S.P.A.R.K. (St. Paul Church’s Announcements to Read and Know) May 2023
Dear friends,
I’m excited about the ministry of our church! There’s lots of good conversation going on amongst our volunteers concerning the things we are doing in our community, and opportunities for change to carry out our ministry in the best way possible. I look forward to working with all of you in the coming months as we bear witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
This month’s article is the first in a series I will be writing to help you learn more about the pastoral ministry here at St. Paul. I hope these articles will be informative and a pleasure to read. While I haven’t figured out everything I’m going to write about, the following are some of my initial thoughts:
- What I am called to do
- Ancillary duties
- What goes into putting together a Sunday worship service
- What goes into preparing a sermon
- Continuing education and sabbatical
- Why my family and I don’t live in the parsonage
- How I work with my colleagues and the district
- My relations with Sherwood pastors of other denominations
Regarding my call, these are the things you have called me to do at St. Paul Lutheran Church:
- Administer to you the Word of God in its full truth and purity as contained in the Bible and as set forth in the Lutheran Confessions (Book of Concord)
- Administer to you the holy sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper
- To demonstrate to you the mind and spirit of Christ as I serve you, and equip you for Christ’s mission to save the lost
- To equip and enable you to serve one another and those outside the fellowship of this congregation
- To aid, counsel, and guide you; to visit the sick and the dying; to warn and firmly reprimand the indifferent and the erring; to support you as you extend the ministry to others
- To see to the instruction of the catechumens, both children and adults, in the Word and thus prepare them for communicant membership in the church
- To guide you in applying the divinely ordained discipline of the church according to the Word of God and to assist you in practicing the forgiven life with one another
- To promote and guide the mission activity of the congregation as it relates to the local community and to endeavors of the Synod and the Northwest District
- To serve as a resource and guide you as we participate in the ministry of Christian education, and to train parents to teach the Christian faith to their children
- To assist you in adopting administrative policies and procedures that will help you carry out the mission of a Christian congregation
- To serve you as an example of Christian conduct; to endeavor earnestly to live in Christian unity with you, my colleagues, and our sister congregations in the Synod; and do everything possible for the building up of the church
Next month, I will talk about the things I do in addition to the above which are not in my call, but do them anyways out of love, interest, and necessity.
The Lord bless you and keep you,
Pastor Don