Author: The Pastor

My stop light head

/ The Pastor / 2 Comments

Yesterday (Saturday) I spent the day on West Okoboji Lake boating with some friends.  It was a windy and choppy day on the lake, but it was beautiful.  We had a great time.  The problem is that despite the fact that I put on sunscreen, my big ole forehead still got sunburned (my receding hairline exposes more forehead to get burnt).  Now my head looks like one big spot light.  And against the whiteness of my alb this morning, my head should glow all the more brighter for the congregation to see.  Maybe I should stand out on the corner of Hwy 71 and North Highway and see if my head could stop traffic.

This should be a fun morning 🙂

-edh-

Coffee shop ponderings — My A/C dreams out the window

/ The Pastor / 7 Comments

I always feel humbled when I talk to someone who says they read my blog (I am usually READING comments from people not HEARING comments).  And that was especially true last night at our church council meeting.

At the beginning of the meeting I lead a brainstorming session with the crew (which included a number of newly elected members) do devise some goals for the year.  The catch was that they needed to think in terms of Christ’s mission in the world.  Too often we get caught up in our own agenda and not with Christ’s agenda.  I wanted this group to be more than a group of people meeting to talk about money and little projects around the church.  I wanted them to think of themselves as a ministry team…working to advance Christ’s mission in the world.  I want to move away from a business meeting model to a ministry meeting model (I am still trying to formulate this new model).

Anyway…after the brainstorming session the small groups choose their top 3 or 4 goals they came up with and shared them with the whole council.  The goals that the groups came up with were great.  Some of them include:  (1) Reach out to the inactive members and the new people moving to town; (2) get more people involved with worship (especially the children); (3) pray more; and (4) read the Bible more.  There were other good ones as well, but these jumped out to me…with the addition of one other…

…one of my parishioners/council members said as a goal “Install an air conditioner in pastor’s office” (currently I am without A/C).  Of course I thought that was a great idea.  Then the person who was writing these goals on the white board asked (with a smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye) “How does that advance Christ’s mission in the world?“.  To that question another responded, “It helps with pastor’s sermon writing process.”  [The next comment made me laugh] To that response, my parishioner writing on the board said (with still a smile on her face and a larger twinkle in her eye), “Sermon writing…I read his blog, he writes his sermons down at Coffee Choices.” Everyone laughed.  I guess I had that coming…bye bye, A/C 🙂 

Oh well…that is a small price to pay for the privilege of working with such a great and talented group of people with a mission focus and a heart for Jesus.  And I hope this doesn’t sound like I am sucking up to get my A/C because what I said is true.  What is important is Christ’s mission.  But if my comments help get me A/C, then so be it.  Who am I to say that A/C in the pastor’s office is not part of Christ’s mission 🙂

-edh-
P.S.  Did I tell you how AWESOME my church council is 🙂

Award…for being artistic?

/ The Pastor / 3 Comments

Diane over at Faith in Community has given me an award for having an artistic blog.  Even though I do not consider myself artistic, I am humbled and honored to receive such an award from a blogger that I highly respect.  But with this honor comes responsibilities.  So…below are the said responsibilities.

The rules:
(1) Pick five blogs that you believe deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.
(2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
(3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given him or her the award itself.
(4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of Arte Y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award which is here: Arte Y Pico

With that here are people/blogs I am giving this award to:

(1) Here I Stand — The banner at the top of David’s page is one of my favorite ones.  I think it says a lot about the theology you will find.  You will also find very thought and theologically sound content.

(2) The Lutheran Zephyr — Chris gets this award because his content never fails to make me think and reflect.  I also enjoy his straight forward-ness and his feisty-ness.

(3) Real Live Preacher — Gordon has been blogging for a long time and has a book (RealLivePreacher.com) out with some of his more popular posts.  His design and graphics are really fun and his writing style has been a source of inspiration for me.

(4) Faith in Community — I received this award from Diane, but I just have to include her in my awards list.  She has such a variety of content from sermons to poetry to theological ponderings to photos of her dog.  Always a lot of fun to check in.

(5) Freedom — Joe’s blog is another one that has a really fun banner at the top and a design that is really appealing.  He is also very open about his seminary journey and it has been fun to follow.

Well…there you go.  If you haven’t checked these blogs out yet, make sure you stop by and say “Hi”.  You won’t be disappointed.

-edh-

More ramp photos

/ The Pastor / 2 Comments

I hope people are not getting sick of seeing photos of our ramp project.  For me…it is exciting to see the progress.  With each thing that gets done, it means we are one step closer to using the ramp and moving worship back upstairs.  This morning the guys were up and working by 6:30am and done pouring the top half of the deck by around 8am.  Here are a couple more photos of what was done this morning (July 9):

The lower half of the deck has plastic with sand on top.  This keeps the cement from drying out to fast and helps with the curing process. 

So far everything is going great.  The guys told me today that besides beating the heat, pouring early in the morning gives the cements time to harden before the “hooligans” are out of bed and therefore they can not leave their legacy in the cement.  You can tell these guys have done this before.

Now our biggest challenge might be keeping Salem members at bay.  The ramp may look like it is good enough to walk on, but we can’t be using it until early August.  Hopefully people will understand. 

-edh-

Ramp update – pouring cement

/ The Pastor / 2 Comments

They started pouring the ramp deck today…WHOO HOO!!!  They are going pour the deck in two sections.  The lower half was poured this morning and the upper half will be poured tomorrow.  I was told they have to wait about 20 days before attaching the railings.  At this rate we could be using the ramp by (possibly) Aug 10.  Here are some pictures from the activities this morning:

Talk about getting down and dirty.

Getting closer…

Putting on the finishing touches as of 8:45am this morning (July 8).

Now our task is to make sure no one comes by to leave a permanent legacy in the cement for all to see.  This should be fun.

-edh-

Monday morning check in — The law at work in us

/ The Pastor / 3 Comments

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:15-25)

Yesterday (July 6) I preached on the above text.  Actually…I am spending the summer in Romans with the congregation.  I haven’t done a preaching series for a while, but after preaching in Romans the last couple weeks, I decided to look ahead and mapped out a plan that takes us through August.  I taught an adult class on Romans a few years ago, but never spent this much time preaching in Romans.  This is going to be fun.

In the above text I italicized a couple phrases that really hit home for me.  The first one is Paul’s frustration that when he wants to do good, evil is always right there with us.  Paul goes on to lament about what a wretched man he is…who will rescue us?  “Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord”.  Paul’s frustration is also my frustration.  But what really bothers me is when we take this “law” (as Paul states) and take it to heart a little too much.  I mean…how many times have you said (or heard it said) “The devil made me do it“?  We resign ourselves to the fact that we are wretched and sinful people and give up.  We simply throw up our hands and go on sinning saying (or thinking) “I can’t help help it…I’m a sinner“.  Does this “law” at work in us give us an excuse to keep on sinning?  As Paul would say, “By no means!  We have died to sin, why do you live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:2) 

We have a powerful law working against us, but it doesn’t mean we just give in and give up.  We have an awesome God that through Jesus Christ gives us eternal life.  That right there should be motivation enough to fight this law at work in ourselves for the glory of God.  God fought the hard fight for us so we may have life.  I mean…the cross was not easy.

Our fight against sin is one we can not win on our own.  We will lose many battles.  We will grow frustrated.  But “thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Thanks be to God that the war has been won.  Thanks be to God that God does not abandon us.  Thanks be to God that we are loved beyond measure.  Thanks be to God!

Next week the Romans text is chapter 8 verses 1 – 11.  This talks about living according to the Spirit verses living according to the flesh.  This should prove to be a good follow up and hopefully a source of strength and encouragement for the fight against sin.

Other stuff
It is going to be an ugly day here in SW MN.  The humidity is at 100% with a 73 degree dew point.  That makes for a tropical day.  With the early morning rain and the threat of severe weather looming, no work is being done on our ramp project today.  Currently the forms are set for the deck to be poured; we just need some nice weather for that part to proceed.  So because of that I don’t have any updated pictures.  When they start pouring the cement I will post some more pictures.  If you want to see some more pictures of the project, visit our church’s website at www.salemjackson.org and click on the “ramp construction” link.  It has been fasination watching this project but people are starting to get a little anixous to get back into the sanctuary (and I am too).  Another month or so and we will be back in. 

So with that…God bless you and have a marvelous day 🙂

-edh-

Wretchedness

/ The Pastor

Well…I have been relatively absent from the blogosphere these past couple days…and my “absence” will continue for one more day (I will be back tomorrow with my “Monday morning check in”).  I hope and pray you are having a fun and safe weekend.  So far mine was gone well…no real complaints here.

This morning I am preparing for worship (duh…I do that every Sunday morning, anyway…) and thinking a lot about Paul’s letter to the Romans (I am preaching in Romans through August).  In today’s text Paul is lamenting about his (and our) wretchedness (is “wretchedness” even a word…oh well…).  Paul says, “I do not understand what I do.  For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate to do…What a wretched person I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:15 and 24-25).  For me, verses 24 through 25 says it all.  “THANKS BE TO GOD”!

Have a great day and I’ll “see” you tomorrow.  Take care.

-edh-

Anniversary

/ The Pastor / 6 Comments

It’s hard to believe that our (mine and Connie’s) big weekend was only four years ago.  Four years ago today friends and family from all over came for a long weekend.  The festivities started on a Friday with my ordination (by that time I had been serving at Salem for about a month).  Representatives from Salem made the 2 1/2 hour trip up to Dawson to be there for the ordination service as well.  The council president processed in with Salem’s processional cross and recessed out with it (I had heard of that idea from a classmate of mine).  My grandma read scripture (she said she was almost in tears as she read, which misted up my eyes).  My mom and dad presented my stole to Bishop Jon (a stole my mom had specially made for me). Then Bishop Jon did something that I will always remember.  After the pastors came forward to lay hands on me, Bishop Jon invited my family to come forward to do the same thing.  It was such a powerful moment for me.  It wasn’t just one select person laying hands on me, but the Church; the community of believers; my family.  I will forever remember that moment and day.

But I would be in a lot of trouble if I did not mention the BIG part of the fun weekend.  July 2 is my ordination anniversary, but July 3 is my wedding anniversary (4 years married to my lovely bride).  Like I said…it was a big and fun weekend.  Connie figured that since family was coming for the wedding anyway that we might as well have my ordination that same weekend.  And of all the people involved, I think my mom was the happiest about that arrangement.  Since my mom really didn’t have much to do with the wedding planning, my mom took charge of my ordination planning (I planned the worship and mom took everything else).  And my mom did a great job.  Before the service, my folks hosted a BBQ at the house and after the worship service, mom arranged a ice cream social outside the church on the sidewalk.  Leave it to my mom to get creative like that.

But as I look back…the past four years have flown right by.  Connie and I have had some wonderful moments here and we can definitely see having many more years of wonderful moments here in Jackson.  We have made some lifelong friends here and the longer we are here the more Jackson feels like home.

How many more years will we be here?  That’s a tough question to answer.  The litmus test for me is this:  Does God have work for me to do here?  And as of now the answer is “Yes”.  So with that I continue my ministry and our life here in Jackson at Salem and Belmont Lutheran Churches.  And hopefully…in a year…you will find me writing about a wonderful five years of ministry here in Jackson, MN.

-edh-

Ramp project pictures

/ The Pastor / 2 Comments

Our ramp construction project is moving along quite nicely.  I have posted a couple pictures below that shows where they are at:

This is late last week as they are pouring the ramp walls.

This pictures was taken yesterday (June 30).  The deck forms are in place and the fill is being put in.

This was this morning, but as of right now, all the fill is in.  They are now packing it down and leveling it off. 

They could be pouring the ramp deck as early as this week.  I guess it depends on the weather…which looks halfway decent except for the heat.  Generally people are happy and excited about the progress and the project as a whole…which is a relief for me.  If people are disgruntled they have not voiced that to me (or at least word of their disgruntledness hasn’t reached my ears yet).

Worship downstairs in the fellowship hall is going well.  Attendance hasn’t dropped too drastically because of our temporary move.  Hopefully people will be patient.  We could possibly be back in the sanctuary in early August if not before.  But this Sunday will create a new challenge for us as we figure out how to serve communion downstairs.  My worship/music team will have some decisions to make tonight.

Over all…things are going well.  The workers have not gotten hurt; the weather has cooperated; and people have stepped up in a variety of ways to help make sure we continue to be a welcoming presence in the midst of our temporary chaos.  One guy even said he would be willing to help guard the newly poured cement to make sure kids (or immature adults) don’t sign their names or put their hand prints in the cement.  I hadn’t thought of that.

But no matter how well things are going, I am looking forward to moving back upstairs.  My only concern is maintaining the closeness and intimacy we are experiencing by worshipping in a smaller space.  If that gets lost in the move, I will miss that.

-edh-

Sunday morning prayer – 6/29/08

/ The Pastor / 5 Comments

I learned a very, very, important lesson yesterday…

…don’t run a 5K on 4 hours of sleep (or as my friend, David, over at “Here I Stand”, would say…don’t run a race unless someone is chasing you).

Friday night until 6am Saturday morning was our annual Relay for Life in Jackson.  This is a fund raising event for the fight against cancer.  I was asked to be on our church’s team to walk the paths lined with luminaries given in memory and honor of people who have died/survived cancer.  There were lots of festivities all night along (my wife and I only stayed until 12:30am but returned at 5:15am).  This is a great event that raised approximately $30,000 for cancer research.  In a small town of 3500, that’s not too bad.

But as for the 5K run…that WAS bad.  The race started at 8am on Saturday morning (did I mention I had about 4 hours of sleep).  My hip was feeling O.K. (still a little stiff, but not painful).  And I had a funny feeling that I was not going to run too well.  I started out fine; running a 7:30 for my first mile, but I had nothing left in the tank.  When I hit the 2 1/2 mark (0.6 miles to go) I decided to make my move on the guy just ahead of me…but I couldn’t.  I tried to shift gears but I had no energy.  Basically I just coasted to the finish line; finishing one minute slower than I did in the 5K I ran in January.  Next time I will get a better nights sleep.  And that next time will be July 26 when I run a 5 mile road race in Heron Lake, MN.

With my little lament now completed, let’s turn our attention to God and join together for a word of prayer.  Let us pray…Loving and merciful God, you have set us free from slavery to sin through your Son, Jesus Christ.  You have set us on the road to righteousness.  You have blazed the trail.  But in the end, Jesus is the one who carries us along this road and ultimately over the Great Divide; the bridge which is the cross of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Thank you for abolishing slavery to sin and clearing the path to righteousness.  May the Law for us now be a way to serve you through serving our neighbor.  Though Jesus Christ our Lord we pray, Amen.

Also…please remember my friend, David, over at “Here I Stand”.  There is a congregation voting on whether to extend a call to him to be their pastor.  I remember this time to be an exciting AND nerve racking time.  Please remember his David and his family along with the congregation as they discern what God is up to.

Take care and God bless!

-edh-