Pastoral Message: “Thoughts on the Future of Faith-La Fe, Part Two” Week of the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost July 12, 2023
Dear People of God at Faith-La Fe!
In Part One of “Thoughts on the Future of Faith-La Fe” a couple of weeks ago, I gave the bad news, doing some reality therapy on the challenges of our mission field in our current society, and how these challenges affect the long-term viability of congregations as we have known them in our lives, and in the lives of our parents and grandparents. Today, I offer some good news concerning life-giving opportunities before us in the current challenging circumstances.
In Part One, I suggested that people these days are just not inclined to join organizations of any kind, including churches. That reality makes it even more difficult to support the needs of congregations in terms of budget and finance, property maintenance, volunteers to help run programs, and on and on. But with every cloud, there is generally a silver lining.
The silver lining that I would identify amidst our current challenges is that they give us the occasion, and may actually force us, to get back to the basics of being and doing church. We all know from firsthand experience that oftentimes the demands of congregations as institutions, as non-profit organizations, become the tail that wags the dog. That is to say, we spend more time and energy in Council meetings, for example, dealing with budgets and buildings, etc., than we do attending to planning for and administering the spiritual activities that are the focus of why we gather as church in the first place. For example, I spend as much time or more as a pastor functioning as a manager of the church as a non-profit franchise than I do attending to duties like preaching, teaching, leading worship, and offering pastoral and spiritual care. Remember that the church as institution is supposed to be the manger that cradles the gift of Christ. But we too often focus more on the box and the wrapping paper than on the gift itself! Again, the current realities of the church’s institutional decline may open doors to our getting back to the holy, heavenly, and transcendent basics of what the church is all about.
Why is that? Because people today don’t want to become members of a non-profit organization for its own sake. Rather, they are seeking authentic experiences of God in community that help them navigate and make sense of their place in a bewildering and troubled world. If we want to attract new people to our churchly community, we would do well to spend more time and energy on cultivating spiritual experiences for people than we do on other more temporal matters.
And, when it’s all said and done, isn’t that what we all want from our church experience? Wouldn’t we all prefer to encounter God in Christ in the power of the Spirit in an inspiring worship service to attending a two-hour business meeting about budget shortfalls and buildings that need a lot of work? As a pastor, I am not made weary by preaching and presiding, teaching, and offering care. But I do get exhausted when the temporal demands of the church as institution outweigh in time and energy my spiritual duties as a pastor. Of course, budgets and buildings are important, but we cannot let these temporal realities have the last word.
What may be emerging in our day and age is a version of church, of Christian community, that doesn’t own buildings and perhaps doesn’t even formally organize in the ways we are accustomed to. Faith-La Fe certainly isn’t there yet, and I believe we have good years left ahead of us even in a rapidly changing church landscape.
But friends in Christ, let me remind you of the Lutheran understanding of church. Church, for Lutherans, is a verb, a happening. Church happens when the Holy Spirit gathers us as God’s people around the gifts of God in Christ known to us in the word and in the sacraments, the bath of baptism, and the supper when the risen Christ is made known to us in the breaking of the bread. Church erupts and happens when the gospel word of God is faithfully proclaimed, and the sacraments are celebrated according to the gospel. Church as verb, as happening, as event, doesn’t necessarily require buildings and budgets and other institutional trappings to enact the reality of church. Yes, the church will always have incarnate, organizational, institutional expressions to cradle the gift of Christ in word and sacrament, but the future may require that we will be institutionally lighter on our feet and less weighed down by organizational realities. To be free of such burdens would, in fact, be a gift for us all in many ways. And if we are comparatively free of institutional preoccupations, and we consistently and authentically present ourselves to the world as spiritually contented people, then others will be attracted to what’s going on in our midst, and our community may in fact grow, even numerically.
So, that’s part of the good news. In a coming Part Three of this series on the future of Faith-La Fe, I’ll focus more on my assessment of the particular realities and circumstances at Faith-La Fe, and how we are seeking to navigate this new, emerging, ever-shifting missionary landscape. This coming installment will not be offered next week, as I will be away from the office for the first few days of the week attending the ELCA’s national Rostered Ministers Gathering which is being held here in Phoenix. So, I invite your patience until the next time when I offer Part Three of “Thoughts on the Future of Faith-La Fe.”
With confidence in God’s promised future,
Pastor Jonathan Linman
Pastor’s Office Phone Number: 602-265-5860
Email: pastor@faithalive.com
Announcements
Bible Study Off and On This Summer!
We return to our two bible studies this Wednesday, July 12 at 10:30 am and 6:00 pm. But then we’ll skip another Wednesday on July 19 when Pastora Veronica and I will be participating in the ELCA’s national Rostered Ministers Gathering which happens to take place here in Phoenix. We’ll have our bibles studies again on Wednesday, July 26, but then we’ll break another time for two weeks when I will vacation at my brother and sister in law’s places in North Carolina and Atlanta. Such is the routine during the summertime!
Morning Prayer Commemorating Mary Magdalene, Apostle on July 22
It’s perhaps quite uncommon to devote a special liturgy to commemorating Mary Magdalene, a follower of Jesus who through the ages has not gotten particularly good press. However, recent years have seen renewed interest in and focus on Mary Magdalene as “apostle to the apostles,” for she was the first witness of Jesus’ resurrection, and it was her report to the other apostles that first made them aware of the good news. So, we’ll remember and celebrate Mary Magdalene with a festive liturgy of Morning Prayer on Saturday, July 22 beginning at 10:00 am. Many of our special liturgies occur in the evenings when some of our members are disinclined to travel out and about. Thus, we also want to make available some of these special liturgies during daylight hours. The service of Morning Prayer on July 22 is one such occasion. Please plan to join us!
Faith/La Fe Annual Congregational Picnic will be held on Sunday, July 30 on our own Faith La Fe campus following the Spanish language service. As they have for over the past decade, John and Suzanne Johnstonbaugh will be grilling burgers, hot dogs, salmon, and veggie burgers. A wide variety of beverages will be available including lemonade, iced tea, and infused water.
The rest of the food will be potluck:
Appetizer (if your last name begins T-Z)
Salad (if your last name begins N-S)
Side dish (if your last name begins G-M)
Dessert (if your last name begins A-F)
If you want to bring something that falls outside your assigned category, of course you may, but if possible, it would help if you trade categories with someone else.
As always with our potlucks, please bring your item plated and ready to serve and drop it off in Parish Hall kitchen before heading into the Sanctuary for worship.
Faith-La Fe Supports Heat Respite Ministry at Grace Church Downtown
As a part of the Grand Canyon Synod Hunger Leaders Network, Chris Jacobson and Gail Turner are heading up efforts at Faith/La Fe to gather food and other items to support the Heat Respite Program at Grace Lutheran Church downtown Phoenix this Summer until August 20th.
Throughout the summer, there will be bins in the breeze way each week where worshipers may drop off their offerings of items for Grace’s guests experiencing homelessness, such as:
· Bottled water, any size
· Packaged snacks (“grab & go”)
· Individual cans or cups of fruits, puddings, potted meats are good for that reason. Being aware that many people do not have teeth.
· Small jars (or individual) peanut butter
Other items needed:
· Shoes for men and women
· Socks for men and women
· Gently used clothing for men and women
· Backpacks
· Blankets
· Tents, and collapsible umbrellas
· Small personal hygiene items (travel size or bring from your hotel stays)
· Toothbrushes & small toothpaste
Also, volunteer opportunities abound, call Grace at 602-258-3787 to learn more.
Thank you for your compassion and generosity!
Chris Jacobson and Gail Turner
Lutheran Books of Worship Available to You
Now that the green Lutheran Books of Worship have been replaced in our pews with the cranberry-colored Evangelical Lutheran Worship, copies of LBW are available to you to take home, especially for those whose family members are honored on memorial plates in the fronts of the books. Look for the LBW’s on tables in the library end of the parish hall. They will be organized alphabetically by last name so that you will have an easier time identifying books you or your family might have donated to honor loved ones. So, we invite you to look through the books and take home those which memorialize your family. Once family members have had a chance to look through the books, the remaining LBW’s will be available to anyone who wants a copy or more as a keepsake.
Mark Your Calendars Now for Upcoming Special Worship Services
Further details about the following special occasions for worship is forthcoming, but please note these special liturgies now in your calendars!
July 22 at 10:00 am + Mary Magdalene, Apostle, Morning Prayer
August 15 at 7:00 pm + Mary, Mother of Our Lord, Holy Communion
September 14 at 7:00 pm + Holy Cross Day, Evensong
November 1 at 7:00 pm + All Saints’ Day, Holy Communion
Upcoming Saturday Quiet Days at Faith-La Fe in 2023
Saturday, September 30 – on this day, close to the commemoration of St. Francis of Assisi, we will explore Franciscan Spirituality and what it might mean for Lutherans in ministry and mission in the 21st Century.
Saturday, October 28 – as we approach Reformation Sunday, this will be a day devoted to revealing key features of specifically Lutheran Spirituality, or Christian spirituality with Lutheran accents. We will discover that there’s a lot to draw from in our own tradition to take us ever more deeply into spiritual life.
Saturday, November 18 – this day will be devoted to spending our time together in our beautiful nave doing “Stations of Our Stained Glass Windows,” a series of visual meditations on our stained-glass windows and the miracles and parables of Jesus they depict. We’ll explore in conversation the bible stories the windows are based on, and then look carefully at the windows to see features of the story which the stained-glass art highlights. Each station will feature a hymn before we move on to the next window.
Exploring Your Spiritual Gifts Retreat
Sponsored by
Grand Canyon Synod Growing in Faith: Diakonia Program
Saturdays, August 5th, 12th, and 19th 2023
9am-12noon MST via Zoom
Have you ever asked yourself:
What does God want of me?
What kind of ministry is God calling me to?
How am I to serve God?
Do I have a spiritual gift?
What is it?
How am I to use it?
To help answer these questions, consider attending “Exploring Your Spiritual Gifts”, brought to you by the Growing In Faith: Diakonia Program in Arizona.
Through a sequence of exercises and conversations you will be guided in a process of discernment about your unique gifts. By the end of the series, you will know the gifts God has given you and begin to understand how God wants you to use them.
Our retreat leader is Rev. Stewart McDonald. A long-time Diakonia instructor, he has led this Spiritual Gifts retreat several times. Participants have found this series to be very enlightening and practical as part of their faith development journey.
So come join us on this adventure of discernment! If you’re 15 or 95, this series will inspire answers to your questions! All are welcome!
Register at https://www.diakonia.education >Home Page >Menu>Events/Retreats
Zoom Link will be provided
$30 Registration Fee
Questions - Contact: Kim@diakonia.education