“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” ~ Acts 2:1-4
No, it isn’t Pentecost. In fact, we are a few short weeks away from the beginning of Advent, the season of preparation. I chose the first verses for this pondering because, if you have worshipped with us at all lately, or been in the building, the movement of Spirit is palpable! You can’t help but breathe it in! Like I said last month, it is something I have dreamed about since I got here—9 years ago December 1, by the way!
I am so excited about what is happening here, while at the same time, I am beginning to feel a little overwhelmed. Therefore, and this is the Spirit part, I am going to call on your help. We have some wonderful, and life-changing things, which will be happening within the next several weeks, and in order to make everything happen, we will need to work together.
First, our Annual Holiday Bazaar. We need all hands on deck, and that includes our prayer warriors! We need you to invite all your friends and family, co-workers, and people you bump into in order to make this another success. (See page 4 for further details. And if you need a flier to hand out, please contact me!)
Second, with a Scout Troop AND a Cub Scout Pack meeting here on Mondays and Tuesdays, we need to find space for their things. While they don’t have a whole lot to store, we still need to find them some space.
And that is going to be a bigger challenge than it would have even 6 months ago, as we will be sharing space with First Christian beginning Saturday, November 27! We have much to discuss yet, but we are closing in on some of it, like how they are going to rent space to begin with. The Adult Sunday School room will become Pastor Linda’s office, and their secretary will share that space with her. They will hold their worship services at 4:00 p.m. on Saturdays, again, for the time being. But the biggest challenge, is finding space to put everything they want to bring with them.
Over the next few weeks, we will be cleaning out spaces—Sunday School areas and nursery downstairs, the adult Sunday School room, and the big storage closet. If you have time and are able to help with some of these things, please let me know!
What we need most, are your prayers, your patience, and your radically open hearts and minds as we begin moving from our church building of Faith UCC to OUR church building, of Faith UCC AND First Christian Church.
This time calls for us to be creative, understanding of differences (which will be AWESOME practice for us!), and transparent communication. None of this will work without those things, by EVERYONE.
Friends, this is such an exciting time, and believe it or not, these are things God has had planned for us since we were born. I don’t know what will happen in the future, but for now, Faith and First, will be exactly what we are supposed to be, and the best part? We will be it TOGETHER!
Finally, I want to invite you all to join them at their last worship service on Sunday, November 21 at 10:00 a.m. WE WILL NOT HAVE WORSHIP AT FAITH UCC THAT MORNING! We will still be on Facebook live and YouTube. We are also invited to join them in a shared meal following that worship service. Please RSVP by Sunday, November 7.
This is all so exciting! God is so good, and Spirit really is moving! And for that, let us give thanks and praise to God!
~ Always Peace, Pastor Heidi