From Pastor Tom's Desk

Catastrophic Feelings

2008-01-24T05:50:00.000-08:00

400, 000 houses destroyed in a three state area

85,000 families displaced in New Orleans

30,000 houses either gone or in need of repair in Biloxi

It's staggering. It's the U.S. "Chernobyl" we'd rather not talk about. But people are still living in tailers or with relatives. Houses are still boarded up as if Hurricane Katrina happened yesterday. It's been two years! Well, life happens, doesn't it?

I've had several weeks to think about our church's recent trip to help with Lutheran Disaster Relief in Biloxi, Miss. I've been numb for a while, as with any catastrophic event. The magnitude takes forever to sink in. It's unbelievable, except for the fact that we've seen a part of it. It needs to be believable and talked about. People are not even connecting the dots of reasons for recession when a good portion of the Gulf Coast has be wiped out -- people unemployed, and insurance, including health insurance unavailable or unafforadable.

One person whose home we helped to restore not only had his house badly damaged, but predator repairmen did shoddy work, so repairs had to be repeated on the home. The man with a gentle spirit not only lost his living space, but his wife died this past August in her early 60's. One can die not just of physical ailments, but of a broken heart.

I am proud of our church's response to the need. but it feels like a candle being lit in a windstorm -- a flickering witness none-the-less. Like the story we heard from Mike, the owner of a home on Biloxi Point. As the 28 foot tidal surge engulfed his home, it became an island refuge for others whose homes were floating away. Mike's home had two stories and he welcomed 26 neighbors who floated by to stay at his home. One Vietnamese fishing family would not accept his invitation to come. He found out that an elderly grandparent was bedfast and the rest of the family would not leave her. Mike waded and swam and put her on his back and the family was brought to safety. "Greater love has no one than this . . . . . . . "

Stories like this mark the soul. Our church will go back to the Gulf Coast. We are planning to invite a pastor from Mobile to speak at several area churches this Spring. Our hope is to spread the word and find more volunteers for Spring and Summer trips. I will not be the same as a result of those 4 days.

Discerning the Spirit

2007-06-14T06:46:00.000-07:00

Our LIFE steering team, executive team, and church council have been going through a discernment process. We have been invited by the bishop of the Central States Synod to join
the Partners for Missional Church process. We are reading the book entitled, We Are Here Now, by Patrick Keiffert. We have also been a part of the Natural Development Process and have used some of their evaluative tools for shaping ministry at STHS. The church council attended a Saturday seminar entitled, Breakthrough Leadership Conference with other congregations of our South County ELCA cluster and learned about leadership training resources. We have also taken interest in two other programs, one developed by Pastor Dave
Daubert and the other an ELCA Transformational Ministry program.

The PMC offers transformational adaptive change for the congregation for a 3-5 year by-in process. PMC would train leaders and eventually involve about 75% of the congregation.

The other programs train leaders on a shorter term basis specializing in technical change.
All have cost factors in terms of time committment and money committment.

We have asked the director of our ELCA Metro Coalition, Terry Moore, to help guide us
through the discerment process. We have met twice with Terry and are using some
scientific method systems for decision making for finding our core values in determining
direction. It is not an easy process. We have gone through what we think are strengths
and weakness of the processes and programs. We hope to have a decision by the end of
summer. All of our deliberations have been shaped by a dwelling in Scripture and prayer.

This is where we are for now. Please continue to pray for our church and its leaders.
As culture moves away from church and the Gospel's message, it is important for us to
learn to connect and offer God's grace in ways that engage the heart, soul, and mind of
all. Remember God so loved the world . . . . . . . .

We are here for now

Pastor Tom

2007-05-17T09:10:00.000-07:00

This is a letter I just sent to our ELCA Japan missionaries that STHS is sponsoring
See details at our sths website.

We are also sponsoring ELCA missionaries to Russia, Bradn and Natasha Buerkle.
see details at our sths website.

Pastor Tom

Dear Kevin, Tomoko, and Kaito,

My name is Tom Schindler. I'm pastor of St. Thomas/Holy Spirit Lutheran Church. Our name takes too long to explain but we are a mid-sized globally minded congregation. I think you've heard from our retired missionary in residence, Paul Strege. Our diaconal minister, Libbie Reinking, grew up in Hong Kong. Her parents were missionary/teacher/administrators.
My family served as missionaries in the Philippines and Brasil. We do love the world our God so loves.

As our mission partners you will be remembered in prayer each week at our Eucharist. The gathering around our table of the Lord includes you, your precious family, congregation, and students you serve. Although we haven't met, we are family
in Christ. We look forward to meeting you.

We are also sponsoring Bradn and Natasha Buerkle, ELCA missionaries in Novosaratovko, Russia. Bradn is a seminary professor in systematic theology and ethics. They too will be visiting the US this summer.

On July 8th Twila Schock, ELCA mission director (now from Chicago) will be preaching and speaking to our congregation. Wouldn't it be cool to have a great month long mission festival?? I like to dream. I suppose there are financial realities, but I still like to dream! Our church loves to hear stories of what's happening in God's world, especially from folks like you
who so generously share their lives and talents in places we like to dream about touching with God's love.

You mentioned in your letter your need for Japanese/English Bibles. What are the costs involved? Pehaps one of our church groups, Sunday School, or VBS could take that on as a project? Let us know.

For now, let this note serve as a welcome the the St. Thomas/ Holy Spirit family. You're stuck with us. We'll even forgive the Nebraska connection, so long as when you wear red it means STL Cardinal red.

God's Peace Be With You,

Tom

"FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST, SHARING GOD'S LOVE AND BLESSINGS!"

Thomas L. Schindler, pastor
St. Thomas/Holy Spirit Lutheran Church
3980 S. Lindbergh
St. Louis, Missour 63127
(314) 843 - 6577
www.stthomasholyspirit.org
pastortm@swbell.net

STHS Considers Partners for Missional Church

2007-05-03T11:58:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my new blog! This is a new adventure, so bear with me.
STHS has been invited by our bishop to become a part of PMC (Partnership for Missional Church). It is a 3-5 year process moving toward adaptive change. The Central States
Synod is one of four synods (among the 65 ELCA synods) asked to pioneer this project.
There is significant investment of leadership time and funding. Copied below is
the witness of a church in Pennsylvania that has participated in this process.
I'll be posting some examples of PMC to keep you informed

From time to time I will share things with you. One of the initial principles of
blogging is to be brief. I am breaking that rule today. This is to help inform
in the decision-making process.

God's Peace,
Pastor Tom

Marietta Community Chapel,
1125 River Road, Marietta, PA 17547

Pastor Leonard Dow

Missional Church in Practice - PMC Process Reveals Adaptive
Challenges at Oxford Circle Mennonite Church
By Tim Leaman

At Oxford Circle Mennonite Church (OCMC), a diverse multi-ethnic congregation in
Philadelphia, we are over two years into the Partnership for Missional Church (PMC) journey,
in which we are participating with six other churches in our conference.
The recent Missional Engagement Team (MET) phase of the process has created
opportunities for two teams of lay leaders from our congregation to dig into some of the
most pressing challenges our congregation faces. As a congregation that has grown rapidly
in size and diversity over the last five years, we have become accustomed to seeing new
faces, all representing a range of life experiences, worshipping with us on Sundays.
However, after the initial Discovery phase of the PMC process, our Church Council and PMC
steering committee identified two major adaptive challenges to be addressed if we were to
grow into the fullness of God’s purposes for us.

These challenges were:
1. How do we invite/engage people on the edge of our church, and new people coming
to our church, into deep relationships with Jesus and with others in our church
family?
2. As a church, how can we cultivate an individual and corporate excitement and desire
to pray, as a result of an increased dependence on and hunger for God, in a way that
allows us as a church to be co-workers with God in His activity rather than our own?
The individuals comprising the METs reflected the breadth of our congregation’s diversity,
including many individuals who had begun attending our congregation within the last two to
three years.

The MET working on welcoming and including people arrived at several key observations in
their process of re-framing the assigned challenge. It noted that “the original wording
seemed to divide the church into US (established attenders) and THEM (new faces). We felt
that the challenge truly involves ALL OF US working together. The key to growing
Partnership for Missional Church- Congregational References
relationships is being OPEN and HONEST with one another about our struggles. We feel
there is a need for forums and opportunities for people to move toward doing this.” Out of
these observations, the team re-stated the challenge as:
“How do we as a church family, create an environment where all people can be
themselves—honest and open—and in this way, deepen our relationship with Jesus
in our growing community of believers?”

Noting that OCMC does have a growing network of small groups and discipleship classes in
place, this team designed most of its action steps around creating forums to encourage
deeper interaction with those who have not yet had the opportunity to connect with others
beyond Sunday morning attendance. The action steps involve:

1. “Coffee connection” time after morning worship
2. “Wake-up reminders”—periodic skits/announcements/congregational exercises within
our worship services that remind us of our calling to reach beyond our comfort zones
to vulnerably share ourselves with others
3. “Mystery-guest dinners”—opportunities to invite others into our homes for deeper
hospitality.

The “prayer” MET also re-framed its challenge. Noting that the recognized need to foster
“prayer,” really speaks to a need to foster “relationship with God,” the re-stated vision is:
“We want to become a church that supports people in deepening their relationship
with God by creating motivation and desire for a deeper relationship with God, and
providing opportunities for people to try different forms and methods of prayer.”
The prayer MET identified that as OCMC grows, all members need to have an active voice in
shaping the church’s direction, not just relying on a few leaders to do so. For this to happen,
the church as a whole needs to be in prayer. This MET’s action steps include:

1. Incorporating prayer into our worship service in a way that teaches and models
different forms of prayer and helps us break down the barriers we feel toward
prayer, and toward God;
2. Including time for prayer and retreats into the job description of our pastoral staff, to
help foster its relationship with God and to model the importance of this to our
congregation; and
3. To create accountability to sustain these commitments through a “prayer ministry”
team which would have representation in the church leadership structure.
We are excited to see where these action plans take us as we continue to grow in our
missional journey. We sense that the PMC process has arrived at an important time in
OCMC’s story. Its action-reflection structure has disciplined us to take time to pause from
the urgency of the needs we see around us and from our activities of outreach, in order to
discern and reflect together. In doing so, we have seen God speaking through new voices
and raising up new leaders. As these new leaders dream together and listen to God together
for the future of our congregation, we have seen the fruit of increased prayer and increased
vulnerability and openness bubbling into the life of the church, even before the action plans
were unveiled. We have seen the entire church body capturing a deeper ownership of how
God is calling us to be “His sent people” in the Oxford Circle community.
Tim Leaman is the Council Chairperson at Oxford Circle Mennonite Church.