August 30, 2010

Christ Lutheran “Church Chat”

THOUGHTS FROM PASTOR RON

Last week I mentioned the Lutheran World Federation briefly summarized the full communion agreements between the ELCA and the Episcopal church and the ELCA and the Moravian Community. There are three other full communion agreements: Presbyterian Church (USA), United Methodist Church and United Church of Christ and we will look at these in brief over the next few weeks. These are not just of academic or historical interest – they are an expression of who the ELCA is in the world today. I invited you to read the full agreements on the web at  http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/ Ecumenical-and-Inter-Religious-Relations/Full-Communion-Partners.aspx ,  www.elca.org/Who- We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Ecumenical-and-Inter-Religious- Relations/Full-Communion-Partners.aspx. The full communion agreement with the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) states that ELCA pastors called to serve at church of this denomination shall follow the teachings of the Constitution of the PCUSA and the confessional statements. The confessional statements include the Nicene and Apostles Creeds, the sixteenth century Reformed confessional and the 1991 document “A Brief Statement of Faith”. The agreement notes that the PCUSA recognizes the sacrament of baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and is administered once. It is an unrepeatable act.  The PCUSA baptizes children as well as adults. The baptism of infants is based on the fact that this the grace of God at work in the life of the child, not a corporate faith. The PCUSA now places new emphasis on Christian nurture and invites children to receive Holy Communion. The agreement recognized the practice of laying on of hands and chrismation (anointing with Holy Oil),  both of which we understand to be part of the sacrament in the Lutheran churches, and is drafting a new directory for worship practices to include this as part of the sacrament. Further, the PCUSA recognizes the importance of the historic Lutheran teaching of the Eucharist (Holy Communion). The agreement goes on to note that the Presbyterian church in the past has been more likely to see the sacrament as a remembrance, that the preaching of the Word has been more central to worship, and that this sacrament has been taken too lightly. The agreement goes on to note that there are theological understandings which need to be further explored.

By the way, have you checked out the recent postings by Pastor Sarah and her husband at http:// www.hereiwalk.org” http://www.hereiwalk.org as they journey from Erfurt to Rome?

May God’s peace be with you this week, and the weeks to come,

Pastor Ron Read more… »

August 23, 2010

Christ Lutheran “Church Chat”

THOUGHTS FROM PASTOR RON …

I have been writing about evangelism for the last number of weeks, and we will come back to  this. However, this week, I want to make a few brief comments about another “E” word - “ecumenical” or “ecumenism.”

The Lutheran church is much more than just those congregations you see around us here in our town. The church named after Martin Luther is a group of 140 church bodies and 68.3  million people of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) scattered across 79 countries on all six continents. The doctrinal basis for the LWF is that the member churches confess that the Old and New Testament to be the only norm and source of doctrine, and that the three Ecumenical creeds (Apostle’s Nicene, Athanasian), the Small Catechism and the Augsburg Confession are the “pure exposition of the Word of God.” The churches of the LWF work together “for the unity of the one holy, apostolic and catholic church.”

Great strides have been made in repairing the splits that have occurred in Christ’s Church over the last thousand years (dating this from the Great Schism of 1054). The ELCA has five full communion agreements with other Christian churches here in the US. The full communion agreement between the ELCA and the American Episcopal church noted that in many ways the LWF was closer to the worldwide Anglican community than the American Episcopal church was to the ELCA. The agreement between the Moravian community and the ELCA notes that there was always close cooperation between their leaders as they were striving for reform of the Western Church in the 16th century, and almost a full merger in the 18th century in this country. The Moravian community accepts the Augsburg Confession and uses the Small Catechism – the same one that is in our hymnals and we will be exploring in catechism this year. In 1965, the Pope and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople nullified the bans against each other that were issued in 1054. The Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic church both signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in 1999 and removed the ban against each other they had both issued 400 years earlier. It is entirely conceivable that there would have been no split if the meetings at Augsburg and Trent had agreed on the issue of justification in the 16th century. While there are still differences, there are also many, many understandings in common.

The ELCA news service posted a story this past Saturday about two Lutheran theologians who will leave the Augustinian priory in Erfurt, Germany, Aug. 22, and walk one thousand miles to Rome, retracing the footsteps of Martin Luther.  The journey being made by the Reverend Sarah Hinlicky Wilson and her husband, Dr. Andrew Lars Wilson, is about meeting people face-to-face and the importance of ecumenism. Their pilgrimage takes place exactly 500 years after Luther himself left Erfurt in 1510 for Rome. The journey also coincides with the 100th anniversary of the 1910 Edinburgh Missionary Conference in Scotland, often cited as the birth of the ecumenical movement. I invite each of you to follow their journey at   http://www.hereiwalk.org

May God’s peace be with you this week, and the weeks to come,

+ Shalom, Pastor Ron Read more… »

August 16, 2010

Christ Lutheran “Church Chat”

THOUGHTS FROM PASTOR RON …

Did you know that …

66% of unchurched adults want to experience God more deeply?

Evangelism is a process – not an event?

75 – 90% of people come to church for the first time because someone invited them?

The Bible isn’t about bringing people to Jesus, but about taking the Triune God to the people?

We are called to be fishers of people – but there are no fish in the baptismal font?

The US may be a “spiritual” country, but it has the 4th largest non-Christian population in the

world?

Hmmmm … does that give you any ideas?

+ Shalom, Pastor Ron   Read more… »

August 9, 2010

Christ Lutheran “Church Chat”

CALLING ALL LITURGISTS (Assisting Ministers)!

The fancy word “liturgy” simply means “the work of the people”. Are you interested in being an assisting minister and helping to lead our congregation in worship? What questions do you have about the different parts of the Sunday ritual:

Who is doing what when and why? (It’s not just ‘tradition’ – even “non-liturgical” church DO have a liturgy!)

Where do the prayers come from? (We prepare them for you – and how to write your own if you so choose!)

How do you juggle the different books?  (This is not an accounting question – we will work on this!)

What if I can’t chant can I still be an assistant? (Yes!)

Pastor Ron and the worship board will be holding a class for ALL new and current assisting ministers after the fellowship time on August 22nd.  We will talk about the order of worship, the collect (daily prayer), prayers of the church and intercessory prayer, setting the table, the various communion prayers, the different ways of distributing the elements of Holy Communion, and the dismissal.

It is our custom to use different settings during the year, and we will be moving to setting five for the fall. We will start using this setting on August 29th.   Read more… »