Building Church Rock CRC with the Power of the Holy Spirit

Members of Church Rock (N.Mex.) Christian Reformed Church were waving their hands and loudly praising God during a Sunday-morning worship service in late July.

In their exuberant prayer and worship, much of it in the Navajo language, the worshipers were thanking the Holy Spirit for bringing much-needed rain to the parched farms and desert land where they live.

Even when rain isn’t a crucial issue, the work of the Holy Spirit is at the top of people’s prayer lists in the crowded sanctuary of this church on other Sundays as well.

“I want them to praise the Lord, same as any church,” said Rev. Bobby Boyd, pastor of Church Rock CRC for the past 13 years. “But I also want to see our church and other churches being sensitive to the Holy Spirit.”

And nearly every weekend, Boyd said, at least one Spirit-filled revival takes place somewhere on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico and Arizona.

Some revivals are connected to Pentecostal, Methodist, or Nazarene churches, he said, while others are stand-alone, nondenominational events. Boyd has attended a few and has some concerns.

“I believe they can be the work of God, but many don’t have a strong biblical background,” he said. “In some, everyone is dancing and the dust is flying, but there is no life change. Some just want money and call for healing and prosperity.”

Boyd grew up in a Navajo family in which his mother was a soothsayer and his father a medicine man, both following the traditional Navajo religion.

At one point, though, Boyd became a Christian and learned Scripture and a lot about ministry work from Paul Redhouse, who for many years pastored Four Corners CRC in Teec Nos Pos, Ariz.

Boyd served Baptist and Nazarene churches before being ordained in the CRC in 1988. “I joined the CRC because I wanted to be part of a denomination that is serious about what is written in the Bible,” he said.

In his ministry work, Boyd said, he sees how crucial it is to hold fast to the biblical truths, especially that “Christ came and defeated sin on the cross. He was buried and raised again to defeat death,” and through this all who believe in him “can be forgiven of their sins and receive a new life from heaven.”

A key part in this process is the role the Holy Spirit plays in bringing about new life for Christians.

“The early missionaries didn’t teach us much about the Holy Spirit and how we are to listen to the Spirit and how we are to give back” to others and to God, said Boyd.

He sees this as his role — to teach people how to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. “People don’t know how to go about it,” he said. “People don’t know that the Holy Spirit is willing to set everything on fire. People aren’t sensitive to that.”

At Church Rock CRC, people are responding to his messages and filling the church on Sundays for worship that is conducted in both the Navajo and English languages. He preaches about coming face to face with God, based on biblical truth as well as some of his own experiences. He speaks about ways to become open to the leadings of the Spirit.

“I want them to see the power of God at work. I’d like others to have it. It is really needed in our church.”

When people come to Church Rock CRC, said Boyd, “ I never pressure anyone, but I know that people are hungry for spiritual food.

“I teach people to stay in the Word and be careful and to let the Holy Spirit show the way. I’m so blessed to see God among us, and, when the power of God comes up, I want God to show us what needs to be done from this day on.”