Toolbox For Faith

I came across an interesting website this week called, Women in the Bible: http://www.womeninthebible.net/index.htm. The site was created by Elizabeth Fletcher, a professor at University of Sydney, Australia, as a way of making available the information published in her 1997 book, “Women in the Bible”. The book went out of print, so she published all the information online. It provides fairly complete background information, key events in the lives of the women profiled and a general overview of the conditions women face in ancient times. At the bottom of the page are links to several other sites she has created including: Bible People: http://www.bible-people.info/index.htm and All About the Bible: http://www.allaboutthebible.net/. Obviously, I haven’t read everything she has posted, but the majority of what I’ve seen so far looks helpful, well organized and fairly well researched.

As I drove by a church on my way to drop my son off at camp, I looked over at their sign and saw, “The Summer heat is nothing compared to what you could experience for eternity. Prepare for the Rapture today!” Intellectually, I understand that there are groups of Christians who believe strongly that the rapture is real, but I guess, deep down, I hoped that the failed rapture prediction from last May would open a few eyes and turn people away from that interpretation of scripture. Since, however, rapture teaching probably isn’t going away anytime soon, I’d recommend “The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation” by Barbara R. Rossing. It is an excellent book and she does a wonderful job of giving both the background on how rapture teaching emerged and a hope filled interpretation of the book of Revelation. You can find the book on Amazon here.

At Synod Assembly over the weekend, our keynote speaker, Dr. Jessicah Krey Duckworth, shared some wonderful ideas for nurturing faith in children and families. One of the resources she shared was the website: enterthebible.org from Luther Seminary. According to the introduction on the front page of the website, it contains a “wealth of resources to help you grow in your faith, add depth to your Bible studies and truly discover the people, places and events of the Bible. Think of Enter the Bible as your guide, a helpful reference tool to accompany you in your reading of the Bible.” For each book of the Bible, there is a tab with a summary of the book, an outline, background information, an introduction and theological themes. I have just started looking at the site, but so far it looks like a very useful tool.

I had the opportunity last week to hear two lectures focused on Islam and Christianity by Rev. Dr. Mark Swanson, the Harold S. Vogelaar Professor of Christian-Muslim Studies and Interfaith Relations at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, and Associate Director of Center of Christian-Muslim Engagement for Peace and Justice. In the next week or two, Dr. Swanson’s lectures should be posted on the website for the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary: http://www.ltss.edu/media_center/special_events/, but if you are looking for information or resources on the relationships between Christians and Muslims, check out the website for A Center for Christian-Muslim Engagement: http://centers.lstc.edu/ccme/ .

Like many congregations, St. Michael has a small lending library at the church. One of the librarians in the congregation introduced us to a website called, “Library Thing” which allows you to catalog your library and make the contents available online. The first 200 books are free and if you join as a lifetime member (we paid $40 for a lifetime membership), then you can enter an unlimited number of books. If you would like to see what St. Michael’s online library catalog looks like, you can find it here.

This article was written by James Armentrout, pastor at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Roanoke, Virginia.

I remember being told as a seminarian that my seminary education would be sufficient to carry me through the first three years of parish ministry. We had covered the basics very well: New Testament history and theology, Old Testament theology and history, the Lutheran confessions, Hebrew, Greek, pastoral care, preaching, worship planning and leadership, etc. There was a lot of material to cover in the three years we were in the classroom. There was very little room in our schedule for electives, for in-depth classes focusing on something very specific. So we were told that in order to have any hope of a vital, relevant ministry beyond those first three years would mean life-long continuing education. What that told me was that I, along with my classmates, were about to become general practitioners of ministry. We were prepared to do the basics of congregational ministry: administer the sacraments, proclaim the gospel, lead worship, teach the scriptures, provide pastoral care, etc.

That’s how most of us are trained in seminary. We’re trained to be generalists and that’s great. The church needs general practitioners of ministry. Many congregations are well suited for the likes of us who haven’t been prepared as specialists. The various maladies these members of the body of Christ (congregations) deal with from time to time like financial sniffles or flu, B.O. (body odor or “bad outreach”) or altar guild amnesia are the kinds of things a well-prepared, attentive general practitioner can treat. Many congregations, like the individuals who comprise them, are healthy enough for a general practitioner to serve them. What happens, though, when a congregation needs more than a generalist? More to the point, what happens when a general practitioner of ministry tries to serve a congregation for whom the norm is not wellness but chronic illness?

The reality is this; some congregations are chronically ill. Some congregations are seriously diseased and need the skills of a trained specialist, not a general practitioner. Too often, though, it’s the general practitioner who is sent to serve them rather than the person who has the specific training and skill set to be effective. Why? Is it because there aren’t enough pastors with specialized training? Are we not identifying the chronically ill congregations well enough and so aren’t making use of the specialists we do have? Are there not enough opportunities to provide specialized training? Perhaps it’s some combination of all three. I’m not sure so I don’t have the answer but maybe it is time we started to have the conversation.

I got a call last Wednesday from a person who was asking for advice on which Sunday School material she should use at her church. I shared with her that we were using Hands-On Bible Curriculum from Group Publishing, but I also shared with her that the reason we were using Hands-On Bible Curriculum was because it matched the gifts of the teachers.

At times in the past, I have helped pick one curriculum series and used it for each of our classes. While that was a little easier, it didn’t take into account the gifts that each teaching team brought to the ministry. These days we select several theologically appropriate sets of material and then see which set provides the best match between teaching strengths and curriculum. The result has been happier and more engaged teachers and students.

Pastor Philip Bottomley shared this idea with me a few weeks ago and I thought it was worth passing along. Congregations often talk about Vacation Bible School as a way to reach out to new families, but what if instead of asking the families to come to the church building, Vacation Bible School actually went out to the people you were trying to reach.

Apparently there is a church in Northern Virginia that runs a neighborhood Vacation Bible School. Host families agree to have a VBS team set up in their front yard and then they invite the neighborhood kids to come and take part in the crafts, music or lesson. As it was described to me, you’d have rotating teams each focusing on a different topic/activity and they would move around to each front yard station. If you scheduled it correctly, one team could lead the same one hour activity at ten different locations during a week. Just imagine how many new families could be touched with the good news of God’s love in just one week.

This summer I am writing Lectionary focused Sunday School material for a class of kids who range in age from kindergarten to fifth grade. In searching around online, I found a couple of interesting websites that have helpful resources and tools.

Here are a few helpful sites if you are interested.
Sermons4Kids.com

Lesson Plans that Work (from ECUSA)

Make your own Word Search

You can also look at the “With Children” section which is at the end of the links provided weekly by Textweek

Our Vacation Bible School happened at night last week which meant that we included a program for adults. I wish that I had come up with the design we used with our adults because it is so good but the credit goes to Eda Morelli, a former member from Aiken, SC.

Our school lasted from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. For the first hour, I led a Bible Study for the adults. The second hour was a delightful change of pace. On Sunday night, one of our members led a session on how we make decisions in our day to day life and the guidelines we use in choosing that decision. On Monday night, another member who has a passion for quilting told us about her hobby and specifically about a quilt she is making that has squares symbolic of 30 different Psalms. Our Tuesday session featured two lawyers talking about a variety of different issues in a gathering entitled “When you really need to call a lawyer!” Another member who is in charge of working in exercise, disease prevention and nutrition with over 4,000 employees of a local hospital gave very helpful tips on exercise and nutrition on Wednesday. Our final night’s theme was “Thrills from the grills with the Mills.” The father and son team of Edward and Michael Mills are fantastic cooks who led a session on gourmet items that can be grilled. Our only mistake was scheduling the nutrition session before we tasted the “thrills from the grills.”

Our attendance was excellent and the participants were excited about the experience. Eda’s idea is one that you might wish to try.