“Freed in Christ to Serve”

“Freed in Christ to Serve” – This was the theme of the 2011 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. I was honored to have been elected as a voting delegate to attend the Assembly this last week in Orlando, Florida. Sunday, Aug. 14th, I said “Go in Peace, Serve the Lord” and immediately got in a car to be taken to the airport for a 2:00 PM flight to Orlando! I joined some 1,500 ELCA delegates and staff people as the largest legislative body of our church met for the work of God’s mission in this world. 

It’s a good thing that I am a parliamentary procedure nerd because our meetings began at 8:00 AM and usually Bishop Hanson was getting permission to extend the meetings into the supper hours and several nights until 9:00 PM. We had worship with communion every day, bible study every day, and reports every day. I loved it! 

We officially began the ELCA Malaria Campaign of which we were a pilot synod, and of which our synod raised an overwhelming $125,000 (we even wore red shirts bragging of the fact and were asked to stand!) 

We voted in a new mission strategy and management plan called LIFT (Living Into the Future Together) that takes  seriously the call of mission and ministry of the local congregation and synod strategy. 

We officially adopted the “Genetics, Faith and Responsibility" social statement. 

I sang in the choir, went to gatherings of Global Mission and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, where I met with old friends that I served in Slovakia with! I met with my prayer partner, a pastor from Ohio! It was great! 

At our closing assembly, Bishop Hansen said:  “I came to the 2011 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) more grateful for the mission of this church than I have ever been. My sense of hope and my gratitude only increased throughout the week.”

This is your church and I’m so blessed to serve! 

With abiding love,

Pastor Lynnae

Vacation Bible School!

The power of imagination.

As I am writing this, we are in the full throws of Vacation Bible School! Adults are running around decorating and making costumes! Teachers are reading up on “Threshold”, “Mezuzah”, learning songs and signs and even working on ancient bead making! VBS is always a great deal of fun, but I’m even more excited this year as we step back in time to visit the Hometown of Jesus— Nazareth! 

I am amazed by how the history of the ancient times so attracts people of all ages! I guess it is the power of imagination.  Some think that imagination is for child play. Some don’t connect imagination and spirituality.  Of course, some people scare me with their ‘imagination’ as they dream up encounters with God, say in the grocery store, leading them to the perfect fruit salad.

“In traditional Jewish terms, the human imagination, our yetzer, good or bad, is our human self-- creating alternative possibilities for responding to our personal situation. And, like it or not, we create our world in terms of our interests and purposes as well as our ideals and aspirations. In the Hasidic tradition, this means that we have to live constantly with the tension between a constricted, self-interested awareness of our world and a more expansive, self-transcending consciousness.” — Spirituality and Imagination by Tsvi Blanchard.

I am slowly seeing that imagination can be a conduit for encounters with Jesus. Through guided imagery, we can have a dialogue with our Lord!  May your imagination bring you closer to God and bring a little heaven on earth!

With abiding love,

Pastor Lynnae

Pentecost

The growing season – Pentecost.

We enter the season of the church year, Pentecost. This is often called ‘ordinary time’. Summer seems everything but – ordinary! We’ve got a full Children’s Center, with the summer camp program in full swing. We’ve got new adult Sunday School classes! We’re doing all sorts of alternative worship styles with loads of lay involvement! Yet, it is ordinary time. Summertime brings a change in our rhythm and pace. Many of our readings this summer will have to do with ‘agriculture’. We can follow the growing season in the lessons of light and seed. We will grow with the disciples as they come to understand all that Jesus was showing and teaching. We will hear many parables and as our ‘Godly Play’ curriculum suggests, ‘we will see how Jesus becomes a parable’. Come grow with us! See you in church!

With abiding love,

Pastor Lynnae

AWEsome Worship!

Micah 4:1-2a


In days to come

the mountain of the LORD's house

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

and shall be raised up above the hills.

Peoples shall stream to it,

and many nations shall come and say:

"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,

to the house of the God of Jacob;

that he may teach us his ways

and that we may walk in his paths."

My nephew Michael and I were talking last night and it is amazing just how much he has learned from just one year of college! Mike just finished his first year at Texas Lutheran University as a pre-engineering student. He told me that he has figured out the WORSHIP makes all the difference. You go to “worship for God but somehow you end up getting so much out of it for yourself” – so he says. What a great life lesson.

We are going to have AWEsome summer! The Alternative Worship Experiences that the Worship Life Board is planning is sure to AWE you! In this house of worship we will sing and dance, pray and praise the Lord our God! Don’t let summer pass you by! While you are on vacation – remember that Sunday is the Day of Our Lord for worship and renewal through the sacraments. See you in church!

Barabbas

Barabbas came to visit.

Last Friday, Good Friday, Barabbas came to visit Abiding Love.

If you’ll remember, Barabbas was the prisoner that Pilate freed instead of Jesus on that day before the people. Now there is some question lately as to “who” Barabbas actually was. Some people say that he was a thief or a murderer, others that he was an insurrectionist, or that he was, like John the Baptist, an Essene (religious zealot) that openly opposed the Roman Empire and the corruption of the Temple leaders by the occupation. I believe that Barabbas came to visit us last Friday evening. I didn’t see him, but I heard about him. He was rumored to have used foul language, been drunk and disorderly. It seemed that he was homeless and angry. Or maybe the real Barabbas was you or maybe me.

I don’t really believe in the atonement theology of the early church, understanding better the Old Testament understanding of forgiveness. That understanding informs me of just how blessed and loved we all are. Barabbas truly was given another chance! He was set free by the person of Jesus. I wonder what he did with the rest of his life? I wonder what you will do? I hope Barabbas comes back to Abiding Love. I should like to get to know him.

Building the faith:

In Japan today, people are cleaning up. Before they can do any new building, they have to destroy the old water washed and earthquake crumbled buildings to start again. Yet, these are their homes, their schools, their shops and theaters. They are theirs, and yet they have to deconstruct before they can reconstruct their own. They have to face that what was past is no longer useable. They have to figure out how to rebuild with the history of the past in mind.

It seems lately that we, churchy types, do a great deal of deconstructing. It is all around us. Authors like Marcus Borg, James Bryan Smith and top selling pastor Rob Bell are all ‘deconstructing’. They are trying to remove the old broken down and unjust theologies and systems in order to reconstruct the faith that Jesus builds. Sometimes they are brilliant and offer new light on old problems. Sometimes they make the issues worse or even water down the faith. What I find most fascinating is that they are willing to enter into the deconstruction zones at all.

The reasons why we need to ‘deconstruct’ is clear when you look at society today. Less and less people are convinced by the old ways of the creedal and confessional church. More and more people are leaving the traditional church in search of some greater meaning. Spirituality is up – congregations are down. Faith is pluralistic – denominations are insular.

I think cleaning up is a good thing and goodness knows I am not afraid of change, but let’s work together on this deconstruction. First of all, it makes the job more fun and second, doing things in community is bound to be more Godly.

We should look for the original intent, question the easy answers and examine the path with the light of Christ. I want to have some frank conversations about ‘heaven and hell’, ‘forgiveness and sin’, and even ‘war and peace’. In the near future, I will be setting up some dialogues with other pastors and theologians to talk about deconstructing and reconstructing our faith. Look for these dialogues and enter in the ‘Reconstruction’!

With abiding love,
Pastor Lynnae

Table Etiquette

Growing up, my mother had all sorts of ‘teachings’ about the table. She taught my sister and I how to set the table (fork on the left sort of stuff). She taught us how to fold napkins in an ordinary and a fancy way! She taught us about where to sit and what side to serve from (always serve from the left and clear from the right). One standard was, ‘you don’t serve yourself first and then your guests’ – unless it is Ethiopian food and you are showing them how to do it!

In an effort to be more hospitable and practical, I am going to take communion last. I’m asking the communion assistants to do the same. Ritual is important and our understanding of the how and why is just as important. The handbook on The Use of the Means of Grace – says that leaders may commune “before or after the congregation”. I would like to commune after, so that my attention is given to the guests first. I realize that there will be some chaos for a while as we get used to this, but soon, it will become culture and be natural.

I wonder how many families are still teaching the etiquette of the table? With Holy Communion – we are. All are welcome.