To all the saints of St.
Paul’s,
Grace to you, and peace!
Between
the bookends of two personal trips (a wedding and moving our son into college),
I spent a week in Florida for two separate, but related, purposes. I am
currently in my seventh year (of eight) on the Presbyterian Church’s committee
to review and grant funds for new worshipping communities. That committee met at
the beginning of a conference for current or aspiring new worshipping
communities around the country. We gave away a lot of money, and learned a
great deal about some amazing ministries.
I can say
that this committee’s work is among the most exciting ministry in which I’ve
ever been involved. It is a blessing to see how God is indeed doing a new thing,
and then having the opportunity to support its development.
These new
worshipping communities sometimes look like traditional churches, but often when
someone develops a heart for a particular community of people, or a particular
place, it can appear very different from what we are used to seeing as a
“church.” Our Ripple friends would fit right in! It could be a mobile home park
or a new immigrant population, ministering to the homeless or to the chefs,
waitstaff, and bussers of the hospitality industry. There are twenty-somethings
meeting at a neighborhood tattoo parlor, rural folks in rocking chairs instead
of pews, and senior citizens who provide a skateboard park in their parking
lot. The Gospel is so amazing that it spills over into everything!
I
encourage you to go to www.onethousandone.org for information, or look up “1001NewWorshiping”
on YouTube for many videos on exciting ministries occurring around the nation.
Or call me and we can use my computer! May we be inspired and stretched,
because whether we start something new, or polish, sharpen, and refine what St.
Paul's has been doing, God is calling us on to join in.
Behold, I am
doing a new thing; now it springs
forth, do you not perceive it? ~Isaiah 43:19
God is all in all,
Pastor Steve
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