Wisdom from Ecclesiastes 1 Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. 2 Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few. Ecclesiastes 5:1-2 As we wind down for the approaching summer and we take a break from some of our programming, we dare not take a break from worship. After all, worship is not a program! Worship is, well, worship, the place where we hear and receive God’s grace and respond in devotion to him. Solomon (if he is indeed the author of Ecclesiastes) has some words of wisdom for us regarding worship and our approach to the presence of God. What exactly does he say? How do you process this passage? You might find two subjects here:
Solomon points out two frequent failures as we approach God in worship. First, that we turn worship into a sacrifice. In other words, worship is something we do for God to somehow appease him and gain his favor rather than a time we receive from him (vs 1). Second, the “word” spoken of in verse 2 is most likely prayer and therefore a warning about our prayers being thoughtless, selfish, and lacking faith. Neither of these are God pleasing or a proper approach to the presence of God. Solomon calls us to examine ourselves, our attitudes toward worship, and our approach to his presence. If we find that we have slipped a bit he calls us to repentance. Granted it is a bit hard to find the gospel in this passage but it is there! Perhaps it is implied rather than overtly stated, but it is there. Solomon tells us to draw near to listen. Yes, that is law, it is a command, none-the-less the good news is there hidden in the hearing. We are told to listen so that we might hear the gospel of God. We are told to listen that God’s grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love might be proclaimed to us and heard! Listening is key in our worship. It is key so that we can hear the absolution spoken, the words of institution spoken, the sermon spoken, and the liturgy spoken (sung). God’s speaks to us in worship and so it is key to listen. You are redeemed, forgiven, reconciled, and loved in Jesus Christ! May God bless your worship this summer as you draw near to listen and let your words be few. Visitation for Convention Resolution Evaluation Many of these visits have been completed. Feedback has been positive with congregations growing in their knowledge and appreciation of the work of the Synod as well as discovering resources available to them. Unfortunately, some pastors/congregations have been slow to schedule a meeting with the visitor and are missing out on the opportunity to strengthen their relationship with the District and Synod. Opportunity will soon come to a close for receiving one of these visitations. The NJ March for Life is only 3 months away (September 26th)! If you have never experienced one of these events I encourage you to do so. It is a very orderly and respectful event but also one that make a statement about Life. You are encouraged to participate and experience this event. Participants will gather at the State House for the Rally at 1:00 am. The March begins at noon. Parking will be at a premium so we are encouraging people to carpool to the Quakerbridge Mall or other Trenton area mass transit site and catch the bus into Trenton for the festivities. If there is a large number of people participating we can petition for an additional bus or use another nearby bus line. In order to do this we will need to know how many people will be attending. If you can let me know by email or calling the District Office that would be helpful. Strategic Plan The NJD Strategic Plan for the rest of this and the next triennium is in the development stage. Three Task Forces have been established to work on three of the targets of the plan. Each Task Force has a VP, a Board Representative, and other people from our churches, some clergy, some lay. There are four parts to the strategic plan: · Healthy Pastors · Healthy Congregations · Ethnic Ministry
Initiative for Ministry Development (IMD) The first rounds of Small Church Clarity and NJDU are now complete. We had 21 congregations participate! It is now time for us to circle back and see if there are other congregation who did not participate or who did not complete the process would like to do so. If there is enough interest I will offer Small Church Clarity and/or NJDU again. Phase three of IMD is well underway. In this phase we are offering “Advanced Studies” not only to congregations that have completed Small Church Clarity or NJD University but to any NJD congregation. A variety of subjects will be addressed, some simple and easy to implement (e.g. Operation Barnabas) and others more complex and involved (Growing Young). Recent Advanced Studies offered:
Circuits 5 & 6 Visit Fort Maguire/Dix/Lakehurst In April Circuits 5 and 6 meet jointly and were hosted by Chaplain Greg Jans Lt. Cornel USAF at Maguire Air Force Base. In the morning the Circuit Pastors had a service in the Air Force Chapel and then in meeting learned more about the ministry of Military Chaplaincy. Lunch was on base at the commissary (with linen table clothes no less!) and in the afternoon the pastors each had a chance to use the flight simulator. It was a very special day, one that I will always remember. Congregations
District Short Clips National Youth Gathering. The next National Youth Gathering will take place July 19-23, 2025 in New Orleans under the theme Endure. Congregations are encouraged to send a group of their youth to this faith edifying event. If your congregation only has a few youth desiring to participate you may want to consider teaming with another church. Hope Dunbar is our NJ District NYG Coordinator. She is happy to help you with questions or information about the Gathering. In addition, if you are a congregational youth worker and have a group attending the Gathering please let Hope know. She will make sure your youth are included in any information dissemination or District events at the Gathering. Official Visits. I am in the midst of a third round of visitation this spring/summer. This round was somewhat truncated because of my surgery. Soon I will be sending out invitations to another seven congregations to establish a fourth round of visitations. Conclusion If you are able, I encourage all of our pastors and laity to take some time this summer for rest and relaxation. Take some time for yourself to replenish. When you are healthy you can serve better. Another way of thinking about Solomon’s words of wisdom in Ecclesiastes 5:1-2 is in the context of personal devotions. Here too we draw near to God. Here too we seek to listen first and speak less. Perhaps you can choose several books of the Bible this summer (a Gospel, an Epistle, and an Old Testament book?) to hear, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart. And yes, thoughtful, faith-filled prayer is good too. The Lord bless you, President/Bishop Gewecke The Apostle John’s Vision for His/Our DistrictBrothers… this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he commanded us. 1 John 3:13, 23 This month I would like to share with you a few snippets from a sermon I delivered at our recent NJD Pastors Conference. It is from 1 John 3:13-24. While I have only printed verse 23 above I hope you will take a few minutes to read the whole passage for it is truly beautiful, significant and inspiring. First a bit of context:
Please don’t miss how John addresses us as “brothers”. This is familial language. The Church of Jesus Christ is to be seen as a family. We are to see ourselves as a family. Within the church we are to act toward one another as family! This is in fact highlighted throughout the epistle. If you were to read the whole epistle you would find many references to his readers as “children”. I would propose to you that this way of family and love is not only the way John sees the people of Ephesus and the seven churches of Asia Minor for whom he has oversight (please see Revelation 1:4) but also that this is a vision for us in the NJ District. God’s message to us is that we are his children. We are forgiven (2:1-2), loved (3:1-2), righteous (3:10), guided by the spirit (4:1-2), loving toward others (4:7) and more. What a beautiful thing it would be if we in the NJD would see ourselves as a family and within and between our congregations love one another. John teaches us that the first dimension of being a family is loving in our horizontal relationship. This is not an ordinary human love that we might find in any number of human relationships. Rather this is a unique love, the agape love that is defined by and in God himself. In fact, in verse 16 he defines what agape love is. “By this we know love, that he (Jesus Christ) laid down his life for us…” This is a divine, self-sacrificing love. And John says, “and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” On the flip side of the coin, not to love is to hate. John reminds us that hate is equivalent to murder. The word is actually man-killer, or man-destroyer, or might we even say life-destroyer. Yes, failure to love destroys the life that God would have for us and robs us of eternal life. So, John exhorts us too “not to love in word or talk but in deed and truth.” As important as love is it does not and cannot stand alone. It grows out of the vertical relationship we have with God. Sometimes our feelings, which are described here as coming from the heart, can mislead us. Our heart is a bit like our conscience; it may be true or it may be misguided. So, feelings, while important and good, may mislead us. Just because something is fun and feels good doesn’t mean it is good or right. And vice a versa, just because we feel guilty doesn’t mean God can’t or doesn’t forgive us. John reminds us that God is greater than our hearts, namely that he has paid for our sins in Christ Jesus (vs. 16) and has forgiven those who believe in him. You see this trusting vertical relationship with God reconciles us to God and fills us with his love (agape). John brings it all together in verse 23. Neither the horizonal nor the vertical stand alone independent of the other. Rather they intersect and it is at this intersection that we find the Christian life. “And this is his command, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another.” And it is here that we find the family of God, the church. It is here that we as NJD want to be; believing and loving. Visitation for Convention Resolution Evaluation Congregational Visitation for discussion about the Synodical Convention Resolutions has begun. Thank you to those congregations who have welcomed the visitor I have appointed to your congregation. Early reports are that there have been some very good discussions and new resources for ministry have been discovered. Visitors will share a list of the resolutions so leadership will have a chance to review them before the meeting. At the meeting the visitor and the leadership will have a chance to discuss the resolutions and how they may or may not fit into the ministry plan of the congregation. It is a given that each congregation cannot address all of the resolution but some will prove to be very helpful. The discussion is meant to reveal these helpful resolutions and the resources Synod has to offer congregations as they seek to do ministry. If you have not yet had your visit please look for a call from your visitor soon. Welcome him/her to a meeting of your leadership and expect to have a profitable discussion. The interest is starting to build for the NJ March for Life. A number of our pastors have said that they are interested in attending. Ask your pastor if he will be able to attend and come with a group from your congregation. On September 26th those interested will gather at the State House in Trenton for a Life Rally and then conclude the event with a March for Life. The Rally starts at 11:00 am and the March at noon. Since parking will be an issue we are encouraging people to carpool to the Quakerbridge Mall or other Trenton area mass transit site and catch the bus into Trenton for the festivities. If you tell me that you will be coming we can make arrangements to meet and participate together. Strategic Plan We are moving ahead with our new Strategic Plan. As you know from last month it has four parts:
I ask your prayers for me, Rev. Billy Brath, who is guiding us in this process, and our task force members. This is truly exciting work as we lay a strategic plan for the next four years of our District. I do not want to accept as fact that we are a shrinking District. By God’s grace and in his power, I believe that this trend can be reversed. I fully believe that there are many of our neighbors here in NJ whom God is calling to salvation. I believe that it would be God pleasing for many of them to find a place in his family in one of our NJD churches. This is the focus of our strategic plan. Initiative for Ministry Development (IMD) Having cycled through the three phases of IMD (Small Church Clarity, NJD University, Advanced Studies) we are now ready to repeat the cycle. I will be looking for congregations that would like to go through SCC or NJDU. These might be congregations that did not participate in the first cycle or who started but did not complete the phase. In addition, we will continue to offer Advanced Studies on various topics as the need arises. Finally, we are offering a Planning Reunion for all those congregations who successfully completed SCC or NJDU and are ready to renew and refresh their original plans. Correct understanding will recognize that strategic plans are never finished. They are developed for a time but then must be renewed as ministry is accomplished and builds. This Reunion will be a work session and be held on June 1st. Again, please let me know if your congregation will be attending. Growing Young (see below), one of our Advanced Studies, is currently being offered to congregations. I encourage you to seriously consider participating. It will take some work but I am sure will reap benefits helping our congregations grow young. NJD Pastors Conference and Growing Young Our NJD pastors conference was held May 12-14th at Tuscarora Retreat Center, Mt. Bethel PA. We had a great time of learning, worship, and fellowship. Pastor Jon Dunbar (St. Peter, Hopewell Township) led us in a study of 1 John, Pastor Adam Carhehl (Good Shepherd, Randolph) shared a presentation on Spiritual Direction (he has a Master’s degree in Spiritual Direction and is a Spiritual Director), Dr. Dave Rueter presented on Growing Young, the Pastors of Circuit 3 lead devotions and worship, and President Gewecke preached at the Divine Service. Attendance was strong and all those present had the opportunity to hear about Growing Young and consider if it would be helpful for their congregation. The next step is for pastors to return to their congregation and present the major ideas to their leadership. All those congregations who desire to know more are invited to gather at their church for a Zoom session with Dr. Rueter on Saturday June 8th at 10:00 am – 12: 00 pm. Our goal is to form one or two cohorts of congregations to work together with Dr. Rueter for 18 months to implement the various aspects of Growing Young. As you gain commitment from your congregation to participate please let me know so we can start forming the cohorts. Congregations
District Short Clips National Youth Gathering. The next National Youth Gathering will take place July 19-23, 2025 in New Orleans under the theme Endure. Congregations are encouraged to send a group of their youth to this faith edifying event. If your congregation only has a few youth desiring to participate you may want to consider teaming with another church. Hope Dunbar is our NJ District NYG Coordinator (please see the separate article in this newsletter for her contact information). She is happy to help you with questions or information about the Gathering. In addition, if you are a congregational youth worker and have a group attending the Gathering please let Hope know. sShe will make sure your youth are included in any information dissemination or District events at the Gathering. Official Visits. I have resumed Official Visits and have four scheduled for the rest of the spring and summer. I will send out invitations to another group of congregations this summer to schedule a date for an Official Visit in the fall. As always, I am eagerly anticipating these mutually edifying visits. Educators Conference. The NJD Educators Conference was a wonderful success. Our desire is to build on this success to make it even better next year. The date for the conference has been set for Friday March 7th10:00 am – 2 pm at Somerset Hills Lutheran Church, Basking Ridge. We are recommending that all of our pre-schools set aside this day as an In-Service day enabling all their teachers to attend this conference. Continuing education is expected of our teachers and here they can get it in a Christian context. Conclusion As one reads John’s first epistle you can’t help but sense the love he had for the people of the seven churches in Asia Minor. He called them to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to love one another. May I do the same for you? For it is at the sweet spot of the intersection of faith and love that we find genuine life in Christ and genuine church life. The joy of Easter and the power of the Holy Spirit be with you, President/Bishop Gewecke |