First post for 2008

Friends:

A blessed new year to all of you in the name of the one who cannot fail, Jesus the Christ.

I am reading a fascinating book titled Church Re-Imagined by one of my favorite new authors, Doug Pagitt. In it he takes the reader on a spiritual journey reflecting the life of his Minneapolis church, Solomon’s Porch. I appreciate the way he calls us to approach our faith walk as he invites us to partner what we know about faith with how we react to what that faith calls us to be about. Let me give you an example:
”There are many of us who have come to believe that the “gospel” that sits at the center of much of the Protestant life today is a bifurcated version of the gospel message, one that reduces the call to Kingdom life to simple belief about Jesus while leaving the exemplary Christian life to the very devoted” (Pagitt 31)
The question Pagitt raises is a good one that we will be exploring this year as a people at St. John’s. Pagitt is asking us to ponder how we will balance learning about Jesus with acting like him. We will spend 2008 re-imagining how God is calling us to action as we witness to our faith. I look forward to the journey and ask you to pray about how God is calling you as an individual to a life of faithful living and how God is calling our church to be faithful witnesses to God’s message.

Remember, I pray for the readers of this blog every Friday morning. How can I pray for you?

Peace
PB

Prayer-points
-for the people of Iowa today as they give the countries first measurable indication of how our presidential election will shape up
-for all those who are facing home foreclosure or job loss
-for the mission of our church and Synod

Good Search: Thank you for using Good Search in 2007. St. John’s received a check for $11.97 as a result of our web searching in 2007. I would like to encourage you to continue to use Good Search in 2008. Our fundraising goal using Good Search is $100.00 for 2008 (that is just 27 searches per day). Why not make Good Search part of your toolbar search engine in 2008? Please use St. John’s Lutheran Church (Redford, MI) as your charity of choice. Thanks!

Green tip of the week: Great present #1: 365 Ways To Live Green by Diane Gow McDilda. Many of our green tips for 2008 will come from this great resource.
Tip: Change the way you shower. Beyond taking shorter and colder showers, you can take other steps to conserve water and natural resources while cleaning up. Standard showerheads put out up to 5 gallons per minute. Low-flow showerheads can cut that in half. If a low-flow shower isn’t satisfactory, try using an aerator showerhead. Air is added to the water as it flows from the head, making it feel like a higher flowing showerhead. You can also add aerators to spigots, reducing the flow of more than 2 gallons per minute to 1. Aerators are relatively inexpensive and easy to install.