From The Pastor's Pen

Henry Schulte


March 2011

The February 11th & 12th Mission and Disciple Event that was held here at St. John Lutheran was a marvelous event! Pastor Michael Foss provided four outstanding presentations on what it means to be a Christian.. a follower of Jesus...a disciple in this day. His messages were greatly appreciated by everyone.

It was truly a Pan Lutheran event with participants and leaders from The Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, North American Lutheran Church in America, Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ and from the new North American Lutheran Church. No presenter or participant talked about church affiliation and all talk centered on the topic of the day, "What Kind of Disciple Am I?"

We had fifteen workshops as Pastors and Lay Leaders brought information about a ministry or activity in their congregation that was proving to be a blessing. Every workshop was outstanding. All of these focused upon equipping the saints for the work of ministry. Ann Knuppel, our Children's Ministry Director, led a workshop on our rotational Sunday school program.

Pastor Foss proved to be a most engaging speaker with a very powerful message. One particular message drove home the point that sometimes we in the church speak of "membership" and that we communicate the wrong idea. People tend to think of membership in the Country Club or Sam's Club, and begin to think that membership means that you sign up, pay your dues, and then expect service. He encouraged the use of the term "Disciple" or Discipleship, to emphasize the importance of people recognizing that the Holy Spirit of God has called them to follow Jesus in proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and serving in Christ's name.

Michael Foss has written numerous books, all available at Amazon.com. Some include:

The Six Marks of Discipleship include the following: 

• Prays Daily
• Worships Weekly
• Reads The Bible Daily
• Serves At & Beyond The Church
• Relates with Others To Encourage Spiritual Growth
• Gives a Tithe (10%) or above to God Through Church & Other

The St. John servants outdid themselves in showing hospitality. Many of our people were able to hear the Foss presentations, and some were able to attend workshops. Lemuel Sinclair and his barbeque crew did a fantastic job on some of the best brisket and homemade sausage you ever tasted. People attended from Penn., Iowa, Oklahoma, California and all around. The expressions of appreciation were continuous and overwhelming for the efforts of the people of St. John. I want to express my special thanks to Pastor Jeff Carpenter for developing this out of his committee assignment in the North American Lutheran Church, to Shannon Brehmer for her great organizational work, to Deneice Cheves and Sharon Pace for their excellent handling of pre-registration and registration, Bob Olson for superb building cleaning and preparation, to Lemuel Sinclair and his Congregation Life Committee for their service and to all the Saints of St. John who came, helped, participated, and celebrated with us as we were all called to be Disciples of Jesus.