Focus on fruitful

Almost all attendees have arrived, navigated through registration, mingled a bit, and the 2015 Metro D.C. Synod Assembly kicks off with worship together. The musical stylings of Lost & Found ring through the ballroom as people continue to trickle in.

May big hopes come to fruition in our time together at Synod Assembly.

What do you hope will happen here this weekend? This is the question that the Rev. Phil Hirsch, Assistant to the Bishop & Director for Evangelical Mission, poses to open his sermon. The answer, he supposes, is that we are gathered here to do more than approve minutes and hear reports.  The hope is bigger than this.

The hope is that our work here will lead to good fruit we produce together.  And this fruit will only be possible if we are first connected to Christ. Pr. Hirsch calls us to take a moment, take a breadth in the midst of busy lives and busy ministries, to abide and rest in Christ.

In order to bear fruit, we might need to be pruned. This pruning will be change, and sometimes it might not be easy, but this is the work of God the gardener.

The call to “Let us abide in Christ so that God may prune our lives, our synod, and the national church in order that we might bear new and good fruit” seems to this blogger to be a near perfect opening to this assembly. Prayers are lifted for leaders, other synods, and many in need, especially for our suffering sisters and brothers in Charleston, South Carolina this morning. More prayer and joyful song and dance abound and the assembly is officially in session!

Amen, amen!