Good Shepherd Update Thursday April 8th, 2010

Dear Good Shepherd, 

Good Morning and Happy Easter. The Feast of the Resurrection goes on for 40 days until the Feast of the Ascension, the day we celebrate Jesus’ ascension into Heaven…and then, ten days after that, comes the Feast of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit indwelt the Church.

So we’ve just come out of a fasting season and we are at the very beginning of a season of feasting. So feast up!

Some of you may have already heard that Anne, the kids, and I are taking our vacation early this year. We will be here at Good Shepherd this coming Sunday, but next Sunday we should be in Corpus Christi Texas, my hometown, where my parents live. We’re driving and camping all the way down so with five kids in one car for 1500 miles and tents, sleeping bags, and fire at night it should be a completely relaxing trip.

The benefit of this is that I will be here all summer. Since Good Shepherd is planning some big things this summer, like the summer festival and Vacation Bible School, it will, God willing, be a fruitful time.

In any case, we’ll be gone for three Sundays. For two of those three Sundays, the 25th and May 2nd, the Reverend Bill Day, an Anglican pastor who lives nearby will be preaching and celebrating Communion at Good Shepherd at both 8am and 10:30am. The Rev. Day has preached at Good Shepherd before, about two years ago, so some of you may remember him. He’s a jovial guy and a good preacher.

We’re presently looking for clergy to cover the 18th. I am confident that this will be a fruitful search but if not I consecrated enough sacrament last Sunday and will add to it this Sunday for Communion at both services during my absence.

UPDATE: We have found a second Anglican pastor, the Reverend Michael Bauman, who will visit Good Shepherd on the 18th. You can read about Michael Bauman here

Bible Studies, Classes, Pastoral Care: During my absence, Good Shepherd’s youth minister, Ife, will take care of pastoral visits and counselling (if you have an emergency, call the church office at 723-8032 and leave a message). Ife will also lead Sunday morning Christian Education and post his own open office hours.  He is already a wise pastor in so many ways and he has my full confidence and support.

All the bible studies will continue to meet. The only class that will take a break during my absence is Systematic Theology

A Challenge: There is usually a lot of momentum in churches in the weeks after Easter and I am confident in you and believe that momentum will continue to build while we are away. So long as the bible is read and the word proclaimed and the sacraments rightly given, Christ is present to build, encourage, convict and strengthen. And He is all that is necessary. 

In fact, because I think this is a great opportunity to demonstrate that the church does not depend on any one person, I’m going to challenge you to do three things while I am away:

1. Commit to come to be here each of the three Sundays—the 18th, 25th, and May 2nd..
2. Commit to invite a friend to come to church with you each of the three Sundays
3. Commit to continue attending bible study and/or class each week.

It’s typical for churches to go through a kind of lull when the senior pastor is away. That speaks of an unhealthy dependence on people rather than God. Wouldn’t it be great to reverse that trend and bring glory to Christ.

We are called in Hebrews 10:25 not to neglect the coming together of the local body of believers—in other words, to make regular participation in the church a part of our lives because God uses you to build his body and uses his body to build you. That does not change when the pastor is on vacation.

I also want to take the opportunity in this Update to remind you of two big things coming down the pike, new members classes (which will also be pre-Confirmation training) and the initiation of small groups in the fall…you can read about both in the fall.

Reminders and information about both can be found in this week’s Update:

Thank you: I wanted to thank those of you who have stayed to help clean after church on Sundays and after various bible studies. It has made a huge difference. For a while Kay Seaman and a couple of other did all the clean up work and it was a huge burden. Thank you for stepping up and please keep it up. If you make a mess or see a mess, please clean it up.

Podcasts: I working my way through the ten commandments in the daily podcast section of the webpage. You can listen here. I plan to keep it up after vacation. In the next podcast series I’ll address ten top questions Atheists ask Christians. You can listen to all of the podcasts here.

Men’s Bible Study and Breakfast: All men are invited to breakfast and study beginning at 6:30am every Friday morning. We’re presently working our way through 2nd Samuel and the account of Absolom’s rebellion against his father King David. Bob Shaller and Darrell Dean are cooking tomorrow. You can see the schedule here

Thursday Night Bible study is on for tonight. We’re presently in John Chapter 6, all are welcome.

You can read all about each of the bible studies and find out their meeting times and locations here

Systematic theology will meet this Saturday at 3:30 am. Here is some info about Systematic Theology

Parish Pantry: Thank you to everyone who donates food to the parishioner pantry. It is being used pretty regularly so please remember to drop off any extra food you have to help your brothers and sisters in need

Vestry: There will be a vestry meeting on the 21st at 7pm rather than 6pm so that we don’t conflict with the ham and scallop potato dinner. I’ll be there via conference call.

Nori Martin’s Baptism was videotaped last week and you can watch it here

Last Week’s Sermon: Truth and the Resurrection may be read and watched here.

This Sunday’s sermon will be based on John 20:19-31: How do you deal with doubt? Does Thomas provide a good model for doubters?

19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again,“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” 24 Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, [3] was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” 26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Holy Week sermons: You can read all of the Holy Week sermons here

A friend from Texas sent me the following question: I feel that I have an intimate reationship with God. I feel close to him while feeding cattle or mowing a pasture. Prayer and medittation come while driving down the freeway as naturaly as a church…Is a building constructed by man for man in the name of God more holy than my cow pasture created by God for man?

Read my answer here

Team Philippians is serving this Sunday. John King is the captain of that team. Team captains…it is your responsibility to be sure your team members know that they are serving. Thank you.

Beginning in May: New Member classes A series of three new/interested members class will be held on three successive Saturdays in May (the 8th, 15th, and 22nd) These classes will be designed to help new members and interested guests integrate and participate at Good Shepherd. You will learn about Anglicanism in general and about Good Shepherd in particular. If you are not new but still interested, you are welcome to come as well.

Small Groups: In the Fall, we’re planning to launch a number of weekly small bible study groups that will meet in peoples’ homes. Presently all biblical instruction and application takes place at Good Shepherd from the pulpit or in one of the five Bible Studies. I’ve noticed that as we’ve grown the percentage of people participating in the bible studies has decreased.

This is not good. The life, growth and maturity of Good Shepherd and your personal maturity as well, rests on our willingness to know and follow the word of God.  It is, for that reason, our goal to have every member of Good Shepherd actively participating in some kind of group fellowship and bible study during the week.

This raises a number of questions: Who will lead these groups? What will happen to the bible studies? What will these groups do? Does everyone have to belong to a group? Let me try to answer each of these in turn:

1. Who will lead these groups?: The plan, as it currently stands, is to tack a big city map to the wall and start identifying the locations of every member member of the parish. This will give us an idea of who lives near who. Small groups work best when they are made up of no more than 5 to 10 people who meet in homes nearby. Once we identify who lives near who we’ll be able to see how many groups we can have and who, based on location, should be in which group. Finally, we’ll appoint a leader for each group and invite everybody who lives in a given area to join in and meet with the group once a week. If you are interested in hosting one of these groups, please let us know (the leader and the host are usually two different people)

2. What will happen to the bible studies?: Nothing. They will continue to meet. If you attend a Bible Study you’ll be invited to attend attend a small group during the week as well. If you feel you do not have time for both, the choice between the two will be yours. Other churches moving to this plan have found that many enjoyed attending both since the purpose of each and structure of each is a bit different. We hope the same proves true here.

3. What will these groups do? This is another benefit of preaching expositorily through a text of scripture. The small group studies will focus on the same text used in the sermon. This will make it easier on everyone since the sermon will do the heavy lifting of interpretation and exegesis and the small groups will focus primarily on digging deeper and applying the text personally. Small groups meet, discuss and apply the biblical passage for the week, pray and then go home. It is a way for you to stay connected during the week and for the whole church to inwardly digest what God has said through his word on Sunday.

4. Does everyone have to belong to a group? We invite and encourage everyone to join the small group meeting in their area but, of course, it is not a requirement. We believe that Jesus sanctifies, encourages, builds up, convicts and trains us through his word and the more you open yourself to hearing his voice, the more like him you will become.

You’ll be hearing more about these throughout the winter, spring and summer. The target date is mid-September…

May God bless you all

In Christ
Matt

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