Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
On sports teams there are limited numbers of players who “make the cut;” not on Team Jesus.
On Team Jesus there are unlimited numbers of positions and opportunities to participate. At Faith Lutheran Church, it is amazing to be part of His Team. Recently, long-term member Diane Skoien came to me and expressed her interest in volunteering, so we met and prayed. God opened up the door for Diane to come in every Monday and sit at our main desk, answering phone calls, helping visitors, calling our member families to see how we can pray for them, and arranging pastoral visits for me to make.
Diane’s volunteering has freed Maree Garchow up to do something super necessary–re-engaging and re-energizing our members who have apparently slowed down in their discipleship. I spent a couple hours today with Maree, and we worked together to develop an Excel spreadsheet that has almost 20 ministry “touchpoints” that a person could be involved in at Faith. This spreadsheet will give us objective: data driven information that Maree will focus on. Maree will also be leveraging the other players on Team Jesus here at Faith to help.
This month, we will have our District President, aka “The Bishop”, aka the Rev. Dr. Allan Buss preach for us. What a blessing to be part of the 200+ churches, schools, Recognized Service Organizations and our own Concordia University who make up our Northern Illinois District (one of 35 Districts in our national church body). It is #supernecessary to remember that our church is part of Team Jesus and we are blessed by these relationships, opportunities to work together and even times of encouraging, uplifting and blessing our sister congregations.
On Reformation Sunday we will celebrate Confirmation, which is the culmination of two years of fairly rigorous Christian teaching in the doctrines of Christianity. But Confirmation is so much more because every child who is confirmed has Team Jesus standing behind him or her–parents, Godparents, Sunday School teachers, Elders, and fellow church members, along with a youth worker and pastor. This year we will have a double blessing. Our special guest preacher will be Pastor Elstner Lewis, who serves at St. Philip’s Lutheran Church in downtown Chicago. What a blessing to be team mates on Team Jesus with Pastor Lewis and his flock.
Teamwork makes the dream work on Team Jesus.
V/r,
Pastor Jim