I have always been aware that my family had a lot of cancer in it. We haven’t been so much of a heart problem family, but we sure have had cancer. My mother got sick at 48 and died at 52. Many other aunts, uncles, and cousins died of various types of cancer. That is why I have always looked for things you could do to prevent cancer.
Do you remember what it was like before air conditioning? We had an attic fan that cooled our house at night. As I got older there was a window fan in my bedroom. And there was a space heater that had to be lit in the morning in the winter. We survived just fine. The times we felt were hardships were when we visited my grandfather near Anderson. It was always colder there and there was no heat at all in the room where we slept. There was always a stack of blankets and quilts on the bed in that room. It was cold when you got up (or turned over) but we made it just fine.
Passionate Spirituality….what does that mean? Do you know? I am learning. At least, I am learning what the Natural Church Development people say it is. And the reason that is important is because several months ago the leadership of our Church completed a survey designed to help us identify our strengths and weaknesses. Our MINIMUM FACTOR was passionate spirituality. This is not my judgment, mind you, although I was one of a number of people who completed the survey. This is the finding from the entire group. What does this mean? It means, that of the eight areas the survey measures, this is our weakest area. According to this method of Church development, a church should focus its attention on its weakest area.
PASTOR’S NOTES
What does Pentecost mean to you? I suspect it means one of a number of possibilities. First, it is a reminder of some magical story from long ago where strange things happened that we cannot possibly understand. Second, it might be understood by you as the birthday of the Church. It was on the Pentecost after the Resurrection that the Spirit came and the Church was born. This is true, but it places Pentecost in the ancient past.
Easter is the season of new beginnings, of the unexpected surprise, of wonder, and of grace. Those of us who have been Christians know this. We observe and remember this every year. Yet isn’t it interesting how we even use the occasion of Easter as a time of “doing the same old thing.” We get caught in the trap of holding on to the tradition even when the tradition is the unexpected surprise. Leslie Weatherhead’s question is as relevant now as it was years ago when he first asked “Which side of Easter do you live on?” Are we stuck in the old or open to the new thing God is doing?…has already done?
 | This template is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. This site, syndication feeds of Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS) are proudly powered by WordPress. |