Blog improvement

I've been experimenting lately us ways of finding images to add to posts. This makes the blog look more appealing (I hope) and also pleases my sense of aesthetics.

The best is probably to use my own photographs; maybe I'll spend some time taking "stock" photos of various church-related things to use as illustrations? My digital camera is...well, it is a digital camera, and that's about all you can say about it. So getting quality photos is mostly a matter of persistence and sheer luck. I have, for example, no actual zoom.

(My current stock of photographs consists almost entirely of pictures of yarn and knitting.)

There are lots of photos and images out there on the Internet. I'm trying to figure out the best way to find and use them. It's important to me that I respect copyrights and give proper credit--it's way too easy out here to steal someone else's intellectual property, and I don't want to be doing that. "Everyone does it" is not sufficient excuse in my book--as Christians, and as people of integrity, we have a responsibility to respect the rights of artists and photographers! (And I can't exactly get up on Sunday and preach a sermon on "Thou shalt not steal" if I'm stealing images to use on my blog! Not that I was planning to preach on the ten commandments. Unless they happen to come up in the lectionary, or the Spirit so moves me.)

So I guess this post is something of a disclaimer: I will always try to be above-board in my use of other people's images. But if there are ever any concerns, please let me know, so I can correct the situation.

~Pastor Sarah

Possibly a sign of the apocalypse

This may possibly be a sign that I have completely lost my mind, but today I actually visited facebook (just the front page, okay?). I have always resisted facebook, and related sites, for two reasons:

1. The whole idea is that you are supposed to use your real name, and connect your online life with your offline life in every conceivable way. So people who know you in real life can find you online...and people who know you online can find you in real life. Yerrgh. The whole idea makes my skin crawl.


2. I don't need anything else to get sucked into, and then forget for a while, and then feel guilty about.

But sometimes the idea of being able to connect with youth and young adults in the parish seems awfully appealing. Otherwise...we have rather a long calling list, and not everyone ever even gets phone messages, these days.

Any thoughts? Advice? Are there any veterans out there who might be willing to hold my hand? (Or possibly bring me back to my senses?)

~Pastor Sarah

Summer mission trip news!

Have you heard about our parish's Summer Mission Trip? Now is the time to be signing up, volunteering to help, and encouraging the youth in your life to sign up. All youth who will have finished grades 7 through 12 are invited to participate (you may also invite your friends). The dates for the trip are Sunday, July 12 through Wednesday, July 15.

This year’s mission site is right here in Starbuck! We’ll be staying in parish churches and doing service projects here in our own community as we explore what God is doing, not just in far-away places, but also right here in our neighborhood. Yes, this saves money and makes transportation a whole lot easier--but that's not why we are doing it. We are staying local this year because this really is one of the most exciting mission fields in the world. This is a great opportunity for us to grow in our faith, strengthen our relationships, and learn to see our own community with new eyes.

(The regular registration deadline is this Sunday, June 14. It only costs $25! If you register after that, the cost will be slightly higher.)

~Pastor Sarah

Prayers: Synod assembly

As I mentioned the other week, it's assembly season--as in, synod assemblies, leading up to Churchwide Assembly in August.

Our Southwestern Minnesota Synod's assembly is this coming weekend. Since we have a rather large synod (in terms of number of congregations), we also have rather a large group gathered for assembly! Prayers are much appreciated as we prepare to go about some of the business of being the church.

This will be my first year as a voting member instead of a visitor. I liked being a visitor--all the fun and none of the work! But this year I will have to follow the proceedings a little more closely. At past assemblies I have always been impressed by the faithfulness of the group that is gathered--not everyone is an expert on things church-related, but everyone is striving, with much prayer, to be faithful in carrying out and discerning God's work.

If you've never been to a synod assembly, I highly encourage going! You will likely come away with a new appreciation for and understanding of this big, crazy church we are part of. If you happen to live near where the assembly is taking place, they are usually looking for local volunteers to help out. Otherwise, you can go as a visitor, although most churches are always looking for someone new to go as a voting member.

~Pastor Sarah

Prayers: Graduation

Commencement is tonight for the local high school. Congratulations to all the new graduates! I remember that time in my life...how strange it felt, not quite real. And how I was standing in the very front (on the stage, no less), and my cap went flying right off my head, and I had to go and have it pinned on, but fortunately nobody noticed because they were watching the rest of the procession.

Graduation is a crazy and exciting and confusing time, filled with events to attend and all these different things you are supposed to be feeling--happiness? relief? nerves? pride? panic? Someone's mom will probably cry, and probably someone will feel the need to goof off while walking across the stage (although they have been sternly warned not to), and when it's over, no one will be quite sure what to do with the cap and gown (it's not like you ever wear it again).

So, for everyone who is graduating tonight, or who will be graduating soon, or who has just recently graduated...lots and lots of prayers! May you look back, sometime--maybe not right away, but eventually--and see what an amazing thing God was doing (and is doing) in your life.

~Pastor Sarah

Happy June!

Wow! June has just begun, and it feels like we're already off to a running start! How quickly things seem to run at this time of year--the school year and the Easter season are wrapping up, but summer activities and new directions are just getting started.

psalm 23
Originally uploaded by khrawlings

This morning I was doing a Hebrew word-study (of all things) and I thought I would share one of the tools I was using, because it is so cool! The NET Bible is a free online Bible using a new English translation that is generally pretty solid. But what I really like about it is that it has tons and tons of translators' notes, even making such exotic topics as text criticism accessible to someone who hasn't studied the original languages. And now, if you click on a verse number, you get a BibleWorks-like comparison of translations, including Greek and Hebrew and links to concordances.

I happen to think that exploring biblical languages and translations is The Coolest Thing Ever, but even if you aren't as interested in languages as I am, this is a useful tool for devotional study, or for whiling away those extra hours that come up when you're, say, transitioning between being at college and being back home in the summer.

(It even tells you how to pronounce the Hebrew. How cool is that?)

~Pastor Sarah

More prayers for Pentecost

English Our Father (Mt. Olives)_2150
Originally uploaded by hoyasmeg

In my sermon for the Day of Pentecost, I referenced the practice of praying the Lord's Prayer in different languages. Simultaneously. I first experienced this when I spent a semester at a church in Montreal, where it was customary, in the student group, to pray the Lord's Prayer in whatever language you knew best. This is a beautiful practice, although also a bit confusing when you do it for the first time! It is a wonderful thing to be able to pray in your own language, while also praying with others who prefer a different language.

This reminded me of a great web resource. The Convent of the Pater Noster has this fantastic site where you can look up the Lord's Prayer in, as of now, 1,449 languages and dialects. Many (not all) of these languages are presented with a photo from the Convent, located on the Mount of Olives, which has plaques showing the prayer in many different languages. It even has a few in constructed languages (Esperanto is the only one with its own plaque).

So, if you know another language, you can look it up, and perhaps gain a little more insight into speakers of that language who are also our brothers and sisters in Christ. And when you are done with serious studying...there's always Elvish or Klingon.

~Pastor Sarah