Forward in Hopeful Expectation

by Pastor Froseth

Grace be to you and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen

As I write this we are nearing the climax of the Advent Season — our time of rising expectation for the coming of the King.  These last months have also provided me with a sense of rising expectation for the future of St. Stephen Church.  They have been months of dreaming and brainstorming, months of consulting with experts, months of planning and sharing.  Let me share a few of the things that lay behind my sense of rising expectation.

Vision2Serve

A key component of President Jim Von Rueden’s vision for St. Stephen has been to expand the level of participation throughout the congregation.  We have found a tool that we think will infuse that vision into the fabric of the congregation for the next 3 to 5 years.  Vision2Serve is a program that has been developed by John Gillespie, founder of Rawhide Boys’ Ranch.  While it is billed as a Stewardship program and budgeted as a Stewardship program, it is about much more than just money.  We want your participation.  The program is structured to ask for your participation.  One of the principles of the program is NOT to keep using the same people for every ministry of the congregation.

I especially like the member-to-member contact element of Vision2Serve.  We will ask people to be in conversation with each other — not just to dun them for money but to ask for their best ideas about the ministry of this congregation, to learn about their gifts and passions, and to involve them in ministries that best match the gifts that God has invested in them.  Dick Lind has agreed to serve as the Program Leader.  We are now recruiting other members to serve as team leaders.  The Council decided to recommend this program for your consideration at the annual meeting provided that we had a leadership team in place by that time.  Our team will be in place.  Vision2Serve is loaded with opportunities to expand our ministry at St. Stephen.

Ministry Renewal

When the Worship Committee asked to engage me with a deeper conversation about St. Stephen, we used a book by Methodist Bishop Robert Schnase to direct our conversations.  I hope that you’ve noticed some of the things we are trying to accomplish and I want to share just two of the things that are ahead for 2012.

• The Worship Service:  We are trying to infuse more energy and more intimacy into the worship service.  Sharing of birthdays and anniversaries is part of that.  Placing more people into the nave by going to one service is part of that.  I make a conscious attempt to bring a high energy level to leading your worship experience.  Lately, I have had people who experience the presence of projection screens in other churches ask me when we are going to do that.  It is in the proposed budget for 2012.  We want worship to be a meaningful part of your week and are working to make that happen.
• The Parish House:  There have been modifications since the office/lounge/chapel/library complex was built in the mid-50s but it doesn’t function as well as it might and it looks dated.  The Executive Committee and Council have been working with architects to bring the first floor of that building up-to-date in a way that emphasizes the hospitality and intimacy that we are trying to promote.  Plans may be available for you to review at the annual meeting.  It will be a very large project but one that we can make possible.

An Energetic Youth Ministry

I hope that you have noticed the energy that Todd Punke has brought to St. Stephen and our ministry with youth.  It was unfortunate that finances caused us to fall back and start over with youth ministry in 2011.  But the restart is working and I am committed to restoring the funding for that ministry in as few years as budgets allow.

Above all it is the people of St. Stephen who keep me optimistic about our future.  The staff, the leadership team, and the active participants in this place are people of energy and hope and vision.  We have been blessed by the Holy Spirit to be about the work of God as St. Stephen Lutheran Church.

Happy New Year!  May God continue to bless us in this ministry we share!

Pastor Gary Froseth