Dear Friends of the Savior:
Starting this Saturday, we begin a sermon series titled “Blessed to Be a Blessing.” I see this as one of the most important series for Savior this year. I pray it provides a vision, an impartation, to Savior that will help us on our outward journey. Specifically, I’m hoping this series will:
affirm that many things Savior people are already great at—e.g., listening, caring, showing interest in people—are a gift for people in their community and workplace
re-frame the idea of evangelism, which in many people’s backgrounds was high-pressure sales work for extroverts. Maybe we can accept (wink), “Savior, you may think you’re reserved and thoughtful and not naturally suited for evangelism, but you really do have what it takes, because your gifts in compassionate spiritual direction are perfect”—if we re-conceive evangelism in a more generous way
start to lead us all in answering our recurring prayer, “Show us the people and places you would have us serve."
In the 5 weeks, we will be drawing upon themes from Eugene Peterson, from the short film LiveGodSpeed, and of course, from the way Jesus interacted with people. Here are the titles:
Sept. 22: Place: the power of staying put (Fr. Kevin)
Sept. 29: Pace: slowing so you can notice people with compassion (Deb Nickerson)
Oct. 6: Face: asking questions that help people tell their story (Fr. Kevin)
Oct. 13: Grace: affirming how God is already at work (Fr. Kevin)
Oct. 20: Embrace: finding the relief of not being on your own (Sandy Richter)
Pastor Sandy will be creating a resource guide to help us all take these practices deeper in our lives.
Would you please pray that God sends his Spirit upon us as a people during these weeks? That we receive what he has for us?
Also, if you have any questions or want to talk further about the series, I welcome that.