hey everybody – we need some large cardboard boxes for this weekend!!! Our “source” for the 30-hour famine kind of fell through this afternoon. Let me know who can do what. (probably need a transport vehicle for p/u and delivery too)

I wanted to share with everyone that we now have a new St. Timothy group for the whole congregation and friends on facebook (fb). We already have 18 members and I hope we add more all the time. I do believe it will be a great way to share information and ideas for our shared ministries; so, if you know someone who is on fb, but not in our group and should be, please send them an invitation to join us. Or if you’re not yet on fb yourself and would like to know more about how to do that, let me know.

Also, the point was made at last week’s meeting that we could do so much more with the site if we had someone (other than the pastor) who could care for it on a regular basis. (I should point out that the church secretary also posts calendar information to the website, something she will continue to do, but we could use someone else for overall site management.) We’ve initiated some steps to see if we kind find someone who feels called in this direction to help out. Please keep this ministry in prayer as we continue to search for a leader.

Blessings and peace.

But there is true phenomena about going away from any organization for an extended period of time, which I experienced in the Marine Corps, in my family life and now for the first time, in my congregational life. Even though I extract myself from the organization, it’s routines and it’s business, they all still go on – day in and day out, week in and week out. So upon my return I have this sense of needing to “hit the ground running” because there is a lot of catching up to do. Most of my first week back was spent doing a lot of “administrative” catching up. Then the snow hit and life shut down for a couple of days. Yesterday I got to make some visits there were way overdue and as they turned out, extremely profound. Those visits, plus some news from each of our two sons, and a few minutes to reconnect at home too, and Monday was gone. Today started with a renewed commitment to doing major sermon preparations, from which I am taking a break to do my other renewed commitment work – write on the blog regularly.

I can tell most of this month will be catch up, but I hope that in God’s time it will all work out. Blessing to all who shall read these words.

Even attempting to write this post today is causing me some anxiety. A part of me says that this discipline is important to the future of the church and the ministry I am involved in, and part of me says that there are other issues that are way more important. Perhaps I am feeling this way in part because I feel the demands on my time at this time of the year are “greater than normal.”

Yea, so where is God in all this? My wife read part of an article to me this morning from the latest Lutheran magazine about renewal and discernment for congregations. I need to go back and finish the article, but I was stirred all day to think about “what is God up to in this place,” and “what is our role?” I think I have a pretty good understanding of the answer to the first question; it’s the second question that is always the tough one.

It’s been a long week and it is only Wednesday; I feel I need to turn my attention to some other issues. I hope to see all of you back here next week. Until then, may our living Lord and Savior, whose birth we are about to celebrate, bless you and keep you.

Those of you who are associated with a Christian community that follows what is called a “liturgical calendar” know that yesterday was the “first Sunday in Advent” – also known as the beginning of a new “church year.” So happy New Year to all! The “season” of Advent is a time of preparation, watching and waiting, with hope and joy, for the coming of our Lord and Savior – Jesus as a baby born in a manger in Bethlehem.

During this season, many Christians take up special devotional practices. At St. Timothy we have provided a number of resources to help individuals and families who wish to do this. One of the main pieces we have made available is the new Book of Faith resource from Augsburg Fortress publishers. At our house, we added that material to our morning devotions, and found it to be very flexible.

Let me wish all of you a most blessed Advent season as we watch and wait for the arrival of baby Jesus!

A preacher never knows the effect of one’s sermon unless one receives particular feedback, and sometimes even then the real effect is not clear. “Good sermon, Pastor.” In what way? Because of it’s content, it’s strong stirring message, or because it was shorter than usual. All kidding aside, I know the Living Word does work faith in and through people where and when the Holy Spirit wills, which is sufficient for me. The point of all this is that this past week, the Living Words has really been working on me.

Those of you who were able to attend know that this was Christ the King Sunday, and that in the sermon I mentioned that I have trouble with this Sunday because Christ was not like any earthly king and because I don’t know how to be a “loyal subject.” I guess the truth is that until I preached it this past weekend, I never spent much time thinking about the Christian Life as one of being a “loyal subject” to Christ our King. Being under the rule of any king smacks of giving up my freedom in some way – of giving up what I want to do, when I want to do it – and somehow being responsible to the wants and desires of the King. That sounds very “un-American” doesn’t it? But perhaps, it is a very good picture of what the Christian Life should look like. Perhaps as followers of Christ our King we might WANT TO put a little more time in on considering what Christ wants and desires of our lives.

Perhaps I’ll just end here and let you all with your thoughts on this “Tuesday – Monday Morning.” As you prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope your day will be joy filled and safe, and that you will be able to reflect on all the blessings you do have. But let us also take this day to remember those are struggling this day.

Blessings to all, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ – THE King!

Well it has been a very rough last few days here in the Tidewater area of Virginia. The remnants of Hurricane Ida turned into a “nor-easter” event that hit us with several days of high winds and heavy rains. Although the sun is shining brightly today, and things are getting back to normal, as a community we continue to pray for those who suffered property damage and for those who worked diligently to restore power and communications, may God’s grace and mercy surround them all.

Several folks have raised to me the issue of our “presence” on the internet. Not that this is a new thought for me, it certainly isn’t, but it does raise my current level of awareness; this time with a slightly different perspective. One recent observation was that we abandoned our “presence” in the yellow pages for a promise – or at least a hope – that our money would be better spent on our internet presence. In my heart I still believe that this is the way we should be moving. There are, however, some interesting differences.

A yellow page ad, regardless of it’s size was static and unchangeable between publications. What you paid for is what you got. By the same token, no one who was using the yellow pages thought anything of that static nature either. Not so with “advertising” on the internet via an organizational website. To produce a site, and then allow it to become almost as “static” as the yellow pages print ad, is probably more damaging than not having a website at all. Today’s looker/seeker/consumer that is “shopping”/looking for a church on the internet “expects” to see a site that is current/updated often and tells the story of who we are.

What I am realizing, and this is not heavy theology, is: one, the website takes a lot more time and effort than the once-a-year decision to run the yellow pages ad again, and two, that since our internet presence through our website IS an important ministry function, I need to treat it that way. This means elevating its care and maintenance to a higher level on the priority list and probably developing an interested ministry team to share in the responsibility.

I’m glad that we are so near the beginning of a new liturgical year that we can look forward starting something new right away; rather than waiting until January 1! As always, I really DO welcome your comments and feed back. As I have said many times before “we” are in ministry together here at St. Timothy.

Blessings to you all, and if I don’t write to you before, I hope to see you at worship on Sunday and back here next week for “Good Monday Morning.”

I’ve had some time today to reflect on last night’s Worship and Music meeting. Although we may not have done one single BIG thing, we really did get a lot of planning accomplished. We are going to switch to setting one, ELW, starting with the first Sunday in Advent, November 29 this year. As part of that we have about an eight week plan for how and when we are going to introduce the parts of the liturgy to the worshiping assembly. Cool stuff, huh!

And if that wouldn’t be enough for one night we have an idea of what we want to do with all of the “special” Sundays from now until Christmas 1 in the end of December. Now that is really cool! October 11 is “Vision for Mission” Sunday, followed by “Commitment” Sunday on the 18th, both as part of our fall stewardship campaign. (I should probably also share a reminder that we will be having a Congregational Dinner on Saturday, October 17 – keep your eye out for more details.) And of course on October 25 we will be celebrating “Reformation” Sunday.

November 1 is of course “All Saints” Sunday, when we will remember those who have gone on to the Church Triumphant, and the 29th, as I said, is the first Sunday in Advent.

December is chocked full of special events. We will start and end the month with two different “Lessons and Carols,” the “Children’s Program” will be on the 13th, and the Cantata will be on the 20th!!! On Christmas Eve we will have two services similar to what we did last year.

As you can see – a very productive meeting. We did miss the participation of our past committee chair however, and we’re sorry that she can not participate at this time. We hope and pray that she will be able to return to her post soon, and in the mean time, we will be looking for another person who feels called to serve in this capacity to help us out.