August - Pastor's Newsletter Article

During our annual voters’ meeting in May we adopted a strategic plan for ministry. During the next few months I am taking some time in this newsletter article to “unpack” each component of our strategic plan. This month we will consider our core values. A parish’s core values answers the question, “Who are we as a parish? How do we define ourselves?” Together as a congregation we adopted three core values that come straight from Scripture itself. 

In Acts 2:42-47 we read a description of the early Christian Church. In summary, we read that the early Christians saw themselves as a community of believers who were about primarily three things: witness, mercy, and life together. Even as the Church in the 21st century we hold these three core values in common with the first Christians. Let’s break down each core value.

• Witness—We are God’s redeemed people who bear witness to Jesus Christ. Just as the first Christians “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teachings” (Acts 2:42) and were “praising God and having favor with all the people” (Acts 2:47), so also we as a representative of our Lord’s Church at Atonement understand that we are witnesses. Together as a congregation and individually as a member of the Church we give a witness to our Lord and his faithfulness to his gospel promises in Christ. Let us then be mindful and intentional about the witness we give. Let us boldly and courageously witness and testify to the forgiveness and love of our God in Christ in all that we say, think, and do.
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• Mercy—We are God’s redeemed people who show mercy to those who have physical needs. Just as the first Christians saw physical needs of those in their midst and in the      community surrounding them and decided to act by willingly and freely “selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need” (Acts 2:45), so also as members of the Church in the 21st Century we are free in Christ to show compassion and mercy to those who need it. Let us boldly and courageously be a people that show mercy together as a congregation and individually as Christians just as we have first been shown mercy and compassion from our God.

 

• Life Together—We are God’s redeemed people who gather together around the life giving Word and Sacraments and have fellowship with one another. Just as the first Christians were called and gathered by God through his Spirit to belong to a local congregation of believers, so also you and I have been called and gathered by God through his Spirit to belong to Atonement Lutheran. Just as the first Christians celebrated their life together by gathering regularly to “devote themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42), so also we still gather together as the Church every Sunday around the Word and the Sacraments. When we do this we encourage one another with our presence in the Divine Service and in various Bible Studies. Let us boldly and courageously be a people that actively participates in our life together here at Atonement.

 
Witness, mercy, and life together. These three words accurately described the Christian Church and her members in the first century. So also they accurately describe who we are as the Church in the 21st Century here at Atonement. By God’s grace and through the help and strength of his Spirit may he we live more boldly and courageously as a people of witness, mercy, and life together.

 
In Christ,

Pastor Josh