the Holy Spirit changes everything.
(The themes for Advent are at the bottom of this letter.)
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of Christ the King, the one who remakes our broken places and calls us to lives of love and service.
We have been journeying together through Luke’s Book of Acts, the history of the early church. It started with the disciples still clinging to the presence of Christ, who spends 40 days talking about what life can be like when we live according to the values we learn in the words of God. Then Jesus disappears, leaving the Holy Spirit to empower and encourage those early followers into becoming the church.
That’s when things get interesting.
The Spirit begins by making sure everyone can hear the gospel in their own language. Then the growing crowds of believers start sharing all of their money and property, led by the Spirit, and living in a deep kind of Christian community. They appoint leaders, people who were full of the Spirit, to help with the administrative side of the church, and eventually they get hounded out of Jerusalem. Stephen is martyred, and then Philip has that amazing encounter with an Ethiopian eunuch, who becomes the first Gentile convert to the Way of Jesus.
This is just the first 8 chapters—the Holy Spirit has been busy.
The Spirit is still busy here at First Pres, inspiring and shaping and transforming and energizing all of us to be the people and the church that we’re called to be. Our kids are learning about God, we’re worshiping together and learning new ways to live in this community, and our service to the needy in our town never wavered, no matter what COVID threw our way. With our commitment to the Matthew 25 Project, we’ll see how the Spirit shapes us and leads us
As we look to Christ the King Sunday on the 21st, and the beginning of Advent the following week, We’ll see how the Holy Spirit is the driver of everything we sing and pray and do.
As we come to the end of our Stewardship season, we’ll see how the Spirit has prompted all of us to join in support the ministries of this church. This will be an interesting and exciting year of service together, no matter what happens. If COVID restrictions continue to stand in the way, what we’ve learned in this last year and a half is that we can go around them. If we’re able to return to some kind of normalcy, then we’re poised to move full speed ahead to demonstrate our love for God and each other.
See what I mean? The Holy Spirit is busy, and the Holy Spirit changes everything.
This Sunday Joel Drenckpohl of Front Porch will join us in worship and talk about Paul’s conversion in Acts 9. On the 21st I’ll finish the Acts series with a look at Peter’s developing understanding of the freedom we have in Christ. That will take us right up to Advent.
In the meantime, please take a moment to pray and reflect on your pledge for 2022. On the 21st we’ll celebrate all of the pledges of support of money, time, and talent, sending right into Thanksgiving week. It’s going to be a special season for all of us.
See you this Sunday. Stay safe and healthy and let us know how we can serve you best.
Blessings,
Pastor John
PS: The themes for Advent Sundays are, in order: Hope, Peace, Love and Joy. For your Bible in Community groups, find some passages that are meaningful to you on these topics, and let them help you prepare for the coming Advent and Christmas seasons.