LIFE IS HARD, BUT GOD IS GOOD

If Mary were with us today, what are the lessons that she would share as the mother of our Lord? I believe that the first thing she would say to us is this – LIFE IS HARD.

Mary should have known from the beginning that her life was going to be hard. Spending the last few days of her pregnancy on the back of a donkey and having no better a place for the birth of her child than a cave with the odors of cattle and sheep, Mary should have known that her life was going to be hard. And the journey to Bethlehem was not her last journey that was going to be hard. Mary and Joseph and the new-born Jesus are forced to flee to Egypt to escape from Herod’s wrath. Mary and Joseph are on the run, fleeing to protect the life of their son.

Martin Luther said this about the flight to Egypt. “The artists give her a donkey; the Gospels do not.” She might have had to trudge over hills and desert sand on foot, nursing her precious child and leaning on her beloved Joseph for support. It was not until Herod’s death that the young family was finally able to return to their home in Nazareth. In a world filled with refugees, it is important for us to remember that our Lord Jesus Himself at one time was a refugee.

The next dozen or so years in Mary’s life were undoubtedly good ones. Except when Jesus gave them the scare of their life when He remained behind in the Temple at the age of twelve. Mary and Joseph were never prosperous. But Joseph was a hard worker and an able provider. And their oldest son, Jesus,was turning into a fine young man as He was growing in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and other people.

But then something must have happened to Joseph. After Jesus turned twelve, Joseph is never mentioned again in the Gospels. Mary might have found herself left as a young widow, as her oldest son, Jesus, would have taken Joseph’s place in the carpenter’s shop.

But the loss of her husband Joseph was not going to be the last major source of sorrow for Mary. She experienced a parent’s worst nightmare. She watched her beloved, oldest boy die as a common criminal on a cross. Can you feel her agony as she watched the cruelty of death by crucifixion? I am certain that Mary would have gladly taken her son’s place on the cross, just as Jesus took our place on the cross.

Yes, LIFE IS HARD. That is the first thing that I believe Mary would say to us today. But then I believe she would also say, BUT GOD IS GOOD.

Mary must have been overwhelmed that the God of all creation would have chosen her for the high honor of being the mother of His Son. No wonder she sang –

“He has looked with favor on the lowliness of His servant;
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed.
For the Mighty One has done great things for me,
And holy is His Name.”

In Mary’s mind only a good and gracious God would bypass the wealthy and powerful and choose a young peasant girl to bear His Son.

“He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
And lifted up the lowly.”

You and I will never play as significant a role in God’s plan of salvation as Mary did. And yet each one of us can know what it is like to be humbled by God’s great concern for us. We do not deserve His care. We do not deserve to be able to play even a minor role in His plan for the future. After all, who are we that the God of wonders beyond our galaxy would be aware of us and our needs and would have any need and use for us? And yet, with a sense of deep gratitude, we teach our children to bow their heads and pray, “God is great and God is good.”

LIFE IS HARD, BUT GOD IS GOOD. Not only did He choose the lowly maiden of Nazareth. Not only was He aware of her needs. And not only does He choose us and is He aware of our needs. He also keeps all His promises. No wonder Mary also declared –

“He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.

He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy.

According to the promise He made to our ancestors,

To Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

Mary understood that the coming of the Messiah was the fulfillment of God’s great,long-awaited promise. Yes, LIFE IS HARD, BUT GOD IS GOOD.

Mary’s story is a story that has been duplicated millions of times throughout human history. It is the story of a mother’s deep, deep love for her child. Even when He was a grown man, with a ministry she could barely understand, still for Mary He was her son. But even Mary’s love for Jesus is but a pale reflection of God’s great love for you.

I do not know what kind of a holiday season this one has been so far for you and will continue to be for you. I hope and pray it has been and will be the best one ever. But I also know that for some it is shaping up to be a very difficult one. Either way, may we all learn these lessons from Mary – LIFE IS HARD, BUT GOD IS GOOD. 

Pastor Dennis D. Nelson

Executive Director of Lutheran CORE

Editor’s Note: The new article below, by Pastor Keith Forni, is CORE’s final report on the 2018 Encuentro event and well worth a quick read.

Click here to read the article.

Second Mini-Newsletter – Late November 2018

November 2018 Lutheran CORE Newsletter

MAKE THE MOST OF EVERY OPPORTUNITY

That is a theme that I heard twice during the same week – at both the LCMC annual gathering October 7-10 and the Lutheran CORE-sponsored, Spanish and bi-lingual ministries Encuentro on October 12.

Kent Hunter, founder of Church Doctor Ministries and keynote speaker at the LCMC gathering, was sharing how our nation as a civilization is showing deep signs of stress. Our culture is deteriorating from the inside. For the church of Jesus this undeniable reality is a great opportunity. If you were to ask unchurched people, “What do you think it is going to be like for your children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren?” their response is likely to be one of hopelessness. This hopelessness is a sign of receptivity to spiritual things. It is a lie from Satan to say that people today are not receptive. We are living in a season of receptivity. As a simple way in which everyone can respond to this season of receptivity, Dr. Hunter suggests that you ask the person who is waiting on you at a restaurant for their name, and then ask them if they have any concerns that you can pray for when you pray for your food. People are hurting. People are in need. People are receptive and will value and respond to your offer to pray for them.

I saw this principle illustrated a few days later at the Lutheran CORE-sponsored Encuentro in the Hermosa neighborhood of northwest Chicago.  The previous Saturday a two-year-old boy had been tragically shot and killed in an eruption of violence in the area surrounding the host church. The following Monday there was a neighborhood gathering with city officials and law enforcement personnel. Keith Forni, pastor of the host church, St. Timothy’s, as well as pastor of First/Santa Cruz Lutheran Church in Joliet, coordinator of the Encuentro, and member of the board of Lutheran CORE, was present at the gathering and was asked by a city official to lead in prayer. Keith told about the prayer gathering that had already been planned for the closing of the Encuentro the following Friday evening. This time of prayer out in front of the church was being held for the city of Chicago, which has seen so many homicides and so much violence, and for the victims of shootings and their families. This prayer gathering was announced in the Chicago Tribune, and cameramen from two local television news stations came to film the vigil and to interview participants. What an opportunity. What a moment of receptivity.

Pastor Forni also described the practice of Las Posadas as an opportunity for a congregation to do neighborhood ministry. Reenacting the search of Mary and Joseph for a place to stay for the night, Lutherans in changing neighborhoods can reach out to and take the first step in connecting with a neighborhood that they may have lost touch with.

IT IS ALWAYS A JOY

It is always a joy to represent Lutheran CORE at the annual LCMC gathering. These people are warmly welcoming, fervent in their love for Jesus, and passionate in their commitment to mission. They are innovative and creative in their seeking to share their faith in a twenty-first century world. They are not going to become discouraged. For example, I was talking with a man who has been president of his congregation in Texas. After their pastor retired, they found that they no longer had the numbers and resources to call a new pastor. Rather than close the congregation, the church council told the president that they wanted him to be their next pastor. That person is now pursuing theological training online so that he will be able to fill the role that has been given to him by the congregation. I was reminded of the number of times in the New Testament when the apostle Paul appointed leaders in churches after he had been there for only a short time, and then he wrote letters to those churches in order to teach them what they should believe and how they should live.

As I experienced at the NALC convocation in August, there were so many people at the LCMC gathering who came up to me or who came up to my Lutheran CORE table and told me how they read our materials and how much they value and appreciate the work we are doing. They particularly mentioned reading our recent correspondence with ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton about the ELCA youth gathering and our evaluation of Bishop Eaton’s response. We were mightily encouraged by all the expressions of appreciation and support from our friends in LCMC.

Attending the gathering also gave me abundant opportunity to tell people about the upcoming Congregations in Transition ministry initiative and the Rekindling Your First Love event.

CONGREGATIONS IN TRANSITION MINISTRY INITIATIVE

The Congregations in Transition ministry initiative is an effort to train (mostly retired) Lutheran pastors to serve as coaches to congregations whose pastor has retired or resigned to take another call. A very generous gift has been received to cover the travel and lodging expenses of pastors for a three-night, two-full-day training and relationship building event probably in early April 2019 in the Phoenix area.  The need for this initiative is greatly increased by the number of soon-retiring Baby Boomer pastors, declining seminary enrollment, increased student debt for those graduating from seminary, the loss of congregational momentum that can occur during an interim period, and the fact that interim pastors will not always be available.

In this initiative a congregation organizes a Leadership Team of a few key leaders (separate from the church council and the call committee), which then works with their coach, primarily online. The ministry arrangement begins with an initial onsite visit to introduce the coach to the entire congregation and that includes the coach’s spending a full day with the Leadership Team. The primary purpose of this ministry is for far more than simply offering encouragement to the congregation in a time of crisis. It also includes helping the Leadership Team maintain not just stability but momentum in regards to the congregation’s vital ministries during this transition time.

There is no financial cost for those who volunteer to serve as coaches. Their travel and lodging expenses for the training event are being covered by a generous gift. There are very few financial costs to the congregations. The trained coaches are active retired pastors who are willing to volunteer their time. The only significant expense for the congregation would be if they decided that they would like their coach to visit their church.

Please watch for more information about this ministry initiative in future issues of our newsletter, CORE Voice, and in future letters from the director. Please contact me at [email protected] if you are interested and/or if you would like to know more.

REKINDLING YOUR FIRST LOVE

Another one of our upcoming projects which I was very happy to be able to tell people about at the LCMC gathering is our “Rekindling Your First Love” event. This gathering will take place on Wednesday, May 1, 2019 in the Baltimore area and will be a full day of spiritual and emotional renewal for pastors. It will include presentations, discussion, processing, prayer, fellowship, worship, determining next steps, and personal ministry time. NALC pastor Tim Hubert will talk about “Rekindling Your First Love for Christ.” NALC pastor Wendy Berthelsen will speak on “Rekindling Your First Love for the Church as the Body of Christ.” ELCA pastor Brian Hughes will address “Rekindling Your First Love for Mission and Ministry as the Work of Christ in the World.”

The idea of the gathering is as follows. At the end of his letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul commended that church for their undying love. A generation later in Revelation 2 when John writes to the church in Ephesus he tells them that they have lost their first love. Many pastors – because of the demands of ministry, the painful experience of being hurt and even betrayed by congregational members, and having to deal with so much conflict – have lost their first love. If that is you, we want to invite you to rekindle and regain your first love. Please be watching for more information, which will be available soon.

PASTORAL FORMATION

We are also working with Perry Fruhling, LCMC coordinator for pastoral ministry, to identify congregations that have seen two or more people go to seminary recently and pastors who have seen two or more people go to seminary during their ministry. We will then work with these pastors and the leaders of these churches to identify the common factors that make a congregation and a pastoral ministry a good nurturing place for future pastors.

WE ARE VERY GRATEFUL

We are very grateful to Kim Smith for taking on the role of president of the board for Lutheran CORE. Kim has been serving on our board for a little under two years. She is the one who developed our new website and now is keeping it current. She is also editor of our newsletter. I was elected president of the board in early 2015. A year later I was also hired as part-time director. Because the ministry is ever-increasing, we are very grateful that Kim is willing and able to serve as president of the board while I remain as executive director.

We are also very grateful for all of our friends – individuals as well as congregations – who support our work. This is the time of year when many congregations are determining their benevolence budget and mission dollars recipients for next year. We urge you to speak with your pastor, and, pastors, we ask you to speak to your church councils about including Lutheran CORE in the list of missions which will receive financial support from your congregation next year.

As a partner with you in seeking to make use of every opportunity to share the love of Jesus,

Pastor Dennis D. Nelson

Executive Director of Lutheran CORE

909-274-8591

[email protected]

Editor’s note: The article below by Pastor Brett Jenkins originally appeared in the July 2018 newsletter.

Click here to read this very short and helpful article.

Editor’s Note: The article below by Pastor Dennis D. Nelson originally appeared in the September 2018 Newsletter.

Click here to read the article.

All,

This month David Charlton, an ELCA pastor, wrote to Bp. Eaton about his concerns concerning seminary education of traditional Lutherans seeking ordination in the ELCA. Click here to read his letter which asked some very important questions. Bp. Eaton responded and gave him permission to share; click here to read her response.

September 2018 LCORE Newsletter

Editor’s Note: The article below by Pastor Dennis D. Nelson originally appeared in the Summer 2018 Newsletter.

Click here to read the article.