May 23

 

Sunday is Pentecost and the day we celebrate the birth of the Christian church. The signature story of Pentecost is in the book of Acts. It tells of a special anointing of the Holy Spirit. It's described as sounding like rushing wind and looking like tongues of fire! To celebrate this phenomenon, we encourage you to wear something red tomorrow. We will also celebrate Pentecost with a special surprise in the courtyard before the service. So you may want to get to church a little early to enjoy the "Pentecostal surprise" celebrating the tongues of fire of the Holy Spirit. The Tongues of Fire will start in the courtyard around 10:45 a.m. Please note that the "Pentecostal Surprise" will also be in front of Wesley Oak before its 9:30 am Service, so worshippers will get to experience it at both campuses. 

I hope you saw the great article in the Savannah Morning News this past Thursday about the Spectra Singers. This choir will be performing today at Asbury at 4 pm. Spectra is a feminist treble choir committed to creating innovative and intriguing music while amplifying underrepresented voices through the repertoire they sing, the causes they support, and the community they create. I learned from the article that our good friend, Rebecca Flaherty is part of the group. Rebecca is a top notch singer, artist, and musician If she is part of it, Spectra's concert is going to be good. 

I'm so glad that Spectra chose Asbury as their venue for the concert. It's interesting that this unique group will be presenting their concert two weeks after my mother's Memorial Service and ten days after her birthday. As many of you know, music was my mother's lifeblood. You may not be aware that one of her passions was the rights and opportunities for women. She would be ecstatic about Spectra's concert. If Souls in eternity are able to attend concerts, mom will sitting on the front row. Tickets are $20.

Our church building is about to become the most exciting spot in Savannah! Soon there is going to be creativity, joy, learning, and love bouncing off the walls! Vacation Bible School is coming.....SOON! It starts next Sunday! Contact Chris Kincade or the church office to register children or to volunteer. It's a week that can change a child's life. It's a week that can also change your life! 

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of officiating the marriage ceremony of Mike Matheny and Nancy Pugh at Asbury. We're mighty happy for Mike and Nancy, and we pray for God's blessings upon them. We appreciate all that they do for others and for their ministry at Asbury. 

Mental Health Month has been observed in the month of May in the United States since 1949. Unfortunately there is often a stigma attached to mental illness. People are more likely to talk about their physical health conditions rather than their mental health conditions. Christians can especially bury their feelings of depression and anxiety because they are ashamed — they think that as a person of faith they should be able to overcome their thoughts and feelings. That's not how it works, of course. At Asbury, we encourage people to be honest with their feelings. We also stress the benefits of counseling and therapy. Please contact me or our staff if you need someone to talk with about these things. I would be glad to meet with you. I also know of people and resources to suggest if you desire to have a series of meetings with a therapist or counselor or Stephen Minister.

I want to close by giving a "shout out" and a "thank you" to those who are developing our Live Stream Ministry and our Online Campus. The pandemic hit us hard, but one of its blessings is that it forced us to start Live Streaming our worship services. People like Ray Ellis, Lawrence Staab, Deborah Staab, Randy Canady, and my wife Cheri explored how to get things up and running. The final piece to the puzzle was hiring Barri Marshall to be the maestro in the Control Room.

We now have over 1.03K subscribers! And lots of people all over the world are watching our services. We recently learned of someone who lives in a state north of us who consistently watches our services, but we had no idea she was worshipping with us. When recently her wife died unexpectedly, she called us so we could be praying for her. Now a number of our church members have reached out to her with love and concern.

We want to develop our Online Ministry and build community. If you are worshipping online, we encourage you to drop a line in the chat to let us know when you are there. Also, please reach out to some of our techies who are trying to help us develop our Online Community. The people are Terry Harman in New Jersey; Kimmi Sampieri in Costa Rica; Cheri Hester and Candace Jenkins in Savannah. Any of these folks would love to connect with you and would love to help you connect with our wider church community. So please be sure to let us know you are there.

Love & Blessings to all
Billy