Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ!
We continue to feature new styles of in-person/online worship this Fall at St. James! (for a complete listing - click here) On Sunday, Oct. 3, our worship is called “LOGOS,” which is the Greek word for “word.”
This style of teaching liturgy was one that we introduced last year online. It comes from my learning experience in Tanzania. A few years ago, Bishop Gaville of the Iringa Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, began encouraging congregations to provide teaching as part of worship. Instead of preaching the sermon, the pastor would teach during “teaching” Sundays. This was done to provide the ever growing church in Tanzania with important instruction on matters of faith. Both recent converts and lifelong believers have benefited from this innovation.
We imported this new worship idea last year and offered “teaching liturgies” on the Ten Commandments, Lord’s Prayer, and Baptism. They were well received and the positive feedback encouraged us to return the worship form to this Fall’s Sunday lineup.
On Sunday, I will teach from the Book of Romans. This Pauline letter, long a favorite of the Reformers (like Luther and Calvin), is the longest epistle in the New Testament and one of the most difficult. It’s dense language and complex rhetoric discourages easy readings. Yet, it has important things to teach us about community and dealing with differences. I look forward to sharing with you some passages and context that I’m sure will be useful to you as you are trying to sort out how to navigate our divisive times.
Bring your Bibles to worship on Sunday and let’s dig in together!
As always, I look forward to waving a greeting to you in worship this week, whether that is at our Drive-In parking lot worship (8:00 a.m.), or in-person/online at 9:30 a.m.
In Christ’s Light,
Pastor Walt