Pentecost is often thought of as the birthday of the church, because, on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, and the Spirit inspired Peter to start preaching—and his preaching was so powerful that the number of believers grew by 3,000.
It is every preacher’s dream! One sermon, 3,000 new members! A whole new movement, formed on the spot!
What kind of preaching gets that kind of response?
Or, maybe it wasn’t just the preaching. Maybe it was the people’s openness to the Spirit…the Spirit that was present since the beginning of time; the Spirit that was active in the creation of the world; the Spirit that led Moses and Joshua; the Spirit that inspired the dreams of Joseph and Daniel; the Spirit that enabled the prophets to prophesy. Now, that Spirit was in their very midst, doing a new thing among them… And they were open to the Spirit.
How can we be open to the Spirit’s leading?
Good worship opens us up to the Spirit. In the songs we sing together, and the prayers we say together, we sense the Spirit’s presence.
What is the Spirit doing among us today? Where is it leading us?
Every Pentecost, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) takes up an offering that benefits new church ministry. Here at BKCC, a portion of all the money received in the month of May goes to that Pentecost offering. Half of it stays right here in the PSWR, while the other half supports the development and growth of new Disciples churches throughout the United States and Canada.
We can learn a lot from new churches! It’s a mutual learning; we learn together, from each other. It’s just like how one of the reasons I’m active in church camp ministry is that I learn as much about ministry from the campers as they learn from me; in the same way, even as older congregations and the denomination itself are called to help and teach new churches, new churches also have much to teach us.
What can we learn from new churches?
New churches are aware of how they are perceived. Churches that have been around a long time aren’t always aware of what it might be like, to be a visitor entering a church for the first time; but in a new church, everyone is new, and that awareness is a given.
New churches aren’t hindered by a “we’ve always done it that way” mentality. That mentality does often keep older congregations from being open to the Spirit.
New churches aren’t afraid to be creative. The way they do “church” is often very different, and as a result they are reaching people for whom traditional ways of doing church just don't resonate.
Older congregations have their own benefits and advantages. There is the wisdom that comes from experience. There are often resources, such as property and buildings, that many new congregations don’t have.
How can we combine the wisdom and resources of being an older congregation with the openness to the Spirit that many new congregations have?
It just so happens that the Disciples of Christ New Church Ministry website has some stories that help answer that question.
FCC Gainesville, Florida is a congregation that recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. However, the congregation had shrunk to just eight active members. They had the wisdom. They had the resources in terms of building and property. But eight people is not enough to keep a church going.
Meanwhile, Meizon Mission is a congregation that was founded in 2020 as an online-only church, when we were all online only; can you imagine trying to start a new church in a time when you couldn’t even meet together? Yet somehow, Meizon started growing and began looking for a place where in-person worship could take place.
One day, the pastors of these two congregations met. A year ago, in spring, 2022, FCC Gainesville invited Meizon Mission to hold their services in the FCCG sanctuary.
The two congregations quickly realized they had a lot in common, including theological understandings, and they began making plans to merge. They weren’t quite sure how to do this. For FCCG, they had to keep in mind things like their bylaws, and how a merger would work.
But they were open to the leading of the Spirit, and the two congregations formalized a plan to officially merge. The process continues, and the merger is scheduled to become official on January 9, 2024.
Now there is one congregation that is stronger than even the combined strength of two separate congregations. It is something completely new, yet draws on the traditions of the past. And the future looks good.
This is the type of thing that can happen when we are open to the Spirit’s leading.
Another story found on the New Church Ministry website concerns Gilead Church in Chicago, a new church jointly affiliated with the Disciples of Christ and the United Church of Christ.
Gilead is actually one of a handful of churches that I follow on social media, because they are doing things in such a radically new way. I want to learn from them. This radically new way of doing church is important for a congregation like Gilead, which says it exists with, for, and by people who’ve been told or made to feel that church isn’t for them.
It’s not that I want Bixby Knolls Christian Church to become exactly like those congregations. I don’t believe that the Spirit is calling us to replicate what other congregations are doing in their own contexts. But I do believe that it is essential to be open to where the Spirit is leading us, in the same way that these other congregations are open to where the Spirit is leading them.
I think one of Bixby Knolls Christian Church’s greatest strengths as a congregation is a willingness to be open to the Spirit’s leading. Over the past 15 years, I’ve been amazed at the openness of BKCC to where the Spirit has been leading us. We became open and affirming. We took part in the New Beginnings program. We recognized the strength of our relationships with other groups who use our building. We entered into new partnerships with organizations in our community sharing our commitment to healing and wholeness, while maintaining already existing partnerships. We adapted to a changing world during the pandemic…
And now, I believe the Spirit is leading us to ask: What’s next?
See, the thing about God’s Spirit is that it doesn’t rest for very long. The Spirit doesn’t sit still for very long. It is active; alive; moving; dynamic.
The Spirit is always leading us onward into the next stage of our journey. The Spirit is always asking, “What’s next?”
Over the past few months, I’ve been gathering with some of our young adults–those who, just a few years ago, made up our youth group. We don’t always see them on Sunday mornings anymore. Sunday mornings isn’t exactly when they are active.
So we’ve met a few times on a weeknight, just for conversation and coffee, or conversation and ice cream, or conversation and boba.
And I’ve learned that church really does mean a lot to them, and they want to stay connected to the church… but it’s not going to happen on a Sunday morning…
When the Spirit led Peter to preach to the people gathered at Pentecost, the people were already there. Peter didn’t pick a time that was inconvenient to them, and say, “come listen to me preach at this inconvenient time, and we’ll grow the church.” The people were already there, and Peter preached to them.
So, with our young adults, I’m trying to do something with them at a time that works for them. We’re going to start, for the next two months anyway, having a gathering every other Wednesday, in the evening, here at the church–and, afterwards, we (or they) might go out for coffee or ice cream or boba.
And the only thing I’m sure about this is that it is experimental. I keep using that word to describe it. It’s an experiment. We’ll see how it goes, what works, what doesn’t work, and adjust as we go.
One big motivator for our young adults is making this gathering something that youth can also attend. These young adults so strongly value the experience they had when they were youth in the church, and they want there to be something for youth now and in the years to come.
We don’t currently have many youth, and coordinating schedules among youth and young adults is quite a challenge, but that’s one of our goals. Who knows? If this actually turns into something that lasts, then it’ll still be there when those who aren’t yet able to come can come.
Remember: it’s an experiment.
I don’t know how long I’ll be here at Bixby Knolls Christian Church as your pastor. Those of you at our year-end congregational meeting know that, when we approved this year’s budget, we did so with the understanding that 2023 might be the last year we can continue to afford our current level of ministry, unless something big changes in our financial situation.
God is good, and for each of the past several years, we’ve done better financially than we were expecting; but every year, it seems that we need a bigger and bigger miracle to meet our budget.
I do celebrate God’s faithfulness and sustaining spirit, and I don’t doubt God’s ability to provide, but I can’t help but wonder: is this the Spirit’s way of pushing us to once again move forward on our journey, and to figure out: what’s next…
What new path is the Spirit leading us on as a congregation? What new forms of ministry, what new forms of worship, what new ways of reaching out and connecting with current and potential members, and what new ways of working for wholeness in our fragmented world is God calling us to?
So I am grateful for the ways we can learn from new churches, and by observing what the Spirit is doing in other places and settings. And I am grateful for all I learn from our young adults, and from the kids I meet at camp, and from the students I teach in school. In so many ways, God is teaching me. Always. And I keep learning, especially when I open my heart to the Spirit.
If we at Bixby Knolls Christian Church keep ourselves open to the leading of God’s Spirit, I have no doubt that the Spirit will show us the path we are to take.
It may not be an easy path; God’s Spirit is restless.
But the Spirit is also our Advocate. The Spirit is also our Comforter. The Spirit is our help. The Spirit is also our intercessor, praying on our behalf when we don’t even know what we should be praying for. Because the Spirit knows just what we need.
And the Spirit is with us. Always.
