EDITOR'S NOTE: Since becoming the clergy leader at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn., in November 2017, I've written a monthly column for our church newsletter. This column originally published in the February 2018 FLC Newsletter.
Millions of Christians know the season of Lent to be symbolic of the march to Christ’s resurrection, a march from the dark days of winter toward that springtime celebration when Jesus Christ rose from the dead to conquer the mortal bonds that trap the rest of us in this world.
So in essence, Lent is a time of preparation in our wider church, preparation for Jesus’ glorious resurrection.
On a much more local level, we here at Faith Lutheran are living through a similar time of preparation. As you all know, I was invited into my position to help this congregation discern the future mission and station of Faith Lutheran Church.
With that in mind, I am writing to share with you a new worship plan that we will be trying for this year’s Lenten services. The method and strategy that we are trying is known by many names, but I like to call them “talking circles.”
Ash Wednesday this year falls on Wednesday, Feb. 14. And there are five more Wednesdays between Ash Wednesday and Holy Week. So this means that not only will we have a traditional Ash Wednesday service, we’ll have five more Wednesday services between that day and Holy Week.
After the traditional Ash Wednesday service, on each subsequent Wednesday during lent, we’d like to try out something new, even if it’s just for this year.
We’d like to host a series of “talking circles” for you to give the council and myself feedback about where you see the state of Faith Lutheran, in many and diverse ways.
Now, we certainly won’t forget the importance of worship during Lent. We’ll still begin each Wednesday worship with a shortened service, so to speak. We’ll do a welcome, sharing of the peace, opening hymn, a short message (like 5 minutes) and a closing hymn. The idea is to keep the service to 15 minutes. And then, with the time remaining in the service, we will have some very focused discussions with the congregation, just as a family does when it comes to very important topics. Each week we will pick a very strategic question to help spark your imagination and focus your own thoughts so that we can best draw out your thoughts, feelings, emotions, wishes and dreams for Faith Lutheran.
We plan to use the following four questions that were designed by our synod staff to help congregations such as ours help discern their future mission. And you can think about them in advance:
1.) What in the life and ministries of our congregation brings a smile to your face?
2.) What in the life and ministries of our congregation puzzles or concerns you?
3.) Tell us about something that’s happening in our congregation that you’d like to lift up,
give thanks for and commend to other congregations in our synod.
Tell us about something that’s happening in our congregation for which you think we could use some help -- advice, guidance, assistance -- from other congregations in our synod.
On the fifth and final Lenten Wednesday, we’ll share with everyone the information we gleaned from the first four “talking circles,” and we’ll talk about how far we journeyed in four weeks. The evening will be a capstone event for the series and help us make some sense of the discussions we’ve had.
You will hear much more about this process in the near future! … And it’s important to remember that this is only the first step in a long journey to discern Faith Lutheran’s mission.
There will be numerous other times we will hold church meetings, and there will be many other tools -- such as a survey -- that we will use to help gauge your wishes, hopes and dreams about our shared future. Take heart! We are serious and sincere about hearing each and every one of your voices, and this will not be the last time we call upon you for your thoughts!
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