You know how football fans get when it’s Super Bowl Sunday? There’s this almost palpable energy that flows between them; something comparable to being in a room full of children on Christmas Eve. Well, that’s how I feel every year on Oscar Sunday. Yes, the Academy Awards took place four days ago and I’m still talking about it, still reading internet articles, and looking at red carpet photos. Call it one of my guilty pleasures - I just love the Oscars!

And the funny thing is that I don’t go to the movies very often at all. I don’t watch them much on TV either. I would estimate that I might watch a total of six to eight movies per year - that includes a couple of trips to a theater and maybe four or five on TV. And yet, I love the Oscars.

This Sunday will be a HUGE day in my life! It’s OSCAR SUNDAY!!!

I’m kidding. It is Oscar Sunday, and I do love the Academy Awards, but that is not what I am most excited about. The 1st Sunday in March of last year was the first day of my assignment at Imani. So this Sunday will be our first anniversary in ministry together.

And what a year it has been! For me, it was a return to a faith community that was both familiar and new. It was familiar insofar as some of faces were familiar, and the unique and strong spirit of this church was certainly familiar. It was new insofar as most of the faces in the congregation were new to me. Yet, there was an immediate spiritual connection between Imani and me which left no doubt that I was in the right place at the right time - God’s appointed time in the life of the church and in my life.

Imani is absolutely wonderful at welcoming new folks. I have experienced that myself; and I have never witnessed new folks coming into a church and so immediately and seamlessly integrating into its life and culture.