I put all sorts of things on this white board… There are ideas that may or may not happened …There are a few initials of names I need to remember for some reason or other…I put a couple of words or phrases that would make no sense to anyone but me. After a visit from Kate and Will Brogan to my office, I now have a bit of artwork on the lower corners which is very visually appealing.
Lately when someone is in my office and something comes up that I want to write down, I put it up on the board. I’ve noticed that Don and Deb and Becky glance at the white board just about every time they come in here now to see if anything new is there. This white board has been a very effective way to keep literally “in front of me” the important things going on here at EPUMC.
The very first thing I put up and the only thing that has remained up for the whole time I’ve had the white board are the seven places I believe we here at EPUMC can be open to the Holy Spirit this year. I’ve been writing a few things underneath each one of these categories to remind myself of how I think we are doing with these areas of the Holy Spirit’s movement.
There are more than a few “challenges of vitality” up there….things like ideas on how we can better communicate with all of you from the office and what are we going to do if we keep having so many kids in the nursery. There are a few “Goosebump” moments like the attendance on March 5…we had 242 people in worship….and our average for the first 10 Sundays of the year is 189; that is 42 above this time last year. That is also under “celebration.”
I’ve had a few people comment to me on how their reading of the book of Acts is going. I’ve put the speaker we had on what it means to be a Muslim under “a culture of acceptance.” And of course the Soup Supper and the Huddle underneath we/them = US. On the first day of Lent underneath “When we wanted to take a break God wanted to take off” I wrote, “the temptation of Dan.”
I’ve underlined in red the seven key words:
Acceptance…Celebration…Us…God took off….Vitality…Acts….and Goosebumps.
I’m hoping that if I look at them enough, pretty soon I’ll have them memorized.
I share this to ask you to keep these seven categories in front of you and once in a while look them over… If you are in a small group or a ministry team at church, I’d like to invite you to consider where you would put something that has happened. I don’t mean to pigeonhole the Holy Spirit… I’m trying to give us some common language to claim how we are continuing to Open Ourselves to the Holy Spirit.
If some of you could share those things with me, I’ll make sure of two things. First: In some way, we will share it with the whole congregation. And of course…. it will make it onto the whiteboard in my office.
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan