This Sunday is a very important day in the life of our church. I’m usually not one to play up particular days or events as important. I’m one of those guys who has spent a lot of his life trying to live at a more even keel. I’m willing to live with not as many “ups” in my life so that I don’t have the disappointment of the “down” times. But not this Sunday; I’m very excited about this Sunday and I want to invite you to come to worship and stay for the fellowship meal with something of the same sense of expectation and eagerness.
This Sunday we when we gather at 10 a.m. we will launch our theme for Worship in 2017. Let me tell you a bit about how our leadership team, staff, and I have been led to follow a particular direction in 2017.
2016 by any measure was an inspiring year to be a part of EPUMC. We began to grow in the very areas that had concerned us: average worship attendance, financial support and membership.
Around June or July we as a staff observed that there was an even better energy, a more tangible sense of something that was so good, we began to ask….What is it……or What is that...We started trying to answer this question at staff meetings as we reviewed Sunday mornings, Wednesday nights and just the feel of the place. It was as if there had been a shift, a change, a sort of tipping point to some deeper level of being church.
I usually ask . ….‟How to keep this momentum going?” in response to this shift. It’s a good question…if we believe all this is of our own making. But you see…
I believe what we experienced was an increased awareness and participation in the presence of God’s love among us. In our faith tradition we have called that awareness, that presence, the Holy Spirit. And so the question becomes how are we
OPENING OURSELVES TO THE HOLY SPIRIT
This what we as a staff and leadership team have come to believe is the question to ask….it is the direction where we are being called to focus.
Now before you stop reading because you are uncomfortable or unfamiliar with the term the Holy Spirit, let me say one more thing. On Sunday you will experience an inspirational… down-to-earth…meaningful way to hear this phrase and how it is what is behind the “new energy” so many of us have recognized. I am committed personally as are Deb, Don, Terri, Becky, our entire staff and many others, to find meaningful, relevant and inspiring ways to define, claim and participate in the presence of God’s love that we call the Holy Spirit at EPUMC.
This year let’s begin to anticipate that whatever you call what is happening at EPUMC. Let’s begin to anticipate that something extraordinary is going to happen in moments we may least expect…in ways where our only task is to be open to this presence of God blowing through us to change our lives, to transform the world, to blow in God’s kind of time to our times.
Keep the Faith,
Pastor
This Sunday we when we gather at 10 a.m. we will launch our theme for Worship in 2017. Let me tell you a bit about how our leadership team, staff, and I have been led to follow a particular direction in 2017.
2016 by any measure was an inspiring year to be a part of EPUMC. We began to grow in the very areas that had concerned us: average worship attendance, financial support and membership.
Around June or July we as a staff observed that there was an even better energy, a more tangible sense of something that was so good, we began to ask….What is it……or What is that...We started trying to answer this question at staff meetings as we reviewed Sunday mornings, Wednesday nights and just the feel of the place. It was as if there had been a shift, a change, a sort of tipping point to some deeper level of being church.
I usually ask . ….‟How to keep this momentum going?” in response to this shift. It’s a good question…if we believe all this is of our own making. But you see…
I believe what we experienced was an increased awareness and participation in the presence of God’s love among us. In our faith tradition we have called that awareness, that presence, the Holy Spirit. And so the question becomes how are we
OPENING OURSELVES TO THE HOLY SPIRIT
This what we as a staff and leadership team have come to believe is the question to ask….it is the direction where we are being called to focus.
Now before you stop reading because you are uncomfortable or unfamiliar with the term the Holy Spirit, let me say one more thing. On Sunday you will experience an inspirational… down-to-earth…meaningful way to hear this phrase and how it is what is behind the “new energy” so many of us have recognized. I am committed personally as are Deb, Don, Terri, Becky, our entire staff and many others, to find meaningful, relevant and inspiring ways to define, claim and participate in the presence of God’s love that we call the Holy Spirit at EPUMC.
This year let’s begin to anticipate that whatever you call what is happening at EPUMC. Let’s begin to anticipate that something extraordinary is going to happen in moments we may least expect…in ways where our only task is to be open to this presence of God blowing through us to change our lives, to transform the world, to blow in God’s kind of time to our times.
Keep the Faith,
Pastor
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