We have the routine down, but there is nothing routine about what we are doing. On Sunday we will ordain and/or install into church office a group of fellow LPC members. Some will become elders, others deacons, and still others trustees. Elders and deacons are ecclesial or church officers, and trustees are corporate officers. They are our leaders.

The routine of the process is pretty well known. In the fall our Nominating Committee begins to seek persons to fill upcoming vacancies or our three boards – typically four elders and trustees and five deacons. This year there were some unexpired terms, so they were seeking five elders and seven deacons.

By January the Nominating Committee has prepared a slate of officer nominees, all the vacancies ready to be filled. At our congregational meeting in February we elect them all in an election whose outcome seems as predictable as the outcome of a North Korean election. Continue reading →

I shared Concepcion’s story with those in worship this past Sunday and share it again with some reluctance. It is a privilege and a burden even to know the story. The privilege came a week ago yesterday in a little village in Guatemala, the burden is to be borne for a long time.

The pastor of the church hosting our mission team medical clinic in the village had told us just the sketchy outline of the story and then an hour or so later he arranged for Dr. Dave Schaebler and I to meet Concepcion and her family.

A somber stillness filled the room. Concepcion, fifteen years old and stoic. With her were her three sisters, ages one, four and eleven, her aunt, Francisca, and her grandmother, Concepcion, whose name she bears. Continue reading →

Our Guatemala Mission Away Team heads south tomorrow. Pray for us. As you use the prayer guide, you will find that our team members have offered a variety of prayer requests. We have asked that you pray for our safety and protection, for health, and, yes, for a smooth trip through Guatemalan customs. But mostly you will notice team members asking that God’s will be done and that we be open to God’s will and ready to obey as he calls and sends. We have asked that you pray for the success of the trip.

But what metrics define success? Continue reading →

This year’s early Easter, March 27 – the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox, makes for an early Ash Wednesday. This coming Wednesday, February 10, right between the Super Bowl and Valentines Day

Ash Wednesday, preceded by Shrove Tuesday, is the first day of Lent, that 40-day (with the exception of Sundays) period that will take us past Presidents Day, Super Tuesday, and Saint Patrick’s Day through Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. And then Easter, also the day of the Elite Eight round in this year’s NCAA Basketball Tournament. The East Regionals will be hosted at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia

At best Lent seems like an anachronism in a world Super Bowls and Super Tuesdays, Valentines, Shamrocks, and March Madness. Why bother? Why learn this odd vocabulary – Shrove Tuesday, Lent, Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday? Continue reading →

“Therefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4:18 (NKJV)

The Thessalonian Christians were anxious about those among their number who had died, and yet Jesus had not yet returned. Would their loved ones miss the resurrection from the dead? Did gospel hope extend beyond the grave as we wait for the end of all things? Their friend Paul wrote to remind them that “we do not grieve as those who have no hope.” He went on to share his understanding of how the end would come and the place of those “who sleep.” “Therefore comfort one another with these words,” he concluded.

My mother died Sunday, January 17. The photo in the header was taken Sunday, January 10. She had returned home after the worship service in the chapel at her retirement community. The following Wednesday she was taken to the hospital with pneumonia. Her weak heart was not strong enough to fight the battle she faced, and she died four days later. Continue reading →