St. Nicholaus Day (Dec 6) found me in several places in our synod. I began preaching at my family’s home congregation Trinity, Fort Worth. This was a scheduled stop to give my spouse a weekend off during this busy time and also it had been over 2 years since I paid a visit. Grateful for the team of leaders there who have moved them online and provided community even when physically apart.
I then drove north to Briarwood Leadership Center to get mail and record a Christmas sermon from the chapel. This is a sermon based on Christmas Lectionary 3 (John’s Gospel) that will be made available for our NT-NL Synod, ELCA communities to help in this busy time. I wore in this sermon one of the stoles created to honor the 50th Anniversary of pastors who are women. I also will record and release this week a sermon for the 1st Sunday of Christmas.
Then I headed over to Faith, Flower Mound for the ordination and installation of Nicholas Schmidlin as associate pastor. To ordain a Nick on St. Nick’s day was a joy. We also recognized Nick’s spouse Morgan who is a gift planner for the Lutheran Foundation of the Southwest. A great day of worship with Faith’s worship band, Lead Pastor Rusty Sullivan, and the lay leadership of Faith. Nick is also a chaplain for our armed services, and our preacher was Pastor Kerstin Hedlund, who is also a chaplain and former intern at Calvary, Richland Hills.
Lots of good NT-NL connections and beyond to the wider church. Grateful for the pastors on hand and especially Pastor Neil White (Rejoice, Frisco) who is dean of the Dallas Area Metroplex North Conference for also taking part in the liturgy. 2020 has been a challenging year. Yet by God’s grace we continue to grow in ministry. 7 ordinations in NT-NL this year. Leaders being formed and sent into mission. #NTNL #BWTX #InMissionTogether