"We're a Welcoming Church"

A Sabbatical Reflection
By Pastor Grant Barnett Christenson

We took the opportunity during our summer sabbatical to worship at different houses of worship, not only in Bozeman but also in Minnesota, Washington, and Wyoming.
Many churches went out of their way to make us feel welcomed. One Bozeman church not only followed up with a bag full of information and visitor bread, but with notes. Lots of notes. We thanked them and notified them that we were local clergy. They seemed eager for the return of "Barnett and Linda Christenson."
Another local congregation made connections with us during worship and afterward at the fellowship hour. It was good to see Megan Makeever, our former choir director, and to meet some retired Montana teachers who knew retired teachers from Christ the King.
A congregation in Washington was very informal, but they were gracious in their welcome and invited us to stay for brunch on their patio after worship. Breaking bread in the rare summer sunshine of western Washington was a great way to feel included in a gathering of Christians.
While we were in Minnesota, I was so excited to worship at the church where my parents were married 59 years ago. We were clearly visitors because of our ages and because of our wiggly children. My father felt sad that he and his family were not recognized and acknowledged. My father loves and cares for the body of Christ, and he grieves when it does not carry out the important ministry of hospitality. It was hard for me to talk to the senior pastor, who was also a seminary classmate, to let him know that our welcome was less than warm and friendly. The senior pastor and the associate pastor both acknowledged it was a problem for their congregation and they were trying to address it.
Visiting other churches this summer gave us an opportunity to experience welcoming congregations, and in some cases, not.
Les Stroh, our consultant during the strategic planning meetings in mid-October, lifted up an example of welcoming and not welcoming visitors that helped me understand hospitality in a new light.
Les told a story of how a visitor felt put off by the groups that sat at full tables during fellowship following worship. As groups were chatting with their friends, they were silently communicating "we visit with folks we know." Not a very welcoming environment, even if the church members consider themselves "welcoming".
Then Les told us about a church where members are keenly aware that there are visitors in their midst. They go out of their way to make visitors feel welcomed, even to the point of not sitting with their friends after worship during the fellowship hour, but keeping seats at their tables open for any visitors who may be looking for a place to sit.
Visiting other churches and observing how they do hospitality ministry can be eye opening, or painful to experience.
Would you be willing to greet the stranger in your midst, even though you want to talk to your friend who you haven't seen in a week?
Would you be willing to leave a seat open at your table during fellowship, even though you want to talk about the Cubs' big win on Wednesday night with your friends?
Sabbatical was a wonderful time to experience the vast array of congregations that make up the Body of Christ. But it was also a time to learn what makes for a warm welcome, as opposed to a cold shoulder and an air of indifference.
Food for thought, as we anticipate many visitors in our midst over the next couple of months.

Guest Preacher this Sunday - Pastor Mark Donald

This Sunday morning we welcome Pastor Mark Donald as our guest preacher. Mark serves as the pastor/executive director of Christikon, our ELCA Bible Camp up the Boulder River. He served as the interim director for two years and was called as permanent director at Christikon’s Annual Corporation meeting last November.
Mark is the son of a registered nurse and Lutheran pastor, and grew up in California and Minnesota. Keep reading... He has a History/English degree from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN, a Masters in Education from the University of Minnesota, and a Masters of Divinity from Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. In the past 19 years Mark served congregations in Seattle, WA, Minneapolis, MN, Fergus Falls, MN, and Billings, MT.
He married Julie Heinz 22 years ago and they have two boys, Alec and Micah. Julie teaches 5^th grade in Billings and is pursuing her Administrator’s Licensure through Montana State University. Alec is an 11^th grader, and Micah is in 9^th grade, both at Skyview High School. Both boys run Cross Country and play baseball.
Mark’s connection with Christikon spans some 29 years. His youth director, Julie Rogness (herself a former staff person), brought his youth group out for Sr. High camp, and in the ensuing years Mark spent six summers on staff. He is one of  the 60+ former staff people who went on to ordained ministry, and Bob Quam played a significant role in encouraging him towards that profession.
As a youth director in the Pacific NW and later as pastor in northwestern MN, Mark completed a circle by taking his own groups up to camp. Upon accepting a call to First English Lutheran in Billings, Mark soon found himself on the Board, and watched with joy as his own children were old enough to go to camp. Christikon has indeed been a blessing and major shaper of Mark’s life thus far.

If you would like to support the mission and ministry of Christikon, envelopes will available on the narthex table, or you can give on the Christikon website.

Please welcome Pastor Mark on Sunday!

Welcome, Bishop Jessica Crist

This Sunday we welcome our bishop as the guest speaker in Adult Forum (9:00am) and as our guest preacher in worship at 10:00am. Please greet her and welcome her to Bozeman and Christ the King!

 

The Rev. Jessica Crist is Bishop of the Montana Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  A resident of Great Falls, she is married to Turner Graybill, a retired attorney.  They are members of Bethel Lutheran Church in Great Falls, Montana.  They have two adult children—Rhiannon, who is a professor in the religion department at Rhodes College in Memphis, and Raphael, a recent graduate of Yale Law School.  Bishop Crist grew up in Pennsylvania and is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Divinity School.

 

Prior to assuming the office of Bishop, Pastor Crist served as Associate to the Bishop for 5 years, and Director of the Northern Rockies Institute of Theology for 18 years.  She served congregations in Great Falls, Montana, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and started in ministry as a campus pastor.  She served on the Transition Team that helped put together the Montana Synod from the predecessor churches, and was elected Synod Secretary at the Constituting Convention.  She served in that capacity for 12 years.  She has worked with the Montana Association of Churches for many years, including serving as President, and as part of the teaching staff for the Lay Ministry Institute. She has served on the Board of Lutheran World Relief.
Her community service over the years has included chairing boards for the local YWCA, the PTA and the hospital’s Women’s Health Board.  She writes a monthly column for Montana Woman Magazine.

Bishop Crist was elected Chair of the ELCA Conference of Bishops. She currently serves on the Board of the Montana Association of Churches, on the Board of Luther Seminary.

She is a member of the ELCA Task Force on Communal Discernment, the Bishops’ Liason Committee for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, and the Bishops’ Domestic Ready Bench.    

“I am honored to serve as the Bishop of the Montana Synod.  As I travel the Synod and visit your congregations and ministries I get to function as an ambassador.  I get to meet you and listen to your stories.  And I get to share the story of the wider church with you.  I pray for every congregation and every pastor and AIM each week.  And I hope you will join me in praying for the whole church.”

... for you were strangers in the land of Egypt

Last spring, Rabbi Ed Stafman, of Bozeman's Congregation Beth Shalom, was a guest speaker at CtK's adult forum for two Sundays. He reminded us just how often in the Torah God reminds God's people to care for the stranger, the alien, the sojourner, in their midst. As Deuteronomy 10:19 puts it: "You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt."

God uses the people's history to induce empathy, and still does.

I have never been a refugee, but I have felt lost. I've been sick. I've been scared. And over the past two weeks I've seen heartbreaking photos of children on beaches and old people on rafts whose seaworthiness is questionable. And Deuteronomy echoes in my ears: "you shall also love the stranger."

 

Lutheran Disaster Response (a ministry of the ELCA) and Lutheran World Relief are at work meeting basic needs for those fleeing war and crisis, and are working together with partners in the Middle East and Europe. Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is calling for the welcoming of 100,000 Syrian refugees by the U.S. We have opportunities to make a real difference in the lives of individuals and families.

 

The Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary, Tamás Fabiny, wrote the following, about the refugee crisis in Hungary, and shared by the Montana Synod:

 

Walking with Refugees - the Church Amidst the Refugee Crisis in Europe
I would like to recall the poignant memories of the weekend when thousands of refugees set out from Budapest, Hungary, towards Austria and, finally, reached the other side of the border on board of buses provided by the Hungarian government.

I will never forget that march. I am very well aware that the refugees were hindering the traffic and broke several rules. However, what this persistent march gave proof of was their final desperation and their determination forged by the war, suffering, persecution and defencelessness they had left behind. And we have to admit that the heartlessness of some also strengthened their feelings of hopeless resolution.

 cannot forget that march. It was similar to the processions led by Martin Luther King in the cities of the US in the 1960s or to the opponents of the apartheid in South-Africa singing “We are marching in the light of God”. Looking at the crowds of refugees walking on the motorway I was also reminded of the wandering, let me use the word “migrant”, Jews on their way to a new homeland. This association is closely linked to a prayer written by the Reformed pastor Sylvia Bukowski: “God of Mercy, who led your people across the desert and shepherded them in the exodus; we cry to you for the millions of refugees who have left their homes in uncertainty and are escorted by poverty, persecution and violence on their way. May you be their guide and guardian, oh Lord!”

In the marching crowd of refugees you could see a one-legged man supporting himself on crutches and trying to keep up with the others. Many were carrying children in their arms or on their backs. One of the parents was pushing a toddler in a shopping cart. Yet others were carrying elderly or sick relatives on their shoulders.

I believe that the Bible’s account is relevant today as well: Jesus has compassion on the crowd, because they are like sheep without a shepherd.
Are we able to have mercy? Do we dare to show empathy? Can we speak words of compassion even if others demand us to demonstrate power?

Let politicians be concerned with politics. As a church we should ask ourselves: are we able to use the voice of humanity and act in a credible manner? When the bodies of 71 suffocated refugees, including women and children, were found in a delivery van on Austrian territory, the Austrian Lutheran Bishop Michael Bünker suggested that, following the identification of the deceased, the victims should be buried in a respectful way according to the rites of their own religion. In Hungary, a middle-aged Syrian man collapsed and died near the railway station of Bicske. Do we know anything of him? Has anyone tried to track his identity or his family down?

Although official reports consequently refer to the alienating term ‘migrants’ instead of refugees, we should make an effort to imagine how traumatised these people must be with all their experiences of war and life-threatening situations. Can we realize what it must feel like to be scapegoated all the time? Can we fathom what it means to give birth to a baby during such a flight and spend the night at a railway station five days later? We should keep this in mind at Christmas time when writing and listening to heartbreaking sermons about the Holy Family...

Still, something has changed. More and more people dare and manage to express their feelings of solidarity towards refugees. Voices of disapproval and reservation seem to be less frequent and the willingness to help is getting stronger.

Beside the sadness and despair expressed in this text, I would also like to voice my hope and even joy. Although the past few weeks have been full of hardships and painful experiences, we have also seen examples of resourceful love. Several Lutherans have shared their insights and practical advice on the internet. The spontaneous help offered by many civil activists is side-by-side with the conscious and relentless efforts of the Diaconal Service of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary to organize aid activities. The Hungarian Interchurch Aid, one of the country’s largest and internationally recognized charity organizations, is also present with its decades-long professional experience. Secondary school students are inquiring about ways to contribute, university students are acting as voluntary interpreters and congregations are collecting donations. Many of our international partners have also stated their willingness to help.

All of us can do something to make the suffering of refugees more visible in our countries and to give a face to people who might seem threatening and frightening as members of a crowd. We can make their story heard. Most of all, we can help to recover their dignity.

In my experience, something is stirring within more and more of our Hungarian fellow-citizens. We might indeed be capable of showing our purer sides. We can see Ezekiel’s prophecy fulfilled: “I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh (Ez 36:26)”.

I know that we could talk about Schengen borders, quotas, registration, hot spots and similar subjects for a long time. These are indeed serious issues. Everyone has their own responsibilities. At the same time, wherever we stand, let us not forget the most important thing of all: exercising mercy.

 

Bishop Tamás Fabiny
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary

A Welcoming Congregation

I've been doing a little research to help out one of our church council members who is writing a newsletter article for the September newsletter. It's amazing how much good stuff (and how much junk) there is online these days.

One of the good things I found online today is a set of "Tools for a Healthy Congregation," on an archived page of the ELCA website. There are three sections: Faithful, Welcoming and Generous. In addition to descriptions and stories to go along with each adjective, there are self-assessments showing how a congregation can becoming more faithful, welcoming and generous. If you decide to take any of the assessments, let me know what you learn!

Here's a great description of a Welcoming Congregation:
To be a welcoming congregation is to learn to welcome strangers as neighbors. It means moving from the mindset of “We know everybody here” to “I wonder who will come next; I can’t wait to get to know them!”
In welcoming congregations ALL members bear the responsibility of being a greeter. They have adopted the norm that they speak to at least one stranger BEFORE they speak to their friends. If they see someone they don’t know, they introduce themselves and welcome the visitor.

Do you think YOU could make it a habit to speak to at least one person you don't know (beyond just smiling and saying, "Good morning") before you talk to your friends and family here at CtK? You might be surprised how many regular worshipers you DON'T know. You might be the first to welcome someone new to Bozeman and new to the congregation.

How might the Holy Spirit use YOU on a regular old Sunday, to extend hospitality and welcome to new folks as well as the CtK "regulars?" What are some places, and who are some people, who have made you feel welcome when you've been the newbie? What can you learn from them?

Do you think you could make it a habit to talk to someone of a different generation at least once a week? How long would it take to get to know the names of every middle school and high school student? All of the elementary school kids? How would you feel if every Sunday a whole bunch of kids ran up to you to say "Hi!" and give you a high five? (It feels pretty great, trust me).

What do you have to lose?

Alleluia! Christ is Risen!

Alleluia! It feels good to break out that word of praise again, to remember that death doesn't win and that God is indeed for us.

Thank you upon thank you to all who helped make today such a wonderful celebration of hope, grace and love here at CtK: the musicians, the folks who got communion ready, those who moved all the pews to get ready for this season, all the worship helpers, the brunch cooks, the servers... Thanks to those who did the good work of set up, clean up, greeting others, extending a welcome, helping with the egg hunt, etc. Thanks to those who donated - flowers, food, the paschal candle, etc. And if I've forgotten anyone - THANKS!!

If you visited CtK for the first time on this Easter Sunday, we hope the service of worship was a blessing to you and that you felt welcomed in our community. Please know that we look forward to getting to know you better and walking together in faith with you. If you have any questions about the Christian faith, about Lutherans in particular, or about this congregation, please don't hesitate to ask! Leave a comment here and we'll reply - perhaps someone else has the same question!

May God bless us all with faith and hope during this season (remember, it lasts for 50 days!!) of new life and the promise of the resurrection! We'll see you on Wednesday night for BLAST (dinner from 6-6:30pm, worship at 6:30, and classes and activities from 7-8pm) and next Sunday for worship at 8:30 & 11am!!

Real Invitations

Our community's mission statement indicates that we are a group of people who reach out to others with a welcome and witness. Wishful thinking in a mission statement is not necessarily a bad thing.

After seven and a half months here, my experience has been that CtK IS a very friendly group of folks, who have built a space that feels good to be in. That said, there's a difference between being friendly and offering real welcome. I can think of more than one occasion when I've gone somewhere and the people were really friendly, but I also knew I wasn't really welcome - there was no place for the real me. So, we continue to grow in our understanding of hospitality and welcome, realizing that "new" folks don't have to be (or become) just like "us" in order to have a place here.

The witness side of things is another story, I think. People continue to look at me like I'm speaking a language from another planet when I talk about inviting folks to join us in worship, study or service. We know it's not always easy to do something for the first time, but it will never get easier if we never try in the first place.

The Good News/Evangelism team gave the go-ahead to order and print up several BIG stacks of postcards that can be used as invitations to worship and fellowship during Holy Week and Easter. Grant and I were very intentional about handing a couple of those cards to each person who worshiped here last Sunday: we stood, as usual, at the doors out of the sanctuary, to greet people and shake hands - and hand off the postcards. I saw folks smile at me and say "good morning," and then look over their shoulders to see if anyone was watching as they put their postcards down on the table. Is it really THAT HARD to hand someone a postcard and say, "hey - check it out"? I'd be fine if folks said, "My pastors told me I have to give this to you" and then walked away (okay, maybe not).

I wonder why it's so difficult for people even to extend a simple invitation, especially when said invitation is printed and ready to go. Are they embarrassed? If so - by what? That they're part of a community of faith? By their congregation? By their friends? Are they ashamed? (I hope not - Jesus had something to say about those who are ashamed of him...) Are they afraid?

If so, what is it exactly that we are so afraid of? Jesus is Lord of heaven and earth. Not even death can hold him down (Easter is not about the bunny). We don't need to worry - he's got our backs. And we're afraid someone might say "no thanks" to a friendly invitation?

Come on, people of God - it's time for action. Besides, it's FUN! I have never had a bad experience inviting people to worship - even people I've never met previously.

We're heading out tomorrow afternoon - meet at CtK in the sanctuary at 2pm for a quick training and sending out. We'll be done by 4pm.

Questions? Let me know!