There are a whole bunch of great opportunities to connect this week.
First: Moms and Munchkins launches on Thursday from 11am-noon. The purpose of this group is to give moms in our community the opportunity to come together for support, encouragement, and fun with each other and their children. If you are a mom with kids at home (infant-preschool age) please come! And if you're a mom with kids in school, but are interested, consider yourself invited! Please spread the word - we'd love to offer a community of support to ALL moms in our area!
Second: Montana Shakespeare in the Schools is performing "Much Ado About Nothing" here at CtK this Thursday evening at 6pm. They've been using our facility for their rehearsals over the past couple of weeks, and this is their last run-through before they hit the schools on Friday morning. This will be a great time!
Third: This Friday is the Family Promise Cardboard Box City at Bogert Park. It is still possible to register to participate, but if (like me) you're not planning to sleep in a box on Friday night, you can still participate by checking out the Parade of Boxes and listening to the speakers from 7-8pm. Look for me there!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
The CROP Walk is Coming
At the risk of planning way too ahead (is that even possible?) I'd like to suggest to those of you in Bozeman that you check out your calendar and write down "CROP Walk" on Sunday afternoon, October 19th. This year's walk will be the 21st in Bozeman, and it's a great opportunity to raise money for the Gallatin Valley Food Bank and other organizations that fight hunger around the world.
It's also a good opportunity to walk in solidarity with those who are forced to walk each day for water, food, fuel or to take their goods to market. Hungry people in developing countries typically walk as much as six miles each day just to live. And to think I climb in the car without blinking an eye to drive the 1.8 miles from my house to the church's building most days.
SO - please pray about signing up to walk. And if you can't walk, pray for those who will (and those who do walk every day). If you're able, make a contribution in support of one of Christ the King's CROP walkers.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Installed
Grant and I were officially "installed" as co-pastors of this congregation on Sunday evening, at our "installation service."
I don't know about you, but the language of "installation" always sits a little funny with me. Someone says "installation" and I think "massive art exhibit." Maybe that's not an entirely unhelpful way to think about pastoral ministry - at times it definitely is an art.
Yet the verb form, "installed," isn't much better. Out of context, say "installed" and I think "new tile or carpet." And yes, sometimes people do try to walk all over pastors. Maybe the word just isn't as helpful as something more dynamic might be.
After all, this whole church thing is alive. The church is the PEOPLE, not the building. Our language so often betrays us: "See you AT church." The church isn't a place we can go, it's the people we ARE, living out our lives gathered together and then scattered, sent out into the world. Wherever we go, there's the church, because the church is us: called, claimed, gathered and sent, for the sake of the world God loves.
We may be "installed," but don't expect always to find us here in the congregation's building, as in some well-bolted museum exhibit. We'll see you out and about. We are installed. We are established in the Office of Word & Sacrament ministry. We just won't always be in the office.
I don't know about you, but the language of "installation" always sits a little funny with me. Someone says "installation" and I think "massive art exhibit." Maybe that's not an entirely unhelpful way to think about pastoral ministry - at times it definitely is an art.
Yet the verb form, "installed," isn't much better. Out of context, say "installed" and I think "new tile or carpet." And yes, sometimes people do try to walk all over pastors. Maybe the word just isn't as helpful as something more dynamic might be.
After all, this whole church thing is alive. The church is the PEOPLE, not the building. Our language so often betrays us: "See you AT church." The church isn't a place we can go, it's the people we ARE, living out our lives gathered together and then scattered, sent out into the world. Wherever we go, there's the church, because the church is us: called, claimed, gathered and sent, for the sake of the world God loves.
We may be "installed," but don't expect always to find us here in the congregation's building, as in some well-bolted museum exhibit. We'll see you out and about. We are installed. We are established in the Office of Word & Sacrament ministry. We just won't always be in the office.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Blessed be the b-ball that binds
I've been away for a couple of days.
On Sunday evening I left Bozeman and drove to Great Falls for a conference sponsored by Montana Association of Churches entitled "New to Montana." I met other pastors and church workers who were "new to Montana" like myself.
As part of our time together, we watched a documentary produced by MT Public Television entitled "Class C: The Only Game in Town." The film tells the story of eight high school basketball teams that compete for the class c championship. All these teams are made up of high school girls who attend high schools with an enrollment under 100 students.
The teams come from small towns scattered all over the state. In many cases, the towns are shrinking. Prosperity has left many of them high and dry, with people packing up and leaving in search for fortune and security.
Girls' basketball is the glue that holds many of these small towns together. People are fiercely proud of their teams, whether they be "Pirates, Coyotes, or Spartans."
The film has stirred my soul. I've been thinking about the "roots" that hold these small towns together - even in the face of harsh economics.
I learned to admire the rancher and his wife near Reedsport who work long hours on a small spread in order for their girls to play ball. Rich abstentee landlords are buying up the pasture around them, and they don't know how long their ranch will survive.
I grimaced as I saw a third generation grocer in Scobey acknowledge that the family business will probably not pass down to his daughter because it's hard to make ends meet. Having worked in the grocery business many years ago, I know that the profit margains are razor thin.
Yet Class C basketball holds up the morale of these families and the communities they live in. You have to admire the spunk and the tenacity of teenaged girls who travel many miles from home in order to play another opponent just as eager and just as desperate to win.
I have been able to, over the course of a lifetime, to pick and choose where I live and work. For many of these families, they do not have that option.
I bet the families of Reedsport, Scobey, Chester, and other small towns in Montana feel rooted because they had to stay and make the best of it, whether it be in times of boom or bust.
If you come from a small town, did living and working there help you feel "rooted?"
On Sunday evening I left Bozeman and drove to Great Falls for a conference sponsored by Montana Association of Churches entitled "New to Montana." I met other pastors and church workers who were "new to Montana" like myself.
As part of our time together, we watched a documentary produced by MT Public Television entitled "Class C: The Only Game in Town." The film tells the story of eight high school basketball teams that compete for the class c championship. All these teams are made up of high school girls who attend high schools with an enrollment under 100 students.
The teams come from small towns scattered all over the state. In many cases, the towns are shrinking. Prosperity has left many of them high and dry, with people packing up and leaving in search for fortune and security.
Girls' basketball is the glue that holds many of these small towns together. People are fiercely proud of their teams, whether they be "Pirates, Coyotes, or Spartans."
The film has stirred my soul. I've been thinking about the "roots" that hold these small towns together - even in the face of harsh economics.
I learned to admire the rancher and his wife near Reedsport who work long hours on a small spread in order for their girls to play ball. Rich abstentee landlords are buying up the pasture around them, and they don't know how long their ranch will survive.
I grimaced as I saw a third generation grocer in Scobey acknowledge that the family business will probably not pass down to his daughter because it's hard to make ends meet. Having worked in the grocery business many years ago, I know that the profit margains are razor thin.
Yet Class C basketball holds up the morale of these families and the communities they live in. You have to admire the spunk and the tenacity of teenaged girls who travel many miles from home in order to play another opponent just as eager and just as desperate to win.
I have been able to, over the course of a lifetime, to pick and choose where I live and work. For many of these families, they do not have that option.
I bet the families of Reedsport, Scobey, Chester, and other small towns in Montana feel rooted because they had to stay and make the best of it, whether it be in times of boom or bust.
If you come from a small town, did living and working there help you feel "rooted?"
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Message from Bishop Hanson about the Gulf Coast Hurricanes
A Message from Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson:
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
“But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.... Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you....” (Isaiah 43:1-2,4a)
As I write, yet another hurricane is threatening the Gulf Coast. This one is only the latest in a seemingly endless series of storms that have brought hardship, destruction, fear and even death to brothers and sisters in the Gulf Coast and the Caribbean, especially Haiti. The relentless destruction reminds us that the rebuilding of lives continues in other areas that have been affected by floods, tornadoes, fires and other disasters.
I call on you to respond in the midst of danger and loss. While some are preparing for storms yet to come, others are fleeing from storms, and still others are rebuilding in the aftermath of disasters. I ask you to respond with your prayers, your generous gifts of time and money, your volunteer hours and skills, the open doors of your homes and churches, and your commitment to a sustaining presence for the long haul. Visit ELCA Disaster Response for updates, for downloadable bulletin inserts, and for ways to make contributions online.
These expressions of our faith remind us that we are called by name and are bound together by our baptisms into community with those who suffer. Thank you for your generous and sustaining response in the midst of the disasters.
God’s work. Our hands.
The Rev. Mark S. Hanson
Presiding BishopEvangelical Lutheran Church in America
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
“But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.... Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you....” (Isaiah 43:1-2,4a)
As I write, yet another hurricane is threatening the Gulf Coast. This one is only the latest in a seemingly endless series of storms that have brought hardship, destruction, fear and even death to brothers and sisters in the Gulf Coast and the Caribbean, especially Haiti. The relentless destruction reminds us that the rebuilding of lives continues in other areas that have been affected by floods, tornadoes, fires and other disasters.
I call on you to respond in the midst of danger and loss. While some are preparing for storms yet to come, others are fleeing from storms, and still others are rebuilding in the aftermath of disasters. I ask you to respond with your prayers, your generous gifts of time and money, your volunteer hours and skills, the open doors of your homes and churches, and your commitment to a sustaining presence for the long haul. Visit ELCA Disaster Response for updates, for downloadable bulletin inserts, and for ways to make contributions online.
These expressions of our faith remind us that we are called by name and are bound together by our baptisms into community with those who suffer. Thank you for your generous and sustaining response in the midst of the disasters.
God’s work. Our hands.
The Rev. Mark S. Hanson
Presiding BishopEvangelical Lutheran Church in America
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Pray for our bishop and the church in Bolivia
What follows is an article from the Great Falls Tribune. (Thanks to Tom for sending it to me)
Please keep the travelers and the people of Bolivia in your prayers.
September 11, 2008
Violent protests in Bolivia cut Crist's travels short
BY TRAVIS COLEMAN Tribune Staff Writer
Increasingly violent protests in Bolivia have halted the travels of a Great Falls-based Evangelical Lutheran Church bishop.
Jessica Crist, bishop of the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, is traveling the central South American country with a group of Great Falls and area residents to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Lutheran Church of Bolivia, dedicate a retreat center and oversee the ceremony of the first two women to be ordained in Bolivia.
But protestors angry over natural gas revenues have blockaded airports in Cobija and Santa Cruz, which were set to be the next destinations for the local group. The group was stuck in a La Paz Wednesday.
"We will stay in La Paz another night, and fly to Santa Cruz (Thursday) at 9:30 a.m.," wrote Crist in an e-mail message sent to the Tribune. "We will plan to stay there until our scheduled departure on Monday, getting home on Tuesday.
"Several government buildings have been taken over by protestors in Santa Cruz, and the streets are supposed to be full of burning tires," she wrote.
The traveling group includes Crist, Turner Graybill, Great Falls residents Colleen Busby, Marjorie Holland and Tom and Linda Rosenbaum, and Robert Nilsen from Kalispell.
They next head to Santa Cruz, which is more than 200 miles southeast from La Paz.
Bolivia has been rocked for two weeks by increasingly violent protests led by opponents of Bolivian President Evo Morales in the country's more prosperous eastern lowlands. The fight is over natural gas revenues and Morales' insistence that fallow farmland be given to landless Indians.
Crist wrote the group will not take unnecessary risks while in the area. The group is accompanied by Spanish speakers.
"We are not afraid. We are here with the church. We are not naíve, but we do not think that worrying is productive," she wrote.
Please keep the travelers and the people of Bolivia in your prayers.
September 11, 2008
Violent protests in Bolivia cut Crist's travels short
BY TRAVIS COLEMAN Tribune Staff Writer
Increasingly violent protests in Bolivia have halted the travels of a Great Falls-based Evangelical Lutheran Church bishop.
Jessica Crist, bishop of the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, is traveling the central South American country with a group of Great Falls and area residents to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Lutheran Church of Bolivia, dedicate a retreat center and oversee the ceremony of the first two women to be ordained in Bolivia.
But protestors angry over natural gas revenues have blockaded airports in Cobija and Santa Cruz, which were set to be the next destinations for the local group. The group was stuck in a La Paz Wednesday.
"We will stay in La Paz another night, and fly to Santa Cruz (Thursday) at 9:30 a.m.," wrote Crist in an e-mail message sent to the Tribune. "We will plan to stay there until our scheduled departure on Monday, getting home on Tuesday.
"Several government buildings have been taken over by protestors in Santa Cruz, and the streets are supposed to be full of burning tires," she wrote.
The traveling group includes Crist, Turner Graybill, Great Falls residents Colleen Busby, Marjorie Holland and Tom and Linda Rosenbaum, and Robert Nilsen from Kalispell.
They next head to Santa Cruz, which is more than 200 miles southeast from La Paz.
Bolivia has been rocked for two weeks by increasingly violent protests led by opponents of Bolivian President Evo Morales in the country's more prosperous eastern lowlands. The fight is over natural gas revenues and Morales' insistence that fallow farmland be given to landless Indians.
Crist wrote the group will not take unnecessary risks while in the area. The group is accompanied by Spanish speakers.
"We are not afraid. We are here with the church. We are not naíve, but we do not think that worrying is productive," she wrote.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Rally Day Fun
Rally Day here at CtK was this last Sunday, Sept. 7th. We had a great time - in worship and at breafkast.
It's always fun to gear up for the beginning of a new season of learning, fellowship and service. Hopefully everyone here on Sunday heard one of the points Grant and I tried to make - that Sunday School and Christian Education are for EVERYONE. So often people "do" Sunday School as children, but then somehow never manage to get back into it after high school (or junior high, in some cases). Which is a bummer. There is so much to learn. Life keeps changing. We continue to be formed in faith and to grow in our practices of discipleship. So please, join in the conversation. If we're not offering a class or study that interests you or meets you where you are, let me know and we'll see what we can do about it.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Cereal Time!
We're having a cereal drive here at CtK, to benefit the Gallatin Valley Foodbank. Our goal is 200+ boxes, and we're not quite halfway there.
SO - perhaps this Sunday you could bring a box of cereal with you to worship. If you're so inclined, and you'd like to get a bargain, check out Rosauer's 13 hour sale tomorrow (Thursday, 9/4). They're going to have all kinds of cereal on sale for $1.79 a box! An easy way to make a difference in a hungry person's life. Maybe I'll see you there...
Matthew 25:37-40: "'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'"
SO - perhaps this Sunday you could bring a box of cereal with you to worship. If you're so inclined, and you'd like to get a bargain, check out Rosauer's 13 hour sale tomorrow (Thursday, 9/4). They're going to have all kinds of cereal on sale for $1.79 a box! An easy way to make a difference in a hungry person's life. Maybe I'll see you there...
Matthew 25:37-40: "'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'"
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Daily
Happy September!
It's hard to believe that September is already upon us. Time certainly flies, whether you're having fun or not, and especially when - like me - the "to-do" list is always longer than the list of "already-dones."
That said, as time passes I continue to learn the value of the daily. Simple things, done every day, that make a big difference over time. Two of those daily things for me are practices of discipleship - daily prayer and daily Bible reading. I get the impression from friends, family and members of congregations, that a lot of people aspire to do these things daily, but keep waiting for the day when they "have time."
I get that. As one who rides the pendulum swing from "active" to "couch potato" all too easily, the myth of "having time" lives in my head, too. And let's be honest - we'll never have time to do all the things we want to or think we should. Instead, we make the time available to do the things that are highest on our lists of priorities. Hopefully we learn some valuable lessons about life and ourselves along the way.
In hope of being helpful to those who would like to have a daily habit of prayer and Bible reading, I commend to you an email devotional, written by alumni of Luther Seminary. There's a link to it over on the right (God Pause). You can read it online or have it delivered to your inbox. Every day. Simple.
Then, let me know what you think and how it goes. Please also feel free to share other resources you use for Bible reading and prayer, as well as other meaningful daily disciplines that are part of your life.
(An added incentive to check it out - this week's devotions are written by Alan Baglien, pastor of Peaks of Glory Lutheran Parish in Big Timber, MT, part of our cluster in the Montana Synod.)
It's hard to believe that September is already upon us. Time certainly flies, whether you're having fun or not, and especially when - like me - the "to-do" list is always longer than the list of "already-dones."
That said, as time passes I continue to learn the value of the daily. Simple things, done every day, that make a big difference over time. Two of those daily things for me are practices of discipleship - daily prayer and daily Bible reading. I get the impression from friends, family and members of congregations, that a lot of people aspire to do these things daily, but keep waiting for the day when they "have time."
I get that. As one who rides the pendulum swing from "active" to "couch potato" all too easily, the myth of "having time" lives in my head, too. And let's be honest - we'll never have time to do all the things we want to or think we should. Instead, we make the time available to do the things that are highest on our lists of priorities. Hopefully we learn some valuable lessons about life and ourselves along the way.
In hope of being helpful to those who would like to have a daily habit of prayer and Bible reading, I commend to you an email devotional, written by alumni of Luther Seminary. There's a link to it over on the right (God Pause). You can read it online or have it delivered to your inbox. Every day. Simple.
Then, let me know what you think and how it goes. Please also feel free to share other resources you use for Bible reading and prayer, as well as other meaningful daily disciplines that are part of your life.
(An added incentive to check it out - this week's devotions are written by Alan Baglien, pastor of Peaks of Glory Lutheran Parish in Big Timber, MT, part of our cluster in the Montana Synod.)
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