It is important to repeat that congregational transformation is not a program it is a process. It is a congregational lifestyle. The church seeks to be open to all the things God is doing, both traditionally and in new ways. A transforming church is one that is open to the Spirit.
Thelma Chambers Young, Pastor at University Place Christian Church, shared the following in her newsletter:
"In 1968, at the Ecumenical Council of Churches meeting is Uppsala, Metropolitan Ignatios spoke these words: Without the Holy Spirit, God is far away, Christ stays in the past, the gospel is a dead letter, the church is simply an organization, authority, a matter of domination, mission, a matter of propaganda, the liturgy, no more than an evocation, Christian living, a slave morality."
"But in the Holy Spirit: the cosmos is resurrected and groans with the birth pangs of the kingdom; the risen Christ is there; the gospel is the power of life; the Church shows forth the life of the Trinity; authority is a liberating service; mission is a Pentecost; the liturgy is both a memorial and anticipation; human action is defiled."
May our congregation be open to the mystery, power and guidance of the Holy Spirit!
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