Prayer

Sunday morning prayer

/ The Pastor / 2 Comments

Hey there…long time no see.  No…it’s not that you haven’t been here for a while it’s that I haven’t stopped by my own blog for a couple days.  So please allow me to make excuses here:
(1) The busyness of September seemed to sneak up on me.
(2) The busyness of September seemed to sneak up on me.
…and (3) The busyness of September seemed to sneak up on me.

That is enough said on that.  I think I am beginning to get a hold of things now so you will see me a little more in the coming weeks.

Anyway…the Gospel text I am preaching on today comes from Matthew 18:21-35.  This is the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant.  Peter asks Jesus the question, “How many times should I forgive my brother when he sins against me?  Seven times?“.  Jesus goes on to basically say, “You forgive continuously.   There is no number.”  Then we get this parable.  What hits me square in the face is the contrast in debts.  The debt God forgave me and the debt I often refuse to forgive others.  This is indeed a convicting parable.  The debt we owed God was a debt we could not hope to repay but yet God says, “I love you so much and I want so much to be in a relationship with you that I am going to forgive this debt of yours.”  Wow…that is an amazing God.  Let’s go and do likewise…forgiving others the sins they have committed against us; showing them Christ’s love.

Let’s pray…
Gracious and forgiving God, we can’t even begin to express how thankful we are for the forgiveness you show us in Jesus Christ.  We are so unworthy.  But yet you love us anyway.  Grant us strength to forgive others as you have forgiven us. So we may mend and nurture relationships with them as you do with us.  In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.

-edh-

Monday morning check in

/ The Pastor

Summer is unofficially over.  Are we all sad now?  I have mixed feelings about that.  I am sad that the “freedom” that summer brings is gone for 9 months, but I am also excited for things to start up again.  Next week Release Time (grades 3 – 5) begins.  In two weeks, Wednesday Night Live (age 3 – grade 5), 6th grade Bible class and Confirmation (grades seven and eight) begin.  The unofficial end of summer also means I have to re-adjust my routine.  Everything will change next week with the addition of class preparation.  It usually takes me a few weeks to get back into the swing of things, hence, September is usually a busy and stressful (but a good stressful) month for me.  So I am going to prepare my Release Time lesson this week as sort of a practice run before the real thing begins next week.  How are the rest of you viewing September?  Is it stressful, exciting, etc?

LifeLight
The LifeLight Festival was this past weekend.  LifeLight is a free Christian music festival just outside of Sioux Falls, SD at the Wild Water West water park.  I think is it absolutely amazing that they can put on a festival like this and not charge admission.  We were told that it costs about $800,000 to put on LifeLight.  Businesses, churches and other faithful supporters make this weekend possible.  If you haven’t been to LifeLight plan on checking it out sometime.  It is held over Labor Day weekend every year. 

On Friday night of the festival this year the headliner was Switchfoot; Saturday it was Michael W. Smith and Sunday night Casting Crowns closed things out.  On Saturday night the crowd was in excess of 100,000 people.  Standing up and surveying the sea of people definitely made me me feel very small.  Other artists we heard throughout the weekend included: Matthew West, Lincoln Brewster, Sanctus Real, Natalie Grant, Family Force 5, and much more.  It was indeed a very fun weekend.

Rain
Today I am thanking and praising God for rain.  It has been dreadfully dry here for a long time.  When I walked on my grass last night it crunched beneath my feet.  But today I can here a collective “sigh” from all the lawns in town.  And according to radar this rain will last for quite a while.  God is indeed faithful.  We go through these dry spells every year and every year we get nervous and wonder if this is the year we will need to replace the lawn.  But every year God brings the rain to nourish the crops and the grass and everything else.  God proves to be faithful year in and year out.  Maybe one of these years I will learn to trust God.

Heavenly Father, I believe, help my unbelief.  You prove to be faithful yet we worry about tomorrow.  You prove to be loving yet we often fail to show love toward our neighbors.  You prove to be gracious yet we fail to show grace to others.  Thank you God for your Son who died for us despite our shortcomings and rose to New Life so we may live.    Lord God, thank you for your faithfulness, in Christ name we pray, Amen.

Take care and God bless!

-edh-

Ministry model vs Business model — Part 3

/ The Pastor

Ministry model vs Business model — Part 1

Ministry model vs Business model — Part 2 

I have appreciated the discussion that has taken place around this “new” model for my church council and I want to highlight comments/suggestions that were submitted.  If you have any thoughts about encouraging a church council to be more mission minded please submit them.

Scripture
One thing that I suggested is that after the assigned council person for the month lead devotions, that I would lead the council in reading scripture; maybe the texts assigned for the upcoming Sunday.  Then Carolyn stopped by and suggested that after the first month of doing this I should encourage a pair of council people to lead the reading of scripture instead of the pastor doing it every month.  Scripture is something that all people are encouraged to engage and is something that anyone can read.  Carolyn is right.  Even though I did not intend to communicate that the pastor has be the one to read scripture the unwritten message was just that.  We are indeed the “priesthood of ALL believers”.

Prayer
Unlikely left a comment where he suggested starting the council meeting asking people what they are praying for.  At first people were a little hesitant, but after a few years Unlikely is filling up an 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of paper.  I believe this is also a great way to connect people with one another.  When you know what/who someone else is praying for, you get a glimpse of that person’s heart.  It also makes the assumption that everyone is praying (and as Christians we should be).
 
Then Eric left a comment just recently about prayer and scripture.  He said, “Can you imagine the apostles of the early church getting together to make decisions without prayer and Scripture?”  That seems unheard of, yet we need to make an effort to include prayer and scripture more when we meet as a church council.  I have found that many people are just not comfortable praying in front of others, yet they are comfortable talking to their best friend.  I/We need to help people understand that prayer is not something that has to be done a certain way but rather it’s simply talking to your best friend.  Maybe this could be a devotional topic/discussion for an upcoming council meeting.  Maybe Unlikely’s suggestion about prayer will help here.

Thank you for the comments that have come thus far.  They have definitely given me (and hopefully you) something to think about.  If you have anything else you would like to contribute to this discussion please leave a comment.  This series will be continued…

God bless!

-edh-

Sunday morning prayer

/ The Pastor

I don’t know about you, but there’s something so comforting and soothing about a candle burning near by…especially when it smells like Strawberry Cream.  It almost makes me crave a Strawberries and Cream drink at Starbucks.  It’s just too bad that the Starbucks near us is being closed.  Darn it anyway.

But that aside I am enjoying a nice cool morning…with an aroma of strawberries floating in the air…giving thanks to God for another day.  And what a great day it is.  Connie and I have had a fun week with friends and a fun weekend at home with family.  My cousin and his wife renewed their vows yesterday and when we as a family get together (cousins and all) we have a great time.  I just wish I could have stayed longer last night but I had a 2 1/2 hour drive to get home.  Oh well…some time with family is better than nothing.

Anyway…last week I let my busy schedule get the best of me but not today.  I am not going to leave without praying with you this morning.  So let’s join our hearts together as fellow members of the body of Christ and offer our prayers to God.  Let us pray…

Father in heaven we praise you for your incredible love and mercy.  You offer forgiveness; you give us life; you show us your will.  But Lord God, we too often follow the ways of this world.  We too often conform to the patterns of this world.  Instead of standing up for you we take the easy way out.  Loving God, we ask for wisdom and courage to follow you so others may see our good works and give you glory.  All this dear God, we pray through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. [ Reference:  Romans 12:1-8 ]

 

 

May God richly bless your day with His abandant love and mercy.

 

Take care!

 

-edh-

Ministry model vs. Business model — Part 2

/ The Pastor / 6 Comments

Ministry model vs Business model — Part 1

…I’m alright.  My mom called me this morning thinking something was wrong.  I did not post my usual “Sunday morning prayer” yesterday and had not posted my usual “Monday morning check in” yet today.  Sorry mom (and little sis)…I didn’t mean to worry you two.

Anyway…I am here.  Yesterday morning got a little busy and this morning has been the same.  It is hard to believe that September is right around the corner so that means Sunday school, Release Time and Confirmation is upon us.  Wow…where did the summer go?

Council meeting update
Last week I resumed talking about the business meeting model vs. ministry meeting model for my church council (See the above link for part one of this series).  In July we did some brainstorming on how we can better advance the mission of Christ.  I was very excited and encouraged about the outcome of that meeting.  I then mailed out some “homework” for the council; encouraging them to continue this ministry planning.  My hope was to discuss what they did at out August.  Unfortunately we did not get to do what I wanted to do.  It didn’t work out to start the meeting with mission planning and by the time we got to that agenda item it was getting late and people were getting restless.  I need to sit down with my president and make sure we are on the same page here.

Then today I got an email from a council member on how we need to spend more time in scripture and prayer at council meetings.  She felt we need to start our meetings reading the Bible together and praying more.  She must have been reading my mind these past few weeks and months.

So here is part of my plan to transform the Salem church council into a ministry meeting model over a business meeting model. Let me know what you think:
(1) On a piece of poster board that is hung in our meeting room, I have a list of our ministry priorities that we feel will advance the mission of Christ (this is our brainstorm list from July).  This will serve as a reminder each and every month why we really are taking time out of our busy schedules each month.

(2) The assigned council member for the month will lead the group in devotions as always.

(3)I will then lead the group in reading scripture.  Maybe the focus texts will be the lectionary texts for the upcoming Sunday.  Discussion and prayer would follow.

(4) Begin the “business” meeting portion of the ministry meeting.  This way, if the meeting starts running long, whats really important will not get the shaft.

So one of my priority do-to items this month is to sit down with my council president and share with him this plan and make sure he is on board.

What are your thoughts on this plan so far?  What would you add or do differently?

Series to be continued…

Take care and God bless!

-edh-

Sunday morning prayer — unshakable

/ The Pastor / 3 Comments

I am on the verge of returning to “normal”. I am still on continuing education so in about an hour Connie and I will be heading down to worship at the Okoboji Lakes Bible and Missionary Conference. So much has happened and I have learned so much that I can’t put everything into one post. But I do want to share one quick thing with you this morning.

Last night our speaker was talking about courage…courage that is not of this world…a courage that only comes through an amazing encounter with God. The theme of the conference is titled “Unshakable”…which has been a great theme for me personally (more on that in a later post). Last night our speaker (whose name I can’t spell off the top of my head, but will get the spelling when I get to my office tomorrow) said something last night that still has me thinking. He said, “To have an unshakable faith we first must be shaken”. And that “shaken-ness” comes from a powerful encounter with God. An encounter like what Peter had with Jesus in Luke 5 or Job had with God. Both were “shaken” to the core and became courageous followers of Jesus/God. Our speaker then said, “When we are shaken by something really big (Jesus) then everything else seems small in comparison.” Wow! Have I truly been shaken by Jesus? Have you? It has really got me thinking.

And with that I will leave you thinking since I need to go and get ready for worship. But I will write more about this later. Let’s pray:
Powerful God, shake us to the core with your love through Jesus Christ our Lord. Transform our view of you from a small God to a powerful God. Transform how we look and treat others. Transform how we share our faith with others. Father God, shake us till we drop to our knees in reverent worship of you. Create in us an unshakable faith…through Jesus Christ our Lord we pray, AMEN!

God bless and have a wonderful day.

-edh-

Sunday morning prayer

/ The Pastor

Hey all…I am back from a fun trip to Sonshine Festival.  I have more to tell you, but I don’t have time right now…that will have to wait until tomorrow.  In in the mean time let’s join together in a word of prayer…

God of hope, you give us strength to endure in the face of hopelessness.  When all seems lost you show us the way.  When darkness over takes us, you are our light.  When illness threatens to take everything we are, you are our healing.  When the world tries to crush us, you build us up…even stronger.  Oh God of hope, through Jesus Christ you give us something to look forward to.  Help us to see this vision vision and remember this promise in the darkest of times and the joyous of occasions.  Thank you for giving hope beyond hopelessness, in Christ’s name we pray, Amen.

Off to worship now so I’ll see you tomorrow.  Take care.

-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-

Sunday morning prayer – 06/22/08

/ The Pastor

This was a fast-paced morning…reason…I forgot to turn my alarm on.  I had my alarm set, but for some strange (and be it stupid) reason I did not click over that switch that would have saved my heart from some minor panic this morning.  Maybe “panic” is too strong of a word, but when I just happened to roll over and open my eyes to see it was 1/2 hour later than I wanted to get up…my heart immediately jumped into non-hibernation status.  Talk about a rude awakening.  Anyway…I am here and ready to go.  I still made it to my office “on time” but I didn’t get my morning SportsCenter.  What a tragedy there 🙂

Today is our first day worshipping in the fellowship hall downstairs.  As some of you are aware we started our ramp project this past Monday (page down to see some pictures).  I will add some more pictures a little later to chronicle the progress.  Right now, the ramp is completely gone.  They will be pouring the walls this week.  The time table for completion is still sometime in August so we are getting settled in downstairs. 

Today is also congregational meeting day which also means…POTLUCK…WHOO HOO!  You just can’t go wrong with a good ole’ fashioned Lutheran potluck.  Of course…since we are having a potluck today…my parents are coming down.  My dad can’t miss a potluck here (of course they use the excuse that they haven’t heard me preach for a while).  But what ever works…I get to see my parents and go golfing with my dad.

Lastly…before I get ready to leave for Belmont…I want to thank Carmen who left me a comment this week about the ramp project.  She mentioned that I would now have a good sermon illustration about something being torn down only to be built up stronger.  Well…I am going to use something like that when I preach on Romans 6:1-11 today.  I am focusing on our so called “need” to hold on to the old when we are in fact made new through baptism.  It is almost like being so attached to the old ramp that we feel the need to go out to the garbage heap to walk on the rumble of the old ramp; ignoring the new one in front of us.  Through baptism we are buried with Christ and if that is the case (and it is) we will also rise with them.  We are made new so let go of the old.  Thank you, Carmen.

With that…let us join together in a word of prayer.
Let us pray…gracious Lord God, you sent your one and only Son, Jesus Christ to make us new again.  Through our baptism you give us an amazing gift…the gift of life.  But yet we still find it hard to let go of our “old” life.  We too often turn our backs on you to “walk” on something that has been destroyed.  Help us to see the awesomeness and newness of the great gift you have given us.  Help us turn from our old life to see the New Life we have in Christ.  We thank and praise you through your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.  Amen!

God bless and have an awesome day!

-edh-

Sunday morning prayer

/ The Pastor

Memorial weekend is here.  For many people it means the unofficial start of summer.  For some it means graduation.  For others it means a longer weekend.  But hopefully, for all of us, Memorial weekend also means a time to remember all those who have given their lives for our country.  It is also a time to remember those who won't be home for a long weekend because they are currently serving our country in some capacity and location.  So take some time on Monday to attend your local Memorial Day program.  Say a prayer for those who are serving.  Say "Thank you" to a veteran(s).  Basically…don't forget.

Yesterday (May 24) Connie and I attended the graduation of one of her cousins.  The class was around 60 graduates.  During the principle's presentation of the class of 2008 he was giving some statistics of where the class was going.  A large number were going to a 4 year college and some were going to 2 year colleges or technical schools.  But there was 1 who was going into the military.  The principle had this young man stand up and thanked him for serving our country in this time of war.  And we all followed suit in thanking him as well. 

Thank you to those who serve and to those who have given their lives so we can enjoy the freedoms we often times take for granted.  THANK YOU!

Let us pray…
God of peace…we seek and worry about much in our lives.  We seek direction and worry if we will ever find it.  We seek meaning and worry our lives won’t be noticed.  We seek for that which is nothing more than selfish ambition and worry that we have not done enough.  But you have sent your Son, Jesus Christ to take our worries, our cares and concerns so we may find direction, meaning and peace.  Turn us from selfish pursuits to your life-giving Son so our lives may be filled with love that is never ending; so our lives can have true meaning and purpose.  Take our worries and grant us peace.  And, Lord God, let us not forget those who serve our country.  Bless those who serve and thank you for those who have gone on ahead of us to ensure us of our national freedoms.  In the name of Jesus Christ we pray…Amen.

God bless you and have a very safe holiday weekend.

-edh-