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I’d like to begin with Psalm 23. This is probably the best known psalm and it is usually the one people turn to the most whenever they are going through difficult times, when someone close to them dies, or when life just seems incredibly hard. And its easy to understand why. The words of this psalm share powerful images of how God comforts for us and takes care of us – his little sheep. We often look at this psalm from our point of view – how we want to be treated by God, how we want God to take care of us. This is often our wish and hope from God. But let’s flip it around for a moment however. What if we saw this as God’s vision and hope and dream for us also – that we would walk with him through the dark valleys, that we would allow ourselves to be comforted, that we would gladly come to his table, be led beside still waters and dwell with him forever. What if this psalm truly represented God’s dream and God’s desire for us? I think this is how God wants to be in relationship with us. He wants to be our God and give us his peace and comfort in deep, loving, nurturing and life-giving ways. Just like how parents find great joy in giving their children Christmas presents, even when they wait in line for 8 hours for a Nintendo Wii, God receives great pleasure when we allow him to take care of us and when we come to him as the little lost sheep that we are. I had two primary groups of friends in college – both associated with the Lutheran church actually. One was Beta Sigma Psi, the national Lutheran fraternity that I know a couple of you are also alumni of as well. The other was Lutheran Student Fellowship, which was a college ministry through the Missouri Synod Campus Lutheran Church. I heard about Beta Sig before I even went to college and they recruited me hard – letters, phone calls, they sent a couple members to my house, and took us to basketball games. It was hard to resist, especially when they promised lifelong friendships, a genuine brotherhood of Lutheran men, and rooms twice as big as the dorms. Throughout college I lived at the Beta Sig house – we ate together, studied together, played together, partied together and did all of those things together that you did with other friends in college. We had toga parties, karaoke nights, homecoming dances, and usually partied so late on Saturdays that most guys never went to church. We sure had a lot of fun together and thought our friendships were real and would last a lifetime. It was a fraternity after all. Perhaps you’ve been in a group like this as well. The second group of friends from Lutheran Student Fellowship, the LSFers, was a completely different story. When I was a freshman, there were literally 3 people in group counting myself. Faithfully however, we prayed together, attended worship together, studied scripture together, and intentionally invited other people to join us, although I wouldn’t call it recruiting. Eventually through a lot of hard work, dedication, and God’s grace, the group grew. We did mission trips over spring break, we met early every Friday mornings for Prayer & Praise sessions, we genuinely cared for one another, and we talked about how God was active in our lives. We never had dues, but we sure gave a lot to various offerings. Perhaps, if you’re fortunate, you’ve had a chance to experience a group like this also. Both of these two groups changed my life, and I’m thankful to be a part of both of them. Both groups had similar Christian missions. The fraternity was more than happy to post this mission on all their brochures and talk a lot about it. The LSFers didn’t talk about their mission so much as they lived it. By the time I graduated college however, I couldn’t wait to get out of the fraternity and I can count on my two hands the times I’ve had contact with the guys from the house. In contrast, as I drove away from the church parking lot from my last LSF meeting, I cried like a baby. After a couple year hiatus while we all went to grad school, our LSF group has been reunited and we still get together nearly every month. If I could package up just a little bit of what it was like to be in that LSF group and give it to each of you, I’d do it in a heartbeat because those people are so special to me. And I think it’s because our relationships with each other helped deepen our relationship with Jesus. I don’t want our congregation to be like a fraternity or a club – paying our dues, just focusing on having fun together, just trying to keep everyone happy, with secrets and codes that not everyone can understand. My dream as your pastor is for you to know Jesus deeply and for us to have relationships that change us and change the world. This is my dream for all of you because I think this is God’s dream for all of you. God lays out this dream in Psalm 23 and I think that the most powerful way that God works toward his dream is by using other Christians. And I think God does this in two different ways – in one-on-one caring relationships and in small group caring relationships. I, as a pastor for a congregation this size can only do so much and to be honest, there’s not much genuine comfort going on in this large group gathering. But these genuine caring relationships can be shared in a one-on-one setting or in small group relationships. I think its fairly obvious that God has really been working to fulfill his dream for us in this congregation. Last year, God called us to begin a Stephen Ministry, which is exactly what this one-on-one caring ministry is called. Stephen Ministers are people in the congregation who have special gifts for caring and have been trained to use their gifts to help people in one-on-one caring relationships. If someone has had a loved one pass away, a Stephen Minister can walk with them through the grieving process. If someone is going through a divorce or other important life change, a Stephen Minister can provide much needed support for someone who just needs an ear to listen or a shoulder to cry on. Stephen Ministers have a special calling from God, they’ve been given gifts of listening, care, compassion, and patience, and through the training, they are equipped to change lives and to help deepen their care receiver’s relationship with Jesus Christ. Stephen Ministry is a powerful, life-giving gift from God for our congregation. And in addition to calling us to begin Stephen Ministry, the last several months, I think God has also been calling us to begin a small group ministry using the model of Christcare Small Groups. Janet Runge & I spent all of last week in training in how to start these small groups and the more we learned, the more we realized that these kinds of small groups are a wonderful vehicle for how we can work out our new mission here at Hope. I mean, within the last 6 months we discovered God’s mission for us is to do what? Let’s say these 3 words together: “Care, Share, and Prepare” and now check this out. All Christcare groups have 4 elements in them. First is Care & Community. Group members check-in with each other, listen and open up, and care for each other in whatever ways are appropriate. The 2nd element of a Christcare group is Missional Service. Each group adopts some kind of service project where they can share their gifts and spend some time focusing outward, beyond themselves. The 3rd element of every Christcare group is biblical equipping. This doesn’t have to be an hour-long Bible study, but groups do spend time dwelling in the word of God and discovering how God is preparing them as disciples. The final element of every Christcare group is Worship & Prayer. Group members learn how to pray for each other and worship together. Through the four activities of Christcare groups, members not only deepen their relationship with each other, but also they deepen their personal relationship with Jesus. They learn how to care for others, but they also let others care for them. And the groups can be incredibly creative as long as they have all four elements. Knitting groups, men’s groups, parent’s groups, movie-watching groups, golfing groups, youth groups, singles groups, hiking groups. Christcare groups can take on lots of different shapes, but they are all led by trained small group leaders, who also participate in a separate support group to ensure that each one of their groups stays true to the vision God has for them. In other words, through Stephen Ministry and Christcare groups, we can work out Hope’s mission and also help fulfill God’s dream for us as laid out in Psalm 23. But I don’t think God would call us to this mission and give us this dream without calling certain members of our congregation to lead or to participate in these ministries. Stephen Ministry won’t work without God lifting up and calling people to serve at Stephen Ministers. Christcare groups won’t work without God calling people to lead these small groups. And God doesn’t call us to do things without giving us the resources to achieve those visions and dreams. Its just sometimes we have to be creative in figuring where those resources are and we learned a wonderfully creative way this week to learn how God may be calling people to these ministries. Everyone please take out your weeklies and turn to the tear-off on the back page. I often hear people come to me questioning that they don’t know where God wants them to serve or what God wants them to be doing. Well, on this tear-off there is a place for you to mark if you think that God is calling you to be a Stephen Minister or to be a leader of a Christcare group. We’ll soon be starting the training for each of these ministries. So if you feel God calling you to one of these ministries or if you have a great idea for a small group you could lead, go ahead and mark it there. But here’s the creative part – the burning bush or light from heaven if you will…if you think that God may be calling someone else in the congregation to one of these ministries, please put their names down as well. Everyone try to put at least one person’s name who you think has gifts to do these ministries. In both cases, just because you mark your name or your name is marked down by someone else, it doesn’t mean that you will automatically become a Stephen Minister or Christcare leader. There’s actually an application and interview process and training to be sure that God is calling you to this ministry. But this activity will give the staff and you some direction in who God is calling to lead and participate in these ministries. When the Holy Spirit taps you on the shoulder, you should probably listen. Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, Paul – we wouldn’t know who any of these folks were if they ignored the call from God. God may be calling you to this ministry. You may never get your name in the Bible, but by following God’s call, by caring for others in formal or informal ways, by allowing yourself to be cared for, by helping to fulfill God’s dream, you sure can change people’s lives. Amen.
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