In four weeks, we’ll be statring our National Gathering!
I’m getting excited as I anticipate the joy of being together, and the ways that God will be forming us in Jesus’ love over those three days. The theme for this year is from John 15:15 – “I have called you friends”.
I’ve been meditating recently on the context of that verse. Jesus says that he does not merely want his followers to do his work (“I no longer call you servants”) but to know his – and the Father’s – heart for the world. But knowing Jesus’ “business” (as the NIV translates that word) will make us more vulnerable, aware of and exposed to the sin and pain and division and death that Jesus gives his life to overcome. Friendship is risky business. It’s cruciform. It will change us. And it will also allow us to enter more fully into the life of Christ. A life that is the embodiment of “love greater than division” (and sin and pain and death).
We’re going to be exploring that kind of friendship when we gather. We’ll dig into Scripture together. We’ll pray and sing. We’ll share our lives with Christians from traditions other than our own over meals and in the spaces around the program. We’ll be continuing a wonderful practice of small group discernment that we added last year. And this year, we’ll go on a half-day pilgrimage to a nearby Antiochan Orthodox Church to encounter Jesus in a tradition that most of us aren’t very familiar with.
It’s not too late to join us! We’ve got the space and we’ve got resources available to help you be there. Come experience this company of friends across difference and division. Come and explore the friendship work of Jesus. Come and be formed in the virtue of Jesus-shaped friendship. More information is below, and clicking on the image takes you to the registration page.
Last Zoom prayer time until August
This Wednesday, May 20th, from 8:00 to 9:30pm Eastern will be our last online prayer time before we take a break for the summer. We’ll also do a little celebrating of the gifts & graces from our online community this year. Use this Zoom link to join us!
Pray for our Leadership Council meetings next week
Next Tuesday and Wednesday (5/26 and 27) the six members of The Initiative’s Leadership Council and I will be in New Hampshire for prayer, conversation, and discernment around what’s next for our community. Please pray for the Spirit to lead, guide, and direct this time.
A smorgasbord of resources for the month
There are a few things to draw your attention to as we move toward Memorial Day and the start of summer (so maybe it’s a cookout spread rather than a smorgasbord 🙂)
First up is a new film on unity being released into theaters today and tomorrow. You can find more about it here and watch the trailer. I’m assuming it’s going to be available to watch on other platforms at some point.
Next concerns another important anniversary coming up in 2030. I’ve shared in this space before about JC2030 and the worldwide ecumenical movement to celebrate the 2000th anniversary of the Resurrection. On a smaller scale, that year will also be the 500th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, a Reformation-era appeal from the newly emergent “evangelical” (Lutheran) community to Church unity and reconciliation – which eventually became the foundational confessional document of Lutheranism. This approaching anniversary is being promoted by the Una Sancta society as an opportunity to recapture the spirit of that appeal to unity and renew our prayer and work toward the healing of historic wounds.
You can also read the amazing story (which I had never heard before) of their founder, Dr. Max Metzger, who was martyred by the Nazis in 1944.
| Finally, Claire & I have just finished reading a new book (perfect for the current liturgical season!) that I just had to share about: Sarah Hinlicky Wilson’s brilliant Forty Facets of the Ascension. It’s a profound theological dive into an often neglected and misunderstood subject. Amongst many treasures in here, there are some significant implications for the shared experience of all the followers of Jesus who affirm that “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” |
And as we prepare to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost this weekend, may we all continue to ask that the Holy Spirit would be poured out to renew in Jesus’ followers in this day what was true of them on that day: “All who believed were together and had all things in common” (Acts 2:44)
Many thanks for reading, praying, giving, and joining in what we do together!
Yours in Christ’s Love,
Scott Brill
Executive Director
