Green Flags in a Church

I talked a lot on the negatives of churches and some red flags in regards to pastors or leaders attempting to control their congregations. So let's talk on what green flags look like.

Any church that is capable of allowing Holy Spirit to move however He wants to is a church to go to religiously. The people who have the humility to recognize they are not the ones who lead the church and then go and do whatever God tells them to in their personal lives and within the body are the people who permeate churches where God is free to move.

Pentecostals - do not take this to mean that your churches are default green flags due to how much emphasis Holy Spirit tends to have in your congregations. There are many Pentecostal churches with red flags coming out of the wood works so hard, its a wonder a bull hasn't found its way in yet. There are many churches of various denominations that have space for Holy Spirit to move how He will and sometimes that might be a bit more subdued for our quieter siblings and that is ok. The point is, if you walk into a church and you feel how different the air is, the worship is, or the people are and the space, when empty, leads you to God encounters? - That. That there is a body who regularly invites the Lord in and He comes to move how He will.

So what does it look like? I can tell you what it isn't. It is not a big stage or a small one that is the Presence of the Lord. It is not a particular person or how anyone greets you or speaks to you (or doesn't speak to you) that makes a space contain the Presence of the Lord. There is no piece of music to sing or play, no particular way to hold service that makes a space contain the Presence of the Lord. No, there is nothing anyone can do with works to bring God down to us to meet us. What draws Him is our earnest, soul felt desire for Him to come and move as a body (even if only a few people in the crowd hold true earnest desires). It is leaders who, once they feel the Lord is in the room, they let whatever control they have go and they do as God directs them (not what they believe needs to be done, nothing in regards to a show to be put on, just pure faithful obedience to whatever needs to be said or done even if it means their plans for service have been derailed). When God takes over the room - it is like watching a master conductor work the crowd because as people stop looking towards the pulpit and towards God, everyone in the room starts to worship and obey and it is one of the most beautiful, soul moving experiences a person is able to have. People get healed - mentally, emotionally, spiritually - physically even. People come to realize God is truly Living, Breathing, Working now on their behalf for their benefit. People come to see truth in all kinds of situations. You see how God directs people into the place He is at to receive what He wants to give them.

And with the above? It is always done in an orderly fashion with God in control. You see people get nudged "ok your turn to speak" and they share what they need to. You see people being nudged up to the altar at the moment another person gets nudged to go to their seat. You see people quietly pointed to pray for a person or another in the corners right when they are having a mental crisis or a realization leading to a breakthrough in a situation or circumstance. No one falls dramatically to the ground. No one speaks out of turn. Some people might be laying on the floor - but they went there themselves usually to enjoy the peace in the atmosphere. People speak scriptures when lead. They sing songs. And its breath takingly beautiful and spiritually intense in a way that no music, stage production, nor man made works is able to bring or invoke in anyone. There is no doubt in those moments something bigger than anyone is occurring and once out of these moments, there is nothing someone can do or say to shake the lingering cemented core memory and it will be something that will always be able to withstand any logic tests and any checks for manipulation.