Pentecost is this Sunday, May 19 and is often called the “birthday of the church” when the disciples received power from the Holy Spirit enabling them to proclaim the Gospel and witness to Christ. (Acts 1:8). 

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.” (Acts 2:1-2)

In 2008, I was received into the Episcopal Church at St. George’s in Nashville, TN. It was a special event as it was not only the day I was received by the Bishop, but also Pentecost Sunday and Mother’s Day! As I made my way to church that morning, I realized that we had an incredibly strong wind with gusts up to 40 miles per hour. I felt the presence of the Spirit in the roaring wind throughout the worship service.

Later that afternoon, I was reading a book by Brian McLaren, More Ready Than You Realize that talks about the “good evangelist”:

“Let me offer this better vision of good evangelism and good evangelists: Good evangelists—the kind talked about in this book—are people who engage others in good conversation about important and profound topics such as faith, values, hope, meaning, purpose, goodness, beauty, truth, life after death, life before death, and God. They do this, not because they like to be experts and impose their views on others, but because they feel they are, in fact, sent by God to do so. They live with a sense of mission that their God-given calling in life is not just to live selfishly, or even just to live well, but to live unselfishly and well and to help others live unselfishly and well too. Evangelists are people with a mission from God and a passion to love and serve their neighbors. They want to change the world….”

It was Pentecost Sunday in 2008 when I realized that if I were to live into God’s plan for me it was as a “good evangelist”.

I pray that you will find the “wind” in your sails this Pentecost Sunday and live into the story that God has designed for you, too!

Blessings,

Agatha

​(click below for MP3 file)