The small, brick World War II era Presbyterian church sat in an east-west alignment.

The sanctuary was adorned with beautiful stained glass windows on both the north and south sides of the building.

My showmate Todd and I found ourselves in this lovely and homey North Dakota prairie church because we’d been invited to perform our storytelling show called “An Evening of Faith.”

And much to our surprise, there was a goodly number of people willing to give up the very last unusually warm autumnal Sunday afternoon of the year to come hear us.

At this late afternoon hour, the low-setting sun poured into the church from the south, resulting in a refracted rainbow splatter on the north wall of the sanctuary, perfectly framing another window that depicted Pentecost.

The result was a magnificent piece of liturgical art, symbolic of one of the mysterious high points of the Christian year, surrounded by a panorama of brilliant colored dots … the result of the just-as-mysterious phenomena known as light refraction.

It was stunning! … Stopped me in my tracks. … Made me ponder the infinite beauty and mystery of this world. Thank you Holy Spirit!

This moment means even more to me now, as later our dear host, Marilyn, shared with me that in attendance at our show that night would be Presbyterians, Lutherans … and “at least one Catholic.” … Pentecost indeed!

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.” (Acts 2:1-4)

Over a post-event soup buffet provided by the women of the church, I heard many tales from the attendees who came from various Christian strains. No doctrines, nor dogma. … Simply stories from the heart, reasons why they dearly loved their home church and even their own intimate call stories.

They all were filled with the Holy Spirit, which it seemed gave us the ability for an afternoon to speak each other’s faith languages.

And you know what? … The more churches we travel to across the Midwest to share our storytelling show, the more I find that we have a lot more in common than not.

I will remember that special moment standing in the church’s sanctuary, witnessing the Holy Spirit manifest herself not only on the rainbow splatters on the sanctuary wall … but also how she manifested herself in all who were present.

Licks of flames above every single person! Amen.’

Devlyn Brooks is the CEO of

Churches United, a homeless shelter in Moorhead, and an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, serving Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton. He blogs about faith at findingfaithin.com, and can be reached at devlynbrooks@gmail.com.