Now It’s Our Turn

Focus Statement

When the Spirit moves beyond our expectations,

the faithful response isn’t resistance—it’s trust.

Point of Relation

It wasn’t just a meeting—it was a crisis.

The Church had grown beyond Jerusalem.

Gentiles were believing, being baptized, filled with the Spirit.

But some insisted:

they still needed to be circumcised, to follow the law.

Especially the food laws.

That wasn’t just tradition—

it was spiritual safety.

Eating food sacrificed to idols meant joining yourself to idolatry.

You weren’t just breaking a rule. You were poisoning your soul.

So when Peter, Paul, and Barnabas said,

“We’ve seen the Spirit fall without any of that,” it shook the room.

And when James said,

“We should not make it difficult for those turning to God,”

it wasn’t compromise. It was clarity. Spirit-led. Hard-won.

Things to Consider

It’s easy now to treat those early debates as theological footnotes—

dietary laws, ritual purity, rules about idols.

But back then, these weren’t small things.

They were core convictions.

Eating the wrong food wasn’t just improper—

it was seen as participating in idolatry. Breaking Commandments 1 and 2.

So when the Church began questioning those boundaries, it wasn’t casual.

It was costly. And Spirit-led.

What Scripture Says

In Acts 15, the Church faced a turning point:

should Gentile believers be welcomed as they are,

or made to become like “us”?

Some said they needed to follow the law.

But Peter reminded them: the Spirit already came.

Paul and Barnabas shared what they’d seen—grace alive, no prerequisites.

And James said: Let’s not make it hard for those turning to God.

Paul later wrote in Galatians that this wasn’t just a moment—it was a mandate.

The gospel wasn’t theirs to gatekeep. It was God’s to give.

At Annual Conference, Bishop Moore-Koikoi asked where we’ll live after the meeting.

In fear? In the past? Or in joy? In Acts 15, the Church chose joy—by choosing welcome.

Now it’s our turn.

What This Means for You

Maybe you've wrestled with what belongs inside the boundaries of faith—and who does too.

Maybe you've drawn lines you thought were faithful,

only to feel the Spirit tugging at the edges.

Maybe you have had the line at some point drawn on you.

I know I have.

If so, you're not alone.

You know what, I have had that line drawn on me multiple times, was even told early on that they didn’t think I was teachable. 3.97 GPA, but I wasn’t teachable.

Guess what God thought?

Well you can see it, because I standing here as your pastor.

Remember The early Church had the same questions.

They found areas they needed to grow, to change direction on and to follow Christ in faith.

What empowered them to change wasn’t fear—it was grace.

The same grace that’s still calling us to listen. And follow.

What This Means for Us

As a church, our task isn’t to protect the boundaries.

It’s to listen—to the Spirit, to one another,

and to the stories grace is still writing.

The early Church chose to follow where they had never been,

butGod had already gone.

That’s still the call.

To stay rooted in Christ, open in heart,

and ready to say yes when the Spirit leads. Amen? Amen.

Written by Rev. Todd R. Lattig with the assistance of ChatGPT (OpenAI).