Finding Faith ... in coming to terms without spending Holy Week together

Dear Faith Family,

Blessings to you from God our creator and Jesus Christ our savior!

I hope this email finds you safe, healthy and well at home!

I cannot hardly believe it, but it was exactly one month ago yesterday (Wednesday) that we last worshiped together in person. It was a beautiful Sunday, and we joyously celebrated the confirmation of three of our youngsters, including my own daughter, Ava. So I will remember that day forever!

But I will also remember that day for other reasons. Going into that service, I was nervous that we were going to be told that we couldn’t worship in person any longer. That we would have to declare an emergency and cancel confirmation.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz the week prior was beginning to hint that he was getting ready to declare a stay-at-home order, and we rostered leaders had met with our synod bishop to talk about what church might look like if we couldn’t gather together in person.

It was an anxious time to be sure. But nothing that week could prepare me for what we have experienced together for the past four weeks:

-- Seeing the stay-at-home order issued, effectively preventing us from celebrating in person.

-- The mad scramble to figure out what to do with a Lenten service that we couldn’t hold in person just two days after the governor’s announcement.

-- Four days after that stumbling through our first-ever digital only worship service.

-- The valiant stepping forward of our Digital Services Response Team (DSRT), and watching their unwavering commitment to helping produce a service each week play out. Here’s a might shout out to Deb Byars, Mike Nelson, Veronica Nelson and Austin Erickson!

-- Watching our Sunday School moms hustle to develop an engaging, fun and fruitful faith formation plan, and put the plan in place to keep our kids engaged for the remainder of the year.

-- Seeing you all respond to our plea to continue to practice your stewardship so that our church does not experience the same financial struggles that other churches are experiencing in this challenging time.

-- Coming to terms with experiencing a Holy Week without being able to gather; then huddling with the DSRT to figure out what those services could look like; and ultimately leaning into the Holy Spirit to carry us through when our limited human imaginations couldn’t fathom what a digital Easter service would look like.

-- And there have been countless acts of our members demonstrating that we can be “church” even when we are not allowed to physically gather together in our church. … Frankly, our church has rallied together in a way that fills my heart with joy!

Faith Family … what an awe-inspiring, anxiety-filled, Holy Spirit driven, unequaled time that we have lived through in the past four weeks!!!

I am so proud of this church that I can’t appropriately express it in words!

But given all of that, we know that we live by our human limitations. And while the Holy Spirit has carried us through the most difficult of the times we faced, that at some point we all need a rest.

And so we will not have a live digital Sunday service this coming Sunday, April 19.

Instead, we will be posting a recorded sermon given by our own Bishop Bill Tesch. In fact, this sermon is a bit of a gift from him to churches like ours where a small staff of people have pushed on and on to bring services to you without rest in the past month.

While I absolutely have loved what we have done together in this past month, it is time that the DSRT and I both take a break. After all, we humans have limitations, and God commands us to take Sabbath in our scriptures. And so we will.

I will be posting Bishop Tesch’s sermon to the Faith Lutheran Church’s Facebook page and to our YouTube channel for your viewing on Sunday morning.

In addition you will find the links to the video sermon and the script that the bishop used in this email.

I ask that you use these resources to fulfill your Sunday worship this week.

This small break will do wonders to restore the mental health of our DSRT team and myself. As you can imagine, the past month has been a rollercoaster of emotions, and putting together a season of Lenten services and a Holy Week is a tall task in normal years. So this year, I can’t even describe what the experience of the past month has been like.

Meanwhile, I will tease you with the announcement that the Sunday School families and I are working on another grand surprise to share with you soon! So stay tuned for that!

And lastly, the DSRT and I will be back for a live digital service on Sunday, April 26. Because, frankly, you won’t be able to keep me away for very long! I love our Sundays together too much!

Keeping you all in my prayers this coming week! Blessings to you all Faith Family!

Intern Pastor Devlyn