Friends,

Fall is now here, and so we mark the return of many of the ministry opportunities available in and through CtK during the school year. In addition to Sunday faith formation offerings like BAM! (Bible and Me!), Youth Breakfast Club, and Sunday Adult Learning Time (SALT) this week we will also re-introduce Wednesday night faith formation programming for all ages. This includes Family Time for elementary aged folks and their families, Confirmation for 6th-8th graders, and Wednesday Night Forums, in which we will be discussing the ELCA Social Statements for a season. 

I’d like to focus a bit more one this last item.

ELCA Social Statements are teaching and policy documents that provide broad frameworks to assist members of the ELCA in thinking about and discussing social issues in the context of faith and life. They are meant to help both communities and individuals with moral formation, discernment and thoughtful engagement with current social issues as we participate in God’s work in the world. Social statements also set policy for the ELCA and guide its advocacy and work as a publicly engaged church. They result from an extensive process of participation and deliberation and are adopted by a two-thirds vote of an ELCA churchwide assembly. (for more, check out this link to the ELCA webpage.)

Here at CtK, we’ll be taking a closer look at four of the thirteen current Social Statements of the ECLA during this fall season. 

Sept 25                    What are Social Statements? How do they come about? 
                                     Why does the ELCA have them? How are they used?

Oct 2/9                    Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective (1991)

Oct 16/23              Health and Health Care: Our Shared Endeavor (2003)

Oct 30/Nov 6       Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust (2009)
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Nov 13/20             Faith, Sexism, and Justice: A Call to Action (2019)

Come for dinner, served from 5 to 6:30, and then come ready to learn and discuss together how your church engages in the issues, gifts, and challenges of the culture and society all around us. I’m looking forward to lively discussions about these important topics!

Pr. Peter

Items are being collected NOW through October 11 for the 22nd Annual Winter Clothing Collection. Since this is a long-standing event in our community, there are several people, as well as community organizations, that rely on this opportunity to find winter clothing in times of need. All items are given away free of charge. Last year we collected 600 coats.  We’ve given over 10,000 coats in our history. Can you help us this year?

These are the items we are collecting:

• Winter Coats (Gently Used or New) Please NO indoor weight clothing, or light weight coats.
• Snow Suits or Pants (Gently Used or New)
• Gloves, Mittens, Scarves (Gently Used or New) Handmade Welcome
• Hats (NEW ONLY, please) Handmade Welcome

Other details to keep in mind:

• We accept all sizes (newborn to plus-size adult)
• Clothing with logos or names on them are accepted
• Please wash or dry-clean all items before donating, most recipients cannot afford to do it themselves.
• We especially need infant/kids and plus-size adult items.
• Monetary donations also accepted by Christ the King to purchase new items. Thank you for your generosity.
  

by Isaac Warner, Council President

Imagine you are on a mission. You’re hoofing it down the street, sure in your actions and then suddenly you’re knocked off your feet by a flash of light and a booming voice. That’s pretty much what happened to Saul of Tarsus – later Saint Paul – in the Book of Acts. If you joined us at the volunteer appreciation dinner last week, this might sound familiar. It’s one of many examples of what our guest speaker Dr. Michael Chan refers to as the “disruptive God of Acts.” I’ll admit that I’m not very familiar with the Book of Acts so it was fascinating to listen to Dr. Chan, an Assistant Professor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary, and honestly, could not have come at a better time for me personally or for us in the life of our congregation. Frankly, it’s just what we need. God, the Disruptor.

But, this doesn’t have to carry the negative connotation so often associated with word disruption. No! In fact, I think this is exactly what we need at Christ the King. We need to experience change, newness, discussion, failure, success, debate…disruption. These things a healthy, growing, vibrant congregation do make.

Today, we are too comfortable. We’re comfortable in our traditions; comfortable in our worship patterns; comfortable in our social groups; comfortable in our expression of faith; comfortable in the place we sit in the sanctuary, each week without fail. We’re so comfortable that the slightest change in the way we do things is unnerving, it’s disruptive. I get it, I feel it too. Our challenge from God is to discern together our calling; who God needs us to be in our community, at this moment.

The good thing? We’ve already started. The listening circles that so many participated in last year marked the first steps on our renewed journey of discernment. By taking the time to truly listen to one another and share with each other our hopes and dreams, our apprehensions and questions, we have opened ourselves up to hear what it is God has in store for us. To paraphrase Dr. Chan, God doesn’t use us because we are sufficient for the task, God uses us because we are here and God is sufficient for the task. Earlier this year, the Council spent the better part of a few months reviewing and aggregating what you told us in the listening circles and drafted Values Statements that were presented in June at our Annual Meeting, Part II. We held roundtable discussions this past month to hear from you in more detail about each of these statements and now, we are in the process of formalizing these values - Building Community, Engaging Worship, Growing Compassion, and Nurturing Faith- all in our effort to discover our part in God’s mission to Build a Beloved Community.

That brings me to what’s called the hard ask, one with many responses, none of which are, “No.” All of our many unique strengths are needed to create the Beloved Community and there are three things that you can do right now to build upon the foundation we already have. First, I invite you to join us on Wednesday, September 18that 6:00pm for our annual Ministry Summit, here at Christ the King. All are invited, though it will be geared toward lay leadership and volunteers from our diverse and plentiful set of committees and teams and will focus on helping committees and teams realize how we fit together in the context of our values statements and God’s mission in our community. Committee Chairs and Team Leads, please spread the word to your volunteers and we’ll see you on 9/18 at 6pm. Second, pray for and encourage those in our community that are doing God’s work (here’s a hint…that’s all of us). Finally, challenge yourselves to invite more; include more; equip more; give more; get uncomfortable;
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be disruptive.