2008 Theme
Ignited by the Spirit, Excited by the Journey.
We don’t really use the phrase “I’m ignited!” If we did though, people would know what we mean: energised, eager, pumped up, ready to act. People who are “ignited” are amazing to be around. They have a way of saying to us “Come on, we can make this happen” and we believe them! They spark our motivation and make us proud to be involved. They draw out our skills, let us use our gifts and make us feel good about ourselves.
We all have times when we feel “ignited,” when some special cause or idea inspires us to action. As Christians, whenever we treat people better, care about a particular social justice issue or challenge others to live their lives in a more compassionate manner, we understand that it is the Holy Spirit “igniting” us to behave in new ways: in a spirit of love, or a spirit of justice, or a spirit of peace. Incredibly, this is the same Holy Spirit that gave Jesus his wisdom, energy and strength two thousand years ago! This same Spirit is challenging us to respond to life in the same ways that Jesus did…what a big responsibility!
The Spirit doesn’t just come out of nowhere! Like a fire needs the conditions to be right before a flame can be ignited, the Spirit needs the environment to be right before it can set our hearts on fire to act! With fire, kindling need to be gathered and set up correctly. Oftentimes we have to stand by and fan the flame, blow gently on the spark or help it along with more fuel.
This same process is true of igniting the Spirit in ourselves and in others…sometimes we need to take great care to nurture it along, while at other times, it will burst into flames at an amazing speed, surprising us with its intensity and heat! The Spirit of God is always active and will always be looking for ways to ignite loving, just and peace-building responses in us: some will come on slowly, challenging us to see things in new ways and respond with new approaches, while others will hit us with an intensity that surprises and even scares us. Now that’s exciting!
Jesus promised us that “you will receive great power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Put another way, we are sometimes told that “God never gives us a job that we don’t have the skills to handle”. We’ve already demonstrated what a loving and generous community we can be – we are God’s “witnesses” in many, many different ways. But God always wants us to grow, and so now we are being asked to do more: to respond to our God, to each other and to our world in even more loving, just and peace-building ways. God has given us the “great power” of the Spirit to achieve this. Even without us understanding exactly how, the Spirit is igniting in us new ways of making our world a better, more loving place. If we are open to the Spirit of God working in us, to ignite us with the “great power” to change ourselves and to change our world, then our journey together will be the most exciting we have ever undertaken.