Archive | ministry. RSS feed for this section

a prayer service and psalm 100.

1 Jun

A psalm. For giving thanks.

1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.

3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.

5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

I read this psalm today at a funeral. It’s part of my role in funerals – I’m the lesson reader. I looked the lessons up before the funeral, just to read through them once, and when I turned to this psalm and began reading, I made an audible “aw.” I like this psalm as a funeral text. A lot. It’s not always the easiest to proclaim and praise God following a sudden death of someone we love but the promise contained within the psalm is central to our reliance and strength in God amidst such suffering. I like-y.

It was Dorothy’s funeral. Dorothy who I was just supposed to visit last Thursday only to find out she had been flown to the hospital in a nearby large city following a heart attack. Dorothy who was the very first to show up the intern meet-and-greet when I first arrived in September. Dorothy who was half of the “cozy couple.”

I led the prayer service for Dorothy last night at the funeral home. As a part of the prayer service, there is a time of sharing. With some services, the sharing will last twenty minutes – twenty minutes of friends and families sharing stories and memories of the one who has passed away. Some services, no one speaks. When no one stands to share, it’s a little awkward … and I thought that was where last night’s service was going.

Then Jake marched forward and stood in front of the gathered group. Jake was one of my third graders when teaching Wednesday release time. A boy with a sweet heart and great sense of humor. Jake told of how Dorothy would give him candy in church. She would pull pieces out of her purse and hand them to the children sitting around her. He told of how, at Halloween, his friends would go to her house and get little pieces of candy but when he stopped by, he would get a Mountain Dew and a big Butterfinger. Then he told of how Dorothy was like another grandma to him and he started to cry a bit.

So then I started to tear up. I’m a social crier. If other people around me are crying, I’ll cry and can’t help it. I teared up because Jake was hurting at the death of his “third grandma.” (Children hurting and in emotional pain make Lindsay a puddle.) I also teared up in thanksgiving of Dorothy and the effect she had on Jake. Dorothy didn’t need to carry candy around with her to give to kids in church. Dorothy didn’t need to give Jake a big candy bar or take an interest in his life. But she did and look at the relationship that grew between her and a ten year old boy.

Further proof that the smallest of actions or the simplest words of kindness can make a difference and foster a relationship.

Go do that today.

wilted.

27 May

I feel a bit wilted today, like the flower I forgot to water.
First thing. I’m tired as all get-out. It has been a l.o.n.g. week of hours at work. A week of late nights. Lots of preparation for the Women of Grace event and other large upcoming projects that have required my attention and seemingly snuck up on me. Visits. Preaching on Sunday. Please don’t hear this as complaining – I’m not – I loved (nearly) every minute of my work this week – but I think I’m trying to prove to myself that I have reason to be tired. This week has flown by so quickly because I’ve been so busy and slept so little; if this is any indication of the rest of the summer, my last three months here will feel like a week and a half.
Second thing. The next intern, who will arrive in September after I leave in August, came to visit yesterday. He’s great; I think he will be a great addition to Grace and will fit in well. But my emotions were on edge as he came to see where he would be and I began to understand what it will feel like to leave. August 22/29-ish will be a sad day indeed. (I thought my last Sunday would probably be Aug. 22nd; my coworkers have decided to change that date to the 29th. Can’t say I protested too much.)
Third thing. I’m working through the emotions of being a pastor and today they seem to be quite heavy with little outlet. Being a pastor is built on relationships; you’re invited into people’s lives to share in their joys and their struggles. I’ve been in Dawson for nine months now; I’ve built relationships. They are short-term relationships, not even a year or two long yet, but I still feel involved and invited in. When a woman I have come to know through quilting mornings at church and home visits is in the hospital for the week and pretty darn sick, it hits me. When I hear that the woman I had planned on visiting this morning for a communion visit was transported to a near-by large city because she had a heart attack, my heart sinks. Later, when doing visits at the hospital, I meet a member of Grace for the first time; she is very best friends with the woman who had the heart attack and begins to cry at the thought of her friend fighting for her life. I’m invited in to share with people in their sickness and in their pain. I do my best to be the non-anxious-listening-presence that CPE taught me to be … but it still makes me cry. I hold their hand as we pray together and I empathize with their sadness, anger, and grief. I can’t leave my work at the office; the emotions, the prayers, the relationships are with me even when I come home at night.
But these relationships are the key. Relationships with people (and, well, sharing the promise of relationship with Christ) are the reason I want to be a pastor. Relationships are why it will be so difficult to leave Grace in three short months. I will have only been here for one year; I can’t imagine what it will be like to leave a church after a three year, ten, or fifteen year call. I am so thankful for the relationships in my life; the short-term and the long-term, the best friends and the acquaintances. I am thankful for the relationships that I have gained as a pastor, being invited into people’s lives, to celebrate with them the joys and to be near them in times of sorrow.
I don’t feel so entirely wilted anymore. (Writing is my therapy when I live alone.) The flowers don’t either. I watered them when I got home and the daisies have now sprung back to life. I don’t have enough energy to spring back to life quite like that but I will curl up on the couch and be in bed by 10.

bag ladies.

26 May
It was a Women of Grace night at church tonight. Women of Grace events fall under my coworker Emily’s jurisdiction and they’re held three times a year. Typically, an event like this brings in a speaker; in my time at Grace, there have been two other Women of Grace nights – Emily’s sister, who is a professor at Luther Seminary, and another woman with a darling southern accent were the speakers. It came time for this night and no speakers were to be found. They declined. Or were busy. We were stuck.
Emily and I brainstormed, searched the web, and finally landed upon this as the title of this night’s event for which WE became the speakers: What’s in your purse? What we carry with us as Christian women.
Does it sound lame? Maybe a bit corny? It was every bit corny, maybe a tad lame at parts but still completely awesome. We started with a purse party game and a clip from Friends (where Phoebe pulls a shoe, an egg, and a live goldfish from her purse). From there, we moved into our program – how the things we carry around in our purse can help us remember to live Christian lives. We scored a few laughs, especially when Emily pulled her shake-weight from the bottom of her purse.
After the program, we sewed! Each woman either sewed or watched someone else sew together for them a small bag to take home. Preparation for the sewing occupied my last few days, along with Karen, the expert sewer on staff. We cut yards and yards of fabric, cut and pinned webbing for handles and then serged the outer edges of all pieces. Phew. (Mom: I learned how to use a serger! Prior to this week, I didn’t even know what a serger was … scary looking machine.)

It was something different but I think the women who attended enjoyed the program. It was a lot of work and made for some crazy days this week but it was fun. Emily and I brought in all of our purses as props; we wore them around as we welcomed people. I carried my gnomes in mine; Emily carried her entire medicine cabinet and an emergency heat blanket. Crazy bag ladies. We’re thinking about taking our program on the road to other churches – book us?

Ode to Wednesday Confirmation.

15 May
Seventh and eighth graders have confirmation on both Sundays and Wednesdays and, well, it was probably time for the Wednesday afternoon sessions to come to a close for the year. The twenty-four or so confirmands make their way over after school on Wednesday afternoons. They stop by Tammy’s office to buy chips and sugar and then make their way to the third floor click-clack room. (The click-clacks are the futon-like couches on which they lounge.) After a long day in school, they’re not always the most cooperative when it comes to listening, learning, and opening their Bibles (which they have forgotten at home, of course) and it’s just that point in the year when they like it even less.
Now they have found their relief. No more Pastor Lindsay writing on the white board. No more Pastor Lindsay asking them to be quiet. No more Pastor Lindsay quoting random movies they’ve never seen.
I’ve found mine too. I love the kids – honestly, I do – but it’s just that time of year when the kids are getting ready for summer and anxious to be out of school structure. No more picking up trash after the kids. No more confiscating cell phones when they are texting during the teaching hour. No more asking them to be quiet. Eight million times.
… but I’ll be sad next week. (Right now I’m in the slight celebratory period, the I-have-Wednesday-afternoons-free-now period but that will pass.) No more farming stories from Brandon. No more jokes from Kyler about my want of a Kindle, the e-reader. (“What? A Ken doll? A Kendall?”) No more teasing from Jake. This isn’t really an ode – no lyric poem here – but a tribute to Wednesday afternoon confirmation; I’ll miss it.

On a day like this –

11 May
Nothing like only five words to get that really annoying, I-could-never-actually-get-all-the-hand-motions-correct-because-it-was-too-fast camp song stuck in my head.
I was thinking about my day. Thinking about how it’s on days like this that I get NOTHING done. I came home from church around 6pm and had very little productive to show for my day.
On a day like this, I checked nothing off of my weekly to-do list. My list – which I compile every Monday morning and add to/work off of steadily through the week – is surprisingly short this week but still. No sermon written. No confirmation planned. No hymns chosen today.
But it’s on days like this that I love my job. I did work today, really, I did. The day included a staff meeting – always enjoyable. Thinking about VBS (or VeeeBeeeS according to Kendall) – an activity which will happily occupy my every day until June 16th, the fourth and last day of the summer program. Brainstorming a summer sermon series to possibly include a popular television theme song rewritten for stewardship purposes. I love planning like this.
Days like these are good days – big-picture days, brainstorming days, dreaming-about-what-is-to-come days – but I can’t have too many of them in close proximity to the others. A sermon will need to be written. Hymns chosen. Confirmation taught. Visits made. I love my job pretty much every day but especially on a day like this.

Lock-in #2

1 May
The list of fifth and sixth graders attending this lock-in kept growing – parents kept calling to sign their kids up. I would check the list in the main office every so often and by Friday, when we neared thirty, I grew terrified. Oh my. I wasn’t ready for the craziness; I wasn’t prepared mentally or physically for a night of little sleep, the running, the screaming … oh the screaming.

When the lock-in was in full swing, the total number was 37. We decorated flower pots, planted flowers, went on a scavenger hunt, ate snacks, and had free time. At this point, my coworker Tammy’s husband was a lifesaver. Jon took over the chaos of the free time and organized ridiculous relay races off the top of his head. It took a good hour and the kids loved it – perfect.
“Put the starburst between your knees and hop to the end of the hall.”
After Bible study, we let the kids run around a bit more before they were to be in their rooms watching movies. I taught them how to play sardines – the classic hide-in-the-church game. By 2:30am, it was pj/movies-in-your-sleeping-room time. Yeah … like that worked. I tried and some kids were asleep by 4:30 when I laid down on the floor. Others were not asleep and didn’t sleep a wink. Ugg. By the time I woke up at 6:15 to begin cooking pancakes, I could hear the non-sleepers getting anxious, running, screaming … and it started all over again.
Overall, it was a success. The kids had a blast. We completed a successful service project of delivering May Day baskets to our shut-ins. No trips to the emergency room. No lost children. The kids who attended left requesting another lock-in again soon. I told them they might need to find a new chaperone … I don’t think I’m cut out for lock-ins like this. (Small groups plus structured instruction, aka the first communion lock-in, are more my thing.) The lack of complete structure and the running/slamming of doors/screaming makes me go crazy. It was fun but I’m not always the most fun person with the above variables … lesson learned.

lock-in #1

24 Apr
Reason: First Communion instruction
Attendees : five awesome fourth graders and two pretty cool pastors
The fourth graders came over after school on Friday and got settled in – unloading snacks, ditching sleeping bags, and generally running around. Our schedule for the night was pretty relaxed. We were working our way through the new Augsburg Fortress curriculum, Fed and Forgiven (which I give two thumbs up), along with baking communion bread, eating pizza, watching a few videos, and staying up a bit too late with HSM2.
While it was unfortunate that not all the fourth graders in the class could attend, the small group we had was great. They were a TON of fun as we discussed what Holy Communion means for us and as they got excited about joining the church at the table. Kendall did most of the teaching; I enjoyed my spot at the “school” table with the kids. I learned a lot through the instruction, whether a new way of thinking or many new resources that will serve me well in teaching and in a more practical way than some seminary classes.
Baking the bread was a cool thing for the fourth graders to do. At Grace, we’re wafer people; our body of Christ tastes a bit like cardboard. But next week, on first communion Sunday, we will use the bread that the fourth graders baked last night.

The other highlight of the lock-in for me was listening to the fourth graders recite their memory work. I’m not always a huge fan of memory work from an educational standpoint but I thoroughly enjoyed listening to all five of them at once say the Words of Institution and I think they found value in doing it as they learned what the words mean :
[On the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took break, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying “Take and eat. This is my body, given FOR YOU. Do this for remembrance of me.” Again after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks and gave it for all to drink, saying “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed FOR YOU and for all people for the forgiveness of sins. Do this for the remembrance of me.”]

meditation.

24 Apr

[The local pastors have a meditation column in the Dawson paper each week. Last week was my week to contribute so I wrote about one of my favorite events of late – taffy making with some of my favorite kids!]

I made taffy with fourteen third graders. I thought it would be a fun adventure, something a bit out of the ordinary. Have you pulled taffy before? I never had so I put on my brave face and decided we would try it together.

It was sticky. It was messy. It got really noisy. At some points I heard at least five kids calling my name. “I need help!” “Mine is stuck to the table!” There were times when I needed to collect myself or else I risked responding, in true fashion like my own mother, “One person at a time!” [Note: Sorry, Mom. Just a funny anecdote for humor purposes, not really a comment on your temper. I love you.] Over and over, I heard, “I need more butter!” Oh my goodness – the butter. To pull taffy, you have to butter your hands really well, otherwise the taffy sticks. It gets slimy, drippy, and slippery.

Taffy is a lot like life. Life gets sticky. Sometimes, life is a mess. We have five different projects calling for our attention at once. Or five different people – children, spouses, parents, bosses, teachers. Sometimes we want to scream for silence, for relief from what’s going on outside of ourselves. It’s chaotic. There are slippery situations. Just as the taffy can fall to the floor and get stomped into the carpet, so our lives feel like they fall apart at the death of someone we love, the surprise diagnosis, or the knowledge of an affair that comes to light.

When we finished pulling and packaging our taffy, I sent the third graders off with bags of their own taffy and a sheet of paper. It reminded them that when life gets sticky to remember this:

“God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.” (1 John 4:9-11)

God loves us. God loves you and is with you when things get sticky and messy. God asks us to love others when their lives are sticky and icky. God is love. Eat some taffy (or make some and share it!) and be reminded that God is love even (and especially!) when things are sticky and messy and chaotic!

growing up.

24 Apr
A woman at the assisted living facility in Dawson requested a communion visit so after a local pastors’ meeting on Thursday, I made my way to Prairie Meadows, my communion kit in hand. I know I’ve mentioned before how much I enjoy spending time with people at the assisted living/care center in Dawson; this woman is no exception. This particular day she paid me compliment after compliment, telling me that she thought the meditation I wrote for the Dawson paper was so great that she just had to cut it out and save it. For cute. But me feeling good about myself was not the object of the visit. She was so appreciative of the time taken, for communion, and we just had a lovely conversation about how wonderful the people of Grace are.
After our visit, she invited me out to the dining area for coffee. Coffee and bars of course. We joined another woman enjoying her mid-afternoon lunch. (This is turning into a really long story for a small point. Stay with me.) In describing someone else, the other woman we were sitting with said, “She was a teacher when she was growing up.” Not “she was a teacher as an adult.” Not “when she grew up, she taught school” but “she was a teacher when she was growing up.”
Probably not an intentional statement but it struck me. I hope people say that about me – “She was a pastor when she was growing up.” I love the idea of not being a pastor when I’m grown up because I love the idea of not growing up – I’m not ready to be grown up. I realize that responsibilities will still increase, bills grow in number and I’ve been told life will only grow more busy – but I still hope to always be in the process of growing up. I know I still have a lot of growing up to do and it will never be complete – but nor do I want it to be complete. Being a grown-up sounds stuffy … so let’s not go there.

life lately.

18 Apr
A. I spent the weekend at the Southwestern Minnesota Synod Assembly. It was my first assembly to attend; it was an educational and tiring experience. Kendall and I left on Friday night for Redwood Falls (a town about 65 miles southeast of Dawson), set up the Luther Seminary informational booth, and then met up with Lori for a delicious, hilarious dinner of repeated and serious conversation. Assembly all day Saturday and most of Sunday, with a candy bar party in the hotel dining area sandwiched between the two days. Our congregation was invited to bring four delegates – that’s who we partied with – the delegates and candy bars. We were a bit rowdy. (This is when I was told by another pastor who attended the “party,” as we talked about seminary and costs, “Well, you’re obviously not married, so how do you support yourself?” Obviously? How am I OBVIOUSLY not married?! My hands were under the table so it was not based on the lack of ring!)
The Church-wide Assembly decision regarding the ordination of homosexual pastors in committed relationships continues to be discussed and addressed in our synod. It was interesting to sit back and listen to the discussion, to the opinions on both sides. Comments were respectful for the most part regarding the decision, about which a resolution was brought forward to return the decision to the next church-wide assembly. The resolution narrowly failed (to which I said a silent “woot”).
B. Friends and I continue to be inseparable. Now onto the fourth viewing of the entire series. (Currently Eddie is Chandler’s creepy roommate. “So when I woke up this morning, I realized he’d stolen all the insoles from my shoes.” Love it.)
C. I planted my window garden – marigolds, chives, oregano, zinnia and geranium. It’s in the experimental stage; my mother is the one with the green thumb, not me. Hopefully something green comes of the planting! I’m excited to water and watch! Thanks to the Gieseke’s for the garden supplies, including trowel and gloves! I’ll keep you updated on the growth!
D. Turns out I’m on top of a latest “faddy food” – cake balls! Click on the link to the Cake Ball Company within the article and it appears I could create these fun little balls of cake and make quite a profit. Place your order now!
E. Monthly quilting with the ladies tomorrow along with Bible study – beginning a series on the lament psalms. Mailings to go out. Internship cluster meeting on Tuesday. Confirmation on Wednesday. Local ministerium meeting on Thursday. First communion lock-in on Friday. Preaching on Sunday. Gearing up for another busy week of ministry. Love it!
F. I want to make these (cute clothespins – already have the washi paper tape) and these (fabric bags made simply from old vintage pillowcases).
← Older Entries
Newer Entries →