A MESSAGE FROM REV. KAREN KINNEY: HOW DO YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF?
Grace and peace to you,
This Sunday, we find ourselves immersed again in the early Christian church as written about in Acts. The struggles of this new community of faith to define itself, to passionately discuss who can belong and who can’t (really?), to think about what one must do or profess before they can belong, and how to define this new community of faith is head-spinning! I can’t help but feel for the leadership as they navigated these passionate discussions.
But aren’t they more than discussions for the 
folks involved? For many this is a matter of theological urgency – these are matters of importance because for many participating in the discussion – it’s about how one can experience salvation.
And, isn’t that what we face today? Passionate discussions between and among different sects of Christianity about what one must do, profess, or believe to experience real salvation.
I wonder though – is all this related to how we identify as Christians. If someone were to ask you, what is your Christian identity, how would you reply?
Or even more importantly, when asked to describe or identify yourself, does the word Christian come to your mind first?
I fear that what we often do is identify ourselves by telling people what we aren’t or pointing over to sects of Christianity that we are all too eager to define. What might happen, I wonder, if we first figured out our identity as people wearing the mantle of Christian?
Lots to explore this Sunday! Come and see!
Blessings,
Pastor Karen