February 4 is the middle day of winter. Long nights get shorter. The more daylight feels good. A few degrees warmer temperature feels good. Christmas and New Year’s, the winter holidays are behind us, and most of us are ready for Spring.
I remember as a farmer I started to think about Spring and seeing crops grow again, preparing for Spring with purchases of seed and fertilizer, going over equipment to make sure it was ready when the weather would warm. It was a time to dream of another growing season.
Baseball players are preparing for Spring training and hopes and dreams arise for all the teams. Football is all but over, and every team’s dreams have vanished except for one, the team that wins the Super Bowl.
Why shouldn’t we dream as a Church? Let me be so bold as to say, I believe, the Holy Spirit is the dream giver. He is the One who softens even the hardest heart to think positively about the dream. If you have any doubts, check out the book of Acts. The Spirit will assist pastors, deacons, lay leaders, and congregations to find a path off the plateau, even if it is rocky at first.
It is the Spirit’s privilege and occupation to deepen unity within the body of Christ, something I’ve talked about repeatedly in January. He stands ready to help embrace a Biblical pattern for the Church, to stay focused on Jesus. I believe the Holy Spirit can touch hearts of people we would have never thought possible.
I have sometimes joked with parishioners suggesting that if they want a new Church, they have only to do one simple thing the next Sunday morning, sit on the other side.
Seriously, we need to allow ourselves to dream about what Jesus can do here at the Shippensburg Church. Remember the dream never dies, only the dreamer; the song never stops, only the singer. Keep on dreaming. Keep on singing. Keep on believing with a holy audacity that God through Jesus is doing a revolutionary work in our church. He wants to work through us to accomplish miraculous and eternal transformations right here!
In the Love of Christ, Pastor Wayne Hall
