Did You Know it's Pastor Appreciation Month?

October is Pastor Appreciation Month!
October is a great time to bless Pastor Grimenstein and family in gratitude for the many ways they bless Zion! 

“‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. Jeremiah 3:15 

Pastor’s Mailing Address:
Rev. Dr. Edward O. Grimenstein
3199 Washington Pike
Bridgevillle, PA 15017

Bulletin: Wednesday October 23, 2024

View the Bulletin for Wednesday, October 23, 2024
Worship Service: 2:00 p.m.
Bible Study: 2:30 p.m. — The Book of Hebrews
All are welcome, bring a friend, neighbor or relative

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What is Effective Outreach (Part one of a four-part series)

“What is ‘effective outreach’?” Someone asked me that question recently. It’s a good question. Some people might answer that question by pointing to results. If more people are attending worship, participating in Bible studies, or joining the congregation, what you’re doing for outreach must be effective, right? Maybe. But numbers don’t tell the story. In fact, in some cases the numbers look really good even when outreach is not very effective at all.

A congregation located in a high growth area might be bad at outreach but still experiencing increases in worship attendance and membership. Sometimes the pastor and some lay people are having a positive impact even though the congregation as a whole is doing a poor job of outreach. On the other hand, a congregation may be doing outreach very well with little to show for it in terms of numbers because the community is decreasing in population (imagine doing outreach in a town that has shuttered the plant of its major employer.) Numbers are not the measure of effective outreach. If not the numbers, then what is?

Effective outreach begins with a good understanding of what outreach is. I find that people often confuse outreach and witness. That’s understandable because they are closely related and share the same goal. But confusing them can undermine effective outreach. So, what’s the difference between witness and outreach? Witness is what we do as individual believers to share the Good News of Jesus with people in our everyday lives. Think of it as the work of the “Church scattered.”

Outreach, on the other hand, is what we do as a congregation to engage the non-churched people in our community. It is the collective effort of the congregation as an organization to make disciples. Outreach is the work of the “Church gathered.” 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 provides insights into effective outreach:

[5] What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. [6] I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. [7] So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. [8] He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. [9] For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

Practically speaking, outreach is focused on planting and watering through various activities, ministries, events, human care, etc. Outreach understands that when it comes to the growth (i.e., the numbers) “neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything.” The growth is the Holy Spirit’s concern. Through outreach, we plant, we water, and we prayerfully anticipate the growth. This means that “effective outreach” is outreach through which we are actively and intentionally planting and watering.

That raises some additional questions. So, here’s a fuller definition: Effective outreach is the “planting and watering” (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:5-9) through which a congregation intentionally engages nonchurched people in ways that:

• Provide the congregation with means of continuing contact with the non-churched people.

• Foster relationship-building between non-churched people and the congregation’s members.

• Offer appropriate, appealing entry points (other than worship and traditional Bible studies) that encourage non-churched people to participate in the Word & Sacrament ministry of the congregation.

There’s a lot to this definition. I’ll start unpacking it in the next article in this series in the November issue.

By Rev. Dr. Mark Wood, LCMS Managing Director

News from the Preschool

Meet Ditya. Ditya is 4 1/2 years old, and has been a Zion Lutheran Preschool student for 3 years, and is a student in Mrs. Peggy’s PreK Plus class. Her older brother Dhariya also attended Zion. Ditya and her family are Hindu, and their beliefs are clearly different than ours, as Lutherans, and from Christians overall. 

I love to visit the classrooms each day to see what the children are busy working on. Depending on the class, they could be coloring and learning their shapes, learning the upper case letters, or in Ditya’s case, practicing writing her name D-i-t-y-a . Since this is the PreK Plus class, the children are now learning both the upper and lower case letters. When I looked over Ditya’s shoulder, she could not wait to tell me that the “t” in her name was Jesus’ cross. “Look Mrs. Tracey, I made Jesus’ cross!” She probably said it three times with that huge smile on her face. I believe she was happier about the cross in her name, than actually writing her full name successfully! 

This made me think about the parable of the sower and seed. Our job as Christians and educators is to plant the seed (word of God) in the good soil, (our little students) so that it may grow and expand. Ditya told me that Jesus died on the cross, but that He is alive again. Yes! Seed planted! Our hope is that the planted seed will stay with Ditya and that she will come to know Jesus even more throughout her life. 

Blessings, 

Tracey 

VIDEO: Sunday October 20, 2024

View the bulletin for Sunday, October 20, 2024
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AUDIO: Announcements, Readings, Sermon & Adult Choir for Sunday October 20, 2024

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Od Testament Reading -- Ecclesiastes 5:10–20 
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep. 

There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind? Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger. 

Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. 

Epistle Reading -- Hebrews 4:1–13 
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, 

“As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest,’” 

although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this passage he said, 

“They shall not enter my rest.” 

Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, 

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.” 

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. 

The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark, the tenth chapter
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” 

Choir -- My Hope is Built on Nothing Less (8 am) 

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