Sunday we learned that God says:  Ask me.  Pray. Prayer works. God loves to give.  And that is absolutely true.

But if we’re honest, let’s admit sometimes prayer doesn’t work.  That’s true too. This shouldn’t discourage us from prayer because God tells us why sometimes our prayers don’t get answered.

This week I’ll post on three ways our prayers can be hindered. And they’re not my reasons. It’s not what I say; it’s what God says in his word.

But let’s remember: prayer works.  This is the first and last word on prayer. I think we need to accept this teaching from Jesus in faith. This is not the only word on prayer.  But it is the most important. Prayer works. God says it. And we can testify to this truth from our lives.

In our current series, we’re looking at what God says to our church right now.  On Sunday, we saw that God says to St. Paul’s Church:  Ask me!  And we heard many testimonies from people who have asked and received good things from the Lord.

Next Sunday’s message is Test Me!  God asks us to test him with our finances—to give them over to Him and trust He will provide.

The following Sunday’s message is Share Me!  God asks us to share him with our families, friends, and neighbors— and believe that God wants them to know him too.

And I’m inviting you to share your testimonies those Sundays as well.  Many of us can testify to the faithfulness of God regarding our finances.  You’ll have an opportunity to do that.  And many of us can testify to the power of God regarding our witness.  You’ll have an opportunity to do that as well.

So for the next few weeks, I’m inviting you to share your testimonies in our service.  We won’t do this every Sunday.  But we are doing it for the next two Sundays.  God is good; let’s take this time to testify as a community to this reality.

Here's something new: I'm going to start posting weeky church happenings on our blog, in case you missed the announcement on Sunday, or in case you are a forgetful person and need the reminder.

This week:

• Small Groups Begin! If you didn't get the handout on Sunday, you can check out our Small Group section on our website for a list of options, or email us.
• Wednesday Night Worship! Nick Santostefano will be leading our Wednesday Night Worship, where we will pray for our church and one another, and where we will worship God.
• Spring Break Missions Trip! We're teaming up with LutheransCARE to serve in New Orleans March 17-23rd. Let Bob Jeram know you're going by February 19th.

Have a blessed week, everyone, and we hope to see you on Wednesday for Prayer and Worship!

St Pauls Church will be joining our friends at Lutherans CARE for their last trip to New Orleans in order to help restore houses damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  We will be be leaving for New Orleans on Saturday, March 17th and returning home on Friday, March 23rd. 

While in New Orleans, we will be staying at St. John's Lutheran Church on Canal Street.  There will be opportunites to visit Bourbon Street and the French Quarter. The cost of this trip is $50 plus the cost of transportation. 

Since space is limited, interested parties should sign up with Bob Jeram by Sunday, February 19th.

At our Membership Meeting Wednesday we reviewed our new proposed bylaws.  After much discussion, we decided not to approve them as written.  There were several suggested edits our members made.  And so we’ll present the bylaws again incorporating suggested edits at our next Membership Meeting.

I was very pleased with the outcome for two reasons.  First, our members took this process seriously.  They were prepared, informed, and engaged.  This will be a big step forward for our church and it’s important for our members to be involved.  (And they were).  Second, our members made excellent suggestions for improvement.  Our Board and Membership Officers have been working on this for five months.  We’re a bit tired of the bylaws.  So it was great to have people engage them with fresh eyes and make excellent suggestions.

For St. Paul’s Church to move forward, we need an empowered pastor, an empowered board and an empowered membership. We need to define these roles and then empower people to fulfill them.  And we’re getting there with a healthy process. 

Congregationalism is the slowest form of church governance. It takes patience. But patience is a fruit of the Spirit—a mark of Christian maturity. We are forming the basis for our church for many years to come. And we are being spiritually formed through the process. It’s a win/win.      

And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3

I don't know if I took this passage very seriously before a couple weeks ago. I grew up in the church, and I have heard it a bunch of times; it's a passage that Sunday school teachers use to try and get their pupils to take church a little more seriously ("See kids? Jesus actually preached about you little delinquents darlings!").

And the reason I didn't take it seriously was because I hadn't really thought about all the implications of what Jesus was actually saying (which, actually, is a pretty big pitfall we have when we read the Bible). I thought he meant we need to be innocent, come to him for comfort, tell him what we need, rely on him, etc. (And these are good things; it's probably bad that I didn't take these things more seriously).

But I think to be childlike is also to be more the way God designed us to be like. Sure, we have a sin nature, and kids aren't immune to it. But being a child is what we are before we get life's baggage, and unfortunately, life happens and exists in a broken world, and we become broken people quickly.

Someone once said that one of my problems is that I have been trained to see things a certain way, and I've become convinced that that's "me." For instance: my fear of failure and rejection. I was convinced that these qualities are just normal, and there's not much to be done with that. However, this person explained that children are naturally curious, and they naturally try things; they are hardwired to do this because otherwise, how else would they learn?

And to extend that thought: children are also vulnerable. They are small. They don't know a lot of stuff. They generally don't have an income. And they also don't know what heartache, fear, discomfort, disappointment, pain, risk, death, and the other inevitable parts of life are until they have experienced or witnessed it in some sense. Sure, parents and well-meaning adults can try their hardest to prevent children from experiencing these things, but the problem with the inevitable parts of life is that they are inevitable.

So to be like a child ready to enter the kingdom of heaven, I have to be ready to be simultaneously curious, courageous, risk-taking, and vulnerable.

That's kind of scary and a little counterintuitive.

But it's true.

On Don Miller's blog, he posted about vulnerability and why vulnerability is a key to emotional health. In the post, he linked a video of a sociologist in a TED talk, and she talked about her research, and how after a long struggle with this topic, she discovered and had to accept that the happiest and content people are people who are willing to be emotionally vulnerable.

And one might ask: "Well, wait a sec: being emotionally vulnerable means I'm going to be a punching bag." Which is not what she (or Miller) means. They are merely stating a fact: in order to completely feel loved by someone, you have to open yourself up to be loved... which means that there is a possibility that you will at some point not be loved by someone to whom you made yourself vulnerable.

The reason why people do not want to be vulnerable is because it is possible to be hurt, and to be hurt badly. Life can be unkind. So invulnerability is a protective measure.

But if one does not open oneself up to be vulnerable, something more destructive happens: if one becomes invulnerable to love, even partially invulnerable, one does not experience the fullness true love offers.

Makes sense.

The same goes for God. If we do not make ourselves vulnerable, and let go of things we think we can control, (our money, our comforts, the things we think protect us etc.), we will not fully experience the fullness of life he offers us. If we do not take risks, and go where he wants us to go (in ministry, in serving him, in serving others), we may be safer, but we will be living a diminished version of the life he has designed us for. If we do not take the risk of hurt, we will not grow, and we will also not fully partake in the blessings of the gospel.

I also remember something that Vince mentioned in a sermon back in the fall (I think): the good news is that when we make ourselves vulnerable (to God, to others, etc.), we can rest in the promise that God can pick us up again. 

To continue the child-metaphor: I think many of us can remember a time when we tried something new (swingsets, riding a bicycle, toboggins), and things did not end so well for us (face plants, skinned knees... etc.) And I don't remember my parents promising me that these activities meant that I wouldn't face these consequences.

But when these things did happen, one of them was usually around with bandaids, hugs, encouragement, and other forms of comfort. And if our earthly parents are so willing to comfort and take care of us, how much more will our Heavenly Father, who is Perfect Love, comfort and care for us when we fall?

He will. He says he will. But the only way we can fully experience this is if we become like little children. 

A Post from Ken Buch.

Saturday was a day of varied activities.  We began the day with a van tour of some of the poorest neighborhoods in Tuxpan.  As we drove around we happened to drive by one of the churches that was involved in our work.  As we drove slowly by, the pastor’s wife recognized our van and waved for us to stop.  She invited us in for a tour and related the details of their 12 year history.  To say the church was a  “bare minimum building” is an overstatement.  We were moved to tears as she told of us their struggles trying to make a difference in their neighborhood.  As we drove away we all agreed that the visit was not a “random occurrence”.

Next on the agenda was a boat ride to Camp Kikomar.  The boat was maybe 16’ long and had a couple of plastic chairs to supplement the two rows of seats.  In spite of our initial trepidation, nine of us boarded the boat and the local fisherman took us on an hour long ride along the islands.  We took many photos of the birds.

Lunch at Kikomar and then time for some beach strolling and a dip in the Gulf of Mexico.

Back in Tuxpan, some took naps while the rest of us took another van tour of Tuxpan, this time into the wealthier neighborhoods.  What a difference from the neighborhoods we saw in the morning.  The tour ended at the center of town where we witnessed a festival including dancers in very ornate costumes demonstrating local historical dances.

One last dinner in Tuxpan  cooked by Patty and her sisters and daughters.  Since we did not need to go to the bus station until 11pm, the rest of the evening was filled with chatter and laughter as we recounted the two weeks of activities.

Good byes at the bus station were very emotional.  We certainly have made many close friends and many lives, including ours, have been profoundly affected.  Six hour bus ride was uneventful, the busses were nice but not as luxurious as the ones we took on our way in to Tuxpan.

Arrival at the Mexico City bus station began the early morning “chaos”.  The chore was to move eight passengers and a mountain of luggage from the bus station to two different terminals at the airport.  Some quick good byes then off to the airport.  Judy and I were in one taxi and the ride was very similar to a taxi ride in NYC including our inability to converse with the driver.  I had a great time on that ride in spite of the brief moment of concern when the driver suddenly took a detour down some very narrow and dark side streets.  I half expected to be ordered to” get out and give me your money!”

We arrived at the airport intentionally early so we had plenty of time to get to our flights which were on time and uneventful.  Home about 1am Monday after retrieving Lucy from our daughter's home in Bristol.  Glad to be back in our own beds and bathrooms!

Here are several of the most important changes to our proposed new bylaws.

Get rid of the Trustees.  In our old bylaws we had Trustees.  This was a group with one function:  to disperse church assets in the event of church dissolution.  In these new bylaws this role is now part of the responsibilities of the Board of Directors.  This simplifies our bylaws tremendously.  This also strengthens our congregational roots as the Board is selected by our members whereas the Trustees were not.

Change Board Terms.  In our old bylaws board terms lasted for three years with board members being able to serve two consecutive terms.  In our new proposed bylaws board terms last for two years with board members being able to serve three consecutive terms.  This subtle change offers more board accountability to our members as they are elected every two years not every three.

Change Board’s Replacement Authority.  In our old bylaws, if a board member or board members resigned during their term then the board had the authority to appoint new board members without member approval.  In our new proposed bylaws, the board has no such authority.  All board members must be approved by the members.  This significant change increases board accountability to our members.

Change How Membership Meetings are Called.  In our old bylaws, the board called membership meetings but there were no regularly scheduled meetings according to the bylaws.  Consequently, a board could simply refuse to call any membership meetings and members could not do anything about it.  In our new proposed bylaws, there are three regularly scheduled membership meetings (Sept, Jan, May).  Additional meetings may be called but we’ll always have at least three.   

Change Allowing Emergency Membership Meetings and Specifying What Can Occur at an Emergency Meeting.  In our old bylaws, it was difficult to call an emergency Membership Meeting—a meeting without 2 weeks notice.  In our new bylaws, it is easy to call an emergency Membership Meeting.  However, emergency meetings can only be informational.  No decisions can be made.  This is a good change.  We can talk with members immediately if a crisis arises.  But we are protected from major church decisions being made without proper notice.

Change Qualifications of Members, Board, Lead Pastor.  We’ve made them the same.  What we ask of members is what we ask of our board is what we ask of our lead pastor.  Different gifts are necessary for the different roles, but the character and commitment are the same for all our leaders in the church.

Change Super-Majorities.  We’ve made them the same.  In our old bylaws some super-majorities required a two thirds majority while others required a three-quarters majority.  This was a bit confusing.

Change Order.  We’ve made it flow.  In our old bylaws the section dealing with members and the section dealing with membership meetings were separated by lots of other sections.  This made following the bylaws unnecessarily confusing.  Now the sections are together. 

Simplify.  We’ve tried our best to simplify the language of the bylaws in order to make them as clear and readable as possible.  So in a line by line comparison of the old bylaws and the new proposed bylaws, you’ll see the new bylaws eliminate extraneous wording.  Nevertheless, since this is a legal document, some legalese remains.

If you’ve gotten this far in the blog, thanks! I hope this helps orient you towards the major changes we’re proposing.