Milt Warkentien, Music Ministry Coordinator
Worship Schedule for May and the first week of June:
May 6th Traditional with communion, 8:30 Lightshine, 10:45 Joyful Noise
May 13th Traditional Men’s Chorus at both services
May 20th Traditional with communion, 8:30 Lightshine, 10:45 Joyful Noise/Alleluia Choir, Chancel Choir and Bells of Peace at both services (Music Sunday)
May 27th One service outdoors at 10:00, Cheri Sykes Trio leading worship
June 3rd Traditional with communion, Service times of 8:30 and 10:00 begin
May is always a bit of a sad month for me because it’s the end of the choirs for the summer; but on the other hand, we have many wonderful musicians that enhance our services over the summer. If you’d like to help enhance worship musically, see me, Cheri, or just sign up on the choir room door.
In May we go from the Easter Season into Pentecost and Holy Trinity Sunday. For me the Easter season is all about the resurrection of Jesus and what that means for each of us. Check out the Easter section of the ELW hymn book and look at how many hymns have a refrain of something like “Alleluia! Christ is Arisen.”
In Pentecost I find myself thinking about how Christ is everywhere through the Holy Spirit. How do we see Christ in nature, each other, our political views, everything? How we each respond to Christ is what makes us who we are, not just as Christians, but as who we are, CHRISTIANS! I say Christian, not Lutheran, or Baptist etc, but CHRISTIAN. I believe we cannot let our differences as Christians become more important than followers as Christ. How hypocritical we look when we can’t figure out how to live amongst other Christians. How many people have been turned from Christ, or never even given Christ a chance because the way “Christians” behave? We all have many views on all sorts of topics. Some of these views will be similar to others and many may be very different than others. How do we maintain our individual Christian ideals amongst our differences? I wish I had easy answers for all of these questions, but I do know that the more we argue, bicker and worse, amongst each other and other Christians, the more the non-Christians WILL NOT see Christ.
I pray that we all take a look at ourselves and our actions and meditate on how we are acting as Christians. We are in the midst of calling an Associate Pastor and a part time Visitation and Congregational Care Pastor. How we each respond to those that have different ideas about these positions will be what makes or breaks our transition. I pray we all take this call process seriously and give the call committees a lot of prayer and love. ELW 677 states to let Christ’s Light Shine! May we all be beacons of Christ’s Light!
–Milty