July 14th, 2022

GREETINGS TO THE HOLY PEOPLE OF GOD,

National Night Out, the first Tuesday in August is fast approaching.  I wonder how God will work through us as we host this event and I hope that you will attend. I would like our neighbors to meet you, the people of Christ the King Lutheran Church who have claimed this corner on Melrose and Mormon Trek.  You are beautiful children of God created in the image of God and shine a radiant light in this world.  I give thanks to God for the gift of this community. 

We continue to work toward a message for our neighbors to be placed on a popcorn holder/megaphone.  Thank you for your responses and concentrated effort infused with prayer.  It is a good exercise for us to do as we think about what we want to accomplish in hosting this event and God working with us in these efforts.  I continue to pray and wonder if the megaphone/popcorn holder is a good idea.  It may be that hosting the event is enough.  This is a community exercise of faith.  Will God show up and what will God teach us through our neighbors? 

God knows how to work with raw material – curbing and directing our proclamation.

In your responses I see your desire to reach out with God’s good news in Jesus Christ. Messaging in simple words is difficult because we have so much to tell and it is a complicated message with many assumptions especially for those of us who know it well. 

We are more than a social service agency.  Called by Christ, we want to help our neighbor but many times we do not know how to help our neighbor in a meaningful way that ultimately helps them to meet Jesus. We turn to the Holy Spirit to breathe the message into us for this time and space.  Here is the raw material that we are working with in this creative process.

· We’d like to get to know you! Is there anything we can help you with? 

· Here to Help

· A Safe Place

· You are welcome to pop in any time, dear neighbor.

This probably says more than what we are willing to do.  The psalmist reminds us that our help comes from the Lord, and we know that God’s help comes through Jesus’ suffering, death, resurrection and not necessarily a quick fix of “help” as our culture understands help.  God took a great deal of time and effort to cultivate a relationship with a people that eventually opened to all people.  We know that living in family relationships and the community of faith does not guarantee safety.  Many wonderful relationships are formed and beautiful fruit is produced and we still miss the mark, sinning against God and one another.  Our relationships are not free of sin, even within the church.

· Pop…pop… pop… pop on into worship!

· We R like popcorn, we need you to season us.

· We will not pass you by.

· We like popcorn need you to season us

· Come & Share God’s love.

· Come and worship with us.

· JOY = Jesus, Others, You.

· Pop in and worship with us!

· Come & Share God’s Love.

· Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you?

These are very invitational with the assumption that the neighbor knows Jesus and wants to worship God.  These ideas express our desire to gain something of value from our neighbor.  Our neighbors have something to teach us.

· You are precious in God’s sight and ours.  Christ the King Members

· God bless our neighbors.

· “Good Exercise for the Heart:  Reach out and help your neighbor.” Mark Twain

· Loving our neighbors asks us to know our neighbor.

· People of Christ the King – Partnering with Police, Firefighters and you, our neighbors.

 · We are dedicated to serving Jesus Christ and introducing you to him.

· Join us in the Journey

A few years ago, when we visited our neighbors, like the businesses, schools, and assisted living residences the word that opened our conversations was, partner.  Our neighbors were suspicious of us, curious of our intentions and what we wanted and why we were visiting.  When we clearly said that we wanted to partner with them and not necessarily do something for them there was an exchange, an energy of peace.  We wanted to get to know our neighbor. 

Evangelism, sharing the good news of God in Christ Jesus is that paradox of simple and complicated. It takes time and we believe that God shows up and works through us.  God is faithful.  Thank you for your creative efforts in getting the ball rolling.  Like our VBS theme, On the Case!, we too will keep searching, investigating and discovering. So keep praying, keep listening and talk to each other.  What simple unified message would we like to share with our neighbor?

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

July 7th, 2022

GREETINGS TO THE HOLY PEOPLE OF GOD,

Independence Day, the 4th of July commemorates the passage of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.  The national holiday is over but I’m still thinking about it and hearing about it in the news.  I am thankful that the reason that Coralville’s parade was canceled was because of rain, thunder, and lighting.  Not because of protests at a city hall and the police station as Akron, Ohio experienced.  Our parade disbanded due to a storm, not because of the thunder and striking of bullets from a rooftop on parade attendees as Highland Park, IL experienced.

David L. Waldstreicher in his article in Britannica.com writes that the celebration was modeled on that of a king’s birthday which had been marked by bell ringing, bonfires, solemn procession and persuasive public speaking.  But in many towns the first days of independence during the summer of 1776 took the form of a mock funeral for the king, whose “death” symbolized the end of monarchy and tyranny and the rebirth of liberty. Later as political parties developed so did separate celebrations and political proclamations seizing the day to declare independence of a different sort like abolitionists, women’s rights advocates and temperance movement.  This day remains a potent symbol of national power and American freedom.

In the aftermath of this 4th of July, there has been much political and persuasive speech and there will be real funerals.  What will our witness be?  What will we do with the freedom we have?  How will we live faithfully in this time of change?  What is God up to and how are we working with God?  I hope you are thinking about this as well and talking with God and each other.

I think our presence is needed at these celebrations. A pie and root beer float stand, or popcorn stand with proceeds going to help someone in need or some organization.  I wish we could have a presence in the parade just like National Night Out.  On Tuesday, August 2 we will host the event that is meant to bring the public servants (police & fire departments) together with the neighborhood in a non-emergency environment.  This is the event we are hosting for our neighbors and our public servants. 

I’ve been asking you to pray, to listen for the Holy Spirit’s whisperings in our midst to come up with a short message that we want to send to our neighbors.  Here are the offerings:

· You are precious in God’s sight and ours.  Christ the King Members

· You are welcome to pop in any time,

dear neighbor.

· God bless our neighbors.

· Come and worship with us.

· JOY = Jesus, Others, You.

· Pop in and worship with us!

· Come & Share God’s Love.

· Here to Help.

· “Good Exercise for the Heart:  Reach out and help your neighbor.” Mark Twain

· Welcome Neighbor – loving our neighbors asks us to know our neighbor.

How are we going to show up and be a neighbor on this corner of the community? 

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

June 30th, 2022

GREETINGS TO THE HOLY PEOPLE OF GOD,

 How many different kinds of fatigue can you list?

Physical fatigue,

social fatigue,

compassion fatigue,

caution fatigue,

decision fatigue,

post-viral fatigue

There are so many ways to be tired!

But read our lesson from Galatians 6:1-16 for Sunday, July 3.  Paul encourages us, "let us not grow weary in doing what is right" (Galatians 6:9), as he encouraged the recipients of this letter. Fatigue is not a new concept and is a part of being human.  When we are fatigued, we share it in community and help each other carry the load.  We test our own work and each carry our load sharing with each other as we journey together telling God’s good news through Jesus.  We work toward the good of all and we eagerly wait for the harvest that will come.  Because we work with God and God is faithful and will produce more than we can imagine, in more ways than we can imagine.

In your fatigue, rest, share in community and trust God’s faithfulness to walk with us.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

June 23rd, 2022

GREETINGS TO THE HOLY PEOPLE OF GOD,

This Sunday we welcome Pastor John Meyer who will preach and lead our worship service.  Please extend a warm CTK welcome as I take a week off with my extended family in northern Minnesota at William’s Narrows on Little Cut Foot Sioux Lake.  If you see a visitor, please be sure to give them a CTK coffee mug with a brochure highlighting our ministries and a little bag of M&Ms. Mugs can be found on the usher’s table.  Let’s all do our part to welcome our visitors.

I always look forward to this week of vacation time with my family.  This year on Sunday, we will celebrate the 40th wedding anniversary of my sister and brother-in-law.  My other sister, the oldest, the social organizer of our bunch has asked us to share some memories of their wedding day and what we admire about their marriage.  Isn’t that a good idea?  I like the idea and know that when I put some thought into it and write something down, we will all be blessed with what we share. It will be good for the whole family. We know how important it is to hear the words and listen to other’s reflections.  It is rare that I tell this couple how important their witness is to me and how thankful I am for them but now I have the opportunity.

When I passed the email onto my children, the first response was “I wasn’t there at their wedding” which is true as I encouraged them to answer the second question.  I learned from my children that this attitude is often true of my own behavior.  I often need to explore the negative, the can’t, before I can get to the positive, the I can.  Maybe that is why I am not getting a boat load of ideas from you as to what you would like to share with our neighbors in the popcorn holder for National Night Out on August 2nd or you don’t know how to share them, or you are waiting on the Holy Spirit.

To stir your creative ideas, I’m going to put out some wipe boards and make an idea station for you to leave your ideas of what we might put on a popcorn holder to give to our neighbor.  What message do you want to share with them?  What good news of God made known to us in Jesus Christ do we want to communicate? 

Many of us have sour or negative attitudes about evangelism, about sharing God’s good news.  We know what we don’t want to sound like and sometimes we have to go there before we can get to what we do want to share.  Images of fire and brimstone or believe this or go to H-E-double toothpicks dance in our heads.  We don’t want to offend or cause discomfort.  We want to point to Jesus and God’s amazing love for us with simple and welcoming words.  So, let’s get to it and move beyond our awkwardness and shine the light of God’s love with our neighbors.  Remember we are a church on a hill, meant to be seen and to shine.

Last Sunday, I attended St. Peter’s Lutheran Church of Cape Cod in Harwich, MA.  Most of the Lutheran Churches that we saw were named St. Peter in the New England area because they are near the ocean and Peter was a fisherman by trade.  People of Christ the King, our name reflects on us.  St. Peter’s adds a worship service in the summer to welcome vacationers.  We were given a little gift when we were introduced at the end of the worship service.  A magnet with a picture of their stained-glass window, the Bible verse from Psalm 19:14, “Let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.” The name of their church and website.  This was their message to their visitors and guests.

What will our message be?  What message of good news do you want to share with our neighbors?  Let’s get popping, August 2 and National Night Out is coming right up!

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack

June 16th, 2022

GREETINGS PENTECOST PEOPLE, THANKS

 Are you praying?  Are you listening to the Holy Spirit?  At the Southeast Iowa Synod Assembly, we were given a green megaphone to boldly proclaim God’s good news in Jesus Christ.  We put words to the love that God has poured out upon us and made known to us in Jesus.  The megaphone can also be a popcorn holder where we can create our own megaphone/popcorn holder to hand out to our neighbors for National Night Out on the first Tuesday in August.  Let’s spend some time in prayer, listening to the Holy Spirit and let’s put some words on a megaphone.  What do we want to tell our neighbors as we invite them to join us for National Night Out?  Listen well, talk to each other and let’s see what gift we have to offer the community.

Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,

Pastor Connie Spitzack