God’s Promise, Our Hope “God is a God of promise, not of bargains.” The quote comes from some of my extensive readings in preparing to become an Intentional Interim Minister. The rest of the statement goes like this: “Where our hope centers on God’s promise, we hope for the whole, fragile but precious world created by the promise.” When you read your Bible (provided that you do), the promises of God are all over the place. Everything from “fear not” to “I will never leave you nor forsake you”; from “I will be their God and they will be My people,” to “Come to Me…and I will give you rest.” I li ..read more

I knew it was coming, but I wasn’t totally prepared for it on Monday as a dozen people descended upon the Sanctuary to begin the “demolition” phase of the Sanctuary renovations. By the end of the day, the space was hardly recognizable. One day later, there is no more noise, no more people coming and going – just an empty shell of what has been Resurrection’s Sanctuary for many years. I was interested seeing some pictures from the last time the Sanctuary was updated. Did you know that the organ, that is now up in the choir loft, originally sat on the floor where the Praise Teams now reside? The ..read more

The Third Commandment As we are beginning a new, calendar year (since the Church Year began with Advent), I think it fitting that we should review our teachings and obligations as believers according to the Third Commandment. We ended 2019 with only 49.5% of our membership taking part in regular worship (regular defined as only once a month). Hear what God says about worship and how the Lutheran Church applies Law and Gospel to this matter via Luther’s Small Catechism (with Explanation, © 2017 by CPH): Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. What does this mean? We should fear and love Go ..read more

Christmas Preparations “Prepare the royal highway; The King of kings is near! Let ev’ry hill and valley | A level road appear! Then greet the King of Glory | Foretold in sacred story: Hosanna to the Lord, For He fulfills God’s Word!”           For some people, Christmas preparations began right after – I don’t know – maybe after Labor Day? Walmart seemed to get their Christmas displays out about that time. In our house, there was always a debate about how soon was too soon to decorate for Christmas. Usually we waited until only a couple of weeks pri ..read more

Immanuel – “God with Us” In Matthew’s account of the announcement and birth of Jesus, he quotes Isaiah’s prophecy: “’Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us)” Matthew 1:23. The whole purpose of Jesus’ immaculate conception and birth – what we call in church-lingo, “incarnation” – was to be “with us.” Paul elaborates on this when he writes, “Being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” Philippians 2:8.  The shadow of the cross extends from the glowi ..read more

The season of Advent marks the beginning of a new church year while December, the month that it primarily falls upon on the Gregorian calendar, marks the end of the year. This irony is not lost on the season, itself. The season of Advent for many generations was celebrated as a penitential time – similar to the season of Lent. In fact, in many churches, the color of the season is still purple, as opposed to the blue that Lutheran churches generally use today. With the change of liturgical color came a change in approach (please note: the hymnal still drops the singing of the Gloria in Advent a ..read more

Last week I asked everyone to look at Resurrection’s place according to the stages of organizational life identified by Ichak Adizes in his book, The Pursuit of Prime, and as referenced by Bill Easum in his materials, Strategic Strategies for Change (The Effective Church Group): When thinking in terms of “transforming” an organization or church during each of these “stages,” there are different considerations reflection of the differences in attitude of each stage: STAGE OF LIFE KEY ATTITUDE OR ATTITUDE SHIFT Formation Take as long as necessary to lay a firm foundation before launching ou ..read more

Our Future Ministry . . . The last of our recommendations for the future mission and ministry of Resurrection which was adopted by the voters is this: “Recognize and fully support the mission and ministry of our preschool/child development center as a cornerstone ministry of Resurrection.” For many years, there has been a love/hate relationship between the church and school often manifested with competing interests, diminutive comments and a “we versus they” mindset. By adopting this recommendation formally, Resurrection has elected to say “no more” to this dysfunctional relationship: “No more ..read more

October 31st has special significance in many cultures — in Lutheranism, Reformation Day is celebrated.  In Mexico, Día de los Muertos – the Day of the Dead – remembrances begin.  All Hallows Eve, or Halloween was celebrated here at Resurrection by hosting a community outreach event — Trunk or Treat.  Thirteen families decorated their vehicles, dressed up in costume and handed out candy, toys and treats to the children of the community.  RLC members offered a “Decked out” pirate ship, a Day of the Dead shrine, a haunted field with a cute scarecrow, a scary surgeon’s of ..read more

Digging Deeper Into Our Future Plans . . . As we continue looking at the recommendations adopted at our last Voters’ Assembly, the third recommendation is: “Inaugurate a ‘missional’ small group ministry that leads to relational and faith development among members and non-members through conversations focused on God’s Word.” A “small group,” by definition, is a group of 8-12 people who agree together on a regular basis (at least bi-weekly) to fellowship, study God’s Word, pray for one another, and seek a service project or ministry to be a part of. Most churches focus on the components of fello ..read more