March 2017 Newsletter Message

Jesus said to the disciples: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the  Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”  --Matthew 28:19-20a
 
These words are spoken by the risen Jesus to his disciples at the end of the Gospel of Matthew. They are often referred to as the “Great Commission,” and it describes the central work Jesus sends the church to do. During the season of Lent, then, we take up this essential work as we move into the NURTURE phase of our church year--the way we live out the WELCOME, NURTURE, SERVE mission to which God has called us.

To help us tackle this part of God’s mission, I have developed the CrossWalk Disciple Formation Course, a set of classes based on Luther’s Small Catechism and Bible study that will help people new to Christian faith (or simply new to Trinity) become familiar with the key elements of the faith we share. These classes will provide a focused approach to welcoming new disciples into our congregation, and holding them during Lent goes back to one of the best practices from the first centuries of the church. Historically, Lent developed as a time of education and formation for people who were newly called to faith in Jesus, and they were baptized at Easter.

Our CrossWalk course picks up this ancient practice and brings it into our present time and situation. The 6 sessions will take place during the Adult Forum time (10:15am on Sundays) in Engvall Hall: Ten Commandments (March 5), Creed (March 12), The Lord’s Prayer (March 19), Holy Baptism (March 26), Holy Communion (April 2), and the Passion of Our Lord (April 9). They will be a great review for our Adult Forum and Confirmation classes, in addition to the benefit for new disciples! These classes, in addition to our Lent midweek services and Sunday worship, will be great preparation for our "Celebration of Discipleship" on April 23, when we will celebrate baptisms and officially welcome new members.

I am very excited for our first time through this adult discipleship process! More and more people these days are growing up without a church background, so adult discipleship will continually become more and more essential for our congregation’s ministry. We already have several people planning to join Trinity through CrossWalk, and I am happy to help you reach out to anyone you think may be interested. I enjoy meeting new people and answering (or at least earnestly attempting to answer) any questions they have--just send them my way!