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A
Network of Christ-Centered, Outwardly-Focused, Faith-Growing
Communities for the Sake of the World
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Why
Synod Assembly?
by Tracey Breashears Schultz, Bishop’s
Associate for Leadership
If you’ve been invited to attend the Gulf Coast Synod Assembly as a
guest, or if your congregation is in need of voting members for
Assembly, here are more than a few reasons why you might consider
registering and participating!
It is really easy to become focused on one’s own congregation or
one’s ministry in a particular church. It’s good to be grounded in
a call and in a place that feels like home, but just like the ELCA
Youth Gathering does for young people across our church, attending
Synod Assembly is a reminder that ministry goes far beyond our
local congregation. It is really wonderful to meet people who love
their church like you do and who do ministry in a very different
(or really similar) way. Voting members will be from rural, small
town, urban, and suburban areas. Some leaders have been to Assembly
multiple times, and some have never been. Some of those who attend
will be used to contemporary music in worship, and others will be
familiar with traditional hymns. All of us make up the church. We
end up sharing resources with each other and exchanging ideas, and
it gets us outside ourselves. This is one of my favorite things
about Synod Assembly – it’s a family reunion you didn’t know you
needed!
Read more...
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Being a
Connected Church (and Squash)
by Bishop Michael Rinehart
Today I got home from church a bit tuckered out. I had gotten up at
5:30am, leaving the house around 6:00 to make it by 7:30 for the
8:00am service at St. Paul in Shelby. Later, I preached and
presided at Bethlehem Round Top.
I pulled into my driveway around mid- to late-afternoon and had a
little time before a 6:30pm Zoom meeting. I wanted to crash but
needed to install a new faucet I had purchased for the bathroom, so
I set to work. I was on my back with my head under the cabinet
trying to get the 30-year-old corroded faucet’s nuts off, when
Kenny called.
Kenny is a truck driver who worships at Grace Lutheran Church and
at Tree of Life in Conroe. “Hi ,Bishop. I’m sorry to bother you on
a Sunday…” He told me he was in Minneapolis with a load of yellow
squash that was rejected. One pallet of 45 cases to be precise.
About one thousand yellow squash. (Squashes?) He couldn’t imagine
wasting perfectly good food when people are hungry and was
wondering if I knew of any churches in Minneapolis that had a
pantry and might be interested in meeting up today. “I called
Pastor Chris Lake, and he said you might know.”
Read more...
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Book
Review of When Church Stops Working: A Future for Your Congregation
beyond More Money, Programs, and Innovation, by Dr. Andrew Root
by Bishop Michael Rinehart
Andrew Root, PhD (Princeton Theological Seminary) is the Carrie
Olson Baalson Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther
Seminary. He is also author of:
- The Congregation in a Secular Age: Keeping Sacred
Time against the Speed of Modern Life
- The Church in an Age of Secular Mysticisms
- Faith Formation in a Secular Age: Responding to the
Church’s Obsession with Youthfulness
- The Pastor in a Secular Age
He writes thoughtful books about
secularism and the church.
As always, Root provides an excellent analysis of secularism as the
division of the sacred and secular, public and private, imminent
and transcendent. Secularism drives us, even in the church. He
calls us to spirituality: not acceleration, but resonance, learning
to reflect and be fully present.
Read more...
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Book
Review of Anatomy of a Revived Church: Seven Findings about How
Congregations Avoided Death by Thom Rainer
by Bishop Michael Rinehart
Thom S. Rainer is Co-Founder and CEO of Church
Answers. He has MDiv and PhD degrees from The Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary. His theology rolls accordingly, something to
keep in mind as you read. He is also the author of The
Post-Quarantine Church: Six Challenges and Opportunities that will
Determine the Future of Your Congregation and Simple
Church: Returning to God's Process for Making Disciples.
This
book is a follow up to the author’s earlier, more foreboding book, Autopsy
of a Deceased Church. Rainer challenged that once a
church is deceased, it’s too late. Maybe he could focus on what
revived churches did. I read this book because we are in this
business. We have multiple congregations in redevelopment, and have
learned a thing or two about what works and what doesn’t work. Thom
is a church consultant in the Baptist/non-denominational world. I
find his work insightful, but sometimes a bit programmatic. Perhaps
the yin to Andrew Root’s yang.
Each chapter comes with questions for prayerful consideration.
Read more...
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Lisa’s
Pieces: Creation Care Tips from the Synod Lutherans Restoring
Creation Team
by Lisa Brenskelle
The mission of Lutherans Restoring Creation is to
promote incorporation of care for creation into the full life and
mission of the church, working in five areas: worship, education,
discipleship, building & grounds, and public ministry/advocacy.
Read more...
May and
Early June Creation Care Events
- Pocket Prairie & Great Grow Out
Workshop – Sunday, May 5, 2 - 4 p.m., St. Paul’s
Episcopal Church, Katy
- Justice Advocacy Event –
Sunday, May 19, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m., Christ the King, 2353 Rice
Blvd., Houston
- Sunday Evening
Conversations on Creation: Restoration, Renewal & Regeneration –
Sunday, May 19, 6 p.m., online
- Cool Congregations Cohort –
3rd Mondays throughout 2024, 7 p.m., online
- Interfaith Justice Advocacy Workshop
– Sunday, June 2, 2 p.m., online
Contact gcs.lrc@gmail.com for details on
any of these events.
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