Moving Forward Together

Dear Central Family,

At the Church Council meeting last Monday evening we considered where we are going in the Acts journey.  You might want to take just a few minutes and read Acts 15:36 – 16:40 to gain a deeper perspective of the journey ahead of us.  It is absolutely amazing and surprisingly stunning!  Consider the fact that the head of each Jewish household would pray every morning, giving thanks that God had not made him a Gentile, a woman or a slave! Every day as a devout and faithful Jew the Apostle Paul, formerly Saul, had prayed this prayer.  But now he is privileged to be the vehicle through which a wealthy woman, a slave girl and a jailer are fully included into the Lord’s family.  In other words the gospel is embraced by and embraces three representatives of three despised categories of persons.  ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! In Christ the three categories of persons who were excluded are now redeemed and united.

First we meet Lydia, a rich businesswoman and worshipper of God.  God opens her heart to the gospel and she immediately demonstrates the Christian trait of hospitality, opening her home to Paul, Silas and Timothy. There is so much to learn from this movement of Christ towards Lydia.  Will Willimon identifies three important truths;

1.       First the narrator makes clear that her conversion is due to the work of God, not Paul’s skill. How many times is God’s work hindered by our belief that we can change or control another human being?  It is only the Lord who can change a human being.

2.       It is noteworthy that after the Jerusalem Council the first person identified as coming to faith is a woman. When compared to the conventional Jewish and Greco-Roman ideas about women, the church was radical in the way it welcomed women and featured them as leaders and prophets (I Cor. 11:2-16).  Women could be members of this movement without permission of their husbands, and they may, though Paul advised against, initiate divorce from a pagan husband (1 Cor. 7:13). The early church had women leaders like Lydia even though it struggled to reconcile the cultural beliefs about women with the experience of the gifts and leadership of women within early congregations.

3.       Lydia is a rich woman.  In the opening of his Gospel, in Mary’s Magnifcat, Luke sounds a warning to the rich. Throughout both the Gospel and Acts, Luke portrays possessions as a special danger. Yet Luke never becomes simplistic and legalistic. He does not fall into a divisive Marxist “class struggle” or simplistic preference for the poor that some theologies lean towards. In the Acts story we meet many wealthy persons who are give generously and sacrificially for the sake of the body.

Lydia demonstrates her conversion through hospitality.  That Paul consented to stay in her house as the recipient of her hospitality indicates that barriers which sometimes divided male and female or divided Jew from gentile Jewish convert within the synagogues do not hold in this emerging church.  Lydia is now free to be hospitable, and Paul is now free to welcome her as a sister in Christ.  Does this have anything to teach us in DISCERING GOD’S DESIGN FOR THE BODY OF CENTRAL?  Yes!

It is becoming increasingly evident to me that “the road onto which we are being called is counterintuitive; it calls us to leave behind our bags filled with methods and models of how to make the church work by creating programs that will attract and catch people. The way of the Spirit involves going on the road as a stranger, needing to receive hospitality from the others. This is a strange inversion of categories and actions – it does not fit with the way of life we have developed as middle-class individualists living in a ‘make yourself’ capitalist culture.” (Alan Roxburgh)

We have designated 2011 as a year to DISCERN GOD’S DESIGN FOR THE BODY OF CENTRAL.  In these remaining eight months of 2011 we will be living in the soil of ACTS (through Labor Day) and EPHESIANS.  As we continue to dig and get our hands dirty in the soil of scripture it is my prayer that our hearts and minds will be transformed. To discern God’s design is not just a gimmick to come up with another program to the contrary it is life changing and beyond our ability to plan and organize.  Just like the early Church may God move us beyond our habits, traditions, norms, customs and values and be led deeper into God’s work, will and word.  Remember the song “Deep and Wide”?  Central’s mission of Making Jesus Known can only widen as we go deeper! This summer I am hoping that we will have a minimum of 300 individuals who  will commit to reading ACTS and EPHESIANS as part of our ongoing discernment process.  In the weeks to come you will  hear more about this!

THREE FAMILY ANNOUNCEMENTS

1.       This Sunday we are having a reception in the Lobby to say thank you to Jill Pouliot for her years of service as our Children’s Ministry Director.  Baskets will be in the lobby for your cards, notes and expressions of kindness and appreciation.

2.       Sunday, May 22 is MISSION MADNESS! Sign up this Sunday and visit www.clcelkriver.org for further information.

3.       We are beginning the process of seeking candidates for the Music Ministry Director. Please pray that God will lead us to the right person and the necessary funds will be raised during May and June!

In Christ,

Paul

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