President

Most of God’s creation knows how to rest. Cats catnap. Bears hibernate. Dogs snooze. There are only two exceptions. Working through Psalm 23 we know that one of them is obviously sheep. For sheep to lie down and rest everything must be just right. Four conditions need to be met: They must be free from all fear. Because they are social creatures there must be no friction or aggravation with other sheep. In-fighting keeps them on their feet. Yet sheep struggle every day to set up their pecking order as they butt heads with each other. Butting heads with each other sheep become edgy, tense, restless and irritable.

Popularity is a fragile commodity—but how people crave it! Popularity is so fragile that it often disappears as quickly as it appeared. Perhaps that’s why back in the 1960s Andy Warhol spoke of 15 minutes of fame. Popularity is based upon people’s opinion, and people are oh-so fickle. Popular opinion can be easily swayed. That is no more obvious than from the events that take place during Holy Week. On Sunday the Jewish pilgrims flocked out of the city by the tens of thousands to sing Jesus’ praises: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord.” But by early Friday morning, four days later, their refrain has changed. Their chorus is now “Crucify him! Crucify him!” When given a choice between releasing Jesus or a violent criminal like Barabbas, everyone cries out, “Give us Barabbas!” That’s a far cry from what they sang on Palm Sunday.

Lent is a special time in the Christian church year. All sorts of things take place with Lent. For the next six weeks there are no alleluias. For the next six weeks the altar colors are purple. For the next six weeks the symbols that are placed before us all find their focus in the cross. Midweek Lenten services. Lenten suppers. At the center of our attention, at the end of the journey is the cross.

There are two sides to the Lenten story. There is this account of the fall of man into sin, and there is the Passion story of our Lord Jesus, suffering the curse of our sin. Jesus is betrayed and abused. Jesus is scorned and beaten. Jesus is crucified. But there is another side of the Passion story. As our Lord’s suffering unfolds, all around him are people living out their lives frustrated by sin.

The story of Jonah is much deeper than merely a prophet being swallowed by a great fish. It is a story that exemplifies our sinful human nature. Sometimes we Christians have been known to suffer from what we might call the “Jonah syndrome.” It’s not caused by a contagious virus, but by sin and sin’s virulent mutation, selfishness. Having experienced God’s love and forgiveness, we become turned in upon ourselves. We see something bad happen and we think that those people deserved it. Sometimes we even wish that God would “get those people for the bad things that they have done.” That’s where Jonah was at.

Our lives are often complicated and busy. Just think for a moment of all that you were involved in this past week. We put in our time at work. There are the daily chores; everything from preparing meals to doing the laundry, from doing the dishes to picking up after the kids, from picking up the mail to paying the bills. If your week was a normal week, there also were runs to the grocery store to pick up the day to day food items that we all need. Then there were special runs to pick up those things that you forgot. If you have kids at home, you went back and forth to school several times this past week. If the kids are involved in sports, there were extra trips. Then there are those other tasks, other involvements that we all have in our individual lives. We are busy in the community, busy at home. By the time that a normal week ends, we are tired.

With all the rush of the 30 or so days between Thanksgiving and Christmas there hardly seems as if there is any time to get into the “Christmas spirit.” But just what exactly is Christmas spirit? When we are younger we become energized by the building excitement that surrounds Christmas. Trees go up. Presents appear under the tree. Homes are decorated. For a child Christmas is the most special of the year. But as we grow older, it often becomes more and more difficult to get excited. We’ve been through it before. It’s a lot of work and more money spent on presents than we want to think about until after the New Year. The excitement is tempered by a growing credit card balance. The wonder of Christmas wanes as weariness sets in.

What are you thankful for? Looking at our lives and all the material possessions, all the physical blessings, and all the spiritual blessings we enjoy, it’s easy for us to be thankful to our God. The question is: What do we do with all that our Lord has entrusted to us? Do we simply say, “Thank you,” as we do when someone holds the door for us, or when someone does something nice for us? Are words enough? Dare our thanks be limited to only words? How can we express thanks to someone who has done so much for us?

Of all sinners who have ever lived, perhaps none understood the weight of his guilt more than Dr. Martin Luther. Early in his adult life his sins and failures tormented him to the point of misery. He himself describes that in one of his hymns. He writes, “Fast bound in Satan’s chains I lay, Death brooded darkly o’er me, Sin was my torment night and day, in sin my mother bore me; Yea, deep and deeper still I fell, Life had become a living hell, so firmly sin possessed me.” No matter how hard Martin Luther tried, he couldn’t escape his guilty conscience until he came to understand that God’s relationship with us is not based upon his personal righteousness, but rather on the righteousness which God’s Son purchased for us on the cross.

Thoughts on Philippians 4:4ff
The Epistle lesson for Oct. 9

Perspective is the way a person looks at something. Look at the Grand Canyon from the heights of a lookout and you see the beauty and the wonder of the winding river canyon which God created. But stand at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and you can only see what’s right in front of you. What do you see when you look at your life? Perspective matters.

The world in which we live is a mess. One day the stock market gains, the next it crashes. In the last several days the stock market has lost 20 percent of its value. London is burning because of unrest. A flash mob assaults people outside the Wisconsin State Fair. More than 20 of our soldiers are killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. The value of our homes continues to slide. The political season is upon us; state senators recalled in Wisconsin, the presidential campaign about to being in earnest. Do you think it’s going to get dirty? Do you think that by this time next year we will be tired of political campaigns?

Installation sermon for Aaron Kuehn
Grace, Menomonee Falls
Text: Romans 10:14-17

Our world puts a great prominence on beauty. Beautiful models are paid millions of dollars a year so that photographers can snap their pictures; and those pictures can be used on magazine covers. Stores like Victoria’s Secret don’t sell clothing as much as they market beauty. 

For the 145th anniversary of St. John, Glendale

There is much that we can learn about church from the early Christians in Acts 11, not the least of which is that they understood what the church is about. At the heart and core of what it means to be a Christian is the message of salvation. That message was central to the early church. Look at what happened when the persecution began in Jerusalem. Stephen was stoned, and Christians scatter. They left Jerusalem in search of a safer climate in which to live out their faith. One of the places where they went was called Antioch in Syria, as well as other places. Wherever they went, they took their faith and their message with them. They were “telling the good news.” They lived their faith and they proclaimed their message. Churches were planted.

There are several good news items to share this month. We have three new congregations in the South Wisconsin District.

1) Two Sundays ago, May 15, Grace and Truth Lutheran Church of Oconomowoc became a member of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, signing the LCMS constitution. Its members and pastor come to us from the ELCA. Together they left that church body for scriptural and confessional reasons. Their pastor, Rev. John Bergson, has cleared colloquy and was introduced to the pastors at our May pastors’ conference in Appleton.

A cemetery can be an interesting place to visit. Every cemetery has tombstones. Tombstones mark the location of every grave. Such is the case where my in-laws are buried in western Wisconsin. It’s a very old cemetery. While there are new, bright grave markers, there are also headstones that date well back into the 1800s. Some of the old headstones have fallen over. Others are so weathered that the name and dates for the person buried there have worn off.

Less than a week ago I returned from a trip to the Dominican Republic where our SWD is a partner in a new church plant. It’s a unique Lutheran partnership which is changing the face of the Dominican Republic with the gospel in some amazing ways.

Here’s a glimpse of what took place during our time there:
First, Sunday afternoon March 13 in a special outdoor worship service Willy Gaspar, a dentist by training, became the first Dominican to be ordained as a Lutheran pastor. There were Lutheran pastors from six different nations present.

Groundhogs, blizzards, and riots. Superstitions, storms of anxiety and dissatisfaction. We live in some interesting and challenging times. Watching the news can be more than a little disconcerting these days. There is the struggle to balance the state budget. There are protests in Madison as the governor attempts to get a handle on runaway spending. We have been down that road as a district. There have been riots in Egypt and now Libya. Gas prices are on the rise again. We have had more than enough snow already, at least I have. And now it is snowing again. Perhaps Punxsutawney Phil and his shadow aren’t that dependable after all, as if anyone really thinks they are.

In the midst of the Epiphany season where the Sunday Gospel lessons focus so many of the miracles of our Lord, it is important to understand what the miracles are about. In the one year series Jesus turns water into wine; he cures a man with leprosy; he heals the servant of a centurion then he commends the centurion’s faith. The three year series focuses on our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. Stories of word and deed that demonstrate that Jesus is the Son of God.

Some ten years back and more a self-appointed religious guru named Marshall Applewhite reached out for people to follow him. He promised all who became his disciples that he would lead them to a higher level of life in a new world. It’s an offer that is tantalizing to many who struggle with the emptiness and the hollowness of this life. Applewhite was the self-appointed leader of the “Heaven’s Gate” cult in California. Some accepted his invitation and followed him. They left family, friends, homes and jobs to follow Applewhite in pursuit of a more spiritual life. They were good people, intelligent people, normal people. They all lived together, worked together in a house in Los Angeles, designing websites. Sadly those 38 disciples followed him even when he called upon them to commit suicide. Applewhite was able to convince his disciples that by doing so they would be freed from the earthly confusion and enter an exalted state of being on some spaceship that was supposedly behind the moon.

Our God has a unique pattern of using the ordinary to accomplish the extraordinary. Common things are used to achieve great things for his kingdom. In the beginning God used simple words to create the universe. God chooses a fugitive slave, turned shepherd, named Moses to lead his people out of slavery. Another shepherd boy named David slays a giant and is later chosen by God king of Israel. One of the more moving scenes happens when the Prophet Elijah is hiding in a cave depressed. God comes to him not in the powerful wind, not in the destructive fire, and not in the overwhelming earthquake; but in the still small voice.

The Christmas story is one of those wonderful stories in Holy Scripture that we have all heard many times. We know the words of Luke by heart. But sometimes being so familiar with something also blinds us to the beauty of what is happening. The Christmas story is the central story in the history of this world: God sends his son to be born of the Virgin Mary.

For a moment, put yourself in the shoes of the Virgin Mary. When the angel Gabriel visits her, all that she has is a promise.

The story is told of how King Frederick the Great of Prussia, part of Germany, was in the habit of visiting the schools in his country. On one occasion he singled out a little girl. He held up a stone and asked, “To which kingdom does this stone belong?” The little girl quickly answered, “To the mineral kingdom.” “And to which kingdom does this apple belong?” “The plant kingdom,” the girl replied. Next the king pointed to the picture of a horse and asked her to classify the horse. “It belongs to the animal kingdom,” she said. Then after a pause, the king asked, “And to which kingdom do I belong?” Now, the girl hesitated a bit. Finally she answered, “To the kingdom of God.” The king was deeply moved by that unexpected reply and said to the girl, “Pray God that I may be found worthy of such an honor.”

Christmas holds so much promise. But promises are only as good, promises are only as dependable as the person making them. We know that because we live with broken promises every day. We all know the disappointment that comes from broken promises. Broken promises make us skeptical. Broken promises cause us to be suspicious.

That’s what makes Christmas such a special time of the year. Christmas is about promises which God keeps.

My article for this month is the introduction for the sermon which I delivered to this week’s pastor's conference. If you click on the link, you will find the whole sermon. These are words which I encourage each of our pastors and our people to take to heart AND to put into practice. It is time that we live the Gospel which we believe and proclaim. It is time that we understand that the enemy is not us; it is the devil and his wicked kingdom.

A couple of weeks ago now, our new Synod president, Rev. Matthew Harrison, was installed. If you watched the service on LCMS website, you know that it was a moving worship experience. Well over a thousand people were in attendance. Some thirty plus church leaders from around the world were in attendance, as was our own council of presidents.

There is no doubt but our convention this last summer set us on a new course with the election of a new set of leaders and a new structure. Our theology, our doctrine, our confession are the same; but we have a new governance system emerging: an international missions board and a national missions board will oversee mission policy for our LCMS.

Not long ago a pastor commented that his congregation doesn’t know and doesn’t care about what happens in the Synod or in the District, that they didn’t need the Synod or the District. That comment reminded me of one of our great strengths as Missouri Synod Lutherans; that of the local congregation.

Sometimes, however, with comments like the one above we emphasize the autonomy of the local congregation to its ultimate fault. We isolate ourselves from our brothers and sisters in nearby congregations. We do our own thing, and we end up a bit like the Israelites in the Book of Judges where “everyone did what was right in their own eyes” (Judges 17:6 and 21:25). We don’t get as much done individually as we could together; and the one who smiles is the devil because we have isolated ourselves from each other. It’s not just about one local congregation. The Church is every local congregation together.

Not long ago I heard a church leader comment that “the local congregation is the hope of every community.”

It’s a profound and true statement. The local congregation is where God gathers his people to receive his blessing. The local congregation is where God demonstrates his love for sinners through Word and Sacrament. The local congregation is where God’s people gather at the foot of the cross to receive forgiveness.

The words of the Prophet Joel have been bouncing around in my thoughts of late, specifically the words from Joel 2: “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.”

I am reading a book by a Jewish rabbi, Ed Friedman. The book is “A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix.” At one point early on in the book Friedman talks about leaders who had burned out, leaders who had been thrown off course by complaints, leaders who were bogged down, leaders who had forgotten to lead. His word of counsel: “You have to get before your people and give an ‘I have a Dream’ speech.” In the next paragraph he writes, “Most of those who followed through with what I had suggested found that the chaos in their group soon waned.”

Whenever we look at what happens in the wake of Peter’s Pentecost sermon, it’s easy for us to get swept along by the excitement. There is the sound of the wind. There are the tongues of fire. There are the various languages. That’s what impresses the crowds who are actually there. Those standing around are amazed because as they say, “we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”

Writing this article in the days after Easter, I am reminded of the Easter service that we attended this past weekend. Lynn and I were in Rochester, Minn., to visit one of our daughters, her husband and our granddaughter. We worshiped at one of the congregations in Rochester.

What is below are a few paragraphs of the sermon which I delivered at the spring pastors’ conference a couple of weeks back at Olympia Village in Oconomowoc. The text is Ephesians 4:1-7. The complete sermon is on the SWD website in the president's blog.

One is about wholeness, the kind of wholeness that is lacking in this world because of sin. Ever since Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden, suspicion and resentment have separated people. Cain and Abel were separated first by jealousy and then hatred. Different languages separate people at the Tower of Babel because they were in rebellion against God. The root cause of all those barriers in one way or another is sin. Sin not only isolates us from God. Sin builds walls around us so that we are isolated from and estranged to others.

Spring pastors’ conference
Text: Ephesians 4:1-7
Theme: Being diligent about our unity

In the name of our gracious Lord who suffered, died and rose again dear fellow servants in our Lord’s Kingdom, brothers:

If you have ever stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon, you know how majestic God’s creation can be. If you have ever stood atop Pike’s Peak, you have seen the splendor of the world that God created. If you have ever flown over the Rocky Mountains, you have seen the brilliance of the snowcovered peaks created by our God. If you have ever watched a daffodil break into bloom, you have witnessed the beauty of God’s creation. If you have ever drifted across a northern lake in the Boundary Waters wilderness with a full moon in the sky, not a ripple on the lake, the bluffs glistening in the moonlight as a pack of wolves howls in the distance, you have experienced the wonder of God’s creation.

Sadness and sorrow, guilt and tears, trouble and neglect, misery and gloom, distress and despair are more than just words in a dictionary. We know their meanings well. We have felt the sting of such words in our lives. We know the agony that is mentioned in Psalm 88: "For my soul is full of trouble and my life draws near the grave.” We have felt the sting of the words of Psalm 88: “I am confined and cannot escape; my eyes are dim with grief.” We know the loneliness and the distress that causes a person to cry out “The darkness is my closest friend.” Again the words of Psalm 88. It’s a Psalm that is worth reading.

The cross has become a familiar symbol. It’s not just church altars or church steeples. The cross is used in necklaces, in earrings, tie tacks and many other places. Even people who don’t believe in Jesus wear the cross. But there was a time when the cross wasn’t so popular. When the early Christians and apostles spoke of Jesus Christ crucified, many were offended. God’s Son dying on a cross? To the Greeks it was the height of foolishness. For them the cross was a symbol of shame, a place where only the worst of criminals were put to death. At least in part, it was that for our Lord Jesus. Remember how he prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Jesus’ journey to the cross—his time there is not a pleasure cruise.

Writing this it is early on Sunday morning, Feb. 14, 2010. I am in Santiago, the Dominican Republic, for a meeting of the mission partners who are supporting the efforts in this country to start a new Lutheran church body. Later this morning we are heading to Palmar Arriba for worship. We have been here since Friday.

“Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk” (Acts 3:6). Those are familiar words from the Book of Acts. Peter and John help a paralyzed man on the steps of the temple, miraculously curing him.

“Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” Our Lord hasn’t granted us the authority to perform such miracles as Peter. However, we do proclaim the precious name of our Lord Jesus. Great things happen when our Lord’s name is proclaimed. It’s the storyline of the Book of Acts.

Life is full of choices. Some choices we make are very simple, while others affect our lives for years to come. It all begins on the playground when we are growing up. Children choose up sides for a game of kickball. High school students go on campus visits looking to choose the best college for themselves. Then, there is the question of what we will be when we grow up. There are so many choices. Some choices that we make affect the rest of our lives. One of those has to do with the husband or the wife that we marry. Employers hire applicants with the best qualifications; the ones with the best references are normally the ones chosen.

"And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn" (Luke 2:7 ESV).

"Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:6-7 ESV).

Those two passages of Holy Scripture have been bouncing back and forth in my thoughts of late. Both passages take us to Christmas.

Discipleship has been on my mind of late. We know the 12 disciples. We know the commission that our Lord has given to his New Testament church in Matthew 28:19f:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:19f)

We have much for which to be thankful! For a few moments let’s just think about God’s unexpected ways.

Think ahead to Christmas by way of example. There is so much about the Christmas story that is unexpected. The Son of God leaves his heaven to be conceived in the womb of the Virgin. He trades heaven’s glory for the smell of a stable. He leaves behind heaven’s throne for a musty manger. Creator of the universe, he becomes a helpless infant. The Son of God whose every need is tended to by earthly parents with limited means.

If you grew up in the Lutheran Church, you grew up singing the words of “A Mighty Fortress is our God.” That hymn is based upon the words of Psalm 46. Psalm 46 begins:

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. (Psalm 46:1ff)

My good friend Earl Bleke used to ask, “What good things are happening?” Sometimes we can get wrapped up in the day to day tasks, the things that have to be done, that we take for granted the really good things that are going on. Good things are happening in SWD.

1. Dominican Republic
2. Specific ministry pastor
3. Search for new SWD school superintendent begins

One of the many things I get to do a lot of is driving—on average some 3000 miles a month. Travelling through the Wisconsin countryside this time of year a person sees a potential rich harvest approaching. There are fields covered in dark green soybean plants. There are fields with lightly colored tassels of sweet corn. There are huge fields of field corn. In a month or so the fields will have turned golden. The crops will be ready for harvest.

The other morning very early I finished reading C.F.W. Walther’s Law and Gospel classic. Serving in this office of district president has driven me back to it. It’s amazing that every time I read it, it’s new and refreshing. There is so much that is timely for our ministry today to a world that is wandering farther and farther away from our Christ-centered message and values.

The theme for our 2009 District convention was “With Unveiled Faces…Reflecting the Lord’s Glory.” By the time that you are reading this, the business of the convention will have been ended for four weeks or more.

That said, the urgency of the convention theme lives on. Think for a moment about the culture in which we live. Thinking back to the world in which many of grew up, parking lots and pews were full on Sunday mornings. Thinking back to the world in which many of us grew up, marriage vows were honored, “yours, mine and ours” was only the title of a movie and not the description of most families in our congregations. Thinking back to the world in which many of us were born into the traditional family where mother, father and children lived in the same house; with grandparents in the same community.

Shortly after elected three years ago I was at a Bible class for one of our congregations. The questions were asked, “What does District do? Why do we need the District?” It’s a fair and good question. Part of the answer lies in what have come to call the “3 M’s.” They have come out of the communication task force … As we began to gather the information from a “Zoomerang” survey of pastors, one of the laymen on the task force came to the realization that the South Wisconsin District exists to 1) magnify partnerships, 2) maximize resources and 3) multiply ministries.

Do we have our heads up in the clouds? Clouds are interesting creations. Fluffy. White. Sometimes thin. Sometimes dark and threatening. Being Ascension Day, it’s time to think about clouds a bit. It’s natural today even though there is not a cloud in the sky at the moment.

Writing this article our South Wisconsin District convention June 7-9 is still seven weeks away. But with each passing day it gets that much closer. Much planning is underway. Much hard work has gone into preparing for our 2009 convention. Overtures have been submitted. Meals planned. Nominations have been tendered. Committees named. Arrangements have been made for the speakers and special visitors.

Listening to the radio the other day, the station was tuned to Fox News. Mike Huckabee was on. He was talking about Easter, and its meaning for us as Christians. As I listened to him talking about the difference between Friday and Sunday, it dawned on me the other day that Easter is the 8th day.

Lent is such a special time of the year! Serving in the parish, Lent was one of the parts of the year that as a parish pastor I looked forward to with great anticipation. Soup suppers. God’s people in his house for special worship services. Good things to be sure. But the heart of the season is Law and Gospel.

Negative 1408. It’s a number that didn’t mean much to me until recently when attending a missions conference in California. The figure -1408 is on a document titled “2007 Gains or Losses in Confirmed Membership.” It’s the second line from the bottom, line 33, South Wisconsin District.

That’s a loss of 1408 in confirmed membership. The district below us is Michigan with a confirmed membership loss of 1703. Northern Illinois is just above us with a confirmed membership loss of 1279. Only six LCMS districts had net gains in confirmed membership in 2007.

Writing this article now in the middle of October for the South Wisconsin News that will be printed for Thanksgiving and Christmas is a bit challenging, especially in view of all that is taking place in our world.

• By the time that you read this all the political ads will be off the air. There’s one on the television right now. By early November a new president will be elected, and we all will know who it is.
• The next several weeks will also be important for the economy. The last twelve days the stock market has dropped like a rock. Fear and anxiety are all too familiar companions as we consider how the financial meltdown has affected our various investments.
• Institutions and corporations that we had grown to depend on no longer exist. More may join their ranks in the next several weeks.

When Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, his only concern was the message of God’s forgiveness.... Luther understood that there is no better time to talk about forgiveness than now. The same is true for us. The time is now to talk about forgiveness.

It dawned on me the other day as I was preaching at St. John’s in Plymouth as part of their 150th anniversary that we have several congregations celebrating that anniversary this year.

As I mentioned in the introduction to Sunday’s sermon, things were much different in Wisconsin back in 1858. Wisconsin was being settled. For those who like historical trivia, the following happened during 1858: in January Mendelssohn’s wedding march was played for the first time; John Brown raided Harper’s Ferry; in March a patent was issued to Hyman Lipman for putting an eraser on top of a pencil; Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand”; Sept. 10, 1858 was the first recorded home run in major league history; in October Macy’s Department Store opened its doors for the first time; and at least six congregations of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod are formed in southern Wisconsin.

“We are living in a time of anxiety, conflict, and concern.” So begins President Kieschnick in his June “Lutheran Witness” article.

Drive past a gas station. It’s a good thing that some of the gas stations now have their price per gallon posted electronically.

Fill your gas tank. What used to cost under $30 now costs $70 or more.

If you have ever booked a flight, you know that there is certain information that a person needs to know in order to purchase an airline ticket. It’s little things like the date when you want to travel. Where are you headed? What airport do you want to fly out of? How many layovers are you willing to accept? What class do you want to fly? Business or economy? When the ticket is printed out, it will have all of that information on it, including seat number. If you are flying out of a large metro airport, the ticket will list the concourse, the gate, and the departure time. Once you and your luggage have cleared security, you sit and wait for the boarding call.

One of the traditions that many congregations have is that of hanging a crown of thorns on the Lenten cross. Thorns have always been an image of sin and its curse. Think back to Genesis 3. God tells Adam: “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you.”

The term “walking wounded” is familiar to most everyone. These days it’s a term used especially for those who are involved with athletics. With football season upon us, a team that fields the “walking wounded” is a team that has been devastated by injuries.

As we enter the summer months, many of our congregations experience the "Wisconsin syndrome." People head out for vacations, “up-nort” and to various other places.

Mission and vision statements, financial controls, fall fiscal conference, missions "power the engine we call SWD."