The LINK: 4/24
To the friends and members of Congo-Pres,
He is Risen! This Easter Sunday is the reason why we continue to churches have tended to gather on Sundays. There’s this promise that comes at the beginning and the end of the Gospel of Matthew. Before Jesus is even born, it’s announced that he will be called Emmanuel, which means “God with us” (1:23). And then after the
Resurrection, Jesus tells his disciples to go and make disciples, and he promises them “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (28:20). As your pastor in my first year with you all, one of the things that I’m passionate about is how we
experience and connect with our God who promises to be with us. In this last season, we looked at spiritual disciplines, or practices, that have been ways that Christians have used to experience God and deepen their faith for thousands of years.
But what do we mean by “experiencing” God? Sometimes we see the biggest and
loudest versions of God-experiences- things like miraculous healing, or a clear
direction in a time of wandering. But sometimes an experience of God might be in your routine Bible study where you walked away with a profound insight. It could be meeting a new person after worship and offering one another support around a table with coffee. It could be the ways that worship stirred you and pushed you to think about something new, or the ways the songs we sing reminded you that you’re not alone. I think experiencing God is about noticing the God who wants to be “over all and in all and through all” (Ephesians 4:6)
In particular, Worship can be a time where we experience God, and you and I might even get to do so at the same time! So as we’re moving from the Resurrection to Pentecost in these next few months, feel free to let me know: how do you experience God in worship at Congo-Pres? The more specific, the better! Maybe it’s in the singing we do, maybe it’s in the joyful greeting time. However it is, it’s helpful for me in my leadership and as your pastor.
Feel free to let me know at adamo@congopres.org.
He is Risen! Hallelujah!