A Shepherd's Story

www.shepherdstory.com

I think I'm going to be moving my blog. I've been thinking about it for a little while, and I'm almost ready to pull the trigger. I've set a new blog up, and I'll start posting over there and see how it goes. I figured it was about time to register my own domain. I've been blogging under the title "A Shepherd's Story" for about a year and a half, and I think it works. I had to make a decision about one 's' or two. I went with one. shepherdstory.com

During this same time I have been using Typepad, which is a paid service. And if I wanted to use my own domain name (web address) on Typepad I would have to pay an extra $4 a month. I thought about moving to Wordpress, which is free—unless you want to map a domain name. For some time, I have been tempted to try blogging with iWeb, Apple's web site software that is a part of the iLife suite. Creating posts here on Typepad means going on to the web site and using a web interface to design my posts. I've played with a few desktop applications for blogging, but never found one that was worth paying for. iWeb is on the computer, I already have it, and it makes it really easy to incorporate pictures and other media that I already have on the computer. The other thing that makes it attractive is that I have been using iWeb to maintain Trinity's web site and I'm finding it actually quite good. Much better than it used to be.

iWeb doesn't have all the features that I've been used to with Typepad, or Blogger before that. On the other hand, some things are so much simpler and more elegant when done in iWeb. So I'm going to give it a shot. I'm hosting the site on MobileMe, a subscription that I already have and am not making full use of. It was a very simple process to map shepherdstory.com to my MobileMe site.

I'd like your input on the new site. You can leave comments at the new blog or email me. I'm going to try to move the email subscription over to the new site. So if you subscribe to this by email, you might not have to re-subscribe. If you read this in a newsreader, I'm going to try to move my feed to the new one.

Here's the new link:

http://www.shepherdstory.com

Vocation

The little girl to the right of Miriam in this picture is about two months younger than Miriam. This afternoon, her daddy left for a 5-month deployment overseas. 

It makes me think of two things. 1) It makes me appreciate and enjoy every day that I have to watch all my little ones grow. I may not get to be home with them as much as I would like, but I don't have to be away for even days at a time, much less months.  2) It makes me appreciate the sacrifice that other fathers will make so that I can live in safety and be with my family. 

This appreciation sheds new light on the vocations in which I serve. What else can I do but to strive to be the best father and husband I can? And to be a shepherd to families such as this, in times such as this? What else could I want?

Congregations and New Pastors

There is a great post over at Cyberbrethren (blog by Paul McCain) about how congregations receive a new pastor. It's been four years since I was ordained and almost a year since I began to serve here in El Paso. So I don't think I would qualify as a "new pastor," but I'm pretty sure the advice in this article is useful for all congregations and their pastors. I particularly appreciate the paragraph that encourages members to call on their pastor for pastoral care. 

Your pastor is not a mind-reader. He will not simply “know” or “sense” when somebody is sick or hospitalized or needs pastoral care. If you, or a member of your family, need to go to the hospital, do not think your pastor will find out about it simply by hearing about it from somebody else. Please let your pastor know. He wants to be your pastor and bring you the comfort and promises of God’s Word and the Lord’s Supper at those moments when we find ourselves, or our family members, in crisis. Do not hesitate to call your pastor, at any time of day or night, when a loved one dies. He wants to know, right away and to come to your side and support and encourage you at these particularly dark and sad moments when death touches us. Nor is your pastor a miracle-worker, though of course miracles never cease.  But your pastor should not be the “last resort” when your marriage is having problems, or when you face a struggle or problem in your life. You will be greatly blessed by God when you turn to your pastor for the private confession and absolution it is his privilege to provide for you, in keeping with his duties. Go to him sooner, rather than later. Turn to your pastor for spiritual counsel and help when you face issues and challenges that feel overwhelming. He will cherish the opportunity to be your pastor. Let him be pastor to you.

Congregations and New Pastors: A How To Guide

Lutheranism in America

This morning I listened to a segment of the radio show "Issues, etc." with an interview of WELS President Mark Schroeder. The topic was the current state of Lutheranism in America, with special attention to the role of the WELS and LCMS in maintaining confessional Lutheranism today. 

You can listen to the segment by clicking on the link below, or clicking on the player embedded at the bottom of this post.

President Schroeder on Issues, etc.

Singing the Catechism

In 2006, we introduced Concordia Publishing House's new Sunday School curriculum, Growing in Christ, to our congregation in California. We did that for several reasons, but probably the biggest reasons were that it followed the flow of the church year and that it was distinctly Lutheran. One of the ways that the curriculum is distinctly Lutheran is its regular connections to Luther's Small Catechism. As a part of that, I was so pleased to find that on the CDs which accompany the student materials in the lower level there were newly composed tunes for singing the words of the Small Catechism. The first quarter had sections from the first article of the creed. The tunes were catchy and memorable.

The one downside, I thought, was that the translation used for these recordings is just a little different from the catechism translation published by Northwestern Publishing House and generally in use in the WELS. When we are dealing with texts to be memorized, consistency and uniformity is usually a plus. It makes me think of Luther's comments in his preface to the Small Catechism:

In the first place, let the preacher above all be careful to avoid many kinds of or various texts and forms of the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Sacraments, etc., but choose one form to which he adheres, and which he inculcates all the time, year after year. For [I give this advice, however, because I know that] young and simple people must be taught by uniform, settled texts and forms, otherwise they easily become confused when the teacher to-day teaches them thus, and in a year some other way, as if he wished to make improvements, and thus all effort and labor [which has been expended in teaching] is lost.

Also our blessed fathers understood this well; for they all used the same form of the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments. Therefore we, too, should [imitate their diligence and be at pains to] teach the young and simple people these parts in such a way as not to change a syllable, or set them forth and repeat them one year differently than in another [no matter how often we teach the Catechism]. From bookofconcord.org

On the other hand, I realize that our translations must adjust over time so that they might remain understandable and memorable. I know that I learned the words of the catechism slightly differently than I teach them today (but I've re-learned them in the new version). And both are different from the way my parents learned them, and in a completely different language than my grandparents learned them. So while the translation issue is something I'm aware of, I'm not too concerned about it. I have thought that if a student of mine were able to learn the words of the catechism by heart and they happened to use a slightly different wording, I wouldn't make them re-learn it using the official WELS translation. 

So I haven't made much use of these recordings—yet. But I'm now thinking that perhaps I should. In the most recent quarter of Growing in Christ, the section of the catechism on the kids CDs is The Sacrament of the Altar. The CD has been playing in our van's stereo for about 10 weeks now. And Lydia, our three year old, loves to sing along with it and pretty much has the whole section memorized. It's like pulling teeth to get my 7th and 8th graders to memorize these words, but a three year old sings without hesitation, "What is the Sacrament of the Altar? It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ..." She will even sing these words outside of the car, while playing around the house. And if I start singing a phrase, like, "Where is this written?" She will sing, "The holy Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and St. Paul write…" (I just tried it and that's exactly what she did.) Even Isaiah, our two year old, will sing along with parts.

And then, just this morning, I was teaching Bible Class on the Lord's Supper and when I started reading a section on Communion from the Small Catechism, I could hear the melody in my head as I read the words. This has even helped me.

So I decided that it would be worth it to purchase the whole collection and to encourage others to do the same. You can purchase the recordings on CD from Concordia, as well as in a printed songbook. Or, you can download the whole thing or piece by piece (much more expensive) in iTunes or on Amazon.com. For just $7.99. That's really nothing when I think of how much it is worth to me to have these words of faith imprinted on the minds and hearts of my children.

Troops

For the last month, members of the Wisconsin National Guard 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team have been at Fort Bliss preparing to deploy to the Middle East. While it is not unusual for Ft Bliss to have units like this preparing to mobilize, it has been a somewhat unique opportunity for us, since we were told there may be dozens of WELS members serving in this unit. 

For a few months now I have been working with the WELS Military Services committee to do what we could to serve these troops while they were training at Bliss. We thought we might have a communion service on post for them. We did receive permission from the installation chaplain's office for such a service, but logistics made that planning difficult, since the different companies are on different schedules and are working at different areas (Fort Bliss is a really big place—1700 square miles big).

However, this hasn't been much of a problem since several of the soldiers were able to get time off and transportation to come to our services at Trinity. They arrived in as many as three 15-passenger vans. Most of them were WELS members from Wisconsin (and a couple from Minnesota), but not all of them were. I never really did get a good count, but we have had approximately 20–25 troops here on a Sunday.

Even though we live in a military town and it is completely normal to see soldiers in uniform pretty  much every day (even though my boys, especially Andrew, still tends to shout, "Soldier!" whenever he spots one), it is not all that common to see that many ACUs in church. And still more—well, I'm not sure what word to use—to have a table at the Lord's Supper with a dozen brothers and sisters who are here (in our church) because it's a WELS church just like theirs back home, but who are here (Fort Bliss) because they have committed to serve us. I guess I just consider it a privilege to serve them.

Some of them are already leaving this week. Others will have a 4 day pass next weekend. We are hoping that as many as possible will make it next Sunday, when we'll have Pastor Paul Ziemer, the WELS national civilian chaplain, fly in to talk about WELS military services and to preach and to meet some of these men and women.

The picture in this post is from Easter Sunday morning, a shot I snapped from the back of church just before the service started.

Play Ball

This evening I was finishing up at church and remembered that the Twins were playing game #2 of the season tonight. So I pulled up the At Bat app on the iPhone and within seconds I was listening to the radio broadcast of the game that was in the bottom of the 9th with two outs and the Twins were down 3-5. But it was time to head home, so I grabbed my phone and left. The audio paused for a second or two when the phone switched from wi-fi to 3G, but I was able to listen to the rest of the game as I drove home. I was at the last stop light when Alexi Casilla singled with the bases loaded to win the game.

I haven't been able to listen to Twins games regularly since 2001, my last summer in Minnesota. Since then, I have subscribed to MLB's Gameday Audio so that I could listen to the games online. But that was only useful when I was sitting in front of a computer and not doing anything that required concentration. So, not often.

So hopefully this year I'll actually be able to catch some more games than I have been in the past. That will be nice.

New grass

Yesterday the landscapers finished the work we wanted done at the house. They finished the sprinkler system and laid sod in the back yard. I was pretty happy with how it all worked out. The house came with an allowance for appliances, but since we didn't need a refrigerator, washer, or dryer, they gave us that credit toward landscaping in the back. The front rock or sod was also included with the house. I hoped that the allowance would be enough to be able to sod most of the back yard, enough to at least give the kids a place to play. But I wasn't sure because we had also used part of allowance to get pedestals for our front-loading washer and dryer.

But as it turned out, we were able to get sod for as much of the yard as we wanted, rock for one side of the house, and the irrigation system, all for just $50 from our pocket. Good deal.

Strings & Choir

Yesterday I attended another performance by the Bruce Nehring Consort of El Paso. This one featured Charles Gray, a violinist and conductor from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, and substitute violinist with the Minnesota Orchestra.

The concert focused on choral and orchestral works of Haydn and Mendelssohn. 2009 is the 200th anniverary of Haydn's death and Mendelssohn's birth.

Once again I was impressed with the Lutheran music. The concert began with a double choir Sanctus by Mendelssohn. Later on they also sang a Kyrie by Mendelssohn and Herzliebster Jesu (O Dearest Jesus) in a setting by John Ferguson.

One thing that especially struck me this time is just how much a difference good acoustics make. Professor Gray spoke about a few of the pieces—sans microphone or sound system—and you could hear him just fine. I just thought to myself how much easier it would be to preach in such a space. I know that the ideal acoustics for music are not the same as for speaking, but I regularly feel like I need to shout in order to be heard. 

Bruce Nehring, the director of this group, is a consultant in church acoustics and pipe organ design. He is apparently very concerned about the acoustics of the spaces in which they perform. He had actually received some criticism for using churches for many concerts—not only because much of the music was originally written for the church, but also because the churches were frequently spaces that enhance the sound of the music. Here is a quote from the program from yesterday:

"This belief in architectural proportions to musical sound piqued Nehring's interest in using spaces not usually thought of as concert halls which led to his use of the Union Depot for concerts."

The Union Depot is El Paso's train station, built by the same architect as Washington D.C.'s Union Station.

Bulletin Covers

At the beginning of Advent this past year our congregation stopped using the NPH bulletin covers. The covers feature full color pictures and usually have a phrase from one of the lessons for that Sunday of the church year. However, it seemed that more often than not, the featured phrase was not the part of that lesson that made a connection to the other lessons and formed the theme for the day. In some cases, the emphasis on the cover seemed to draw the emphasis away from the theme of the day. On top of that, Christian Worship Supplement has a supplementary lectionary and if we happen to substitute the lesson with the featured phrase, the cover really makes little sense.

The cost of the bulletin covers is not outrageous, but there was a savings for us in dropping the subscription. We were also starting to print out our services in the bulletins, so the cost savings from the covers has helped cover the cost of the extra printing.

So, for several months now I have had to find some kind of graphic to use on the cover to our bulletin. I have almost always been able to find something appropriate from the collection Clip Art…for the Liturgical Year. That's my go-to clip art collection. If someone has a good suggestion for another collection with high-quality B/W art suitable for this kind of thing, leave me a comment.

But every once in a while I just can't find something that really fits. That happened last Sunday. I just couldn't find something that was just right. So I tried something that I had seen before, but had never found an opportunity to use it.

Wordle.net is a web application that creates a graphic visualization of a body of text, with the most frequent words in larger type. I tried it with my sermon text, the second lesson for the day—Ephesians 2:4–10. This is what I got:

I thought it turned out very well and was exactly what I needed for my bulletin cover. I'm sure that not every text works out like that, with the most frequent words as the most important words. But this is a tool I'll probably want to check every once in a while, especially when I can't find a bulletin cover.