THE FOOTPATH
The monthly newsletter of Followers of Christ Lutheran Church
A congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
May 2020
After a month and a half of sheltering in place and social distancing, with at least another month to go, we have begun to develop new routines. Some aspects of those routines may be positive. We may get to spend more time with our families and have come to appreciate fewer activities and less “running around” and overall busyness. We may be finding time to reconnect with friends, families, and loved ones on Zoom or over the phone, and realizing how grateful we are for the relationships that we have. We may be thankful for the opportunity to continue in our jobs, at home or at our workplace if allowed. If we are students, we may even appreciate having some schoolwork as something to do. We may appreciate being part of groups and sports team that can still do videoconferencing as we meet and train remotely. The spring weather certainly helps as well!
On the other hand, the new routines can have their fair share of challenges. Families having to share the same space – not to mention wifi – can present its own set of difficulties. We may rightfully fear what overall economic hardship and rising rates of unemployment will mean for our own jobs in the future. We are anxious of what the overall pandemic ripple effect might be for us well into the future. At the same time, we miss gathering in-person with friends and extended family for birthdays, graduations, and other special occasions. As a result of distancing ourselves from others, we may feel especially isolated and lonely. The uncertainty of the future, our loss of control and the unpredictability of what might happen next, can weigh heavily upon all of our hearts.
For me, worshiping online will never be a substitute for worshiping together in-person. As wonderful as the technology is, Zoom Bible studies, meetings, fellowship, and Sunday school fall short of my
experience of being together in-person. It does help to see each other’s faces, hear each other’s voices, and read each other’s comments, though.
We have done remarkably well using social media and the communications technology that we have to gather, worship, study, pray, share, and enjoy fellowship as the church. I am very thankful for that. I am thankful for your prayers, support, and participation under these challenging circumstances. And I am grateful that as stewards of all that God has entrusted to you – time, talents, treasures, and relationships – you have continued to offer your generous financial support as well.
While recognizing that this time of pandemic is no ordinary time, I would ask that you prayerfully consider continuing your current percentage/amount of giving to Followers of Christ Lutheran Church. Your generosity already enables Followers of Christ to continue our ministry in vital ways, even as we social distance and shelter in place. And your
commitment will continue to sustain our ministry into the future, until we once again gather in-person and grow according to the mission God has for us in Plainfield. Your continued financial support, along with using the time and talents that God has given you, is an absolutely vital expression of your faith in Christ.
Again, I want to thank you for your generosity already. And I am grateful for the ways that you will
continue to support the ministry we do together in Christ’s name.
Pastor Brad
April 2020
This has been a very strange and stressful time, to say the least. None of us in our lifetime has experienced a global pandemic like this before. Regardless of what you believe about the media coverage of this pandemic, the spread of COVID-19 has changed life as we know it significantly. Human responses to the pandemic have ranged from serious illness and death, to panic and hysteria, to cynicism and indifference. Anxiety, depression, and despair are also very real, since “social distancing” and “sheltering in place” can easily turn into isolation and loneliness. This can indeed be a confusing and discouraging time for our overall wellbeing as well: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, and financial.
As you can see on our April 2020 calendar, all worship services for the month will be held online using Facebook Live. This includes Holy Week and Easter as well. It is disappointing to cancel our in-person worship gatherings, especially during Holy Week and Easter. But we have been advised to do so by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America church-wide organization and by our own Northern Illinois Synod, in order to still take the necessary precautions for ourselves and for those who are most at risk of contracting COVID-19.
It is important to cancel our in-person worship gatherings, by the order of our synods and our bishops, in order to take the necessary precautions to help curb the pandemic. I want to assure you that one day we will gather again in-person for worship. We continue to hope and pray for that day to come, and it will come. But until then, we can thankfully use the technology we have to gather for worship online.
Even so, in our moments of stress and isolation, it might seem like canceling our onsite in-person worship services is the same thing as canceling church. It might seem like church is being canceled when we’re not gathering together in our usual worship space.
If we fear that’s what’s happening, I want to remind us of something else that we know is true: the church is more than a building. The church is more than its usual worship space. The church is the people of God, the body of Christ. We don’t stop being the church, especially at a time like this.
The church is gathered wherever Jesus Christ is present with his people. And Jesus Christ is present with his people, even as they gather to hear God’s Word online; to confess our sins and to receive the forgiveness of sins; to pray for ourselves and for the needs of the word during this pandemic; and to finally, thank and praise God.
Of course, gathering online is no substitute for gathering in-person. We miss the fellowship and community we have when we are together in-person. It is understandable and right to miss that. At the same time, though, we all need to be reminded that we are still the church, even as we gather for worship online. We are still the church because thankfully we
can use tools like Facebook Live and Zoom to gather together around God’s Word. And yet again, it is by the hearing of that Word, online, together, that Jesus Christ is made present to each and every one of us.
During Holy Week, when we hear the story of our Lord’s Passion – his suffering, his crucifixion and death – the suffering and crucified Christ will be right there with us.
And three days later on Easter Sunday, so will the risen Christ, as we exchange shouts of “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!” from our homes.
Pastor Brad
February 2020
In our own lives, we’ve all been told stories that provide some kind of moral lesson. I’m thinking of stories like “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” You’ve probably heard that one or some variation of it.
There once was a shepherd boy who was watching his sheep outside the village. The boy was bored and decided that he would have some fun. Counting his sheep evidently wasn’t entertaining enough for him. The boy wanted to see if he could stir the villagers into a panic by running into the village and crying, “Wolf, wolf!” After all, he was sure they would believe him. They’d come running out to the field to help him protect the sheep from the wolf, even though there was no wolf.
By telling his lie, the boy got the reaction he was looking for… At his cry of, “Wolf, wolf!” the villagers panicked and ran out to drive away the wolf before the sheep were devoured. The boy laughed and laughed at the panic he created. Of course, the villagers were furious at him. But they couldn’t take any chances at having a wolf destroy the sheep they depended on for wool and food. They had to respond to the boy crying, “Wolf!”
Well, the boy was so wickedly delighted by the panic he had created the first time that he did it again and again. Eventually, however, the villagers stopped coming. They didn’t believe him. And one day when there actually was a wolf, no one responded to the boy’s cries of, “Wolf!” They thought he was lying even though he was telling the truth. And the wolf destroyed the sheep.
The lesson: If you tell incessant lies, no one will believe you when you are telling the truth. So don’t make a practice of, “Crying wolf!”
Incidentally, Jesus also uses stories to teach people throughout his ministry. But his stories go beyond lessons such as, “Tell the truth – don’t ‘cry wolf.’” Jesus’ stories, or parables, as they’re called, draw a comparison between something ordinary and familiar to people, and his Father’s kingdom – the kingdom of God.
Like “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” the parables of Jesus draw the listener in. You and I become part of the story. But then the parable surprises and even shocks us. We are shown how very different the kingdom of God is from our world and the way we tend to live.
Take two of Jesus’ most well-know parables, for instance: “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” and “The Parable of the Good Samaritan.” We can relate, in a way, to having families in which everyone doesn’t get along. We may even have a falling out with a family member and doubt whether that relationship can ever be healed.
In the parable Jesus tells about the prodigal son, the father’s relationship with his youngest son appears to be over. The son runs away and spends all of his inheritance, after all. But the Father takes his son back and has compassion on him – there’s the surprise of the parable. The Father’s love is not of this world, but of the kingdom of God. God loves us in the same way, even though we run away from him.
In the “Parable of the Good Samaritan,” we are introduced to a man who has been beat up by robbers. He is clearly in need of help. Two religious officials approach the injured man but pass by on the other side. We are familiar enough with passing people by, even though they may need our help. But then the surprise of the parable occurs when a Samaritan, a complete stranger and enemy of the injured man, stops to help him. According to the kingdom of God, our neighbor is whoever needs our help. We’re to be a neighbor to strangers and even enemies. And when we help a stranger – or even someone we don’t like – we are being a neighbor to them. According to the parables, the ways of the kingdom of God are always shockingly different from our own.
As you can see, the parables of Jesus have a powerful way of drawing us in and then showing us the kingdom of God. We are invited and challenged to live our own lives according to the ways of God’s kingdom. In our Tuesday night Bible Study class, we are currently studying the parables of Jesus. At any point you are invited to participate, if you are not already.
In our weekly Catechism class, the Confirmation students and I are studying the Lord’s Prayer. And I realized that the very thing that Jesus wants us to see in the parables – the kingdom of God – we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer, when we pray: “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
As we pray the Lord’s Prayer, and live according to the kingdom of God shown to us in the parables, may our lives show forth God’s kingdom, too.
Pastor Brad
March 2020
Have you ever visited a wilderness area? What do you imagine when you think of “the wilderness?” Do you picture the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota; Death Valley in California; the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone; Alaska; or some other faraway place in the world without any Starbucks, McDonald’s, cars, roads, or cell phone coverage?
For us, the wilderness may be a place we escape to. We vacation to a wilderness area in order to “get away from it all.” We look for opportunities to venture beyond the crowds, beyond the paved roads and paths, and to explore the unpaved trails instead. We long to experience the natural world, God’s creation, untouched and unspoiled by human civilization. The wilderness, as we imagine and experience it, refreshes us and fulfills our need for adventure.
At the same time, however, the wilderness is never a place we plan to live the rest of our lives. We can’t. Our lives remain waiting for us back where we live: our families, jobs, schools, churches, and community involvement. We couldn’t attend to the rest of our lives if we were to just stay in the wilderness. We couldn’t survive in the wilderness indefinitely without all of the modern conveniences that we have come so much to depend on.
So often we think of the wilderness as a particular place that we plan to visit, for a time, and then return from. But the season of Lent reminds us that the wilderness is more than a place. The wilderness is the experience of being human, wherever we happen to be living or traveling. The Bible uses the image of the wilderness to describe our experience of human limitations and sin.
Now, our human limitations, in themselves, are not bad. God created us to have needs, and to depend on God and other people to help provide for our needs – “our daily bread,” as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer. The problem of sin enters when we don’t trust that God will care or provide for us. Like the Israelites who wandered in the wilderness for forty years after God had freed them from slavery, we also resort to grumbling and complaining and neglecting the ways that God is providing for us. We presume to think we could do God’s job better than God himself – that is our sin. In our everyday lives we can experience the wilderness where we believe God to be distant and untrustworthy. No matter how much we have, we can feel we are just scraping by in order to survive, and that all we have to depend on is ourselves. That is our wilderness mentality and experience.
During Lent we are challenged to examine the ways that we both distrust and distance ourselves from God. We are challenged to see our wilderness mentality and experience for what it is. Despite the ways that God cares and provides for us, we’d rather get more for ourselves and do life our way. That, again, is our wilderness mentality and experience.
But God, as we see, has another way. God, in the person of Jesus, renounces – says “no” – to our wilderness temptations for us when we are unable to ourselves. God traverses the wilderness with us. And in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we see God’s ultimate faithfulness to his people; God’s refusal to abandon his people even as they complain and grumble; God’s willingness to fulfill the promise to never leave or forsake his people. Indeed we see the fulfillment of God’s promise to remain their God, and for the people to remain his people, even in the wilderness.
This Lent as we become aware of our own wilderness mentality and experience, may we recognize the ways in which God nevertheless, in his faithfulness, provides and carries us through.
Pastor Brad
January 2020
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but
we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption
of our bodies. For in hope we were saved.” (Romans 8:22-24 NRSV)
Right now I’m holding on tightly to these words spoken by God through St. Paul in his letter to the Romans.
As I write, the year 2019 is ending on a particularly difficult note for me and my family. Just this week – a
week before Christmas – my family and I found out that our dog, Max, in all likelihood has cancer. Max is a
Golden-doodle (part Golden Retriever, part Standard Poodle) that we rescued almost seven years ago. We
are awaiting the test administered by the veterinarian, but the vet could already tell by the swelling of Max’s
lymph nodes that he likely has lymphoma. Max had pneumonia early in life, but under our care, his life turned
out to be an overall happy and healthy one. The likely onset of cancer in Max is therefore heartbreaking. In
any case, as we find out more, we will have a difficult decision to make.
Some new years begin like the year before, and the year before that. One year seems to flow right into the
next. But for me, the ending of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 is not one of those seamless endings and
beginnings, as in years’ past. Instead, with the shock and devastation of Max’s illness, there is the fast
approach of his end.
There is his groaning, my groaning, and the groaning of the whole creation, as St. Paul reports in the book of
Romans. The whole of creation – Max, you and I, and all of creation – groan for the redemption of our bodies. Rather than one year flowing right into another, perhaps the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 is a
time of groaning for you as well. After all, our experiences of death and loss, as well as the deep longing for
God to redeem and restore his creation, are the source of our groaning.
St. Paul, however, assures us that in the midst of our groaning, God has given us his Spirit: “we ourselves,
who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23 NRSV).
We await the fulfillment of God’s adoption plans for us, even as we groan. The Holy Spirit sighs for us and
prays for us, even as we groan, as St. Paul would also say. And so we groan with hope. And I groan with
hope, knowing that Max will soon experience the peace that God wants for all of his creatures.
In the sure and certain hope of our salvation,
Pastor Brad
December 2019
Dear Followers of Christ,
One of the things I’ve been thinking about recently is the difference between knowing about God and knowing God. We’ve discussed the difference between the two in both adult Sunday school and Tuesday night Bible study. Knowing about God includes what we learn about God in church, in school, or on our own. Knowing God, however, requires a commitment to and relationship with God. While knowing about God can help to form our commitment and our relationship with God, simply knowing about God can never take the place of knowing God. Knowing about God can never take the place of the commitment and the relationship that we need to actually know God.
I have recently been reading a book by Victor A. Shepherd entitled, The Committed Self. The book discusses how we become our “true selves” through our commitment to God and other people. The book makes this interesting but challenging point: We become who God intended us to be, and we live according to the image of God in which he has created us, when we decide to commit our lives to God and to other people – and then act on those commitments. Acting on those commitments to God and others, we become our “true selves” and discover who we truly are. Short of growing in our commitment to God and others, however, we will not know who God intended us to become.
On December 1st we begin a new church year with the season of Advent. The word, “Advent,” is best translated “coming.” During Advent we actively anticipate and await Christ’s coming: the birth of Christ at Christmas; Christ’s coming in his Word and Sacrament as well as within the fellowship of the Christian community; and Christ’s promise to come again at the end of time.
This Advent as we prepare for Christ’s coming, we have an opportunity to examine our own
commitments. How might we grow in our commitment and our relationship with Emmanuel, “God with us,” who has committed himself, fully and completely, to us in the person of Christ? How might we, in our own lives and in our own relationships, reflect a God who became fully human, fully
committed, fully dedicated, to the people he loves?
May we show forth – in our own lives – our Lord’s commitment to the world that he loves. For Christ has not only come for us, but has come for all.
In hopeful expectation of our Savior’s coming,
Pastor Brad
November 2019
Dear Followers of Christ,
The month of November begins with a festival Sunday (“All Saints Sunday” on November 3rd) and ends with the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, November 28th. In this month’s newsletter I would like to lift up both of these themes (saints and thanksgiving) by sharing a hymn that is new to me in our hymnal, Evangelical Lutheran Worship. The hymn is entitled, appropriately enough, “Give Thanks for Saints” (ELW #428).
Here are the words:
Verse One: “Give thanks for those whose faith is firm when all around seems bleak: on God’s good promise they rely, so while they live and when they die how forcefully they speak – the strong, who once were weak!”
Verse Two: “Give thanks for those whose hope is clear, beyond mere mortal sight: who seek the city God has planned, the true, eternal promised land, and steer on toward that light, a beacon ever bright.”
Verse Three: “Give thanks for those whose love is pure, a sparkling precious stone: they show by what they say and do an inward beauty, warm and true, for God’s concerns they own – God’s love through them is known.”
Verse Four: “Give thanks for saints of ages past and saints alive today: though often by this world despised, their hearts by God are richly prized. Give thanks that we may say we share their pilgrim way.”
This hymn beautifully expresses our thanksgiving and gratitude for the “saints of ages past and saints alive today…” And it focuses on how their firm faith, clear hope, and pure love reveal God to us. After all, each of us can call to mind loved ones – both living and dead – who have been saints to us.
No saint is perfect. All of us are at the same time both saint and sinner, as Martin Luther and the reformers taught us. Nevertheless, there are people whom God uses to grace our lives. We thank God for them even as we pray that God might make each of us saints in somebody else’s life.
As the hymn says, “Give thanks for saints”!
Pastor Brad
October 2019
Dear Followers of Christ,
At the end of last month we went apple picking in Michigan to celebrate my birthday. There were plenty of apples for us to pick, and even for Robby to learn how to pick. I had never seen so many Honey Crisp apples in one spot!
Nevertheless I found out that the apple and berry harvest will be much lower this year due to the severe cold of last winter’s polar vortex. Like farming, the orchard industry is at the mercy of so much beyond human control. Despite advances in technology and high-yield varieties of fruit, weather and climate still largely determine how successful the harvest will be. If the Farmer’s Almanac is correct about this upcoming winter, we will be looking at another harsh winter unless, of course, you love winter. But the orchards are hoping that winter will be kinder to the apples trees and the fruit they will produce.
I am struck by the similarity between the church and fruit-producing orchards. We are all like trees that God has created to produce fruit. “A good tree produces good fruit,” our church sign even reads. For us, how-ever, producing good fruit – doing good works in service to our neighbor and in thanksgiving to God – isn’t always easy. Oftentimes it’s hard. We go through seasons of life that are the equivalent of harsh winters. Our relationship with God, with one another, and with ourselves isn’t always kind. In fact, we confess that “we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves.” In our hearts and in our actions, we turn against God and other people. And in their hearts and in their actions, other people turn against us as well. God also judges our wayward hearts that have turned away from him. As a result, we become like trees that don’t produce the fruit of which we are capable, the fruit that God intended us to produce.
Yet according to the Scripture readings we’ve heard on recent Sundays, we are assured that lost sheep are not left to wander all by themselves. Coins are not lost forever. God’s people are not left to worship and serve a “god” which they made with their own hands, and in doing so, are not left to perish in the wilderness. Even a “dishonest” manager who has rightfully lost his job is permitted to make friends with his master’s debtors by forgiving them their debt. With God, all is not lost. I would add that even trees afflicted by their own sin and the sin of other people are shown the grace and mercy to once again produce fruit.
God shows his grace and mercy to trees like us, trees that would not otherwise produce fruit. And I am
grateful for the ways that God continues to produce fruit in us, his church. As you read this month’s
newsletter during this season of harvest, give thanks for the fruit that you see in these pages – the ways that God is at work through you, Followers of Christ.
Giving thanks for you,
Pastor Brad
September 2019
Dear Followers of Christ,
“The gifts [Christ] gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-13NRSV).
What are your gifts for ministry? And what are those gifts for? I like these verses from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians since they remind us of who we are as the Church. The Church is the body of Christ. And the body of Christ is at its best when the different parts of the body are working together. As Paul teaches us in Ephesians, Christ gave each and every one of us gifts for ministry. One of the main purposes of our gifts is to build up the body of Christ, that is, the Church.
If you’ve ever participated in a “three-legged” race you get the idea. For such a race, your left leg is tied to your teammate’s right leg, or vice versa. In order to win a “three-legged” race, you and your teammate can’t both try to run as fast you can. You’re literally connected at the hip and would only end up tripping and falling together. Instead you have to coordinate your movements. Perhaps by saying “right, left, right, left” or “one, two, one, two,” you have to learn to move together, rather than simply as individuals. As you move with each other, you build each other up; and you increase your chances of doing well in the race.
As though cheering on his team, the body of Christ, St. Paul continues a few verses later in his letter to the Ephesians: “…we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:15-16NRSV).
The Church works in much the same way. We build up the body of Christ in love as we use the gifts God has given us to build each other up. I see this “building up the body of Christ” already happening in a variety of ways at Followers of Christ, but I want to focus now on one particular way.
One of the gifts we have for ministry is our Congregational Council. Our Council meets on the third Sunday of each month and reviews the business of the congregation. The Council approves financial reports and makes decisions regarding the various ministries of our church. The Council representatives' specific areas of ministry include: Education & Youth; Mission & Outreach; Property & Management; and Worship & Music. If you have an idea or a proposal for anything in those areas of ministry, please speak with the respective Council representative. If you want me to introduce you to any of the representatives, or if you have a question about whom to talk to, please let me know. I’d be happy to assist in any way I can.
If your Church Council representative doesn’t know the answer to a question you might have, he or she can find out the answer for you. If the Council would need to meet first to vote on whether to approve your idea or proposal, the Council representative could let you know that too. I’d also invite you to speak with our Council President and Vice President. Our Secretary and Treasurer are good resources as well. In our Church Council, we’ve been given the great gift of leaders who are devoted to the various ministries of our congregation. As we lean upon those leaders – and as we make decisions together – we will be building up the body of Christ.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Brad
August 2019
Dear Followers of Christ,
During a recent adult Sunday school class, we were having an interesting discussion about the Gospel reading for the day from Luke Chapter 10. The reading begins: “After this the Lord [Jesus] appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go” (Luke 10:1NRSV). Jesus gives them specific instructions. They are to bring no purse, no bag, and no sandals; and they are to graciously and peacefully accept the hospitality of those who open their homes to them. They are not to move about from house to house, but rather to remain in the same house. As guests, they are to provide a healing and hopeful presence as well, “curing the sick who are there, and saying to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’” (Luke 10:9NRSV).
During our class discussion, we focused on the agenda of those seventy whom Jesus had appointed and sent to where he himself intended to go. We first spent some time discussing what their agenda wasn’t. Their agenda wasn’t to get people to follow them and join their synagogue. They weren’t after recruiting members to fill their houses of worship. That wasn’t the agenda directing their visits to people’s houses. Instead the seventy others, whom Jesus appointed and sent, were to help bring the kingdom of God near for the sake of their neighbors. This meant caring for people as neighbors, laying the groundwork for a relationship with them, listening to their hopes and concerns, and doing what they could to help respond to those hopes and concerns.
The discussion then turned to the 140 new homes being built in our own church’s backyard. What does this Gospel story have to say about the relationship that we – as a church – should have with our neighbors? The class decided that providing a welcome basket to our new neighbors is a good idea. We will have a task force overseeing the distribution of welcome baskets. You are invited to serve on that if you wish.
But in addition to welcome baskets, what does the Gospel say about our relationship with our neighbors? The class agreed that the initial purpose of welcoming people and distributing the baskets will not be to invite them to come to church. Rather, we will make clear our intention to welcome them as our neighbors, and to find out what their hopes and concerns are as they are new to the neighborhood. On our visits, we will ask questions to help us get to know them better. We’ll show a willingness to listen and to help if we can. Over time we will lay the groundwork in our relationship with our neighbors so that we can naturally invite them to our Rally Day picnic, Thanksgiving meal, Easter brunch, and yes, worship. Stay tuned for opportunities to learn, discuss, and participate in efforts to welcome our new neighbors.
In Christ’s Peace,
Pastor Brad
June 2019
Dear Followers of Christ,
Thank you for a wonderful year of ministry together at Followers of Christ. I want to briefly highlight some of the ways I’ve seen God at work in and through our congregation. First, baptisms: We were blessed with three baptisms this past year. Wyatt, Savannah, and Natalie were baptized and received into the family of God, the Body of Christ, at Followers. Second, Timmy received his First Communion. Third, Followers of Christ has received new members: John, Ashley, and Kathy, who have already been introduced and recognized as new members during worship. Tim and Mary, Brian and Yenny, and Bill and Paula will be welcomed as new members during the worship service on June 23rd. For me, the arrival of visitors and new members is a powerful sign of God’s faithfulness to his church and God’s love for the world he has made. I look forward to how God will use all of us to further his mission together.
I am grateful for the people I have had the privilege of working with at Followers of Christ. The staff, church council, and volunteers are dedicated, committed, and team-oriented. Thank you for all that you have done to support me in my ministry. I have been encouraged by new people who have stepped into leadership roles last year and this year. And I am thankful to those of you who have done much and served well but will be assuming different roles.
This past year we participated in the Congregational Vitality Survey. The results of the survey gave us a better idea of what the strengths of our congregation are: our education and outreach ministries, including Vacation Bible School, Bible studies, and Sunday school – as well as the relationships that people form with God and with one another, through worship and fellowship. As indicated by Pastor Erickson of the Northern Illinois Synod, the survey also directed our attention to certain challenges and opportunities. As a congregation with a strong sense of family and belonging, what are ways that we can look outward as well – showing greater hospitality and extending more of a welcome to others, too? What are ways that we can grow more as stewards in order to increase not only the vitality of this congregation, but its sustainability as well?
Using the results of the vitality survey as a guide, we will be developing a mission plan for Followers of Christ in the coming year. I look forward to continuing our work together, and to discovering how we can take part – together – in the mission that God has for us.
Serving with you,
Pastor Brad
July 2019
Dear Followers of Christ,
One of the things emphasized at the annual Northern Illinois Synod Assembly is the theme, “We are Church Together.” The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), I was reminded, is one church with three expressions. Those expressions include all ELCA congregations, the 65 regional synods headed by bishops across the United States, and the ELCA churchwide office headed by the presiding bishop in Chicago. Three expressions, one church.
When the three expressions work together, we are serving as one church. Through our mission support dollars given to the regional synod and the churchwide office, local congregations support the ministry of the church around the world. The regional synods and churchwide office, in turn, help supply congregations with pastors as well as start new congregations. Three expressions, one church.
The whole church can do what no single congregation can do alone. I’m thinking in particular of the ELCA’s response to communities devastated by natural disasters. ELCA Disaster Response addresses short-term goals for communities recovering from disasters, while ELCA World Hunger works toward long-term solutions to reduce hunger. It helps me to know that the church is bigger than any one of its congregations. We are not alone but can be the church together.
God’s peace,
Pastor Brad
May 2019
Dear Followers of Christ,
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!
During this Easter season, I am encouraged by the new signs of growth all around us: the bright green of the grass, the blossoms of the flowers, the warm sunlight (finally!). The arrival of spring, as well as celebrating a late Easter on a beautiful spring day, is a wonderful experience. Signs of the resurrection of our Lord were present in our Easter Sunday worship service as well: the lighting of the Christ candle; the words, “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia;” the flowers decorating the altar; the white cloth on the cross; and the hanging banners.
As we begin this Easter season, which lasts until early June, I am especially encouraged by the signs of the risen Christ’s presence in our own congregation. In the last year alone, worship attendance has been on the rise. We’ve welcomed more visitors and have received more new members into the family of God here at Followers of Christ. We’ve celebrated multiple baptisms. We’ve had more children and more adults participate in Sunday school and Bible study than in the past. For me, these are all wonderful signs of the risen Christ’s presence in our midst – drawing people to himself and to one another – into a deeper faith in him.
I am already grateful for how generous the members of Followers of Christ are with their time, their talents and abilities, and their financial gifts. Your generous giving to the ministry of Followers – in the ways already mentioned – has contributed to the growth that we are experiencing.
In order to sustain the growth of our church’s ministry, I invite you to prayerfully discern how you might share the time, talents, and treasures that God has given you. You have already received your Stewardship Commitment Card and Time & Talent form. Please fill out the amount you pledge to give, and the ways you intend to serve, and return both of those forms during worship May 5th, Stewardship Commitment Sunday.
As a guide in your giving, please prayerfully consider the tithe (sharing a tenth of your income, or growing toward that goal). Or, please prayerfully consider growing by 10-20% over what you are presently giving as a financial gift to our ministry at Followers of Christ Lutheran Church. In other words, if you are presently giving $50 per week, an increase of 10% would be $55 per week. An increase of 20% would be $60 per week.
The amount we pledge to give on our Stewardship Commitment Cards is not only used to develop our 7/1/2019 – 6/30/2020 budget. Our pledged giving is also an expression of our faith in the risen Christ, and our support of the ministry he is doing in and through Followers of Christ Lutheran Church.
Thank you for your generosity already, and thank you for the ways that you will continue to support the ministry we do together in Christ’s name!
Pastor Brad