New Worship Service Coming Soon!

I have a feeling that it is going to be a while until we return to a steady, comfortable rhythm of worship. The kind of worship where you know what to expect, and where little changes from week to week or year to year. Whether you love ritual and tradition or not, when the patterns of a worship service are embedded in your bones, and you know with confidence what will happen next, you can relax into a much more spiritual experience.  Think about how our online services felt to you back at the end of March. I would bet that you experience them differently now that they seem somewhat normal. And though they cannot compare to the in-person worship you know and love, I would hope that if you have continued to tune in week to week, the experience has become more meaningful to you in some manner.

That is all about to change, though. Starting on August 30th, our Sunday morning worship experience is going to go through another change. Like many congregations around the country, we will begin having drive-in outdoor worship services where we can gather in person, sing at a distance, and share in communion. We plan on having this be our Sunday morning practice, rain or shine, through at least the end of September. For now, we will be taking a break from Wednesday night services. Due to the nature of the pandemic, it is difficult to say what form our worship will take once the temperatures begin to drop.

The outdoor service, which will be at 9:30am, will take place in the parking lot. There will be enough space beside each vehicle so that you can bring lawn chairs and sit next to your car if you prefer. We will have a short-range FM broadcast so that you can hear the service through your car stereo or a portable radio. 

I should mention that for safety reasons our Mulford Road entrance will be closed during these services. When you arrive, you will want to enter via the Featherstone Road entrance. At the end, you can leave either the same way you entered or through the adjoining OSF parking lot. Ushers will guide you to where you need to go. To complete the St. Mark experience, as you drive away there will even be some familiar faces handing out bags of donut holes to each car.

If you are away or unable to go out in public, the service will be live streamed to our YouTube channel. Later in the day it will be available for you to watch again and again, just like our other worship videos.

I am so eager to be able to worship in person with you all again! As I have said before, the council’s primary goal continues to be the safety of our members and guests. We have worked hard to make sure our new outdoor worship will indeed be a safe and meaningful experience for you all. We had originally planned on starting this practice on Rally Sunday, but we feel confident that we can begin even earlier. If it proves popular, a second service time may be added, so please continue to read the Memos and check the app to be as up to date as possible. I cannot wait to see you on August 30th!

 Peace,                                                                                                                                   Pastor Chad McKenna

Tearing through the Roof: Creativity and Persistence

Since the Northern Illinois Synod Assembly for 2020 was postponed until 2021, a few of the presentations that were to happen during those two days together at Augustana College were turned into Zoom webinars. I recently participated in the Rev. Louise Johnson’s presentation: All Questions, No Answers: Navigating Change in an Uncertain World. Pastor Johnson serves as Director of Leadership Development for LEAD. I have known her since I began discerning my call to seminary. As the Associate Director of Admissions at Wartburg Theological Seminary she helped me navigate the admissions process and welcomed me to campus as a new student in the Summer of 2003. I have always appreciated her perceptive insight into the gospel call that makes the stories of Jesus come alive in new and stimulating ways today.

Pastor Johnson in helping us walk together through these uncertain times drew on an array of biblical texts and images. It was this first text in her talk that resonated deeply with the kind of imaginative persistence and creativity that I hope emerges amid the systemic challenges facing the church amid the pandemic and beyond this current crisis.

When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. ² So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. ³ Then some people^[a] came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. ⁴ And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. ⁵ When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” – Mark 2.1-5

As we reflected on this text from the second chapter of Mark, Pastor Johnson invited us to consider the logistics of carrying this paralyzed man and then imagine them coming upon this scene of a great crowed blocking the door. All their hard work and preparation only to run into another unforeseen obstacle.

The story tells that when they could not get in the front door they went up on the roof, dug through it, and lowered their paralytic friend down on the mat.

It is the creativity and persistence of these friends that eventually gets this paralytic to Jesus. And this persistence Jesus calls faith.

Life happens fast and with great urgency in Mark’s account. As Pastor Johnson said, “It’s only chapter two in Mark’s Gospel and already they are tearing the roof off to get to Jesus.”

In a telling insight for leadership in times of change Pastor Johnson reminded us that these friends could not have planned for the challenges they faced when the crowd blocked the door to the house. No amount of strategic planning would have involved tearing through the roof as option two in their pursuit to get their paralytic friend to Jesus. And yet, with ingenuity and urgent determination, they figured out how to get their mat-bound friend up on the roof, began digging, and lowered him to where Jesus was.

The image of tearing through the roof to get to Jesus sticks with me. I wonder about the new unthought ways of meeting the challenges before us today. What new actions become possible because old ways simply will no longer work?

I pray that the same creativity and persistence that guided these friends to see new possibilities when the world around them changed will invigorate our imaginative actions today. And by God’s grace may they be seen as faith.  

Peace,  

Pastor Robert Franek  

Interim Associate Pastor