Something special
I always hope and expect that our weekend services will be special; that there will be a strong sense of the Holy Spirit moving through our music, worship, prayers and spoken word. But last weekend was something REALLY special. And if you missed—dang! I’ll give you a recap.
At the end of the sermon in which we talked about the person and work of the Holy Spirit, I invited everyone to do something a little un-Presbyterian—but not too un-Chapel Hill. We stood together, held out our hands in a receiving position, and simply prayed, “Come Holy Spirit.” And we waited. “Come Holy Spirit.” Wait.
Then we prayed, “More of you, Lord!” And we waited some more. It was as simple as that. Nothing wild or hysterical. Simply an invitation to the third member of our Triune God to fill us up—to overflowing!
Judging from your comments afterwards, it was very meaningful to you. And we had some interesting things occur. One man came to me and said, “I never speak to you about your sermon. But when you were praying, I felt something welling up inside of me, welling up right to my eyes and I began to weep.” A woman followed him and said, “I’ve had hip pain. As we were praying, I felt as if something touched me on the right side of my body.”
I wonder if others of you experienced something unusual. If so, I would love to hear from you. Meantime, we are going to continue to explore what it means to be a bunch of Presbyterians who take the Holy Spirit seriously.
This weekend, we will talk about the unique Spirit-empowered role you get to play in the church. Every one of us has one, given for the purpose of building up the Body of Christ. I trust this will be another step in this sweet journey of learning what it means to be the Church together.
Blessings to you,
Pastor Mark Toone
P.S.—And don’t forget, if you want to take a deeper dive into who God has created you to be, understanding your talents, passions, experience and spiritual gifts, be sure and sign up for Custom Made which starts Wednesday, March 4; find out more here.