Spotlight - August

+ The Spotlight +

Christ Lutheran Church - Elkhart, KS

Faith Lutheran Church – Hugoton, KS

From the Pastor's Desk:
Occasionally the question comes up, “Why do we
worship the way we do? Isn't it overly formal?
Wouldn't it attract more people to our services if we
made things a little more modern?”
Why do we worship the way we do? Quite frankly,
because it's the way Christians have worshiped for
2000 years. Before the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the people of Israel had been worshiping the One True
God liturgically for a millennium and a half. Why?
Because it's the way God told them to do it.
God had given his people very specific instructions
through Moses, recorded for us in the first five books
of the Bible, which governed the worship that should
be directed toward him. They were to build an altar.
They were to offer him spotless animals from the
flock. They were to pray certain prayers, and perform
certain actions. They were to understand from the
actions they performed that the forgiveness of sins
required the shedding of blood, the loss of a life.
Of course, the liturgy developed over time. God had
given them a basic outline, but God's people added
appropriate prayers. God guided his people as they
expressed their sorrow for their sins and their joy at
being called to be his people. Some of those prayers
are now recorded in the book of Psalms.
When Christ came, he came into a situation where
everyone was very familiar with the worship services
used in the Temple and Synagogue. This was not an
accident—it was part of his design for the Church.
When his followers were banned later from
worshiping in the Temple and cast out of the
synagogues—part of the persecution they suffered for
believing Jesus is the Messiah—they took the service
with them. The worship God had given his people in
the Old Testament continued into the New Testament.
Only now, it was not about the sacrifice that pointed
forward to the forgiveness of sins won by Christ on
the cross. It was about receiving that forgiveness in
his body and blood in the Lord's Supper. The shadow
of the Old Testament had been traded for the reality
of the New. Where in ages past they saw the
sacrificial lamb and perhaps wondered how God
would ultimately take away their sins, in the Church,
from the very beginning, we have prayed, “O Christ,
Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the
world, have mercy upon us!”
The actions which we perform in worship today were
not dropped out of heaven the way the worship of the
Israelites was. But they developed, in a long,
unbroken process, from the worship of the Tabernacle,
the Temple, the Synagogue and the Early Church. The
motions and prayers, the symbols that we use, are all
designed for one thing—to direct our faith to the
blood that was shed on account of our sins, to the life
that was lost so that we might be saved, to the Lamb
of God who is the only source for eternal life. Why is
our worship formal? Because we worship a great
God and King, who gives great gifts, who promises
things that are impossible for us in a great feast that
he sets for us here every week. Formality is how we
celebrate great occasions in our culture. It used to be
that nobody could conceptualize an informal
wedding, or even not wearing a tie to Sunday dinner.
It says something about our culture that informal is
the way everything is expected to be.
So, is liturgy the only way Christians can worship?
Probably not, but it's definitely the best. The fact of
the matter is that every church has a liturgy—an order
of service--even if it's not carried out by the pastor
and congregation reading certain words and singing
certain things out of a book every week. In some
churches the liturgy is that they sing a few songs,
pray, hear the sermons, take the offering, pray again,
and go home. The advantage of the liturgy that we
have is that it makes sure that regardless of what
songs, prayers, and sermon say, the central truth,
Christ crucified for our sins and raise for our
justification, is the point that gets across. “Even if it's
not an amazing service, we are still saying things that
are true about God,” an Anglican priest once told me.
It's with that goal—that we would say things that are
true about God, understand his love and his mercy
toward us, and turn from our sins and be saved, that
motivated God to give liturgy to his people in the first
place.


August Birthdays
8/03 Warren Bowker
8/13 Belva Hickey
8/16 Vanessa Reza
8/18 Michael Addington
8/18 Erin Fincher
8/26 Bettie Bach
8/28 Verda Ellsaesser
8/29 Kayleigh Pomeroy
August Anniversaries
8/04 Carol & Carl Wilson
8/17 Darrell & Belva
Hickey

August Baptisms
8/02 Shaylee Addington
8/18 Michael Addington

Schedule of Events
Faith
Divine Service – Sunday 9 am.
Faith Sunday School – Resumes September.
Faith Confirmation 2 Class – 9:30 Wednesdays.
Faith Confirmation 1 Class – 11:30 Wednesdays.

Christ
elkhartlutheranchurch.blogspot.com
Divine Service – Sunday 11 am.
Christ Confirmation Class – Resumes September.
Clothing Bank – open as announced.
Sunday School – Will resume in September.

Faith, Hugoton
August Volunteers at Faith:
• Elder: Ray.
• Usher: Pete.
• Altar: Christine.
• Cleaning: O'Loughlins.
• Mowing and Watering: Tammy.

Christ, Elkhart
Clothing Bank Donations can be made any time by
bringing donations to the Christ Lutheran Church.
Mission Giving: The Voters at Christ chose to direct
their mission giving for this year to the Kurt Marquart
Fund for Theological Education in Haiti. The
advantage to this giving is that gifts become a part of
the fund which will remain untouched, but the
interest is applied to assist those studying for the
ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Haiti,
especially during this time of reconstruction following
the earthquake. For those who have Internet access
and are interested in reading more:
marquartfund.org.
Student Adoption: The Voters at Christ also voted to
support a student directly rather than going through
the Financial Aid Office of the Seminary. The pastor
has a couple of names to offer so far. If there are
students at either seminary who are known to you
personally and who you would like to see our
congregation support, please submit the name to the
pastor before September, the beginning of the
academic year.

+++
A New Synodical President!
Rev. Matthew Harrison was elected Synodical
President at the LCMS Synodical Convention this past
month. He will be installed at the Concordia
Seminary Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus on
September 11, 2010. Pray for him and the other
officers to be installed that day, that God's will be
done among us as his people.

Upcoming Events
Circuit - Tuesday, Aug 10, Holy Cross, Dodge City
Circuit - Tuesday, Sept 14, Holy Cross, Scott City
Kansas District Pastors Conference, Oct 17 - 19
Circuit - Tuesday, Nov 9, Grace Ulysses
Circuit - Tuesday, Dec 14, Holy Cross, Dodge City