MINISTRY OF DISCIPLESHIP Nurture
members in the Word of God so as to grow in faith and hope and love, to
see daily life as the primary setting for the exercise of our Christian
calling, and to use our gifts of the spirit for our life together and
for our calling in the world.
THE MARKS OF DISCIPLESHIP -How do
we live out our faith?"The
Marks of Discipleship" is our Lenten theme this year, organized around these
widely accepted practices of the Christian faith: Pray each day, Worship each
week, Read from the Bible during the week, Serve in and through the church,
Reflect Christ in nurturing relationships, Give generously of my time, talent,
treasure.Through Bible study and
discussion, we'll explore how Christ invites us to deepen our faith through
such practices.Join us Wednesdays
beginning February 24, for discussions at 12 noon followed by lunch, and at
5:45 for soup with 6:15 Study and 7:00 worship. Come, grow in practicing your
faith this Lent!
Marks of
Discipleship .... A POWER
SURGEfor practicing faith
Pray each day
Worship each week
Read from the Bible during the week
Serve in and through Gloria Dei
Reflect Christ in nurturing relationships
Give generously of my time, talent, treasure
We have this treasure in clay jars, so that it
may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not
come from us - 2 Corinthians 4:7
WHAT IS OASIS?
"Oasis" is the Middle School / Senior High ministry cooperatively sponsored by Gloria Dei and Trinity Lutheran congregations. Oasis involves 6th to 12th grade youth in Wednesday mid-week programming and monthly special events. This ministry strives to provide space and relationships in which youth can learn about and experience God's love known through Jesus Christ. An Oasis is "a fertile place in the desert, resulting in the presence of water." Jesus said, "I am the water of life, whoever drinks of me shall never thirst again." Oasis ministry aims to provide a "fertile place" for growing in Christ, equipping youth to recognize and share the water of life in the "desert" places of life. Oasis meets each Wednesday evening 6:00-8:00 p.m., beginning with supper. We usually meet at Trinity (11th Ave. E. and 8th St.). Hope to see you there! If you have any questions about the Oasis program, please call the church office at 722-3381, or email Pastor David at pastor@gloriadeiduluth.org.
Please join us on Sunday mornings... all are welcome! (During the summer the Adult Forum and Sunday School programs are on break, consider joining us at one of our bible study groups or vacation bible school during the summer.) ADULT FORUM Please join us for our discussions on the interaction of faith and society each Sunday morning (Sept 13th-May) in the Hillside Room from 8:45-9:45 a.m.
STUDENT CLASSES are also held on Sunday mornings from 8:45-9:30 a.m. during the months September 13th through May. Experienced and caring congregational members teach classes. We offer classes for children pre-school through High School.
ALL CHILDREN AND ADULTS ARE WELCOME... JOIN US!
BOOK OF FAITH An Overview of the Book of Faith Initiative.
What
is the Book of Faith? The Book of Faith is an initiative of the ELCA
that invites the whole church to become more fluent in the language of
Scripture, in order that we might live into our calling as a people
renewed, enlivened, and empowered by the Word.
The Bible is a book of faith. The
Bible is the written Word of God that creates and nurtures faith
through the work of the Holy Spirit and points us to Christ, the
incarnate Word and center of our faith. The Bible invites us into a
relationship with God, making demands on our lives and promising us
life in Christ. The Bible tells the stories of people living their
faith over the centuries and, through its demands and promises, forms
us as a people of faith.
BOOK OF FAITH ... continued
The language of Scripture is our first language of faith. The Bible teaches us about God, about the world, and about ourselves. We become renewed, enlivened, and empowered as the language of Scripture forms our hearts, our minds, our community conversation, and our commitments.
We have a calling as people of God. Part of our calling is to know, hear, share, and be rooted in Scripture.
We are renewed, enlivened, and empowered by the Word. As we live into our calling as people who are formed by Scripture, we become renewed in our faith, enlivened through the Spirit, and empowered through the cross of Christ to serve God and neighbor. Visit www.elca.org/bookoffaith.
CLASS FOR SEEKERS AND NEW
MEMBERS - Sundays during Lent, beginning
February 21, from 11:30-12:30 in the Lakeside Room.This is for anyone interested in
learning more about Christianity and the Lutheran Church, being baptized or
confirmed as an adult, or joining our parish.Lunch and materials will be provided.We will be using the helpful booklet,
Baptized We Live: Lutheranism as a Way
of Life, by Dan Erlander, to guide our discussions.Our class will meet for five consecutive Sundays, and new members
will be received at the Vigil of Easter service on April3.Current members are also welcome for a review!If interested in attending, please
contact Pastor Carlson so we can plan accordingly --- 722-3381.
ADULT FORUM -Sundays at 8:45 in the Hillside Room -
please join us! New DVD Series - "Living the Questions" -with progressive
Christian scholars and discussion.
OASIS YOUTH NIGHTS - Oasis is
the Junior High/Senior High ministry jointly sponsored by Gloria Dei and
Trinity Lutheran congregations.
Oasis involves those in grades 7-12 in Wednesday mid-week programming
and special events - Wednesdays beginning with a meal, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
(During Lent, Oasis is meeting separately in each congregation. Please join us starting on Ash Wednesday, at 7:00 p.m. and Wednesday evenings following at 5:45 p.m.)
LAY
LEADER EXTRAVAGANZA!
Saturday, March 27, 2010, Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Duluth This
congregational resource event centers on the theme: "The Marks of
Discipleship." You can expect a day filled with mission and ministry,
practical information, and resources galore!The keynote presenter is Pastor Stephen Bouman, who most recently
served as bishop to the Metropolitan New York Synod. He was elected Nov. 11 by
the ELCA Church Council to a four-year appointment as executive director of
ELCA Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Mission (EOCM) beginning Jan. 1,
2008. Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson describes Bouman: "He has a passion to
proclaim Christ, make disciples and build up the church for the sake of the
world." Registration for this day-long event is $20 per person
or $15 each for groups of four or more. SIGN UP IN THE HILLSIDE ROOM.You won't want to miss this event!
JESUS, JUSTICE, JAZZ - Our youth (Maia, Maritha, Chuck, Lisa and Andy) have recently returned from a journey to the 2009 ELCA National Youth Gathering in New Orleans, July 17-27th. Leaders from Gloria Dei, Steve Dalager and Tanner Hall joined our youth. The Synod Journey to New Orleans included stops in Peoria IL, and Memphis TN, for service projects, civil rights history, and fellowship with other youth from our synod. Based on Philippians 2:1-8 ("Let the same mind be you that was in Christ Jesus..."), the 2009 ELCA Youth Gathering looked and felt like a servant school. At the center of the Gathering program was a deepening of an awareness of God's call to servanthood, and a deepening of the basic Christian practices by which we live our baptismal calling to servanthood throughout life. Thanks for supporting these young ambassadors of faith!
THE BIBLE: BEYOND SUNDAY SCHOOL Reprinted from Lutheran Women Today magazine, March 2009 by Karen G. Bockelman What comes to your mind when you hear the word Bible? Do you remember learning Bible stories in Sunday school? Memorizing Bible verses? Family devotions? The LWT Bible studies? Maybe you're new to this Bible stuff and it isn't part of your memory bank at all. Or maybe what you picture is a beautiful, but seldom opened coffee-table Bible. Perhaps you associate the Bible with old-fashioned language, outdated moral codes, and strange prophecies. Does the idea of reading the Bible make you think about long-ago people and events with no relevance to today? Does the idea of studying the Bible make you worry about losing your faith? My father grew up in a German-American community in northwestern Ohio. He and his brothers spoke Low German at home and High German at church, and only began learning English when they started school - a one-room building, grades one through eight, with a one-shelf library. As he learned to read, Dad discovered a wonderful book in that library. It was a book of adventure stories: fights against lions, battles with giants, tales of great warriors and tricky spies - just the kind of stories that appeal to a young boy. The summer after second grade, Dad started "German school," an important tradition in his Lutheran congregation. It was an ambitious summer program for kids ages 8 to 12: some 60 days of all-day catechism and Bible instruction (in German and English), but, as my father has said, "It sure beat hoeing beans." In his first year of German school Dad made an amazing discovery - that book of adventure stories on the school library shelf was really a book of Bible stories! What a wonderful gift that discovery turned out to be. Dad's interest and imagination were captured by the stories rather than by the label Bible. There are many ways people can fall in love with the Bible - children's storybooks are only one. Gifted Sunday school teachers and pastors can make the Bible come alive for their hearers. Artistic depictions, from stained-glass windows to computer-generated graphics, tell the stories visually and vividly. Dramatic readings and Christmas pageants pull us into the story. Our minds and our hearts can be stirred by new teachings and new insights. My father has never lost his early love of Scripture. Even more, he never lost that sense of wonder and expectation - reading the Bible could be an adventure, an opportunity to learn something new, fresh, unexpected, stimulating, even exciting. One drop of water On the drive to church one Sunday, my pastor's young daughter announced she would rather come to the adult forum with her dad than go to Sunday school. "That would be fine, sweetie," her dad said. "What are you going to talk about?" she wanted to know. "We're going to talk about the Bible," he answered. "You mean grownups talk about the Bible in their Sunday school, too?" she asked. "Yes, we do." "But I suppose you talk about serious Bible stories, not the fun ones like we do." "Well, yes, we talk about serious stories, but we also talk about some of the same stories you learn in Sunday school. Even grownups need to hear those stories over and over again." This young girl already sensed that grownups might look at the Bible differently than kids do. Where we are in our life's journey can make a difference not only in what we are drawn to reading, but also in our understanding of what we read. A developmental psychologist has pointed out that fifth-graders, for example, tend to be concrete and detail-oriented. So when they read or hear the Exodus story they might wonder, 'Didn't even one Hebrew get one drop of water on them?' Can the Exodus story be meaningful for fifth-graders? Absolutely. Is there more to the story than crossing the Red Sea on dry ground? Just as absolutely. When our Bible learning stops with our Sunday school days or gets stuck at that level, we don't have a chance to grow in faith. We think we know what the Bible says because we once learned the story, and we let that early sense of adventure and discovery be overshadowed by the indifference and even contempt that can grow out of familiarity. The fruit of the tree I have often used a Bible Christmas quiz to help people look more closely at what the Bible actually says. One of the multiple-choice questions asks how Mary and Joseph got to Bethlehem. Most people pick 'Joseph walked and Mary rode a donkey' even though the Bible actually says nothing about their mode of transportation. But, of course, many Christmas cards and children's Bibles or Sunday school lessons show Mary riding a donkey, led by Joseph. Another question asks about the baby Jesus crying and nearly everyone insists, "he never cried." Why? Not because the Bible says so, but because every Christmas we sing 'Away in a Manger' and are reminded 'but little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes.' (For the Christmas quiz and other ideas about teaching Scripture, see Teaching the Bible Creatively: How to Awaken Your Kids to Scripture by Bill McNabb and Steven Mabry, Zondervan Publishing House, 1990.) Women of the ELCA has a strong, long history of regular Bible study. Many of our congregations have taken part in other Bible courses such as the Bethel Bible Series and Crossways. These are designed for the experienced and they can be challenging if the last time we really looked at the Bible was in Sunday school or confirmation class. A friend of mine spent more than 25 years away from church and, she would say, away from God. When she and her husband moved to a new town, she began to think about looking for a church as a way to connect with people who wanted to do good in the community. On her first Sunday in church, the pastor preached on the creation account in Genesis. In a kind of throw-away line the pastor said of Adam and Eve, 'of course they didn't really eat an apple." My friend was flabbergasted. What kind of pastor was this who didn't even know about the apple? And what was worse, these people in the congregation actually believed him! She left the service that day determined to check out Genesis for herself and prove to that pastor that Adam and Eve did too eat an apple. To her great surprise she discovered the Bible doesn't say anything about an apple - just "the fruit of the tree." That experience opened her to Scripture - and now she's a pastor! Book of Faith There are many ways to approach biblical study. Diane Jacobson, director of the ELCA's Book of Faith initiative, lists four approaches that have proved helpful through the years: devotional reading, historical reading, literary reading, Lutheran theological reading. While each has particular strengths and challenges, they all have at least two things in common: centering our study on the text of the Bible itself and a desire to hear what God is saying through that text. Throughout my ministry I have heard people express their fear that historical or literary methods of study will destroy faith. They worry that anything that raises a question about the factual truth of something in the Bible raises a question about the whole truth of God's word to us. Such fear cannot be taken lightly, but I've always said that if asking questions is all it takes to destroy faith, then we're all in big trouble. The Bible is not simple. God's word is not easy. Sometimes I wish it were. Sometimes I long to have the final answer - to know fully, not just in part. No more questions. No more doubts. One clear, right way to understand what God is saying. (Then maybe I could preach one good sermon on a given text - no matter how many times it comes up!) But most of the time I'm glad for the struggle. I know that I'm different every time I open the Bible to read. I know that the people to whom I preach and the people with whom I study are different every time we come together. I know the world changes every day. And I know God speaks to us anew in every time and place. I love coming back again and again to the same stories, the same texts, and finding something new. I love being surprised by an unexpected insight. I'm thrilled with the ELCA's Book of Faith initiative. I love reading different translations and versions of the Bible (especially Eugene Peterson's The Message). I love reading commentaries and hearing the questions and discoveries of others. I love looking at Scripture in different ways, as in the visual illuminations of the Saint John's Bible. I am truly my father's daughter. I couldn't ask for a better inheritance than his love of the Bible and spirit of adventurous discovery. What about you? The Rev. Karen Bockelman is a retired pastor, currently serving part time as executive assistant to the Secretary of the ELCA. She lives in Duluth, Minnesota - when she's not working in Chicago or camping in the Southwest with her husband.
Gloria Dei Lutheran Church 219 N. 6th Ave. E. Duluth, MN 55805 218.722.3381
FIRST WORD BIBLE STUDY - Bring a sack lunch and join Pastor Carlson at noon on Tuesdays in the Hillside Room for a look at next Sunday's readings. All are welcome!
PHILIPPIANS - Our journey through the Bible continues! Select Wednesdays, September 9, 16, 23rd from 5:00-6:00 p.m. in the Lakeside Room. All are welcome.
GLORIA DEI MEMORIAL LECTURE
A
Memorial Lecture Fund has been established at Gloria Dei with
previously undesignated gifts given in memory of Chester Brooks. Chet
will be remembered as one whose faith engaged current events and whose
interests intersected with many fields of study. Click here to read more about this lecture series.
Confirmation class meets Wednesday evenings during the school year. Please contact Pastor David (pastor@gloriadeiduluth.org) if you would like more information regarding the confirmation process.
Congregational Prayer - Submitted by Pastor Carlson
You need not be a member of Gloria Dei to take part in our Sunday School or any other activities at the church. Visitors are always welcome!
If you have questions regarding the
Christian faith, becoming a member of Gloria Dei, or would like to talk
to the Pastor, please call: 722-3381 or email Pastor Carlson at pastor@gloriadeiduluth.org. We would love to have you join
our Gloria Dei Family! We have new members/seekers classes periodically. (Click here to read about upcoming new member classes.)
"Empowered by Christ's love, Gloria Dei reaches out as an inclusive, welcoming church through worship and social action."