Hey POGers:

Grace and peace to each of you in the name of the one who cannot fail, Jesus the Christ!

Living into “Who’s got your back?”  
Part 2

Today we will celebrate the success of three “Who’s got your back?” initiatives.  I am thankful for the support of these three events and I look forward to exploring all the other ways God is calling us to have the backs of those closest to us as well as those we will never meet.  In this week after Thanksgiving, I would like to give thanks for:

Forgotten Harvest update:  This month the Sunday school raised $21 and the coffee can on my office door yielded $62 for a grand total of $83 given to the people of Forgotten Harvest.  Remember, this initiative began through the Spiritual Vitamins and has grown each month.  It involves taking a few dollars each week, money you would have spent on a treat for yourself such as a fancy cup of coffee or a midday treat, and donating it to the folks at Forgotten Harvest.  For each dollar donated, FH creates a meal for five people in our local community.  That is a lot of bang for your buck!  The can will remain on my office door if you would like to start participating in this worthwhile cause.  The results for this month were as follows:
Money donated:  $83
Meals created:    415

This is awesome.  For the month of November, we were only $17 away from being able to donate 500 meals to those in need.  Thanks be to God! 

Thanksgiving Can Drive update:  I was so moved by the response to my challenge of donating 510 canned goods to the folks at Gleaners food bank, who in turn distribute the food locally to those in need.  When we were all done, 664 cans were donated by the people of POG for our neighbors in need.  On November 28th, Ron Carmona and Clyde Hietikko delivered the 664 cans to Gleaners, weighing 695 pounds, which will provide 533 meals to needy families in our area.  FYI, In the last year Gleaners has distributed 40,400,000 pounds of food through just 5 locations in Southeast Michigan!  Thanks be to God!

For you number crunchers out there, in the month of November POG gave almost 1,000 meals to those in need!

Hot Rocks Pizza fund raiser:  I was overjoyed when I pulled up to Hot Rocks Pizza to participate in the fundraiser for Madison and her family and saw the place was jammed packed!  I love that I had to squeeze my way in to place my order.  It is exactly what is supposed to happen at fundraiser such as this one, wall to wall people supporting a good cause.  I was so pleased to see so many folks from POG out there supporting one of our families.  As people mulled around and waited for their orders, it was overwhelming to see this outpouring of generosity by the people of POG.  If you were not able to participate this time, there will a larger spaghetti fundraiser in February to help Madison and her family with the on going costs of her treatment and all it entails.  Thanks be to God!

All in all, great job this month POG.  Take some time today to be thankful for our church and its generous heart, but lets not let this leave us satisfied.  There is so much we can do, and I am looking forward to how God will continue to lead the people of POG to be God’s lights in the world.

Peace
PB

Peace,
PB

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POGers:

Grace and peace to each of you in the name of the one who cannot fail, Jesus the Christ!

Living into “Whose got your back?” 
Part One

For this weeks Spiritual Vitamin we will begin exploring the different facets of “whose got your back?”  Part one will focus on having the backs of people we will never meet.  It begins with and idea like Forgotten Harvest, quilts for Lutheran World Relief and so on.  As a people of faith, God calls us to cast our caring net far and wide as He empowers us to be impact people in our church, our community and the world.  God calls us to put on our thinking caps in this regard.  We should be a people who are always looking for ways we can make an impact in the lives of others, even those we may never meet.

Today I wan’t to introduce such an initiative.  Starting this Sunday through December 9th,  a table in the Narthex will contain Christmas cards that were graciously donated by my brother in law who works for Avanti Greeting Card company.  The purpose of these card is simple.  We will have the opportunity to send a Christmas message to our troops through a Red Cross program called “Holiday mail for heroes”. This program will send our greeting to personnel serving in our armed forces throughout the world as well as veterans and their families.

The cards should be addressed to:
Holiday mail for Heroes
PO Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD
20791-5456

The Red Cross provides these additional guidelines:
Ensure that all cards are signed
Use generic salutations such as “Dear Service Member.”  Cards addressed to specific people will not be delivered.
Only cards are being accepted.  Do not send letters.
Do no include email or home addresses on the cards
Do not include inserts of any kind.
Do not send holiday cards with glitter as they can interfere with patient recovery should your card reach a service person who is hospitalized.

All of this information will be on the table with the cards.  

I think this initiative is a wonderful way for the people of POG to let our troops know we are thinking about them this Christmas season.  It is a unique way to let them know we have their backs and wish them well.

Have a blessed week.

Peace,
PB 

Peace,
PB

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POGers:

Grace and peace to each of you in the name of the one who cannot fail, Jesus the Christ!

This Sunday will mark almost ten months since we joined together as pastor and congregation.  It has been an exciting time and I have appreciated the way my family has been welcomed into your midst.  Some days it seems difficult to believe it has only ten months!

On that first Sunday we were together I preached about helping POG to cultivate a culture where we would “have each others back”.  It became the unofficial logo for our new spirit wear and I have repeated it over and over again.  I am glad it caught on, because it is, at its core, what I believe the church could be, a place where people from different walks of life with different opinions and styles would come together in love and support of one another under the wing of the one who ultimately has our back, Jesus the Christ!

Now that we are ten months in, it is a good time to check in and access how we are doing living into this motto.  It is a good time to ask ourselves what it means at Prince of Glory to have “each others back”.  I am sure there are many answers at this point as to what that exactly means for each person, but as a corporate body of believers I am wondering what we are doing well as well as what we could be doing better to live out this motto?  Are we feeling blessed to be a part of POG?  Are we being intentional about being a blessing to others?  How are we celebrating the joys that come with being part of a community of faith?  How are we reacting to the needs of those we gather with to worship the God who sent us Jesus?   These are all good questions that we will continue to flush out over the next few months.

As we move forward in faith, I feel that connecting with others who gather together each week is vital to cultivating a “got your back” culture.  To that end, I would like to give you some tips with regard to how this could be accomplished:
1.  pick a few people at POG and pray for them each day for the next month.  Try to not just to pick people you are currently closest too.  Pick two or three people and pray for them.  Pray that their lives would be blessed.  Pray that they would feel loved.  Pray that God would direct their paths.  Pray that they would feel God’s presence in their lives.  Pray that if something is weighing them down, it would be lifted.  Pray for relief from any stress they may be feeling.  Pray that they would feel a community of faith “had their back”.  After a month, let them know you were praying for them.
2.  Share three minutes before or after worship each week connecting with someone new or someone you don’t know well.  Get to know some of our newer members or someone you may have known for a long time at a distance in a whole new way.
3.  Commit each week to calling ,sending a card, email or text message to two or three people you know in the congregation just to let them know you are thinking about them.
4.  I know many of you go out to breakfast or lunch after worship each week.  Invite others you don’t normally break bread with to join you.

I am privileged to serve the people of POG.  I really feel God is calling us to something big.  I think the road to something big starts with small steps.  I believe God led me to make the statement that we need to be a church that “has each others back” the first week I worshipped with you.  I would like to see us continue to dig deeper into what this means and model it for one another and to those we will welcome through the doors of POG in the months and years ahead.  

As we look back at the last ten months and move forward in faith to the big things God has in store for us, I hope you feel your pastor loves you and “has your back”!

Peace,
PB

Peace,
PB

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Friends:

FORGOTTEN HARVEST UPDATE:  Great job POGers, in October we raised $25 in Sunday School and $53 in the coffee can on my office for a grand total of $78 for the work of Forgotten Harvest.  That means that FH will be able to produce 365 meals through our generosity!  Thanks to everyone who has been supporting this social ministry.  Remember, this ministry started when I asked people in a previous Spiritual Vitamin to take one day a week and instead of buying that cup of coffee, soft drink or treat while you were out I asked you to forego it and give the money to FH.  If you want to help out, place your “sacrifice” in the coffee can on my office door and it will be included in the November donation.  We were only $7 dollars away from hitting the 400 meal mark in October!  Thanks be to God.

Recently some friends on facebook posted the following quote from an anonymous source.  I was instantly moved and wondered what I would do with the feeling I was having about the question.  It is as follows:

“Sometimes I would like to ask God why he allows poverty, famine and injustice in the world, when He could do something about it…but I’m afraid He may ask me the same question.” Anonymous.

The quote is both powerful and convicting at the same time.  How often to we ask God the questions that we do not want to ask of ourselves?  I wish there was an easy answer, but there is not.  I do know, however, that there are things we could, or should, as a people of faith, speak out about or advocate for, but all too often we remain silent or inactive.  All too often it is easy to get wrapped up in other things or create distractions so that we do not have to think about the people that God calls us to be, people who are steeped in love and grace.  God calls us to be instruments of change in our world, to live lives that reflect the gift of grace given to us through His son Jesus Christ.  

I am sure if we really tried we could come up with a lot of reasons why we cannot step into the fray.  It could be that the problems of the world seem too overwhelming for any one person or group to tackle.  It could be that the things we see cause us to feel helpless to make a difference.  Yet, everyday God blesses us with glimpses into how His kingdom could be, gives us sightings of God alive in the world.  These are blessings that remind us that as people of faith we can make a difference if we step out of our comfort zones and act.  

Sometimes, those acts can seem meaningless when we do them, but they add up.  Look at our little new social ministry project with Forgotten Harvest.  Two months ago, a weekly Spiritual Vitamin e-mail followed by a can attached to a door and a group of young people dedicating funds from a Sunday school in Madison Heights, Michigan resulted in a month where because we acted, because we did something with our change and sacrifices a treat one day in the course of a week, 375 meals will be given to people in need.  People we will most likely never meet.  People whose faces we will never see.

Yet, if we really think about it,  we have seen the faces of the hungry.  We know that poverty is a problem all over the world.  We know it is at our doorstep as well.   Our monthly donation to the Oakland County branch of Forgotten Harvest is making a difference.  We are being a blessing to others.  And this ministry is growing.  It is an opportunity to be instruments of change in the lives of those we are called to love and serve, the people of God.  It all started with an idea and a coffee can. 

Is God nudging you to take a chance, to do something and let people know of a way that a difference can be made for others?  Is God calling you to step out in faith and see the blessing that can result from your action?  You see, when people of faith step out in faith, we are not alone.  We are directed by a God who calls us to action, to step into the fray and make a difference, and has our back through it all.  What is the fray God is calling you to? 

Have a blessed week.

PB   

Peace,
PB

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Sisters and Brothers in Christ:

Grace and peace to each of you in the name of the one who cannot fail, Jesus the Christ!

This week I want to focus on the concept of serving.  Serving our church and community is one of the Marks of Discipleship.  While that is a worthy phrase, servanthood does not need to be limited to certain activities or involvements.  Author John Ortberg writes about this very concept in his book Gifts.  He explains that every moment is an opportunity to be used by God and he challenges the reader to take a week and pray to God a “use me” prayer.  Here are a few ideas he suggests:

Begin each morning by inviting God to use you through the day.  Walk through the main events of your upcoming day with God in prayer.
Make yourself available to be used at home.  Look for ways you could be of service to those with whom you live.
Throughout the day as you begin a conversation, pray a secret “use me” prayer.  Listen for God’s promptings to encourage and support others.
Ask God to use you in the life of someone lost.
Make your work an exercise in being used by God.  Work with diligence-as if you were working directly for him.  Serve a coworker.
When you are interrupted, pause to see if this is an opportunity to be used by God through a moment of unplanned servanthood.
Be available to serve someone who is different than you.  Practice seeing them through Jesus‘ eyes. 

Friends, how is God calling you to serve Him this week?  Are you paying attention to that calling?  Could you give some time each day praying for God to “use me” as an instrument of His love today? 

As always, I pray for this list each week.  How could I be praying for you?

Have a blessed week!

Peace,
PB

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