Responding to the Spirit's Call

This encouragement is from Anthony Siegrist, MCEC executive minister, from 2025 MCEC Annual Church Gathering.

We are a church—a community of Christ-followers responding to a call. Responding to the voice of God. Responding to a call to participate in God’s reconciling ministry. This ministry of reconciliation is holy, holistic and humble.

This ministry is holy in that it is not something we conjure up ourselves. This ministry is not born from a human ideology or political partisanship; rather, this ministry of reconciliation is conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This ministry of reconciliation is holistic. It is holistic in that it involves the reconciling—bringing back into right relationship—of all that has been pulled apart. The reconciliation of relationship with our Creator and the reconciliation of relationship with the community of creation. Bringing together people that have been pulled apart. Separated by divisions of financial capacity or ethnicity; separated by divisions on our views on sexuality, on politics, on worship styles and even on how we speak of God. And yet we are a people all called to participate in God’s reconciling ministry.  A holy and holistic ministry.

The evidence of the Spirit’s work is lives and communities that bear the Spirit’s fruit.

This ministry is also humble. You know that our lives are increasingly controlled by metrics, by measurable inputs and outputs—evidence of success. But God’s ministry of reconciliation is a different sort of endeavour.

We do hope to see some results: lives changed, lifegiving connections with God across the generations, the flourishing of God’s beloved creation. However, more than that, our participation in God’s reconciling ministry will be marked by its character. When the Spirit calls us and forms us within our communities of faith, the process has a certain look, a certain feel. Humility is one word for it, but Galatians gives us more: le fruit de l'Esprit

The fruit of the Spirit. Many people with many different agendas might claim to be about God’s business. And yet the Apostle Paul makes it clear: the evidence of the Spirit’s work is lives and communities that bear the Spirit’s fruit: l'amour, la joie, la paix, la patience, la bonté, la bienveillance, la foi, la douceur, la maîtrise de soi.

May we be recognized by the humble fruit produced by the Spirit’s call.

An oak tree will produce acorns. Some time ago, my family and I made a short trip to the southern US where we saw, for the first time, a species of oak tree called a ‘live oak’—Quercus virginiana. The leaves of the live oak are not, to my northern-eyes, oak-like. Yet, you know an oak tree by its fruit. The live oak produces acorns.

The Apostle Paul tells us there is no law against the Spirit’s fruit. There may be no such law, but there is a rising cultural opposition to it. A brash and impatient lust for power.

So here is my hope and prayer for our church: may we be recognized by the humble fruit produced by the Spirit’s call -- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

This will not mean that we avoid hard conversations or that we will all act alike. The Spirit’s ministry of reconciliation requires diversity and hard conversations. Different oaks look different. They grow in different areas. Yet they all produce the same fruit. May the Spirit do the same in our individual churches and in our shared church.