For much of his life, Tyler Staton felt like something was missing in his faith. He had grown up with a clear sense of God as a loving father and Jesus as the key to redemption. But the Holy Spirit? That was the vague, elusive figure—mentioned in scripture, sure, but rarely discussed in depth in the churches he attended.
“The Holy Spirit was this sort of mysterious indwelling of God’s presence that I guess was doing a whole bunch of pretty radical things in the New Testament,” Staton says. “None of which were a part of my experience or that of anyone who I knew.”
Staton, now the national director of 24-7 Prayer USA and lead pastor of Bridgetown Church in Portland, has spent more than a decade exploring that gap—both in his own life and within the congregations he has led. His latest book, The Familiar Stranger, is an attempt to bridge what he sees as the growing divide between belief and experience in the modern church.
And if there’s one thing Staton is sure of, it’s that many Christians feel this same tension.
The Two Extremes
It doesn’t take much time in American Christian circles to notice that conversations about the Holy Spirit tend to swing between two extremes. On one side, the Spirit is largely ignored—viewed as an abstract concept rather than a tangible presence. On the other, the Spirit is at the center of faith—but often in a way that prioritizes spectacle over substance.
Staton sees both of these extremes as missing the mark.
“I saw people coming out of either side toward one another,” he explains. “The people who had grown up in a tradition that was very quiet about the Spirit saying, ‘Could there be more to actually experiencing the things I already believe?’ And then people coming from the other side, maybe being wounded by a toxic or manipulative environment under the banner of the Holy Spirit, saying, ‘That didn’t feel right. But there were one, two, or three experiences that I just can’t dismiss.’”
The problem, as Staton sees it, isn’t that people are uninterested in the Holy Spirit. It’s that many have been given an incomplete or distorted picture of what the Spirit is meant to be in their lives.
Why Gen Z and Millennials Are Rethinking the Holy Spirit
According to Staton, the current cultural moment presents a unique opportunity for the Church to reclaim the Holy Spirit’s role in Christian life. Historically, American evangelicalism has leaned into apologetics, building faith on intellectual arguments and historical evidence. But younger generations are craving something else.
For many Gen Z and millennial Christians, faith isn’t just about doctrine—it’s about experience. They aren’t looking for more theological debates; they want something real, something that impacts their daily lives. The way they engage with spirituality reflects a broader cultural shift toward personal authenticity over institutional authority.
“The millennial generation, Gen Z and those coming after us—there’s this openness to experience and almost a reaction against explanation,” Staton says. “I think we’re so saturated with Netflix documentaries that I can get convinced that I should be a vegan and then that I should only eat meat one after the other. And I think everyone is so used to that that if you hold the cards, you can play a pretty convincing argument. But my experience? That’s what no one can argue against.”
This shift has enormous implications for how churches engage with the next generation. If the Church remains solely focused on intellectual belief without offering lived experiences of faith, Staton argues, it will fail to connect with a generation that prioritizes personal authenticity over abstract ideas.
“If the Church ignores that obvious shift, then we are going to be preaching an expired message to people that aren’t around anymore,” he warns. “Rather than opening doors that the culture is leaving open to us.”
The Spirit in the Everyday
A key part of reclaiming the Holy Spirit, Staton argues, is understanding that the Spirit is not confined to church services.
“The Holy Spirit isn’t just a mystical force—it’s meant to be an active, daily presence in our lives,” Staton says.
Too often, charismatic expressions of the Spirit are seen as something that happens in worship gatherings—loud, ecstatic, and attention-grabbing. But Staton believes the real work of the Spirit happens elsewhere.
“The miraculous ministry of the Spirit is real and it’s here and it’s for today,” he says. “And it’s mostly for the marketplace, not the meeting place.”
For Staton, this means the Spirit isn’t just about big, dramatic moments. It’s also found in the quiet, ordinary rhythms of life—a whispered word of encouragement at work, a moment of clarity in prayer, the sense of God’s presence during a dinner with friends.
“My spiritual antenna has gotten more sensitive for all the different ways and places that God is pursuing us in love all the time,” he says.
An Invitation to More
For those who feel like their understanding of the Spirit is lacking, Staton suggests a simple starting point: Pay attention.
“Find those places where biblical rumor outruns current experience. Ask God to close the gap and keep on asking as Jesus counsels us,” he says. “I don’t believe that the Bible is a book about the best stuff God ever did in the lives of other people a long time ago. The Bible is an invitation to experience.”
And for those who feel hesitant—perhaps burned by past experiences or unsure if they want to wade into what can feel like murky waters—Staton offers a reassurance: The Holy Spirit is not a force to be wielded but a person to know.
“The Spirit is the conduit between what I believe and the experience of that belief,” he says. “The Spirit is not about making worship gatherings more exciting. The Spirit is about making faith more real.”
