Advent Lutheran Church - Mentor, OH

Will you consider joining a covenant journey with fellow members to grow in knowing Jesus and making Jesus Known?

To Know Christ and to Make Christ Known: This is our mission statement as a church committed to growing in this knowledge. I have been confronted by this mission through the reading of scripture and prayer and fasting, and a question has arisen: What if every thought, word, and deed of our lives was captive to this mission? What if we constantly asked ourselves: Is what I am saying, thinking, and doing, at this very moment, knowing Jesus Christ and making Him known? If the answer is no, then we would stop at that moment and pray to correct things.

I want to invite you to join me in a missional covenant at Advent where we can grow a deeper sacred rhythm in our daily lives. The seven aspects of this mission that I propose are biblically inspired measures of faith: daily prayer, weekly worship, daily/weekly study, being good stewards of our lives, growing relationships with our neighbor, faith active in love to the needy, and self/family care. Sign up in the narthex if you want a more intentional journey together with me in the weeks and months ahead. This is an open invitation to all who call Advent home. The Missional Covenant board is located on a bulletin board. Sign up for further information.

In Christ,
Pastor Kovitch
(October 2007)

Pastor's Reflections

End of the Church Year.   Advent about to begin.    The Season of Advent, the preparation for the coming.   The coming of the Christ, our Savior, Emmanuel, God with us; breaking in on our life, pointing toward the greatest gift of love ever imagined.   In the midst of a world so fragmented, so caught up in a life that seems to celebrate that brokenness that exists between it’s children, comes our God calling us to reconciliation with Him and each other.   It ’s a gift!   For us!   Paid for by the life, death, and Resurrection; the act of salvation given by Jesus, the Messiah.

Now, what do I do with it?   It is a time for resolutions, at least the forming of one or two.   Amidst the hub-bub of preparation for the Holidays (Holy Days?), it might be important that I/we be extravagant with our time and give ourselves a gift of just that – time.   Time with our God, that He might bring healing to us and to our world.    Time to reconcile with those estranged from us.    Time to enjoy the gift of life, given by God.    Time to risk stepping out in the faith that Christ calls us to.

Shalom!
Pastor Larry

P.S.   I write this at the beginning of Thanksgiving week.   So many things to be thankful for!   Pastor Joe is here – it’s been a year since his surgery — and we are blessed by his ministry and presence.   I am thankful for Advent and the opportunity to minister with you.   I am thankful for the gift that Lida (my wife) is to me.   And I am thankful to God for the life given to me.

P.P.S.   There is going to be somewhat of a change in what I’m doing around here.   I’m becoming Visitation Pastor at the first of the New Year, rather than Associate.   It is my request.   My focus will be just that – visiting home- bound, ill, hospitalized.   I’ll preach a little less – twice a month and festivals and vacation supply.   I’ll continue with Wednesday morning prayer service and Bible Study and I’ll work with Pastor Joe in some teaching, and with the Care Team and Outreach.   This will give me some more time with Lida on her days off.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Larry
(December 2007)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

In the world today, I struggle with angry and selfish religion.   Emergent questions begin to crop up when we are willing to ask tough questions of what it means to be the church in the 21st century.   Questions like - What does it mean to be biblical in a world of fundamentalist ideology as found in the three faiths of Abraham (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam)? And - What does it mean to be reformational Lutheran in a 21st century church that finds itself in an ever-changing denominational landscape?

Other questions - Are we willing to live in the questions through conversation and not be tempted to quick-pat answer for fear of encountering conflict and disagreement?   Are we capable of finding the gospel of Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the law; that is, does love and grace redeem sin and death?   I like the comment of a social justice pastor who once said, "I feed the hungry and am called a saint.   I ask why there is no food and I am called a communist."   Are we willing to ask tough questions?   When it comes to the Bible, we can find it to be either a weapon of justification for prejudice and condemnation or a gift of covenant relationship and redemptive hope.   Do we see Jesus as our lens of interpretation?   Sin is sin; this is most certainly true.    But we must take the time to build loving relationships with God, neighbor, and self first, free of judgment and full of humility.   Otherwise, we will never see the hope of healing and reconciliation.

Being Lutheran is confessional and reformational.   We are not bound to tradition, but bound to Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead.   To be a Lutheran Christian is to be driven by grace through faith, rooted in the cross which is God claiming all of humanity as redeemable.   It is the priesthood of all believers, not just "professional clergy folks."   Are we ready to ask the questions of what it means to be a Christian for the living of these days and explore faith for this generation?   Conversation and listening skills arise out of love for God and neighbor; without such love all we have left is threat, fear, and paranoia that leads to fundamentalism.   Extreme judgmental religion is not what Jesus teaches.

Let’s grow in a faith that leaves room for the Holy Spirit, for conversation and transformation.   We are a community of Jesus Christ founded upon love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control, are we not?   Then let us be strong and courageous and increase our own faith through a missional covenant that makes our living more intentional through weekly worship, daily prayer, Bible study, being strong stewards of what we have, building strong relationships, serving the poor and needy through faith active in love, and taking better care of self and family.   Take the time to walk more closely with Jesus by knowing Him and making him known...this is most certainly true.

Pastor Kovitch
(November 2007)