Thursday Memo

Hi Five Oakers,

There are several things I want to share with you today.

#1 – Get a recap of the service with highlights of our prayers, readings and songs here. 

#2 - Remember, Coffee House is on Friday, 7-9pm. Great fellowship, fun, food, beverages and live acoustic music. Here's this year's crazy Coffee House video.

#3 - Here's the Coffee House song from two years ago.

#4 - Here are the comments from the Communication Cards:

• Thank you for today’s message. The worship team was exceptional today!
• Pastor Henry, thanks for your passionate teaching on the Lord’s Supper – answered a ton of questions I had about “rules” of it at different churches. 
• Most freeing communion message ever.
• Pastor Henry, thank you for delivering such a sound message. PREACH IT! 
• Praise God for His church; this church. Keep trusting God, He, through you, is doing great things! 
• Awesome service! And worship. 
• ...This was a pivotal message for me. I have a desperate need for forgiveness; therefore I am worthy.
• That was very good! … it was such freedom when I understood communion the correct way. Thank you for explaining it by God’s word!
• Thankful today for my husbands birthday yesterday and having the opportunity to share another birthday with him!
• Kara, you rock – what a great clear voice for Hosanna. Great music this week.
• The worship set was so nice. Loved the vocals on Hosanna, great lead and harmony. Musical arrangements for all the songs were terrific. Tim, you are so relaxed, fun and thorough in doing announcements. You represent our church so well. Henry, you continued that. We are so blessed to have you guys! What a beautiful touching message. I learned so much from you. The Holy Spirit helps you/directs you in those messages. Thanks for submitting to the Spirit. Great close.
• WOW! A totally new way to look at celebrating communion – and the progression from Passover to Last Supper – an aha moment for me.
• I really missed upbeat music today and needed some. 
• Add paper recycling in the commons. 
• Thanks for AWESOME message and worship. Much needed for me.

#4 – Here’s the sermon in 10 tweets, Luke 22:7-23, “Savoring the Lord’s Supper”:

1. Communion is known by many names: the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist, the Mass. This was Jesus' 1st and last Communion.
2. The Lord’s Supper is more than an important ritual; it’s an opportunity for reflection.
3. The original Lord’s Supper took place during the Passover meal. It was a Passover meal.
4. The L.S. is the completion of the Passover. Christ's death on the cross is the completion of the entire sacrificial system.
5. It was God's plan all along. He designed Passover and sacrifices to point to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
6. Jesus’ ministry on earth was about our exodus from our captivity under sin’s power to freedom in Christ.
7. “Now I come here instead, and I finish the evening with the body of Christ on my tongue, and I wash it down with the blood of Christ.”
8. The Lord’s Supper represents redemption embodied in a meal for a meal with God.
9. Tim Chester: “It’s the real thing begun in a partial way.”
10. Campolo’s father: “Take it, girl! It was meant for you. Do you understand me?”

#5 - Here are some of the Impact activities our small groups, our staff team and some families did this last quarter:

• Prepared and serving breakfast at Dorothy Day.
• Holiday bake sale raised $3K for World Vision.
• Volunteered with the Salvation Army in Somerset, WI, to bag and distribute Christmas gifts.
• Gathered donations for Operation Christmas Child, rang bells for Salvation Army, supported one of their members for the Haiti team.
• Sponsored 11 kids for Christmas through the Friends in Need food shelf serving Cottage Grove, Newport and St. Paul Park.
• Adopted a couple of families through Friends In Need food shelf in St Paul Park.
• Assisted at the Families Helping Each Other Christmas Party and distribution of toys for Toys for Tots.
• Went to the Woodbury Retirement Center and did activities with the elderly.

I'm blessed by you, your love and your service. Pastor Henry

Weekend Message Q&A

Here are the questions I received from this weekend's message.

Q – I really appreciated your sermon on this topic this week! As a former Catholic, I often have felt we EFree folks forget how significant communion should be in our faith journey, even if we are just "remembering" and it isn't for salvation purposes (only Jesus saves, not something we do). How would you suggest we take this a step further to our time OUTSIDE of these church walls? Often times, I still think of communion as something I do at church. Clearly, in Jesus' day, it wasn't a church function only.....it was with your family, at your home, and together as well as corporate worship times. It is also more than symbolic ideals, as you shared, so it should be something more long-lasting in my thoughts and my faith journey. It shouldn't become a ritual I do every week, or once per month only at Church. How could we go further with this do you think?

A – I think you may have answered the question. The early church celebrated the Lord’s Supper as part of community meals. I know of some churches that celebrate it in their small groups. A church I visited a few weeks ago only celebrated it at a monthly meal of their church community until recently. I think we (that includes me) need to deepen our experience of this meal. And I think it has as much to do with our experience of anticipating Christ’s return and eagerly anticipating his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. But it also has to do with the depth of our community life as a church. I know I have a long way to do on this.

Q – Awesome message! When talking about one’s often twisted history of communion in the church, were you calling out [any particular kind of] church? I grew up for many years with the strict rules, regulations, and “being worthy enough” to receive communion. Please clarify. I certainly have lived through it. 

A – I wasn’t calling out any particular church denomination. In fact, I had churches like the ones in our own particular tradition in mind. Damaging religiosity is everywhere, in every church tradition.

Q – I just wanted to make a slight note to you about a part of your message today that I found very confusing. It was towards the later part of the message when you were talking about the verse in 1 Cor about not taking communion in an "unworthy manner".

I felt like you were very passionate about it but I had a hard time following what you were trying to say. [My husband] made the comment that might be assuming people understood the traditional or "high church" interpretation of that passage. I felt like you laid out very well why you disagreed with that interpretation, but I didn't understand what you were necessarily disagreeing with….

Maybe I wasn't following along as well as I could have been, but it would have been very helpful if you could have given a quick "This is what churches have mistakenly taught about this passage" and "This is what I believe scripture actually saying" then laid out the reasons why.

A – I’m guessing you were not alone. I could have been much clearer. I should have focused in more on that point. I tried to take on way too much with too little time.

My basic point is that churches too often put unnecessary barriers to people at Communion. And I’m not even talking about requiring membership in their church. I'm talking about the idea I’ve heard throughout my life that if you have any “sin in your life” or if you have relational conflict with anyone you should pass on Communion. I can’t find that teaching in the Bible, and my concern is that when people hear things like this they begin to put up even more personal barriers to taking Communion. And then, when they take it, I’m afraid they’ve become arrogant enough to believe they no longer have “sin in their life” or they are relationally whole. Everyone who takes Communion is unworthy apart from Christ, and we can’t add anything to what Christ has done.

What complicates it is that people misinterpret the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 11 by ignoring the context of those words (i.e., the problem he clearly describes and he is addressing). The problem was that the rich people were going ahead and eating before the poorer folks arrived. The poorer folks would go hungry. And some of the rich folks would even drink too much. So all of Paul’s words have to do with this particular relational injustice and sin, not whether or not the Corinthians had unconfessed sin or relational conflicts in their lives.

Q – Why didn’t Pharaoh die during the 10^th plague? Wouldn’t he have been the firstborn?

A – I can only assume he was not the firstborn. Maybe he had an older brother who had died.