“JOURNEY – COME AS YOU ARE!”
* Today I want to talk a bit about the new service we are about to start in January of 2017… As a church we stand on two basic pillars – A. The TRUTH – the teachings of Scripture where Christ is presented to us as the only One Who can take us to the Father and grant us eternal life by Grace, through Faith; B. LOVE – We as believers are not just asked, but commanded to love one another, even those who are not part of our Christian family yet. Another thing that comes to my mind is that the Christian Church received the command FROM OUR Savior Jesus Christ before He ascended into Heaven: To MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS. There are two steps to accomplishing that: 1. Bringing people to Christ through Baptism and by sharing Christ as we use our gifts, time and treasure to reach them – EVANGELISM; 2. Teaching them to obey everything the Lord has commanded – From Sunday School to old age we want to learn what God wants us to know, about Salvation, about how to live the Christian life – We call that the CHRISTIAN EDUCATION PROCESS. These two – Evangelism and Christian Education need to walk hand-in-hand. Neither one can exist by itself.
* All of this brings us to the next point… For over two years the Evangelism Board has been exploring different ideas and methods for reaching people in the Mexico area who don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. We need to bring them to Jesus… We need to teach them… After much prayer and discussion it was decided to investigate the possibility of holding a second worship service directed at reaching the lost… the ones Jesus died for to save. The Evangelism Board knew this was beyond the scope of their Board and, after receiving approval from the Board of Elders, asked members of all the boards and other individuals who wanted to be involved to come to a meeting to discuss this possibility.
* About 25 people attended the first meeting and it was the consensus to go ahead and look into this possibility. We set up a research team who developed a questionnaire which was distributed at the Easter Extravaganza, the annual fish fry and on the church web and Facebook page. It was determined that the service should be directed toward younger adults (although no age group is excluded). This Divine service will be according to Biblical/Lutheran doctrine but also in harmony with the contemporary culture. It was also concluded that it should not be held in the sanctuary because people who have not been raised in a church are overwhelmed by the sanctuary. The family life center may actually be a more adequate venue for that reason. The group also recommended that the service should also be casual, and that there should be a children’s church.
* After several meetings it was decided to rearrange the Sunday morning schedule to accommodate the two services and Sunday School. This new schedule was presented to the board of elders and to the voters’ meeting.
* I want to reassure you that I do not like changes. I also want to let you know as your pastor that this new project is already and will cause me to dedicate even more hours to the ministry here at St. John’s. But… (You already knew there was a “but” coming, right?) if we want to be faithful to the Lord’s command to share His love… to Shine His light… we got to do something. So here is the new schedule we will implement starting the second Sunday in January of 2017:
The traditional/blended service (as it now is) will be held at 9:00.
Sunday School will begin at 10:15 and end at 11:00.
The new contemporary service will begin at 11:15.
* It was necessary to arrange the time this way so that Sunday School time would continue & would be protected. We did not in any way want to do anything that would make it difficult for people to bring their children to Sunday School or for adults to attend Bible class, as we feel that studying God’s Word is vital to the Christian life of all – to grow and become more and more like Christ.
* We now have a marketing team that has been meeting quite often to determine how best to get the word out to our community about this service. They have come up with a name for the service: “JOURNEY – Come as you are!” They also developed a visual logo to go along with the name. The idea behind this name is that we are all on a journey and some are just starting and some are further along than others but Just Come and join us on this Journey to a new or better relationship with Christ our Savior.
* While we have had several separate teams working on various aspects of this venture, we encourage EVERY PERSON IN THE CONGREGATION to take the opportunity to participate in this project. It is to reflect our evangelistic attitude and our love for the lost. We all know people who need to have Christ in their lives. Now we just need to invite them, personally pick them up and bring them to this service. Encourage them on their new walk with Jesus. We are not expecting instant results. Building attendance at this service may take a while but if we can reach just one person for Christ this service will have been a success. We will evaluate the new service on a regular basis and accept and analyze suggestions to make it better.
* Changes are not easy for anybody… but sometimes change we must, especially in order to bring Christ to people. Thanks for understanding and I ask for your help with this new service: Pray for it; Have a positive attitude about it; Help with it by using your gifts. It is being organized to glorify God and to bring people to Jesus.
* God bless us all as we, as one body, work together for the growth of the Kingdom.
Rev. Don Sonntag and all involved in this “Journey”
* Today I want to talk a bit about the new service we are about to start in January of 2017… As a church we stand on two basic pillars – A. The TRUTH – the teachings of Scripture where Christ is presented to us as the only One Who can take us to the Father and grant us eternal life by Grace, through Faith; B. LOVE – We as believers are not just asked, but commanded to love one another, even those who are not part of our Christian family yet. Another thing that comes to my mind is that the Christian Church received the command FROM OUR Savior Jesus Christ before He ascended into Heaven: To MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS. There are two steps to accomplishing that: 1. Bringing people to Christ through Baptism and by sharing Christ as we use our gifts, time and treasure to reach them – EVANGELISM; 2. Teaching them to obey everything the Lord has commanded – From Sunday School to old age we want to learn what God wants us to know, about Salvation, about how to live the Christian life – We call that the CHRISTIAN EDUCATION PROCESS. These two – Evangelism and Christian Education need to walk hand-in-hand. Neither one can exist by itself.
* All of this brings us to the next point… For over two years the Evangelism Board has been exploring different ideas and methods for reaching people in the Mexico area who don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. We need to bring them to Jesus… We need to teach them… After much prayer and discussion it was decided to investigate the possibility of holding a second worship service directed at reaching the lost… the ones Jesus died for to save. The Evangelism Board knew this was beyond the scope of their Board and, after receiving approval from the Board of Elders, asked members of all the boards and other individuals who wanted to be involved to come to a meeting to discuss this possibility.
* About 25 people attended the first meeting and it was the consensus to go ahead and look into this possibility. We set up a research team who developed a questionnaire which was distributed at the Easter Extravaganza, the annual fish fry and on the church web and Facebook page. It was determined that the service should be directed toward younger adults (although no age group is excluded). This Divine service will be according to Biblical/Lutheran doctrine but also in harmony with the contemporary culture. It was also concluded that it should not be held in the sanctuary because people who have not been raised in a church are overwhelmed by the sanctuary. The family life center may actually be a more adequate venue for that reason. The group also recommended that the service should also be casual, and that there should be a children’s church.
* After several meetings it was decided to rearrange the Sunday morning schedule to accommodate the two services and Sunday School. This new schedule was presented to the board of elders and to the voters’ meeting.
* I want to reassure you that I do not like changes. I also want to let you know as your pastor that this new project is already and will cause me to dedicate even more hours to the ministry here at St. John’s. But… (You already knew there was a “but” coming, right?) if we want to be faithful to the Lord’s command to share His love… to Shine His light… we got to do something. So here is the new schedule we will implement starting the second Sunday in January of 2017:
The traditional/blended service (as it now is) will be held at 9:00.
Sunday School will begin at 10:15 and end at 11:00.
The new contemporary service will begin at 11:15.
* It was necessary to arrange the time this way so that Sunday School time would continue & would be protected. We did not in any way want to do anything that would make it difficult for people to bring their children to Sunday School or for adults to attend Bible class, as we feel that studying God’s Word is vital to the Christian life of all – to grow and become more and more like Christ.
* We now have a marketing team that has been meeting quite often to determine how best to get the word out to our community about this service. They have come up with a name for the service: “JOURNEY – Come as you are!” They also developed a visual logo to go along with the name. The idea behind this name is that we are all on a journey and some are just starting and some are further along than others but Just Come and join us on this Journey to a new or better relationship with Christ our Savior.
* While we have had several separate teams working on various aspects of this venture, we encourage EVERY PERSON IN THE CONGREGATION to take the opportunity to participate in this project. It is to reflect our evangelistic attitude and our love for the lost. We all know people who need to have Christ in their lives. Now we just need to invite them, personally pick them up and bring them to this service. Encourage them on their new walk with Jesus. We are not expecting instant results. Building attendance at this service may take a while but if we can reach just one person for Christ this service will have been a success. We will evaluate the new service on a regular basis and accept and analyze suggestions to make it better.
* Changes are not easy for anybody… but sometimes change we must, especially in order to bring Christ to people. Thanks for understanding and I ask for your help with this new service: Pray for it; Have a positive attitude about it; Help with it by using your gifts. It is being organized to glorify God and to bring people to Jesus.
* God bless us all as we, as one body, work together for the growth of the Kingdom.
Rev. Don Sonntag and all involved in this “Journey”