From Pastor Bieghler...
Dear Friends in Christ,
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
I am very excited to be going to Virginia this week. I am going to be attending an event at the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria (near DC) for what is called the Summer Collegium:
A Project in Support of Small Congregations.
I know you’re excited too.
Last winter I saw a notice in the Synod Newsletter about this event. It is funded by a grant from the Lily Endowment (Indianapolis). I applied and was one of 25 small-church pastors chosen from 175applicants across the US and Canada. I feel very honored to be selected.
The theme for this summer is Leadership in Small Congregations. Leading in the small church is radically different than leading in larger churches that have extensive staffs and different resources. Issues in small congregations involve instituting change, empowering and equipping lay people, setting a vision for ministry, and thinking about ministry in new ways. As we know only too well at Lamb of God the ministry environment of the small church is getting tougher and tougher all the time to sustain. I am hopeful that this time away will generate some new thinking and give me some new ideas for how we can enhance and grow our ministry together.
I will come home from this event with a follow-up plan for Lamb of God that we will work on together in the coming year. Overall, this event should be fun and a time for lots of new learning.
On my way back I’ll spend a long weekend in Indiana with my folks. So, it’s also a little vacation.
The only thing I regret is that this trip is over the weekend (June 27) when the Youth Choir from Trinity English Lutheran Church in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, will be visiting LOG as part of their trip to Southern California. Trinity English is the congregation I was a member of before I went to Seminary. I am a Lutheran and a pastor in large part because of the ministry of that congregation. Trinity has always had an absolutely first rate music program. That program is now under the direction of Mr. Robert Hobby. It is a great treat to welcome Bob and about 20 young people and their chaperones. (See page 7 for a photo of the choir.) They will bring a great blessing to our worship. I hope you enjoy having them with us.
See you in church – in a couple of weeks that is.
– Pastor Steve