"Getting Connected"

Pastor Laura Guy

March 2, 2008

Here's an instant replay of what happened in worship:

We heard the debut of our new youth band as they played My Own Prison from the band Creed.
We thought about Peter's story, how he met Jesus after a long night of fruitless fishing. When Peter obeyed Jesus and put his nets down again, he had more fish than he could manage! From that moment on, he became a devoted follower of Jesus. But when Jesus was arrested, Peter was scared and denied that he even knew Jesus. The last words Peter says in Luke's Gospel are, "I don't know this Jesus!"
We read about the transformation of Peter that happened after Pentecost in Acts 2:14, 32-39. Now Peter is standing up in public and preaching, "Let me tell you about this Jesus!" How did Peter become a bold evangelist? The Holy Spirit changed him.
We were surprised to discover that when author Gay Reese set out to find how many Northern, mostly-Caucasian, mainline churches had baptized even five adults a year for three years, she had a very difficult time finding many. Of the 30,000 churches she researched, less than 1/2 of 1% met that criteria - in other words, only 150 churches! She wanted to know what those churches knew that the others didn't. She discovered that the people in those churches, like Peter, lived out a healthy balance in what she calls a trinity of relationships.
We looked at the diagram of the trinity of relationships - three interconnecting circles. One represented our relationship with God; one represented our relationships with people inside the church; and one represented our relationships with people outside the church. To live a vibrant Christian life, we must have balance in all three. We must continually develop our own relationship with God through Bible study and prayer. We must invest ourselves in the lives of others in our church, sharing our prayer concerns with them and helping when they have a need. We must also nurture our relationships with people outside the church. Many people who are going through difficult times due to financial stress, addiction, financial stress, etc. have never been invited to a church - a place where they would find help and support.
We prayed about where we need to work on our own trinity of relationships. Do we need to invest ourselves in our relationship with God, others in the church or those outside the church?
We shared communion at the table of mercy.