Follow the Fire

Sometimes “Come, Holy Spirit” is just code for “Please approve my agenda.”

I have a problem. When I see yet another article about young people returning to church, I cannot not read it. I tell myself I’ll just read the intro, and forty minutes later I’m three links deep into diocesan Easter Vigil statistics.

In my defense, I’m a Catholic priest. I find life in the Church, and I get to work with young adults who are finding life here, too. So when I read about dioceses reporting large increases in people entering the Catholic Church, I’m not reading as a detached observer. I’m reading with hope.

But I’m also a stats guy and recovering economist, which means I know better than to confuse a beautiful sign with the whole story. The broader picture is still sobering: older adults in the United States remain far more likely than young adults to identify as Christian and attend religious services. The long decline in Christian identification may have reached something like a plateau for now, but as older, more religious generations age out of the picture, that plateau is unlikely to hold.

But widen the aperture, and the picture shifts in unexpected ways.

One of the most important Christian developments of the last century hasn’t been a tidy institutional comeback in the West. It’s been the explosive growth of Christianity across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Much of that growth has been Pentecostal and Charismatic—forms of Christianity where the Holy Spirit is not an appendix to the faith but right at the center of worship, healing, and mission.

Which brings us to Pentecost.

John Taylor’s The Go-Between God is one of the great books on the Holy Spirit and mission. Taylor writes that “the chief actor in the historic mission of the Christian church is the Holy Spirit,” and he warns against a temptation that is probably very familiar: turning God’s initiative into our project and thinking, it all depends on me.

It doesn’t.

But that’s not a license for passivity either. Taylor says we begin with the Holy Spirit by humbly watching what God is doing—and then we join in the Spirit’s work.

That may be the Pentecost posture. Pay attention. Give thanks for the signs of life. Be honest about the challenges. And follow the Spirit’s lead.

I will start my annual eight-day retreat tomorrow. Please let me know how I can pray for you. Because of the retreat, I will not post next week.