we want to hear from you

The weekend of July 12 & 13 we'll be starting a new worship series, Talking the Bible: Having Words with God. This series will be focused on the Bible and will look at things like what it is, why it is, and how we approach it? The worship design team enjoyed so much the interaction and dialogue generated with the Can U Hear Me Now? series, that we'd like to keep the conversation going. This time we want to know how you interact with the Bible and what questions you have about it. You can post your words here.

intrafaith dialog

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. - Ephesians 4:11-13

The weekend of June 7 & 8 we had an opportunity to exchange letters of encouragement with our sisters and brothers in Christ at St. Mark Lutheran Church and Grace & Glory Lutheran Church.
- Peace to Grace & Glory
- Grace & Glory to Peace
- Peace to St. Mark
- St. Mark to Peace

As with our interfaith justice and charity work, this intrafaith dialog is important in building up the body of Christ.

Peace to St. Mark

Grace and peace to you, brothers and sisters of St. Mark, from your sister congregation in Christ, Peace Lutheran Church.

We are thankful for the opportunity to participate in this exchange of letters between the three area ELCA congregations. We are thankful for the affirmation of our unity in Jesus Christ, and for the words of encouragement we can offer to one another as we faithfully journey along the paths of ministry that God has laid for us to follow. And, it is our joy to frequently see you along our journey—and to know that it is for God’s purpose that we journey together.

(We give thanks to God for the faithful people of this congregation, St Mark Church, who have gathered in times past to pray and worship, teach and learn, serve and share their gifts. We give thanks to God for the speaking and hearing of the Word in your midst. We give thanks for the people who show us the face of Christ, and for all the ways God has revealed and continues to reveal Himself to and through this congregation.)

Although our congregations have been involved in joint ministry over the years, we see this present time as a kairos moment, the Holy Spirit working to bring us together in God’s mission. And we are thankful for Pastor Bill Stewart’s role in our renewing relationships. (May we never fall into the thinking that we are in competition with each other but rather that we are in cooperation with each other in God’s mission, as God designs the Body of Christ to be interdependent, needing all of its gifts and members to function at its best.)

Fifty-four years ago, St Mark Lutheran Church was officially organized as a congregation of the Lutheran Church in America. From the very beginning you have been committed to ministry with college students, and have supported this ministry through the Lutheran Student Movement. Likewise from the beginning you have been a congregation that nurtures, develops and encourages leaders for the greater Lutheran church at the national and synod levels; in years past St Mark had even had 20-plus members in attendance at every Synod event.

You have also been known for your strong commitment to serve your community, through the preschool, serving dinners for the homeless through the Salvation Army, resettling refugees, supporting Habitat for Humanity and the foodbank, and more recently by your involvements in PACEM and IMPACT, even hosting the IMPACT office.

We give thanks to God for all the ways God has used your congregation for God’s mission in this community.

Along with these important ministries, there have been challenging times as well. Times of anxiety…times of conflict…and times of change. We are aware that over the last few years St Mark has been in a time of tension and transition. On the surface, one could look at the smaller membership numbers and conclude that the strength of the congregation has diminished. However, God does not look at the appearance of things, but at the heart. Through the eyes of God we can see how St. Mark has been sustained by God’s grace, and strengthened in faith and leadership for its future mission. (When we are weak, God’s power is most able to be demonstrated.)

In a way, you have been on a similar journey as the patriarch Abraham.

In the middle years of his life, Abraham was called by God to leave everything that is familiar, safe, and meaningful to him: his country, his people, his father’s household, and to trust God for the future.

It seems that in the Bible, whenever someone is invited to a life-changing experience with God, that person is confronted with the voice of God that says leave, leave it all, and follow me.

To Abraham, the voice speaks:

"Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” (Genesis 12:1-2)

(To potential disciples, the voice of Jesus speaks: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. - Mark 8:34-35)

Abraham is called to obey the voice and to trust the voice.

(Abraham trusted enough to leave home, but not enough to put his survival in the hands of God. At times Abraham tried to secure his own future, to help God out in fulfilling his promises—to bring God’s promise about by his own means and according to his own timing.)

Through his journey with God, Abraham learned that God had a plan for him. That even in his old years, God wanted to bless him so that through him all the people of the earth might be blessed.

A congregation like St. Mark might be tempted to look back over its history and think that its glory days belong in the past. But God demonstrates that God is the God of the present and the future.

As God speaks through the prophet Isaiah,

“Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Isa 43:18-19)

And so, in the midst of the people of St. Mark, a new vine is growing.

God is preparing for you new things to do. God will be leading you to new places.

God has been leading you on a journey to learn to rely on God and to trust in God in all things.

Over the last two years, you have begun refurbishing your building and grounds and have prepared to welcome a new pastor. These are the signs of the new things that God is stirring up for you. They represent that same renewed spirit of anticipation and hope that Abraham, Jesus and His disciples knew. The arrival of a new pastor will bring about a new time of discerning God’s call into God’s mission. What a joyful anticipation that is for you and for all of us as your co-laborers.

We celebrate this new adventure with you and we pray for you in the words with which the apostle Paul prayed for the Christians in Rome:

“May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 15:5-6)

Peace to Grace & Glory

Grace and Glory, June 8, 2008

Genesis 12:1-9

Grace and Peace to You Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I bring you greetings from your sister congregation, Peace.

We rejoice with you as you travel on this journey of faith, which God has set before you.

As our forefather Abraham was commanded to leave everything he knew and all that was comfortable; so you too have heard the call of the Lord to leave what you knew and all that you found comfortable. With the command to Abraham came a promise - a promise to “make of you a great nation” and a promise of blessing. With God’s command to Grace and Glory, He also brings a promise- a promise of love and of His redeeming grace.

Seeding, planting, nurturing and growing a new church brings with it much excitement, as well as concern and doubt. Maybe you are thinking to yourself:

• “Look at all of the people coming to worship with us….but will they keep coming?”

• “I love the design of our new church…but we will be able to afford it?”

• “Look at all of the things we are doing…but look at all the things we have left to do”

• “We’ve built the physical building… now what do we do?”

Excitement and doubt. These are emotions which have been with us for a long time. Look at Abraham. Do you think he was excited when God told him that he would “make of you a great nation”? How about later in the story of Abraham and Sarah, when God told them that they were going to be parents in their “advanced age”? Do you think that there was some excitement? Do you think Abraham and Sarah might also have had some doubts? I know I would have had a lot of doubts and a lot of anxiety. How one reacts to doubt and anxiety can lead us on a variety of journeys. Some of these journeys can be very unpleasant. Abraham’s and Sarah’s doubt put them on a journey filled with impatience. Abraham tried to take matters into his own hands, not trusting in the God of promise. His impatience backfired and Abraham learned a valuable lesson. This is a lesson which has withstood the passage of time. This is the lesson of faith. Once faith was accepted and relied upon, Abraham and Sarah were sustained and able to continue on God’s journey, not their own, and to go and to grow in their faith.

Today, our hope is that you continue the faith of Abraham and Sarah. We pray for your congregation to continue to be open to what God has in store for you - for you as individuals and for you as a community of faith. We also pray for you to continue to build upon the mission which God has begun here in Fluvanna.

We come here today as part of your faith community. We join with you at the Lord’s Table, a feast which unites us all. We come here today to offer ourselves as partners in your faith journey and to rejoice with you that God is with us always. We remain your sister congregation and as such we are near – spiritually and physically. We are happy to help you at any time and you remain in our prayers as you continue to grow.

In closing, as Paul writes in Romans 15:5-6:

May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen

Grace & Glory to Peace

To all the members of Peace, I extend the peace and joy of Christian love and commitment from the members of Grace and Glory.

We feel a special kinship with Peace in a variety of ways. As you began worshipping in a Firehouse, we began in a fitness center. We were fortunate through God’s grace to grow and serve our respective communities. Both of our congregations have been served in their formative years by Pastor Stewart. Most importantly, our congregations share a common message – the Gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ and salvation.

As our congregations develop strategies to determine how we can most effectively bring that message to our communities, we struggle with questions to be answered and decisions to be made. We are faced with an increasingly diverse audience – young, old, a variety of races and ethnic groups, some with Lutheran background, others with non-Lutheran or no church background at all. All have needs, and we reach out as members of Christ’s body to meet those needs through the message of God’s grace.

In this regard, it is a positive sign to note the cooperative efforts among the three churches – St. Mark, Peace and Grace and Glory – to find ways in which we can join together in worship and ministry. The Easter Vigil service was an initial effort in that direction. Your participation, with the baptism of 4 new members of your congregation was certainly one of the high points of the service.

Your mission trips to Honduras and Togo have shown your strong faith in the Lord.

There are are also special situations in each of our congregations that present unique challenges to our members. Peace congregation is exploring the development of a new ministry in the in the Ruckersville area, and expanding facilities at the present location.

Grace and Glory has begun the process leading to the construction of its first church home. This is a major undertaking as we seek to balance needs with resources, hopes with realities.

Coming to grips with these issues can be a daunting task. At times doubts and uncertainties can erode confidence. But again, Peace and Grace and Glory have something in common with which to face the future – FAITH.

To put some clarity in what faith is, the Webster’s dictionary defines “faith” as the complete trust, confidence, or reliance in someone.

“Trust”, on the other hand, is a firm belief or confidence in the honesty, integrity, reliability, and justice of another person or thing. The words are not interchangeable, but can be considered so when describing different situations or relationships that we encounter in our lives.

The lessons today, coincidently, offer us some powerful examples of people of FAITH. In Romans, St. Paul speaking about faith, cites the example of the Old Testament patriarch Abraham who in spite of his advanced age, believed in God’s promises. To quote Romans, “He grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised.

In Matthew, a tax collector, who, when called by Jesus to “follow me” simply got up and did just that. Later in the same reading, we hear the examples of the ruler whose daughter had died and the woman who suffered for years with a hemorrhage. They too had faith that Jesus could and would use his healing power.

Psalm 50 says “call on me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you and you shall glorify me.”

In the world of the 21^st century nothing seems to stay the same for very long. Change is the order of the day. Our congregations too, must adjust or adapt to meet the realities presented by their mission fields. But while the methods or forms of our ministry may change, the message remains constant – God’s grace for all – buoyed by our own faith in God’s word, and by our example, we can boldly proclaim that message whatever the future holds.

Your congregation has been a blessing to this community for many years, and we share your faith in God’s plan to share the good news.

St. Mark to Peace

LETTER OF ENCOURAGEMENT FROM THE CONGREGATION OF ST. MARK TO PEACE LUTHERAN CHURCH

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as from your brothers and sisters in Christ here at St. Mark in Charlottesville. We are writing to encourage you and offer our support in your many good works in Charlottesville and beyond, from those who share both your goals and your struggles.

Our congregations share much in common. In addition to being Lutherans in Charlottesville, our congregations have shared similar experiences.

Our common faith and inspiration through the Holy Spirit has inspired both of our congregations to become missional in purpose, being Christ’s presence in the community and the world. We honor your affirmation that “We believe we have been blessed by God to be a blessing to others”, and commend the many ways that your mission is manifest. Like St. Mark, the congregation of Peace is involved and contributing to the work of IMPACT and PACEM in helping the poor and disadvantaged in the Charlottesville region, and we see your commitment extending to global missions as well, as does our own, through your work with the ELCA Hunger Appeal, Christmas Miracle International and with mission work in Honduras and Togo.

We at St. Mark are encouraged by these demonstrations of your commitment to live lives of active faith in the world; we find much in common with your mission work both locally and worldwide, and feel that these are very parallel to much of our own social ministry. We give thanks for these manifestations of faith in action, and the blessing to the community that Peace Lutheran is offering in these ministries. We also feel that these works, along with our common faith background, draw us close together as a joint Lutheran faith community.

We also share common struggles. Both of our congregations have endured upheavals, changes of pastoral leadership, and personal struggles which seem beyond our control and can seem discouraging and disheartening to the mood of the community. We write to encourage you that you are not alone in experiencing these issues, and especially encourage you, as St. Paul did, to endure the sufferings that these challenges can bring.

St. Mark has gone through its own similar struggles both as a congregation and on the individual level, and we are able to encourage you in this because we have gone through a long transition in pastoral leadership and feel blessed that we anticipate new pastoral leadership to come to St. Mark. We have truly come to understand what St. Paul meant when he wrote to the Romans that “suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

We especially encourage you to have faith in each other as a congregation and as the body of Christ in the world, and to cherish the relationships, the worship and the ministry that you undertake together. Perhaps because of mutual suffering through challenging times, while you may feel discouraged at times, you can rejoice that together, you can bear each others burdens, and appreciate what each of you means and contributes to the whole of Peace Lutheran, and what your congregation can mean in the Charlottesville community and the world. Having endured similar challenges, while we have been tested and sometimes discouraged ourselves, we have found ourselves stronger in faith both individually and collectively, and know you can come to the same resolution, through prayer, mutual support and encouraging and supporting one another.

We therefore look forward to walking with you in the journey of faith, as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and as fellow Lutherans working in mutual ministry to the glory of God and the benefit of our neighbors and God’s children both near and far. We hope to hear of continuing good news from your good works and from the growth of your congregation, knowing that the grace of God can accomplish far more than our mere human efforts. How much may we expect God to bless our congregations, when we ask him to give us what we need, materially and spiritually, to do His will?

We praise God for your presence in the community, and we look forward to working with you in the vineyards of ministry in Charlottesville. Hopefully we will have more opportunity to meet and encourage one another face to face.

With love and encouragement of the Holy Spirit,

The congregation of St. Mark Lutheran Church, Charlottesville