The Season After Pentecost

Believers across the globe celebrated Pentecost Sunday on May 28. Each year, this Sunday ushers us back to that pivotal day in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit descends.

The events that follow in Acts 2 serve as a reminder that the Spirit who descended on the “Day” also empowers the “day-by-day” activity of Christ’s body (Acts 2:42-47). Two thousand years later, we long to participate in and extend the reach of this same kind of community—one that is attentive to the needs of others through hospitality and generosity, one that responds to God’s activity through prayer and praise.

However, the season after Pentecost Sunday might also highlight the contrast between the awe-inspiring events described in Acts 2 and the difficult day-by-day realities many of us witness in our own church contexts. While the events of the Day of Pentecost give rise to raucous rejoicing, the daily realities in the season after Pentecost might give rise to righteous lament.

The path from the pivotal “Day” to an empowered “day-by-day” is possible, and it’s one that thousands of churches have walked as part of a ministry called the Acts 2 Journey. The Acts 2 Journey is a biblically based process designed to assist pastors and their teams to identify their church’s current reality and discern their unique path toward living out healthy, day-by-day rhythms in their context.

 For nearly 13 years, churches in the US have used the Acts 2 Journey to restore their hope and renew their missional focus. In the last five years, hundreds of churches across the world have participated in the same process. 

·      Since 2018, Acts 2 Journey retreats and/or introductory trainings have taken place in Chile, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Tanzania, and Taiwan. France and Japan will also soon host trainings in the coming months.

·      In Indonesia, 323 churches and more than 2,000 team members have participated with their pastors in the Acts 2 Journey across 19 sites.

·      Recently, the Africa Assemblies of God Alliance voted to adopt the Acts 2 Journey as the church health template for AG churches across the continent.

·      The textbook for the Acts 2 Journey, A Spirit-Empowered Church: An Acts 2 Ministry Model by Alton Garrison, is now in Spanish, French, Korean, Bahasa, and Swahili, and is currently being translated into Arabic and Japanese.

Because the Acts 2 Journey is founded on biblical principles, it has proven successful among churches in the US and adaptable across cultures. The Acts 2 Journey process is strategically positioned to play an important role in the MM33 Initiative, which will summon the 370,000 existing AG churches throughout the world—churches of all ages, sizes, and styles—to become healthy so that they might multiply in the coming decade.