Encouragement to keep the faith

     

Hermas

Listen to me now: stand together in peace. Look after one another, and show concern for another’s needs. By eating too much, some of you have brought sickness on your bodies and ruined them, while the limbs of others, who have nothing to eat, waste away for lack of food.… And you who have become old in spirit: you are already dying. Your soft living and constant doubts have brought you to this point. You are enervated by the affairs of daily life; you have fallen into lethargy; you are like old men who have given up hope of regaining strength and expect nothing but to fall asleep… But don’t give up hope. Awake and repent, and you will all be quite new again.
Source: The Early Christians

Ignite Worship: January 29th @ Zion Lutheran

Sola Worship: January 29th @ Zion Lutheran

Midweek E-Update

Link to the Midweek E-Update for Zion Lutheran Church, Ann Arbor.
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Zion-Lutheran-Church---Ann-Arbor---Midweek-E-Update.html?soid=1125648215037&aid=Gu8T05dlAnI

Midweek video for JAn. 26, 2017

What kids believe

I was reading a blog today by David Staal, the president of Kids Hope USA.
This is an interesting article about the need to be mentor.
One line caught my attention. He wrote W"hat you believe by the time you're 13 is what you'll die believing." That made me pause. It made me think how important our Bibleland program is with shaping faith. Below is a few paragraphs from his article.
He wrote:
Deeper reflection on 2004 shows that 11,265 U.S. children were born on this day (actually every day, on average). Applying other statistical averages, of those 11,265 children born on this single day in 2004: 

• 3,380 will not graduate from high school
• 3,266 live in a fatherless home
• 2,478 live in poverty
• 2,254 self-describe as lonely
• 2,027 victims of reported abuse
• 1,013 have ADHD (698 receive no treatment)
• 5,858 admit to not attending church

And that’s just one day’s worth of kids. One day.

Because they were all born today in 2004, let’s wish them a Happy 13^th Birthday. Actually, that’s a reason for real concern. Researcher George Barna published data that led him to conclude, “In essence, what you believe by the time you’re 13 is what you’ll die believing.”  

Soberly think about what those kids, born on this day in 2004, now believe about love, hope, opportunity, and how the world works. Not a happy thought, yet an accurate picture that provides high definition for why kids need mentors. Do the math; multiply each of those one-day figures by 365 to determine just the number of 12-year-olds that fall into those categories. What about ages six through eleven? The number grows crazy fast.

To answer the original question; these are the kids who need mentors. For the next question, addressing why churches and their attendees should care, consider the words from someone America celebrates in January also. According to Dr. Martin Luther King, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?”

What many people need most in this world is one person, just one, willing to spend time, to offer encouragement, to prove that there is someone who cares. Who listens. Smiles. And along the way stubbornly believes in the goodness that exists in every heart — young or old. Someone whose simple presence paints a hope-filled picture of how life could be. Or should be.

Here is the link to the full article. What kids believe

5 Questions Every Pastor Will Answer in 2017

These are five questions every pastor will answer in 2017 whether he addresses or neglects them.

Pastor, how will you answer each one of these five questions?

Question #1: Will I prioritize my personal walk with God daily?

This is not a question about whether you will study for sermons, but a question about prioritizing your personal walk with God. Your personal walk with God will determine everything else in your life and ministry. Therefore, prioritize your personal reading of the Scripture, your personal prayer life, and your personal spiritual growth in Jesus Christ.

Question #2: Will I devote myself to being the spiritual leader in my family?

This is not about functioning as the spiritual leader of your church, but it is a question about devoting yourself to be the spiritual leader of your family. The level of your spiritual leadership in your church will never go beyond your personal walk with Christ and the genuine spiritual leadership you provide in your family. In other words, you cannot lead your church spiritually if you do not lead your family spiritually. Therefore, determine now to operate with great intentionality as the spiritual leader of your family.

Question #3: Will I lead my church to do all we can to reach my community with the gospel of Jesus Christ?

This is not about taking a few members of your church on a mission trip; it is about leading your church with a vision and an intentional strategy to reach your community with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pastor, are you leading your church with a fire in your heart to reach your community for Jesus Christ? Our goal should be saturating our entire community with the gospel and strategizing to insure it has the opportunity to penetrate the lives of each person in a life-changing manner. Therefore, do it.

Question #4: Will I grow in my teaching and preaching of God’s Word?

How are you going to teach and preach God’s Word in a more effective manner than ever in your ministry this year? Following the prioritization of my personal walk with God, I must follow this with a strong commitment to study God’s Word accurately and deliver it effectively. Each pastor must feed, lead, and intercede! Preparation is the key to feeding God’s people with the Word of God. Your preparation will never be greater than your discipline to do it. Therefore, determine to grow in your teaching and preaching of God’s Word.

Question #5: Will I take care of myself physically?

Whether you see this as important or not, each pastor must answer: Will I take care of myself physically? Pastor, cease from laughing this question off or neglecting its importance in your life and ministry. Each of us will reap what we sow. If you do not feel well physically, it will affect your life in every way. If you do not feel good about the way you look, it may limit your level of confidence when you are standing before your church. God has made us all in different shapes and sizes. This is not a question about your shape and size. This is about you taking care of your body, the temple of the Holy Spirit, where God lives in you. Therefore, commit to being intentional about taking care of yourself physically.
I believe the future of your life, ministry, and church will be determined by the way you address these five questions. Therefore, address each of them intentionally.

5 Questions Every Pastor Will Answer in 2017, by Ronnie Floyd, is an article from Pastors.com. © 2012 Pastors.com.

The gift of faith

Ignite Worship: January 22th @ Zion Lutheran

Sola Worship: January 22th @ Zion Lutheran

Zion Lutheran E- Update

Zion-Lutheran-Church---Ann-Arbor---Midweek-E-Update.

Video message 1 18 17

Leftovers

"Never give your family the leftovers and crumbs of your time." Charles Swindoll

Counting the Days

February of 2017 begins my second year as senior pastor of Zion. For those who may be wondering it will be day 731. During the last 24 months we have laughed together when I would announce how many days I have been your pastor. The reason I started counting the days was to be intentional with time. It helped to give me a reference point from where I had come and where we were going. I do that with other things too, like this year my wife Barbara and I celebrated our thirty-third wedding anniversary that would be 12,054 days we have been together. Psalm 90:12 tell us that we should number our days, “So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.”  Job 8:9 says, “for we are but of yesterday, and we know nothing, for our days on earth are but a shadow.”

One thing I hear again and again is that there are never enough days in our lives. No matter how long we live, we always want more time. We want more time with family, more time to do the things we love, and more time to get ahead. But as much as we want more time, it is the one thing that we can’t change. We all have 24 hours or 1440 minutes every day. How we use this time is up to us.

We all have a lot of intentions to use our time wisely. They are good intentions. But they usually remain only intentions. How will this year be different? How will your intentions become something more than a wish to become actions that affect your time? This February 19, Zion will gather at or annual congregational meeting to reflect on where we have come and what we have accomplished. Even more important we will begin to lay out where we are going in the months to come and the work that still needs to be done. I invite you join us at 10:10 in Piper Hall. All Faith Formation classes have been cancelled for this important meeting.

We gather for worship on the first day of the week, so that we can be fed and nourished to be the people of God all week long. In worship God receives our praise and prayers as simple offerings and shapes our intentions into actions. It is in the gathering of God’s people, God reminds us that it is in faith our days will be blessed. This February the gospel lessons will focus on Jesus’s sermon on the mountain. Here Jesus will challenge us to be salt and light in the world. We will be called to choose life by loving and obeying God. We are called to respond to evil with love and forgiveness. Then just before we enter the season of Lent we are given a vision of Jesus’s glory in the Transfiguration.

May we all be intentional with the time God has given us, to do the work that God has given us to do. The prophet Micah reminds us of what God desires; “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8 

Thought for the day

Thought for the Day: Doing something in order to be loved is a trap, but doing something because I am loved is incredibly freeing. by Lysa TerKeurst,

Being Thankful

Daily Dig for January 16 Henri J. M. Nouwen To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives – the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections – that requires hard spiritual work. Still, we are only truly grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment.…Let us not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God. Source: Seeking Peace

Ignite Worship: January 15th @ Zion Lutheran

Sola Worship: January 15th @ Zion Lutheran

encouragement

what are we looking for?

This coming weekend the scriptures in worship will ask: What are we looking for? Brett Younger suggests, "Deep in our souls, we are looking for something to believe in and hold on to, something important enough to live for, and something big enough to claim our passions. We are looking for challenge and purpose. We are looking for God." Something to ponder, as we walk through our week.

movie week 2

Martin Luther King Jr. Ammual Worship Service of Remembrance

Join others of SE MI Synod - Sunday, January 15, 3 pm Remembering Dr. Martin L. King with guest preacher, Rev. Linda Norman

Psalm 27: 1 Last weeks Sermon Theme verse

Daily Prayer for January 11 Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1, RSV Our dear Father, we ask you to come to us from heaven and surround us with your goodness and mercy, with your light and life. We are weak, poor, and lost just when we need to stand firm and hold on. But you are faithful. You stay by us and help us. Continue to help and sustain us, we pray. Do not let our lives be lived in vain. May something of eternity be with us in all we have to face in life, so that over and over again we may find courage to start anew. Amen.

Zion Lutheran's E-Update

Angel Whispers

New Year Prayer

Ignite Worship: January 8th @ Zion Lutheran

Sola Worship: January 8th @ Zion Lutheran

Scripture Reminder for Today

Which Cross do you bear today?

Daily Dig for January 7

Sadhu Sundar Singh

Whether we like it or not, we will encounter suffering and danger in our lives. If we do not bear the cross of the Master, we will have to bear the cross of the world – with all its earthly goods. Those who bear the Master’s cross know from experience that this cross bears them and takes them safely to their destiny. But the cross of this world actually drags us down and leads to destruction. Which cross have you taken up? Pause and consider.

What it means to be the church

I came across this paragraph today and thought it was a good reminder of what we will do again tomorrow morning as we gather for worship at Zion Lutheran.

"Every Sunday morning I wake up knowing I get to gather with a great bunch of people.

We are not perfect, in fact, we fuss some.

We are not all the same, that's for sure!

And we don't all see eye-to-eye on everything.

But we do all seem to have one thing we like to do.

We like to help people who have fallen down (just like us),

who are struggling with issues (just like us)

and looking for something solid in life (just like us).

We gather around the Bible,

we encourage one another

and we serve each other.

Its a great place.

We call it the local church."

Have a great Sunday and never forget the power of the local church!
Mike Holmes of REACHKEEP.

ELCA Ecumenical Overview at-a-Glance

Epiphany - January 6, 2017

Epiphany sends us into the world

to witness to the light of Christ in the darkness.

What Would Luther Do Today?

Join Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton in a FREE “Big Class” offered by ChurchNext

Have you ever wondered what Martin Luther would do if he were here today? Join Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and thousands of learners around the world in a free course where you will learn how to apply Luther’s thoughts and writings to contemporary issues.

Offered by ChurchNext in partnership with Augsburg Fortress and United Lutheran Seminary, this course or “Big Class” provides a rich learning environment for those seeking to gain a better understanding of how Lutheranism might address current affairs.

The course opens January 16 and is free through January 30. Because you can watch the course anytime, it's perfect for individuals, as well as small and large groups. (Group resources are available here.)

Secure your spot and learn in community with those around the world and with Presiding Bishop Eaton how Martin Luther might deal with the pressing issues of today.

Remember today, this week and everyday this month.

I am God's child, deserving of love and respect, and God will use me to change the world.

Say it to yourself again and again.

This week in my reading of blogs I cam across this one entitled; 6 Disruptive Church Trends That Will Rule 2017 by Carey Nieuwhof. Here Carey outlines what he sees as six trends that will be affecting the church in 2017. The six are:

1. Consumer Christianity will die faster than ever

2. Cool Church will Morph

3. Preachers Who Can’t Speak to the Unchurched Will Preach to a Shrinking Crowd

4. Preaching will fuse both the head and the heart

5. Anonymity will continue to give way to community

6. Engagement will become the new attendance

I found the article a good springboard for thoughts about the ministry here at Zion. Maybe we can start come conversation around these ideas and begin to think about where God is leading Zion in 2017. Here is the link to the full article.

http://careynieuwhof.com/6-disruptive-church-trends-that-will-rule-2017/

Zion's Midweek E-Update Video

January 5, 2017 Video Blog for Zion's Midweek E-Update.

New Years Day, 2017 @ Zion Lutheran Church

Growing in Christ at Zion

Growing in Christ at Zion

Speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.—Ephesians 4:15

Happy New Year everyone. It’s hard to believe that January of 2017 begins my 23rd month as senior pastor of Zion. Together we have faced the trials and the joys of ministry. Together we have followed Jesus, trying new things, and being faithful in old things. We succeeded sometimes and failed at other times. Thankfully, God has been faithful each and every day. I don’t know what 2017 will hold for any of us, but I do know that God will continue to be faithful.  I know that there will be new opportunities: to risk, to be persistent, to be faithful, and to be bold in our choices for God. 

I read a blog post just before Christmas that told about a young girl who was having pain in her big toe. She told her mom and the mom responded not by rolling her eyes, but by having her take off her shoe. There didn’t seem to be any redness in the toe, so it didn’t look infected—no emergency room or clinic needed. But then as the mom was getting ready to face the busyness of the day, she glanced down at her daughters other foot, still wearing her shoe. The mom knelt and touched her foot. She found that her daughter’s toes were at the edge of her shoe. She had outgrown them. They went to the shoe store and found that she needed a size 7½ shoe. She had been wearing a shoe that was 4½. The girl’s shoes were many sizes smaller than what was needed. A few days later, with new shoes her toe was no longer hurting. A little space can make a big difference in our pain and in our growing. 

I remember when my kids were growing out of their shoes, pants and shirts almost faster than we could get to the store to replace them. It made me think about what we may be outgrowing in our faith and what kind of new space we need for growth in our lives.

How are we growing in Christ? Have you outgrown your Sunday School education? Have you continued to grow in your profession and in your daily life, but in Christ have simple relied on what you learned when you were a youth in Sunday school?  What kind of new space do you need in your faith journey so that you can grow? What do you need to do to create new space?

2017 begins the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s protest against the papacy that led to the protestant Reformation. Zion will have weekly offerings during the faith formation hour that will focus on Martin Luther and his teachings. There will be inspiring Bible study opportunities as well. Challenge yourself to learn more and grow in your faith.

What needs to be re-formed in your life, in your faith? Is 2017 the time you step out into a larger sized journey of discovery? A new year is a time to begin new holy habits. Join us here at Zion as we continue to Know Christ, Grow in Christ and Make Christ known.

That you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.—Colossians 1:10