The Reverend Dr. Katie Snipes Lancaster

As we finish the summer sermon series on Psalm 23 and look to what’s next, I can’t help but notice that we’re feeling called to that which roots us, grounds us, is foundational. Psalm 23 is the most celebrated of Psalms, so much so that we know it by heart. Green pastures. Still waters. It is familiar, comforting, and inviting. Like a deep breath or a good night’s sleep.

From the pulpit this fall, we approach another kind of re-rooting, grounding, foundational sermon series: the book of Acts. You probably remember that the book of Acts is “scene two” of the Gospel of Luke. It considers the question “What comes next?” It asks the question “How did we get here?” It pushes us to propose “How do we trust God in this moment?” These sound to me like very 2021 questions.

In the book of Acts we meet a post-resurrection community ready and open to renewal, revitalization, and reawakening (and it is not without struggle: loss, introspection, bold financial commitments, and predictably human intercultural tension). We think these themes are important on the micro and macro level for us today: in our lives, in our church, in our community, and in the world-at-large. So we’ll spend the fall in the book of Acts. We’re calling the sermon series Acts of the Apostles, (Re)Birth of the Church. 

(Re)Birth of the Church