By Ronald Keener
The visible church is the church best known week by week. For some the visible church may be only the Sunday morning worship. For another, it may be church school because we have children, and morning worship. Another person may be involved in WELCA or a small group, and that is the church that is best known and visible to them. Then there is the invisible church, the many other programs that are available, but may not directly touch our own lives.
‘IT’S PERSONAL’ BLOG OK, graduates, listen up! This is your big day at last. It’s time to get out there in the world and make a difference! Pursue your dreams! Shoot for the stars! Aim high! The world is your oyster! Set lofty goals! The sky’s the limit! Let your vision be your guide! But […]
‘IT’S PERSONAL’ BLOG
In an age of scintillating entertainment available 24/seven in smaller and ever-more-accessible gadgets, you can understand why worship seems boring to some. While worship can be fun, inspiring and enjoyable, its entertainment value is really beside the point.
This Lent has taught me that Martin Luther was correct: We have no free will. Our wills are thoroughly corrupted by sin and our selfish desires. I had given up sweets for Lent, but then someone gave me homemade candy. Free will? Not a chance!
By the Rev. Dr. William O. Avery
The whole subject of stewardship is limited to the needs of the giver, not the needs of the receiver. The truth is that it really is better to give than to receive — better for the giver’s own spiritual development. This is biblical. This is the gospel of good giving. Pastors should not become a pleader of needs – endorse the proclaimed financial goals of the church, but do not plead!
By The Rev. Casey Zesch
An irony: that we work hard to get dollars and then have to be saved from them! Lest our dollars – and the possessions they buy -should possess us, why not turn dollars into sense? A sense, that is, of personal, congregational, and churchwide mission.
Susan K. Hedahl, professor of homiletics, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, offers tips for sermons and temple talks. “Ask what the stewardship profile of your congregation is — Before public proclamation, it is necessary to ask: Where have we been? As a congregation, what gifts do we already employ for ourselves and others? Where do we hope to be in the months, the years ahead? Which resources do we need to consider, expand, develop?
