What to keep, what to let go of, what to take up?

It is fall and things are definitely up and running at First Trinity! Sunday School, Church Council, Partnership Committee and my blogging are all back after a summer hiatus and Wise Women meets October 4.

The Council participated in a planning retreat yesterday and began the process of aligning this years programs and activities with our three priorities:

• Integrate stewardship into all aspects of congregational life.
• Plan for potential redevelopment of our facilities and our strategies for ministry.
• Develop and implement a strategic outreach plan.

One of our challenges is that we have more ideas and more needs than we have energy, staff and time. The Council will have to make some difficult choices in the coming weeks and months.

Pastor Wendy's sermon today gives us a way to look at the task before us. She spoke about how Jesus called his disciples to let go of those things they considered important as he pointed them toward ministry to those most in need. Pastor Wendy explained that our arms can be so full of things we have picked up and have hung on to that there is no room left for that to which we are called.

First Trinity has a rich history which has led us to the exciting possibilities and opportunities that lie before us. We look at the next three years and realize there is much to which we seem to be called, as well as challenges we will need to carefully consider and manage.

Collectively and individually we already have a lot on our plate, or in our arms. Over the coming months we need to look carefully at our current and planned activities, programs and ministries. We do this so that we can be the Church and the people that we discern God calling us to be. We cannot do it all. We need to be disciplined and wise stewards of all of our resources. We need everyone's prayers and best thinking in order to decide what we keep and what we let go of and what we then take on. We ask God's guidance and blessing as we embark upon this task.

Through the eyes of strangers

We just got back from yet another weekend out of town. That means that of the last three weekends I have been to church once. I really dislike being away from church so often. For the most part Sundays are the only opportunity to see people and catch up. This is why the sanctuary is always buzzing before worship, why the passing of the peace takes longer than in churches where people work, live, shop and play together throughout the week, and why the after worship receptions are so popular and animated.

We have a lot of church 'business' to do Sunday mornings! While some official business is done, most of the time it is the business of strengthening the fabric of our First Trinity-St. Matthew's community and knitting in the new strands of visitors and friends. It is a joyous time when family that grew up in the church return and we newer people get to meet the adult children and grandchildren about whom we so often hear. It is also great fun to meet the visiting friends of members, as well as those who come without knowing anyone. Last Sunday I got to meet a seminarian from Philadelphia (who knows Taryn Montgomery) and his wife. They were visiting First Trinity 'on assignment' to experience other churches and seemed very appreciative of what they found.

It is good to try to see our community and worship through the eyes of others, non-members and those who have not worshipped here or anywhere else in some time. We all need to do that on a regular basis, to test our assumptions and ensure that we are as welcoming and accessible a community as possible. There are things we do well and things we can do better.

• We started wearing nametags so that members and friends of First Trinity and St. Matthew's could learn to know each other. If everyone wore them it would also a way to identify visitors who did not make nametags. However, many from First Trinity either never wore their nametags or quit wearing them after meeting the St. Matthew's members who came this fall. The problem now is that as more St. Matthew's people join us it it harder for them to put names with our faces.

• Our greeter program is very intentional - the best of the churches to which we have belonged. Actually it is the only one where there is a difference between ushers and greeters, a process for training greeters and procedures for them to follow. The problem is that we don't have enough greeters, so the same ones are used too often. I share responsibility for this as I have been unable to go through training. Once I do I intend to serve as needed. It is hard to correctly identify visitors, especially for someone newer to the congregation. We have grown considerably in the past years, especially with the addition of St. Matthew's. We want and need to make sure every visitor is warmly welcomed and connects with someone from our congregations to the extent feasible. We are fortunate to have pastors with wonderful memories for names and faces, but we all need to take responsibility for reaching out to people we think might be visitors or returning parishioners from one of our two congregations.

• There has been some discussion about the format of our announcements, bulletins and the Voice. Some have strong opinions, others have been silent or pointed us to core principles. While it is important that we be good stewards of our resources and of the environment, there is much evidence to suggest that the easier it is to follow the order of service, the better jobs churches do in attracting new members or regular visitors. Currently the only thing we have to turn to outside of the printed order of service is the lessons on the back cover. Some would say that is too much. While it was only raised in jest, some churches are successfully putting the words and music on flat panel screens and only handing out announcements/prayer requests with contact information to take home. We need to discuss the general issue more thoroughly, but with sensitivity to those who might, for a variety of reasons have difficulty with more than one easy to read booklet to follow.

We have all the elements that it takes to be a welcoming and inclusive community, these are just some areas we need to prayerfully consider how we might improve.

Holy Week blessings

I thank God for the opportunities for the variety of partnerships given First Trinity this Holy Week.

This past week we worshipped Maundy Thursday with First Church taking the lead in a moving Tenebrae service. It was wonderful sharing the elements with a circle with people from First Trinity, St. Matthews and First Church, and then watching the gradual extinguishing of light during a series of readings of the Passion story.

Good Friday services were held at Our Redeemers, which was our first time there, and was a truly wonderful experience, shared with 12 others from First Trinity. Pastor Wendy's sermon was simply outstanding. The music and the space were great and Our Redeemers has a pastor and congregation I hope to know better in the future. It was really nice to see Pastors Tom, Wendy and Phil all at both services. It was also great to meet Pastor Phil's wife Karen, as they rarely get to worship together because she works for a church in Baltimore. It was very powerful to share the peace by sharing "Christ died for you" and replying "And also for you."

Easter worship with St. Matthews and First Trinity was incredible. Pastor Phil's friend Pastor Grover helping the children find the Alleluias, the glorious professional sounding music, the full pews, Pastor Tom's memorable sermon, "Sucked In , Washed Up, Blown Over ." It was a morning of celebration, ending with the Pancake brunch prepared by First Church.

First Trinity's life has been powerfully enriched by the partnerships with which we have been blessed, with both First Church and St. Matthews, as well as Our Redeemers and St. Paul's with whom we share mission trips. We need to both take full advantage of the richness of these partnerships and see where God is leading us.

Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!

Let us surround ourselves with the depth of holy week activities

I have a new friend who is going through a difficult time, so I wrote her a quick email today telling her she was in my prayers and I was hoping she was doing OK. She responded "I am fine and surrounded with the depth of holy week activities." She didn't say involved in, she said surrounded by, she didn't say busy-ness, she said depth. I felt blessed by her email.

My prayer for our combined congregations is that this week we all immerse ourselves in, surround ourselves by and experience the depth of Holy Week. Our variety of Lenten preparatory experiences started with the Shrove Tuesday pancake supper and Ash Wednesday services and continued as a rich tapestry of Sunday worship services and fellowship, private and family devotions using the resource book we created, cottage meetings, Wednesday Bible studies, and the Wise Women retreat. In addition we had the Health Fair and Black History celebration that, while not oriented to Lent, were opportunities for fellowship, education, reflection and thanksgiving. Psalm Sunday worship was deeply moving and gave us a look forward, to and through Holy Week. We have a joint Maundy Thursday service with First Church and travel to Our Redeemers for joint Good Friday worship. Then our Alleluias will return (will the children remember where they were hidden?) on Sunday, when we celebrate the Festival of the Resurrection of Our Lord back at 4th and E. There is indeed much with which to surround ourselves and much depth of experience, emotion and remembrance in the coming week.

John and I have a special blessing this Holy Week. Our foster daughter's oldest son, now 22, is bringing his fiancé to visit us so that we can meet her before their June wedding. We have known Ben since the day he was born, and he is very special to us. We are inordinately proud of the young man he has become, a man of principle, a man of faith, a mature man capable of the deep commitment required of marriage. We are excited to meet his Amy, a woman about whom our foster daughter says she cannot find one thing she does not love. They met shortly after Ben arrive at the small Christian liberal arts college that has so nurtured and matured his faith so we have been waiting a long time for this meeting.

Ben was confirmed in our former church, and together with his siblings worshipped with us from the time his family moved to Fergus Falls when he was in sixth grade. He visited John before I arrived and before we found First Trinity, so we are thrilled to now bring him - and Amy - to our new church home. We know that they will feel the welcoming hospitality, the love of the Gospel and spirit of service - and the Minnesota connections - that we felt on our first visit.

It will indeed be a rich blessing to surround ourselves with the depth of Holy Week activities while seeing First Trinity and its partnership with St. Matthew's, and our fellowship with First Church, through Ben and Amy's eyes.

The assets that are our pastors

VP Ron Morgan and I have at long last sat down with each of our pastors to review the year past and current. As those who know him can imagine, Ron did a wonderful job of creating a space where real sharing could occur. I learned a great deal from this process.

Our pastors are truly longing for feedback of all types. We will be developing a survey with the goal of getting broader based feedback than is typical. However, like our meeting, surveys are events, and our pastors deserve and need an ongoing process that allows them continuous growth.

As a Council we need to figure out how to address this need, however, it will take a commitment of the congregation to ongoing feedback. As discussed in a recent blog, there are many reasons people might find it difficult to provide pastors feedback. However, none of them are ultimately legitimate, or at least helpful.

As a congregation and as a Council we need to treat our pastors as the incredible assets they are. I believe that the Church is the people, and the work of the congregation, the collective ministry of God’s people. In the Lutheran tradition pastors are called to ministries of Word and Sacrament. Everything else we, the priesthood of believers, are all called to; every aspect of ministry and administration of the Church.

We may, for a variety of reasons, ask or let our pastors take on responsibilities we can, and possibly should do. However, we must recognize that the congregation, its vitality, its faithfulness, its growth, its steadfastness, its ministries, its outreach, its education, its physical plant, its financial health, its hospitality, its resilience, all are our individual and corporate responsibilities as members.

We at First Trinity ask and permit our pastors to take on what is truthfully more than their fair share of responsibilities. Yes, we are paying them, but just like you can pay someone to care for your home or your children, they remain your responsibility.

I am concerned that we have not been good partners with our pastors. We know how fortunate we are to have them, we appreciate their work ethic, their talents, their availability, the many ways they minister to us. However, it is clear to me that we can and should do more to support them, to more equitably share the responsibilities that our in fact our own. All they are asking for is feedback, but I think we can do better.

Whatever solutions we raise have to be based on the experience and needs of both our pastors and the congregation. This requires dialog and commitment to mutual problem solving. I am going to raise this issue with our church Council next Sunday morning. If anyone wants to join in this discussion they can meet with us in the library at 7:45 a.m., talk to Council members and officers, talk to the pastors, or even respond to this blog.

This issue is tightly interwoven with each of the year’s priorities:

• It is all about stewardship. How can we be better stewards of the asset that is our pastors? What would change if we were each better stewards of all our God-given gifts, including our time and energy?


• It is also all about governance. How can we redesign our governance structure to allow First Trinity to operate as efficiently and effectively as possible and to provide a reliable vetting process so we can confidently identify how all of our activities and programs fit in our overall strategy for achieving our vision, living out our mission, and be true to our values.


• And, most certainly, it is all about redevelopment. We have a lot of work to do as a congregation before we can make wise and informed decisions regarding what to do about the asset that is our location and our land. Unfortunately most of the work has been born by Pastor Tom. The Redevelopment Committee and the Council need to step up to the plate and make the best possible use of Pastor Tom’s experience, knowledge and talents and do the rest ourselves.
  

These are the questions and issues that we will be exploring together in the coming months. I look forward to your input and trust that together First Trinity will make decisions that recognize and make prudent use of the God-given assets we have in Pastors Tom and Wendy.

Prayer request

Sometimes when we watch the news tragedy seems so far away. I have been extremely busy this week, never getting home in time for the evening news, just catching NPR in the morning, which has been focused on the economy and world affairs during my brief window of availability.

I received the following in this morning's email, from a dear friend still working at Concordia College, my alma mater, and where I was a dean for 13 years. She lives in Moorhead, MN, just two blocks north of the college, and about seven blocks from the Red River, across the road from Fargo, ND.

My friend Peggy lost her house to the flood today. I'm sitting here listening to the news. It's not good. I'm not even sure what to say, except I'm scared and I'm feeling compelled to write our family and friends. Somehow, it makes me feel better to connect with you all. We've had rain, ice snow. Today it snowed 7 inches and it's still snowing.

Today, they evacuated people from Oxbow (just south of Fargo. Airboats are the only way in and out now since the ice, snow and and water are everywhere. Tomorrow, they are evacuating Eventide Nursing Home and it's assisted living facilities (just 7 blocks from us). The town of Georgetown(just north of Moorhead) is being evacuated since they are building a circle dike around the town. They haven't issued an evacuation notice to us yet but Chip is emptying the basement as I write this.

We are grateful for all the help that is coming to town and all the positive thoughts that you have shared. The energy that people are bringing to the effort helps us feel hopeful that we're going to beat this. The mayor says he is "skeptically optimistic". Not sure what that means. The volunteer effort does inspire hope in humanity. Watch the news and keep us in your thoughts. I'm not sure if I'll get to update you all again. I just felt the need to take a moment out to write but now it's back to the shuttle vans and sandbags. Thanks.

All of a sudden I remember the horror of the 1997 floods, yet they say this is worst. I can only imagine what my friends, my former colleagues, my former community, both those I know and those I do not, are going through. It is not just Fargo-Moorhead, it is the entire region. I feel so far away, so unable to respond.

Yet, there is something I can do, and I will. I will ask for the prayers of this First Trinity-St. Matthew's community, for the communities that are so struggling. Let us sustain those that labor and those that are weary and those that are cold and those that are broken hearted with the most powerful gift we can give, our prayers.

Wise Women Retreat

The Wise Women of First Trinity and St. Matthews - and friends - had a wonderful retreat this weekend at the Seton Retreat and Conference Center in Emmitsburg, MD, at the foot of Catoctin Mountain. All but three of the 19 women were able to come Friday, and we left after worship Saturday afternoon, with most of us stopping for dinner on the way home.

Many contributed to the planning and execution of the retreat, which focused on the theme of dwelling with God. Using dwelling as a framework we discussed and experienced opening ourselves to God's presence through scripture, nature, psalm songs, others, service and sacrament. There was plenty of laughter, rich sharing, and a few tears. Most of the group was able to delay their return for a final gathering at The Cozy Restaurant in Thurmont, which Fran Knoll had scouted out for us, even though she was gone for the retreat.

The weather was perfect, the women open and caring, and the scheduled allowed both structured and unstructured time to enjoy each other's company and get to know people better, as well as time for self reflection. This was the third annual Wise Women Retreat, and our experience and participation, though always varied, was rich.

I appreciated many things about this retreat, including:

• how well the women mixed and clicked - it was great to see the women of St. Matthews and have non-member and new friends join and so comfortably mix in;
• the number of women that contributed to the program;
• the openness of our sharing;
• the opportunity to get to know new people and more about people I knew;
• the newness and loveliness of the setting, which included a labyrinth;
• the discussion of moving forward with plans to build a peace garden to promote peace and reconciliation;
• the influence of women, not only each other, but the Daughters of Charity, the story of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, and the collection beautiful Madonna’s from all over the world;
• the time to relax and be still; and
• Pastor Wendy, for her organizational, leadership, and great facilitation skills.

We already have plans for the next retreat, scheduled for Saturday, March 6, 2010 at Hallowood Retreat Center, Comus, MD. This will be quite a bit closer, and hopefully will allow even greater participation. Women, mark your calendars!