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Various items that we thought would be intersting

Living into the Future Together: Renewing the Ecology of the ELCA Task Force asks for your input

August 06, 2010

Living into the Future Together (LIFT) is the task force  commissioned by the ELCA Church Council to develop and recommend options for the future of the ELCA in light of its identity, changes in its environment and its call to God's mission.

What is God calling this church to be and to do in the future?  What changes are in order to accomplish these tasks more faithfully?  Our answers to these important questions will lead the ELCA into the future.

Please take a moment to participate in the Task Force's survey, HERE.

In Process — A Social Statement on Genetics

August 06, 2010

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is preparing a social statement that addresses issues in genetics and biotechnology. A task force authorized by the 2005 Churchwide Assembly was formed in 2007 to lead this process and craft a proposed social statement to be considered by the 2011 Churchwide Assembly.

Here is a link to the draft social statement on genetics: http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/Social-Statements-in-Process/Genetics.aspx.

FYI... The ELCA and the Roman Catholic Church are the only Christian bodies developing social statements on genetics for the purpose of influencing public policy.

Communications from Our Redeemer Lutheran Church pt2

July 10, 2010

Hi everyone,

Thursday, I talked about a how we have yet another tool we have to help you to stay informed with Our Redeemer.  I do have to say that I am surprise with the amount of positive feedback that we have received, and I want to say thanks for providing us with your feedback.  I would also want like to know if you have any general questions or concerns that you have.

Today, I would like to provide with you with more information concerning what I said in my Sunday announcement.

Like I said on Sunday, we are putting in place a system that will send out email reminders to people who are volunteering their time to serve our risen Lord and Savior by participating in some capacity in our worship services.

This system will send you an email on Thursday if you are serving in any capacity within the next week.  This system will also send you an email if there is a change in the schedule for the position that you are serving.  For an example, if you are a lay assistant, you will receive an email when Val updates the lay assistant schedule.  You will not receive an email if JoAnn updates the schedule for the people who prepare communion.

Just an FYI. . . I will be updating the schedule in database tonight to fill in the rest of the month of July.  Therefore, some of you will be getting an email in the morning for the schedule change.  In the next couple of weeks, I am planning on spending some time with the people who create the schedules for the various positions so that they know how to update their schedule in the database.  Thus, you will then receive another email when they update their schedules.

Communication usually flows in two directions, and you can help the people who do the scheduling by providing them with some information that they can use to producing their schedule.  I do not know about you, I personally have a hard time in keeping up with my own schedule.  Trying to remember any one else’s schedule is simply impossible.

There is a page on our website (http://www.orlmarionil.org/volunteer/login.php) that will allow you to provide information to the people who create the schedules.  After you log on using your email address and your password (your default password is your first name, the first letter of your last name, all lower case, and no space between your first name and the initial of your last name), you can update the following fields:

1.      Select which service do you prefer to server (early or late).

2.      You can change your password.

3.      If you have a different email address that you were prefer to receive your email then the one we currently have on file for you, you can change your email address.

4.      If you play a musical instrument, you can help Jane by providing her what instrument you play.

5.      If you are going to be out of town, you are going to be working on a practical Sunday, you enter in the dates you cannot serve.

6.      You can also update the areas where you would like to serve.  For example, if you would like to start to lay assist, you can click on lay assistant, and Val will see your name the next time she updates the schedule for the lay assistants.

7.      We know that some people prefer to receive text messages instead of an email, and this system can do that.  Just enter in your number and provider, and you will start receiving text messages instead of email reminders.

8.      If you need someone else to receive a copy of your emails, you can click on their name and they will also start to receive a copy of your emails.  You might be wondering why would someone else need a copy of my emails.  We use this feature for two situations.  The use this feature for our Acolytes.  Because they are too young to drive themselves to Our Redeemer, we also send a copy of their email to their parents.  We also use this feature when a family shares a single email address.  For those of you who are in this situation, I will send an email to you with a little more information about this.

Thanks again for the time you give to Our Redeemer.  We could not survive without your generously.

Tom

Communications from Our Redeemer Lutheran Church

July 07, 2010

I sent this message out via email. Because we some people who stay in connect with Our Redeemer via our website and Facebook, I thought I would also post this message on our website and Facebook.

If you were able to attend worship this past Sunday (7/4) at Our Redeemer, you heard me (Intern Tom) make an announcement on how we have been working on and testing a system that will send email reminders to people who are going to be serving Sunday (greeters, ushers, lay assistants, etc…). Now that we have worked out most of the bugs, we are now going to be sending the reminders to everyone who will be serving on Sunday.

Now that I have just finished uploading all the email address (that I have) into our database, this has given us yet another tool to help us to keep you informed of what is happening at Our Redeemer, and thus the topic for this email message – how does Our Redeemer keep people informed.

Pastor Marlin, Sallie, and I have had several conversations about how to keep people informed of what is happening at Our Redeemer. I stated that we need to use whatever medium the congregation of the Our Redeemer is using in their everyday communications. As people change the way they communicate with each other, Our Redeemer must also change the way it communicates.

Over the past year, Our Redeemer has added a PowerPoint presentation before the start of Sunday morning worship services, we have created a website, we changed how we communicate on Facebook, and we have added a Twitter account.

With the creation of our website, we included the ability to send out email updates to individuals who would like to receive updates from Our Redeemer. We have not published this functionality of the website as of yet because we were not ready to use it. Now that we have uploaded the email addresses into the database, we are now.

Being able to send out email updates will help us to keep you informed. To help you with the information that you want to receive from Our Redeemer, we currently have setup 12 email distribution lists, and they are: (1) General updates from Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, (2) Church Choir, (3) Church Council, (4) Daily Bible readings - Bible in a year, (5) Daily Bible readings - lectionary texts, (6) Devotional – ELOGOS, (7) Devotional – God Pause, (8) LMM, (9) Newsletters, (10) Prayer Requests, (11) WELCA, and (12) Youth.

Because we want to be sensitive to the amount of emails you will received from Our Redeemer, we set the default in the database so that everyone will only receive the General Updates from Our Redeemer. FYI . . . we will use this list to send out emails for the entire congregation of Our Redeemer. We are also using this list to send out the weekly schedule of the events for Our Redeemer.

So if you would like to receive additional updates from Our Redeemer like prayer requests or a daily devotional, go to our website, and click on “Email Updates” under the “Communications” tab. You will be prompted to enter in your email address, and the site will email you the link that you can actually update the email updates you would like to receive from Our Redeemer.

You might be wondering, “Why does the website have to send me a link via an email?” This is to ensure that you are updating your preferences and no one else is updating your preferences.

Anyway, we hope these email updates will help you in staying in touch with Our Redeemer, and I want to say thank you for worshiping and helping us in proclaiming the Good News of our Risen Lord and Savior.

Tomorrow, I will send you the second half of this posting, and its topic will center on the email reminders that we are sending out for our worship services.

Gulf Coast Oil Spill: Responding to the Challenge

June 28, 2010

A pastoral letter from Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson to rostered leaders

June 28, 2010

Sisters and brothers in Christ,

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is both heartbreaking and infuriating. It causes deep sorrow, both for the initial loss of human life and for the deep and lasting damage to an ecology that provides life and livelihoods for so many of God's creatures. At the same time we grieve that the natural beauty of this region, a sign of God's marvelous creativity, has been defiled.

Moving to indignation and anger over the neglect and carelessness that led to this disaster, both in private industry and in government regulation, is understandable. However, to do so without recognizing the responsibility we all share -- as consumers of petroleum products, as investors in an economy that makes intensive and insistent energy demands, and as citizens responsible for the care of creation -- lacks credibility and integrity. An honest accounting of what happened (and what failed to happen) must include our own repentance.

Nonetheless, God remains faithful in restoring the creation and human community. Among the voices that despair and condemn, we have a witness of hope to proclaim.

First, God, who made the creation and made it good, has not abandoned it. Day after day God sustains life in this world, and the powerful vitality of God's creation, though defiled, is not destroyed. The life-giving power of God's creative goodness remains at work, even in the Gulf of Mexico. The Spirit will continue to renew the face of the earth (Psalm 104:30, as we just sang at Pentecost). All who care for the earth and work for the restoration of its vitality can be confident that they are not pursuing a lost cause. They serve in concert with God's own creative and renewing power.

Moreover, the human family need not drown in a flood of suspicion and recrimination that is more toxic and more lasting than the oil that floods the Gulf can ever be. The cleansing waters of baptism in Christ -- who died not for the righteous, but for the unrighteous -- bring forgiveness and reconciliation with God. In this reconciled life with God we have the freedom to move beyond mutual condemnations and hostility to give a powerful witness of a reconciled community that lives in service of the creation and the neighbor. By refusing to surrender to the toxicity of recrimination, we can convince others that they can join us safely in the life and service of this community.

Responding to a challenge of this size and complexity will call upon countless insights and skills, embodied in hundreds of occupations and trades, and upon the collective strength and will of us all. God's Holy Spirit has abundantly blessed the human community with the gifts needed to do this work. We can do it with sober confidence, good will and even joy.

There are times for mourning and for repentance, as well as for reconciliation and commitment to the creation's care. They come at different moments for different people. As you serve in your communities, I commend to you resources for worship, study and action that express the hope of Christians who see God's creative goodness, Jesus' forgiving reconciliation and the Spirit's abundant gifts for service. This is a moment when the human community needs to hear a word of true hope, and we have one to speak.

In God's grace,

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America