An Important Visitor

Yesterday, our core group was visited by Pastor Dave Dubbelde, the district mission representative for our denomination. It was an informative and encouraging visit.

He commented about another positive to the name "Bread of Life." When he was young, he was a farmer's son. In the Fall he would haul grain from the fields to the elevators, and in every trip he would pass by his grandmother's house where she always had a loaf of bread going. His point: bread evokes feelings of comfort, of belonging, of home, all feelings that he believed a church should evoke.

October Mission Plant Minute

Bread. We take it for granted, don’t we? A few weeks ago I tried to find jokes or stories about bread. I found the task nearly impossible. Why? It is because bread is common place, and we hardly notice it. Those who live in starving lands undoubtedly appreciate bread more.
While there are certainly far more jokes and stories about religion, too often we also take the Gospel for granted. Yet, in Georgetown, Kentucky, there is a population that is hungry. While there are many churches in Georgetown, there are no Lutheran churches, churches which offer the pure Gospel.
Enter “Bread of Life Lutheran Church.” This is the name that our Core Group has chosen for the congregation, and what an appropriate name it is. With a strategy and a name, we are moving forward to feed people with Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior of the world. Already people are responding and showing interest in our little church.
You might say that right now we are a lump of dough. Please pray that God continue to kneed us and form us so that one day we will be a beautiful loaf of bread, a mature and self-sufficient church.

Bread of Life

After some discussion we came up with a name:

Bread of Life Lutheran Church

This is what we like about it:

1) It is distinct. There are no other churches in the town named Bread of Life. More than this, none of us could even think of a church named Bread of Life that we had ever encountered.

2) Because it is distinct, it is ear catching.

3) It makes you think. "Bread of Life, hmm." We anticipate this as a great opportunity to speak the Gospel to people as they ask us what Bread of Life means.

4) It gives us an opportunity to embrace and explain our sacramental theology. While theologians are mixed as to whether the Bread of Life references in the Bible have sacramental meaning, I think that it is a valid move in discussion to link the name "Bread of Life" with the Sacraments.

5) It is not timebound, as far as I can tell. It is not '70's, like all the "Shepherd of the . . . " churches. It is not trendy like churches called things like "Destiny Church," "Crossroads," or "Extreme Church." Yes, I have seen churches with eac of these names.

What do you think about this name?

Prayers Needed

I have a rather unique arrangement for my work schedule. I have three roles in my call:

1) Do general pastoral work, including weddings, visiting the sick, conducting Bible studies, preaching, etc. at Saint John's in Lexington.

2) Lead the youth program at Saint John's in Lexington. I am in a support role for our grade school and junior high programs, and I am the leader for the senior high program.

3) Lead the church plant effort in Georgetown.

Until this week, these three roles balanced out pretty well. This week, achieving any kind of balance was next to impossible. Please pray for me as I face this challenge!

An Interesting Phenomenon

In going door to door yesterday, I found that there were two groups of churchgoers who valued two different things.

One group appreciated churches that were close, tight communities. This group also appreciated churches that were oriented towards serving families. Such people tended to frequent smaller churches.

The other group appreciated a casual and comfortable atmosphere. They tended to attend larger churches that followed the Willow Creek/Saddleback model of church.

Have you noticed a similar phenomenon to this in your community? Please comment!

Going door to door for the first time

In a previous post, I discussed how a Lutheran pastor who previously led a church plant in Georgetown would go door to door to introduce himself and the church to the community.

Yesterday, I did this for the first time. It was a rather pleasant task, all in all. Most everybody I met was more than happy to give me a few minutes of their time. I was not doing a hard evangelism visit, just introductions and asking them what they like about their churches if they are members of one and what they would like in a church if they do not go to church.

People are rather surprised to find someone introducing a church to them which does not have a location or even a name. Frankly, I am also surprised that I am doing this without those rather fundamental items decided. Yet, it was valuable work, and I plan to continue doing it in the coming weeks and months.

God willing, there will be a new door in Georgetown come Easter 2007: The only Lutheran church in Scott County!