Last Sunday morning as part of the service the congregation as a whole were invited to listen to God and each other around Ezekiel 37.
Here are some of the things people sensed God saying to us at Opawa:
Be willing to let God do something different.
It is not up to us as humans to rattle dead bones. Rather it is God doing something. Our role is simply to speak "lavish kindness"
We need to pray every day "fill me afresh Spirit today." (This was being integrated into a spiritual practise that had been suggested earlier in the year in the Practicing our Faith series.)
God has given each of us talents, so none of us need to be a dry bone.
It is easy to look at dry bones and lose hope. Yet following God is about faith in things not yet seen.
Even though things can be hard in our lives, need to keep working on it (and thanks to my home group for their support)
Never give up, even though dry bones can feel like all those unanswered prayers.
A note of appreciation:
Over the last months a lot of work has being going on behind the Opawa scenes to try and enhance our data projection. The existing auditorium computer has been struggling to keep up with the technical demands of videos and powerpoints, resulting in delays and causing frustration, both on Sunday morning and evening. So there has been much discussion and activity: purchasing a new computer, choosing and securing new software, moving old songs onto new computer, and re-training people.
This is “behind the scenes” stuff that I want to publicly acknowledge.
Those who have helped wish to remain nameless and include quite a number of people. For me, watching on, it has reminded me of the beauty of the multi-congregational approach. Opawa is one church with multiple congregations. One of our congregations, Espresso, includes people with considerable technical skill and expertise. While this congregation does not use the auditorium, or the auditorium computer, they have noted the problems and have been given of their time, expertise and finance. It’s been an example to me of what it is to be the church: coming not only to get, but to give of ourselves, irrespective of whether it blesses us or not.