By Pastor John Schwehn

On this July 4th Sunday, we give thanks to God for the gift of freedom. Our freedom from living under authoritarian rule or occupation in these United States makes lives of self-determination and self-government possible. Wave the flag, launch the fireworks, ring the bells! This weekend, we celebrate this nation home which God so richly blesses.
 
This month, we also begin a series of reflections on our core value of Growing Compassion, which states: We value God’s calling to care for all creation through compassionate justice, service, and prayer. As people of faith on this 4th of July weekend, we celebrate not only our freedom from but also our freedom to. God’s grace has freed us from the power of death, from the need to constantly worry about the status of our own salvation. Our ultimate freedom comes in Christ, on the cross and the empty tomb. God’s love and forgiveness sets us free every day! This good news (our freedom from) gives us callings to love and to serve (freedom to).
 
Indeed, the church bears powerful witness to the truth that my claim to freedom is inextricably bound up with the freedom of my neighbor and the freedom of the planet from which I am created. If we didn’t know this before, the pandemic offered a crash course of this truth. Before the widespread availability of vaccines, I was not safe from infection until my neighbors were also safe from infection. My health indirectly and directly impacted the health of others. Or, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – a singularly great American – famously wrote in 1963: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly…Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider.”[1]
 
So perhaps this holiday weekend is the perfect time to begin reflecting on our call to Growing Compassion, on our freedom to love even more deeply our planet home, our fellow Americans, our God who creates us in freedom and also gives us callings and responsibilities of care.
 
When rooted in Christ, freedom is broader, more joyful, more challenging, and more meaningful than a narrow understanding of our right to individual liberties and choices. Instead, when we find our true freedom in Christ, we celebrate that we belong to one another. We celebrate the freedom in which we all were created while also striving for that “more perfect union” (as articulated in the preamble of The Constitution) in which all Americans, our planet home, and all people everywhere live lives of true dignity, freedom, and justice.
 
Happy Fourth!
 
Pr. John

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[1] Letter from Birmingham Jail, which can be accessed here:
https://www.csuchico.edu/iege/_assets/documents/susi-letter-from-birmingham-jail.pdf

​By Chris Frost, Church Council Member

…about “something potentially cool and interesting that I'm developing at Christ the King…”. Well color me intrigued. 

But, first, a little back story. 

I’ve been attending Christ the King for over 20 years. I’d heard stories about how the founders would pound the pavement and knock on doors to say “hello” and let people know that there was a new church in the community, a new entity in New Brighton. I’d attended the block parties but never really felt a sense of the community - be that church (outside of the people I knew) or New Brighton as a whole. I’d also never really known my “place” in church either. 

Until Pastor John sent that email. About a bread oven. And took us to United Methodist Church in White Bear Lake where I saw a guy walk in from their oven, having just baked 80+ loaves for the congregation and their larger community, apron covered in flour, with the world’s biggest smile on his face. And I thought “I want to be that guy…”

On December 20, 2019 we lit the brand new oven for the first time with the goal of “giving it a go”, managed to over- and under-cook bread at the same time, and saw the possibilities - how we could bring people together around the oven, and both forge and enhance a sense of community using the oven as a coming-together point. 

Then came a global pandemic. Kind of puts a wrench in the works. 

Fast forward to August 25, 2020. We can do this. We can get the church to gather (in a safe, socially distanced manner, but gather nonetheless) around the fruits of our labors. We can be a community again. We did, and wow how good did that feel to look out at everybody again! So we did it again on September 16, 2020. And then on October 28th. And we just did it again last Wednesday... 

To me, this is the community in church I have been searching for all these years - a place for me to volunteer and show my place in our community. And to see our larger community. 

Now I’m wondering now how we can make this a bigger thing? Invite a larger swath of the community outside of church to participate, to join us in what we have made and what we can do. 

And maybe one day we’ll get the hang of the bread baking. 
​
John 6:35: “Jesus said to them ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall not thirst.”

​Written by Nate Crary, Director of Worship
​
I love spring time so much. Ever since Chelsey and I bought our home in NE Minneapolis over five years ago, I’ve so enjoyed the time leading up to the return of the sun’s warmth and the gradual increase of daylight as we near the summer months. Each day, I take notice of the growth our returning perennial plants make, showing up bigger and stronger and greener.
 
Sometimes, though, the bulbs I plant in the fall fail to pop up through the ground. When signs of typical growth fail to meet my expectations, I’ve learned to trust the unseen work that might be happening underneath the surface. Maybe the energy of the plant is being spent underneath where the roots are growing.
 
As a church over the past 15 months, we’ve really had no choice but to adjust our expectations and cling on to some hope for the signs of life that might pop up next season. And, still I wonder, is the next season here? Are we ready for what’s next? Will CtK ever feel like it used to? How are we to celebrate new life while we’re still grieving what’s been lost?
 
As many signs of normal life have been absent over the past year, the Spirit has continued her work underneath the surface, growing our roots stronger, deeper, and wider as a community of faith. Online worship and coffee hour have welcomed around 100 households each week into a deep encounter with God’s word. We’ve confirmed two classes of confirmation students and have celebrated several baptisms. CtK’s youth basketball team took second place in the championship tournament last week. Staff and members have been calling each other on the phone to check in and writing notes of comfort during times of loss. In what other ways has God strengthened you and our church while the building has remained closed?
 
Today is the Day of Pentecost, when the Spirit comes to us to shake us loose from the barriers to living fully into the promise of God’s unending love. The Spirit never leaves us. And when her breath blows so strong that we can barely hold on, we remember the roots that keep us grounded.

​Written by Jill Loegering, Council Member

CtK’s Values Statements include a big idea: Engaging Worship, which our member listening group sessions described as: “We value worship as vital to our growth as the Body of Christ, and seek ways to share in a variety of roles within the Body.”

To me, one word is a neon light.  Which word, you ask?  “Variety.”  Another word in the statement is both a beacon and a reminder, “Body.”  It makes sense.  All my body parts need to work together regularly at just the right time to be and stay healthy. If one part, just one, internal or external, takes a break, other body parts know about it before my brain recognizes and notifies me there’s a problem.

Variety.  Worship has a lot of moving parts.  It needs a variety of people to be active. Over the years I’ve done quite a few things as part of the Body in worship. I’ve sung, read scripture (lector), prepared communion, served communion, ushered, been a member of the Worship & Music Team, helped plan worship services with the pastors, and a variety of other stuff I can barely remember.

As many members mentioned, I like a variety of music styles in church, and I appreciate a variety of members being active participants in Sunday leadership. Wait a sec! Here’s an idea that struck me upside the head: I most need and appreciate the time to quiet my heart to pay attention to what God is telling me. We stop to pray – not as a remote, routine thing we always do - but as a heart and soul requirement. Thoughtful prayer and focused worship mean I need to engage my brain and my heart during worship. (Note to self, that includes no wandering thoughts.) Huh. Turn concerns off, and be busy keeping both personal and congregational body parts active in learning and praising God every day. That is a challenge, isn’t it, remembering it’s God’s vision that counts the most.

​“Say Amen, everybody!”

By Pastor Peter Hanson
​
“We value worship as vital for our growth as the Body of Christ,
and seek ways to share in a variety of roles within the Body.”

At Christ the King, we place a high value on offering worship that engages us all as members of the Body of Christ. Such worship nourishes the mind, soul, and spirit. It is deeply rooted in our traditions, while speaking to the realities of life today. Worship constantly seeks a balance between reflecting the lived experiences of those who have assembled and stretching us to consider our larger community and the wider world. Sometimes this means learning an unfamiliar song, hearing from a new voice from the pulpit, or considering a different interpretation of a favorite Bible passage. At its best, worship is meant to bring comfort when we are troubled, as well as to trouble us when we get too comfortable. 

The engagement of worship, though, does not simply go in one direction. Christ the King values folks being engaged in worship as members of the Body. Our worship is designed to emphasize broad participation, shared purpose, and the authentic practice of our Christian faith rather than getting too caught up in performance, perfection, or individual preferences. The congregation is not meant to be passive recipients or even attentive audience members, but active contributors to the worship itself. Similarly, worship is not something in which we engage for an hour or so a week, but can help form, inform, and transform us for ministry in the world throughout the week. 

This past year has been a challenge for us as a worshipping community, as the COVID-19 Pandemic threw a monkey wrench into our patterns and practices of worship. We had to learn new ways of sharing the old, old story, and different methods of involvement. Engaging in worship has meant learning how to use new (and at times overwhelming!) platforms such as YouTube, Zoom, and Facebook Live. Worship planners and leaders have developed new skill sets, and figured out new tools. People “in the pews” have also adapted, figuring out how to print off bulletins, remembering to set aside bread and wine for communion. Some have been able to engage in our worship who may not have been able to before. 
​
As we prepare to gather again for in-person worship beginning on Sunday, June 6th, may we be reminded of the value we place on engaging worship. May our worship in the living God help us engage, equip, and empower one another to be God’s hands and feet in the world around us. ​

​By Brett Kosec, Church Council President

As we emerge from the dark days of winter and hopefully exit the worst of the pandemic, I am encouraged and reminded daily by the impact CtK has had on its members and community. Several years ago, we hosted a number of intentional listening sessions where we spent many hours talking and listening with one another about what makes CtK the community that it is today. As a result of that process, the church council took what we heard from the congregation and began developing a new set of core values. We then presented those values at the annual meeting in early 2020, before lockdown and the pandemic took us away from in-person gathering and being able to continue to explore and lean into these newly defined core values.

So the council, in recent months, has been asking the question, “what can we do to continue those conversations around our core values and showcase how those values play out in our daily lives together?” As a result, we have decided to spend the next four months focusing our energy and reflections on a different core value each month. Below, you can see each month’s value:
 
May: Engaging Worship - We value worship as a vital for our growth as the Body of Christ, and seek ways to share in a variety of roles within the Body.
June: Building Community - We value strength in diversity and strive to build a beloved community by actively inviting our neighbors to share in God’s mission.
July: Growing Compassion - We value God’s calling to care for all creation through compassionate justice, service and prayer.
August: Nurturing Faith - We value preparing all ages to live out their faith in daily life, offering hope and encouragement.
 
Each month, we will have different Sunday blog posts that focus on the month’s core value. These blog posts will be authored by council members, staff and congregation members. We will have an introduction to each core value, see how those core values are put into action by various parts of our congregation, and look ahead focused on that core value. We will also provide you with concrete practices to help you start to put these values into practice every day.

We look forward to this exploration of our core values together and seeing all of you again in the coming months.