As a Baptized child of God, do I love my church?

On April 24th, 1994, I confessed my faith given in Baptism on confirmation at St. John's Lutheran, Wadena, MN. Did I exactly know what I was doing? Not necessarily, but I know I took it serious. But I don't know if I really understood the confession of faith that I was making (I'm lucky that God is patient with me). Over the years, our congregation of St. John's Lutheran Church, North Prairie, WI has had thousands of people confess the same faith in front of God and have become members of our church.

I reflect on our confession of faith we make at confirmation and also when we becomes members in other congregations very often. On the day we confirm our faith we are making a major statement. We are saying that I and this church believes in the truth of God's Word and also saying, THIS IS MY CHURCH! I am a stockholder in God's church and if it "succeeds" I am successful, and if it fails, then I fail. And since the ministry of this church will go beyond my days, what is my part in making sure this ministry continues?

Do we love our churches as much as we ought too? Whether it is as a member, leader, called worker, or pastor, when needs arrive in the church, do we as individuals step it up to make sure that it happens? Do we love the church as what it is, God's church? And am I willing to give everything I got (time, money, talents) in order for the ministry to succeed?

I believe that most people do want to do this, but we also could always do more. As we think about our churches where we hold membership, may we always ask the question, "How can I love my church even more?" This is what I ask myself every day and ask the Lord for strength to do what He has called me to do.

Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy

A Christ-centered, Cross Focused Fair Booth?

Now is the time of year for many State and County Fairs. And each year our churches flock to have their own booth right next to a salesman for the latest, super absorbant mop.

How can one have a booth at a Fair and still be confessional and faithful? I think we have to work extremely hard to uphold our distinctiveness simply because we LOOK like the mop and antique guy next to us. How do we boldly proclaim the Gospel message in that setting, or do we just have a good time selling pies and handing out "What about?" booklets from Dr. A.L. Barry?

I believe that we can be faithful doing a fair booth. It starts with a sign that boldly proclaims our focus (maybe Christ-Centered, Cross Focused comes in). Then everything we do points people to the cross, the Scriptures, and the worship service. I thought of an idea to have a separate area for the pastor for, "Questions about the Christian faith? Ask the pastor." I do not know how many people would stop, but I can guarantee someone from our emergent culture would have a question or two.

Any other input on how to do a booth faithfully or discussions on other options, please leave a comment.

"In the cross of Christ I glory"

How should one prepare for Sunday worship on Saturday?

How should one prepare for Sunday worship on Saturday? Ever thought about it?

One of our ladies here at church told me a story. In the 1940's, when she would go out with her friends on Saturday night, her mom would say as she left, "Remember, tomorrow we are having the Lord's Supper, so start preparing."

Do you think our parents are telling our youth that nowadays? Do you think that it might be just the right words to make sure that our youth are doing the right thing and even more so, that they might actually think about their faith beyond Sunday morning?

It makes me think about how each one of us prepare for worship the day before? We might say a prayer once we enter the building, but how many of us pray the night before? the day before, or even an hour before?

Here is my idea, your next Saturday night, before you go to bed, pray that God would prepare you to receive the gifts He gives in worship and also to bring those who aren't even thinking about worship this night to worship the next day.

May he prepare our hearts and minds this evening to receive His Body and Blood tomorrow!

Put on a new garment...

Ever gotten a new suit (Or dress for the women folk)? There is nothing better. Clean, sharp, not a wrinkle to be found, and you enter a room with your shoulders back and with a little more jump to your step. Nothing better!

I just got done reading the Large Catechism written by Luther. In the Large Catechism, Luther was addressing the Anabaptists who were trying to say that infants should not be baptized and many others who were arguing that Baptism is a past event and not today. In response he ends with these words, "Therefore let all Christians regard their baptism as the daily garment that they are to wear all the time. Every day they should be found in faith and with its fruits, suppressing the old creature and growing up in the new (Large Catechism, Kolb/Wengert, 466).

Each day, we start with a new suit in the forgiveness of Christ. As we start our day, our Lord brings a new garment, covering us with our Baptism, and we walk in this life with no wrinkle of sin in the eyes of God. In the meantime every day we go out with confidence to our vocation with a little more jump in our step. Confident to live knowing that we are His and He will continue to clothe us again and again. Nothing better!

Proclaiming Christ on the streets...how do we do it?

Proclaiming Jesus on the streets!

This is a picture of my field work church in downtown St. Louis. Bethlehem Lutheran Church. Rev. John Schmidtke has been the pastor there for 19 years and the church has gone from 30 people over the age of 70 to now over 150 people each Sunday, majority of which are under 40.

During the summer months they do something called, "Taking Jesus to the Streets." They gather a group of people and they start to sing gospel music on a street corner, in front of a church, or in someone's yard. What is amazing is that in the city, people start to flock from the homes and by the end of the night they do skits, sing more songs, and finish with a craft. The people are well equiped to share their faith to the people in the community and they always gather 20-30 names for the local churches. They literally take the message of the crucified Christ to the streets.

From this experience, I always wondered how do we as confessional Lutherans "bring Jesus to the streets?" Typically in a rural or suburban context, ministry is different. If we started blaring music over a loud speaker on a street corner, people would flee. We typically participate in the local parade and hand out water bottles with our names and go home feeling better about ourselves. But are we proclaiming or advertising? What ways can we proclaim Christ in a community that at times goes beyond the walls of our church?

The focal point of our church is the worship life and mercy to our neighbor, but what other ways can we proclaim Christ faithful to our Confessional roots?

Favre will return today...or will he...where is the confidence?

"Favre back as a Packer... for now."

These were the words in a local paper today. Brett Favre and his wife, Deanna arrive on a plane last night just in time for Family Night at Lambeau. He has returned and is supposed to come back today to the team, however, there is much speculation if he will come back as a Packer, Viking (my choice), Bear, starter, backup, etc, etc. No one really knows, not even Brett himself.

Every day that we wake up, do we know what will happen on this day? Do we truly know? Concerning Favre, people have spent hours guessing what might happen and non of the discussions have created any more confidence in what the final outcome will be. We guess what will happen in the future, who will do this or who will do that, but we really have no idea....

Except in one case. When Christ returns there will be no question of what He will do. As it describes in I Thessalonians 4, "The Lord will descend from heaven with a cry of command...and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds."

As God promised us in Baptism that we would join in his resurrection (Rom.6:4), we have the confidence of knowing, Christ will return and we will be with him due to His blood. We do not know the hour or time, but we know that He is coming, and when He comes He will take us home. No questions, no trades, no releases, but through faith in Christ, HE WILL TAKE US TO HEAVEN!

Brett Favre-Vocation gone amuck!

"I just want to play football", Favre told FoxNews a few weeks ago. Sounds like a decent request to most of us. Why not let one of the most prolific passer in NFL history play?

Of course, how quickly we forget how he gave an announcement a few months ago saying, "I'm walking away from the game. It is time."

I would argue the issue in this whole circus is not necessarily Brett Favre, the Green Bay Packers, or us as fans, but it a misunderstanding of vocation. Vocation is better defined as "calling." One's calling in life. God gives all of us a vocation (father, mother, daughter, brother, citizen, etc).

Luther emphasized that as a baptized child of God, we are called to fulfill our vocations to the best of our ability. At the same time, we must realize that our vocation will change, from child to adult, student to worker, worker to retirement, young person to elderly. They are all a gift from God and we should realize how God has placed us in this place at this time for a reason, although we might not realize why.

In this case, Brett Favre decided and announced that he would start a new vocation and in the same way, the Green Bay Packers would start a new vocation in the post-Brett Favre era. Both the Packer fans, the ownership, and even Brett Favre started to prepare for that new vocation. Now, how each group's vocation will look like this year is yet to be determined, but I think it is a reminder for all of us to look at our own lives and think about where God is leading us. Is to toward retirement, it is toward college, high school, fatherhood, motherhood, a new job? Whatever it is, fulfill your current vocation, stay in prayer, receive His gifts in worship, and reflect on what God is doing in your life.

Maybe best of all, Brett Favre's vocation will be in purple on the opening weekend on Monday Night football :-)