The Day of Pentecost

This Sunday is the Day of Pentecost. To get ready, read Acts 2 and find your flame-colored attire (the liturgical color of the festival is red).

Holy Spirit, Lord divine,
Come, from heights of heav'n and shine,
Come with blessed radiance bright!
Come, O Father of the poor,
Come, whose treasured gifts endure,
Come, our heart's unfailing light!

Excerpt from Sequence, Twelfth Century, translated by Peter Scagnelli.

ELCA Malaria Campaign Update

From Jessica Nipp, ELCA Malaria Campaign Coordinator:


Dear friends,


You did it! Your overwhelming generosity to the ELCA Malaria Campaign in the week after World Malaria Day exceeded our hopes and our expectations. Together, you gave over $203,000 -- enough to launch the work of the ELCA Malaria Campaign in Liberia!

The Rev. D. Jensen Seyenkulo, newly elected Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Liberia, expresses his gratitude for your gifts:

In Liberia, there is no city or village that is safe from the malaria parasite. The whole country is at risk. So the anti-malaria work of the Lutheran Church in Liberia is of utmost importance. Through your gifts to the ELCA Malaria Campaign, you have made that anti-malaria work possible.

I bring a message from your Lutheran brothers and sisters in Liberia: thank you! Thank you for walking with us as we faced civil war, disease, displacement and unemployment. Thank you for walking with us as partners in the gospel we share. And thank you for making possible the work that our church is doing to prevent, treat and educate about malaria in Liberia.

We have been working hard to get ready for these malaria programs. Our experts have studied trends and treatments of malaria. We've identified the needs in our communities and how the church, through our health care ministries, can fill them. We're ready to mobilize -- all we needed was the funding to get started. Thanks to you, our programming work can now begin. As we walk hand in hand, God will work through us to save lives.

Because of your generous gifts, Lutherans in Liberia will continue their long legacy of meeting the health care needs in their communities. We are a church that rolls up our sleeves and gets to work. You have brought us all one step closer to our goal of making malaria history. Thank you!


In Christ,

Jessica Nipp
Coordinator, ELCA Malaria Campaign

P.S. Our work in Liberia is just one example of the amazing things our church can accomplish together through the ELCA Malaria Campaign, and our work has just begun. We have a goal of raising $15 million by 2015 to support the work of our partners and companions in 12 countries in Africa. Your gifts of any size, at any time, make a difference.

Calling All Visual Artists

Word of Life Mural by Millard Sheets, 1907-1989.
From the Art in the Christian Tradition Collection at Vanderbilt.

Here at CtK we tend to do a pretty good job of celebrating the musical gifts of members of the congregation. Last Sunday we enjoyed an anthem by the adult choir, and a new mini wind ensemble played along with a couple of the hymns. This coming Sunday, the Sunday School choir will sing, and worship will be lead by a group with contemporary instrumentation.
That said, there are lots of folks with gifts in the VISUAL arts as well, and this summer, we'd like to celebrate and appreciate those gifts through a series of original bulletin covers. Anything that can be scanned, or have a a photo taken of it, will work. So, if you are a painter, sculptor, photographer, calligrapher, fiber artist, mixed media artist, drawer, scrapbooker, etc., and you are interested in participating in this series, please let Pastor Lindean know!
The goal is to have an original cover every Sunday June-August, inspired by the readings from the Revised Common Lectionary for the day. It could be the Old Testament reading, the Psalm, Epistle or Gospel lesson that inspires you. We hope each artist will also write a brief statement about their work and the inspiration behind it. Questions? Talk to Pastor Lindean.
Not a visual artist? Encourage someone who is, enjoy the growing "gallery" in the narthex and social hall, and be sure to thank those who do participate in this series.

A Prayer for the 6th Sunday of Easter - by David Lose

This post comes from ...In the Meantime, a blog by Luther Seminary professor David Lose.

Dear God,

You have called us to love, which sounds easy but is often hard.

You have called us to obedience, which sounds hard but is sometimes easy.

You have called us to obedient love, which sounds like an oxymoron, but really isn’t.

You have called us to loving obedience, which sounds crazy but leads to peace.

So help us, dear God, to love, and help us to obey.

Help us, that is, to look to the needs of others and respond with the compassion we see in Jesus.

Help us to ask whether what we are called to do, choose to do, or want to do is motivated from love.

If it is, give us the power to do it and keep at bay those forces that would hinder us from obeying your command to love one another.

If it is not, prevent us.

It’s that simple, and that difficult. Help us, dear God.

Amen.

A new way to address hunger

On Sunday, May 6th a group of volunteers from Christ the King served dinner to sixty-one people at Bozeman Community Café, a cooperative hunger program run by Gallatin Valley Food Bank and area churches. The café is located in the old Frontier Pies Restaurant on North 7th in Bozeman. Customers are greeted at the door by a host. Once seated they are greeted by a server, who takes their beverage order and informs them of the meal choices available that evening. On Sunday, May 6th you could choose from beef stew, chicken pasta primavera, and hot dog with baked beans. Once the order was taken by the server, the “scoopers” promptly plated the meal requested. As one customer said, “Hey, this is faster than fast food!” Christ the King has been active in collecting canned and non perishable food items for the food bank. Every first Sunday of the month we collect a special offering to benefit the ELCA World Hunger Appeal and the Gallatin Valley Food Bank. Community Cafe is a new opportunity to help us address hunger here in the Gallatin Valley. It puts a face on hunger. I invite you to visit the Community Cafe any evening of the week from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. to experience the ministry that is happening in our midst. Hungery people are being fed. Caring Christians and members of the community are responding to the overwhelming need in our area with gifts of time, talent, and treasure. Christ the King is scheduled to serve at Bozeman Community Café on Sunday, June 3rd from 4:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. If you are interested in volunteering, please see Pastor Grant

Another Great Day to Pray

Tomorrow, the first Thursday in May, is the National Day of Prayer in the United States. (It's been the first Thursday in May since it was signed into law by President Truman in 1952).

In many ways, it's just another great day to pray, and perhaps to be more intentional about praying for our government, leadership, democracy, etc. In my prayer  life, I try to remember to pray "your will be done, O Lord," and not assume I always know exactly what that is - if I ever do. As a citizen of the most powerful nation on the planet, I do well to remember that Christian faith and the strength of empire don't always mix so well (if ever). That said, I am incredibly thankful for the freedoms I enjoy and the standard of living I too often take for granted.

Looking for some resources to enrich your prayer life?

The Lutheran Church of Honolulu has a great online resource for praying the daily offices at Daily Prayer. You can learn more about the ancient practice of praying throughout the day.

The ELCA Prayer Center has several resources as well, including a prayer for each day and a prayer for healing video.

Did you know you can submit a prayer request to the CtK office (received by both pastors and the office manager) on the CtK website? Just go to the online prayer request form.

May God bless us as we turn to him in prayer - lifting up our longings and concerns, being still in God's presence, and trusting that God hears all our prayers, as he has promised to do.

Proposed social statement on Criminal Justice to be reviewed at adult forums in May

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America addresses social concerns as a witness to God’s just and loving purpose for all of creation. It does this by equipping and nurturing members for their calling in the world, encouraging learning and moral deliberation around social concerns, developing and enacting social teaching in the form of social statements, and interpreting and applying social policy. During the month of May in adult forum, we will be looking at a proposed social statement on Criminal Justice. Adult forum meets Sunday mornings at 9 a.m. in the social hall. The task force charged with the mission of preparing this social statement for vote at the ELCA church wide assembly has asked individuals and congregations to provide feedback. You are encouraged to attend adult forum or to read the document on your own, in order to provide thoughtful and prayerful feedback, as guided by the Holy Spirit. You can download the document using this link www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Statements-in-Process/Criminal-Justice.aspx If you cannot download the document, please contact Pastor Grant at the church office and one will be provided for you.