Welcoming the world

Click here to see our 2019 Confirmation students: Devlin Frost, Kendall Kostialik, Jennifer Patten, Jamie Scott, Javin Udo

“All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.  Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of the people.  And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.”                                                --Acts 2:44-47

            We get a lot of visitors at Atonement.  Some just want to check us out and see what Lutherans look like.  Some are vacationers or spring breakers.  Some are snowbirds looking for a “church down south.”  Some are family members visiting for the week.  Some are people new to the community or looking for a new church.  Some are people who have had a crisis in their life in the last month and need desperately to re-connect with God.  The list goes on and on.

            As our community grows, we have worked hard to make Atonement a safe and trustworthy “landing pad” for people to come and observe a Christian community at work.  Every worship service is an open door, a new possible entry point for visitors.  We now have 4 different entry points (until summer starts) ready to receive new people: Sunday services at 8:30am, 10am, and 11:30am, as well as our Saturday “godify” service at 5pm.  We have looked outward at our growing community and tried to create a schedule that will accommodate those who will be joining us in the future. 

            When I write to a visitor, I tell them “I hope you were warmly welcomed and felt the presence of God.”  That could mean different things to different people, but to me it means that somebody spoke to them, smiled at them, shook their hand and introduced themselves.  To me a warm welcome means you leave having made some new friends.  Your smile and welcome can make a difference in the way a visitor sees Atonement, and in the way someone views Christians in general.  You are an important part of our “hospitality team.”

            In Acts chapter 2, Luke describes the early church as a growing movement of people who are so close, they share their possessions with one another.  This is more than lending someone a bag of sugar, but actually pooling resources to take care of all who are in need.  This really happens here, in the ways we help travelers who have spent their last paycheck, in the way we feed families on Wednesdays, in the way we take up special collections for families that have lost their homes, in the way we give to hunger causes around the world. 

            The early church was not just a social welfare society.  They spent time together because God’s love had made them brothers and sisters to one another.  They encouraged and supported and prayed for each other, worshiping together in church (the temple) and at home (gratefully breaking bread).  We know it wasn’t all perfect, but this picture of the early church is given to us as an ideal to look towards, a pattern to follow. 

            They were also a part of their community.  Before there were persecutions, Luke tells us that the first Christians “had the goodwill of the people.”  We know that being a vital church means knowing the community around you, and being an integral part of the life of that community.  It means serving, but also being present and having a voice in that community.  The question is often asked of churches: “If your congregation closed down, would it make a difference?  Would anyone outside your church know the difference?”  We want to be a church that makes a difference.  I was delighted this Easter to hear reports that people in the new Wawa station down the street were overheard talking about our Easter vigil at the outdoor “tomb.”  We keep looking for new ways to proclaim to all that Jesus is Lord.

            We also want to do our best to make Atonement a place that welcomes all and is safe for all.  To that end, we are developing new policies and procedures regarding safety and security at the church.  We will be focusing on individual security and keeping the congregation safe in case of a disaster.  We have implemented a new policy regarding sexual harassment, copies of which are available in the entryway.   New guidelines for ushers are an attempt to help make the congregation safer as well as to give a warmer welcome to our newcomers. 

            We are also developing a new website, which we hope to have on-line in June.  This new website will present our congregation attractively for people checking us out on the web.  More and more of our visitors tell me that they found us online.  We will include an easy to navigate home page with our location and service times easy to find.  Feature pages will describe our ministries and a church blog will have running updates of things that are happening.  This website will include all essential information about our church and take the place of the pile of paperwork that we now give newcomers who attend our orientation.

            The website will also be replacing the current “Discovering God’s Love” newsletter.  We have published the newsletter regularly for many years, filling people in on what’s new and different around Atonement.  Now, it makes more sense to go online where people can share and access information 24/7.  I want to thank Ruby Agnir for her wonderful work in keeping the newsletter going.  Going forward, look for news and information on the blog and ministry pages of the new website. 

            We are a growing and changing church.  This is both a blessing and a challenge.  It is a blessing to see new faces, start new ministries, and help more people than ever before.  It is a challenge to reach those new people and learn new skills and technologies that are needed as we grow.  As in the early church when “day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved,” we find the Lord alongside us, giving us the strength and guidance to be His church in this new day and age.

Peace,

Pastor Scott

Let's pray for each other

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

            “It’s malignant.”  My heart jumped when my wife Susan said it after her doctor’s appointment last month.  We’d been keeping an eye on the lump in her breast for years, and up till now there had been no changes.  Now, suddenly it was growing and had even broken through the skin.  Knowing what we knew, we should have been ready to hear those words.  Still, it shocked us...cancer had entered our lives.

            As people of faith, we believe – no, we know – that God is good all the time.  But faith does not shield us from struggle.  God’s blessings do not include immunity to adversity or an inability to feel pain.  Yet in these last few weeks, God has sent us good doctors and we can see Him working through them on our behalf.  They are optimistic that we will beat this.  We are optimistic that God will. 

            I have prayed with many cancer patients throughout my years as a pastor, in living rooms and hospital rooms, at bedsides and at the altar…but it’s an altogether different feeling when it’s my living room, and when the eyes I’m looking into are my wife’s.  I know I can’t fix this, but I can stand beside her.  I can’t stop the pain, but I can offer comfort.  I can’t heal her, but I can pray to the One who can. 

She has had her first treatment and so far has faced each appointment and test with calm confidence.  Family, friends and church have gathered around us with prayer and encouragement, and we’d love to have your prayers as well.  As 1 Peter 5:7 tells us to “cast all your anxiety on God because he cares for you,” I pray that you can do that too through whatever struggles you are facing.  Please feel free to share your prayer concerns with us…call our church office or come by Fridays between 11:30am and 1:30pm for Drive-Through Prayer.  God loves us and wants us all to be whole, therefore, let’s “pray for one another, so that we may be healed” (James 5:17).

Peace,

Pastor Scott

Hearing Voices

“…Pilate said to them, ‘Why, what evil has he done?  I have found in him no grounds for the sentence of death; I will therefore have him flogged and then release him.’  But they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified; and their voices prevailed.”

                                                                        --- Luke 23:22-23

            Whose voices prevail?  Growing up in America, I have always been taught and have always believed that democracy is the best form of government.  Even if that means it’s also the worst--except for all the others.  The voices of the majority are supposed to prevail, so we get what we asked for…supposedly.

But we know even better how it works in a family.  We can see the pitfalls of majority rule if we applied it to our family.  In a family, whose voices prevail?  Hopefully, the voices of the parents prevail because they know what’s best for the children.  If the children’s voices prevail, we’ll have a mess (at least if the children are anything like I was when I was a child). This doesn’t mean the children don’t have a voice and don’t get a say, it’s just that they don’t get to make the final decisions.  Their voices don’t prevail.

            We also know what happens to the masses when they are swayed by high emotions, manipulated by false facts, turned from the “better angels of our nature” into a mob that reacts with fear and violence.  One day’s bombshell dropped in the headlines, and your previously admiring public turns against you.  In the eyes of the world, you go from “winning” to “sinning” in an instant.  Whose voices prevail?

            As Jesus rode into Jerusalem positive that he wouldn’t make it out alive, it was the voices of the crowd prevailing.  They lauded and applauded his humble entrance, singing songs of blessing and celebrating with waving palm branches and a king’s welcome.  They were hoping he would be the one to defeat their enemies, rout the Romans, build them a new kingdom and help them dominate the world.  Their hopes were high when he entered the temple and drove out the merchants.  At last their voices were being heard.  At last they would be the ones on top. 

            But the enthusiasm fades fast…  He is seized, beaten, judged, and hurried to an execution, and when the crowds had a chance to redeem him from death, they prefer saving a terrorist.  Jesus, Son of God and Savior of the people is crucified, sentenced by the majority.  Their voices prevail.

            This month we will hear their voices ring out again as we walk together through Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday (the “night He was betrayed”), and Good Friday.  We will remember how those voices drowned out the voices of hope and faith and reflect on how our own voices still mingle with that crowd.  We will also hear his cries of agony and forgiveness from the cross, hear the shutting of his tomb, hear the silent finality of death.  But our journey does not end there.  On Easter Sunday we will walk together out of the dark and into the sunrise, and hear the one voice that matters most of all: the voice of God.  After it was clear that humanity deserved no part in what he came to bring, God brought it anyway: a new chance at hope, life, and love. 

We are blessed to live in a world where Jesus lives, and where in the end, God’s voice prevails.

OUR EASTER SERVICES THIS YEAR INCLUDE:

            Sunday Services on Palm Sunday: 8:30am, 10am, 11:30am

            Maundy Thursday service with First Communion: 7pm

            Good Friday service: 7pm,
                                                    followed by all-night vigil at the tomb

            Easter Sunday Services: 6:45am (outdoor sanctuary),
                                                                8am with 9am breakfast, 10am

            Each year we relive the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and his journey from life to death and back to life.  One of our confirmation students observed that passion is what makes an athlete persevere to the finish of a race, a fight, or a hard-fought game.  Passion is what we have when we have invested body and soul in something or someone we love.  It makes us willing to sacrifice and willing to give our all for another.

            We hear a lot of voices in our world.  They want to tell us who is and is not worthwhile.  They want us to see the world from one angle and forget that there are many perspectives.  They want to mesmerize and distract us from God’s message of love and hope.  Come join us this Easter, as we listen to the one voice that calls out to us all…the one voice that prevails in the end, the voice that says we all are loved.  Come hear our God say, “Rejoice, for He is risen indeed…Alleluia.”

Peace,

Pastor Scott