Power in the Spirit took shape last week as a fully online event hosted for free for anyone who wanted to take part. From Monday, July 6, through Friday, July 10, Power in the Spirit provided a full week of study, prayer, fellowship, worship, and artwork through daily devotional content emailed out to participants, as well as workshops and vespers worship services hosted in the evening by Zoom video conferencing. This year’s event theme was the Holy Spirit, exploring the scriptural images of God’s Spirit, and how this Spirit continues to be at work in our world today.
The daily devotionals sent out to participants allowed time to consider the Holy Spirit from a different angle each day. Through scripture and readings, art and poetry, video messages from Pastors across the Virginia Synod, and Origami and coloring activities all were encouraged to look for ways the Spirit meets us in daily life and to spend time with these images and themes in preparation for each evening’s gathering on Zoom.
This year’s workshops offered attendees a wide variety of topics and interesting speakers to learn from. The Rev. Dr. Paul R. Hinlicky, The Rev. Terrie Sternberg, The Rev. Dr. David N. Young, The Rev. Kelly Bayer Derrick, and The Rev. Jeniffer Tillman all served as workshop leaders during the week.
Worship services were hosted following each workshop, with worship led by several Virginia Synod congregations. Christ the King in Richmond, Resurrection Lutheran in Fredericksburg, Saint Stephen Lutheran in Williamsburg, and College Lutheran in Salem each led in unique worship experiences sharing in word, music, and prayer. We thank all of the worship planners for their hard work presenting a diverse range of services throughout the weekend.
All of the workshops and worship services were recorded and can be viewed on the Virginia Synod YouTube channel. You can also revisit all of the daily devotionals and presentation materials that were shared during workshops at the Power in the Spirit page on the Virginia Synod website.
While we weren’t able to physically be together for this year’s Power in the Spirit, it was still a great week of gathering online for fellowship, deep learning, and diverse worship, that we look forward to supporting online moving forward!
