Claimed, gathered and sent

Given the following scenario, what would your answer be? Is this a valid question? One of the members of your church comes into your office one afternoon with a question about the Holy Spirit. She attended church with a friend on Sunday, and there was lots of talk about the Spirit, and lots of energy in the worship. “Pastor,” she said, “I never hear about the Holy Spirit in the Lutheran Church—it seems like we spend all of our time talking about God the Father and Jesus. What does the Holy Spirit do, anyway?” Explain the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church and life of a Christian. Guilty as charged! Migliore writes that often the church has been suspicious of movements that have stressed the power of the Holy Spirit. I even experienced some of that from a member of my candidacy committee because of past involvement with the charismatic movement. As mentioned in a recent lecture, the Holy Spirit is the “least understood” [1] person of the Trinity. By...