PC(USA) Facebook Live event features conversation about Pentecost

Angela Johnson to focus on trusting the Holy Spirit in a time marked by chaos and confusion

by Paul Seebeck | Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE — Today at 3 p.m. the Rev. Angela Johnson of Grace Hope Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky will be featured in a live conversation on the PC(USA) Facebook page.

Johnson will address the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit on this Day of Ascension in the Easter season. After the resurrection and before ascending into heaven, Jesus promised his disciples the Holy Spirit would come to give them strength and power to be his witnesses.

“As he was leaving his disciples, Jesus promised there would be a helper,” says Johnson. “They were to wait. Evidently, it was time for them to gather and pray.”

On the Day of Pentecost — which the church celebrates 50 days after Easter Sunday — the Bible says the promise was fulfilled as the Holy Spirit gave everyone gathered and the apostles the ability to speak with other tongues so everyone heard what was being said in their own language.

“The Holy Spirit indwells in us,” says Johnson. “Empowering us to hear God’s voice and to speak and live God’s word, which is what happened on the Day of Pentecost.”

Johnson has preached a quarterly series on the Holy Spirit, beginning on the Day of Pentecost, every year since she arrived at Grace Hope. This year she’s focusing on what the Holy Spirit can do for us, especially in a time marked by so much chaos and confusion.

“The Holy Spirit gives us ‘the spirit of knowledge,’” Johnson says. “Any movement I make, or do in my ministry or life, I try to be attentive. The Holy Spirit has always been a special person of the Trinity to me.”

Johnson, a second career pastor, spent 34 years at the University of Louisville as an interior designer. She is in her second year of doctoral studies at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where she earned a Master of Divinity degree and a certificate in Black Church studies.

The Day of Pentecost will be observed this year on May 20.

For those unable to join the Facebook event live, a video playback will be available for viewing following today’s broadcast.

—–

PC(USA) Facebook live events are part of an ongoing effort by Presbyterian Mission’s Theology, Formation and Evangelism ministries, to engage Presbyterians and others in conversation and learning around the days and seasons of the Christian year.