Message from Pastor Stanton for June 2020
Last month my newsletter recounted the ways we remain behaving as Church together despite not gathering in person and despite our social distancing. I said, “We worship”, “We give” and “We serve.” It continues to be true. Whether we are celebrating our Senior Class of 2020 on May 17 with a cupcake Sunday and so much more, or engage in the Pentecost Project that made May 31’s service especially multi-lingual, our worship numbers remain steady. Financial giving in April was incredibly generous and brought us closer to meeting our budgeted income through four months of 2020. And we do continue to serve as you care for your neighbors, reach out to your family and oftentimes go an extra mile to keep yourself and loved ones safe. Thank you for all the ways you continue to be the Church!
In May, your elected and called leaders sent a letter explaining how difficult it will be for us to gather in person. The safety of those who enter our buildings is our #1 concern. With that priority, it looks very realistic that many more months could pass before we reunite for worship that gathers hundreds. We continue to evaluate how we might accommodate small groups, special services and outside groups. But until Wisconsin has sustained a decrease in confirmed cases and met other gating criteria to achieve, at least, phase three of the Badger Bounce Back Plan, First Lutheran will worship via live stream and continue to innovate our way through this unique chapter. If you or someone you know could use some help with technology so that they can engage in worship and all the other content we’re offering, please share their name with the church office. We want to help so that “all are welcome” to First, even if it’s virtual!
We could dwell on what is NOT happening at First. We could sulk in the misery of no coffee fellowship between services, no Sunday School, no choir. We could remain frustrated and pessimistic about what this might do to our church in the long run, as though it could only be to our detriment. I, however, will not. Your staff and the Vision & Leadership Team aren’t thinking about what is NOT happening. We’re moving into something new. I’m not saying we’re thrilled to have to recreate almost every wheel. But we do see this quarantine time as a time of opportunity when we can create some new systems, learn some new skills and BE the church in new ways. Program churches like First Lutheran can get lost in doing, doing, doing. Now that we can’t do what we always did, each and every one of us is forced to re-evaluate our faith practices and how effectively we are growing in faith, hope and love.
How is your faith, hope and love going? Is it getting deeper, broader and stronger? If you’re not sure how to answer that question, I’ve got some ideas for you! (Keep reading.)
Six days a week, Pastor Karyn and I offer a “Morning Musing” that considers, “Where Is God In All This?” (WIGIAT) We post it to our Facebook page and the First Lutheran Youtube channel by 8:00am. Kathryn Pedretti leads prayer daily at 4:10pm on Facebook. Once a week, Pastor Karyn creates a “Practicing Spirituality” post. And at some point in June, I will be inviting everyone into a daily Bible study where we read just a few chapters a day for a year. We’ll get through the whole thing—together! My vision for the post-COVID church includes a healthy amount of daily/weekly online content from pastors and staff.
Bible Bits
Choose your favorite Bible verse
Make a video including:
Your name
Name your favorite verse: book, chapter and verse
Read the verse
Tell them why is it your favorite verse
OR how the verse helps during “COVID-19” time….
Tell the Sunday School students, “God loves them no matter what!”
Remind them to highlight it and write your name next to it in the margin
Share/upload/drop it to 1stlu.org/upBB (sign-in with a Google account):
Things to remember when you
create your video:
Make sure your phone is in the “landscape” position, that is horizontal, not vertical. This makes for a better video overall.
Make sure you can be heard well and that there isn’t a lot of background noise.
Make sure what is in the background isn’t too busy or distracting.
When you begin your video, please introduce yourself.
It should be no more than
two minutes long.When you upload it, please name your file with your name and/or verse. This will make it easier for Beth to find..
But… the Church beyond 2020 will not be driven by pastors. In a world where each person seeks to build their own unique identity, shares posts onto their own ‘story’ and lives a very singular life, the Church will require greater engagement from its members than passive consumers offer. Each and every member will need to share their own perspective on the One God. For our church to thrive and grow, every single one of you will need to contribute questions, ideas and faith stories.
Here’s one example of what that could look like… During the last quarter of school—at home—my 4th grader would start each and every day by watching the ‘announcements’ provided by her school. These were simple videos recorded by a rotation of teachers who read a script: “Good morning… today is a day …
the weather is… today’s birthdays are… and it’s National Day.” Then, they’d say the pledge of allegiance and sign off with, “Have a great day!” And that was it. 2-3 minutes tops. It became a ritual that acted as a portal for my daughter from non-school home time to school (at home) time.
What if we had a rotation of 200 church members at First who each recorded a simple 2–3 minute “Bible Bits” video saying, “Hello! My name is ________. I’ve been a member at First since _______ and I just love
(at our Church). Psalm ____ is my favorite part of the Bible because my _______ told me when ________ happened in my life. [Read the text you chose, maybe something more about it.] Remember, God loves you and so do all your friends at First Lutheran Church where all are welcome! Have a great day!”
A daily Bible Bit would be a fun, simple ritual that could help us all get to know another person at church, open our Bibles and maybe even connect beyond what we do in person. Details on how to upload your Bible Bit can be found in the pull quote along the right of this page.
Let’s all take advantage of the opportunity before us to engage with each other as church even more deeply than we ever did before.
I’ll ‘see’ you online!