members versus disciples

Zion is a congregation, primarily of members. Our memebership is not large. Like most mainline churches, it is declining. We are worried about this trend. If membership declines too far we will not be able to survive as an institution.
We are part of an institution. As such, we have established operating principles of governance and practice that have evolved into something less than 'church'. What I mean by that is that the church is called to make disciples of Jesus Christ, not congregation members. There is a significant difference that ought to be identified.
However, most of the people we serve identify with congregation, rather than with Jesus. Their primary faith relationship is the congregation, not the crucified and risen Lord in whose grace we live. They are attached to this or that congregation as supporters/donors/ volunteers. But they are not Jesus' disciples.
Membership means that we pay the bills, that we hire staff to do ministry, that we live to ourselves, that we maintain the building, that mission work is something others do far away from us, to whom we may send some money. Members serve on committees and councils in order to allocate funds to perpetuate membership and maintenance. Membership has few if any expectations attached to it. These expectations are low, because people won't join if the expectations are too high. Members must commune and contribute once every two years! Most social clubs and sports teams have higher expectations today. Why have we relinquished the mission to make disciples?

Discipleship means that we are in the center of a mission field to which each of us is called as a servant and minister. We give in grateful response to what God has given us. In fact, expectations are high because the mission is both urgent and important. How we practice what we believe, how we live out our relationship with Jesus as disciples is critical to the mission. We are called to be faithful; to live a life worthy of the calling to which we have been called. That means we are called to worship every week, to daily bible reading and prayer, to generous giving, to service in neighborhood and community, to advocate for a just and peaceful world, and to a ministry of reconciliation and forgiveness that welcomes all people.

How do members become disciples? We start by asking the question, "Who is Jesus for me, for us, for the world?" We explore the life of Jesus. We pray. Disciples are made. There is work involved; proclamation, prayer, invitation, encouragement. It is transformative work that will not let you go until your life is changed by the spirit of Jesus and the gospel of grace. When that happens a disciple is born.

What if...

What if's...is there a point to them? Rather than dismiss them, I believe that Christians are called to imagine them with boldness, with the "mind of Christ". Ought we not to imagine God's future and find ways to approach it in our own time?
What if this were a time in which God were about to do a new thing among us here? What if this were a time in which the Spirit of Jesus would become more evident within us? What if this were a time when we are called upon to live out our hope for a more just world, a world governed by something like the reign of God?
What if the biblical narrative, the story of what God does for people through Jesus, becomes our story? What if we embrace the truth that we are indeed rescued and freed from the bondages of sin, in order to freely love others? What if we believed in community life as a principle for living authentic human lives? What if we were to advocate that a creative and loving God, a God hell bent on loving humanity, does not wage war or choose sides in our human ones? What if we believed in a God whose future is peaceful? What if we chose to live into that future?
What if today were that turnaoround moment for you, when you come to your senses and believe in the possibilities brought about by the life and death and resurrection of Jesus?
What if you drank coffee that promised someone somewhere a slightly better life? What if you simplified in order to make a healthier planet and a fairer economy for others just because it is right to make people's lives better?
What if?

God's Word in Worship

September 24, 2006
Pentecost 16

Jeremiah 11:18-20
Psalm 54
James 3:13-4:3,7-8a
Gospel: Mark 9:30-37

Jesus says "Whoever welcomes a little child, welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me." Jesus is saying that to welcome a child is to welcome God himself. Amazing to think that Jesus esteemed children so highly.

Link of the Week

Youth faith lens is a weekly lectionary devotional for teens. It connects to daily life with stories and humor. There are good questions. This week it asks, "How do famous people get to be known?" It ties in with the gospel of Mark and Jesus' question to the disciples: "Who do you say that I am?"
If you are a teen interested in a simple way to explore your faith in God, click n faith lens and follow the reading there. I get ideas for sermons, bible studies, blog posts from there, too. Check it out.

God's Word in Worship

September 17 2006
Pentecost 15

Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 116:1-9
James 3:1-12
Gospel: Mark 8:27-38

Dear Confirmands,
We begin anew in October. As you see below, there are several learning events scheduled for this year. Confirmation day is May 27th, 2007, the Day of Pentecost. It is especially important that 9th graders attend every event before confirmation day. Please bring your bibles, notebooks, and Lutheran Handbooks to every event. The winter retreat and field trip will be announced to you in November. There will also be some Sunday afternoon events sponsored by Holy Trinity to which we are invited. Confirmation is about faithfulness. It is about your answer to God’s faithfulness. God is faithful to you in so many ways. Did you wake up today? Did you have food to eat? Air to breathe? A family? Friends? A Home? Jesus was faithful enough to die for the world. The Spirit of Jesus dwells in you, inspiring you to live faithfully too. Confirmation is about faithfulness. Being faithful means coming to worship every week. It means participating; on Sunday mornings, at learning events, at service opportunities. It means asking questions, praying, giving, and helping others. BE FAITHFUL. And the LORD be with you each and every day.
In Christ’s love,
Pastor Matt

Event Dates Times EVENT THEMES

October 22nd--- 12:30-3:30 pm JESUS
November 19th--- 12:30-3:30 pm WORSHIP
December 10th? MOVIE: The Nativity Story; in theatres
February TBA LUTHER RETREAT
March TBA FIELD TRIP
April 29 12:30-3:3o BAPTISM AND VOCATION
May 8 12:30-3:30 WHAT”S NEXT? YOU ARE CHURCH
May 27 The Day of Pentecost and confirmation

Life this week

Wednesday is bible study at 7:00 am, Zion Akron and 7:30 pm, Holy Trinity Ephrata.
Thursday is the bishop's annual convocation. Holy cross day.
Thursday night is Worship and Music team.
Sunday is the church picnic and worship in the park.

9/11

Monday was the Anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that killed close to 3,000 Americans. Its a day none of us can forget. Its a day we hate to remember. Since then the U.S. has engaged in a retaliatory war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Are we safer? Is the world more peaceable?
I believe that the post 9/11 world required of the U.S. a response unlike any other in history. I believe the global response ought not to have been a military one. It ought to have been a response of empathy and humanitarianism. 9/11 de-isolated the U.S. from the global experience of preventable, innocent death. What I mean to say is that the U.S. is not the recipient, not the importer of injustice and devastating disease. The U.S. is the perpetrator and exporter of these things in ways of which most of us are unaware. Understand me,I'm not saying that "we"or anyone deserved the terror of 9/11. I'm saying that it happened as a result of global disparities that cannot be easily resolved. The ensuing struggle to achieve balance of power results in terror and retaliation. but it didn't have to.
What if the president had actually resolved to care for the world by sending an unprecedented amount of aid and relief to developing nations? What if he said that the U.S. is weeping with those who weep and mourning with those who mourn? What of our nations' grief was not viewed by us as some personal experience unshared by other nationsand rather realized thatwe were sharing in the collective experience of billions of people around the world?

I am devastated by the report that over 6,000 Africans dies daily from AIDS. Everyday the continent experiences two 9/11 tragedies. Since 9/11 the war on terror has claimed the lives of as many Americans and five times as many Iraqis.
What if we were determined to beat our swords into ploughshares? What if we were resolved to improve the lives of poor children? Maybe that would bring peace. If the U.S. were to turn the other cheek and give until it hurt, what would that do on a global scale?I'm not against defending ourselves. I'm merely for serving others first.

God's Word in Worship

September 10, 2006
Pentecost 14

Isaiah 35:4-7
Psalm 146
James 2:1-17
Gospel: Mark 7:24-37
Jesus heals the demon-possessed daughter of a Syrophoenician woman.

Nicholas

On Sunday, September 3rd we will witness and partake in what can best be described as a close encounter. On Sunday, God will act upon one of us. God will reach in and touch the flesh of another child. That divine touch will come in the experience of water thrice splashed upon His head and words chanted above Him and for Him; "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." And although my hand will cup the water and my voice speak those words, make no mistake, it is God who is acting upon Nicholas. God is choosing to get in the water, to cleanse, to drown and rescue from drowning, to enter the deep end with this child now and forever.
As a young boy I still rememeber that cold fall day when my younger brother, no more than 6, fell into the pool and under the heavy vinyl cover. I remember my dad diving after him, into the murky, leafy mess--pushing back the cover and pulling him out. I remember the absolute fear and trauma of the event. I remember them standing there in cold, wet clothes. I remember my brother crying and my father wisking us home for further evaluation and warmth. It all happened in a brief moment. No doubt my brother remembers little of the actual experience, if not for the shared memories we employ in the occasional retelling. And yet, that moment of rescue was a holy moment, a parable of Baptism and new life. God plunges in to the murky mess of our lives and pulls us to safety, coughing and cold and wet. That is Baptism. For Nicholas, there will be little or no memory of that moment. But we will be there to witness it and to remember for Him. And perhaps in our collective retelling, he will know and believe that God resuced him on this day and for the rest of His life.

Our circle of prayer

These are the people on our prayer circle for the week of August 26, 2006

Gordon Becker
Jim Beck
Sylvan and Elma Eshelman
Pam Hoover
Rochelle Kopp
Jean Willwerth
Peter Nyok
Tom Smith
Karen Heyman
Becky Harker
Shirley Frey
Esther Bender
Ron, Nancy, and Justin Thompson
Helene Neumann
Gloria Mohler
Helen Reigel
Skip Kopp
Ray Singer
Billy Lied
Alex Rudy
Philip McLellan
Toni Carvelle
Jane Myers
Mike Linn
Pastor Paul Smeltz

Today's quote

"I have tried to keep things in my hands and lost them all, but what I have given into God's hands I still possess." -Martin Luther

This week's Link

This week's link is ELCA Public Church

What is advocacy?
"Advocacy is to plead the cause of another together with them and on their behalf. When, for example, the prophets addressed kings and priests on behalf of those suffering injustice, they were advocating. The ELCA calls persons to advocate justice with and for those without power and voice in places where important political and economic decisions are being made that affect the lives of those who are marginalized. This activity is what is meant by “advocacy.” It is one way the ELCA carries out its strategic direction to “step forward as a public church that witnesses boldly to God’s love for all that God has created.”

We are called to to speak boldly and with authority on behalf of people whose voices have been silenced by oppressive, dispassionate, and ruthless killers. Where economy and government serve a minority while a majority suffers, advocates are needed. Where children starve while their parents die of HIV/AIDS, advocates are needed. Where unfair trade practices impoverish local economies and villages, advocates are needed. As members of the church we have a responsibility to serve the least of these by unting with them in their struggle for justice. The ELCA advocacy page provides you with ways to advocate on behalf of others. It also provides education regarding critical issues our society faces today. Check it out today.

God's Word in Worship Pentecost 13

God's Word in Worship

Pentecost 13 2006
September 3rd

Deuteronomy 4:1-2,6-9
Psalm 15
James 1:17-27
Gospel: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15,21-23

Evil

In my devotions, this caught my eye. Frederick Buechner writes,

"God is all- powerful.
God is all-good.
Terrible things happen.
Yuo can reconcile any two of these prepositions with each other, but you can't reconcile all three. The promble of evil is perhaps the greatest single problem for religious faith." He goes on to describe how various religions attempt to resolve it; by denying the actual reality of evil as an illusion of the mind, or by creating a system of cyclical cause and effect perpetrated through 'reincarnation'.
He continues, "Christianity, on the other hand, ultimately offers no theoretical solution at all. It merely points to the cross and says that, practically speaking, there is no evil so dark and so obscene---not even this---but that God can turn it to good."

Is that not the gift of Christianity? To walk with the suffering, indeed to suffer with the world, in order that the world might know the deeper truth---that suffering is not the last word, but is the penultimate word to God's ultimate Word, which is always and forever LIFE. Should we not affect an end to suffering? By all means. But we also should realize that God himself is deeply intimate with suffering. he knows and feels it, as if it has become part of created reality for some holy purpose. At least, from this side of the cross we can make divine meaning from suffering that points to God's love and life. So when you watch the news and you see innocents suffering today, declare the truth of what you see or who you see. (with the eyes of faith) You see Christ and so you see hope.

In my devotions for today, Marva Dawn asks questions related to the ways in which we try to substitute God for worldly possessions. She writes, "Sometimes we think we can't get along without a certain possession or a certain person or a certain kind of comfort. To insist on these is to make idols out of whatever we desire...
What ambitions become gods for us and distort our visions?...What do we substitute for total dependence on God? What keeps us from trusting God---our need for love, our insecurities, our fears or sufferings or sorrows or doubts about God's character? What prevents us from following Jesus, from relinquishing our control to the Holy Spirit, from relying on the Father? Do we know who we are primarily because we are the beloved of God?"

Good questions. Ponder these--or any one of them, for that matter-- today. And then make a prayerful commitment to receive the Holy Spirit anew.

World Vision

I believe that Christians are called to stand with the least. In so doing we are serving Christ himself (Matthew 25). Often the least are the most beautiful children who are born into the slavery of poverty. Millions of children will not live past the age of five because of preventable illness. We can and should do something about it. You will find the World Vision button under my links column to the right. This link will take you directly to World Vision's Child Sponsorship page. For $30.00 a month you can raise the quality of life for a child in a developing country. Help make poverty history and sponsor a child. World Vision is the organization that sponsors "the 30 hour famine", an event we take part in every March to raise money and awareness in th fight to end hunger.

A Word for Today

"Raising genuinely Christian children in a culture tht chooses many idolatries to try to assuage or repress its restless hunger is NOT a lost cause IF the church stands as an alternative community, incarnating-though imperfectly now-the kingdom of God for which everyone most deeply yearns. We must help our children to understand that the materialistic consumerism, desire for ease, craving for entertainment, passivity, violence, and sexual immorality of the society around us all arise out of vain attempts to quench life's deepest thirst. We must equip them with skills to resist the deceptions, to rememebr the truth that God alone will satisfy their deepest longings, and to reach out with love to neighbors searching for the living water of eternal life." --Marva Dawn, "Morning by Morning", p.236.

God's Word in Worship

August 27, 2006
12th Sunday after Pentecost

Joshua 24:1-2a,14-18
Psalm 34:15-22
Ephesians 6:10-20
Gospel: John 6:56-69

Covenant players

Join us on Sunday at 10:30 am for a special performance by Jim and Jan Mcguinness, members of the international drama group, Covenant Players. This ministry has been around for nearly forty years. Its mission is to communicate the gospel through drama. They will bring us the response to God's Word on Sunday in drama.