Dear friends in Christ,
I’m writing to you from Kansas City, where I’m attending the Episcopal Parish Network conference. It’s inspiring to hear about all the wonderful things happening across the Episcopal Church these days. In many places, lives are transformed, and the Good News of Jesus is shared in word and deed.
Here at the conference, I’m giving a talk on the spiritual state of the Episcopal Church, and it’s also true that we have plenty of room for improvement. Churches are struggling to reach people and to make things work as they used to. It’s not surprising that church leaders (including me!) don’t always get it right. Read a few pages in the New Testament, and you encounter the reality that following Jesus is not always easy or obvious.
In the Acts of the Apostles, we read about what happens when the church lets itself be led by the Holy Spirit. My hope for the church today is that we’ll do the same. We’ll have to start by admitting we don’t have the answers, and then we’ll have to pray mightily and listen attentively for the Spirit. And we can notice where the power of the Spirit is always inflaming the church with the astonishing Good News of Jesus Christ.
Conferences such as the one I’m attending now remind me of how good it is to gather with others and to share our joys, our hopes, our sorrows, our worries, and, above all, our faith in Jesus. You don’t need to get on an airplane and go to a conference for that, however. This same kind of dynamic gathering can happen in your local church, in your diocese, or just among Episcopalians and other Christians who want to hang out together.
My hope is that we who follow Jesus will always be unflinchingly honest about ourselves and our churches. There’s no bragging in sharing our joy in what God is doing in our lives and in the world around us. And there’s no shame in sharing our worry about our own journey or our churches’ calling.
In this chaotic world we now find ourselves living in, we need to constantly remind ourselves and others in the church that we can’t fix what ails the world. Jesus offers salvation to all who accept his gift. And our task is to proclaim that Good News—and to share his love with the world that craves a word of grace and mercy.
Blessings to you, wherever you are in your own journey, however it happens to be going in the moment.
Yours faithfully,
Scott Gunn
Executive Director
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