 This image from Daniel Erlanger's Baptized We Live: Lutheranism As A Way of Life illustrates perfectly what Jesus is talking about when he speaks of the Word of the Kingdom is like seed. God Gives in AbundanceThe Parable of the Sower. Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
This week we sit at Jesus' feet as he teaches us about the kingdom of heaven using little stories to show us what it is like to live as a child of God. Parables are short, open-ended stories that invite us to discover the truth and wisdom of God's Word as we wrestle with what this means. In the parable today, Jesus guides the disciples so they can understand Jesus' Word of God's kingdom. Yet, even with this guidance the open-ended nature of the story allows us God to speak in a variety of ways and on a variety of levels. Today, we're going to think about Two ways of hearing this parable of the soils. We can hear it as a story about ... 1) My personal life in relation to God's Word, or about 2) Our community life in relation to the Word
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A Report of Pastoral Ministry at St. Paul's We share a common purpose at St. Paul's and that purpose is to proclaim the good new of Jesus Christ in word and deed. And so that purpose, that call to mission, becomes the guiding questions for us to set priorities, to make decisions and to judge the impact that each of our ministries has in the lives of the people of this congregation and in the community we serve.
We have organized our ministries at St. Paul's according the promises we make in Baptism: these are ministries of this congregation that primarily benefit those inside the fellowship of this community and those ministries of this congregation that benefit those who essentially outside our community. Additionally, there are ministries that support both axes of our mission. This report is organized to highlight that dual emphasis. 'I do ... and I ask God to help and guide me.' This year, a number of things changed at St. Paul's. Among them, our budget process and the budget format itself. Because of these changes in process and plans, we haven't had a chance to adjust what we have come to know as our narrative or mission budget yet. In a narrative budget, we show how we use the resources allocated in the line-item budget to carry out God's mission. What we present this year, however, will be a line-item budget. Our line-item budget tells who we are going to pay or which program we intend to run. It communicates the specific uses that we have designated for the money collected in each of our four active funds: current fund, mission support, local mission and building. But, it is always a good idea at this time of year to consider and reflect the purposes of each of these ministries, as well as the importance of being part of a local congregation.
Make Jesus Your GoalThis time of year, you can find a lot of expert advice on how to make goals and the plans required to achieve those goals over the course of the new year. Whatever goals and plans you choose to make for yourself in the coming year, remember to connect those dreams and visions to your relationship with Jesus so that as you work to improve how you live your life you also open yourself allow the Holy Spirit to strengthen your relationship with God.
The St. Paul's church calendar isn't just a schedule of worship times and events -- more things to do -- it's a schedule of events and resources to strengthen your faith in Christ, opportunities to love and serve your neighbor, and finally to grow more deeply into the covenant God made with you in baptism. |
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