{"id":1368,"date":"2012-02-08T21:12:34","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T04:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/?p=1368"},"modified":"2012-03-01T23:25:30","modified_gmt":"2012-03-02T06:25:30","slug":"pastors-pen-for-february-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/?p=1368","title":{"rendered":"Pastor\u2019s Pen for February 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u201cDance, then, wherever you may be, I am the Lord of the dance said he,<\/em><\/address>\n
and I\u2019ll lead you all wherever you may be, and I\u2019ll lead you all in the dance said he.\u201d<\/em><\/address>\n
– Lord of the Dance<\/span>, Sydney Carter<\/address>\n

Beloved of God,<\/p>\n

The life of our congregation is like a dance.\u00a0 On Sundays that dance gathers us<\/span> around God\u2019s Word and Sacraments, and then sends us out<\/span> to be Christ\u2019s body in the world\u2026doing God\u2019s work, with our hands (and feet!).\u00a0 Within this larger whole, each small group\/task force\/committee and ministry team has its own series of steps, and moves to the beat of its own rhythm.\u00a0 Fitting the choreography of each smaller group\u2019s ministry into the larger whole in such a way that the rhythms and actions compliment each other instead of detracting from each other (or step on one another\u2019s toes!), is an ongoing task.<\/p>\n

At times we need to get off the dance floor<\/span> and up to the balcony<\/span> for a more comprehensive view of what\u2019s happening in the life of our congregation.\u00a0 That, in part, is what our annual meetings are about\u2014the Bulletin of Reports provides an overarching view of our mission over the past year.\u00a0 But if we flip to the green pages<\/span> (financial summary) or pink pages<\/span> (proposed budget) without reading the yellow pages<\/span> (vision\/mission plan), or white ones<\/span> (small group\/task force\/committee reports) we\u2019ll be missing something crucial.<\/p>\n

A couple of paragraphs on paper won\u2019t begin to tell the whole story, of course.\u00a0 Our ministry is about flesh and blood people and relationships\u2014the slideshow at our meeting helps remind us of that.\u00a0 But the reports and figures do tell part<\/span><\/em> of the story of how we, collectively, have lived out our calling as God\u2019s dancing people during the year past.<\/p>\n

This month marks the 7th<\/sup> anniversary of my Call to serve as your pastor.\u00a0 These seven years have been a rich and growing time for me personally, as well as our congregation.\u00a0 Each year has brought unique challenges, some anticipated and some unanticipated.\u00a0 The dance continues now in 2012 with a new Vision for Mission Plan embraced by our congregation on January 29.\u00a0 \u00a0So…slip on your shoes\u2014 it\u2019s time to head back to the dance floor!\u00a0 (You can read about the specifics in the summary of actions from the meeting, below.)<\/p>\n

Funding our collective mission in 2012 will require us to step up and out in new ways.\u00a0 In 2011 we scaled back our goal<\/span> for funding our mission and, for the first time in seven years, our aggregate level of giving fell<\/span> to less than it was the year before.\u00a0 This year you have endorsed a spending plan that looks forward more boldly.\u00a0 There is no reason why we can\u2019t turn things back around in 2012.\u00a0 In addition to our regular spending plan (budget), a newly authorized Capital Campaign Working Group will be begin work soon to set forth a process for raising the capital necessary to achieve the facilities goals we\u2019ve now established as part of our Vision for Mission Plan.\u00a0 Coupled with our plans for bringing a new Music Director on board, all this points to 2012 being another year of transition for us at Peace.<\/p>\n

As we begin incorporating these new<\/span> dance steps to our repertoire, we\u2019ll be utilizing our God-given gifts and talents for ministry.\u00a0 And with the Lord of the Dance beside us, guiding our steps along the way, we are wonderfully poised to turn opportunities into tangible emblems of God\u2019s presence and power.\u00a0 I\u2019m game for that…how about you?<\/p>\n

Your servant in Christ,<\/p>\n

Pastor Erik<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cDance, then, wherever you may be, I am the Lord of the dance said he, and I\u2019ll lead you all wherever you may be, and I\u2019ll lead you all in the dance said he.\u201d – Lord of the Dance, Sydney Carter Beloved of God, The life of our congregation is like a dance.\u00a0 On Sundays […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","category-newsletter","category-pastors-pen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1368"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1403,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1368\/revisions\/1403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peacelutheranseattle.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}