Live (almost) from Chicago!

I haven't posted since August 1, 2009, but I believe in this medium, and the opportunity that it affords to help me inform people about what is going on and to help them get to know me better. Thus, with apologies for the delay, here we go!

On August 16, 2009 I took office as the Pastor of St. Philip Lutheran Church and School on Chicago's north side. Truth be told, my work began well before that, but it has been particularly intense from the moment we arrived. I had my first meeting, an introduction to the Board of The Foundation for St. Philip, while the moving company was still unpacking the truck on August 10th. The next day (Aug 11th) the teachers reported for duty at the school, and I was there to get acquainted and prepare for the school year with them. We had a glorious installation service on the afternoon on August 16, 2009, and the next Sunday was the opening service for the school. Both were very well-attended by church and school families. Hope was--and is--in the air.

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not [yet] seen." -Hebrews 11.1

Clearly, part of my responsibility as the Pastor of St. Philip is to proceed in faith and hope and conviction, or--as St. Paul puts it in Philippians 3:

"But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13-14, ESV)

St. Philip has been through some years of struggle, and as with any family that has been through a period of struggle, a sort of homeostasis of struggle is achieved. That is, we get "used to" living in "survival mode" or in thoughts and actions that are, ultimately, unhelpful. (I read a very helpful book about this years ago, Generation to Generation by Edwin Friedman.) So it is that a key to my faithful service as St. Philip's pastor is to not get distracted by "what lies behind" but point myself and the people here at St. Philip ahead, constantly ahead, in assurance of the things hoped for.

The picture above is from the "Harvest Festival" held in the gym at St. Philip Lutheran School on November 14, 2009. It is a great example of that for which we must hope and strive: church families and school families coming together, enjoying one another and supporting Christ's ministry. And a glorious ministry it is! St. Philip is a congregation with a great future. Our forefathers have bequeathed to us a lovely facility in which to celebrate the Gospel and our school is strongly Christ-centered, with a consequent history of demonstrated academic excellence. Still, it is God's will for us to "strain forward to what lies ahead"; that is, to greater maturity in Christ--as individuals and as a congregation.

So it is, in my call as a missionary-pastor, that I take the example of St. Paul:

"Him [Christ] we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me." (Colossians 1:28-29, ESV)