Home at Epiphany Lutheran Church

Our synod assembly is this week!  Last week , we featured a blog from Spirit of Peace Lutheran Church, Richmond Hill, GA.   This week we have thoughts from members of Epiphany Lutheran Church, Collierville, TN. We are excited that both of these mission congregations will be organizing as official congregations of the ELCA at this year's Southeastern Synod Assembly. We hope you enjoy learning more about them as we prepare to celebrate with them!

The following thoughts are shared by two members of the mission of Epiphany Lutheran Church in Collierville, TN. Collierville is just east of Memphis, TN. The congregation is allowed worship and meeting space in the chapel and academic building of St. George’s Episcopal School.

Marti Laslavic has been a member of Epiphany from the time a small gathering began monthly worship in the home of Pastor-Mission Developer Lynda Ernst.

In the early days of Epiphany, few of us knew each other.  Some were linked by common employment while others were linked by common former churches. Many were strangers. But the bonds formed early because Epiphany offered newcomers a sense of home.  No matter your origins or the newness (or strangeness) of your new surroundings (barbeque pizza, really?) joining in worship on Sunday morning lessens the loss of home and smoothes the edges of the unfamiliar.  Whether we met in the mission pastor’s home or the Collierville Funeral Home, Epiphany offered the comfort of the Lutheran liturgy.  “For this holy house and for all who offer here their worship and praise, let us pray to the Lord ” joins you to the common worship experience and to the love of God.

Becoming a part of a mission congregation is a different experience than becoming a member of an established church.  There is no slipping into a pew, joining in worship, and slipping out the door.  The smallness forces one to be congenial and brings the people together as a group of worshippers. 

We in the mission congregation continued to share each others joys, fears, and disappointments... and through all our growth pains, our stepping forth in faith, and the evolution of our church, we continue to be comforted by the familiarity of the worship experience.  Never dull or dry - never rote or insincere, we weekly join together confessing our sins, asking for mercy, and singing our song of praise.  We praise God for bringing us together in a special place called Epiphany. 

Thoughts from Diane Kruse. Diane and her husband Wendell joined Epiphany within the last year.

"But as for that in the good soil, these are the ones who when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance.” – Luke 8:15.

Several years ago, my family was searching for “good soil” in a house of worship. Because we were experiencing a rough patch in our faith journey, we were looking for a place where the church listened to the word with a good heart as well as a desire to love and serve others.

 
We found an ELCA mission church just east of our home. We visited the chapel where the church worshipped. [For us] hearing the Gospel helps us to see that God should be at the center of our lives. We also remember that Jesus told his disciples to love one another. We love God and we love each other.

In addition to hearing the Gospel, the minister there gave a dynamic sermon showing her faith and conviction. And as I listened to the pastor’s words, I was reminded of Christ’s suffering. I realized in comparison, my problems were very miniscule. After the sermon, we participated in Communion, sharing home baked bread brought by one of the church members. Upon leaving the church, we were greeted warmly by the members. The love we felt sure gave us a feeling of warmth and hospitality! We were invited to visit afterward at coffee fellowship.

The above account took place a year and a half ago and we joined Epiphany about a year ago. Since then, the Epiphany Men’s group has planted a garden on land is being purchased through the help of the ELCA. The vegetables grown are to be shared with the town food bank. Now that is some good soil for growing in more ways than one!

We now feel at home at Epiphany Lutheran Church!

A Grace Odyssey-Spirit of Peace, Richmond Hill, GA

We will be featuring blogs from members of Spirit of Peace Lutheran Church, Richmond Hill, GA, and Epiphany Lutheran Church, Collierville, TN, this week and next. We are excited that both of these mission congregations will be organizing as official congregations of the ELCA at this year's Southeastern Synod Assembly. We hope you enjoy learning more about them as we prepare to celebrate with them!

The life and ministry of Spirit of Peace Lutheran Church has truly been a grace odyssey from the time of its formation in 2001! God stirred within the hearts of people in coastal Georgia the desire for a new ELCA congregation in Richmond Hill. This grassroots effort, led by the Holy Spirit, included the selection of the name “Spirit of Peace” during the fall of 2001. During a time of national anxiety, anger, and alarm, “Spirit of Peace” began to embody for the community our living hope in Christ.

Weekly worship began in February 2002, initially in the sanctuary of the local Episcopal Church, then in the chapel of a funeral home. It was a great location – in the dead center of town! Necessity spurred on creativity as other community facilities and family homes were used for fellowship dinners, Confirmation classes, Bible studies, and Youth gatherings.

Richmond Hill is a highly mobile community and is home for numerous military families [Fort Stewart  and Hunter Army Air Field are 30 minutes away] as well as persons who work in Savannah. For those who are active military, Spirit of Peace has provided spiritual support and encouragement, especially during times of deployment and field training. For life-long Lutherans, Spirit of Peace has been a welcomed new church home. And for the many people who had been church homeless for years, Spirit of Peace has brought the grace of God and the joy of Jesus into their lives in transformational ways.

In 2008 a capital campaign entitled “Raising Spirit Together” launched the congregation toward ambitious goals, including the building of our first church home. Even as the Great Recession impacted our nation, God’s great grace was upon Spirit of Peace. The campaign was a great success, spiritually and financially. The following year, Spirit of Peace received a free gift of four acres of land in a great location – for real! Soon we would adopt a constitution, elect Council members, create a living charter, and secure a construction loan. With gratitude to God, we’ve consistently tithed 10% to mission support for the ELCA.

Now we are home at last - Bishop Gordy properly dedicated our facility to the glory of God on November 13, 2011 – and we will soon officially be what we know in our hearts we already are: a congregation of the Southeastern Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. God’s grace has led us safe thus far; and now we see that God, who helped us build a new church home, is also building among us a new church with new people who are being built together like living stones into a spiritual house!

Thank you for listening to our story – you will see and hear more on June 2^nd in Atlanta at Synod Assembly!

What’s So Good About Sabbaticals Anyway, Especially for Congregations?

By: The Rev Mark Beatty
Southeastern Synod Compensation Guidelines Team Member

Our synod recommends them for all rostered leaders (pastors, associates in ministry, deaconesses and diaconal ministers under call). Various rostered leaders have taken them. But what’s so good about sabbaticals? Isn’t a sabbatical just extended time off? Don’t rostered leaders already get vacation?
Actually, though a sabbatical involves extended time off, the process and goals of a sabbatical make it so much more than just time away. While vacations are also tremendously important, and many studies support the value of paid time off, sabbaticals are distinctly different.

Besides the extended time of a sabbatical relative to a typical vacation, another difference is that vacation is personal time off, and sabbatical is time apart with a purpose. And here’s where a great benefit to the congregation or agency comes in! That purpose isn’t intended to be solely the rostered person’s individual interests for study or experience during the time of sabbatical, but one that is mutually discerned and also beneficial for the congregation or agency in which the rostered leader serves. So the goal of a good sabbatical benefits both the individual and the community where the individual serves.

For example, several years ago a pastor, whose passion for worship leadership was also matched by her congregation’s focus on both worship and social justice, spent intentional sabbatical time with the Iona Worship Community in Scotland and came back not only refreshed and renewed personally, but through the experience came back to the congregation with new ideas and energy for worship and for social justice in the community. One example that didn’t fly was a request from a pastor to spend an entire sabbatical at the beach with no plan other than a verbal promise to read a book while there. It may have been a great idea for vacation, but sabbaticals are intended to benefit both the person on sabbatical and the community where he/she serves, and not just one or the other.

Another indirect but tremendous benefit of sabbaticals for congregations is that the rostered person is called during sabbatical to have intentional times of rest, of holy Sabbath. How many of us have had a blast on a fun-filled vacation, only to have such a full agenda that by the time we got home (if not before) we realized we needed a vacation from our vacation! A proper sabbatical may involve specific learning, travel, and experiential activities away, but these should be accomplished with the balance of an intentionally reflective pace and intentional rest and renewal along the way. Remember, a big part of sabbatical isn’t how much “stuff” the person can fit in during this time apart, but how well-rested and renewed the person will be upon return to ministry in the community. How beneficial would it be for your congregation to have a rested, renewed, re-charged pastor at the helm? What if you could help pre-empt clergy burn-out in your congregation before it ever happened? These are some of the very goals (and results!) of healthy sabbaticals.

It’s important to acknowledge that sabbaticals also require investment. Congregations and agencies who support sabbaticals are making investments of time and money. There are also benefits here too. One benefit is the commitment of the rostered person to stay in their current call at least one year following the sabbatical. Rostered persons are expected to come back ready for ministry with their congregation or agency, not to “take a break” just prior to seeking another call. It is intended to renew the rostered
person for ministry where they are, and help extend the longevity of calls through this intentional resting, new learning, and re-charging.

Expenses can also be reduced through grants. Some sabbaticals have had solid partial support, and others have actually been fully covered through a grant. It’s not a guarantee, but the possibility is there and various sabbaticals are supported through grants every year!

A fear congregations may have is what will happen in terms of ministry during the rostered person’s time apart. What about the day-to-day ministry needs? How will we do this? One way to handle this is to see it as an opportunity. During a sabbatical, congregations can engage more fully as the Priesthood of All Believers, sharing the ministry and perhaps trying new things that otherwise you may have simply not considered for yourself. It’s a great permission-giving time for various gifts of ministry by laypeople in the congregation or agency due simply to the temporary necessity during sabbatical. It’s also a fairly safe and comfortable way to do this, with the security of knowing that the rostered person will soon return. This can produce a stronger more engaged congregation as well as a re-energized pastor to re-enter ministry together at the end of sabbatical.

These are some of the benefits and opportunities of sabbaticals, not just for rostered persons, but also for the communities they serve. What are your thoughts? Are you someone who has been on sabbatical or are you a member of a congregation or agency that has provided one or more sabbaticals to a rostered person? We would love to hear your stories about what worked, what went well, and also what could make a sabbatical even better both for our rostered leaders and the communities where they serve. Are you thinking about a sabbatical for yourself or for a rostered leader serving in your faith community and have questions? Send us those, as well! You can email me at beattymd@msn.com, email our Compensation Guidelines chair, Pastor Scott Seeke scott@wadintheriver.org, or feel free to leave a comment here. We look forward to hearing from you. 

At Least Two (or More) Sides to Every Story

by the Rev. Dr. Delmer Chilton
Assistant to the Bishop, ELCA Southeastern Synod

I (almost) religiously follow the fortunes of the Atlanta Braves.  Because I work a lot of nights, I often have to check out the game reports by computer when I get home or to my hotel if I’m on the road.  On the website I use there is a line score and then a place to click for the “recap,” the written account of the game.  What I find interesting is that there are always two; the Braves’ recap and the other team’s recap.  It’s great fun to read them both.  They are sometimes written by the same person and still it’s often hard to tell that the two stories are about the same game. “Uggla comes through in the clutch with 8^th inning home run.”  “Smith chokes in the 8^th, giving up late homer,” that sort of thing.  Same game; different story.   

There’s a Facebook picture going the rounds with a Sunday School type illustration of Jesus sitting on a rock and speaking to the crowds.  The caption has him saying something like, “Listen closely now.  I don’t want there to be four versions of this floating around.”  That’s pretty funny if you’ve ever noticed how often the gospel writers tell the same story with differing details and occasionally different points. 

Many of us raised in the era of Sgt. Joe Friday and Dragnet, (“Just the facts ma’am, just the facts”) believe there must be a way to get to the bottom of these stories, to establish the pure unvarnished truth.

Others of us are the products of a growing awareness that facts and truth and a straight story are hard to come by.  A lot of modern people assume that every word out of almost everybody’s mouth is “spin,” i.e. the version of the truth that best suits your own purposes or that best matches up with your predetermined ideas about the nature of reality.

This “post-modern” sense that, as my neighbor put it, “everybody’s selling something Padre; you’re selling Jesus,” makes it very difficult for the church to communicate its message to the world around us.  Especially if we try to do it in terms of ultimate “truth claims.” They think we’re selling and most of them aren’t buying.

In his recent book Cities of God, Baylor University Social Sciences Professor Rodney Stark writes a history of the growth of early Christianity using sociological analysis.  He concludes that there has never been a correlation between “doctrinal appeals to a target population,” (truth claims) and actual church growth.  Instead, what researchers discovered was that conversion happened relationally, “By now dozens of close-up studies of conversion have been conducted.  All of them confirm that social networks are the basic mechanism through which conversion takes place.  To convert someone, you must first become that person’s close and trusted friend.”(p.13)

In other words, like my old preaching professor said, “They don’t care what you know until they know that you care.” That goes for all of us who try to talk about our faith, not just those of us who stand up and talk in pulpits and classroom.  People will begin to trust our version of the truth, our interpretation of the facts, when they begin to trust us, when they learn that we care more about them as people than we do about them as possible “customers” of our “product.” 

There is of course, one very important truth underlying this whole discussion.  As John said in this past Sunday’s lesson, “God is love,” (I John 4:8) everything else we have to say and do in the world flows from those three short words.  God is love, so God created the world.  God is love, so God sent the Son.  God is love, so the Son died on the cross.  God is love, so the Son was brought back to life. God is love, so we are filled with the Spirit.  God is love, so we love one another.  God is love, so we love the “others” all around us.  And, in the midst of all that love, sometimes truth happens. 

Amen and amen.

For All In High Places

Preface:  Bishop Julian Gordy, ELCA-Southeastern Synod

Now that both American political parties have a "presumptive candidate," the debate rhetoric is heating up. If the past is any indication, we are set to hear months of bragging, condemnation and overblown rhetoric that would make Pharaoh blush. It's the one part of the democratic process this self-confessed political junkie can't abide. As something of an antidote to what's coming, let me share with you this article by Pr. Frank Honeycutt from the newsletter of St. John's Lutheran Church in Walhalla, SC.

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FOR ALL IN HIGH PLACES

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions…” 1 Timothy 2:1-2a

In six months it will be time to vote for a president in the United States of America. Have you made up your mind yet? Made a decision between Barack and Mitt? This is about the time we enter into all the name-calling, mud-slinging, military service reviewing rhetoric regurgitated out of the various political camps. Accusation followed by denial. Counter-accusation followed by counter-denial. And on and on, ad nauseam.

I saw a bumper-sticker recently that said, “God Is Not A Republican.” It was followed closely by the phrase, “Or A Democrat.” You will not see campaign literature adorning any Lutheran narthex across this land. Lutheran pastors will not stand in a pulpit and tell you how to vote, parading one candidate as morally superior to another—God’s Anointed One for America. We can all be thankful for this.

Way back in the 16th century, Martin Luther did not counsel Christians to stick their heads in the sand until Jesus returned. Brother Martin would not have been a strict proponent of the separation of church and state; that the two had nothing to do with one another. The “two kingdoms,” as he called them, had everything to do with each other. Christians, however, were clearly warned to make sure they knew which kingdom took priority—from whom we receive our true marching orders.

And so we vote; we work for human rights; we care about homelessness and joblessness, fair wages, immigration reform, and racism. But we dare not confuse our true homeland, the Kingdom of God, for a particular country or certain political platform. I find it interesting that presidential candidates are often referred to with superlatives that should make most people blush, that the Bible reserves only for the divine. Which candidate, we’re asked to decide, will make us feel more secure? Less worried and fearful? More confident about the future?

It doesn’t matter whether you support Obama or Romney or whether you’re on the fence. Our security and our future do not really reside in these men. Our security and future are safe with God alone. Maybe this is an obvious statement, but maybe not if you listen to the campaign ads. Presidential candidates are not gods. As we have seen so many times before, they are fallible, sinful, flawed human beings—just like the rest of us.

You know what would be wonderfully refreshing and would really get my attention as a Christian voter? Confession. Humility. Weakness. An honest admission that no one person, no one party, no one historical era can do it all. Too often the conversation slides dangerously close to bold claims that Christians have historically reserved for God alone.

Long ago, St. Paul mailed a letter of advice to his young colleague, Timothy, serving a congregation in Ephesus. Those church members had splintered into a variety of beliefs, convictions, and factions (as we are still wont to do). Timothy’s assignment was to help the congregation return to the basics. Paul, the veteran missionary, advises this young pastor: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.”

In many ways, this is remarkable advice. For to pray for “kings and all in high positions” meant that prayers were to be offered for the very person who was capable of squashing out the church with his thumb. There was much confusion between royalty and divinity in Paul’s day. The word “Caesar,” for example, literally means “god.” But maybe that is precisely the point. Today we pray for a presidential candidate’s humility and personal confession, so that their perceived power may never be confused with God’s. Then as now, Christians pray for those “in high positions” so that their work might be God-infused, filled with a passion for God’s justice and God’s peace.

So yes, pray for kings and presidential candidates and “all in high places.” But remember: for Christians, there is only one king in the “highest place.”

And his name is neither Mitt nor Barack.

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Frank Honeycutt is pastor of St. John's Lutheran Church in Walhalla, SC, and is the author of numerous books including Marry a Pregnant Virgin, Sanctified Living and The Truth Shall Make You Odd.