We Celebrate A Birthday
The Ambassadors met on Sunday and celebrated our pastor’s birthday. We honored his 87 years—about ten of them spent with us. He may be the only SEPA pastor unafraid of his association with us. This all the more permanent because it is not official.
The plotting against us has always involved making sure we had no professional leadership. It would be a bit harder for Synod Assembly to vote against a church if they were voting against a colleague and not a bunch of worthless lay people.
Called pastors had a way of disappearing after meeting with the synod, but we were always able to find leaders on our own.
The beautiful April weather accommodated us and made for a pleasant outing. We had breakfast at the Manayunk Diner.
A nondenominational church, Epic, meets in the movie theater next door, holding two services, while we are locked out of our church. The parking lot was filled with cars and most were attending the worship service, we presume, because the diner was busy but not crowded. One of our Ambassadors attended Epic once and reported that the congregation was quite young—a demographic which eludes most Lutheran congregations.
Redeemer was also a young congregation. The average age of our 72-82 members at the time of synod’s onslaught was probably in the 30s. (We continued to grow even after the synod’s first actions.) We had a few newborns, a healthy group of children and parents, some youth and only two or three members over 70.
Ministry opportunities in East Falls are great but Lutherans are squandering them as they seek their own enrichment—not mission or service to God.
We asked our pastor his favorite hymn. It is Angel voices ever singing round the throne of God. It is not often sung anymore, but we remembered it and were able to piece the words together well enough to sing it with him.
Praise God for our faithful pastor and thanks for his long and devoted life.
He has always been such a good model for all of us, especially for our children—a true man of God. We can count on him to care for our members in need while other Lutherans can do no more than make lame offers to pray.
We wish him many more years and continued good health.