HCLM BLOG

Tonight is the Super Bowl over the course of our married life we have gone to parties and hosted parties and simply sat at home and watched the game. Tonight I think that for the first time we will opt out and go to a movie (there shouldn't be a line).

This makes me think about just what is important? What is important to ME? That seems to change quite often. Even as close as last week, there were some things that seemed very important, that now seem not so much? Things that we NEED to do, give way to things we WANT to do, and even those seem to give way to whatever is IN FRONT of US to DO! What do you think, do you have yourself doing things that you don't even think that you wanted to do but for some reason you are doing it? or is it only me? Am I just that undisciplined that I can't even to the things that I want to do?

Let me hear from you what do you think as you wait for the game to start?

Paul

A blog post by Pastor Jon

Pardon the title. I understand that it may not be that big a deal for some but for me, it certainly has consumed a great deal of my thoughts and prayers over the last several months. I thought I could give you just a glimpse of the process of calling our worship coordinator.

We were so fortunate to have Eddie Kaufholz with us for three months which enabled us to take our time in preparing for this next staff position. What a great gift to not have to rush this important process. In October, we drafted our job description, laying out our dreams for this position. Then came November and the traditional “beating of the bushes” which meant meeting with worship leaders and pastors, getting the word out that we are looking, in a word, networking. In all, I had 23 different people apply for the position. After speaking on the phone to almost all of them, I met personally with 8. Excuse the March Madness reference, but we took the 8 and prayerfully made it down to the final four.

Each of those individuals had the opportunity to lead worship in January. Each of them also spent an hour with Pastor Paul, Betty, Eddie and I answering the same questions. I then spend more one on one time with them, talking about how they fit into the ministry of Holy Cross. Taking the input from the interviewing team, listening to the music team as well as a number of members who wanted to share their thoughts, we bathed the final four in prayer and after discussion at our Executive Team and Worship Team meeting, we felt unanimously that God was calling Daniel Robison to be our Worship Coordinator. I am truly humbled that God brought so many wonderfully, talented people from which to select. Many people said, “I am glad I don’t have to make the decision.” I am glad that the decision has been made but even more thankful that I can see God’s hand throughout this process.

Some may not realize that this is starting as a part-time position. While the time may be limited, I am excited to see the things that God will do through his leadership. Please take a moment to welcome Daniel this Sunday.

Last week I spent three days in Madison, Wisconsin and then this week three days in St. Louis, Missouri. You know that I was very cold in both of those places and I was very glad that it got back up to 66 yesterday. So I am glad to be home!

The first trip was to hear how the LCMS may restructure to try and work more efficiently. There were about 200 people from the LCMS there and we had a lot of discussion over the three days. I heard people talking about all kinds of things that they did not want to change! We have been losing members every year in the LCMS for the last 50 years! I think that it might be time to think about CHANGE!

The St. Louis trip was for a Theological discussion of Worship in our church body. There was about 350 people there for the discussion and every table that I was a part of talked about how we are going to promote the Traditional Liturgy and Worship style and how bad contemporary worship is. The one thing that they all seemed to agree with was that we should try to avoid any kind of CHANGE!

That is the real reason that I am glad to be home, not the weather, but the climate at Holy Cross. We live in a climate of CHANGE. We look for ways to change, we strive to find new ways to worship and new ways to serve.   We strive to find new ways to show people that a life lived with Christ is better than a life lived with out Him! Stay tuned as we march through the new doors that our Lord opens each day.

Paul

So as I write this, it is 32 degrees, this promises to be the coldest week of the year for the country, it is cold everywhere! That is why the Missouri Synod decided that this week would be a good time to send the executives of each district to a conference in MADISON WISCONSIN!!!!!! What where they thinking?

But as I made my way to the temperature control of the house and tried to see just how warm I could make it, I was reminded of something. We pump up the temp and somehow think that if we set it higher it will get hotter faster, so we crank it up to 90. The truth is that it will raise the temp at the same rate no matter how high you have it set. You simply over work the system when you set ridiculous temperatures.

As we start a new year and we think about resolutions, we do the same thing. I am going to lose weight and so I go on the most restrictive diet that I can find, no carbs, no fats, no food that has any flavor! Then I wonder why I go off the diet so fast. Perhaps you make the reslove to get in shape, so you start working out for an hour everyday!!! Soon you don't go at all. You pledge to watch less TV and so you reduce down to 1 hour a day that you watch the news!!! You are unable to continue that either.

All of these things are just like the temperature in your house, they will only go so fast and moving to the extreme will only frustrate you. The same is true of our Christian Walk! We resolve to get closer to God and so we decide that we will read through the whole Bible this year, pray for an hour each day and never miss a church service. Surprise we last about a week! We need to realize that growing as a child of God is a gradual thing, we move closer and closer to Him as we ease into a closer relationship with the Heavenly Creator!

Let's resolve to simply be the children that our Creator would want us to be and know that this is going to take time and effort. Have a great 2010 as we live for the Lord!!

It was almost 2 months ago that I was encouraging Jon to blog more, and as you can see he is talking with you all on a regular basis. However, I have fallen off of the face of the earth!

 Tonight is Christmas Eve and it is 9:45pm. We have finished three services and we have the 11:00pm service to go. A boat load of people have been here already tonight. For some reason the 6:30 service was HUUUUGE way over 500 people! But then we had less than 200 at the 8:30 service. I can't figure it out and I doubt that there is any good reason for the fluctuation. It will be interesting to see what the 11:00pm service brings.

The other interesting thing is the way the Spirit of the Lord moves in our Worship services. We prepared like crazy for the services tonight and we rehearsed and we prayed and we worked and worked, then it is here and I watch for what the Lord will do. It was in the 8:30 service, that I really saw Him start to move among the people present. From the songs and right into the sermon I could see God 's Holy Spirit moving across the faces of His people. In the 6:30 service I am sure that the Evil One was at work to try and push back the Spirit. In the song set the band struggled on a song that had not given them trouble before and I had a cough that I have not had at all through out the rest of today! The Devil was doing whatever he could to distrupt the people of God in Worship. But then came Silent Night and the Spirit of the Lord FILLED this place.

 We have a great God who is waiting to give you His Peace that Passes all understanding, I pray that on this Christmas day you will know Him in a more intimate way than any Christmas before. May God bless you and your family on the Christmas day.

In Christ,

Paul Hoyer