Author: Church Office

I recently read an article from the Rev. Dr. David Lose, the new president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (and who grew up in Lebanon County too). The article is entitled The church’s role in our lives? Yes with a question mark at the end of the title.

The thesis question is: Given how many other groups and movements lay claim to our allegiance today, can the church ever expect to exert the level of influence in our lives that it once did?

After some history about the influence of the church upon the culture over the centuries, the article states that civic groups, associations, clubs, sports leagues, and others have made the church less than the center of our lives. Some of the items mentioned were once part of the activity of congregations. I played church league softball in Berks County. My grandfather was a pretty good dart baseball player in a similar church league.

So what is he church to do? Dr. Lose leans toward the concept that the church should help, “bring our other activities into focus, that we might see these different enterprises in light of our faith.” In order for that to happen, the church must have as a goal, “of forming Christian faith in our people.”

He writes, “Slowly but surely [we must] learn the Christian story and, more importantly, learn how to use the story to make sense of our lives and share our faith with others.”

That’s why we offer times of education and discussion for all ages on Sunday morning. But may it also mean that we need to offer times of learning at different parts of the week. The Thursday night study group is one example. But how about on a weekday morning? Or an online discussion group working together on a question of the week? Or an early morning conversation at a local coffee shop?

As we take advantage of these times to learn together, we can make progress in our ability to have our faith make sense and to give us the ability to share that faith with other people. God knows we are a work in progress.

CLIFTON D. ESHBACH
Pastor

There are occasions when I need to spend some time thinking about how to begin these little epistles. Other times the words just seem to jump off the keyboard. And then there is a third category; how to arrange different items to share with you. It is this third category that is testing me this month.

There are many topics which emerged from my recent trip to the Konde Diocese in Tanzania to share with you.  The little article on page nine is just the beginning.

In thinking about my experiences during the trip, two topics  have bubbled up to the top of my thinking that I will be sharing with you over the course of the next year. They are fairly simple concepts, but sometimes hard to implement. They both revolve around the topic of how people speak to each other.

As I traveled around the Konde Diocese and listened to, or participated in conversations, it became obvious that the level of intelligent discussion, careful use of language and respectful treatment of your conversation partner is very high.

During the trip we had a couple of sensitive issues to raise, and I was struck by the care with which these conversations were held, and how following the end of the discussion, there remained our authentic friendship and affection for each other. This is because of what holds our partnership together: the fact that God has called us together in covenant, and to quote St. Paul, “nothing separates us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.”

That is an example for us to follow as we work through any topic that comes before us. In fact I think there is an adult Sunday School class brewing here. Stay tuned.

Related to this is what I learned about how our Tanzanian friends are so easily able to speak about their faith to other people. They have a comfortable, friendly style in sharing their faith that is impressive. One reason this is so is because they know what to talk about and how to talk about it. On this topic we can learn a lot from them. I was told that our companion congregation has grown mainly because of this person-to-person interaction. Yes, there is more than one Sunday School class here, perhaps a series of classes.

CLIFTON D. ESHBACH

Pastor