The Key to Unlock Each New Day in the New Year

Dear Friends in Christ:

I’m sure that you recognize the name of Bill Cosby, comedian, teacher, author, and actor. I recently came across this story from his early life. He is talking about his days of playing football in Philadelphia:

Bill says that his favorite coach was not much of a coach, but he sure did get us excited. Cosby tells of one time when the coach came into the locker room, called the players around him and said: “I have just been to the other locker room, and over there they think you are a bunch of wimps. They think that they are going to run all over you. In fact, they are going to run up into the stands and beat up on your parents and grandmother.”

“Now are you going to let them do that? Are you?” Cosby said — we shouted “NO.” Let me hear you say “fight.” We shouted “FIGHT.” In our excitement, we started running around the locker room! Slamming doors! Upsetting benches! Beating each other over the head! Screaming — “Let us out of here! We wanna go! We wanna go!”

Cosby says we raced out of the locker room. Up the dark tunnel to the football field. But the door was locked! We could not get out onto the field. We stood there, probably for ten long minutes, in a dark, cold tunnel waiting for someone to get a key and unlock the door. Finally, we walked out onto the field to play the game. And we were beaten 77 — 0!

Cosby ends his story by saying — “Pep talks can get us excited. But it takes more than excitement to win a football game.”

I’d like to propose that for us, as followers of Jesus Christ, more than “excitement” we need “enlightenment”.

For the next 5 Sundays, Pastor Lynnae and I will be giving a series of sermons on how the Bible ENLIGHTENS our lives as God’s people. And, with that ”enlightenment”, we will become more excited to continue regular visits to God’s word, worship, Bible study, and service to others!

I believe that this is the key to unlock each new day in the New Year. GOD’S BLESSINGS IN THE NEW YEAR!

— Pastor David Fetter

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Our Christmas Card to You...

Dear Friends in Christ,

It continues to be a privilege and a joy to serve with you in the mission and ministry of Abiding Love. We thank you for your support, and encouragement. The partnership that we share in doing God’s work is a blessing that gives purpose to our lives.

We know that all things are made possible through the power of God’s Spirit of love made known to us through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ..

May the miracle of Christmas which is the gift of Jesus bring you hope, joy, peace, and love today and in the New Year.

JESUS, God with us!
God is with us… we need not fear.
God is with us… we have everything we need.
God is with us… we are never alone.
“They shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” —Matthew 1:23

Pastor David Fetter

Pastor Lynnae Sorensen

Cindy Kunz

Karron G. Lewis

Joan Hokanson

Dona Brooks

Laurie Donovan

Sherry Petriella

Donna Eassty

Come Celebrate Jesus!

Dear Friends in Christ:

Our choir is preparing a musical cantata for Sunday, December 20, 11:00 a.m. It is titled, “COME CELEBRATE JESUS”. I hope that many of you will be able to attend worship that day.
As I have been rehearsing for this, the thought came to me that this is exactly what we do whenever we gather to worship, year-around. Why do we come to church? We come to celebrate Jesus!

In my daily meditations last week, I read the following article. As you read it, my prayer is that you will celebrate the love of Jesus who always meets you here in your church home:

Some of you know the story of writer Anne Lamott. When she was twenty-five, her father died after a long struggle with brain cancer. Over the next few years Anne herself began to suffer from an overwhelming sense of desperation and fear which she tried to suppress with alcohol and pills. Although she was managing to write and publish successful novels at the time, it was clear that her life was spinning out of control. In her memoir, Traveling Mercies, she writes about this dark period of her life. And most importantly she tells how a community of Christian faith, a neighborhood church called St. Andrew, came to her rescue.
In her book, she tells the time-honored story of a little girl who was lost. This girl ran up and down the streets of the big town where her family lived, but she couldn’t find a single landmark. She was frightened. Finally, a policeman stopped to help her. He put her in the passenger seat of his car, and they drove around until she finally saw her church. She pointed it out to the policeman, and then she told him firmly, “You can let me out now. This is my church, and I can always find my way home from here.”
Anne Lamott writes, “And that is why I have stayed so close to mine—because no matter how bad I am feeling, how lost or lonely or frightened, when I see the faces of the people at my church, when I hear their voices, I can always find my way home!”

--Pastor David Fetter

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Imagine: Ministry & Generosity Beyond Belierf!

Dear Friends in Christ:

Every Sunday is important for us as God’s people, but the NEXT 3 SUNDAYS have special importance for our congregation at this time in our life together:

† This Sunday, Nov. 15th, we will celebrate our unity with one worship service at 9:30 a.m. Pastor Jana Swenson with Kairos and Associates, our Christian Consulting Resource Partner, will be the guest preacher.
I am praying that as many as possible of you will be present to hear an “Invitation to Respond” that can have a major impact on your spiritual growth in faith and commitment to Christ’s Church!
Following the worship service at 11:15 a.m., a potluck smorgasbord will be served. You are asked to please bring a side dish or dessert with an “international flavor”. Meat will be provided.
(Note: There will be no Sunday School.)

† November 22nd will be “Response Sunday” when you bring your giving plan to place on the altar in support of the 2010 Mission and Ministry of Abiding Love, as well as our 3-year Capital Appeal.
These loving commitments are to be your celebration in praise of Christ the King on this Festival Sunday that concludes the Church Year!

† November 29th will be “Thanksgiving Sunday — the First Sunday in Advent”. This will be a day to give thanks for your generosity in support of our “ministry beyond belief!”
This day will also be an “Invitation to Christmas: Come Celebrate Jesus!”

What do I IMAGINE will happen during these next three Sundays? I imagine that God will bless us so that we might prove to be faithful in our continued vision of a ministry and mission that is growing in God’s abiding love, serving God by sharing God’s love with our community, and celebrating the love Jesus Christ has for all people, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit!

Believing that with God all things are possible,
Pastor David Fetter

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All Saints Day - "Faith of our Fathers & Mothers Living Still!"

Dear Friends in Christ:

This Sunday, as we gather for worship, we will remember those saints of God who have died over the past 30 years of our congregation’s history. Our theme for this day is “Looking Backward”. It is important to celebrate the blessings these members of our church family have left us. And, in giving thanks for their lives of faith, we are inspired to continue this legacy in letting our light shine through generous giving and faithful living!

This past Sunday, we celebrated the Confirmation of Faith by ten of our 9th grade youth. These young saints of God reaffirmed their Baptisms by sharing with us their personal statements of faith. This certainly shows that Abiding Love Lutheran Church is making a difference in people’s lives. Our present “Imagine: Ministry Beyond Belief” emphasis is calling us to LOOK FORWARD in belief that even as we LOOK BACKWARD who could have fully imagined all that God has accomplished?

May we be blessed by these words of those ten young disciples who said “I Believe” last Sunday:
† “Faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit means hope, and knowing that God is always there for you.”
† “The Church is a place where I always feel I belong.”
† “We come to church to study God’s Word together, and to grow in our understanding of God and others.”
† “What the Church means to me can be summed up in one word— LOVE.”
† I will show my love for God through my actions.”
† “We are to live by Christ’s example. We are called to be servants of God.”
† I would never hesitate if ever tested or asked about my faith!”

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A Bible Truth:
“Since you have accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, live in union with him. Keep your roots deep in him, build your lives on him, and become ever stronger in your fiath, as you were taught. And be filled with Thanksgiving.” (Colossians 2:6-7)

— Pastor David Fetter

Imagine: Ministry and Generosity Beyond Belief

Dear Friends in Christ:

The past six weeks have been a very special opportunity for us as a congregation to intentionally lift up the subject of CHRISTIAN STEWARDSHIP. We have used a book titled, Giving to GOD - The Bible’s Good News about Living a Generous Life, by Lutheran Pastor Mark Allan Powell, as a resource to guide us.

I hope the Sunday Sermon Series, take-home meditation cards, and Bible Study classes have been a blessing in your spiritual growth. I thank our Stewardship Ministry Team for coordinating this emphasis of “Imagine Generosity Beyond Belief.”

On Sunday, October 18, at both worship serivces, we will begin another 6-week emphasis of “Imagine Ministry Beyond Belief”. By now you should have received a special letter from Diane Albin, Congregation Presisdent, that explains this. What follows is a brief outline of our themes for these six special Sundays of celebration from October 18th through November 22nd:

† Sunday, October 18th — “Looking Inward” — A day to celebrate the faith-stories of Our Congregation’s Members!

† Sunday, October 25th — “Looking Forward” — A day to celebrate the hope and joy we have at Abiding Love because of the growing faith in our Children and Youth!
(Note: A “Ceremony of Confirmation” will be celebrated for ten of our 9th grade youth at the 11:00 a.m. service.)

† All Saints’ Sunday, November 1st — “Looking Backward” — A day to celebrate all those Saints who have gone before us, leaving a Legacy of Faith for us, the living saints, during the past 30 years of Abiding Love’s Mission and Ministry. Come, and remember our blessings!

† Sunday, November 8th — “Looking Outward” — A day to celebrate the Community Outreach Ministries of Abiding Love, even to “the ends of the earth”!

† Sunday, November 15th — “Looking Upward” — ONE WORSHIP SERVICE at 9:30 a.m. to celebrate the promise we have that “For God all things are possible”! (Mark 10:27) Come, celebrate our unity in Christ as we “Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow”!
(Note: An “All-Congregation Meal” will follow worship.)

† “Response” Sunday, November 22nd — We bring our “Covenants of Support” for the 2010 mission and ministry of Abiding Love, as well as our 3-year “Capital Appeal Commitments”! “We love because God first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)

I thank God for all who are involved in planning and presenting these special worship celebrations.

I believe we can IMAGINE that God’s promise to “bless us and keep us” as a church family is true. “Now to God who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20,21)

— Pastor David Fetter

Stewardship

Dear Friends in Christ:

I have subscribed to a very helpful publication for many years. It’s called The Clergy Journal. It was edited for a long time by the late Lutheran Pastor Manfred Holck, a resident of Austin.
Is it just a coincidence that the most recent issue is titled “STEWARDSHIP” as we are in the midst of our “Imagine Generosity and Ministry Beyond Belief” emphasis?

In the lead article by Richard Klopp and William Enright, they write:
“American congregations are being stretched in new ways by an economic recession, the depth and length of which is impossible to predict. Clergy are being called upon to think out loud and reflect theologically on issues of money and financial security as they help congregants grapple with the relationship between faith and finances in a world numbed by institutionalized consumerism.

As difficult as these times can be, there is an opportunity here for those who would seize it — the opportunity to make conversation, preaching, and teaching about the faithful use of money and possessions a hallmark of their ministries. Congregations can benefit greatly from ascertaining where they stand, learning all they can about what others are experiencing, developing congregational coping mechanisms, and continuing to reach out to those in need. They can do all this while inviting members to ‘live the vision’ that binds them together as God’s people. Clergy can and should courageously face these issues with their members.”

God’s Word, the Bible, is filled with encouragement for us all as God’s people. Today, I am reading from St. Paul’s first letter to Timothy (6:18-19): “Do good, be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for yourselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that you may take hold of the life that really is life.”

MAY GOD BLESS YOUR FAITHFUL EFFORTS!

— Pastor David Fetter

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