A Sacred Community

A Texas pastor who was a member of my ordination group back in 1973 and who has become a good friend in these older years recently wrote some notes in response to some young clergy who asked him what he would do differently if he were a pastor today.  His thoughts sent me to thinking.  Those of us who wear the mantle of retired seem to have plenty of time to think.  Ruminate is what I like to call it.  Anyway, my reflection about my friend's response put a question out there that I have chewed on all day.  "How do we create and sustain a sacred community in a secular world?"

 

My first inclination took me to preparing my own list of things which would be different.  I quickly realized, however, that my list was more about how I would offer leadership rather than how the church might be different.  Maybe such is really all I could truly do.  But, after a time, I found myself wondering if there was a model already in place that I might take and use.  As I started allowing myself to think in that direction, I finally came to the account of Pentecost in the second chapter of Acts.  Is that scriptural account not a model for creating and sustaining a sacred community in a secular world? 

 

The only problem is Pentecost cannot be duplicated.  It was not about what men and women like you and me could do, but about what the Holy Spirit could do as folks wait for Him to act.  Is the beginning point of creating and sustaining a sacred community in a secular world an attitude of waiting on the Holy Spirit?  It sounds like a reasonable conclusion to reach, but, of course, the trick is figuring out what that means and fleshing it out.  Sounds like there might be some more thinking to do.