Growing Our Mission

A Sermon for Sunday, May 4, 2008 (edited)

Every Saturday morning, I wake up to Heidi’s alarm clock. I don’t think she wakes up right away, but I do. And it’s always the same thing – Randy Lemon’s Garden Line on KTRH. There’s helpful information about what to plant when, what numbers of fertilizer to use, how short – or long – the grass shall be cut.

I think she thinks that my hearing Garden Line first thing on Saturday morning will inspire me to do some yard work. Other than cutting the lawn, and sometimes pulling weeds, that strategy really hasn’t worked for her.

But our theme this morning, and throughout the month of April, has been Growing Our Mission. So for our readings this morning, I went looking for passages about growth.

Perhaps you recognize this morning’s first reading, from Isaiah 61, as the text Jesus used for his inaugural sermon at his hometown synagogue in Nazareth.

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners … to comfort all who mourn.

Jesus closed the scroll, sat down, and preached a 15-second sermon: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your reading.”

But Jesus probably read more from Isaiah than Luke records.

Let’s consider the situation into which Isaiah spoke these words of promise.

He was preaching to former exiles who came back home to Jerusalem – to Zion – to find an absolute mess. They had left well-established lives in Babylon to find their family homes -- mostly the homes of parents and grandparents -- destroyed. The Temple -- the dwelling of the Most High God -- was destroyed too. Imagine our neighbors from New Orleans going home after Katrina. Their spirits were low.

But God had a plan for those newly repatriated exiles:

They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.

What was the prophet promising the people? It was something like this: the Babylonians uprooted you, but the Lord will re-root you. Your roots will run deep and grab hold of the soil. You will not be easily toppled. You will draw water and nutrition from deep below the surface.

Friends, God wants to give this rootage to each of us. God wants our spiritual taproot to run deep, and our network of secondary roots to run wide. God wants each of us to have a wide and deep base – to provide stability, and to provide nutrition.

The author of the letter to the Colossians takes it one step further, and tells us in whom we are rooted.

As you therefore have received Jesus Christ the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him.

The author of Colossians gives us the image of Jesus as the soil which roots us – keeps us stable and strong – and nourishes us. St. John tells us that "the word became flesh -- a human being who took on the humus -- the earth itself." We can be rooted in Jesus. In our baptism, that's exactly what happens. God plants us "in Christ."

We need to keep in mind that our job is tending the plant – not creating the growth. Paul wrote this to the congregation in Corinth, whose members were declaring allegiance to one evangelist or another:

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.

Think for just a moment about the acronym we’ve used around here to describe discipleship: PoWeR SuRGe.

These are ways of tending our plant of faith:

P – Praying Every Day
W – Worship Every Week
R – Read the Bible Every Day
S – Serve others
R – Relational Groups for Prayer, Support, and Accountability
G – Giving Proportionately of Your Income and Resources (Power Surge, Mike Foss)

If you take just the consonants, you have a way of remembering a pretty complete description of a disciple of Jesus Christ – someone who is committed to growth in grace.

These are ways of tending the plant of our faith – our discipleship. They are ways of growing the root system of faith, so that the fruit we bear might be sweet and nourishing.

This is a vitally important for us as we consider the theme Growing Our Mission.

Why? God uses growing disciples to grow his mission. I would go so far as to say this: there is no growing mission without growing disciples.

We have some God-sized dreams at Lakeside: building a new wing for youth, adults, and music. We dream of calling a minister for youth and family ministry. We want to do more with our publicity in phone books, newspapers, and the internet. We dream of an enhanced ministry of worship -- more musical instruments -- more ensembles -- and using computer-generated projection technology.

Those things take money. There's no getting around that. We are inviting your financial commitments today with the prayer that they will enable us to move forward in ministry.

But let's remember that the things of God are priceless, offered freely to us.

The Word of God -- Christ crucified and raised -- for us. All costly to God. All free to us. That's the Good News we have to share -- by every means we have at our disposal.

So you see, Growing Our Mission is, first and foremost, growing ourselves -- as individuals and as a congregation -- so that God might use us to make Christ known to the world God loves.

A New Call to the Same Place

Dear Friends in Christ,

On Sunday, January 13, I told the congregation that Heidi and I had decided to decline the call to Tree of Life Lutheran Church in Conroe. Tree of Life is a great congregation with the potential for an exciting future, but after much prayer and feedback from many Lakesiders, we were able to discern that God’s call for me, and for our family, was still here. I regard the discernment to stay as a new call into a new season of ministry.

We had a good congregation meeting last Sunday, January 20, 2008. During that meeting, I shared three special emphases that the council (including myself) agreed upon for the first six months of 2008. We do not believe that work will be completed on any of these emphases during these months. However, we will be persistent and intentional in pursuing them.

Spiritual Gifts. Starting with the Day of Pentecost (May 11), there will be a sermon series on the spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit gives every Christian at Baptism. Every member will have the opportunity to discern his or her gifts and to learn about them. We will create a congregational database of spiritual gifts so that when a ministry opportunity arises, we will be able to match the ministry to the people with the gifts needed.

Worship Renewal. We will take the opportunity our two-service schedule affords us to differentiate between our early and late services. The pattern of Gathering-Word-Meal-Sending will be maintained in each service. The beauty of the four-fold order is that it offers infinite possibilities for variety within the pattern.

New Building. During More Space for Grace last year, the congregation demonstrated its support for building the south wing, so that we can house more youth and educational ministries than at present. We will share the progress of the New Facilities Team at our MSFG Recommitment Celebration on Sunday, May 4.

At the meeting, we also heard from Paul McRae, who has agreed to lead our Evangelism Team. Paul has a passion for evangelism, as anyone who knows him can tell you. Paul believes that there is an evangelism component to everything the church does, and I agree. Inspirational worship, solid Christian education for children, youth, and adults, well-maintained building and grounds, fellowship, social ministry, and communication all impact the invitation and welcome we extend in the name of Jesus Christ. I’m excited about the leadership and vision Paul brings to our evangelism ministry.

After the congregation meeting, your stewardship team met over lunch. That team decided that we will have a financial stewardship emphasis in April, culminating in the invitation to make new pledges for the ongoing (General Fund) ministries of the church at the MSFG Recommitment celebration on May 4. The original plan was to wait until the fall for this financial stewardship emphasis, but since we are going to a July 1 fiscal year, your stewardship team thought that the spring would be the better time to do this.

All told, there’s a lot of positive momentum at Lakeside right now! There’s a place for every Lakesider to come and impact our part of the world in Jesus’ name.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Jim Fowler

2007-08 Congregational Officers

At its regular meeting on Thursday, July 19, the Congregation Council elected these officers of the congregation:

Executive Committee
President: Walter Kiefer
Vice-President: Jim Koppe
Recording Secretary: Karen Barbier
Pastor: Jim Fowler (by constitution)

Other Officers
General Fund Treasurer: Christie Erickson
Building Fund Treasurer: Walter Kiefer
Financial Secretary: Phil Crepinsek

Congratulations and God's blessings to all!

Tomorrow's Child Golf Benefit Results

Thanks to everyone who supported Lakeside's two foursomes at this annual event, benefitting the Krause Children's Center in Katy. The Krause Center serves children and youth who have suffered various kinds of abuse, helping them to recover and to become productive members of society. It's truly the work of Jesus Christ.

This year's benefit tournament was held at Pine Forest County Club on Clay Road in west Houston.

First, the important statistics:

• The two Lakeside foursomes raised in excess of $2400
• The tournament as a whole raised in excess of $116,000

These are both record amounts, to my recollection. It was great to be part of supporting such a worthy cause.

The foursome of Pat Olfers, Mike Olfers, Gage Olfers, and Thanassi Varvoutis came in at 2 over par in the Florida Scramble. The foursome of Captain David Williams, Paul Miller, Zach Young, and I signed for seven over par, and won the "Most Fun Team" award. The folks at Lutheran Social Services were too kind to say that we had the worst score of all!

We had a great time, and the rain (mostly) stayed away.

Congregation Meeting Highlights: Sunday, June 17, 2007

Congregation Council Election
Congratulations to the following Lakesiders who were elected to the Congregation Council today. The terms of all new Council members begin on July 1, and will be for the lengths indicated:

• Greg Clubb, 2 years
• Christie Erickson, 2 years
• Shane Granelli, 2 years
• Paul Miller, 1 year
• Dave Ryan, 2 years
• Dolly Schroeder, 2 years

These council members join the following council members whose terms continue for the 2007-08 year:

• Karen Barbier
• Walter Kiefer
• Jim Koppe

In addition, by constitution, the pastor or pastors of the congregation are permanent members of the Congregation Council.

Mission Partner with Lutheran Church of the Galilean, La Place, Louisiana

The congregation voted unanimously to become a Mission Partner with the Lutheran Church of the Galilean in La Place, Louisiana. Our financial commitment is to contribute $100 a month from the Building Fund for the next three years. This idea originated with the More Space for Grace Executive Committee and was affirmed by the congregation today.

Background
The city of La Place has welcomed over 15,000 new residents in the past year – primarily people who resettled there because they lost their homes in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Galilean’s members, who celebrated the congregation’s 20th anniversary in May, are trying to launch a new mission effort in their community in the midst of this unanticipated growth. Their situation has been strained by a loan that far exceeded the congregation’s ability to pay (especially in light of the unexpected demands placed on their own resources by the hurricane).

Bishop Paul Blom has asked congregations to become Galilean’s Mission Partners by providing financial support that will do the following:

• refinance its property and service a new loan
• provide a compensation package for a full-time pastor, and
• allow the church to develop programs that will help attract new neighbors through ministry and service.

Lakeside is now one of those congregations!

PS: Thanks to The King's Banner, the newsletter of Christ the King Lutheran Church in Rice Village, for this background information.

Teamwork in the Body of Christ

Today at Camp Chrysalis, our confirmation students culminated a week of "cooperative" work by climbing the rock wall and going down the zip line. What's cooperative about that, you may ask? No one person can do it alone. Beside the person climbing and zipping, there was a person attached to that person via a rope and a system of harnesses that ensured the climber's safety. There was another person on the platform at the top to help them get attached to the pulley line that would take them down the zip line. People were stationed below to make sure it was clear to zip, to help them detach from the pulley line after the ride, and to help them down the ladder and back to earth.

It's a good object lesson of how it always must be for us as the church. No one can do it alone. We all must help one another, using our particular gifts and resources. Oh, and by helping the hesitant one now and then by cheering them on.

The ropes course is fun -- but the lessons learned can empower a lifetime of mature discipleship.

What do you think?

Hello Muddah! Hello Faddah!

Many of you know this song, set to a piece of classical music, made famous by comedian Allan Sherman in the 1960s. It's about a kid who's having a miserable time at summer camp, and wants to come home. That is, until the rain stopped and the fun started! Then he asked his parents to "kindly disregard this lettah!"

So far at Camp Chrysalis near Kerrville, it's only rained at night, and no one wants to go home. Ten wonderful young people accompanied Susan Calhoun and I for this week at Confirmation Camp. Thanks again to all you generous Lakesiders who supported the fundraising we did to make camp financially accessible for everybody. I know you'd be proud of the way our young people are having fun, making friends, living in Christian community, and learning about the faith.

During the morning Bible studies, the leadership has been shared by a different individual. We are teaching our favorite book, or portion of a book, of the Bible.

• On Monday, Pastor Steve Youngdahl taught insights from the Gospel according to St. Luke. Pastor Steve is the Senior Pastor at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Austin. He taught Luke because from it come most of this year's Gospel readings.
• On Tuesday, Pastor Marcus Otterstad taught the Revelation to St. John. He wanted to debunk a lot of the dispensationalist (Left Behind, Late Great Planet Earth) teaching that goes on in Christian mass-media. He believes, and I agree, that this teaching is actually destructive to Christian faith.
• Today I taught Isaiah 40-55, commonly called Second Isaiah, or the preaching of Isaiah of Babylon. We considered what it meant to be the children of exiles, now comfortably settled in a new home, and then to be called to make our way back to a Jerusalem that had been left in ruins.
• Tomorrow Opie Otterstad, the son of Pastor Otterstad and a fantastic sports artist, will teach Job. If you want to see some of Opie's art, go to http://www.opieart.com. It's well worth a look.
• On Friday, Pastor Heidi Schwerdtfeger (Shepherd of the Hills, Austin) will teach Paul's letter to the Romans.

The food has been great, the staff energetic and committed, and everybody seems healthy and happy. I think it's been good for our youth to expand their horizons in the church and to encounter the different gifts and teaching styles we all have. Thank you so much for entrusting these fine young people to Susan, me, and the Chrysalis staff this week. It has been rewarding for us, and I believe it will prove to be for the youth as well.