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Evangelists Can Learn from Marketers

Have you noticed that the business world has adopted words commonly used in the religious world? Companies once hired spokespeople. Now the job title is “evangelist” (for example, Guy Kawasaki, former evangelist for Apple).

The business world also talks about a successful sale as a “conversion.”

Church evangelists can learn a great deal from modern marketing. Marketing and evangelism share many of the same goals. They can also share the same strategies.

The hottest trend in marketing goes by several names: Inbound Marketing, Relationship Marketing and Content Marketing are just a few. These three emphases fit beautifully into any church’s evangelism program.

INBOUND MARKETING

In a nutshell, Inbound Marketers make lots of helpful information available to everyone for FREE, using blogs and websites, coupled with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn networking tools. While sharing their expertise, they gain authority. When people are ready to buy, they think of the people who were so helpful to them on the web. This marketing technique is tailor-made for Church Evangelists. Help people and they will come to you.

This marketing specialty grew from the modern challenge salespeople faced. As a people, we once were amenable to the knock on the door, the cold call, or chatting it up with visiting sales reps in the company cafeteria. Today we are security conscience. We ban solicitation, check Caller ID before answering the phone, and we do not allow anyone to enter our work space without passing security.

Marketers looked for new ways to get their message/product before potential customers. They used modern tools and technology to attract interest. It is a breath of fresh air for the business world. They no longer feel like nags. They refer to the old days (just a few years ago) as the days of “Interruption Marketing.” They are glad they are no longer distracting irritants. They know that the people they talk to are already interested in their message.

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

Companies don’t want to work harder than they have to. Finding new customers is more work than keeping old ones. Businesses look for ways to stay in contact with their customers and continue to serve them long after the initial transaction. This can begin on the web. Some of it will rely on other strategies which we will discuss in later posts. Churches must learn from relationship marketers. It will help them be better Christian witnesses.

CONTENT MARKETING

Content Marketing is related to both Inbound Marketing and Relationship Marketing. Content is the helpful information you provide for FREE that attracts people to your message or product. Churches of any size can do this. It is a redirection of energy, but it is a potentially powerful evangelism tool. Provide helpful advice, meaningful thoughts, valuable information, and show that you care. People will notice and begin to build a relationship with you.

Churches must consider implementing these outreach techniques. It requires work and retooling ministry concepts, but these new methods can be very effective. It is not enough for congregations to be witnesses for Christ. They must be effective witnesses for Christ. That means looking for strategies that will make a difference in people’s lives and in the life of your congregation.

The above chart reveals 2×2’s web site’s pattern of growth. This is a project of a very small congregation. We began using Inbound Marketing techniques in February when we launched this blog. We took a few months to learn the ropes. In mid-summer we began following best marketing practices. We slowly started adding content more regularly (now daily). We monitored the statistics. Weekly, we saw interest growing. Today we expect to welcome our 1000th site visitor (almost all within the last four months!). We are averaging close to 30 new visitors every day. We’re not sure where we are going, but we are following a plan that seems to be appreciated. Thanks to all readers. We encourage you to start your own web ministry. We’ll be glad to help.

06 Nov 2011

Key Words Help Readers Find Your Posts

Key Words are the words people type into search engines when looking for articles on topics which interest them.

Blogging platforms give you a chance to list some key words before you post. Writers should also use identifying key words in their headlines and within their article.

Search engines analyze everything going on everywhere on the web and present lists of what they find relating to those words. Key Words introduce writer and reader.

People wanting to know how to bake bread will type “how to bake bread” into their search engine. Often the science of key words is just that simple.

The problem is that there are probably thousands of people worldwide writing about baking bread. All of them want search engines to notice their web site first. The trick, therefore, is to find the words which make your article stand out.

There are people who will help you with this for a fee. They will run a “key word search” and give you a list of how many people looked for “how to bake bread” as opposed to “baking bread” or “bread recipes.” Often, the results are unimpressive because they are obvious. Yep, your key words are “how to bake bread.”

Key words were once critical. Search engines concentrated on them. Today search formulas measure other things — like incoming and outgoing links. But don’t worry about all of this. There are strategies you can use that will work without stressing about search engine algorithms. Here are a few:

Use the words that are obviously important to your story in the headline and also in the first paragraph or two.
Craft your headline using popular formulas. (We’ll have a separate post about this). For now, we’ll share that headlines with numbers draw readers (7 Secrets for Baking the Perfect Loaf of Bread). Also headlines with “How to” are effective (How to Bake the Perfect Loaf of Bread).
Use common sense. Write for your readers — not the search engines. For a while some bloggers repeated the “key words” so often that their writing became dull and search engines caught on and adjusted their strategies.
Use photographs or video (both of which attract attention) and make sure that you use the key words in the description and alternate text boxes which present themselves when you load the picture.
Be authentic. Don’t use words that are popular but have nothing to do with your story. This trick has been used unscrupulously to lure people into finding their web site. It is dishonest. Search engines watch for this. It is one reason they changed their search tactics to measure more than key words. (When we posted this article, WordPress suggested we use “baking bread” as key words, but this article is not about baking bread!)
Write about things people want to read about. People will find you faster than you may think!

Our experience: About three weeks ago, 2×2 started this series of articles on Social Media Ministry. If you are reading this, you found us! So have 600 others. When we plugged the words “social media ministry” into a popular search engine last week, 2×2 ranked #1. We paid for no analytics. We just used the strategies listed above.

A word of warning to churches: Your key words should be what the people you want to reach are looking for. Use key words that describe your ministry, not just the name of your church. If the name of your church is Trinity, that word will not work as a key word. It has too many meanings and there are many churches named Trinity. Also, you will miss out on traffic that is looking for topics and not just your church. (Trinity Smithtown Feeds Homeless, Trinity Smithtown Youth Walk for MS, Day Care in Smithtown, might be more effective.) You can pay to have someone figure this out, but just get started. Keep your current audience — and most important — your target audience in mind. You’ll do just fine.

05 Nov 2011

How to Prepare Content for Your Church Social Media Blog

How long should your blog posts be?

Social Media experts have differing ideas on this. Most say that content posts should be short and recommend 250 to 500 words.

This is good advice for many topics. How-to Articles tend to be longer since detailed directions are what your audience is seeking.

The correct answer may be that it depends on what you have to say and the urgency of your need to say it. Do your readers need to know everything now or can you spoon-feed information over a few days without frustrating them?

The best yardstick is to ask yourself, “If I were looking for information about this topic, would I appreciate the content (whether it be 250 or 1000 words)?

2×2 posts tend to be about 800 words on average — too long according to the experts. We violated the rule because we wanted to post thorough content that would be helpful to our audience quickly. This approach has been successful. Our audience has grown steadily.

Nevertheless, as we move forward, we will begin to keep a closer eye on the length of our posts. Here are some ways bloggers can divide content into shorter, more palatable doses.

Journalist’s Formula

Long topics can be divided using the standard journalistic formula. WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY and HOW. One post could then become a six-part series.

Chronological Approach

Other topics might lend themselves to chronolgical subdivision. Detail topics in formative steps. We used this approach in our Social Media Ministry Series, starting with the concept of Social Media Ministry and forming a committee. Later posts covered the work of the committee, etc.

Geographic or Cultural Focus

Some topics might lend themselves to geographic or cultural subdivisions. Many of our topics address small churches in general. We could talk about small urban churches or small rural churches. We might contrast Southern churches with New England churches.

If your posts are longer, look for ways to break up your words or copy so that there are focal points that lead you through the post.

Studies show that web readers scan a page in the shape of the letter F. They read across the top, then skip down. They hit the next topic sentence, and read across and continue down the left side of the page, occasionally drifting to the right as things attract interest.

Tools for breaking up text

There are several tools built into blogging software that you can use to lead your readers’ eyes.

Headlines
Subheads
Bulleted Lists
Numbered Lists
Photos or Art (with or without captions)
Quote Callouts
Boldface/Italic Text
Indented Text
Use of color

Pay attention to your own habits as you read web sites and blog posts to understand how others read your pages.

Thus ends this post of 458 words!

04 Nov 2011

Multicultural Ministry Requires Congregational Confidence

Congregations are not wrong to approach a multicultural outreach program with hesitance. It is honest and human. Humans make good Christians!

Multicultural Ministry means things will change. Change opens the doors to the unknown and that can be unsettling.

Any new ministry initiative must start with the people you have. If they feel loved and respected, they will be equipped to welcome and serve new people. If they feel criticized and worthless, they will become resentful and protective. Your congregation will not have an atmosphere that invites anyone — much less those of other cultures.

Begin your Multicultural Ministry by affirming your congregation. Make sure they are confident and have self-esteem. The one thing every member wants to know (without asking) is that they will still fit in when their congregation begins to change. They want to know that in building a ministry around new people they are not valued less. We all want to be loved for who we are — not what someone else thinks we should be. A confident congregation — no matter how small — can grow.

Approach change as additive. You are adding new people, new music, new traditions. You are not replacing or criticizing the people who have worked and sacrificed for your congregation for decades. Your members should not have to change the things that are very special to them. They can sing the same hymns, have similar observances. New hymns and customs should be added to the old. Visitors don’t expect a church to drop everything and do things their way. They will notice that your congregation respects your elders and traditions. In fact, most foreign cultures respect this more than we do!

Take it easy. This is probably the most difficult concept for leadership to grasp. Leadership tends to be eager for quick transformation. Leaders have incentive to look for success in statistics. They have at stake their professional career image and desire for personal achievement. Congregations, on the other hand, have their entire social order at stake. They have their history, their family relationships and friendships, their way of life/culture and traditions. This must not be run over roughshod. It will destroy Christian community. Measurable successes will be fleeting.

Don’t put a timetable on change. Your congregation will know when to mothball old customs. It doesn’t have to be forced.

Celebrate your people. Members need to know that they are “chosen” for this ministry because they are a good community with ministry skills. Stress the qualities that make your congregation welcoming to other cultures. Build on them.

Are your people naturally welcoming? Let them know that this skill is now more important than ever.
Have your people travelled? Are they knowledgeable about some other culture? Give them a leadership role. Have them talk about their experiences in other countries.
Does your church have families that can mentor new families? Multicultural Ministry may mean that you will be inviting immigrant families or families new to your neighborhood. Prepare your families to show them the ropes. Let them know this is valuable service to their church. Train them. Help them find ways to connect with newcomers.
Holidays can be a particular challenge to immigrants. Try explaining Halloween to someone who has never experienced it! Yet children will be expected to take part in Halloween fun at school. Your church families can advise parents, answer questions, or even help them put a costume together. Similarly Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are ingrained in our society. They can be puzzling to newcomers.
Are there people with special skills in your congregation that could be helpful to newcomers? Members with experience in real estate, banking, business and legal issues could be helpful in reaching out to people looking for housing, financing, jobs and citizenship. Their special skills can play a big role in Multicultural Outreach.
Do you have members who can help teach English?

When your current members know that they are important to your congregation’s new ministry, change becomes exciting. The threat is gone.

In later posts, we’ll give you real examples of how some of these points played out in our multicultural ministry.

03 Nov 2011

Exploring Multicultural Ministry

“Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every nation.”

Multiculturalism is a mandate of Christianity.

Many church consultants have postulated that if the Church is to grow it must become multicultural.

This is indeed desirable but difficult for parishes to undertake. There are many things standing in the way of congregations entering into intentional multicultural ministry.

People looking for a church home tend to be attracted to groups that are like them.
People inviting tend to relate most easily to people who are like them.
Leadership is often uncomfortable with spearheading multicultural programs. It is outside their training.
Resources for developing multicultural ministry are few and developing resources for such a broad topic is difficult.

2×2 grew from Redeemer Lutheran Church which had a thriving multicultural ministry. It did not grow from any master plan skillfully implemented by strong, well-trained leadership.

In Redeemer’s experience, multicultural ministry grew from accepting who we were and adapting as the neighborhood changed. Slowly, year by year, member by member, the faces in our congregation changed, our worship changed, and our fellowship changed. Within a decade, our small congregation with century-old ethnic roots in German and Scottish-English traditions had become predominantly East African with members from many countries and speaking many languages. This was managed without major upheaval from within the congregation. We are, however, experiencing difficulty with our denomination, who viewed the changes as one group dying — giving them rights (in their view) to move in and control assets and reassign new members to another location.

Multicultural ministry can be very tough for the whole church to accept.

While we have experience in multicultural ministry, we cannot claim expertise. Surely, there are other congregations with as much or more experience than ours, although they are not easy to find. Redeemer has visited 33 congregations in our synod. We have encountered only two or three that concentrate on multicultural ministry. Among them, one or two are diverse without being noticeably multicultural. In fact, defining multicultural might be a helpful exercise.

Many years ago, in a discussion of an upcoming mixed-race marriage, someone among the gossipers commented, “Hey, when you come right down to it, aren’t ALL marriages mixed? Isn’t that what marriage is all about?”

That’s a good starting point. Take a close look at the cultures that are already present within your congregation. You might be more diverse than you think!

Please share your experiences as we share ours in a series of posts. Perhaps together we can encourage multicultural outreach. We invite posts from anyone with thoughts to share on multicultural ministry.

Despite the fact that this is an original mandate of Christianity, we need to break new ground.

Send us a comment and we will get back to you.

02 Nov 2011

Blogging with Parishwide Mission Outreach in Mind

Your blog is up and running and you have ideas for content. Great! That was a big first step.

Now it’s time to start looking outside your committee. Make your blog a parishwide outreach adventure.

One approach is to look at the mission of your church and how the various committees of your church reflect that mission. Present issues important to them, but with a twist. Always find a way to address topics on your members’ minds from the viewpoint of non-members. Think about the hundreds of people you can reach — not the people who are already on board.

Begin by looking outside the Social Media Ministry Committee. What are their challenges and concerns of other church committees? Overlook no one.

Keep in mind that your committee has probably been working at this for a while and are now accustomed to the concept. It is likely to be alien territory to others. All can play a role in your congregation’s Social Media outreach, but your committee must lead and teach.

Be forewarned. This effort is probably going to involve talking to members one on one. Meet with committees to explain the concept. Give it time to sink in. It’s new. They will need help in finding ways to follow through. Hold their hands!

Here are some ideas to share which illustrate the thinking that goes into a blog.

Property Committees might be concerned with making the church grounds handicapped accessible and may have freshly studied this topic. Run some articles on what any organization should consider when planning for assessibility. (2×2 ran a post on accessibility beginning with proximity.) You can use your experience for examples of both challenges and solutions. If you have disabled members videotape them talking about their challenges. Remember your content should benefit other people. Another property issue might be “going green” or saving money on utilities. Address the issues in a way nonmembers would read.

A Fellowship or Hospitality Committee might have advice to give on how to welcome visitors, encourage future participation and learn to invite. (Here’s a 2×2 example). Many organizations face the same challenges. Write for them. Other topics for potential fellowship outreach might include comforting the grieving, welcoming people who speak different languages, or bonding groups of youth from different schools and parts of town.

Education Committees should have no end of material. Parents are always looking for ways to teach their children. Teens are always looking for projects and ways to contribute. Adults are life-long seekers. They can use experiences as illustrations or anecdotes, but look outward.

Finance and Stewardship Committee will want to explain the “anatomy of a modern church budget” and explore giving. Do not write about your congregation’s problems. Focus on the challenges faced by all organizations like yours.

Social Outreach Committees can publicize the needs of the community at various times of the year and suggest answers. It might include housing the homeless in winter, stocking food pantries, helping the jobless, advising those in broken relationships, helping the grieving. Interview the people who work with these problems. This committee can play a pivotal role in building your congregation’s neighborhood network. Prominent newsworthy issues are also worthy of comment. Videotape members on their personal responses to disasters like Katrina, earthquakes or tsunamis.

Worship Committees can talk about the celebrations of the seasons and present histories of traditions and suggest ideas for modern celebration. What makes a handbell choir fun? How do you get boys to sing? Is prayer good for your health? (2×2 example).

Include youth in your blogging project. This is an area where they can shine. Social media is in their blood. They can write and video and teach the adults a thing or two!

Do not talk about your problems or challenges. Your goal is to attract new people to your church. The first thing they want to see is not your stewardship goals or your plea for more choir members. Focus on the other guy.

Invite members of other committees to write for the church blog, but make sure they understand the outreach goal. Go over topic ideas with them, so they understand viewpoint. Remember, this is a new way of thinking. You will have to work with them for a while.

Videos are great additions to blogs. Keep a camera on hand and use it. One blogger, who writes about her community, carries a small video camera with her and invites people she meets to comment on something of current interest in her town. If she visits a carnival, she may grab parents waiting for a child to get off a ride and ask for their impressions on the local fair. If there is a convention going on, she’ll find an attendee to talk about the town. A church could video a supply pastor about what he/she sees from church to church. An interview with a returning member could talk about how things have changed. You’ll soon find plenty of ideas.

Just remember. Focus on the people who are not in church. What might interest them?

01 Nov 2011

Budgeting for Social Media Ministry

Social Media Ministry can be run on a shoestring, but if you want to develop your ministry faster you may want to allow some money to give you some options. Here are some costs you can anticipate.

Hosting and registration of a domain name (web address): $25
This is the only cost on this list that is absolutely necessary.
Purchase of a theme: $50 (Themes are templates designed to look good, add functionality and make blogging easy and accessible to anyone. There are many FREE themes available.)
Purchase of a digital camera: $100
Purchase of a video camera: $250
An allowance for occasional guest bloggers: $50 per post ($100 per month ought to be enough). If you build good relationships, many will offer to contribute freely. Barter! It works! Be sure to give proper credit and a link.
You might want to allow $500-1000 per year for some design and programming expertise. A designer could make sure you have an attractive header and give you some guidance on the use of colors and fonts. A programmer can help you over some of the interactivity hurdles as you get more sophisticated with your Social Media Outreach.
It is helpful to allow a small budget for the purchase of stock photography which is proven to increase readership. Istock.com is a good source and very inexpensive. You buy bundles of points which cost about $1.50 per point. Many photos (the size you need for the web) cost just one point. $20 per month is ample. (You can take your own photos!)

Adding all of these items together, a starting annual budget of $3000 is more than adequate. You can get started for much less!

2×2 started this site in February 2011 for $25. We’ve purchased about $10 worth of stock photography. We purchased two guidebooks for about $25 each. We use cameras our members already own. That is our total investment so far — eight months later.

Training

You can pay for training and how-to books, but there is abundant help available for free on the web. This is a reliable avenue. Information can become outdated faster than books can be published.

There is some comfort in having a book nearby. Teach Yourself Visually WordPress gave us a jumpstart. It’s step-by-step illustrated approach is very helpful. WordPress for Dummies is the other book we have on hand. We found an ancient guide to html that is useful, but lately we’ve just googled what we want to know and found answers easily. Cut and paste the code and eliminate typos!

Don’t let this talk about code scare you. Most code is built into the blogging platform and you won’t need to know any code. There are times when it is helpful, but it is not necessary.

Online webinars are very helpful. We’ve referred you to socialmediaexaminer.com and hubspot.com before. They are great places to start learning Social Media. Both provide much information for free. SocialMediaExaminer runs quarterly webinar series which cost between $200-$400. Hours of trainings are available for a full calendar year. An online community grows around these trainings which is very helpful. Hubspot sells analytical software but makes TONS of information available for free. Visit their site and look for ebooks and recorded webinars. Both sites will point you to other good resources as well. They practice what they preach and are models for what you will be trying to do with your web site!

Hiring a Social Media Manager

As your Social Media Ministry takes off, you may want to hire a Social Media Manager, but don’t worry about that to start. A manager would help maintain the editorial calendar, see that blog posts were written and coordinated with Facebook and Twitter, analyze your Social Media’s performance, and (with your committee) strategize to maximize your site’s success. This is a strength of Social Media Ministry. You can measure results, and what you can measure, you can improve.

A Social Media Ministry Manager is foreign to most church budgets, but the addition of these skills to your leadership team could mean as much to a congregation’s ministry as an organist, choir director, youth minister or other church professional. Aim for it! (But don’t wait until you can afford it to get started!) This is a topic which deserves its own post. Watch for it!

Using Analytics

Another potential budget consideration is to subscribe to a metrics program, which will give you real time reports on the effectiveness of your site. (It is interesting that people in this field talk about web sites leading to conversion. While they mean purchases of services/products, churches have used this language for decades.)

Using the internet makes it possible to analyze the effectiveness of your ministry and lead you toward measurable ministry solutions. No more sitting around at committee meetings and guessing what might work. You’ll have answers.

2×2 is looking into this now! We’ll share our experience in later posts.

31 Oct 2011

SEPA Lutherans Should Advocate for a Sunshine Law

Take some time to read SEPA Synod Council minutes.

http://www.ministrylink.org/synod-council/ (bottom of the page)

Recent minutes of Synod Council meetings — gatherings of SEPA congregations’ elected representatives — are lean, riddled with executive sessions and confidential discussions with vague summaries such as — synod is entering a time when “it would be doing things differently but with less.”

This is the only information reported from what appears to have been a lengthy discussion on Synod finances. The minutes announce the beginning of this discussion, stating only that it was “open and confidential” — a strange term. Why are SEPA financial discussions confidential? Congregations are expected to pay the freight for any financial challenges and will be directly affected by any new way of doing things. Not only do they have a right to know about things their elected representatives are deciding but they surely have insight into any debate on how THEIR resources are being used. Why secrecy? If there are challenges, let’s face them together head on!

Secrecy, coupled with SEPA history, can leave congregations guessing that the private discussions might be about individual congregational “viability” and which congregations might be ripe for the picking. If past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior, there is reason for concern. Such conjecture may be unfounded, but unless we know more, it is responsible to wonder.

There is more troubling obscurity. In years past, the elected representatives of the church (Synod Council) had contact information listed online. Now there is a list of names, home congregations and term expiration year, making it difficult for congregations to turn to their elected representatives — especially lay representatives which outnumber clergy. Clergy contact information is included in the published roster. While inconvenient, it can be looked up, one by one. Lay representatives pose more of a challenge. If lay representatives are not willing to share their contact information, they should decline to serve. If privacy is a concern, a dedicated email address could be supplied by synod, which can be automatically forwarded to a private email. There should be a way to contact the people who represent the congregations.

If the dates and locations of Synod Council meetings are listed, they are difficult to find.

SEPA Synod Council is acting as if they exist in a vacuum, forming and endorsing church policy hand in hand with the bishop’s office but with neither relating to the people they represent. It is easy for representatives to form a bias for the people they interact with when they have no contact with the people they all serve.

SEPA congregations should go to their next Synod Assembly in May 2012 and demand more transparency from their leaders. If congregations are asked to vote for a budget which relies on one, two, or three of them closing to pay for the budget, they need to know that when they are voting. If they are to expect less from their leaders because of budget shortfalls, they need to know that too.

When are SEPA congregations to learn the outcome of their leaders’ discussions — on the very day a few of them travel to Franconia to vote? Dialogue must begin NOW!

SEPA needs a “Sunshine Law” so its congregations — the people who fund the Synod — know how their futures will be affected by policies discussed in “open and confidential” sessions.

The Lutheran Church is proud of its heritage and its interdependent structure which exists in contrast to hierarchical denominations. Interdependence relies on communication and cooperation.

It is time we begin practicing our interdependence and work together.

30 Oct 2011

Ambassadors Visit Augustus, Trappe

Redeemer’s Ambassadors planned a special Reformation outing today. We visited Augustus Lutheran Church, Trappe, another church in our region with family ties. The Fry family, descendants of the President of the predecessor body of the ELCA, is from this church and are closely related to several Redeemer members.

The church is also known for its ties to the Muhlenberg family, who played a huge role in the nurturing of the Lutheran Church in colonial and revolutionary times and into the 19th century.

The service was the best attended service we encountered, somewhere around 180, including more than 40 children, who were in worship for the first few minutes, sang “This Is the Day,” listened to a short children’s sermon and disappeared. It was moving to see so many children in church because children have been rare in our visits, with most churches having just a few and often none at all.

The choir sang a familiar anthem and as last week, included at least 15 voices. The service was quite traditional with assistants robed in cassock and cotta, something not often seen.

We were moved by the minister’s sermon. Rev. Warren Weleck spoke of the ongoing challenges faced by the church throughout the centuries and the many attempts of authorities to destroy the Lutheran Church — from the pope to Prussian princes to Nazi Germany. Still, he noted, it survives.

Redeemer knows something of the tactics he mentioned although the destruction we see is from within. That’s what Luther saw, too. We’ve seen our professional leaders intimidated to follow policies against their stated convictions. Our faithful members have been evicted from our property and banned from representation among fellow Lutherans — effectively excommunicated. Lock them out and shut them up is nothing new! We’ve seen denominational leaders hide behind First Amendment Separation of Church and State as they take one destructive action after another. While claiming immunity from the law, they use the full force of the courts to attack lay leaders. Yes, the Reformation Sermon was very meaningful to us!

It is true. The church must be ever vigilant and, like Martin Luther, we must speak up when we see wrong-doing. While Martin Luther’s leadership spurred reform, eventually a lot of the reform happened from within. That’s the Lutheran heritage — which to truly honor we must practice.

After church, we stopped by Ursinus’s Berman Museum of Art and took in the nice exhibit of Muhlenberg artifacts (open till December 10). Muhlenberg spent a good bit of his ministry as a negotiator of peace within the church. Another history lesson for today’s Lutherans.

It was a good Reformation Day for Redeemer!

Redeemer Letter to Augustus Members (our 95 Theses)

Timeline

30 Oct 2011

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