In 2023, we finished the work of revising our old Constitution and Bylaws, consolidating the many boards we had, boards that either were not served by people or were not very functional, and developed a new Board of Vision & Service. Naturally, we kept the Board of Elders and the Board of Trustees as these two boards have much responsibility and need to remain distinct.
The Board of Vision & Service oversees the educational, outreach, stewardship, music, and planning of the congregation. This board submits its own budget to the council and voters and has much freedom in making quick changes in ministry direction, provided it remains faithful to the Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions.
Developing the Board of Vision & Service is one of many steps upon which we are embarking to develop a strong, Christ-centered ministry that is St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.
As we continue on this journey, we are discovering a few core values which seem to permeate all aspects of our congregation.
Education
The first is Education. That all of our members from infant to elderly are engaged in the Word of God, engaged in regular attendance before Word and Sacrament, in Bible Study classes and Sunday School, tending to their Confirmation studies and new member classes, and that we are not just letting people slip through the cracks, becoming members or communicants but not knowing what they believe.
To this end, we are working on developing new educational opportunities for children, youth, men, and women so that everyone in our church and our community has amble opportunity to engage the Word of God, ask questions, grow, learn, and be strengthened if faith. And we open all our educational spaces to the public! Pastor Carlson LOVES to hear from people outside the church, to answer questions, to debate, and to try and teach the one true Christian faith as faithfully and plainly as he can.
Faithfulness
We must understand that faithfulness to God and His Word is not a prerequisite to our being saved. Salvation is by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone; nothing more and nothing less. Faithfulness, therefore, is the Holy Spirit-driven response to what God has so freely given us in Christ Jesus, who was perfectly faithful to His Father for us.
Our response to God’s love and grace is faithfulness to Him. What does it look like to be faithful to God our Father? At St. Paul’s, the answer to this question is front and center, as it rightly should be. It means…
- Faithful attendance in the Divine Service where God’s Word and Sacraments, the very food for our soul and eternal life, are given.
- Faithful participation in whatever educational opportunities are offered such as children’s Sunday School, Confirmation, Adult Bible Studies, etc. Afterall, the Word of God is certainly living and active and as we engage it, it engages us and reforms us into His likeness.
- Faithfully minding the 10 Commandments for the sake of the neighbor. Look, you cannot love your neighbor, not really, by breaking commandments or encouraging your neighbor to do the same. That’s not love. Instead, God calls us to keep His commandments for our neighbor’s good, so that our neighbor might “see your good works and praise God in heaven.” So, we aim to keep the commandments out of faithfulness to God and true, godly love toward one another.
- Faithfully raising our families and bringing up our children in Christian homes surrounded by Christian things. This isn’t rocket science! A small bit of yeast leavens the whole dough! If your children are surrounded by worldly people, they themselves will become worldly. So, our members are encouraged to exhibit faithfulness in their families by raising their children in the Small Catechism, in prayer, in regular worship, and in family devotions and Bible study. Yes, it’s hard because of how the world makes our lives — and our children’s lives — so busy. Even so, God calls all His people to faithfulness, and this includes faithfulness in families.
Confess!
We aren’t called “Confessional Lutherans” for nothin’! As St. Paul’s grows in this ministry where God’s Word is faithfully preached and His sacraments rightly administered, we also grow to be a people who confess. What does this mean?
- First it means that we are a Confessional congregation. We aren’t ashamed of the Three Ecumenical Creeds; we aren’t scared of the Lutheran Confessions (The Book of Concord). These confessions are true and faithful to Holy Scripture, and we can read them, study them, memorize them, and trust them. Some Lutheran churches have buried the Lutheran confessions behind self-help books, sin-affirmation books, and books written by heretical theologians because they’ve lost all sense of the truth or a desire to grow in the truth. They instead want warm butts in pews no matter the cost and this is just beyond the pale! We are Lutherans, darned it! Let’s act like it! Let’s be confessional.
- Confession. We confess our sins. No, we don’t hide our sins behind “good effort” or “nice try” or “better luck next time,” and we don’t pretend our sins aren’t really, really bad and really, really deserving God’s wrath. Some Lutheran churches have all but abandoned any talk of sin or depravity because they fear it hampers the Gospel. But nothing could be further from the truth!
The Gospel needs the Law, inasmuch as the Law is useless without the Gospel. We cannot “God loves you” anyone to repentance and faith, anymore than we can “hellfire and brimstone” anyone to faith. We need both the Law of God, the threats and terrors to the conscience which it brings so that we repent and turn from our wicked ways, and we need the pure, sweet Gospel, the sure promise of forgiveness of sins and salvation so we learn to despise our old selves and trust more firmly in Christ’s atoning sacrifice on our behalf.
So, we confess our sins because we know by faith that sin does us no good and it harms the neighbor. A person who refuses to confess his sins is a car without a key or a dog without teeth. It just doesn’t work.
- Confess! Yes, we confess this one true Christian faith to the world. Pastors confess the faith from the pulpits and in their educational classes, and lay members confess the faith in their vocations. We don’t hold it in; we don’t hide it under a bowl; we don’t shove it in a bushel. We speak up, we speak out, we stand firm, come what may, and we confess.
God is reforming our congregation in these three areas. We pray He not hold back, but that He continue to reform us into a well-educated, faithful, and confessing congregation so that, until the Day of the Lord, we continue to stand firm in our community as a beacon of truth and hope, rejecting the flippy floppiness of the “social justice” churches, steering clear of the “have it your way” churches, and turning a nose from the “doctrine doesn’t matter” churches. By so doing, we pray God bless us with inquisitive and hungry sinners who are looking for truth and righteousness, bold, historic worship, solid, bible-based teaching, and an opportunity to join a congregation unafraid of whatever Satan sends our way. Christ is our shield and our fortress! Of what or whom shall we fear?
