Dear Friends,
Before I forget it again, Mary Ann and I were very pleased (and thankful) to be remembered with a gift of money for Christmas. The Bible verse for the month of January that our teachers are teaching our Kids of the Kingdom Kids is: Ephesians 4:32: “Be kind to one another.” Your kindness, support, patience, and love is deeply appreciated.
From my perspective I think an “interim period” besides giving a congregation a period to reflect on what’s been…… anticipating what’s ahead…..it’s an important time to “heal” if there’s a need for healing of any kind. We are a group of homo sapiens gathered from across the globe. We bring to the table a vast variety of ideas, talents, aspirations, desires, and personalities. There are bound to be differences of opinions which can easily and often cause conflict. I’m not feeling much (or any) of this going on within our membership. I think we are ready to provide a strong and unified congregation for a pastor hiding in the weeds just waiting to come here. It’s going to happen! And it’s going to happen good!
In the meantime, I also believe an interim period is an excellent time for a congregation to explore…or as they say, “to think out of the box.” This means….for me as interim pastor to also do some things I’ve never done. Yesterday morning was one of those “out of the box” excursions. I ran it by my assistant pastor (my wife) which I routinely do. She’s pretty good at waving a red flag is she feels I’m off the deep end.
This Sunday’s text is the one about Jesus asking John the Baptist to baptize him. I said to myself, “How many times have I preached that text? How can I preach it so that I don’t fall asleep during the sermon?” I thought my idea was pretty good. BUT….it could have caused some to be “uncomfortable.” So I’m playing it SAFE! Sunday’s sermon, indeed, will be on baptism. For this Sunday only, we will dispense with communion as I want our focus singularly on this Sacrament. And I promise you, you will not be uncomfortable “as you might have been” if a red flag had not been flown.
My two NFL teams are in the mix…the Seahawks and the Vikings. Hopefully I (and you) will have some fun time watching the march to the super bowl! Best wishes to you for 2020!
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