Dear Friends,

Greetings to you all in the name of our Risen Savior! With the joy of resurrection and the celebration of Easter comes the budding of new life around us. The saying is true that, “April showers bring May flowers.” With the blooming of flowers and the greenery, according to the Christian Calendar on Sunday, June 12 we will celebrate “Pentecost” – the Birthday of the Church. Pentecost is the fiftieth and last day of the Easter Season when the Church received the gift of the Holy Spirit!

One of our friend’s favorite pastimes, especially if he were to a dinner or birthday party is to put together a big puzzle by the end of the party. Perhaps, some of you enjoy putting together big, complex puzzles, ones that don’t even have a picture of how they will look when completed. To put a puzzle together, people simply get started; they work on the corners, and the edges. Then they figure out the patterns, and a picture emerges. I believe this is a great way to look at the mission and ministry of our congregation. As we begin to serve among God’s people we begin to get the big picture. The pieces are there, like the puzzle, but we have to put it together! And part of being the body of Christ is realizing that each one of us is a vital piece of the puzzle and that we must work together for the picture to emerge!

To say a few words about the pattern of the early Church, according to the Acts of the Apostles there are four main truths that they held onto in being a community of faith. First, the early disciples committed themselves to the teachings of the Apostles. Second, they were committed to a life of unity and togetherness. Third, they were committed to a common meal, being in “koinonia” or in fellowship with one another in the breaking of bread together. Fourth, the early disciples were committed to a life of prayer. Certainly, the early disciples changed the world and have set for us a pattern for the picture to emerge.

With the various God-given gifts and graces that our congregation has, we need to devote ourselves to the Apostles’ teachings, be united, break bread together and spend time in prayer together. I truly believe that if we as a body of believers are faithful to God and are faithful stewards in the way that God has called us, we will be able to reach out and touch the lives of those in the Smyrna community and beyond for God’s glory and honor and for the extension of God’s Kingdom! May the power of our resurrected Savior empower us and may God’s Word be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path as we serve God in putting the puzzle pieces together, and together may we all sing, “I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together.” Thanks be to God!

Grace & Peace,