Church life

God is Good

/ The Pastor
image

God is Good!

This was my supper at Wednesday Night Live (Sunday school on Wednesday) a couple weeks.  I am willing to bet you can guess what was on the menu 🙂

After I took this picture I showed it to a parent/church council member and she laughed (she is the one who came up with the caption for the picture).  She then said that she was in charge of devotions at the council meeting (which was slated to begin soon) and she didn’t have anything.  Now she did and shared this as part of her devotions (with her talking and me passing my phone around the table).

God IS good for countless reasons but if God were pancakes I imagine God would be the best pancakes ever.  Sweet enough that you wouldn’t need syrup (which I did use on the above mentioned pancakes).

God is good…all the time!
All the time…God is good!

Amen to that 🙂

edh -|—

First Day of School

/ The Pastor

We didn’t serve Doughnut holes this year but we were still out in full force 🙂

Today was the first day of school…and like last year Salem Lutheran Church was out in the parking lot to greet kids and their parents.

You may remember from my “Doughnut holes” post from last year (see link above) but the church parking lot provides a convenient way for parents to drop off their kids and pick them up from school…and the first day of school is the busiest.

This year the Salem Lutheran Church council had more time to plan and brainstorm.  So this year we were out in the parking lot with coffee for mom and dad and juice for the kids (like last year).  Something different from last year is that instead of doughnut holes we gave the kids a choice between a box of raisins or a granola bar; something they could take with them and eat later if they wanted (and it was healthy). We also had pencils with various sayings like “Jesus loves you“.

And…we had a box of kleenix…which was a welcomed sight for a couple parents 🙂

Why did we do this?
~ It wasn’t to gain more members
~ It wasn’t a fundraiser.
~ It wasn’t to bring more visibility to the church.

The reason was simple:  To share the love of Christ in a very practical way.

…And we had a lot of fun.

After we were done ideas were starting to flow for next year…but hopefully it is not a full year until we show the love of Christ in a practical way.  Hopefully this is a daily habit for people.

And for the Church…I look forward to the next opportunity 🙂

edh -|—

Don’t wear red

/ The Pastor

I saw a question on Twitter this morning that asked:

“Are you wearing red today?”

To some of you this may seem like a strange question so allow me to put it into context.  Today is Pentecost Sunday (liturgical color: Red).  This is the Sunday when we recognize the giving of the Holy Spirit to the disciples in Acts 2.  A great story of the birth of the church and the work of the Holy Spirit. But I have serious problems with this question and the encouraging of people to wear red today (other than the fact that we don’t encourage people to wear clothing to match other liturgical colors throughout the year).

Think about it:  If you were to visit a church on Pentecost Sunday (not knowing what this day was or forgetting it was Pentecost) and upon entering the church you notice a sea of people wearing red, what would your first thoughts be?

For me I would:
(1) Start to wonder if there was a special celebration going on that I wasn’t invited to. I might be a little leery about going in; thinking I was crashing a party.

(2) Wonder if people were looking at me wondering why I didn’t wear red today. Kind of like going to a Vikings tailgate party and not wearing purple and gold.

(3) Feel like an outsider; not part of the group.  Kind of like wearing a Packers jersey to a Vikings tailgate party.

(4) Feel left out; like I am not wanted in this group…like a Packers fan at a Vikings tailgate party 🙂

(5) Probably not return to that church…because I would not want to feel like this again.

The encouraging of people to wear red on Pentecost (and Reformation Sunday…the other Sunday people are encouraged to wear red) is done in order to give those Sundays a special emphasis; not to isolate visitors.  But it does have that effect.  So I have stopped inviting people to wear red.  If they do…great.  Will I wear my red stole today?  Absolutely.  But I want ALL people to feel welcome.

Think about that today and other Sundays:
~ Are there things that we do in our churches that might cause people to feel like outsiders?
~ Are we truly welcoming communities?
~ When visitors walk into the church do they feel like they are wanted?
~ When visitors attend worship do they feel self-conscience about not knowing the “rules” of the church?

Let’s not become so comfortable that we exclude others.  Make it a point to say “hi” to someone who is visiting and befriend them.  Don’t let your church become an exclusive club but an inclusive family…the Body of Christ.

So don’t wear red today…wear the love of Christ.

edh -|—

Holy Week support for your pastor

/ The Pastor

Holy week begins on Sunday, April 1…and that’s no joke.  Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday is considered the holiest week of the year for Christians and the busiest week of the year for pastors.  And…if you’re a solo pastor it is even busier (not to say pastoral teams are not busy or have it easy).

So with this busy week coming up I wanted to give you (the people sitting in the pews)  a little heads up.

Your pastor WILL be busy…

…and maybe a little stressed and  maybe a little over-tired.  There are a bunch of worship services to plan, details to line up, multiple sermons to write and maybe some small group studies to lead (among other things).

So with all this craziness that is coming up I wanted to clue you in on the top ten ways you can support your pastor during this busy and crazy week.  These are not necessarily time tested things but from where I sit I think they would work…because I wouldn’t mind them.  So here we go (in no particular order…and…definitely not an exhaustive list):

(1)  Stop by your pastor’s office sometime and ask them: Have you taken some time for yourself today?  If the answer is no then as a person from the congregation whose offerings help pay their salary, gently encourage them to go for a little walk ~ 10 to 15 minutes at least.  Anything to just get outside and clear their head.  Tell them you’re doing this because you care about them.  And…if it’s raining then be a little flexible about the outside walking part.

(2) Drop by your pastor’s office with a cup of coffee (or their favorite drink) and let them know that you are praying for them (and actually be doing so before you stop by).

(3) Drop by your pastor’s office with a cup of coffee (or their favorite drink) and offer to do devotions with them.  Sometimes we forget to spend time in personal prayer and/or scripture reading during Holy Week because of everything else on our plate.  Have something planned and them pray over them before you leave.

(4) Volunteer to help with something such as:  Read scripture for a worship service; help set up the sanctuary; make some phone calls; help with the Easter breakfast; basically…offer to help remove something from your pastor’s to-do list so they can spend more time preparing for worship and proclamation.

(5) If you have small children, bring them in sometime and instruct them to run into your pastor’s office and give them a big hug.  But make sure your pastor isn’t on the phone or having a private conversation with someone before sending the kids in.

(6) Have I mentioned the coffee part (that is if your pastor likes coffee)?

(7) Remind your pastor to spend quality time with their family.  Your pastor’s family may “understand” the craziness of Holy Week but it doesn’t mean they don’t want to see their husband/father.

(8) If you see your pastor around town and they don’t wave at you or say “hi”…be patient.  They are not trying to be rude.  Sometimes when there is much to do we have a tendency to put blinders on and get really focused on the task at hand.

(9) Get a group of people together, stop by your pastor’s office and sing some Easter hymns (kind of like Christmas caroling).  Now how can someone not smile at that.

(10) If your pastor is doing a good job, then take some time to let them know.

Once again, this is not an exhaustive list but just some ideas to help your pastor relax and enjoy this week.  For me…this is my favorite time of the year.  Maundy Thursday and Good Friday always give me goose bumps when I think about why Jesus would go through all that for me.  And Easter…well…that is just awesome.  I may be exhausted on Easter Sunday afternoon, but every single year I say to myself “It was worth it”.

God bless you this Easter season and may you know the joy of Jesus Christ died and risen FOR YOU.

Praise be to God!

edh -|—

Holy community moments

/ The Pastor / 4 Comments

Last night (Sun, Feb 26) brothers and sisters in Christ from Jackson gathered together to pray.

Back in January we had a special prayer service for a family mourning the tragic death of their 20-year-old son.  A lot of people showed up and it was a powerful moment.  Following the prayer time a few of us were talking and wondered:

“Why do we need to wait for a tragedy in order to gather to pray?”

So yadda, yadda, yadda…

…we decided to hold a community prayer service every month on the 4th Sunday.  The location is to rotate among the churches.  Last night we were at Salem.

The agenda is nothing more than to just pray.  I set up circles of chairs in the fellowship hall.  I lite candles in the sanctuary in case people wanted a quiet place for private prayer.  I began our time with scripture and off we went.

That was 7pm.

By the time I looked at the clock again it was nearly 8pm.  Wow…how time flies when brothers and sisters in Christ unite in prayer.  And it didn’t even seem that long.  Our little circle prayed about a variety of things and people.  No rhyme or reason, but then again that is how it should be…pray however the Spirit moves you.

It was great!

But what really meant a lot to me was to see and hear people’s hearts.  We poured ourselves out.  We weren’t afraid to speak.  We weren’t concerned about “proper format”.  What I heard was people talking to God as one would speak to a close friend.

Very intimate time.
Very powerful.
Very moving.

Afterwards we just visited.  We drank coffee.  People caught up with one another.  More holy moments 🙂

The only things that bothers me about this is this:
Why didn’t we start doing this a long time ago?

Let us pray…

edh -|—

Time with God

/ The Pastor

This morning I started something new here at Salem:
Men’s Morning Prayer
Tuesday mornings from 7 to 8am 

This past Friday God placed it on my heart to do this so I set it up.  I sent an email to my Salem and Belmont list; set up a Facebook group; put information on the Salem web page and made announcements during worship and at the annual meeting on Sunday.  I didn’t know what to expect.  After all this was pretty sudden, but I still felt it was important.

So I showed up at 6:30am this morning, made some coffee, got the juice out and began reading…and waiting.

No one showed up.

Correction…

…God showed up.

So I sat there in the church library and read the Bible, prayed, read some more, prayed some more – and stayed there until 8am.

There was a time when I would have been very frustrated.
There was a time when I would have left after maybe 30 minutes or so.
There was a time when I would have considered dropping this plan.

But this morning I had a great time with God.  I found myself dwelling in 1 John.  I read a section; stopped; meditated; prayed; re-read it and moved on.  It was great.

Do I wish some men had showed up?  Sure.
Did I waste my time this morning?  Absolutely not!

So next Tuesday I will show up again at 6:30am; make some coffee; get out the juice and wait.  And I will continue this each and every week.  If no other men show up then so be it.  At the very least I will have an hour of quiet time with God.  And one just can’t go wrong with that 🙂

edh -|—

That time of the year

/ The Pastor / 6 Comments

Annual meeting day.

Some of you have done the annual meeting thing already this year.  For us (Salem Lutheran Church), this is kind of late but because of some scheduling conflicts we had to push this to today.

Oh well…

Today we are gathering to look back on what we did in 2011:
the financial report will be reviewed,
committee and ministry team reports will be reflected on,
and highlights from the past year will be recognized.

We will also do some looking ahead:
the proposed budget will be introduced and voted on,
we will hear updates on church projects,
and we will look at some goals for the year.

All of this is important…and needs to be done.  But there is another important work that must be done.
–It’s something that shouldn’t be on the agenda because it should be second nature.
–It shouldn’t be something we check off so we can move to the next agenda item.
–It should even be part of the agenda that get approved before we start the meeting.

This important task is something I should not even need to say…but I will.

PRAYER

Some of you may be saying “Well duh…we always open meetings in prayer.  What’s Eric talking about?”  Good…I am glad you do.
–But what if…what if…we opened our meetings in prayer, in communion with God, and just sat in silence (however uncomfortable) – enjoying communion with God – and waited.
–What if, instead of worrying about agenda items (what WE want to do) we instead allowed God to direct our time.
–What if we spent more time discussing mission opportunities than arguing over how much we should spend on certain budget items.
–What if we did the work of God.
–What if… [Me drifting off to ponder…]

Let us pray for direction.
Let us pray for wisdom.
Let us pray for patience.
Let us pray for faith to follow.
Let us pray for strength to do the work that God has given us to do.
Let us pray…

[Pause in silent prayer]

Amen!

God bless your day and your annual meetings as you do the work of God.

edh -|—

Community

/ The Pastor

Matthew 18:15-20
15 “If your brother sins against you go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. 18 “I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 “Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”

Loving God…you created us to be in community ~ not just with you but with each other here on this earth.  You have created us to be an expression of the community you created between you and creation.  You created us to maintain and pursue community.  You created us to give you glory through community.

But we messed up community.

We sinned ~ and continue to sin.
We hurt our neighbors.
We create and maintain division between people.
We seek to win rather than to heal.
We take the “easy” way out rather than dealing with problems.
We REALLY treat people as “pagans and tax collectors“.

Oh how we have messed up community.

Oh gracious God; loving creator ~ we have acted contrary to your design.
Grant us your vision and heart for one another.
Grant us compassion and love for our neighbors.
Grant us patience and passion.
Grant us desire for what is better ~ community as you design.

Oh gracious and loving God…even though we messed up your creation; your community, you pursued healing and reconciliation through the cross; through Jesus Christ.  Thank you for your compassion.  May we pursue that same reconciliation in all our relationships ~ giving you all the praise and glory.  Through Jesus Christ I pray…AMEN!

edh -|—

Church “visitor”

/ The Pastor

I was running a little behind yesterday morning.

During the summer I only have a 1/2 hour from when Belmont finishes worship and when Salem begins.  With the two congregations are 8 miles apart I have about a 10 minute drive back to town.

Yesterday, worship at Belmont concluded at 9:05am and managed to get out by 9:10am (I guess I got a little long winded) which didn’t give me much time to get to Salem and transition to another worship service.  I arrived at Salem at 9:20am and made a quick transition in my office.  Upon leaving my office to head to the sanctuary I noticed my wife in the hallway.

Suddenly she screamed…”THERE’S A BIRD IN HERE!”

I looked and sure enough…something was flying in the hallway, but it wasn’t a bird.  That’s right…it was a bat.

“I don’t have time for this” I thought.

I eventually chased the flying creature into a Sunday school room where I shut the door and stuffed towel under the door.  “We’ll deal with it later“.  I just didn’t know it would be so soon.

Right before my scripture reader came up front to read during worship he noticed a shadow move quickly across his papers.  He turned around fearing what he would find and sure enough that bat found it’s way out of it’s so-called prison and tried to join us for worship.  Immediately, the fast-thinking Dan flung the glass sanctuary doors shut and kept the bat out in the narthex.  Some guys, then, proceeded to chase the bat outside.

And I didn’t notice a thing.  Worship never missed a beat. A bat in the sanctuary during worship probably wouldn’t have put an end to worship very quickly.

As a pastor, I can’t help but wonder…
How would I have handled a bat in the sanctuary during worship?
How much commotion would that “rat with wings” have caused?
Would worship been salvageable at all?

I am glad I didn’t have to find out yesterday.  But something tells me that I need to be ready 🙂

-edh-

Scotcheroos, coffee and sermon prep

/ The Pastor

Ah…sermon prep time at my favorite location in Jackson ~ Coffee Choices.

Each day at 10:20am I pack up my laptop and sermon prep materials and head downtown.  I walk into Coffee Choices and I feel like Norm walking into Cheers.

O the joy of small town life.

I setup camp and greet my scotcheroo that is waiting for me (See lower left part of photo. I have a standing order every Thursday).  I also order a cup of coffee (of course) and then place my lunch order to be ready at 11am.

Each Thursday ~ the same routine (unless I let Coffee Choices know ahead of time).

Some days it is busy and noisy.
Some days it is quite peaceful (like today).
Whatever the case I don’t care. The Holy Spirit can work in any condition.

If this routine is disrupted, though, I almost panic ~ thrown for a loop.  But the sermon still gets written.  I don’t know how.

(actually I do…refer to my previous Holy Spirit comment).

But what makes Thursday sermon prep so special (outside the Holy Spirit working through me to prepare a message from God to preach to God’s people)  is…well…

…the scotcheroo, the coffee and the Cheers like feeling.

O the joy of small town life.

And now…lunch time 🙂

-edh-