From the Pastor

Several years ago, the church I was serving in North Carolina was going through a major building renovation and expansion. During one of our Sunday services, the fire alarm went off. As you know, a fire alarm, by design, is painfully loud, and you really can’t help but hear it clearly. 

What’s funny is that instead of everyone heading for the exits and trying to escape to safety, — nobody moved! It was almost as if we expected that this was just a false alarm due to some construction issue, or that some child in the nursery had innocently pulled the alarm lever. The point is that we didn’t believe that there was any real fire. Imagine the looks on the firefighter’s faces as they arrived at the church not to see people pouring out into the parking lots, but still seated in the sanctuary as if it was business as usual. That Sunday, the church could have been literally on fire, but no one got out of their seat and moved with any sense of urgency!

 On the Day of Pentecost, the Church was moved! It says, “And suddenly, from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit . . .” (Acts 2:2-4). Peter was preaching a sermon, and just like me, it was interrupted. The big difference is that my sermon was interrupted by a fire alarm. However, in Peter’s case it was the Holy Spirit who interrupted his sermon, and for the last two thousand years, nothing has been the same.  

 May our church continue to move and be moved. Let’s not sit idly as if it is business as usual. Let’s go! Let’s faithfully move in the direction that the Holy Spirit is guiding us, — in our ministries, our decisions, and our actions. And may we be moved by the Holy Spirit as we yield all the aspects of our lives to him, so that we are strengthened in our love and service to Jesus Christ.  

 Pastor John

Quote of the Week

"Without Pentecost the Christ-event - the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus - remains imprisoned in history as something to remember, think about and reflect on.  The Spirit of Jesus comes to dwell within us, so that we can become living Christs here and now."  Henri Nouwen

 Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen, was a Dutch Catholic priest, professor, writer and theologian. His interests were rooted primarily in psychology, pastoral ministry, spirituality, social justice and community.