My letter to you this month comes in two parts, the first a word of encouragement and the second to update you on our congregational assessment.
Part One
It’s that time of year when our lives take on a new yet familiar busyness. School and fall sports, Sunday School and confirmation classes, choirs and other events all begin to fill our calen- dars. Stress levels can climb when we begin to realize just how busy our lives can be. It’s easy for church and faith to become just one more thing on the calendar, right between yard work and foot- ball or dance practice.
Followers of Christ throughout the ages have been in the same positions many of us find our- selves today. The busyness of life has a way of pushing aside or even diminishing the life-giving prac- tices of an active faith. Spiritual leaders have shared that as we become all the more busy, it’s all the more essential that prayer, devotion and regular worship take root. Finding balance and meaning in life comes not from a lack of events on our calendars, but rather from relying on the constancy and life-giving grace that God promises to us each day, a gift we receive and nurture in spiritual practices.
My encouragement to you is that when you are feeling overwhelmed by your calendar, when a lack of downtime is the norm rather than the exception, when you may occasionally ask yourself what is this all for anyway, seek the goodness of our God. With your calendar in front of you pray about the events and tasks of the day. Begin and/or conclude each day with a minute or five reading from God’s holy written word. Come to find how regular worship becomes part of your DNA. Through these practices I am confident God’s grace will bring you peace, wholeness and strength for the days ahead.
Part Two
And now, switching gears to the life of LCC. You may or may not be aware that a few months ago our congregation decided to begin a process of thinking and praying, talking and lis- tening together about current mission and ministry, and about the future God has in store for us at LCC. These conversations, at first, had more of an open-ended focus. For instance, are our facility constraints hampering current ministry and preventing future growth? Is our congregational debt, roughly $570,000, acceptable at best or dragging us down at worst? This process of congregational assessment was/is to hear what your thoughts are on the topics at hand, and to get a sense of what direction the church membership would like to take.
In the meantime, our neighbors and friends at Holy Cross announced to us the plans to vacate their facility in the next two to three years. So now, our conversations have taken on a slightly to significantly more focused flavor, if you will. Some of the questions now are, is acquiring the Crossway Center and possibly the entire Holy Cross facility in our interests? Is it within our reach financially? Would it solve current constraints and provide room for future growth? Is this even a direction the membership would like congregational leadership to pursue?
For this congregational assessment process to be helpful and successful, we need your input, thoughts, questions, ideas. Firstly, you will be asked to complete an online survey starting on Sept. 6th running through Sept. 18th (paper copies will be available for those without computer access). These will be communicated to you via e-mail. Secondly, you may be asked to participate in an interview or small group listening session. These will be facilitated by our consultant Jeff Kjellberg, an ELCA pastor with extensive experience and expertise in these matters. Those notices will be coming mid to late September. Thirdly, your prayers for the life and future of LCC are welcomed. Asking for and having the wisdom to follow the promptings of God’s Holy Spirit is essential for a people in service to God’s Kingdom.
I encourage you to read the “Congregational Assessment Narrative.” This is a summary of where we are at and the challenges and opportunities placed before us. Please join us in this process. Please feel free to visit with me and Pastor Bill if you have thoughts, questions and concerns that are not being addressed. Please know that we seek to serve you, the mission of Jesus and the world in which we live. Thanks be to God for the life we share in Christ Jesus our Lord.