There are certain passages in the Bible that give us important clues about the nature of the early church. One of these passages is in the eleventh chapter of the book of Acts. The author of this book, the same person who wrote the Gospel of Luke, tells us, “that for an entire year [Paul and Barnabus] associated with the church [in Antioch] and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called ‘Christians’.” We’re not exactly sure what was happening in Antioch, but whatever it was, people were coming close to Jesus. In fact, so much so, that when they were asked who they were or what they were, they responded by taking on the name of Christ. Whatever was happening in Antioch, it perhaps may best be described as a revival.

In his address to the ECMN Convention this past weekend, Bishop Loya confronted the fact that, for the past 50 years, church membership in the Episcopal Church and all other mainline churches has been declining. He then, in essence, called for a revival based on certain agreements, the first agreement being “Belief in Jesus.” The bishop wasn’t just talking about belief as some intellectual exercise but rather belief as a primary relationship with Christ from which our entire identity is transformed. Bishop Loya is asking each of us to reconsider what it may mean to take on the name of Christ.

I believe that this work of belief in Jesus happens best in community. This has certainly been the case at St. John in the Wilderness. I have witnessed first hand people who have recommitted their lives to Jesus at St. John’s. I have seen God transform lives at St. John’s. It has been at St. John’s that men and women have sensed their calls to ordained ministry. A bishop has been raised up out of St. John’s. Whatever was happening in Antioch all those years ago is much the same as has happened at St. John in the Wilderness Church throughout its history.

I share the bishop’s call to revival. I believe that God is once again not only asking us to take on the name of Christ but to behave as if we really believe in Jesus. I invite you to become part of this new movement of God’s Spirit at St. John’s. It can begin with a pledge of support to our parish, and who knows where it may end. Years from now, folks may just say that it was in White Bear Lake after a great pandemic that a new group of people rededicated their lives to Jesus and understood themselves to be Christians not just in name but to the core of their souls. May it be so.

~Father Art