Catching Up: February 2012 Newsletter Article

I know, I know, this is an entire month late. Oops. I will not count it toward my Lenten blogging goals, so at least I can cling to that shred of dignity. 

We all are called for service,

to witness in God’s name.

Our ministries are diff’rent;

our purpose is the same:

to touch the lives of others

with God’s surprising grace,

So ev’ry folk and nation

may feel God’s warm embrace.

- Rusty Edwards, “We All Are One in Mission,” ELW 576

What would it look like if Lutheran Church of the Savior were to meet our full potential for living out God’s mission? This is not a rhetorical question. We are a community with tremendous gifts for sharing the gospel message of God’s love for the world, for providing support to those in need, for loving and serving God and our neighbor. In 2012 we will endeavor to catalog and organize those gifts around God’s mission for our congregation. 

Last fall, our Council formed a subcommittee from our Stewardship Committee and asked them to look at the effects of paying off our mortgage, scheduled to happen in the fall of 2012. Conversation in this group quickly moved beyond money to the mission of the congregation: how can Lutheran Church of the Savior use our newfound freedom from debt to invest in living out God’s mission for us? They recommended to Council that we use 2012 to engage in a process of discerning God’s mission for this congregation for the future. How can we best use our resources to do God’s work in our community and in the world? How can we live out our mission and vision statements, and should we look at those decade-old statements and ask whether they need to be updated for the future? How will we partner with local congregations, Lutheran and ecumenical? How will we use our building for ministry? How can we recognize, nurture, and share the unique gifts God has given members of this congregation? Our process for exploring these questions together will begin soon. 

In a separate yet serendipitous development, our synod has asked every congregation in Lower Michigan to have a conversation about mission and giftedness. Inside this newsletter you will find a front-and-back sheet titled “Southeast Michigan, North/West Lower Michigan Synod Response Form” and “Goal and Objectives.” These resources come to us out of the ongoing discernment process between the two synods of Lower Michigan: ours (North/West Lower Michigan Synod) and the Southeast Michigan Synod, including Detroit, Flint, Ann Arbor, and the surrounding area. Our two Synods share much of our ministry already: Lutheran Social Services of Michigan, campus ministry, youth ministry including our camps, candidacy of folks called to be pastors, and much more. This will be the first time every ELCA congregation in Lower Michigan has addressed the same questions, and will give us an opportunity to recognize the gifts of individual congregations and paint a picture of our cumulative ministry here.

We will meet after worship on Sunday February 19^th from 11:30am until about 1:00pm for this synod-requested mission conversation. We will expand coffee hour to provide food to sustain us through this meeting. 

Lent also begins this month, and this year our Lenten Wednesday education hour will help us to think about mission and what it means to be the body of Christ together. We will continue our pattern of recent years for Lenten Wednesdays, with supper at 5:45 pm, education hour in the fellowship hall at 6:30 pm, and worship – this year the ever-popular Holden Evening Prayer – from 7:30 to 8:00 pm. This way our education and worship during Lent will give us a biblical foundation for our conversations about mission through the rest of the year.  

This is an exciting time to be the church. Our community and our world are crying out with need, for food, for jobs, for housing, for peace, and for the God who works in us to bring forth the reign of Christ. Because we know God’s love for us, and the tremendous blessings God has given to this community of faith, we know also that God calls us to a mission of love and service to God and neighbor. May God give us the courage and strength to embrace that mission this year in prayer, in study, and in action.   

Pastor Andrew