Looking out of my window, I see from the bushes opposite that there is a slight breeze, a rustle through the leaves. I can also see a lot of activity. There is something in the air.\u00a0 At first glance, it looks like a swarm of flies, all moving about in different directions. But \u2018they\u2019 are thicker, whiter\u2026 a bit of summer snow\u2026 in the form of pollen.\u00a0 Little clumps of seeds all swirling around, looking for a place to rest, to reseed. And they are doing – so much for trying to keep the lawn clear of dandelion clocks!<\/p>\n
As I write this, we\u2019re approaching Pentecost (4 June), a celebration of the birth of the church (see Acts 2). The swirling pollen reminds me of the work of the Holy Spirit. God\u2019s presence is always around us, inviting us to respond. As we do, the Holy Spirit works within us and begins to reseed, growing the \u2018fruits of the spirit\u2019 love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5: 22)<\/em>.<\/p>\n Also in June we celebrate our church anniversary, the \u2018birthday\u2019 of Starbeck Methodist Church, a time of celebration and also one of reflection. Paul tells us that \u201cif we live by the Spirit, let us be guided by the Spirit\u201d (5:25)<\/em>. The Holy Spirit moves and guides us in different ways within the life of the church and sometimes we need to be courageous and be able to change or adapt. Just as the pollen seeds can find crevices in which it takes root, so does the Holy Spirit encourage us to \u2018fill the gaps\u2019 and try something new, letting God\u2019s work reseed in ways we have not tried before.<\/p>\n The Leadership Team is planning an \u2018away day\u2019 on 30 September, to pray and reflect on the different areas of life\u00a0within our church.\u00a0 If you would like to join us please let us know (details are to follow). It may be an opportunity to reflect on the life of the church and how our discipleship and spirituality may be guided and developed.<\/p>\n May the Holy Spirit be visible and present in our lives.<\/p>\n God bless Looking out of my window, I see from the bushes opposite that there is a slight breeze, a rustle through the leaves….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2024-05-06 21:42:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starbeckmethodistchurch.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAnn<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"