Alpha Course, What Does the Holy Spirit Do?

One of my favorite verses is Ephesians 4:16. The verse says, "From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." What I love about the verse is it speaks to the importance of every part of the body of Christ, which is all of us.

There can be a tendency to feel like there is no way you can contribute. I know this feeling well and, at times, have felt it before. But that's not true. One of the things I like about this session of the Alpha Course is that it focuses on the power of the Holy Spirit, and how the Holy Spirit moves in our lives and moves us to action.

And we are all important. It takes all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and all parts of the body, working in unison to be effective. We are all important and a healthy church is one in which everyone contributes. It is hard to find that, but it is really important. And no gift is greater than another, they are all important in helping accomplish the work of the Lord.

Another point from this session that sticks out to me is that what unites us is stronger than what divides us. In some ways I think that is very true. There are a lot of divisions among Christians, and that in-fighting often takes our eyes off the important mission and work that we need to do.

There are major points of theological dispute, which are things worth standing up for. Our view on the divinity of Jesus Christ — or even the current disputes in our own denomination about same sex relationships — are worth taking a stand on. But there are many other minor points of theology that are worth discussing and considering, but should not continue to fracture the body of Christ the way they do.

Our mission is to allow the Holy Spirit to work through us to reach others with the Gospel. We can never forget that.