now there are 2 rutgers math grad students who are members of lutheran church of the good shepherd :-) paul's been attending with me since easter weekend of 2004 (so for well over a year). he totally lucked out -- pastor j. was back this morning to preach for confirmation sunday in the later service, and pastor j. remembered when paul started visiting with me, so he insisted that he would do the whole "welcome the new member"/pray for paul bit during the service instead of the congregation president.
(random news: so paul and his girlfriend libby got engaged last month -- yay for them!)
it's always good to have pastor j. back, whether he's visiting or preaching (this was the first he's preached since he retired 6.5 months ago)... his sermon today was how our church has been on a journey, as has he since he retired and moved to virginia, but even though some of the dynamics have changed (we're going through the call process and almost ready to call a new pastor, he's been working as an on-call hospital chaplain in virginia and enjoying being part of the congregation instead of the shepherd where he's at), we're still all part of the great fellowship of Christians who have a faith of grace (instead of a faith of works), and no matter where we're at, we're still called each and every day to live that grace throughout our days, weeks, lives.... reaffirming our dedication of our lives to the message of God's grace isn't just for confirmands... it's for every Christian, every day... as usual, the whole shebang was illustrated with peanuts cartoons :-)... yay for pastor j!
on the calling a pastor note. there are 7 potential candidates on our call list... 4 will be interviewed this week and then the call committee will present their recommendation of a couple of names (based on interviews) to the congregation in a few weeks for us to vote who to extend a call to. the biographies of all 7 potential pastors were in the church library to read after the service and i sat around and read the 4 who are being interviewed... one especially stood out to me and i hope his interview goes well tomorrow, because i think he'd be really cool. he's worked in like 4 different districts of varying location/level of conservativeness, and i think that that puts him at an advantage (instead of one or two of the men who have primarily worked in the midwest and seem a bit more conservative than my congregation generally is)... he commented that he's committed to being conservative in doctrine but evangelical and open in practice, which is generally how i phrase what i love about good shepherd. i think this church does a clear job of teaching what we believe and not compromising on doctrine while being open to different worship styles and incorporating every member and their gifts in the church service. this pastor whose profile i liked best also commented that his current church has women deacons, elders, etc. just like good shepherd (which doesn't happen so often in lcms churchs not in a coast district), so that there wouldn't be conflict between the pastor's views and the way we, as a congregation, have chosen to act on different things. anyhow, it's really exciting to have actual names of people under consideration and see the ball moving further along as far as getting a new pastor. :-)
i think i'm done rambling about church stuff. it's a beautiful day... i need to go enjoy it ;-)
later dudes!
:-)
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