ST. JOHN LUTHERAN CHURCH
(The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod)
Alma, Kansas
A family united by faith in Christ gathering around God's Word and Sacraments.
To reach out in Christ-like concern and Christ-borne love to each other and to those without Christ!
In This Month's
St. John Witness
MARCH WITNESS
Theology for the Day / Stephen Ministry
Stephen Ministry
What is Stephen Ministry? Congregations equip lay caregivers to provide high-quality, confidential, Christ-centered care to people who are hurting or are experiencing grief, divorce, cancer, job loss, loneliness, disability, relocation, and other life difficulties. Stephen Ministers serve in a one to one relationship of trust, care, and Christ-like concern. If you think you might benefit from having a Stephen Minister, please call Pastor Grimm, or talk with one of these servants of God. - Don Frank, Charlie Gann, Judy Peddicord, Junior Stuewe, Carol White.
If you would be interested in becoming a Stephen Minister, please contact Pastor Grimm.
Below is more information about the Stephen Series & Stephen MInistry.
- Why is it called the Stephen Series?
Stephen was one of the first laypeople commissioned by the Apostles to provide caring ministry (Acts 6). Series describes the steps a congregation follows to implement the caring ministry system, which is commonly called Stephen Ministry.
- How many congregations are using Stephen Ministry?
More than 11,000 congregations are enrolled, with hundreds more enrolling each year. They represent more than 150 denominations and come from all 50 United States, 10 Canadian provinces, and 24 other countries. Many congregations have had Stephen Ministry going strong for 20 or 30 years—or longer.
- What size congregations are involved?
Stephen Ministry congregations range from fewer than 100 members to more than 10,000. Churches of any size have opportunities to care for hurting people in the congregation and community.
- What are Stephen Ministers?
Stephen Ministers are laypeople who commit to two years of learning, growing, and caring. They receive Christian caregiving training in their congregation and then provide one-to-one Christ-centered care to hurting people. Each Stephen Minister typically has one care receiver at a time and meets with that person once a week.
- What types of caregiving situations are Stephen Ministers used in?
Stephen Ministers provide high-quality, one-to-one Christian care to individuals facing a variety of crises or life challenges—people who are experiencing grief, divorce, cancer, financial difficulties, hospitalization, chronic illness, job loss, disabilities, loneliness, a spiritual crisis, or other life struggles.
In addition to caring for members within the congregation, Stephen Ministers can provide care to nonmembers, reaching out to unchurched people in crisis.
- What are Stephen Leaders?
Stephen Leaders are pastors and lay leaders who direct Stephen Ministry in their congregation. They attend a one-week Leader’s Training Course (LTC) where they learn how to effectively lead their congregation’s Stephen Ministry.
- What is the meaning of the logo?
The Stephen Series logo symbolizes that we are all broken people and that we are only made whole through the cross of Jesus.
Since 1975 nearly a half million Christian men and women from all walks of life have trained and served as Stephen Ministers in their congregations. Most decide to become Stephen Ministers as a way to help hurting people in their congregation and community—but very quickly discover that God gives them amazing blessings in return.
- What do people say about Stephen Ministry?
“My faith has grown, my prayer life has doubled, and I know how to really make a difference in people’s lives. I’d encourage anyone who has the chance to become a Stephen Minister.”
George Lund, Architect Prairie Village, Kansas“Being a Stephen Minister has taught me to rely on God instead of always trying to fix things myself. I’ve learned what to say, how to listen, and what to do during a crisis. It’s a great feeling to provide people with the spiritual care and support they need.”
John Eichelberger, Physician Greenwood, South Carolina“The assertiveness skills I learned through Stephen Ministry gave me the courage and confidence I needed to be a more effective supervisor in my secular job—and to be more assertive in my personal relationships. Thank you for helping me develop these vital skills.”
Elizabeth McMillion, Rehabilitation Counselor Madison, Wisconsin
Theology for Today
Online Technology in the Church
The Commission on Theology and Church Relations submitted a report to the congregations of the LCMS. This is a study document and therefore does not propose an “official” position the Synod should take on these matters. In fact, in most cases of rapidly evolving technologies and their application in church life, it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the Synod to take a firm position (the practice of virtual Communion being a notable exception — see 2023 Resolution 5-08A). The CTCR wishes to make this document available for Synod wide study and use.
Over the next few months, St. John will reprint these study materials This month we look at part one:
1. Livestreamed Worship Services
Due to church closures during the Covid-19 pandemic, many congregations began to broadcast their live services online using streaming technology. For some, this has raised questions about whether streaming services could potentially lead to privacy concerns, whether they might induce people to no longer gather together in a local congregation for worship with fellow believers, or even whether congregations or pastors might use online services to induce members of other congregations to join and support theirs. Should LCMS congregations be encouraged to use livestreamed online worship services alongside of — or as alternatives to — their local, in-person gatherings?
Our churches have actively participated in online media for decades. Since the World Wide Web went online in the 1990s, Missouri Synod congregations — like so many others around the world — have increasingly adopted technological means of reaching out and making their faith and ministries known. For years, email prayer chains, downloadable MP3 sermons and recorded services were the primary ways congregations used digital means as part of their work. Congregational websites have become ubiquitous. Churches operate social media pages now to promote events, share Scripture passages or church news, and celebrate milestones from the church’s life together (confirmations, weddings, baptisms, etc.). All of these are examples of extending the shared experiences of that congregation to others through digital means. These raise few serious concerns or engender little controversy. Other practices, like livestreaming services, are more complicated. On a theological level, internet technologies like livestreaming provide the congregations of the Synod a tangible, accessible way to do what Christ has called them to do: proclaim the Word (Luke 24:44–47; Acts 8:1–4). Whether spoken in open-air preaching, as by the apostles of the New Testament church; preached in pulpits of European cathedrals or A-frame American churches; signed by those ministering to the deaf and hearing-impaired; or, yes, mediated through fiber-optic cables, the Word is able to create and sustain saving faith in the hearts of those who hear it, for the Holy Spirit is at work through that Word (Rom. 10:14–17; Augsburg Confession 5). Online services can be used profitably to communicate that Word to all people: to the sick, hospitalized or homebound, whom the pastor may be unable to reach; to the wandering, erring or unbelieving, who are unwilling to step foot in a church; to those under political regimes where Christianity is forbidden and the gathering of Christians for worship prohibited.
There are also legitimate hesitations on the part of many congregations. As noted above, privacy concerns may result from the advance of facial recognition software that those averse to Christianity could use to target Christians, especially children. Certain preachers or congregations among us may use online services irresponsibly, in such a way as to recruit members of other Synod congregations or to promote ideas that violate the Eighth 3 Commandment in our midst — though we hope that collegiality and mutual trust would prevail between fellow laborers in Christ’s harvest. The burden of digital infrastructure, upkeep and delivery may detract from or unnecessarily influence the pastor’s preaching, the congregation’s style of public worship, or even the gathered believers’ active participation in the life of the local congregation (for instance, one may opt for viewing services online rather than attending in person). Might a preacher change his sermon content if he believes the sermon will be heard more broadly than simply by the hearers in his congregation? Might a congregation be tempted to make its worship more acceptable to others viewing online (whether more liturgical or less liturgical)? Should communicants be shown receiving the Sacrament of the Altar, or might the prospect that one could be viewed online impact the way that he or she receives the Sacrament, or even whether he or she does? These are genuine concerns that must be considered by each and every congregation.
The primary theological objection to the presence of online services is that they could tempt congregants to simply view those services online rather than attend them at their local congregation. It must be said that online services are no replacement for the local gathering of believers. Lutheran Hour speaker Walter Maier directed his hearers to a local congregation and did not consider his program a replacement for it. The church has always gathered locally in congregations to hear the Word, receive the Sacrament and be strengthened in its faith together as Christians in need of a respite from the attacks of the devil, the world and their sinful natures. The congregation does not exist for corporate weekly worship services alone — though, sadly, some Christians live as though it does. In the gathering or assembly of believers (as Augsburg Confession 7–8 describes the church), Christians are to build up one another in the faith by exercising the gifts God has given them (Rom. 12; 1 Cor. 12:4–21; 1 Cor. 14:1–13). They are to support one another personally with encouragement, consolation and conversation, even with gifts to meet the physical needs among them (Acts 2; Smalcald Articles III 4). They are to protect one another from sin through reproof and correction (Heb. 10:24–25; 1 Cor. 5). This goes well beyond solitary worship services into the common life they share together as a congregation. Moreover, it simply cannot happen to a full degree behind the relative anonymity of online participation.
Finally, while the Word may be preached profitably and to the end of salvation through online services — and other digital means — the Lord’s Supper itself is reserved for the locally gathered congregation. There, the body and blood of Jesus Christ is present for believers to receive with their mouths for the forgiveness of sins, according to Christ’s Word. There, the Word of Christ is proclaimed, and the believers can be confident that the Sacrament consecrated, distributed and received is the true body and blood of Christ. There, the presiding pastor ensures that communicants are rightly instructed in the faith, that open and unrepentant sinners and heretics are denied the Sacrament, and that the Sacrament is administered according to our Lord’s Words, to the benefit of those who receive it in faith.
For these reasons, the Commission encourages the use of online services as instruments to proclaim the Gospel, yet it urges caution and care in doing so. Online services should not be used in a way that sows division within our fellowship, exposes parishioners (particularly children) to certain online predatory risks, replaces or makes negligible the local gathering of Christians in fellowship and worship, or uses any means of participating in the Lord’s Supper virtually.
https://files.lcms.org/file/preview/ctcr-report-online-technology-in-the-church-
The Gospel to the World
From Missionaries
Mike and Shanna Hageman
This last Wednesday I was marked. I was marked by a nasty looking ashy cross. I stood in line for the preacher to smash it into my forehead. “Remember,” he began. By the time he finished I instinctively said, “Amen.” “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” And I agreed. I said, “Yes.” and thought to myself, I’m probably better off dead anyway. Welcome to Lent.
Last month was Sanctity of Human Life Month. And like me, you might have been embedded with your own problems that caused you to de-sanctify life by thinking, “Why doesn’t God just take me home? I’d be better off dead.”
We’ve all thought I’d be better to be dead than to mess with the pain of cancer or the turmoil of loneliness. It is a response that our society is saying more and more as life becomes de-sanctified. A response directed toward those who are getting older or just can’t do much anymore. So, is it true? Would we be better off dead?
I hesitate to answer, “yes” for, St. Paul desired such a pleasure as he struggled physically for the faith. As he contemplated how much easier it would be in heavenly bless. Yes, it would be better off to be dead in Christ for our death in Christ is no death at all. Romans 6 reminds us that we have already died to sin and we now live in Him. Death has no dominion over us.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:8-11)
Death has no dominion over us! Christ has so much power over death that we are even able to taunt death and shout, “Bring me your best, Death! You have no place here!” Yes, we as disciples of Christ would all be better off dead, for Paul thinks the same when he writes, “I desire to depart and be with Christ which is better by far” (Philippians 1:23). And yet there is more.
Death is not the only possibility for Paul. In fact Paul says that it is “more necessary” to keep living, for God has additional plans. These additional plans require for us to live. Paul says, “to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21). Therefore living is required for the additional plans of our Lord, or “fruitful labor” as Paul later describes. In my life these additional plans will include proclaiming Christ in the land of Africa to the people in Tanzania.
These additional plans are for you also. No matter how young or old you may feel. No matter if you are ill or even unconscious, God is keeping you alive. As long as our Lord gives life, He gives fruitful labor for us to accomplish. This fruitful labor causes others great joy which overflows in Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:26).
It is a tragedy to ever think that the Lord stops with the Ash Wednesday words, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return.” That He is incapable to do anything great or even minimal in our lives. We as sinners often think this way and forget that it is God and His presence in our life that accomplishes fruitful labor. This fruitful labor comes through His Word and Sacrament. It comes to you with one more Word. A Word of forgiveness. This powerful Word of forgiveness has destroyed the nasty looking ash. The ash of sin is crushed by our Lord’s death on a cross. You have been marked with this cross. Marked in Holy Baptism our Lord smashes His water into you and says, You are my beloved child. With you I am well pleased.
Better off Dead? Yes, but, let Christ do what He does in you by letting Him work and live in you until your day is done and He returns in glory.
