Dream Sheets

For some time now, since our leadership retreat on March 4, there have been large white easel sheets of newsprint filled with church hopes and dreams taped to the courtyard windows near the parking lot entrance. I hope they have caught your eye and caused you to reflect a bit. Each of the boards and committees was asked to generate some thoughts.

Yesterday I came to work to find them rolled up and leaning against my office door, and now they are re-taped all over my office walls here. I will spend the rest of the summer with them in front of me. Lots to dream about! Much to ponder.

Some of the thoughts are already happening, or works in process…Faster internet is on the way! A multi-faceted refugee re-settlement ministry is soon to come to life: did you know this is Refugee Awareness month? More details will come as we worship together. Pickleball tape has been laid on on the gym floor and Thursday nights folks are gathering. Outdoor worship is underway, and music on the steps is returning after some years. We have a new web and social media coordinator, Zoe Larson: as I write I can hear her making plans with Susan Lofton, our recent office manager. Together they will help us work on social media witness and improved and innovative communication patterns. And we’re hearing a lot and taking advantage of new giving opportunities and options. Lots of good going on!

And some of the thoughts are out ahead of us, we have yet to work on them…Bring a friend Sundays, a community garden, sound upgrades in the upper room, an occasional food truck (mentioned the most!), new affinity groups, and a fall new member drive. Lots to plan for!

Finally, some of the thoughts are larger visions we can take as goals for the near future… Growing children, youth and family ministry, greater investment in music ministries, renewed formation energy and participation, and a staffing pattern that promotes growth and reflects our mission, vision, and goals. Plenty of big-picture visions we. can work work toward.

As I think and pray about these thoughts and plans for our life of ministry together now in our 96th year, I am filled with gratitude and hope. It’s a new time for renewal as we return from the exile of COVID-19. I open the Bible and find that little psalm 126, a pilgrim song from that holy moment when Israel remembers the joy of coming home from an exile much more severe:

It seemed like a dream, too good to be true,

when God returned Zion’s exiles.

We laughed, we sang, we couldn’t believe our good fortune.

We were the talk of the nations — “God was wonderful to them!”

God was wonderful to us; we are one happy people.

And now, God, do it again —

bring rains to our drought stricken lives

so those who planted their crops in despair will shout hurrahs at the harvest,

so those who went off with heavy hearts will come home laughing,

with armloads of blessings. (the message)

God has been, is now, and will always be with us. I hope when you’re here you’ll stop by and add to the newsprint, and also engage our leadership groups who are working on these things. Now we have a chance to come together again and engage the mission of Jesus in a renewed way, looking forward to celebrating our one hundredth year soon to come.

How blessed are we?

Peter Hawkinson

Dream Sheets

For some time now, since our leadership retreat on March 4, there have been large white easel sheets of newsprint filled with church hopes and dreams taped to the courtyard windows near the parking lot entrance. I hope they have caught your eye and caused you to reflect a bit. Each of the boards and committees was asked to generate some thoughts.

Yesterday I came to work to find them rolled up and leaning against my office door, and now they are re-taped all over my office walls here. I will spend the rest of the summer with them in front of me. Lots to dream about! Much to ponder.

Some of the thoughts are already happening, or works in process…Faster internet is on the way! A multi-faceted refugee re-settlement ministry is soon to come to life: did you know this is Refugee Awareness month? More details will come as we worship together. Pickleball tape has been laid on on the gym floor and Thursday nights folks are gathering. Outdoor worship is underway, and music on the steps is returning after some years. We have a new web and social media coordinator, Zoe Larson: as I write I can hear her making plans with Susan Lofton, our recent office manager. Together they will help us work on social media witness and improved and innovative communication patterns. And we’re hearing a lot and taking advantage of new giving opportunities and options. Lots of good going on!

And some of the thoughts are out ahead of us, we have yet to work on them…Bring a friend Sundays, a community garden, sound upgrades in the upper room, an occasional food truck (mentioned the most!), new affinity groups, and a fall new member drive. Lots to plan for!

Finally, some of the thoughts are larger visions we can take as goals for the near future… Growing children, youth and family ministry, greater investment in music ministries, renewed formation energy and participation, and a staffing pattern that promotes growth and reflects our mission, vision, and goals. Plenty of big-picture visions we. can work work toward.

As I think and pray about these thoughts and plans for our life of ministry together now in our 96th year, I am filled with gratitude and hope. It’s a new time for renewal as we return from the exile of COVID-19. I open the Bible and find that little psalm 126, a pilgrim song from that holy moment when Israel remembers the joy of coming home from an exile much more severe:

It seemed like a dream, too good to be true,

when God returned Zion’s exiles.

We laughed, we sang, we couldn’t believe our good fortune.

We were the talk of the nations — “God was wonderful to them!”

God was wonderful to us; we are one happy people.

And now, God, do it again —

bring rains to our drought stricken lives

so those who planted their crops in despair will shout hurrahs at the harvest,

so those who went off with heavy hearts will come home laughing,

with armloads of blessings. (the message)

God has been, is now, and will always be with us. I hope when you’re here you’ll stop by and add to the newsprint, and also engage our leadership groups who are working on these things. Now we have a chance to come together again and engage the mission of Jesus in a renewed way, looking forward to celebrating our one hundredth year soon to come.

How blessed are we?

Peter Hawkinson

My Rabbi

A week ago one of my many rabbis Rev. Dr. Frederick Holmgren died at 97 years of age. He was for decades professor of Biblical Literature at North Park Theological Seminary. He was my Hebrew and Old Testament teacher. I will always remember him as a gentle and happy soul.

I’ll never forget the tense morning of one semester’s final exam. Our bluebooks were ready. Fred entered as always with a smile on his face, settled himself, pulled out a folder with what we feared to be his unanswerable essay question, and then began to pray, something along these lines….”Oh dear God, bless us these students as they write now. They have studied and reflected; give them now freedom from anxiety to write with gratitude about all they have learned of your goodness and love. Amen.” Then taking his paper out of its pocket, he read it to himself silently, giggled a bit as he often did, crunched it into a ball, there it into the corner wastebasket and said, “I want you to write this morning about the God of Bible you have come to know.” And off we went, writing. And off he went, leaving a basket for our finished products.

He diffused the anxiety in the room with grace and humility. He prayed for our comfort and freedom to express ourselves. His test question was not devoid of the need for knowledge but focused on relationship with the Divine, as pietists are prone to do. I have never felt as much as I did that day a teacher being so much “with us” as students.

His life’s work was to connect Hebrew scripture and Jewish faith with New Testament and Christian faith. In many seasons of life he was under fire for this, accused hither and yon from those who saw things differently. Yet he never lost his gentle and soft-spoken witness to the God who cares about us all.

One example, reflecting on the hardest Hebrew text of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah (Genesis 22:1-19): “Nearly every person who reads the narrative concerning Abraham and Isaac gives some thought of the question: How could a father do this to his son? That same question is often at the front of the mind with regard to the death of Christ: Why did God, the Father, do this horrible thing to his Son? However, the New Testament writers present the event in quite another manner. God is not depicted as doing something to Jesus; rather, they see the Father present in the suffering of the Son. Paul’s statement overwhelms the mind but it expresses the experience of the early Christians: ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.'” He continues, “We are not alone. The Mt. Moriah story, and the narratives that surround it, point the preacher to one of the central themes of the Hebrew Bible: Immanuel — God with us (Exodus 3:11-12, Isaiah 7:14, Psalms 103)…it is this “with us” God of the Hebrew-Jewish tradition who reveals himself in the life and teachings of Jesus(Matthew 2:20-23). The presence of this ‘son’ of Abraham reminds us that God is for us and not against us. He wishes life and future for all of us.” (Glad Hearts, p.325-326)

May his memory be a blessing, and may Fred Holmgren rest in peace and rise in glory.

Peter Hawkinson