Summer Preaching - May 19th, 2021

As I briefly stated at the end of the sermon on Sunday, there is something of a plan in place for preaching over the next few months.

For starters, Pastor Fred will be bringing the Word for this coming Sunday.  It is Pentecost and we will focus on the Holy Spirit.  Part of me is sad that of all the Sundays to have to be away, it is Pentecost.  However, I realize that I tend to preach about the Holy Spirit throughout the year and so I won’t be missing out.  This will be Pastor Fred’s final sermon as a staff member at Mountainview and we pray that God fills him with the Holy Spirit as he preaches and blesses him in this time of transition.

After Pentecost, we will spend two weeks looking at neighbouring.  This is the most practical of all missional practices we are learning.  It is following the baseline commandment of Jesus: “Love your neighbour as yourself”.  Our hope is to be a community of people who are intentionally aware of those who live around us.  We will learn how the Holy Spirit is our guide in this.

On Sunday, June 13th, we will have a youth-focused Sunday.  Brandon is taking the lead in organizing (virtually or otherwise) speakers and participants for a regional youth gathering.  You will hear more about that evening event from him.  The 10 AM worship service will include profession of faith and an opportunity for all of us to reflect on our faith commitment to Christ.

June 20 will likely be Peter Kranenburg’s first sermon at Mountainview.  I will be encouraging him to preach a bunch of sermons over the course of the summer on the basics of the faith.  The reason for this is both to help him articulate in sermon form what this faith/church/Christian deal is all about, and to help us as a community sit in and review those same basics.  When I am preaching in the summer, I will be spending time delving into a number of biblical themes and topics that have grabbed my attention in the last while.  Most of them come from the BEMA-discipleship podcast I have been listening to (and recommending to others).  One of the opportunities I would like to pursue in the fall is having a discussion group around this material.  However, that would be one of about ten groups I would like to pursue in the fall; so let’s just say “some time in the not too distant future.”

Those are some of the ideas for what is coming up.  We will see how our Lord leads in the fulfilling of these plans.

Pastor Erick