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Dr. Thomas: 'True Worship Ignites Divine Spark Within Us'
By Craig Pinley
ROSEMONT, IL (June 26, 2003) - Noted preacher Dr. Frank Thomas opened the 118th
Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) with exhortations
to continue worshiping God in spirit and truth during Wednesday night's
worship service.
Thomas, senior pastor of Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis,
Tennessee, roused the audience in the Rosemont Holiday Inn International
Ballroom by preaching from John 4: 19-24, the story of Jesus and the
Samaritan woman at the well. His hope for the audience was simple: That
worship would rouse others to worship with spirit and with truth. That
worship would lead to others to transform their lives. That
worship would cause others to say, in essence, "if you've got God, I want
to get it."
The theme of this year's Annual Meeting deals with worship and commemorates
the new Covenant Book of Worship, which was introduced at the ECC's Annual
Ministerium meeting earlier in the day. Given the tenor of the Annual
Meeting, Thomas was right on target, leaving attendees with three natural
results of worship:
- Worship ignites the divine spark that lies within us: You're fallen but
you're still an angel
- Worship breaks the curse of our fate: Worship is necessarily what we
speak, but worship is what is spoken back to us and over us that breaks
through our fate. Fate says, 'The one who sins will truly die.' Worship
says, 'Those who call upon the Lord will be saved . . . the gift of God is
everlasting life . . . by his stripes we are healed and by His stripes we
are made whole . . . my God shall supply all of my needs according to His
riches and glory . . . to all those that believed and called on His name He
has made us children of God . . .
- Worship invites us - and people - to be saved.
Using the John 4 text, Dr. Thomas reminded his audience that Jesus comes
often to us in unexpected ways. In the text, Jesus appeared to an unclean
woman in a society that favored men, he said, adding, "It is almost as if
Jesus pulls the cover back and lets this woman see beyond the veil . .
.that he reveals the essence of who He is.
"It is as if Jesus goes against everything that people thought was obvious
. . . but this is not a comfortable Jesus because he does not assume that
someone is better than anybody else," Thomas continued. "Jesus saw all of
us as 'fallen.' This woman at the well was fallen, but so were the scribes
and Pharisees at the temple. 'Fallenness' is our fate, but I'm so glad that
the fall characterizes our existence, but it does touch our essence. Jesus
is here in this text to remind us that even if we're fallen we're still
angels. Despite her existence, she had some heaven inside of her."
Before closing, Thomas told his audience how the John 4 text had become
personal - through a trip to South Africa and a meeting with a man he had
been introduced to before he spoke at an event there. Thomas had spoken
about how we were all 'fallen angels.' The sermon hit home to one listener.
After returning from his trip, he learned that the man had
been a noted drug dealer and had been killed shortly after he and Thomas
met. Apparently, he had mentioned that he had been affected by Thomas'
preaching about the 'fallen angels' and the analogy was discussed during
the man's funeral service.
"I don't know if he had gotten saved or if he hadn't gotten saved," Thomas
said. "But it was my job to extend the invitation to remind people that
they're fallen and we're fallen. Both of us had a divine spark inside of us
and it was our job to remind them that it (the spark) can change our fate .
. . it can change our hopes and it can change our dreams . . . and every
time we do that, we may invite people whose life we may not know or whose
behavior we don't know, into the family of God."
Before Thomas' sermon, Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) President Glenn R.
Palmberg installed Rodney Sawyer as new field director for the Evangelical
Covenant Church of Alaska and Jim Fretheim as incoming superintendent of
the Northwest Conference.
Sawyer, pastor of the Evangelical Covenant Church of Bethel, Alaska, has
served in some capacity as field director since last July. Fretheim was
previously lead pastor at First Evangelical Covenant Church of Grand
Rapids, Michigan. Sawyer, Fretheim and Northwest Conference outgoing Supt.
Paul Erickson were honored with a reception following Wednesday's worship
service.
During the opening portion of Wednesday's evening worship service,
attendees honored the work of the Book of Worship Commission. Jane
Hutchins-Peterson, associate pastor of Shoreview, Minnesota, and chair of
the Commission on Church Music and Worship, presented Palmberg with a new
copy of the Covenant Book of Worship.
Commission members included Dr. John E. Phelan, president and dean of North
Park Theological Seminary in Chicago; Martha Freeman; Arthur Nelson;
William Notehelfer; Craig Swanson; Douglas Vetvick, Glen Wiberg, Paul
Lessard and Henry Greenidge. The commission also included ex officio
members Palmberg; Donn Engebretson, executive vice president; David
Kersten, executive minister of the Department of the Ordered Ministry; and
Don Meyer, executive minister of the Department of Communication.
Don Njaa, who had previously served in Kersten's position for the Board of
Ministry, was an advisor for the project.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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