VALLEY VINE Valley Presbyterian Church
June & July 2016
Volume 61, Number 5
Dear friends, Life lived in communion with the Holy Spirit is intimate and exciting; we sense God’s guidance in our decisions and feel his love and power in our actions. But there is also something inherently disruptive and disturbing about the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is apparent even in the Old Testament. In Numbers 11 and 12, God solves a practical problem with a new anointing. The people of God are moaning about their menu of manna and their desert travails, and Moses is complaining about the heavy burden of leading them. God’s answer is to endow 70 elders with his Spirit in order to share the load. As two of them begin to prophesy, Joshua panics. Comfortable with Moses as CEO and himself as Executive VP, he sees shared spiritual leadership as disorderly and dangerous. Strict hierarchy is easy, clear, and definitive—why risk a change? Moses’ reply undercuts the objection—“Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and He put his Spirit on everyone!”
This hope is what happened at Pentecost, as described in Acts 1 and 2. The giving of the Spirit to each follower of Jesus implies that authority is shared. Christian communities are called to distributed leadership. God’s Spirit is not the special possession of a small elite, but the mark and animator of every believer, so the powers of the few must be shared among the many. A distinctive mark of the church must be its capacity to equip its members for leadership. Do you see yourself as a called and empowered leader? This summer, we will study the distinctive characteristics of Jesus’ leadership. Pray that all of us will grow into better leaders in our families and neighborhoods, our businesses and vocations, our classrooms and schools, and in our work within and beyond VPC. Yours faithfully,
SUMMER SERMON SERIES
Valley Presbyterian Church 6947 E. McDonald Drive, Paradise Valley, AZ 85253-5342 Phone: 480-991-6424 Fax: 480-991-6427 Email: church@vpc.church Website: vpc.church