{"id":24617,"date":"2025-01-07T10:31:17","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T15:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=24617"},"modified":"2025-01-07T10:31:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T15:31:17","slug":"a-transforming-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=24617","title":{"rendered":"A Transforming Movement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Big Daddy Weave - Let It Begin (Official Lyric Video)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vpy_OuMZ6Po?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">People Change the Church<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Tuesday, January 7, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Rev. Dr. Elaine Heath writes a letter to the church today:&nbsp;<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dear church, God\u2019s one holy, catholic, and apostolic church: \u2026&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s get on with our work. You know the parable of the wineskins [see Luke 5:37\u201338]. For goodness\u2019 sake, you taught that parable to me! <strong>We are in a time of wineskin change. Let\u2019s celebrate that instead of wringing our hands. Let\u2019s thank God for the old wineskin and the grace it carried to us. And let\u2019s celebrate the new wineskin with its expansive fermentation. Let\u2019s do both. We don\u2019t have to choose.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So what if we are losing our privileged place in society? We never did our best work there anyway. <strong>We\u2019re always our best on the bottom or the edge. This is a great time to remember the saints and mystics who founded our traditions, the ones who did their work from the margins.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because\u2014and I say this with more love than I can name\u2014<strong>we can\u2019t afford to keep squabbling about things like buildings, budgets, pews, stoles, handbells, praise bands, and carpet\u2026. We must stop that at once. <\/strong>God needs all hands on deck. We cannot continue operating as if we are a private club with members, dues, and privileges. Why? <strong>Because Jesus never acts like that. Our neighbors need us. God needs us. We need us too.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I know it\u2019s hard to play and be creative when we feel fearful. Anxiety takes the spring out of our step\u2026. We don\u2019t have to be afraid. That is the wonderful news. <strong>God\u2019s love casts out fear. God is with us. With\u00a0<em>us<\/em>! God orchestrates systems change. Change happens all the time so that every generation, every community, every person can experience God in their world, their context, their time.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Heath imagines the possibilities on the other side of our anxiety:<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>B<strong>eloved church, can we agree to let God have our anxiety? God knows how hard it is for us to let go. We simply have to be willing to be made willing. Just a tiny degree of openness allows God to work with us\u2014<\/strong>like dandelion seeds. They blow on the wind, fall into every crack \u2026 and before you know it a parking lot is in full bloom. <strong>Church, do you realize we are on the cusp of a new Great Awakening? And it looks like a spiritual dandelion explosion as far as the eye can see. God\u2019s new thing is networked, <\/strong>exponential, Spirit-breathed, decentralized, a vast planting of small communities of faith\u2026. <strong>It is very much the work of laypeople, and it is emerging as a natural progression out of the church that used to be\u2026.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I know if we will say yes to God, we can rely on God\u2019s already having said yes to us. So let\u2019s go together, all of us, in the direction that God leads. When that happens, <strong>the world will know that Jesus spoke the truth, that God\u2019s love is for everyone. <\/strong>People will encounter the real tradition, the tradition behind the tradition, because they will experience it in us.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>_______________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sara Young Jesus Calling<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>It is impossible to praise or thank me too much<\/strong>. As it is written, I inhabit the praises of My people. Sometimes your adoration is a spontaneous overflow of Joy, in response to radiant beauty or rich blessings. At other times your praise is more disciplined and measured&#8211;an act of your will. I dwell equally in both types of praise. Thankfulness, also, is a royal road to draw near Me. A thankful heart has plenty of room for Me.<br>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<strong>When you thank Me for the many pleasures I provide, you affirm that I am God, from whom all blessings flow. <\/strong>When adversity strikes and you thank Me anyway, your trust in My sovereignty is a showpiece in invisible realms. <strong>Fill up the spare moments of your life with praise and thanksgiving. This joyous discipline will help you live in the intimacy of My Presence.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>RELATED SCRIPTURE:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Psalm 22:3<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New Living Translation<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>3 Yet you are holy,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; enthroned on the praises of Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Psalm 146:1-2 NLT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Psalm 146<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1 Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let all that I am praise the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;I will praise the Lord as long as I live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1 Thessalonians 5:18 NLT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God\u2019s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People Change the Church Tuesday, January 7, 2025 Rev. Dr. Elaine Heath writes a letter to the church today:&nbsp;&nbsp; Dear church, God\u2019s one holy, catholic, and apostolic church: \u2026&nbsp; Let\u2019s get on with our work. You know the parable of the wineskins [see Luke 5:37\u201338]. For goodness\u2019 sake, you taught that parable to me! We [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24617"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24618,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24617\/revisions\/24618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}