WHAT DO PASTORS DO AT THEIR ANNUAL PASTORS CONFERENCE?

"Lazarus, come out!"

Once a year, the pastors of our local Sierra Pacific Synod (some 200 congregations, from Yreka in the North to Visalia in the South, from Reno to the Pacific Ocean) meet for fellowship, rest, and spiritual renewal during the annual Professional Leaders Conference” (PLC).

The 2015 PLC, which Pr. Ben and I attended, took place this week in beautiful Monterey.  This year’s speaker was Dr. Shauna Hannan, Associate Professor of Homiletics (i.e., the study of preaching).  Under Dr. Hanna’s enthusiastic leadership, we got to explore new collaborative models of preaching.  There were play-acting sessions, there was brain storming, humor, creative writing, even (for the musically inclined) the option of beginning to set a passage to music.

I wholeheartedly wish to thank the Bethel community for making it possible for Pr. Ben and myself to attend this annual event.  Sometimes, it is just nice to not be anyone’s pastor for a few days, but to let one’s hair down, so to speak, and to reconnect with long-time friends and colleagues or to meet colleagues who have newly moved into our synod. 

The particular passage that we worked on was John 11:32-44, the story of how Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from death.  That story is found only in John’s gospel. In that gospel, this story marks the turning point when Jesus really got in trouble with the authorities and they decided, “no more of this!”  [Interestingly, in the other gospels a similar turning point is reached when Jesus overturns the tables of the money changers in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.]

John 11 is a text typically assigned to All Saints Sunday, which this year falls on November 1.  I invite you to read the passage prior to November 1 and to reflect on the strong emotions that are displayed in the story.  What do you hear? See? Smell? Feel?

Before we get to All Saints Sunday, though, we will celebrate the most beloved of all Lutheran festivals: Reformation Sunday.  Again, it is time to open our hymnals to the “battle hymn of the Reformation,” Martin Luther’s A Mighty Fortress is Our God. I look forward to singing it from the top of my lungs  with the rest of our congregation at both services. 

What else will happen this Sunday?  As during the last 2 years, we will also present first “grown-up” Bibles to the children who participated in our First Bible calls and we will confirm two 9^th-grade boys.  I hope that you will join your Bethel brothers and sisters in Christ for these special worship services.

Yours in Christ,

Pr. Gabi