wholeness, vitality, and goodness present everywhere grounding their lives in the power of that presence. As they learn the language of the Spirit they begin to notice larger patterns, relationships and connections. Instead of seeing coincidence, they see God at work. They begin to trust unscheduled events as a form of spiritual guidance.

      Yet one does not need to look far to notice the mind’s power to deceive itself. Over the years, many have claimed to read the signs or to experience the leading of the Spirit. They have wrongly predicted the end of the world; they have led people into mass suicides, death, and destruction. How do we know something is truly of the Spirit and not just, as Ebenezer Scrooge says, “an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato?”40

      Christian spiritual teachers have long taught that discerning the presence and guidance of the Spirit does not happen in a vacuum. Waking up is only one part of a spiritual practice shaped by scripture, connected to God through prayer, and tested in the context of a spiritual community. Although the activity of the Spirit can be surprising, it will never go against the nature of God and will always lead toward consolation, goodness, and light. Although the guidance of the Spirit is often revealed by non-linear, non-rational thought, it will never go against the voice of reason—it will always make sense.

      Transforming congregations wake up to the presence of Spirit in their midst with a sense of humility, confessing that the holy mystery of the sacred can never be fully known, and admitting that human perceptions may be dead wrong. Yet they do not shy away from asking the question, “Where is the Spirit at work in our congregation, in our neighborhood, in the life of the world?” They pay attention to the times when something unexpected interrupts their best laid plans and give thanks for convictional moments when they happen. They notice larger patterns in the stories they keep hearing from both those who come through the church door and those who live in the neighborhood. They see connections between those stories and the scriptures they read in worship.

      In the power of the Spirit wind, transforming congregations often find themselves taking risks they never would have imagined themselves taking before. Some decide to leave their money-consuming building behind in order to meet in a more cost-saving facility or in public space so they have more resources for outreach. Some choose to start a new ministry to meet the needs of a changing neighborhood. Some dare to

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