The Things That Are to Come

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; not speaking on his own, but will speak whatever the Spirit hears, and will declare to you the things that are to come.

John 16:13

We are now living in the season after Pentecost, and we remember how we as Christ’s church are empowered by the Holy Spirit. This coming week, we will have a great opportunity to see the Spirit working through us.

This Thursday and Friday night, we will hold SummerFest sessions, hearing about bold and transformative actions that have been taken in San Gabriel Presbytery. The evening sessions on Zoom will be panel discussions from our own people who helped to guide this presbytery to become who we are now. We have witnessed the Spirit moving through us as we opened our hearts and our campuses to new neighbors and immigrants . . . as church leaders faced the possibility of closure and took radical new directions to see the church reborn . . . as other church leaders facing the certainty of closure and finding creative ways to continue serving the community in significant ways . . . as congregations were told to shut down due to COVID and found ways to continue worshiping God and caring for each other . . . and as a congregation’s older generation stepped back so that the next generation could live into a major new vision, with a very different kind of leader.

These experiences remind us how God can present a very different future for God’s people, and how these people—we members of San Gabriel Presbytery—heard the Holy Spirit, and considered doing what seemed impossible. Emboldened by past actions of faith, on Saturday we will consider what God might have in store for the future of San Gabriel Presbytery.

Saturday will be a very full day, reflective of these days of transformation in the church. We will hear from new pastors being called by two of our churches. We will honor and give thanks for the ministry of Village Presbyterian Church. We will act on the proposal to return the La Casa de San Gabriel property to the Gabrieleno-Tongva people. We will install Deidra Goulding as our new Vice Moderator, and commission the youth going to Triennium. We will hear from Jihyun Oh, Stated Clerk and Executive Director of the Interim Unified Agency of the national setting of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Some of us will put together hygiene kits for patients leaving LA County General Medical Center, and work on a medical ethics case study with Chaplain Rev. Dr. Charity Ngaruiya, while others will trek out to La Casa de San Gabriel and meet with members of the tribe to do some initial cleanup on the property.

In the midst of all of this, the full presbytery will gather to discern who God is calling us to be in the future. Members of the Executive Presbyter Nominating Committee will be involved, so they can hear directly from you your vision of the future of the Presbytery, and what kind of leader can partner with you to live into the vision. Everyone is invited to participate—we all have a piece of God’s wisdom—so please plan on coming to Praise Community Church in Covina, and register so we can have lunch ready for you!

There is so much going on in the church, and in the world around us, and we are called to respond with faith, imagination, and bold obedience to the call of the Spirit. Come, dream with us!

In peace and confidence in the power of the Spirit,

Wendy