Pastor’s Partner Submissions
June 2008
“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 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 and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”
Acts 2: 1-4 NRSV
As our denomination’s recent General Conference came to a close in Fort Worth, Texas the other week, I couldn’t help but recall the opportunity that I had four years ago, along with some colleagues in Cumberland, to journey to the last such conference, which was held in nearby Pittsburgh to attend one of that year’s sessions. The General Conference is the official policy making body of our denomination and the only entity in our church that can officially speak on behalf of the whole church. It meets every four years at different locations throughout the United States and is attended by over a thousand elected delegates from Annual and Central Conferences throughout the world, as well as by our Council of Bishops and Judicial Council. We, thus, have present in one place the three major branches of our denomination with the elected delegates representing the legislative branch, which makes church law; the bishops representing the executive branch, which administers it; and the Judicial Council, our Supreme Court if you will, representing of course the judicial branch.
Those of us who went that day decided to make the trip because of the five of us only one pastor had ever attended one and given that it meets only every four years and will not be that close to us in who knows how long, we didn’t know when we would ever have such an opportunity again. It was an exciting day for us to see our denomination’s top leadership in action debating the issues of the day. For me, however, the highlight came when I took a break and was making my way to the beautiful Prayer Room that operates throughout the conference to give the delegates a place to center themselves. As I was making my way to it I had to cross a large glass enclosed bridge that spanned the meeting hall. It was in looking down from it that I was given the perfect snapshot, too bad I didn’t have my camera with me, of the entire body, delegates, bishops, Judicial Council members, and guests like our self. How fitting, I thought to myself, that it was May, the month of Pentecost, because that is the thought that came to my mind in that moment, Acts 2: 1b, “…They were all together in one place.” Yes, it was truly a Pentecost moment as below me, in our case with the aid of modern technology, delegates from throughout the world were speaking in their own languages but everyone could understand.
As you receive this letter many of you recently attended our local church’s Pentecost worship service in which we received our 2008 Confirmation Class. It was a very special day and for me one of the high lights of my nearly two year ministry at John Wesley. Pentecost is always a special Sunday, but it is more then a day, it is a season, sometimes called “Ordinary Time” that will run from now until Advent in December when the new liturgical year will start. Therefore, I want to use this epistle today to convey my thoughts about this season and especially this most special day in the life of the church, what some, indeed, have called “the birthday of the church”.
Like with our General Conference that I was discussing earlier those in the crowd this day were “in one place” but had come from multiple geographical regions, in their case sixteen different ones. They were, according to my research, probably descendants of those who had been exiled but had never returned to reside in Israel after it was rebuilt. You see, when the decree was issued making it possible for exiled Jews to return home, only a fraction of those eligible chose to do so. Others, who had become settled or successful where they were, chose to remain in the places where their families had been scattered. They were Jewish in every way; thus their observance of the feast of Pentecost, but time and distance, however, gradually hampered or impeded their ability to understand the language spoken in the Temple. When each heard the followers of Christ speaking about God’s deeds of power in their native language, it was indeed a miracle and a blessing.
Well, as one of the commentators that I was using in my research points out, “It continues to be a miracle when people actually hear and understand the works of God in a language they can understand.” All of which leads him to ask, as I do today about our own church and community, are there people in our community who think differently, live differently, and speak differently who are waiting to hear the gospel in ways that speak to them. If so, which of course there are, does it not become incumbent upon us as the church to do just that, to find ways to tell them the “good news”, the life saving news of Jesus Christ and then make them disciples as well?
As I write this letter, we are just a few weeks away from beginning our new study, “Leadership from the Heart”, which is designed to transform participants from disciples who lead, or follow, with the head, to those who would do so from the heart. That is, it is designed to strengthen our own discipleship journeys in such a way that we begin to envision our church as Christ would have it to be. As we approach the beginning of our 3rd year together, it is time to look at the vision that God has for us as a church that we might be as faithful as our forbearers in the 19th & 20th Centuries; as God calls us into the 21st. One thing is for certain, God is not calling us to sit on our laurels or to become a comfortable social club for our active members. No, I suspect that God envisions for us a new “Pentecost” experience that will allow us to speak the language of those he is calling us to minister to and that will allow them to come into his fold.
Yes, beloved, Pentecost experiences change lives and churches and give them the power to proclaim. We need only look at the early church described in Acts to see that. As one commentator says, “Note the radical changes in the community of believers. Before, they had been cowering behind closed doors and living in fear; their leader had been killed and they felt the pressure of being in an unpopular camp. On the day of Pentecost, however, they were spilling into the streets, proclaiming the works of God without shame and without fear. What made the difference? The power of God that is resident in every believer. Perhaps [he concludes] we, too, need convincing that we have the power to proclaim.” As we prepare to enter our Third year together, I am sensing another Pentecost experience coming on for us. Yes, we’ve accomplished much, in our proud heritage at John Wesley, but we’ve only scratched the surface. Who knows what God has in store for us once we truly claim his power to proclaim! It’s an exciting time for our church and community; I pray that you will be a part of it and that future historians will look back to Pentecost 2008 as another turning point in our faith life together. In Christ, Rev. Rick