After the Board of Deacons encouraged my undertaking of this road trip as a continuing
education opportunity, I penned a letter to the churches I hoped to visit. Along with a brief
introduction of myself and an overview of the plan of action, I gave them a couple of questions
to contemplate. How about this for a conversation starter: What is the Spirit up to in your
community?
If asked, how would you answer that question? What do you suppose Holy Spirit is up to in our
context?
Consider it deeply…
This is just day two of my endeavor and I only have data from five churches thus far. But I must
tell you, I have already been invited into powerful, if not unpredicted, Spirit-space. Well, and
then an hour for my hosts to unpack their reply.
Their story includes an aging church building that is demanding long overdue attention with a
price tag that they are being warned will be in the seven digits. In the midst of that background,
these people told me that Spirit is disrupting, challenging, and frantically trying to point them
toward something…
How often do we think of Spirit exclusively as our comforter? Spirit is that, along with so much
more. Spirit is bigger. Wider. More creative. Visionary. Hopeful. Grand. Dramatic. Long-sighted.
Divine!
Ages ago I preached a message about God-sized circumstances and that is exactly where this
particular community is. {Well, honestly we are all there, they just eyes to see it!} Without a pot
of gold, their situation is absolutely overwhelming. God sized. And with that huge elephant
sitting in the middle of the room, and at the end of their own power and understanding, Spirit is
stirring, swirling, and inflaming their imagination. While there is anxiety concerning the path
ahead, they can also sense opportunity and hope.
I find myself both curious and excited about their next chapter…and the one after that. What will
they do?
Back to you dear friends, what do you suppose Holy Spirit is up to at Immanuel?
Pastor Leah
