Our Mission
Sharing ourselves and our faith with others...
St. James is a Christian community that welcomes all with respect for
the inherent dignity and value of every person.
We strive to enable spiritual growth through worship, education, outreach, and stewardship for
the purpose of restoring all people to unity with God and each other.
A Message from Father Mac
Rector's Blog
January 16, 2020
In today's Gospel we hear of two of John the Baptist's followers who start to follow Jesus and John calls out "Behold the Lamb of God!"
John does as he ought to do and helps people see who Jesus really is. I imagine the side conversations between the two disciples who leave John to follow Jesus. I wonder how they felt. I wonder what questions they asked. These two disciples followed Jesus and in doing so invited others as well. One of those, remember he did not see any of John's proclamations but was only told about it all by his brother, and then invited to come and see, was a man Jesus names Cephas, or in other words St Peter. That's right, St. Peter was first introduced to God in Christ not by a vision, or miracle, or a healing. No, St. Peter began his journey to sainthood by being invited to meet Jesus by his little brother Andrew.
And it has me thinking about the most effective tool of evangelism. Now that word may scare you so let me frame it for you. I believe a good definition of evangelism is: an invitation to encounter the Divine. Yes that word evangelism is caught up in a lot of other messes. Yet, we see a prime example of biblical evangelism in this weeks Gospel. Andrew invited his brother to come and encounter the Divine.
That's not too hard, and yet it is terrifyingly impossible at times. We get caught up in ourselves, worrying about what folk will think or how they will respond. And so because if that fear and trepidation, we either don't ask or we diminish our invitation. We diminish by using regular language something like, "Hey St James is great, you should come." Or "We got this young guy and I like his sermons. You should check it out." I know I have made those types of invitations before and they usually are not effective.
So instead of fearing or diminishing our invitations, why don't we act biblically instead. Look at Andrew's invitation, "We have found the Messiah!" It is all about inviting folk to find God in our midst. And that you have found that Divine encounter and want others to find it too. So tell people what you have found and invite them to join you. Tell them that the divine is so very close and resides in places to be found. And go along with them, so that you may continue to find God in all the places God resides.
Mac+
Rector's Blog
January 16, 2020
In today's Gospel we hear of two of John the Baptist's followers who start to follow Jesus and John calls out "Behold the Lamb of God!"
John does as he ought to do and helps people see who Jesus really is. I imagine the side conversations between the two disciples who leave John to follow Jesus. I wonder how they felt. I wonder what questions they asked. These two disciples followed Jesus and in doing so invited others as well. One of those, remember he did not see any of John's proclamations but was only told about it all by his brother, and then invited to come and see, was a man Jesus names Cephas, or in other words St Peter. That's right, St. Peter was first introduced to God in Christ not by a vision, or miracle, or a healing. No, St. Peter began his journey to sainthood by being invited to meet Jesus by his little brother Andrew.
And it has me thinking about the most effective tool of evangelism. Now that word may scare you so let me frame it for you. I believe a good definition of evangelism is: an invitation to encounter the Divine. Yes that word evangelism is caught up in a lot of other messes. Yet, we see a prime example of biblical evangelism in this weeks Gospel. Andrew invited his brother to come and encounter the Divine.
That's not too hard, and yet it is terrifyingly impossible at times. We get caught up in ourselves, worrying about what folk will think or how they will respond. And so because if that fear and trepidation, we either don't ask or we diminish our invitation. We diminish by using regular language something like, "Hey St James is great, you should come." Or "We got this young guy and I like his sermons. You should check it out." I know I have made those types of invitations before and they usually are not effective.
So instead of fearing or diminishing our invitations, why don't we act biblically instead. Look at Andrew's invitation, "We have found the Messiah!" It is all about inviting folk to find God in our midst. And that you have found that Divine encounter and want others to find it too. So tell people what you have found and invite them to join you. Tell them that the divine is so very close and resides in places to be found. And go along with them, so that you may continue to find God in all the places God resides.
Mac+