Dr Paul Allen

I think it’s a fundamental question that people sometimes ask, “Are there misconceptions we can have about the Holy Spirit?” And I think there are several, at least that I’ve encountered. Maybe the first thing to say is that it almost depends on where you are in the world, which misconceptions people will have. But generally speaking, I think the first one is the ease with which we refer to the Holy Spirit as an it rather than a “He.” And sometimes people tend to think of Him as a power rather than a person. And it’s important therefore to notice the way in which both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, He is described as a person, and He does personal things.  And that’s even clearer in the New Testament and especially in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus—that the Spirit who comes upon Him—I think we could think about Him as coming upon Him as a friend, comes upon a friend rather than just a naked power coming on the Lord Jesus.  And you see this right from His ...

In the past 25 years, 42% of our city (metropolitan Orlando, Florida) has stopped attending church. In 2018, we were two pastors who wanted to understand and be fruitful in what we thought was our unique context. We soon learned our context wasn’t unique and that what was happening around us wasn’t as simple as media pundits and Twitter commentators suggested. We live in the most significant and fastest religious shift in U.S. history. Some 40 million adult Americans who used to attend church at least once per month now attend less than once yearly. This shift is larger than the number of conversions during the First Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening, and the totality of the Billy Graham Crusades combined. We live in the largest and fastest religious shift in U.S. history. Over the last two years, we’ve worked with respected social scientists Ryan Burge and Paul Djupe to conduct the largest and most comprehensive study of dechurching ever commissioned. In total, we heard from mor...