tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020417.post3126708097110212978..comments2024-02-19T05:09:00.099-06:00Comments on Lutheran Confessions: Centered SetsClint Schneklothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00707900080657719369noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4020417.post-57410451022632705692011-11-08T13:25:49.529-06:002011-11-08T13:25:49.529-06:00Interesting way of looking at this Clint! I have b...Interesting way of looking at this Clint! I have been thinking along similar lines lately as my wife and I have moved back to an Episcopal parish we left several years ago but have returned to recently. This posting gives me some new ways of thinking about this. We never fully cut our ties to the parish while getting involved with a local Lutheran congregation that we were refugees in due to deep conflicts in the Episcopal parish. <br /><br />I have been talking with the Outreach Team in the parish about the idea of how we can open up our Outreach Ministries to a wider range of people in the local community without necessarily requiring them to be members in good standing of the parish, and this gives me some new language to use in thinking and talking about this. My thinking has been to offer people who would otherwise never think of going to church on a Sunday morning new avenues into ways to serve the needs of the community without making membership in the church or parish a prerequisite. <br /><br />This also comes into play in a prison congregation I am a member of (if one can be a member of more than one congregation!). We have our core members who come every week and are baptized Christians. We also have the offenders who come for other reasons (to pass notes, see friends they otherwise would not get to see, etc), or who come angry and stand at the back with a mean look on their faces and arms crossed like an angry cat. Over time, they sometimes start to listen and the arms drop and they start to move in closer. We have an ongoing debate with some of the prison staff who would prefer that we only admit those who are "members of your church" to services and the rules of the facility that limit just who can go to a particular religious service. Again, this posting gives me new ways of thinking and talking about this. <br /><br />Oh, and I would have loved to have joined in your Facebook discussion about the lectionary even though I have never been to Arkansas!<br /><br />~CaoilinAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com