A little project that will become a big gift, titled “The World is About to Turn” | June 2025
Well, here we are. The world is blooming, the sun’s sticking around longer, the scent of sunscreen and charcoal is in the air, creativity is flowing, and Pentecost reminds us that the Holy Spirit is right here living and breathing among us- inspiring us to one turn after another–over and over again!
I remember being a young girl, sitting outside my home parish as my mom weeded the front garden, having just placed red banners all around the interior of the church. Mom, telling me that it was Pentecost, as I mused on how much I liked the drape and color of the red fabric while the sun beat down on my skin, warming it past golden brown and into pink-ish red. I received a bit of a sunburn that day. And, I imagine the disciples received a bit of a burn (proverbial or literal) on their own initial day of Pentecost, too. Encounters with the Holy Spirit change you. It’s inevitable, and important. And so, as we engage our annual celebration and commemoration of that first Pentecost, or just as we work our way through the year…we re-member that part of our intention is, indeed, to be changed, to be transformed, by the fires of the holy.
And, one of those holy fires is our strategic planning work. You might not think “strategic planning” screams Pentecost energy—but I’d argue it does. Because discernment is spiritual work. Every time we ask, “Who are we? What are we here for?”—that’s Holy Spirit work. And soon, when the committee presents our new mission and identity statement, we’ll be handed something that’s not just a sentence to memorize and take to heart—it’s a filter. A lens for looking at ourselves and all of our decisions going forward. A way to hold up all our choices and ask: does this line up with who we say we are and who we say we want to be?
Because that’s what the Spirit does. She reminds us who we are. Who we’re committed to becoming. She breathes life into dry bones, transforms with heat and pressure, and keeps moving the church toward resurrection living, even when we’re trying to cling to more familiar deaths.
And summer, with all its warmth and openness, is a pretty great metaphor for that kind of Spirit energy. It’s not a flash-in-the-pan blaze. It’s a slow, steady burn—sustaining us through the seasons, keeping our hearts soft and our minds open long after the fireworks fade.
The mystic and theologian Howard Thurman once said:
“Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
This Pentecost, may we have the courage to let that heat ignite something in us, and come a little more alive. To let the Spirit move us into clarity, into boldness, into the new thing. Even if it scares us a little. Even if it sets something old on fire and means allowing the ash to become the soil for the new thing God wants us to see them doing.
Amen Amen, I say to you— let us enjoy this special Pentecost season!
-Intern Pr. Sam