I have a mixed history regarding the person and work of the Holy Spirit. The Methodist Church I was raised in certainly didn’t talk about him (at least, not that I remember). Well, that is until a youth pastor invited a young evangelist from Calvary Chapel to come to our youth group. That meeting caused such a stir that the youth pastor decided to leave the Methodist Church and work with Chuck Smith in Costa Mesa, California.  

A few years later I came to faith, and having grown up in neighboring Santa Ana, I, too, attended Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa. At the time the Chapel had what they called “after glows” on Sunday nights and “Believers Meetings” on Thursdays. These were the times when church members were given the opportunity to receive Spirit in-fillings and gifts. They scared me a little bit. 

Later, in Vineyard churches we experienced quite a range of Spirit activity—much of it beautiful, powerful, and healing. Some of it was, well, just weird. That scared me too. But know what? When we deal with the Holy Spirit, we are dealing with God! If appearances of angels scared people in the Bible, genuine connection with Almighty God should be a little unnerving for us. And we don’t have the luxury of ignoring the Holy Spirit. Rather, we must build each other up in the Spirit, seeking to be continually filled by him and seeking his presence, character and gifts. 

Readers who know something about Vineyard Churches will not be surprised that it was important to me to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit as I journeyed toward the Anglican church. In fact, a Vineyard friend had a role to play in hearing from the Spirit.  

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01.  Worlds Collide

Rose Madrid-Swetman is copastor with her husband, Rich, of a Vineyard Church in Shoreline, Washington. When she heard that I was contemplating working with the Anglican Church, she recounted to me a vision she had received a few years earlier.  

 

As you were telling me about the possibility of Carlsbad [working with Tony Baron], I was reminded of a dream I had about you when you first resigned from the Vineyard. You were in a liturgical-type church, you were wearing a collar, you had several people with you, a lot of young people and some older as well. I remember coming there on a Sunday am and thinking, Wow this is great! Todd is in his element. I remember the feeling I had being there, that it was a happening place, it was different (in the sense that it was in a church building that in my dream represented liturgical style, high church).  

 

What should I have made of that? That is Book of Acts stuff! Fortunately my background in both Calvary Chapel and the Vineyard taught me to trust in and rely on the Holy Spirit working through the body of Christ. I took Rose’s vision as a gift from the Holy Spirit. I understood it to be a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom, an insight of prophecy or discernment. Whatever the precise definition, being early in the discernment process, it was one of the big attention-getting moments in my journey.  

Before hearing from Rose, I certainly never saw myself as being “in my element” in a high church kind of setting. But now with a few years reflection, I find I am living that vision from the Holy Spirit.  

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02.  A Million-Dollar Question

One day while sitting in my office, I was desperate to process my possible journey into the Anglican world with someone. I’d already bugged all my Alpha USA friends who were Anglican pastors, so I thought I should not wear out my welcome with them. It was one of those moments when I wished John Wimber was still alive. I could always count on him for kingdom of God advice. 

Thinking about Wimber led me to think about a leader Wimber and I loved, respected, and admired: Bishop Sandy Millar. After a twenty-year run, Sandy is the former vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton in London. He is now priest in charge of an Anglican Church plant at St. Mark’s in Tollington Park. Simultaneously, he is a special bishop in the diocese of London, with the specific charge to plant churches that reach those outside the church and make them into disciples of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Because I have known Sandy and his wife, Annette, off and on for more than twenty years, and because our paths have crossed with some frequency while I worked with Alpha, I felt I could e-mail him to see if we could make a phone appointment. I was pleased to get a quick reply, and we were on the phone within a few days.  

Before I tell you Sandy’s question, I should give you a bit of background. Sandy is, of course, not perfect. But it is rare to hear him say anything unkind or negative about anyone. He is bullish on the notion that if you can’t say anything good, then don’t say anything at all. Fine. Except that when we know something negative needs to be said, he won’t say it!  

Second, Sandy is smart. He has a sharp mind, quick, effective, and impressive. Furthermore, with Sandy, this comes wrapped in a socially elegant and genuinely spiritual package.  

As typical of Sandy, when I told him I wanted his help, he assured me that he could be of no actual help, but that he was happy to talk. But while I was delighted to be talking to him, and while I knew he had practiced law for about a decade as a barrister, I was not ready for him to play the lawyer and ask all these probing questions: Why would anyone want to be an Anglican right now (that is with all the upset then present in the Anglican world)? Why would you place yourself and your creative vision under a bishop who may tell you that you cannot do it? “Todd,” he went on, “You’re a Vineyard guy, and you are used to following the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Are you sure you have the patience for Episcopal polity?” 

I had no answer. At least not near good enough to satisfy a bright guy like Sandy. So I think I just admitted as much to him and said, “I don’t know Sandy, but I think the Holy Spirit may be calling me to do this.”  

“Well then,” he responded with genuine Kingdom-first (like his soulmate Wimber) joy, “end of the story. You must do what God is calling you to do even if it does not make perfect sense right now.”  

Great! Here we go.  

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03.  Empowered for a Purpose

The Holy Spirit is the animating, energizing power for a life of cooperating with God—no matter which stream we find ourselves flowing in. The Spirit brings us to life; he makes the impossible possible. His power working in us makes our lives both dynamically effective and peacefully relaxed. Working alongside the Spirit, there is never a reason for us to panic, freak out, or take things into our own hands. 

The Holy Spirit empowers us for a purpose. While we personally experience empowerment, its effects are directed toward others. The Spirit enables us to embody the kingdom story as God’s ambassadors. The gifts of the Spirit, for instance, are simply tools that enable us to serve the people we encounter in our everyday lives. The fruit of the Spirit is the character he produces in us. I’m quite sure that God works his character into our lives for more reasons than I know, but I’m sure one reason is that we need his character in order to work well with his power.  

God’s Spirit is present with us wherever we are. He doesn’t pay attention to denominational lines or church traditions. And, perhaps most importantly, his Spirit is with us when we cross the church threshold and enter the world.  

So, what purpose is the Spirit empowering you for? 

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04.  A Resumé Across the Streams

 For those who do not know the outline and shape of my journey, the following is a bit of background and context, a resumé of sorts across the six streams. 

• 1976–1979. I was converted in the Jesus Movement at the age of nineteen. I taught the high school class at a Methodist Church and became its youth pastor around the age of twenty. 
• 1979–1986. At twenty-three, I moved with my wife, Debbie, and our closest friends, Tim and Susie, to start a Calvary Chapel Church in Wheeling, West Virginia, which later became a Vineyard Church.  
• 1987–1990. At age thirty-one, in 1987, I was called by John Wimber to the Vineyard in Anaheim to help pastor that large and growing church, and to help with the start up of the Association of Vineyard Churches USA.
• 1991–1994. We moved in 1991 to Virginia Beach, Virginia, to take over a Vineyard Church and to supervise the Vineyard Churches in southern part of the East Coast.  
• 1994–2001. From 1994 to 1997, I was the National Coordinator of Vineyard Churches USA, and after the early death of John Wimber in November of 1997, I became the president of Vineyard Churches USA.  
• 2001–2004. From the Vineyard, I made my way to Allelon,Allelon is a multi-generational network of missional church leaders, schools and parachurch organizations which envisions, inspires, engages, resources, trains, and educates leaders for the church and its mission in our culture. Allelon is located in Eagle, Idaho. where I engaged with and coached church planters from all over the world who were trying to crack the code of being church in the cynical years of the early 2000s. I completed a DMin at George Fox Evangelical Seminary in Portland, Oregon. I also began to teach as an adjunct professor at institutions like Fuller Seminary, Wheaton College, and George Fox Evangelical Seminary.  
• 2004–2008. I spent 2004–2008 as the executive director of Alpha USA, an evangelism course—of which I think very highly—that is run in thousands of American churches.  
• 2009 to present. I was ordained as a priest and then a bishop in the Anglican church and began planting churches on the West Coast.