Fling the Gates Wide Open…

“Then fling the gates wide open to greet your promised king!”

From the 3rd stanza of Prepare the Royal Highway ELW#264

Dear fellow Disciples,

The other day a friend asked me how things were going at my new church. I told him how welcome you have made me and my family feel, how meaningful our worship together is, and how there is a great energy within the life of the congregation as we journey forward together. I think we saw a great example of that energy in our Reformation Sunday worship and the Lutherfest that followed. So many of you told me how great things felt that day, and how we look forward to what God will lead us toward next. As you can imagine, I too am very excited about what God has in store for us. As a new year in the church approaches with the season of Advent, I found myself singing the words of the hymn I quoted above. I feel that we, as the Disciples at Augsburg, are ready to take those quoted lyrics to heart.

We are ready to fling open the gates, we are ready to greet the new opportunities before us, and we are ready to “greet the promised king” as we share the love of Christ with all whom we encounter, here at Augsburg and beyond its walls. I want to thank all of those who helped to lead this church through its time of transition to the point we are at today. We are ready to move forward because of all that Pastor Trexler, our faithful staff, our Council leaders, and the Call Committee did. Now we are ready to “fling the gates wide open!” As we begin this new church year, you will be hearing about a few “new” things happening that I wanted to make sure you are aware of. I believe that each of these is important in our efforts to move forward.

These new things include…

• In cooperation with the Worship & Music Team, we will make some small changes to some of the elements of our Sunday Morning Worship Services.
• A series of Cottage Gatherings that will take place in the early spring of 2018. These gatherings will be an opportunity to gather with me in small groups to get to know each other better and to share in a vision for the future of Augsburg.
• A new Monday Morning Bible Study beginning on November 20 at 10:45am that focuses on the liturgy of our worship and the meaning behind what we say and do. (New participants are always welcome.)
• Finding ways to get more of our community and neighbors involved another season of our Overflow Winter Shelter here at Augsburg.
• New opportunities for Fellowship for Younger Adults at Augsburg. If you are interested in being part of a Vision Team, please contact me.
• Preparation for Emily Norris to move into her role as an Intern in February.