The Now and Not Yet Kingdom Tension

Transform us into a Small Working Model for New Creation

Robin and I are currently in Portland where we had the incredible privilege of attending the Holy Spirit Conference, hosted by Bridgetown Church. The anticipation had been building for weeks - I mean, N.T. Wright and Tim Mackie on the same stage? That's like a Bible nerd's dream come true! These two have shaped my understanding of Scripture in profound ways through their books, podcasts, Bible Project videos and teaching over the years.

As I sit here processing the conference, one theme continues to surface above all others: the tension of the "Now and Not Yet" of God's Kingdom. This sacred tension isn't just a theological concept - it floods into every aspect of our lives as followers of Jesus. We see the Kingdom breaking in, yet we also experience the reality that it's not fully here.

Gemma Ryan captured this beautifully in her session on suffering and the Holy Spirit. She brought a powerful perspective that, honestly, you don't often hear in our Western church context. Using three profound images - The Cup, The Cross, and The Crucible - she unpacked the reality that the Spirit is just as present in our suffering as He is in our victories. This message doesn't exactly align with our American up-and-to-the-right, “winning” theology, does it? But it's exactly what many of us need to hear. She quoted Ronald Rolheiser's sobering truth: "Any pain we do not transform, we will transmit." That hit me hard. How often do we try to bypass our pain instead of allowing the Spirit to transform it? The Holy Spirit isn't just the power for miracles; He's also our comfort in pain, our strength in weakness, and our hope in waiting. Gemma reminded us that spiritual maturity means embracing both the power and pain of faith, allowing the Spirit to form us into Christlikeness through every season.

Then there were the firehoses of content from N.T. Wright and Tim Mackie - I'll be processing their talks for months! Wright, in his brilliant way, showed us how the Spirit is actively reversing the tower of Babel story. Instead of scattering and dividing, the Spirit is creating a diverse but unified body - the Church as God's new temple. Then he dropped a perspective that left me stunned: the Church is meant to be a small working model of new creation. Wow! Not just a group of people waiting for heaven, but an actual preview of God's renewed world in action. But it was his second talk that really resonated deeply. He challenged how many of us have inherited a highly Platonised version of Christianity, where 'heaven' is seen as some distant place where disembodied souls float away to after death. This view, he explained, comes from Roman philosophers before Jesus' time and is remarkably different from the Jewish understanding that Jesus and His followers would have held. Walking us through 2 Corinthians 5, he showed how the biblical hope isn't about souls escaping to heaven but about resurrection - full bodily resurrection empowered by the Spirit. The Jewish scriptures and Jesus' own words consistently point to something far more revolutionary: God coming to Earth to dwell with His people. This isn't just theological hair-splitting; it completely reframes how we understand the Spirit's work in our lives right now. The Spirit isn't just helping us get ready for some distant heavenly existence; He's actively preparing our whole selves - body, soul, and spirit - for resurrection life. It's not about escaping earth for heaven; it's about heaven coming to earth through Spirit-filled people. When you grasp this, you start to see why being a "working model of new creation" matters so much - we're not just waiting for God's future, we're embodying it now.

Tim Mackie brought his characteristic depth to understanding what we mean when we pray "Come, Holy Spirit." He opened up Psalm 139 to show that the Spirit is already present everywhere - our prayers aren't about getting the Spirit to show up, but about becoming aware of His constant presence. This hit me hard. How often do I miss the Spirit's work because I'm looking for the extraordinary while He's moving in the ordinary moments of my day?

As I think about what it means to be Kingdom people and Kingdom leaders in light of all this, several key takeaways keep stirring in my spirit:

First, this journey of leadership requires us to embrace tension and diversity. I'm learning that true Kingdom leadership isn't about creating uniformity but fostering what Wright called "differentiated unity." Just as the Spirit at Pentecost didn't eliminate differences but unified diverse voices, we're called to lead in a way that celebrates different perspectives while maintaining unity in mission.

Second - and this really challenges me - we must embrace the power of lament alongside celebration. Gemma's teaching reminded me that spiritual maturity, especially as leaders, means holding both joy and sorrow. The Psalms show us this path: honest lament that leads to hope. As leaders, we need to model this for our teams and communities.

Third, we've got to resist our culture's addiction to instant results. This one hits close to home for me. The Spirit often works slowly, deeply, transforming us and our communities over time. Kingdom leadership means trusting this slower, more profound work rather than chasing quick wins.

Fourth, we need a fresh understanding of how the Spirit works in leadership. It's not just about dramatic moments or powerful experiences. The Spirit works through wisdom, administration, teaching, and discernment - all the ordinary yet sacred ways we serve our teams and communities.

Finally - and this ties back to Gemma's powerful teaching - we must embrace the role of suffering in leadership formation. The crucible moments, the Gethsemane experiences, aren't obstacles to our leadership; they're essential parts of being shaped into Christ-like servants. As she reminded us, "Any pain we do not transform, we will transmit."

The question I'm sitting with is this: How can we build communities and lead organizations in a way that truly embodies this "working model of new creation" that Wright talked about? It means being people who embrace both the power and the pain, the celebration and the lament, the instant and the slow, all while staying deeply connected to the Spirit's presence in every moment.

To be honest, there was so much amazing content from these talks that I'm still processing it all. I might need to write a dispatch for each session just to unpack everything and allow myself to process it through writing. We'll see. Sometimes the deepest truths need time to settle in our spirits before we can fully grasp their implications for our lives and leadership.

This isn't the kind of leadership that typically gets celebrated in conferences or goes viral on social media. But it's the kind of leadership our world desperately needs - leaders who understand that the Kingdom is both now and not yet, who can hold tension with grace, and who are being shaped by the Spirit into previews of God's future reality.

Until next time,

Terry

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"The Spirit is not just about power for ministry; He's about presence for transformation." – N.T. Wright