Develop a Discipleship System
Do you ever feel like planning for Pentecost is like planning a birthday party? This momentous day is almost here, and you find yourself rushing around, collecting all of the bright colored streamers and tablecloths, curating the best party playlist, and wracking your brain for how to make this one day extra special. We create this joyous, celebratory, meaningful gathering to celebrate a day that, in actuality, was chaotic and probably at least a bit terrifying (not unlike actual births).
How fitting, then, that this year we find Acts 2 paired with Ezekiel 37, a passage with all the makings of a ghost story. Dry bones littered across a valley that come back to life like reverse zombies. I’d say that counts as chaotic and a bit terrifying! I’m not suggesting we craft worship like an episode of the Walking Dead, yet the pairing of Acts 2 and Ezekiel 37 invites us to help people encounter Pentecost anew, to recognize the work of the Spirit in places that look like graveyards, and to follow the Spirit into spaces we presumed are full of death to prophesy life, well-being, and flourishing.
The beauty of these two texts is that they offer so many opportunities for visceral connections with the stories. Fill the altar with textures that are dry and rough next to symbols for life and flourishing. Fill the space with layers of sound and languages and song that proclaim the work of the Spirit in our midst. You might even find a way to incorporate a little holy cacophony! Engage your musicians in the process of enlivening one or both texts. Perhaps you have a percussionist who accompanies the dry bones rising to life. Or perhaps your pianist might give sound to the wind and fire and proclamation in Acts 2. Get creative and involve as many people as you can. If this is the Church’s birthday, then the whole of the gathered body should be involved in telling, remembering, and living the story of who we are in the Spirit.
However you approach worship on this day, remember that it’s all about living now. We are not just rehearsing a story from the past—we are embodying the story of the life we have in Christ with one another now. So don’t be afraid to name the difficulties your community is facing. Be honest about personal struggles in your midst. Lament if you need to. Name the areas where your bones feel dry. Confess and repent. This, too, is part of the story of Pentecost. The question is: Will we join in and trust the Spirit to take what seems lifeless and breathe abundant life into being?
Rev. Tripp Gulledge is a provisional elder in the Alabama—West Florida conference and a pastoral resident at Highland Park UMC in Dallas, TX. He graduated from Perkins School of Theology with highest honor in May 2023.
