2012-2013 Calendar

AHHHH my colleague and I just set our 2012-2013 calendar for church, it is crazy exciting and crazy overwhelming. We have tons going on and lots of new things happening all of which I am super jazzed about but when I see everything that needs to get done it makes my head spin!

Excitement for 2012-2013 at Bethlehem -- we are going to try Family Faith Journey Sunday School for our 2-4th graders and their parents - parents and youth in Sunday school together! I am jazzed about this prospect because all the research shows that kids learning alongside their parents is the most effective means of ministry. I am excited to see where this leads us. This is a daunting task to me as it means I need to write a years worth of curriculum. We are going to try a 3 year rotation focusing one year on the old testament, one year on the new testament, and one year on lutheran basics. We are opting for a very non-traditional Sunday school type model for our 2-4th graders with the potential to expand it to more grades after we try it for a year or two to see how it goes.

The way I understand my role as pastor is that there are three key aspects to passing on the faith to youth/kids - one is the role of the parents, one is the role of the church (pastors included), and one is the role of other adults - together we all get to share the faith and help kids and youth to grow in the faith.

Our Family Faith Journey will have several aspects: serving in worship (ushering, greeting, reading, leading the Lord's Prayer and the Apostle's Creed, and communion serving), learning the faith (learning the stories and the Lutheran basics - grace, law, gospel, saint, sinner, trinity), community (community building activities - fellowship), and service (reaching out to the world). Through the course of the three years we will also be focusing on faith practices such as prayer.

I am excited to see how the Holy Spirit moves in and through our learning and growing as families. I pray that this will help to take away from the parents dropping their kids off for Sunday School and leaving to go grocery shopping or whatever and will help them to learn and grow alongside their kids.

Come Holy Spirit, Come.

Photos

It probably seems a little strange that a blog titled 'photos' will have no photos in it. But I am going with it anyways, why?! Because I can, it's my blog.

I LOVE taking pictures, I could spend hours upon hours taking photos, my problem is I go in spurts, I take lots of photos of one particular thing or event and then I forget to pull my camera back out for days at a time. So this year I have decided to take the 365 days of photos challenge. It is the 5th of January and it is already something on my mind of if this is really do-able. I want to give it a chance because I want to push myself to photograph the every day, but I am struggling with what to shoot. I need to continue on and push through this already bump. I think I am going to attempt to post my week in photos on Saturday or Sunday pending on time and when Saturday's photo gets taken. I am excited to see what I can come up with, but on mundane days, where I seem to fill my days with getting stuff done in the office and cleaning my house, and looking forward to a new episode of Grey's, I am just uncertain when to pull out my camera. I want fun pictures, I want to be a photographer whose photos tell a story and are more than mere objects on my desk or in my house, I don't want to take boring photos any more.

This year I will push myself, this year I will conquer this challenge (allowing myself some grace - I am sure there will be days in which I will forget to take a picture) - this year I want to enjoy taking photos every day. I want to capture this year. I am excited by 2012 - looking at it from the start it doesn't contain anything monumental (graduation, ordination, or even a big move), but I am excited to see what it contains.

Now dear 2012, how to photograph you?

Yesterday

     Yesterday was one of those days that, as seminarians, we have dreamt about since before we even begin seminary. It was reading and research days here on campus and I stuck around campus for the break. The day was as normal as an empty day on campus could be. Most milestones here on campus are marked by: the community gathering, the community upholding in prayer, the community worshipping, and the community rallying around the days events. This one however was semi-unexpected and as I walked down to my mailbox I had no idea what I was going to find. I got to my mailbox and did the normal, squat down and was excited to see that there was something in my box, I am semi-convinced that my mailbox is a black hole for what can feel like weeks at a time.

     I spin my lock to open the box and naturally couldn’t get it to open, so I tried again (3 times) and finally opened my mailbox. I was expecting to find a letter from my mom, my grandma, or another loved one, I could see that it was a larger envelope (the kind that holds a full sheet of paper) and so I was trying to think through what my mom may have mailed me that she wouldn’t have wanted to bend. When I looked at the envelope I realized that it had come from the Northeastern Minnesota synod! I was surprised and anxiously opened the envelop there standing in the hallway, not a person in sight and no one could be heard.

     As I opened my envelope I found a letter from one of the assistants to the bishop describing a bit of what I would find behind the letter, A CONGREGATION’S PAPERWORK! The moment was surreal, I couldn’t believe what I was holding in my hand. A congregation’s paperwork describing themselves and a little bit about what they are looking for in a pastor. The assistant to the bishop has sent my name and paperwork to them and their paperwork to me?! This is a step in the direction of taking a first call.

     I realize that just because this is the first set of paperwork that I have gotten it does not mean that it is the call I will take, but it is still something to discern. I must discern, the congregation must discern, and together we will see what God is calling us to do. Is God calling us to journey together or is God calling another to live and serve amongst these people and calling me elsewhere? Time will tell.

     While this doesn’t really seem like a very big milestone it was one that caught me a little off guard, while I knew the paperwork might be on its way, it was still a surreal experience. It is hard to believe that while I look forward to graduating, it is a little strange to think that my classmates and I are now the candidates being sent out to congregations all across the United States. I am excited at the ways the Spirit is moving and calling us and meets us in all the unknowns that are before us. I am nervous and unsure at the same time. I trust the Spirit’s moving and guiding, knowing that the Spirit is everywhere and I am being called to live alongside God’s people in a new place, and the Spirit is already there working and moving, and will be there while I am there, and will remain when I am called elsewhere. God is present, God is moving, and it is humbling to see the ways God is moving and that God is in fact calling me to love and serve a particular congregation.