Faith

Confirmation…invite them back to the family of faith.

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This past Sunday I got to experience one of my greatest moments as a Dad.  My daughter stood before the congregation of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Big Rapids Michigan and confessed her faith in Jesus.  It was an amazing moment in her faith life and I couldn’t be prouder.  Standing next to her while she did it will be something I cherish for a long long time.

Confirmation is an important event. Sometimes I think we forget the importance of this event.  It isn’t however the end of our faith journey.  For some this can seem like graduation from our time of formal education with the scriptures.  I have heard is said by adults “I learned all I needed to about the scriptures in confirmation so I don’t need to go to bible study!”  My response typically to this lovely moment is you must have miss understood what confirmation is all about.  You must have thought confirmation was about making sure you know everything in the Bible! (This by the way isn’t even possible in a two year program) Heck I studied the bible for four years in college and can tell you with out a doubt in my mind,  I know very little. So confirmation is not about teaching you everything but about teaching you what you will be confessing before the Church.

You see Confirmation from a Lutheran perspective is standing before the congregation and confirming what God promised to do to you in your baptism.  God promised you in our baptism that he would bring you and conform you to himself. He would connect you forever with Jesus.  You are standing before God and the congregation and proclaiming you believe in the one who saved you. You are confirming your baptism is at work in you through the work of the Holy Spirit.  We have you study the scriptures so you know what that means.  Our prayer is you grow in faith more and more. You study the scriptures daily.  We pray you come to God’s house to hear his grace for you in the company of other believers, and when offered, receive the body and blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.

As a dad that promise to walk with my daughter didn’t stop. I will continue to challenge her to be faithful to what she confessed. I will remind her of her baptism, continue to bring her to God’s house and remind her to partake of Jesus. She is a major part of the family of Christ.

So for those of you who are reading this and haven’t been to Church, opened your Bible or received the sacrament since confirmation I invite you back.  I invite you to remember the words of Jesus that worked in your heart that day so many years ago.  I remind you of the promise of Jesus who is going after the one lost sheep.  You are love and forgiven. In your baptism he claimed you and wants you to return.

For those reading this who have someone they love who has walked away from all this, I invite you to walk beside them.  To love and care for them enough to want to see them come back to this faith they confessed.

So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. 28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.[g] 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?[h] And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. 32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. Matthew 10:26-33 ESV

Desecerning a Call…what does it mean?

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20150608_224256_001So yesterday at St. Peter’s it was announced that I have received a call to serve as the Director of Child and Family ministry at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Rochester MI.  So at High School youth group we talked briefly about what that meant and a student asked me how do you know what to do? How do you know you made the right decision? I was very glad she asked the question because I think many of us struggle with this as well in our everyday lives.  I am not going to claim to be this great expert but I thought for many of us in ministry it can be helpful to hear what others go through in their process to discern a call. By the way I don’t believe their is any perfect way to discern a call. I thought I would just get some thoughts on the computer screen to let others see how I discern a call.

When I am discerning a call the first and most important thing I do is pray.  I pray, I ask others to pray, and when I think I am done I pray some more.  We cannot underestimate the importance of this step. Everything in the call may seem great, the money, people, location, ministry, and good for family. Its the perfect Church. (This doesn’t exist by the way)  The most important thing I do when I receive a call is pray.

For those who are praying for me it is ok to be selfish in your prayers.  You want me to stay or you want me to come, it is ok to pray that, but I would ask you add this one part to your prayer, may God’s will be done. If you care about me or any worker going through the call process to serve another Church please pray that we will be doing God will in this decision.  God’s will is ultimately done in all this, but we pray that God will let us see His will and follow it.

Every Church worker looks at different criteria for a call.  For me it has always come down to these few questions.  Can I serve this new Church in the way they are asking me to do it? Am I a good fit?  Is my move helping the Kingdom of God? The first question is normally fairly easy for me to answer. The second is the tougher question. The last question I ask myself was shared with me by a DCE friend and it comes from a book he read. (I am not sure of the book or I would quote it here) “Are we leaving a call at the end of the book or at the end of the chapter?” This is probably the toughest question of all to answer.  This is why prayer is so key to these types of decisions.  Most of the time I listen to people who are praying also.  I listen to trusted friends and fellow workers to answer these questions. I talk with my wife and kids about these questions.  I read the scripture in search of answers.  Most importantly I listen. I listen and try to hear God speak the answers to these questions.

Lastly as a point of practice I normally make a decision at night and take an evening to pray about it one more time. If I have that peace the passes human understanding the next morning, I feel comfortable I am following God’s lead. I then start to share with others around me what the decision is. If it is a tough night, and don’t have that peace, then it is time for more prayer.  I want that peace. At a certain point you have to make a decision and you do and then you pray some more that God allows everything to go smoothly no mater the decision.

By the way Church workers are not the only ones who go through this. All people have a call in their vocations. We should all be going through this process when we think about where God is leading us to be and work. It shouldn’t matter if it is a Church, or retail job, janitor or babysitter, we should all be discerning God’s desire for us and where to serve.

So I am asking all of you, will you pray for me as I discern my calling to serve in these two places. Help me to know where Jesus would have me serve his Church. May God lead all of us on the path he would have us travel.

You can’t swim alone…Faith is something lived out in community.

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DSC00958American Christianity is way too focused on individuality.  I constantly here from people “faith is personal, and none of your business.” Faith is a me and God thing leave me alone.  That is hog wash.  This Christian walk is not about being alone.  It is about walking together with others.  It is not just a you and God thing.God’s kingdom here on earth is not just about you.

So for all of you who are mad and screaming at your screen calm down. Stop screaming at the screen it is weird when someone is screaming at a screen.  Second our faith is lived out in community.  Yes your faith is between you and God but it is lived out in community.

Regular worship attendance in a Church is less than once a month.  People who are coming to worship are coming and running back out the door.  Many seem do to it when they have nothing else going on. This is a sad thing.  This is a work of the devil to get us isolated so we can be picked off.  So he can drown us in our own sin.

The early Christian Church thought of the sanctuary as a nave or ship.  They talked about it as the place people came to be together in faith.  Where they could lift each other up.  My comment to people who say they don’t need to come together for worship is “You can swim in the ocean for a long time but without a ship you will die.”  As disciples in Christ we are called lift each other up. We are called to

This week is Holy week.  I pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ that they would come and gather with us to hear about what Christ has done for us.  That we may look at each other this weekend reminding each other of our sin, and the work Christ did for us so we could experience forgiveness from God.   We live this faith out in community and that is what we need to encourage each other to do.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV

Youth ministry: Are you making them think…One of my goals in minisrty and life.

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question-mark

Have you ever thought about why you believe and trust in Jesus?  This weekend I asked my high school students this important question.  They struggled to put into words the reasons why they trust in Jesus.  I enjoyed that. I think of all the things I want my students to do with their faith is think.  I think being a disciple of Jesus means we think.  I want them to struggle with this Jesus of Nazareth, and what he said and did.  I think all too often we send students out of our ministry without having them really grapple with this question of who is Jesus, and why we believe and trust in him. I wouldn’t say the students struggled with believing and trusting in Jesus.  We all have doubts and struggles with Jesus, but that isn’t why they struggled to answer the question.  They struggled because they never thought about it.  They never had to put into words the reason for the hope they have in Him.

I think one of the most important things I do as a church worker is challenge my students to think.  Too often in Christian churches and youth ministries we forget to make our students think.  I think we think it is enough to just tell them the answers and then they can say them back to others, but being a follower of Jesus is questioning our leaders and other who claim to know this Jesus.  Being a disciple of Jesus is that struggle with the scripture and struggle with faith in this God who cares for us. To struggle with why I believe in this Jesus.  Why I trust those that saw him and heard what he said.  It is part of growing up and growing in Jesus.  We never fully understand. It is a lifetime of struggle and thinking but it is so important for all of us to think to wrestle with Jesus.

I didn’t want to answer yet why I trust and believe in this Jesus. They asked me but we aren’t at that point yet.  This journey may take a little while because they need to struggle with it.  We all need to struggle with this faith and trust in Jesus thing. So my question for you is are you struggling with your faith, and trust in Jesus? If you aren’t I would challenge you to struggle with it.  I would challenge you to dive into your scripture to struggle with what Jesus said.  In the struggle and thinking we grow.  I want to grow and struggle and think so I may know Jesus more.  I also pray the Holy Spirit guides this process as we struggle.  The Holy Spirit guided those early disciples who struggled and thought and believed in Jesus and know he will be with those of us who are Jesus’ disciples today.

The begining of the journey…Hosanna

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The beginning of a journey is sometimes the most interesting part. Last Sunday morning we saw a pretty amazing storm run through Big Rapids Michigan. Trees were all over and the power was out for many people.   When I made it to church early Sunday morning we had no power and no heat.  It was going to be an interesting beginning to our journey of holy week.  Yet 56 people came to celebrate Palm Sunday.  I was amazed by the willingness of people who had no power and probably more important for many no coffee, make it to worship.  As a staff we gathered at Church and wondered what we should do.  We felt that when people came we should worship. So we got up there and did it.  The light was shining in for the beginning of the service but mid way through clouds came rolling back in and you could hardly see. Pastor mid sermon had to get a light just to read from the scripture for the message. It has to be the first time I have ever seen anything like it.  It was amazing and probably one of the most profound worship services I have every been to.  (By the way at late service we had power which made doing the songs and screens we had planned for that service much easier.)

Holy week for a church worker is always busy and hectic, however it is one of my favorite times of year.  I love the way our worship service really lasts all week.  It is a continuation of the story.  Palm Sunday is the beginning with our king coming to fulfill what he was meant to do.  He was meant to be the Messiah who has come to save us.  While sitting in the dark I was struck by how amazing it is that we have a God who loved us enough to come in our dark place and be our Messiah.  As we shout hosanna, God save us, I am reminded of our need for that savior Jesus.  For six weeks we have waited.  We have gone through lent and examined the destruction of sin.  We have seen the “storms” come upon us.  Sunday we examined the real reason Jesus came. He came to save us.  He came as a servant who will give himself freely on our behalf.  The one who calmed the storm, cast our demons and raised the dead has come to bring us hope in our storm.

This week as you enjoy the journey.  As you spent time with Jesus on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday may you be reminded of the reason the king came to Jerusalem.  Not to be crowned the great king but to be the great servant king.  May we remember that even in our dark places Jesus has come to save us.  And to that we shout hosanna!! God save us! Enjoy the journey my friends.