From the Pastor’s Desk:
It has been a long year and it was certainly no vacation. Part
of me truly regrets that I have lost a whole year of ministry.
Before having to step down this last year I had made many
observations and plans during my first two years as your pastor
that I would have liked to have had the opportunity to implement.
On the positive side, the past year has given me the opportunity
to step back, reflect on those observations, and solidify my
thoughts, goals and plans for our congregation. And that is what
I believe we need most: goals that direct the future of our
congregation.
Like many churches out there we have drifted into a “maintenance”
type of ministry and function only in the here and now. We
seem to do things other churches do without any real
understanding of “why”. Looking at the surface of
things some would say there is nothing really wrong with our
church. In relation to this I remember reading a
survey that was given to this congregation during the vacancy
four years ago. One of the comments that came as a result
of that survey still sticks out in my mind. Some of you
wanted a new pastor that would not change the programs or the way
things were done. That, dear friends, is not a healthy
option. You cannot improve or become a stronger
congregation without change and modification.
Many churches, including our own, seem to focus on
segmented/segregated groups within the congregation and do not
successfully connect the purpose of these groups to the Word of
God. They offer Youth Groups, Mens’ Groups, Women’s
Groups, Moms’ Groups, Seniors’ Groups, Singles’
Group, and etc. What generally happens is that these groups
tend to segregate people in the church rather than draw them
together and they become and ends unto themselves. Despite
their original intentions and purposes these divisions within our
churches tend to be social by nature. They keep people busy
but apart.
For example the Mens’ Group (I’ll ‘pick on’ a
group we don’t have here at
It is not that these groups cannot be helpful to the overall
ministry of a congregation, but it much depends on what their ends
and means are. What does that mean? Well, what is
the purpose of the church? The manmade divisions
mentioned earlier are valid if they have as a core goal to help
build and strengthen the families and individual members
of the congregation in their knowledge and use of God’s
Word.
To use our example of the Mens’ group again, it is okay for
the men to get together for a men’s fishing retreat. Having
fun and enjoying one another’s company is not a problem and
should be encouraged. But bringing these men closer to God
through the study of His Word and helping them, for example, to
become stronger Christian heads of their
households is, however, far more important and should be
a primary goal of the fishing trip. This – the
teaching of God’s Word – is truly the business of the
church – not the filling of a social calendar.
The church, properly speaking, is about the ‘business’
of Word and Sacrament ministry. When we fail to make the
Word the center and focus of our activities we are no different
than a Boy’s or Girl’s Club or any other secular group.
Yet, sadly, we excuse our lack of Word centeredness on arguments
like, “You can’t preach to them or you will drive them
away.” I hear this excuses like this all the
time.
All ministry in a congregation must be centered on a singular
purpose and goal and that is to give the members of that
congregation the tools and the means to know Christ and to live
the kind of life that God wants them to live. (And then and
only then are we equipped to follow Christ’s command to take
that message of Christ’s salvation to the lost of this
world.) This does not mean we cannot do things for and with
people. We learn and we witness through Word and
deed. But these two items are not mutually exclusive.
They must work together to be truly effective, just as Law and
Gospel do.
We, however, tend toward deed rather than keeping the two
together because it is the easier of the two. It is far
easier to do something “nice” for someone or to have
fun together than it is to confront a person with their sin,
their impending damnation, and their need for repentance and
salvation in Jesus Christ. Modern society tells us that
this is “offensive” and others believe that you risk
pushing people away.
But, let’s for a moment, see how this line of thinking
affects the Youth Group as an example. In a child’s
baptismal vows it is promised that the child will be raised on
God’s Word so that they “may grow to lead a God
pleasing life”; a vow repeated in their confirmation. If
the parents are not taught how to teach the faith to their
children (and many do not teach their children for a variety of
reasons and excuses), and if the Youth Group is social by nature
because they do not “want to push the kids away by ‘preaching’
to them,” and many of our youth are not directed in the
importance of being in worship, how do they learn what
constitutes that God pleasing life they have pledged to live?
How will they know how to defend and witness to their faith?
Sadly, by focusing so heavily on deed rather than Word and
deed in our churches, we have given people
too much freedom from God’s Word. In
doing so we have muted their spiritual growth. We have done
this by having lax standards for Confirmation, Sunday
School, Bible Studies and adult membership instruction. We
do this by developing youth groups that are focused mainly on
entertainment and social gatherings. We do this by not
confronting people -in love- with the truth of their own
sinfulness. As a result many of our “Christian”
families are nearly indistinguishable from the non-Christian
families in our midst.
Their approach to life and their answers to life’s problems
are anything but based on God’s Word. And then we
wonder why church attendance is less than half our membership
roster, why our youth are hardly present in worship or Bible
Study, why our giving in the areas of time, talent and treasure
are not meeting our needs [more on that particular topic next
month], and why, in general, people view church as unimportant or
irrelevant to their lives. We are breeding ignorance in our
churches and we are failing to help our members truly see the
promises made to them by God in Jesus Christ and in turn helping
them to fail in living up to the promises that have been made to
God in their Baptismal and Confirmation vows.
There is a solution and it is a solution that is a tried and true
one: We must start by strengthening our families in their use and
reliance upon God’s Word in all aspects of
their lives. This is done by using an integrated approach
in our Sunday School, Confirmation, Youth Group, Bible Studies
and all other groups to teach all our members how
to become more Godly and Christ-like in all their thoughts,
words, and deeds.
The question is: Are we simply going to keep the status quo as
suggested by that survey four years ago and wring our hands and
fret about our deficiencies and then act like there is nothing we
can do about them or are we going to move forward as a
congregation and leave a Godly legacy behind for our children and
grandchildren to follow? I know the direction I am
going. But I cannot go it alone and I cannot lead if there
is no one to follow. So which is it to be:? The
status quo or follow?
Below are a simple few of the means by which some of this can be
accomplished in our congregation. Most of these ideas and
the reasoning behind them were shared with Scott and the elders
shortly after my transplant and during this past fall. There
are certainly other ideas and means to accomplish our goals but
these are a good place to start.
I. Christian
Education
A. We will begin using the new CPH curriculum and the
teachers will participate in a monthly meeting to ensure that
they understand the materials they are teaching. They will
be given tips and ideas on how to teach the material. They
can also use these meetings as an opportunity to share ideas and
needs with one another.
B. Memory Books have been prepared for use in Sunday School
to help the children memorize portions of Scripture and the
Catechism to begin ingraining the Christ-like qualities they will
need as they are growing up.
C. The children need to gain a better appreciation of the
worship of our God in the Lutheran tradition. They can do
this by learning to participate in our worship services.
1. A Children’s worship folder will be designed
to help the child follow the worship
service.
2. The Sunday School children are to learn and sing
traditional, but upbeat, hymns
in a worship service once a month to every six weeks.
3. Our church’s hymnal is not meant to be used solely
within the sanctuary. It is
meant to be used as a devotional, both personal and for the
family. Our people need
to be taught this. As families use it at home, adults and
children alike will grow in
their appreciation of our worship.
D. The families of our congregation will be equipped with
the means to have and do family devotions. Copies of 100
Bible Stories, My First Catechism, Bibles, and other
devotional materials are to be made available to them either
subsidized or provided without cost.
E. Adult Bible Study(s) will maintain a focus on helping
people understand and incorporate God’s Word into their
daily lives. Christian parenting classes can also be
provided along with any other teaching opportunities to help meet
their needs.
II.
Confirmation
A. Parents need to be more closely connected to and
participate in the Confirmation process. Beginning this
year parents of the eighth grade confirmands will be required to
be in class with their child.
B. Parents must take a greater role in the use of the
Memory Books and assuring that their child is actually doing
their memory work. It would be helpful in many different
ways if the parent actually memorizes the material along with
their child.
C. Church attendance is necessary for both the confirmand
and the parent. Children will model the behaviors they see.
Parents must model God pleasing behaviors and good church
attendance if they expect their children to.
D. Confirmands and Youth Group members will begin regular
participation in educational retreats and the like as provided by
the District.
III. Youth
Group
In general youth group will become less focused on social events
and show an emphasis on continued Christian education. Again,
it is not the church’s purpose to provide “a good time”
for the youth or adults of this church at the expense of God’s
Word. Greater care will be taken in planning “themed”
devotions and Bible Study time during youth group activities and
social events.
Similarly the National Youth Gathering will be used as it is intended to be used. That is as an educational opportunity for the Confirmed and active youth of our congregation. It is a conference at its heart and not a vacation. Greater care will also be given to making the “leading up to” Bible studies a priority, participants will be assigned mini-sectionals and classes while at the Gathering (and will no longer simply go to the mass events and parties and nothing else), and participants will be hand selected based on participation in Youth Group, a willingness to learn and grow in Christ, and a frequent presence in worship.