Today's Advent Devotion
Friday, December 4
Mark 1:1–8
John’s choice of location is odd—why not head for the city, where you can be assured that a good number of people will be around to hear your message? Instead, he appeared in the wilderness. Yet the message he preached drew people out to him in the wilderness, drew them to confession and to baptism. His message bore fruit, yet he always realized “the one who is more powerful than I is coming after me.” The announcement of that coming one had a power that overcame many obstacles, that drew people out of their comfort zones into a new place, and that created a movement thought impossible. Simple words—yet words laden with power and possibilities. Can we hear those words today?*We thank you, Lord, that your word comes and creates a new reality. Amen.
Today's text from Mark 1 is also our gospel text for Sunday. A reminder that our 2020 Advent Devotional, “O Lord How Shall I Meet You," provided by Luther Seminary, is available for our daily use this season HERE. Note that you can download either a regular or large print version, and you can subscribe to have the devotional emailed to you daily.
Advent Series
Speaking of Advent, our Advent worship series kicked off at noon on Wednesday with the first of three Advent worship services with the theme "Arise and Shine" livestreamed on our YouTube channel. I will be doing two more of these services on December 9 and 16. For more info about the series, go to last week's section of the update where I provided the details, which you can read HERE. If you haven't viewed Wednesday's service, you can still do so HERE.
Plans for Christmas Worship
Regardless of our decision of whether or not to proceed with in-person worship on Christmas Eve, we will be producing a Christmas Eve Service which will be uploaded to our YouTube channel. Note that I said "uploaded," which means that it will not be livestreamed. Working with Heather, Paul and Chris, we will record the elements of the service, which Heather, using her amazing video editing skills, will weave into a first class Christmas at St. John's video. The service will be slightly scaled down from a live service, include some carols, a children's message, a sermon (of course!), and we'll bring down the lights, light some candles and sing Silent Night. We are also considering one or more elements of special music, which would be recorded and included in the final video. We will be doing the bulk of the recording next Sunday, December 13, at 6:00 pm. I'm thinking that we should have a congregation of at least a couple to sing the carols, to lead those who will sing along as they watch. Any volunteers?
Worship via Phone
I mentioned in last week's update that I have developed a new way to make worship available to those who don't have a computer or internet, and would be able to listen to the worship service on their phone, whether cell phone or land line. To do this I make a recording of the service, and upload the audio file to a service called Twilio, and then make it avialable by calling a phone number. This service is up and running, and currently the service that is posted is Wednesday's Advent service. Each service, Wednesday or Sunday, will be uploaded and linked to Twilio for listening by calling the number. That number is: (205) 839-9693. I am indicating in my publicity about this that the Wednesday service will be availble for listening by 1:00 pm, and the Sunday service by 10:00 am.
The cost for this service is very reasonable. We pay $1.00 per month for the use of that number, and those who call in generate a charge of $.013 per minute. If one person listens to a 35 minute service, that generates a charge $.45. We pay as we go, starting with $20 in our account, and then when the balance gets low, we add more to it.
Letter to Members Without Email
How to get information out to members without email, as well has how to keep in touch with them and provide woship opportunities has been a challenge. So far I have used occasional letters, join worship and Bible study by phone, and the opportunity for drive-through Communion. On Friday morning, we mailed a letter to this group (about 30 total) including info about suspension of in-person worship, Advent worship, and annual meeting info. You can read the two-page letter HERE.
New Pastor at Trinity Vermilion
Trinity in Vermilion was my first interim assignment in 2012. They called Pastor Rich, who stayed for 7+ years, then took another call to a congregation in Florida. After being served by an interim, they recently called and have installed a new pastor, Rev. Sarah Taylor, whose previous congregation was in Minnesota. By a bit of coincidence, I met Sarah initially on Facebook, as she was an active participant in the ELCA Clergy group, and I met her personally during my interim in Minneosta in 2015. She and I both attended a gathering of pastors for a prayer service following the killing of the Emanuel 9 in Charleston in June of that year. Welcome to Ohio, Sarah! Yes, it is possible to interview, call, and install a new pastor in the middle of a pandemic!
Worship numbers
- Sunday, November 29 - 58 views
- Wednesday, December 2 Avent service - 29 views
Offering report
Week of November 4 - December 4
- 2020 - $14,705 - 57 contributors
- 2019 - $23,785 - 87 contributors
- 2018 - $12,567 - 92 contributors
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