Bragging Rights
Hello Holy Cross family, I pray all is well with you and that Jesus is working his grace and forgiveness in your life in abundant ways. I had the opportunity to attend an LCMS Texas District church workers conference over the last few days and I was able to notice one very important thing that made me so very happy. As church worker friends came up to me and asked, as church worker friends always do, “How’s it going at your new church…Arlington, right?” I had the great joy of being able to brag about you and what a blessing it has been to be your pastor over the last year plus. Please let me thank you for giving me something to brag about to my colleagues and friends. It has been a joy for me and Darcy, and we love it here so very much.
Today, you are reading a very important newsletter, and I encourage you to stick with me as we have a number of things to share with you. I’ll do my best to be concise but invite you to pay close attention to this newsletter because I hope to share some of the next steps for us at Holy Cross.
Our first year together was intended to be a time where I got to know you and you got to know us. Sadly, I think my troubled house remodel got in the way more that I would have liked and didn’t provide me the opportunity to host some of the leadership building meetings or the open house that I was planning. Nevertheless, I still believe we got to know each other better and I look forward to continuing growth in our relationship with you over many years to come. Through everything, you all were so very supportive of me and Darcy, and we can’t thank you enough. I am happy to say we are mostly done with our house remodel. The remaining work includes painting the cabinets, installing the floors and we’ll be “finished, finished”.
Even though year one was intended to be a somewhat laid-back time to get acquainted, that doesn’t mean nothing happened at Holy Cross. While some may consider it the boring side of church work, your Holy Cross leadership team has been developing a new Operations Manual to bring the business side of church work to a place where we have healthy policies and procedures that serve to help keep us safe and lower our various risks as a congregation. Policies and procedures like the ones we worked on, serve to lay the supportive foundation for us to build on as we move into the next steps of being a church that reaches the lost.
In addition, all the time, energy, and financial support you poured into installing a new marquee came to life just a few weeks ago and is a beautiful addition to the Holy Cross campus. Thank you to everyone who worked over the last several years to make this dream a reality. It looks fantastic and I have already had other churches reach out and ask where we got our marquee, because they like ours so very much.
Year one also saw Phase One of our Worship Center remodel take shape. It was on the mind of your leadership team to get the Worship Center caught up to the newness and freshness of the rest of our campus, and we started by arranging the furniture and altar area in a way that fits more intentionally into the design of the building. Once we determined that the new layout would work for us, Phase Two was to move the speakers and cross to accommodate the new layout and we wanted to brighten the Worship Center with new light bulbs that all matched in color and brightness.
We got the speakers moved just fine, and every hanging chandelier has all new bulbs. (Fluorescent lights require a contractor and will be part of Phase Three.) We even upgraded the technology of our speakers, so our sound system is up to date. But in our effort to move the cross, we discovered it is far heavier than we could have ever imagined. No one knows how it was hung in that spot in the first place, and we are unsure if we need any kind of specific bracing behind the wall where we want to hang it when it is moved. Additionally, we haven’t yet figured out a safe way to take the cross down. All that is to say, Holy Cross leadership does want to center the cross over the altar at some point but we need a safe and effective way to move it. We are discussing our options. If we can move it soon, we definitely will. Until then, we may have to exercise our “patience muscles” until we have the best plan.
Next, I wanted to turn your attention to the future. You have heard me mention the vision and mission process for Holy Cross in some of my sermons. The time has come where we are ready to pour our energies into hearing from out of God’s Word what His vision and mission for Holy Cross will be. And because we Lutherans believe God works primary through means, we need all of you.
Sunday, November 3rd, we are hosting a congregation wide Town Hall after the worship service, to begin our vision and mission casting discussions. We can all bring a potluck lunch, and I will lead us through some prayer, Scripture, discussion and questions, so that we can hear from you and receive feedback and input on the future direction of our church. While it’s true that you had to give feedback for the pastor call process, and there may be some overlap, questions for finding a new pastor are different than questions about a vision and mission. Plus, for those questions that may overlap, it will be helpful to see if any of the answers have changed now that you’ve got your new pastor. If you aren’t able to attend on the 3rd, I would invite you to be in fervent prayer, asking Jesus to direct our discussion, responses, and the vision and mission.
We will start the process with the entire congregation on the 3rd as mentioned above, and then gather a select committee to filter, interpret and report back to you the results of your input and feedback. We will then listen as you respond to the results, so we can adjust anything that needs to be clarified. If everything goes according to plan, we might be able to begin a sermon series on the new vision and mission at the start of 2025.
Lastly, I wanted to share with you plans for Advent and Christmas. Over the month of December, we will be praying through a devotional called, “25 Prayers to Christmas.” This simple prayer book gives us an opportunity to pray through the Christmas Story. We will have enough copies of the devotional for each family prior to December first. Each Sunday and Wednesday during Advent, the sermon series will get more in depth into whichever prayer is scheduled for that particular day.
Prayer is so very important. Especially for a church discerning its vision and mission. The more we pray the more we go to the Source for our needs instead of looking to ourselves for answers we don’t really have. I would love it if you prayed through the Christmas story with me. I am looking forward to the holiday season and 2025 with you. And that’s because of the joy given to me by Jesus because of you. My prayer is that you share in that joy with each other as we seek God’s direction for our church in the coming year.
Blessings in Jesus,
PL