PETE GREIG
PETE GREIG
WHEN THE SPIRIT SAYS COME “THERE’S A GREATER MOVEMENT OF PRAYER GROWING NOW THAN EVER BEFORE IN HISTORY. WHENEVER GOD SETS ABOUT TO DO A NEW THING, HE ALWAYS SETS HIS PEOPLE PRAYING.” (EDWIN ORR) E.merge, was an event which took place in Frankfurt, Germany and it drew over 1,500 young leaders from all over the world, people who were pioneering new expressions of church in the emerging culture. A team working with young people in Russian prisons drove in Jeeps from the Ural Mountains. A converted Chinese gangster flew in from Asia. A contingency of German Jesus Freaks rolled up in their now familiar Mad Max convoys. A girl with a hit music record in Spain came with a large group from Contracorriente. Coach loads had travelled down from Sweden through Denmark. Susannah Rychiger came with her team from Rollorama in Switzerland. Others came to Frankfurt from America, Czech Republic, Poland and all over Europe. We had rented a club for our final Sunday morning meeting, but it quickly became clear that we couldn’t possibly all fit
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in. About three hundred people found themselves unable to get into the venue and being locked out they decided to conduct their own meeting in the car park. Ian Nicholson (24-7 team member) was one of the people in that meeting along with many others preparing to be sent from Frankfurt on 24-7 missions to Ibiza, St. Petersburg and the slums of Delhi. And so, against a background of graffitied walls in the shadow of the nearby railway lines, the crowd began to worship. There was no sound system, but Ian invited people to come and share “what God had put in them” over the last few days. Many wept as they requested prayer for various nations. Intercession began to sound across the car park as passionate shouts of petition and request went up. Ian was stunned by the sheer spiritual passion here in the open without any of the trimmings of a normal meeting.
He sensed that God was speaking through this moment, calling His people to get out of the buildings and into the parking lots; out of our meetings and into the streets. “For thirty years”, he reflected later, “The Church has been gathering to say ‘Come Holy Spirit’ and in His grace He has come. But perhaps the tables are turning. Perhaps it is now the Holy Spirit’s turn and He is saying to us ‘Come holy people’. Perhaps the Holy Spirit is waiting for us to attend His meetings in some surprising places.” As we began to explore Ian’s parking lot revelation over ensuing weeks, we became more and more convinced that this was a word from God. As we went from Frankfurt and began to turn the prayer rooms outward onto the streets in mission, it was a word that would soon be confirmed in signs and wonders as we responded to the Spirit’s invitation to come.
Just as Jesus, two thousand years ago, spent His time at parties, amongst the crowds, engaging with the disreputable and apparently non-religious, so today He seems surprisingly comfortable amongst the crowds of party goers, the non-religious pilgrims of our time. Perhaps He longs that we would vacate our buildings from time to time, that we would turn our temples into tabernacles, that we would become like Him, the friend of sinners. We are the light of the world, but no one wants to stare at the bulb. We are the salt of the earth, but a whole plate of the stuff will make you sick. The people of God are called to scatter and mix, to mingle and move, to influence from a position of weakness, like a small child in a large family, like yeast in a loaf, like a mustard seed beneath a pavement. Could it be that the Holy Spirit is weary of attending our meetings and hungers for our presence at His? Perhaps He’s dreaming up a thousand new meeting places, where new sounds and sights burn the eyes and break the heart!
whenever we gather in His name. And He is, let’s remember, omnipresent! But perhaps there is a weariness, even a reluctance in His heart as He gazes back over his shoulder, out the church door and into the street. ‘When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.’ (Matthew 9:36) We’ve spent thirty years saying “Come Holy Spirit...” and He came. Now, if the Spirit says “Come”, the question is this: Will we obey? (Adapted with permission from Red Moon Rising: Kingsway Publications)
Pete Greig
Pete Greig is a writer, church-planter and founder of the 24-7 movement. He heads up Emmaus Rd in Guildford with his wife Sammy, serves as Vice-President for the NGO Tearfund and was part of the senior leadership team at Holy Trinity Brompton in London for seven years.
Of course, God will still attend our meetings - Jesus has promised to come
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