Churchy

August 3, 2007 (5:55am)
47º F, Clear, Calm wind, 0 mph.

Good morning,

A snitch cooler this morning than past mornings. I actually had to close all of the windows when I got up. Only 69º F in here at the moment. There is a "Fire Weather Advisory" posted for this area yesterday to be in effect today. I see however it has been dropped this morning. I have never seen that posted before or even knew it existed. It sounds as if the humidity is low and temperature is high for a period of time, the chance of forest fire is elevated. It makes some sense, but never saw it before.

We drove to Florence to chat with the pastor of our "new" church. Interesting chat. He is half time at Bethlehem Lutheran and half time at the Presbyterian church in Florence. Seems to be a strange combination, especially when he has been there for 19 years. Very uncommon then. He also is Interim Pastor for the ELCA church in Amasa (the one we visited some time ago) and one in Iron River. That should keep him out of some mischief now and then. He also has just been elected as Secretary to the Synod. In his "spare time" he also is an EMT and a member of the local rescue squad and in the finishing stages of building a new house.

We told him we both had graduated from Lay School of Ministry and he was interested for sure. We offered our services and told him to put us to work. One of his first thoughts was the probably there would be one or two folks very happy to back away from council to make room for me. Not for me anymore. He also wanted to know if preaching was in the possible "tasks." Of course I said yes, when needed. He also wanted to know if we would help with communion and as service assistants. Again a yes from us. It sounds like he really would like some help and we would be able to fill that need for sure. They have a Bible study which meets Sunday evenings at one of the members homes around a fireplace - hopefully not lit until winter! I asked how come there is not coffee after the services, since that is very un-Lutheran. He didn’t know, but they do have it apparently after the first Sunday of every month, up from about 3 times a year during the summer months. Have to work on that.

Many of the activities, especially the youth, are shared with the Presbyterian church. The parsonage, now the church office, is owned by the Presbyterian church and located next door to the church. On the other side of the house is the county courthouse and jail. Guess the folks who are in the office will go in one direction or the other, depending on their actions! I at least got a chuckle from the location. The parsonage has been the home of the pastor and he is still taking his belongings out of it. The youth group has commandeered one bedroom as theirs and another has been claimed by the ladies for their ministries.

Both churches have a long history of cooperation and sharing pastors. Both were on the brink of dying, so decided some cooperation was their saving grace. Small towns seem to be able to do that better than in cities I think. The churches are located about 4 blocks apart, but still have some time coordination problems. The service at Bethlehem ends at 9:30 A.M. and the Sunday School starts at 9:45 A.M. at the Presbyterian church. Things like that apparently happen all of the time. I teased him that it sure made sure his sermons were on time and short! He said there were a few folks how let him know if it goes over 9 minutes. I didn’t tell him that Howard’s were normally about 30 minutes long - which is too long for my head to stay with.

I think there are some real things we can do to further God’s mission at Bethlehem Lutheran. I think we are going to bloom some, having been planted here. One thing, even though the congregation is well over 100 years old, it doesn’t have a constitution! Apparently at some point there was one, but when the church really fell on hard times and was a satellite of a church in Iron Mountain, all of the church documents were taken there and have since been lost. From the sound of it, the folks are not all that anxious to have one either. Not too sure how they get around that with the state and the tax laws for both State and Federal governments.

Just before we left, I asked to see a local phone book (our listings end at the state border) to look up one of the guys I hunted with starting about 40 years ago, who lives in Florence. I found his name his name and address, but the pastor said he had died a couple years ago of a brain tumor. He is about 10 year younger than I and was really a shock. Dave was a character and would help or give the shirt off of his back, even if he didn’t have any, to anyone in need. I had hoped to hook up with him again, not only to review old lies, but to create new ones. He was a really good egg.

We have a new "general store" open in Alpha as of the 1st. We will have to look it over as we have to go to the post office this morning to mail an envelop to the Netherlands. Alpha General Store is located in the old school on the city circle. A couple has purchased the entire building and grounds, intending to add small shops and apartments to the existing restaurant and now general store. There intent is to keep it "old" looking and return the building to it’s original style and feel. I applaud them.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris ><>