Synod Assembly in 3s

Synod assembly is a gathering/meeting of lay people of the 74 churches in the La Crosse area synod to resolve business issues of the church that require clergy and lay input. It's an annual event, and this year Pastor Mark, Pastor Melinda, Bill Newburg, Susan Moss, and I (Rachel), represented you. We will be giving a briefing in worship on this in the coming weeks, and writing more in the Voice. You are, of course, welcome and encouraged to ask us any questions.

But, because my teaching pedagogy classes taught me to only offer three main points for maximum retention and effect, here's my 2012 assembly wrap-up in threes.

Three main ideas

• We are blessed to be part of a global church that is committed to Jesus Christ, to youth, and to social justice. We passed resolutions that support strengthening the youth and youth workers of our church, to reduce the number of people incarcerated, and to prevent and heal malaria. 
• We are called not just to read the calls for social justice and the promises of God's love--but to "put legs" on our faith and act on our convictions and follow our commands.
• We are so immensely loved by a God who created humans, then forgave them; He made promises and offered us rich gifts of life, and freedom, and we rejected them. He became fully human, we crucified Him, and God offered resurrection. We created a church that is imperfect at best, yet God inspires and guides us. And in all of this, we are promised a new creation and a new life that is yet to come.

Also, sincere gratitude to Pastor Len Liptack who helped me see this Biblical so clearly for the first time. Please talk to him or take his Bible 101 class at the synod for a more eloquent and thorough explanations, and apologies that my paraphrase is not nearly as powerful.

And three words:
God's Love: Immeasurable

Wishing you blessings on your week.