My Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
I have some announcements to make this morning about some recent council decisions, but I ask that you bear with me as I rehearse some of the background leading up to them.
Two years ago, I began my call as your pastor with the understanding that I would guide us through a process that would ask two questions: 1) “What is God doing at Grace Lutheran Church? 2) “What does God want us to be doing?” Specifically, we would be looking at ways to serve families in our congregation and community. To that end, we assembled the Shepherding Team, which did a lot of listening. We listened to those had been part of past visioning efforts, we listened to groups and individuals in the congregation, and we listened to voices in the community.
The team then spent time sorting through the information and made recommendations to the church council. Broadly speaking, the three goals were: cultivating vibrant ministry in families through faith formation; create engaging, family friendly worship experiences; and promote service, mission, and outreach to Grace, the community, and beyond. The church council met in retreat this past March, wrestled with these goals, and then held four listening-post potluck conversations after Easter to get feedback from you about the direction we thought God was leading us.
The result of these conversations was two-fold: the first involved planning and implementing a Wednesday night experience that would serve families of all ages and for whom Sunday mornings were not feasible. Hopefully, you are by now aware that beginning on September 12 we will have a weekly community meal, worship service with Holy Communion, and faith formation for all ages.
The second result of our work and conversation was to evaluate our worship services, something that hadn’t be done since we began our present schedule four years ago. As a part of that evaluation, both the Shepherding Team and the Church Council held extensive discussions about convergence worship, which many might call “blended worship.” The idea behind convergence worship is not to try to please everybody by making sure we a variety of musical styles. Rather, convergence worship is about creating worship services that have theological integrity according to the Lutheran tradition, are faithful to the message of the day, and are free to use whatever resources would faithfully support that message, including music, video clips, reader’s theater, and so on.
The services this summer have been an attempt to “do” convergence worship. Built around the theme of “Come and Be Fed,” our worship services have pulled resources from many genres of music and the arts. To accomplish this, the council asked Robyn Menk to serve as worship coordinator on a temporary basis. From what you have told us in the comment cards this summer and the listening posts the past two weeks, you have appreciated the efforts and have been blessed by our worship.
You have also told us that you have appreciated having one service on Sunday morning for a number of reasons, primarily that we are able to experience a greater sense of community. You have also indicated that you wished to have the council make decisions regarding Sunday morning worship as we head into the fall. I take that to mean that you believed you have been listened to and that you have confidence in your leadership to make a faithful decision. Thank you.
The church council met Tuesday night and decided that beginning the Sunday following Labor Day we would have one Sunday service at 9:30 am. We believe that this time will meet the needs of the greatest number of people while providing us with the most flexibility in our programming. Though we don’t know what the adult forum will look like, we do know that we’ll be able to continue our Sunday morning traditions, such as the omelet breakfast, the chili feed, and the Thanksgiving dinner. Additionally, this worship time will allow sufficient time for other fellowship and faith opportunities following worship. For example, it will give us an opportunity to hold new member sessions, Bible Studies, or sermon discussion groups.
With this decision made, we then turned to the question of staffing and resources that would be needed for this convergence worship going forward. As you can imagine, there are many more decisions that we need to make, but here are the ones that have been made. The council voted to extend Robyn’s role as worship coordinator through January until we can make this a permanent part of the budget next year. She has graciously and with a good deal of excitement, accepted. We will also extend the technology coordinator position that Jason Glaser is filling in the same way.
These were easy decisions. What was incredibly difficult was realizing that with our new unified Sunday schedule, the Journey With Grace worship team would no longer serve the way they have been. I spoke with each of them this week, and they are supportive of the decision and are willing to continue to contribute their musical talents on an as-needed basis as we move forward living into the future to which God has called us.
Some people might think that these moves are going backwards, but we believe the opposite. Journey With Grace, under Jodi Johnson’s leadership, has served this congregation well, expanding our understanding of faithful, Lutheran worship. This summer we have been able to put into practice something that many churches can only dream about, worship centered around the gospel of Jesus Christ in the Lutheran tradition that is able to draw on multiple resources while speaking to a variety of experiences. We have been able to heal the artificial divide that was created during the worship wars between contemporary and traditional worship. We could not have done that without the work of Jodi and the Journey With Grace team, not only this summer but also the past four years.
Practically speaking, because of schedules, this means that today will be the last Sunday Journey With Grace will be leading worship as a team. We would be remiss if we didn’t express our appreciation for Jodi’s hard work and leadership in some tangible fashion. So, Jodi, on behalf of the congregation, I present you with this 125th Anniversary mug and an envelope with a special gift inside. Thank you for your presence with us and for the work that you have done on behalf of the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ here at Grace Lutheran Church. May God bless you and your children in your new ventures. I know that God will use your musical talents for the blessing of others as you have here. And fortunately for us, like the rest of the musicians here, as is possible for her, Jodi has agreed to share her talents with us into the future.
Thank you, the congregation of Grace Lutheran Church, for daring to step out in faith by answering God’s call to serve families here and in our community in new ways. We don’t know exactly what that will mean, but we will continue to seek God’s guidance. Now, let us continue our service with the Call to Worship.
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