Pentecost celebration highlights unity, service for Christians

Jeremy Secrist, pastor at St. Peter Catholic Church, sings "Amazing Grace" with people from various area churches Sunday evening, June 5, 2022, during the Community Pentecost Celebration at Capital Region MU Health Care Amphitheater. The Christian holiday is celebrated 50 days after Easter to commemorate the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Ryan Pivoney/News Tribune photo)
Jeremy Secrist, pastor at St. Peter Catholic Church, sings "Amazing Grace" with people from various area churches Sunday evening, June 5, 2022, during the Community Pentecost Celebration at Capital Region MU Health Care Amphitheater. The Christian holiday is celebrated 50 days after Easter to commemorate the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Ryan Pivoney/News Tribune photo)


Joined together in song, prayer and commitment to serving the community, about 50 people gathered Sunday evening at Ellis-Porter Riverside Park in Jefferson City to celebrate Pentecost.

The Christian Ministerial Fellowship sponsored a Community Pentecost Celebration on Sunday featuring an outdoor volunteer fair and worship service.

Mark Kiekhaefer, an organizer with Christian Ministerial Fellowship and pastor at Living Hope Church, said the purpose of the event was two-fold: shared worship to commemorate the gift of the Holy Spirit and an opportunity to honor the spirit with volunteer work.

Community groups such as River City Habitat for Humanity, Transformational Housing and Catholic Charities of Central and Northern Missouri, among others, used the event to showcase what they are working on and recruit volunteers.

The Christian Ministerial Fellowship is a group of church clergy who gather each month to consider different ministry and service efforts in Jefferson City. The group has previously organized Thanksgiving dinners, but Kiekhaefer said it wanted to do something for the larger Christian community in Jefferson City after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sunday's service was in recognition of Pentecost, a Christian holiday celebrated 50 days after Easter Sunday to commemorate the Holy Spirit's descent upon the Apostles and followers of Jesus Christ.

"In Christian tradition, the giving of the Holy Spirit is really the birth of the church and Jesus prayed in the upper room before he went to the cross that the church might be one," Kiekhaefer said.

He said the celebration was also an opportunity to express the unity of the Christian church.

There are many denominations and expressions of the Christian faith, he said, but Pentecost is an opportunity to rally around the same message.

He said his goal Sunday was to see "some diversity across the spectrum of those who call themselves Christian, whether they be more traditional, more evangelical, more charismatic, Roman Catholic."

"Oftentimes people associate the church with a congregation," he said. "And one of my hopes for this evening is if people come they'll see that the church is much bigger than local congregations and the work that we're engaged in is much bigger than what local congregations do."

Three ministers shared short messages about the meaning of Pentecost, including Jeremy Secrist, of St. Peter Catholic Church, W.T. Edmonson, of Second Baptist Church, and Gary Barron, of Christian Fellowship of Jefferson City.

Edmonson reminded Sunday evening's combined congregation the Christian church doesn't belong to anyone. It's God's church, he said.

There have always been people who want to guard God's church and keep people out, Edmonson said, but those efforts eventually fail.

Edmonson shared the Book of Esther and said all it takes is one individual to make an impact on a community.

"Evil will never overcome God's grace and his mercy," he said. "The spirit of God is hovering over all of us every day. It's calling on us to be that one."

Tom and Barb Hutchison attend Living Hope Church and said they attended Sunday's service to explore more ways to serve the community.

The Hutchisons assist with Afghan refugee resettlement services, Tom said, but they want to do more.

"The Lord is good to us," he said. "He's been good to us for a long time so it just seems natural to want to help somebody else who may need some help too."

Kiekhaefer said he hoped the event shed light on the breadth of community service work Christians do.

"The spirit was given to empower Christians for work and witness," he said. "So we've invited a number of organizations -- not all of them are faith-based -- who need volunteers to do work in our community."

Chelle Smith-Vandergriff, volunteer services coordinator with Catholic Charities of Central and Northern Missouri, said the organization was invited to spread the word about some of the programs it offers.

Smith-Vandergriff said there's an absolute need for volunteers, particularly in refugee resettling services and its food pantry.

"We employ people of all backgrounds, we have volunteers of all backgrounds and we serve just the entire 38-county radius that is our diocese, regardless of circumstance, faith and background," she said. "Social service isn't really isolated to one particular day, there's always a need."

  photo  Ryan Pivoney/News Tribune photo: W.T. Edmonson, assistant minister at Second Baptist Church, adds his voice to the crowd of Christians singing Amazing Grace Sunday evening, June 5, 2022, at the Community Pentecost Celebration. Edmonson shared the Book of Esther during his remarks. Photo by Ryan
 
 
  photo  Ryan Pivoney/News Tribune photo: Judith Rudo Mutamba and Chelle Smith-Vandergriff worked the volunteer booth for Catholic Charities of Central and Northern Missouri on Sunday evening, June 5, 2022, during the Community Pentecost Celebration at Capital Region MU Health Care Amphitheater. Community service groups were invited to share information about their programs and recruit volunteers before Sunday's service.