Hosanna Cyberfline - June 22, 2007

Hope you are having a great day. If not, take a deep breath, slow down and say a prayer for calm. Talk things over with God. That's what I had to do yesterday. It's been a week filled with computer/software glitches (I won't go into details). Anyway, things are better today. My prayer for guidance and strength to calmly work things through seems to have been answered.

Here is the link to the weekly news for June 24: http://www.welcometohosanna.com/weekly_news.pdf

Here is the link to the June Hotline on last time:
http://www.welcometohosanna.com/monthly_news.pdf
The July edition will be mailed early next week.
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Now for matters at hand for the coming week:

First, this coming Thursday, June 28 at 7 PM, Bishop Paul Blom will be coming to Hosanna to go over the process of calling a pastor. He will answer any questions we might have as we move forward. There will be refreshments and childcare. We are encouraging everyone to attend.

I've added links to the "Call Process Manual" on the Texas Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod website to our website. http://www.welcometohosanna.com

Click the "Forms, Documents, Policies" link on the home page. You will see three links on the top left. One is the manual itself, another it is to the forms that need to be filled out. The third is the email address for attaching the completed forms. Here is the link to the call manual:
http://www.gulfcoastsynod.org/call_manual.htm

Another parent of a Hosanna member has passed away. Sue King lost her mom Margaret this week. Pray for her as she must now go through the grief process. The funeral is in Ft. Collins, Colorado (where my daughter Jennifer lives.)

The results of last week's survey regarding worship service times: 116 attended the two services last week. Roughly half liked the 8:15/10:45 AM option. 15 responses had "write-ins" for a single service; most suggested 10 AM. Another 18 wanted to stay with the 8/11 AM times. I received a number of emails regarding this matter. Two expressed disagreement with changing the service times. The others liked the idea.

My personal opinion, for what it's worth: I would like to see one service, at least for the next year. My reasoning: it would bring us all together as a worshiping community. Also, it creates a favorable impression on visitors to see a full sanctuary rather than one with say 30 or 40 people. The singing is better, the energy level is greater. We don't have to stay with the same service format every week. The second and/or fourth can be contemporary; the first and third can be "traditional." Anyway, those are my thoughts. I await yours and will pass them on to the Spiritual Life Team who is ultimately responsible for any decisions in this matter.
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Other matters, in no particular order:

July 4th falls on Wednesday this year. No Bible study that day.July 11. No Bible study (also a Wednesday) as most of the participants will be heading for the "Imperial Rome" exhibit. Seniors, make sure you sign up as we need to get right number of tickets. Cost is $16 for both
Rome and IMAX.
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Pastor Bill Schwertlich will be with us through August to lead worship on Sunday mornings. He will also be in the office on Wednesdays. He facilitated last week's Bible study and, in my opinion, it went well.
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Pastor Tart completed packing his office on Wednesday. He has posted a thank you letter on the Hosanna Blog (see the Home Page of our website for the link). The names of the Mulkey Scholarship recipients are posted there too.
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Don't forget your name tags!
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Here are some things we all should know:
1. A growing church is not necessarily a healthy church.
2. A healthy church is not necessarily a growing church.
3. Modern ("contemporary") worship does not always make a church grow.
4. "Traditional" worship does not always keep a church from growing.
5. The most important: The Bible usually stresses the health of a church rather than the "growth" of that church.
6. The momentum belongs to God. When we forget that it's all about Jesus Christ and him crucified, and that it's his church, not ours, then we get ourselves into trouble.
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NATURAL CHURCH DEVELOPMENT:

Eight Characteristics of a Healthy Church as described in the book, Natural Church Development, by Christian Schwarz.

Through scientific research in Christian churches of various denominations in over 100 countries, it has been discovered that every healthy, growing church has eight characteristics in common:

Empowering Leadership Functional Structures Gift-Oriented Ministry Holistic Small Groups Inspiring Worship Loving Relationships Need-Oriented Evangelism Passionate Spirituality

Some or all of these characteristics can be found in all churches; however, the KEY words are the adjectives preceding the characteristic (i.e., Empowering Leadership, Loving relationships, Inspiring, etc.).

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A Little Humor

E-mail Snafu
It's wise to remember how easily e-mail can sometimes be misused. Consider the case of the Illinois man who left the snow-filled streets of Chicago for a vacation in Florida. His wife was on a business trip and was planning to meet him there the next day.

When he reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick e-mail. Unable to find the scrap paper he had written her address on, he did his best to type it from memory. Unfortunately, he missed one letter and his note was directed to an elderly deacon's wife, whose husband had just passed away the day before.

When the grieving widow checked her e-mail, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream and fell to the floor in a dead faint. At the sound, her family came rushing into the room and saw this note on the screen:

"Dearest Wife: Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival tomorrow. P.S. Sure is hot down here."

Sermon Text

During the course of a bitter pastor-congregation dispute, the church's pastor quit and found a job working as a chaplain at the local jail. On his last Sunday with the church, just before he left for his new job at the jail, he preached as his sermon text John 14:3:

"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."

Until next week, God willing,
Dale Bargmann, Hosanna Parish Communications
dale@welcometohosanna.com