"God is up to Something Here at St. James!"



by Andrew Simon, Pastor

St. James Lutheran Church, Barrington, RI

I can remember the exact moment when Doing What Matters “clicked” for me.  It was several weeks ago, while Charlene, Lisa, Jane, and I were on a conference call with Kelly Fryer and Tana Kjos.  Kelly summarized the mission of ARE, saying “We’d like to get people to ask the question: ‘What is God up to?’ every day.”  I was into the process prior to that, but when I heard those words, I was definitely hooked!

At St. James, we’re fond of saying “God is up to something here.”  When I interviewed for the position of pastor, just over a year ago, the chair of the call committee shared that mantra with me and now I get to explore what it means every day.

St. James is a congregation that serves the people of the East Bay of Rhode Island —suburbs like Barrington, East Providence, Warren, and Bristol — and several communities in southeast Massachusetts.  St. James is a church that is growing.  We are growing in our faith, our outreach, and our understanding of what God is “up to” and how we fit into all of that activity. 

As we worship this Advent, we’re remembering our baptism — a time when God was definitely up to something with us!  This past Sunday, our children paraded down the center aisle of our sanctuary, shaking pine branches soaked in water from the font. The smiles on their faces were contagious, and before long everyone was smiling as we were sprinkled with the waters of baptism.  We sang a song about an awesome God who gave his life for us.  One of the lines really spoke to me as we worshipped: “Once again I thank you, once again I pour out my life!” 

God is up to something in New England, pouring out an abundance of gifts and inviting us to be a part of using them to do what matters.  At St. James, we’re just beginning to open up all the gifts of this unique process.  We’re preparing to begin an adult Bible Study based on resources from A Renewal Enterprise.  We’re only just beginning to look at who we are, what we have, and how we will use those things to do what matters.  We’re beginning at the font, in the waters where God claimed us.  Already, we can see that just as God was up to something in our lives at baptism, God is still up to something in our lives today.

Doing What Matters excites us because we believe that God is always up to something.  We’re looking forward to having our eyes opened to notice places we may have overlooked, see things in new ways, and use what God has given us to do what matters!