Yes, Pentecost was May 23, and it was a glorious day! I preached at Lavonia Presbyterian Church and enjoyed the company of this energized and faithful congregation that is currently seeking an Interim Pastor. The exciting thing about this congregation is that over the past two years, with the support of their Designated Pastor the Reverend Scarlett Bostick, they have purchased and refurbished a house adjacent to their church, which they are seeking to utilize in active ministry related to community service. After making an on-site visit to the Rabun Gap Church to see how that congregation is actively engaged in community service through the Georgia Food Bank Program, the Lavonia Church has recently become a partner with Georgia Food Bank as a distribution center. This is just another example of how our connectional system is helping to equip our congregations for Missional ministry.

While worshipping at Lavonia on Pentecost Sunday, I was also pleased to announce that, in my various visits with congregations and Sessions in Northeast Georgia Presbytery during the month of May, I have witnessed these congregations welcoming a total of 57 new members into their fellowship! Ranging from the Scottish Heritage Sunday at First Church Athens on Sunday, May 2 (3 members), to Oconee Presbyterian on May 9 (32 new members), to the 100th Anniversary Celebration at Central Church Athens on May 16 (11 new members), to the Session of the Madison Church on May 20 (11 new members), May was definitely a spirit-filled month for Northeast Georgia Presbytery!

I found it very fitting that the Lectionary texts for Pentecost Sunday this year included the passage from Romans 8 that speaks of “the spirit of adoption” through which we are invited to become “children of God.” As I shared with the congregation at Lavonia, “adoption” in the Biblical perspective speaks of the doctrine of election. That is, “adoption,” in the Biblical context, means that God has chosen us, we have not chosen God. It is by God’s grace that we have access to God not through any merit or “pedigree” of our own.

Through my years of ministry, I have discovered that this concept of adoption can provide a truly positive avenue for membership growth, especially in smaller membership congregations. Because of the natural sense of family in a congregation, a congregation can become intentional in “adopting” individuals and families who are seeking a community of faith.

Actually, sitting with the Session of the Madison Church, I was pleased to hear this idea illustrated in real life. This person was a divorced mom with a daughter. She spoke of moving to the community in 2006 from another state and beginning to attend another church in the community. However, no one in that church made any effort to welcome her or her daughter, no effort to include them in the activities of the church, and no effort to get to know them in any real way. Recently, another mom with whom she had developed a friendship and who is an elder on the Session of the Madison church invited this young mom and her daughter to their church. She spoke of the way, from Day One, that the congregation welcomed them and embraced them in every way. She said, “I feel like I’m home at this church!”

This is “the spirit of adoption” that I see Paul speaking of in our text for this day. Once we recognize that it is only by the grace of God that we are a part of God’s family, it creates a different attitude toward those within our natural families as well as our church families that becomes contagious.

It seems to me that this has a lot to do with the experience that is recorded in the closing verses of Acts 2:
            “And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”

This same experience is still possible for the church today as we embrace this “spirit of adoption” and become the family that God intends the church to be.

Ken Meeks, Jr.