Messiah Lutheran Church, Knoxville TN

Thursday, September 16, 2010 - 7:00–8:00 pm

Messiah’s young adults and their friends are invited to join the old guy (Pastor Eric) for a time of theological conversation on September 16, beginning at 7:00 pm, at a location to be announced.

Legend suggests that Martin Luther would occasionally gather with students at a local pub for this sort of theological table talk. Bring a friend and join us as we engage in our own modern day theological table talk about faith, life, church and society.

Beginning this August, I’d like you to join me in an exciting opportunity in spiritual formation and growth in discipleship. I am inviting you to join me as together we read the book Giving to God: The Bible’s Good News about Living a Generous Life by the Reverend Dr. Mark Allan Powell.

Dr. Powell, Professor of New Testament at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, OH, has written a delightful little book, which debunks and then redefines our notion of stewardship. (Wait! Don’t stop reading just because I used the “S” word.) As Powell helps us to see, stewardship is not a bad word. In fact, as he says, biblical stewardship provides “a vision that turns out to be filled with good news for followers of Jesus Christ.” Did you hear that, stewardship is actually good news.

I’d like very much for all of us to read and discuss this biblical vision for stewardship. Thus, beginning in mid-August, Messiah will have copies of Dr. Powell’s book available for purchase, hopefully, at a cost of around $12/book. My hope is that you will read the book as part of a small group of fellow Messiah members with whom you can discuss Powell’s hypotheses. Your Messiah staff and council will be reading and discussing it. Hopefully, so too will our Via de Cristo reunion groups, Book Club, various committees, Theology Pub, and others. Won’t you join us by purchasing a book, reading along, and finding a group to join for discussion?

I have no doubt that if you do, you will find your efforts very rewarding. As theologian Dr. Douglas John Hall says of Giving to God,

“This is a wonderfully readable book on a subject that ought to have priority in the thinking of not only Christians but all human beings on our much threatened planet. Mark Powell’s prose is full of fascinating anecdotes and allusions, making it immediately accessible to the reader. But, it is also based on a biblically and theologically informed wisdom that speaks to the most pressing challenges of church and society in our time.”   

I look forward to reading along with you and hearing your impressions of Powell’s “biblically and theologically informed wisdom.”

The adult Sunday school class meets on the main level in the fellowship hall at 9:45 am each Sunday mornings.

Current study:  Christian Commitment in Today’s World  by Margaret Krych (from Augsburg Adult Bible Studies curriculum)

Study what genuine Christian commitment means in today’s world, and how God’s faithfulness provides the foundation for this commitment.

            July 25 God’s Own Faithfulness (2 Thess. 3)

            Aug. 1  Rising above the Circumstances (Phil. 1)

            Aug. 8  Summer Sunday Brunch

            Aug. 15            Living into the Future (Phil. 3:1b—4:1)

            Aug. 22            Growing in Joy and Peace (Phil. 4:2–14)

            Aug. 29            Upheld by God (Acts 28; Phil. 4:15–23)

Twenty-Third Annual WELCA Convention

September 10-12, 2010

The twenty-third annual convention of the Southeastern Synod Women of the ELCA will be held Sept. 10, 11, and 12, 2010, at the Hilton Marietta Convention Center in Marietta, Georgia. The theme of the convention is “Wind of the Spirit” from John 3:8. Representing Messiah at the convention will be Denny Blalock, delegate, and representatives Lynn White, Bonnie Pederson, Gloria Nelson, and Anne Tinker. If you are interested in attending, please talk with Lynn White.

WELCA Morning Bible Study

The WELCA Morning Bible Study will be held at 10:00 am Tuesday, Sept. 7. We will follow the study from the magazine Lutheran Woman Today entitled “The People of God: Unity in the Face of Diversity.” The main text for this study is Romans 15:1-4. Doris Featherston will lead the study. Please join us.

WELCA Afternoon Bible Study

The WELCA Afternoon Bible Study will be held Thursday, Sept. 2. We are studying the book Giving to God by Mark Allan Powell. We will start at 12:30 pm with a brown bag lunch and begin the study at 1:00 pm. Lynn White will lead the study. Please join us.

Service Project & October General Meeting - Monday, Oct. 11

We have become aware that in keeping with Knoxville’s Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, many of the new residents at Guy B. Love Towers in north Knoxville are folks who are coming in from living off the streets and as such are in need of household items. Think of this as an opportunity to clear out your cabinets and donate household items that you don’t use anymore such as dishes, pots & pans, drinking glasses, linens, etc. We ask that you bring your donations to our general meeting on Monday, Oct. 11. These items will be greatly appreciated by the residents at Guy B. Love Towers.

Craft Fair - November 6, 2010

A Craft Fair will be held here at Messiah on Nov. 6 from 9:00 am-3:00 pm. The fair will include a bake sale, craft items from Lutheran World Relief, a WELCA table, and outside crafters who will set up tables. So far, the outside crafters include such items as wood-burned gourds, painted and holiday gourds, holiday items, photography, bookmarks, note cards, paintings, silk flower arrangements, wreaths, knitted scarves and washcloths, jewelry and soy candles. Think of this as a great opportunity to do some holiday shopping. If you have any questions, please contact Lynn White.

Love Offering

Love offering 2010/Southeastern Synod WELCA is designated for the Southeastern Synod Disaster Relief Fund.  Our own synod is in need of help due to recent flooding in Nashville, tornados in Mississippi and the oil spill on the Gulf Coast.  During the month of September, we will be “Counting our Blessings” by using a special calendar and bag to collect our coins. They are available in the narthex and we invite you to help with this worthy cause.

WELCA: Cooking for the homebound

Even though we can’t seem to break the heat outside, we are going to turn up the heat inside. On Sunday, Sept. 26, WELCA’s Witness and Service Committee will do some old-fashioned soup-cooking to share with Messiah’s homebound, sick and elderly. All women of the church are invited to join us beginning at 12:30 pm.

If you have a favorite soup recipe you would like to whip up, you can bring it along, or simply drop it off in the kitchen by noon on Sept. 26. We’ll be dividing the soup into serving size containers. If you are not a soup maker but love to bake, then we’d love for you to bake up some mini-loaves of your favorite bread and bring those to the kitchen on Sept. 26 by noon.  We will clean up all your dishes and mark them ready for pick-up the following Sunday.

If cooking isn’t your fancy, that’s okay. Please just take a moment and pray for Messiah’s homebound sick and elderly. To borrow from the popular book series, your prayers are like “chicken soup for the soul.”

OWLs (Older, Wiser Lutherans) sponsor a weekly group—Coping with Loss/Grief Support Group. The group meets in the church library on Wednesdays at 1:00 pm and is led by Lynn White, a retired Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has past experience in facilitating such groups.

Life is certainly filled with changes, and along with those changes we experience different kinds of losses. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 spells out these changes clearly:

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance, a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”

Those 8 verses are a thorough description of the different phases we all experience in life’s journey. There is definitely a time “for every matter under heaven.” As we age, it seems as though losses increase, doesn’t it? We retire and are faced with a whole new life schedule. We lose friends and family members along the way in our life’s journey. Those losses naturally bring up a whole lot of different emotions. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any emotion you may be feeling at any certain time. These emotions are natural reactions to the circumstances we may be facing. Emotions are real and grief encompasses a whole tangled ball of emotions. That tangled ball of emotions will be introduced at the first group meeting.

We hope to be a bridge for healing with this group as we share with each other and look at various authorities on the subject. If you find yourself in the position of coping with loss, whether it be health, loved ones, financial, etc., we encourage you to join us on Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 1:00 pm in the church library.

The Messiah Book Group will meet Tuesday, April 7 at 7:00 pm in the church library to discuss The Gift of the Jews by Thomas Cahill. The discussion will be led by Georgia Phillippi. Anyone interested is welcome to attend, whether you’ve read the book or not.

Join Messiah Book Group for future discussions

The Messiah Book Group meets every couple months to discuss books. Anyone interested is invited to join the group for one or all of the discussions. The group will meet in the church library at 7:00 pm on the dates listed below for the book indicated.

•           September 13, 2010 - Discussion led by Pat Kopp

Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo’s Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican
by Benjamin Blech & Roy Doliner

•           November 1, 2010 - Discussion led by Connie Cole

When Bad Things Happen to Good People
by Harold S. Kushner

Other books on the group’s list:

•           Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled,
            Beat-up, and Burnt Out by Brennan Manning

•           The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

•           The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

•           An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor

•           God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most
            Important Question–Why We Suffer by Bart D. Ehrman