ELCA

Swinging on Monday, Aug. 17

/ The Pastor / 4 Comments

O.K…it is time to get back into the swing of things once again.

Today is Monday, Aug. 17 and the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) is convening in Minneapolis for its Church wide assembly.  And this year promises to be one of heated (and hopefully) civil debate over the issue of homosexuality.  Tops on the agenda is the social statement on Human Sexuality.  Closely behind that is the ministry recommendations that would allow ordaining gay/lesbian pastors who are in life-long, committed relationships and for the blessing of same sex unions.  No matter where one stands; no matter what happens, there will be some polarization in the ELCA.  I hate to say it, but its going to happen.  My prayer is that the mission of Christ still continues marching forward and that we don’t let issues derail us.  Satan would love nothing more than for the Church to lose its focus.

Today is Monday, Aug. 17 and I am deep into getting ready for confirmation.  I mentioned in an earlier post that I am revamping my confirmation program here.  It is not a complete overhaul, but rather some important (and intriguing) additions to the schedule and requirements.  One of the key things I am doing is putting a greater emphasis on parental involvement.  I will talk more later on what I am doing with this.  I have a couple more piece I am finalizing yet, but I am really looking forward to this year.  It’s going to be a fun one.

Today is Monday, Aug. 17 and I am starting to feel a little anxiety.  In less than a month, Salem Lutheran Church will be celebrating its 125th anniversary and I don’t feel ready to go yet.  The big weekend is Sept. 12 and 13 and it keeps creeping closer and closer every day (duh…i guess).  It’s just that there is so much to do here at church and in the parsonage…and I just want everything to go smoothly.  But on the other hand I am looking forward to the celebration.  We have former pastors coming back and other special guests returning for the weekend.  You can go to our church website for a complete schedule of events at http://www.salemjackson.org

Today is Monday, Aug. 17 and I feel like I am back into the swing of things…again.  But with everything that is coming up I am hoping and praying that I do not “strike out”.

God bless your day!

-edh-

Here I come

/ The Pastor / 4 Comments

I got elected to the SW MN synod council.

This past weekend the SW MN Synod (ELCA) held it’s annual synod assembly.  This year we were at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN.  I was nominated for synod council a couple months ago but didn’t give it a whole lot of thought then.  Now that I got elected to a 3 year term I am beginning to wonder what I got myself into.  Initially it means a few more meetings a year and maybe some more responsibilities at next year’s synod assembly.  There will probably be some additional committee meetings and other work.  Beyond that I am not entirely sure what will happen.

But I am looking forward to this opportunity and honor:
I am looking forward to learning more about the Church.
I am looking forward to playing a more integral part of advancing Christ’s mission with the broader Church.
I am looking forward to growing in greater appreciation of what our synod leadership does (and “no” I am not just saying that because my bishop may be reading this.  Actually he has a RSS feed of my blog…now that is scary).
I am looking forward to getting to know some more of my colleagues.
I am looking forward to getting to know and working with the synod’s new Director of Evangelical Mission.
I am looking forward to growing as a leader.
I am looking forward to something new.

I may be jumping into uncharted territory but whatever happens I don’t go it alone…God goes with me and God will equip me with everything I need to carry out my duties and responsibilities.  As I said during my installation today when asked by the bishop if I will carry out my duties faithfully… “I will and I ask God to HELP and GUIDE me“.  God WILL help and guide me…that I know.

So there you have it…I came…I got elected…and I am installed as a synod council member…

…so watch out SW MN…here I come 🙂

-edh-

Monday morning (or should I say “afternoon”) check in

/ The Pastor / 3 Comments

I am finally back in the office…but a little late on getting to my blog.  If you could have seen the pile of stuff I had to deal with I think you would understand.  I enjoy getting away for awhile; its just the getting caught up that I don’t like.  But I think I am there.

Last night I had an AWESOME night…

…that is Point of Grace and I had third row, center aisle seats for this concert.  AND…it was free.  This was the finale of the Okoboji Lakes Bible and Missionary Conference that I attended this past week…and everything is free…it has been that way for 74 years.  This is an amazing conference and I am always blown away that they can put on such an event based solely on the contributions of generous supporters. 

Each morning started with prayer and then a Bible study.  At 10am we have some fellowship time before we head to the “communities” (small group sessions) at 10:30.  There isn’t anything going on in the afternoon but we reconvene at 7:15pm for the evening worship celebration time with a different (usually a nationally known) speaker (i.e.  Tuesday night was Phil Vischer, the founder of Veggie Tales).  And did I say that all of this is FREE?

The “community” I attended in the mornings was lead by Phil Vischer and his brother Rob (a law professor at St. Thomas Law School in the Twin Cities).  They spoke about Christ and Culture.  I missed the Monday and Tuesday communities but I am glad I made it to Wednesday’s.  Here Rob Vischer spoke about the Christian perspective on family law.  The basic premise was the evolution of the same sex marriage debate.  This is something that has been brewing for quite a few decades.  But what was really scary is where the law is headed in the future.  Basically the family unit is being de-valued and more emphasis is being placed on individual liberty.  Hence…people starting to be allowed to decided who’s in their family.  Rob said that on the horizon the next debate will be polygamy because if two men or two women want to get married, why not expand that definition to include more people.  The direction that family law is headed is very scary.  This was indeed an eye opening “community”.

So much more happened this past week but I am still trying to process everything.  I got a feeling that as other learnings begin to bubble up that they will soon find themselves on the pages of this blog.  But in the mean time I will take my leave of this topic.

In the future
There are some other blog topics that I have started that I haven’t dealt with for a while…and I am going to be returning to these topics shortly:
(1) Evangelism — at the end of July I was invited to participate in a meeting at the ELCA headquarters in Chicago.  My bishop along with a synod minister and our synod V.P. attended this meeting.  We heard a number of presentations and participated in some fruitful brainstorming for the synod.  I also got appointed to the “Serving in God’s World” board (evangelism and outreach) for the SW MN synod.  I am looking forward to writing more about my involvement here.

(2) Business meeting model vs. Ministry meeting model — this was something concerning church councils.  Wrote a while back about my efforts of changing how our church council looks at themselves.  We need to be a group of people focused on advancing the mission of Christ in the world around us.  Someone commented and asked me how I was going to do this and I responded that I was still working on it.  Well…I want to return to this topic in the near future.  I have a council meeting this week and I hope to implement a new “agenda item”.  I will say more about this later.

(3) Learnings from the Okoboji Lakes Bible and Missionary Conference.

Whew…that’s a lot of stuff coming up and I am excited to get started writing.  I guess time off really did me some good.

Anyway…take care and God bless!

-edh-

Mid-vacation update

/ The Pastor / 2 Comments

Greetings and salutations…

I am sitting here in the Holiday Inn in Willmar as my wife visits the fitness center here.  Since I am by myself for a little while, I thought I would take this opportunity to check in.

It has been a fun an exciting few days.  On Sunday I flew to Chicago for a meeting at ELCA headquarters.  It was called the Synod Mission Table Pilot Project.  Thirteen of the 65 synods from around the ELCA were invited to gather and talk about mission strategy.  I was invited to attend this meeting with three others from the synod office including our bishop, a synod minister and the synod council V.P.  We heard some amazing presenters and spent some quality time together discussing some mission strategy for the synod.  I was honored to be included in this meeting and discussion.  We have a tough road ahead of us as SW MN is a synod that is declining in population and worship attendance.  We definitely need to rethink how we do mission and have to do something to encourage our people to be who they were created to be:  evangelists.  I think we have a pretty good plan in place and I look forward to writing more about our efforts as things unfold.

On Tuesday I flew back home and headed up north to the St. Cloud area to join Connie and her family for some time at a resort.  We had some great weather and some fun times together.  Last night we packed up and head our separate directions.  On the way home to Dawson, Connie and I decided to stop in Willmar at a hotel and have some time together and do some shopping before we head to Dawson on Friday.  On Saturday I am running a 18.6 mile road race called the Wild Goose chase.  This will be a great tune up for the Twin Cities Marathon in October. 

Anyway…I probably should sign off and pack a little bit.  We have a fun day ahead of us.  I will be back next week for my regular posts.  In the mean time, God bless you and I look forward to our continued conversations.

Take care!

-edh-