November 18th, 2007 – Tricky liturgy setting, Pastor Mark Sermon & Adult Education

David burned a CD for singers to get familiar with the Setting Eight in the ELW (the Cranberry hymnal as I have heard it called) this Sunday. We are comfortable with the Kyrie from this setting but the Glory to God and the Holy, Holy, Holy were added this Sunday. The congregation took it in stride and I give kudos to Lisa, who lead first service, and Janice and Craig, who led the singing in the second.

There was also a beautiful Hymn of the Day, If You but Trust in God to Guide You. The hymn has strong lyrics and music to match.

Pastor Mark preached on the Gospel text Luke 21:5-19, concentrating on earthly temples, defining our temples as that which is important enough for us to invest time and money in. I thought this was an appropriately timed thought, given the council meeting on Thursday. He also talked about Jesus’ far from comforting (at least on the surface) words on the eventual destruction of all our efforts. Pastor Mark emphasized Jesus’ warning that our friends and our family might turn against us.

He also underlined and made clear about what we stood to gain. By your endurance you will gain your souls. Pastor Mark equated the soul to the deepest part of meaning that defines who you are as an individual.


Perhaps it was the council meeting and talk about how we are around each other outside of worship but I found myself paying attention to the hour between services as much as the services themselves.

Adult Education was led by Larry being that Pastor Dayle was on vacation. Larry’s enthusiasm for the Bible passages read in worship was evident. He choose three different translations for us to read. From the translations Larry choose we found the New Life Version was quite compelling.

Many of us did not like the admonition in 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 that begins the reading, to keep or stay away from ‘every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching’ and also found the verse 'those unwilling to work will not get to eat.' reflected a harshness of judgment that didn’t seem to be in keeping with our Christian ideals.

Yet, as Larry pointed out, verse 13 ends with ‘but you Christian brothers, do not get tired of doing good.’ It made the first admonition feel more like you should not get caught up in idleness with them and that the second was an observation about something internal rather than letting those who do not work starve which does not fit with the notion of 'doing good'.

During our time together in that hour I thought about my relationships with members of Creator and how or if they differed with my friendships with neighbors and co-workers. Certianly being in worship does change the average topic of conversation after a service. Also there is more choice involved in how often and when you meet than co-workers.

That said, when I was younger I thought fellow members of my church and myself should live our lives to higher standards. When this did not happen it appeared like going to church was hypocritical or ineffectual. I had not read Bonhoeffer on cheap and costly grace at the time but what I saw was what he described as cheap grace. The church dispensed God’s grace without cost, week after week. This is complicated because even while I believe that is part of what we need to be about it seemed to me this was a forgiveness without real repentance in our lives, without the cross, without Christ. We talked about what we ought to do but made little effort during the week to change our lives to reflect what we believed.

Later I thought we fall shot of the mark so my relationship with a neighbor, a seeker on another path (Buddhist or New Age usually) or a co-worker was the same as that with my fellow congregational member. There still may be a truth to this but I believe this is not quite right either.

Currently I wonder if being of one body in Christ is something we should keep in one another’s minds (however we accomplish this). We are called to follow through, in and with one another, to dissolve the fear, division and brokenness within each of us. This ends up taking much more time than we would imagine since that same fear, division and brokenness being in each of us gets in the way and makes us distrust our efforts.

Most importantly, however, in my mind now is that we serve a different role in the lives of those in our worship community than with individuals of other communities where we live or work. By worship we acknowledge we need to be there to serve one another (even while I know this need is not a universally shared understanding within the congregation and must not serve as an excuse not to help others).

Whether they know it or not, those who were in the Adult Education last Sunday did what we should for one another in my mind, as many others (including them) have done so many times in the past for me. I am thankful for those at Creator who teach me to see the world in new ways.

November 15th, 2007 – Council Meeting

Being on council does offer additional opportunities to gain deeper insights into the congregation. This is certainly true from the everyday operational business but also in our church’s present and future aspirations.

For operational business we discussed about pledges and Stewardship, the Treasurer’s report, Worship and Music, Education, Youth and Outreach. We made decisions about specific items like copiers to broader concerns like establishing the endowment fund. Some initial ideas around Pastor Dayle’s upcoming sabbatical this year were mentioned.

Jacob Nolte came before council to talk about a concert he is hosting on December 9th at 7:00 pm in the auditorium at Clackamas High School in memory of Bethany. The benefit is for the Adolescent and Young Adult Clinic at the Cancer Institute at OHSU. Many Creator musicians will be participating and council voted to support the benefit as well.

There was another concern regarding Creator’s ministry that came out in this meeting and the next steps Creator might want to take as a church. Council members spoke from their hearts and their passion was evident. Kelly spoke eloquently about the difference he saw in the Christian community established in the families who are recently in the process of becoming ‘empty nesters’ and those older members who have established friendships with other members that extend beyond planned church activities.

The desire to move to a deeper level of meaning for Creator and the individual congregational members was evident. A council retreat in January may give us the needed time to address this outside the demand for the operational business decisions which always have an urgency that cannot be ignored.

Susan talked about Teresa’s recent decision to resign from council. Teresa's hope is that Education will continue to have a strong voice within the council. Teresa’s work in Education for Creator has impressed all of us and her participation as a member of council will be missed.

Finally, Justin announced he and Carrie are expecting a baby. There was a round of congratulations and we closed, as we opened, with prayer.

November 14th, 2007 – Book Discussion and Choir

The main topic of the book discussion tonight was the new book. Each of us proposed books. I offered The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Birth by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan. We decided not to start until January so it would not be as timely as I planned.

Gretchen suggested Practicing Our Faith by Dorothy Bass but as we discussed our choice we thought it might make sense to alternate between theological “study” books and novels so we choose the book that Debi proposed Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Relin. This will be a great opportunity. I have heard many good things about the book.

In choir we are deep in practice for Agnus Dei, our Christmas cantata. It is coming back to many of us quickly but there was some concern on how few Wednesdays we have until opening night, December 21st, is upon us.

As we practice I believe all of us feel the immediacy and power of this music. We also practiced Kelly's song All That I Have. After practice Kelly talked about some new ideas he had for the music in his liturgy.

We also found out at practice that Greg's grandmother passed away today. We prayed for Greg and his family in their time of grief.

November 11th 2007 – In and Out of Attending Sunday Services

Missing Sunday Service never used to bother me much. Often it seemed I hadn’t “missed” much in terms of what happened. When no one commented on my absence it seemed like no one cared if I was there. If someone did comment I felt under scrutiny and pressured to attend. Now each time I am on call at work (at my company on call means all night during the week and ready to work on calls all weekend from Friday evening to Monday morning) there is a good chance I will be working rather than worshipping.

I was surprised how out of the loop I felt missing last Sunday’s worship. All Saint’s Day was special and I would have loved to see the youth leading worship. I do see the posted sermons and plays under Ministry on the website but it is certainly not the same as attending.

This Sunday I appreciated the worship. Pastor Dayle preached a good sermon about Job and our identity as a hopeful people waiting for God to make old things new, for resurrection.

The attendance was low at both services. Many of the congregation were at the OLYO Gathering in Seaside (together with Pastor Mark). Worship was a bit more subdued as a result but the music really seemed to hit a stride during the second service.

In Adult Education Pastor Dayle spent the first part of the hour introducing some concepts she picked up in the diversity training she attended at a retreat center up in Washington. I didn't hear any new concepts but it will probably be good for a review of how to conduct sessions where we want to hear from everyone.

We broke into small groups and discussed the First Lesson Job reading. It was an interesting discussion in our small group. We talked about questions that we were given and moved into other topics as well. It is hard to know when to "follow the rules of the discussion" as opposed to knowing what they are trying to inspire and acknowledging when that kind of talk is happening.