This Sunday is Pentecost and I wanted to remind you about a few things for the day:

1.    If you want to wear red to celebrate the day, then I encourage you to do so.

2.    We are celebrating the gifts of the spirit that God has given us. You are encouraged to bring a representation of your gift to the church office, and they will be visible for people to see on Sunday.

3.    We will be welcoming new members formally into the life of the church as well. It is such a blessing to see the growth of the church on the day we celebrate the growth of the church by the original apostles.

4.    As always, we encourage you to stay after for a time of fellowship. We will two cakes: one celebrating Pentecost and the other celebrating our new members. Stay for some fellowship and to get to know better those who are new to our community.

Next, I wanted to let you know about our summer worship focus. The Narrative Lectionary ends on Pentecost and doesn’t officially pick up until the Fall. There are several routes we could go this summer and the one I chose for us so to do a Summer sermon series (say that 5 times fast). This summer we will be using a sermon series developed by another church and used with permission. It is called ‘Bumper Sticker Theology.’

Bumper stickers aren’t always clear at what they are trying to say. Sometimes they’re obvious and sometimes we misunderstand them. Or sometimes they are just downright confusing. While some people love them, I’m sure others don’t because they aren’t always helpful.

The premise of the series uses that idea of bumper stickers and runs with it with Bible passages. We all take certain passages from the Bible out of context. Oftentimes, when we do that, we miss the real meaning of what is being said by the author. This Summer we will look at a bunch of passages that are taken out of context and put them back into context so that we can understand what their real intention was meant to be.

The goal is to help us be better interpreters of the Bible, and better at using the phrases from the Bible in the way they were meant to be used. That way we can continue to share the good news of Jesus the way it was mean to be heard, and to continue to make sure that we are always a home to share God’s love and grace.

Blessings,

Pastor Brian