For the next several weeks, we will be journeying together for the next weeks in a season of prayer in worship considering questions of what has changed in our lives as a congregation and as individuals. Our readings and sermons will begin by centering on on grief and God’s presence in the midst of it, then moving towards finding God who is already at work bringing hope beyond what we can see or even imagine. Our offertory will be somewhat extended as we pray and write responses that will be collected and shared together (without names or identifying information attached). There will be optional questions or prompts that apply to individuals for those who are not or were not part of our congregation or who don’t feel the community questions apply to them.
At the bottom of this page is a Pastoral Letter sent to the congregation on June 1st regarding the work of the Missional River Renewal Team and our next steps as a congregation.
The sermon series that it references has begun. You can find links to videos of each of the sermons here. They are being live streamed on Pastor Tim’s personal page https://www.facebook.com/revcaffeinated . You do not have to be Facebook friends with him to view them, though he does accept friend requests freely unless he can tell you are a spam bot. They will also be shared to the church Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/firstlutheransmtx/ after worship. Finally, they can be found at http://flcsm.org/sermons/ . There you will find the texts, the weekly reflection questions, and any other materials that will help you keep up with the series when you are not physically in worship.
Our questions from each week will be sent out no later than Monday morning for those not able to be present in worship. We invite responses. Each week the Renewal Team (Mikki Coles, Katherine Toivonen, Ren Linér, and Pastor Tim) will be going over them to craft the following week’s themes. You can respond by email or in writing.
We pray this series will be renewing for us not only as a congregation but as individuals. The first week we found as many wrote on personal grief as on congregational, with most spending time in prayer about both.
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Grace and peace to you in the name of the One whose Spirit empowers the Church!
After several months of work by the Missional River team, we will be journeying together for the next weeks in a season of prayer in worship considering questions of what has changed in our lives as a congregation and as individuals. Our readings and sermons will begin by centering on on grief and God’s presence in the midst of it, then moving towards finding God who is already at work bringing hope beyond what we can see or even imagine. Our offertory will be somewhat extended as we pray and write responses that will be collected and shared together (without names or identifying information attached). There will be optional questions or prompts that apply to individuals for those who are not or were not part of our congregation or who don’t feel the community questions apply to them.
The questions will not only ask what is missing but will work to point in new directions. This season of prayer is the next step in the congregation’s Missional River discernment journey, as outlined in the Missional River Report and next steps recommendations with this mailing.
Each week, for those not able to be in worship, we will be sending the questions out via email (the same list as the weekly update that goes out). If you are not receiving that (it goes out most Thursdays from the firstlutheran@grandecom.net address), you can sign up via our website at http://flcsm.org/sign-up-for-updates/ OR contact the church office and be added. If you do not use email, contact the church office and we will come up with a way to allow you to respond.
We ask all members and participants to give these questions significant attention whether in worship or at home, and share your responses so we can hear one another. Speaking openly about what we hold inside takes away its power and opens up space for new things. At the end of this series on grief and renewal in this season of prayer, we will celebrate and recommit to a new way of relating and doing ministry. We will celebrate that with our mid-summer potluck on July 15. There we will break bread together, engage in conversation, and select priorities for our next months.
A wise mentor once told me “Forgiveness means giving up all hope for a better past.” Another influential voice in my life, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, sums up his entire ministry of reconciliation in the title of my favorite of his books “No Future Without Forgiveness” which detailed the rebuilding of trust after apartheid. I truly believe that there is always a wall made from what has been, and that it blocks us from the future that God wants for us. Forgiveness and release is the only way through that wall. My prayer is that through honest sharing and a recommitment to renewing relationships and ministry, God will begin moving us through the walls that hold us back.
ask each of you to put special prayers for our congregation in these weeks, that we can be renewed by looking briefly at our past but that our eyes are pulled toward a hopeful future. The “Holden Village Prayer” has always been a powerful one for me. I close this letter with a slightly modified version of it that is not about leaving or moving physically, but about seeking renewal and God’s purpose right where we are:
O God, you have called your servants to uncertain ventures,
to new ways of being your people, to new paths of ministry,
to meet persons unknown to us,
to do in your name things we cannot imagine.
Give us faith and courage, not fully knowing what we are called to do,
but only that your hand is leading us
and your love supporting us,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
In Christ, and in faith that the Spirit has plans and a future of hope,
Pastor Tim