August 2008
The More We Get
Together
In 1986 I was
given a tape (You remember tapes don’t you?) by a guy named Randy
Stonehill. The album (You remember albums right? They were giant
compact discs.) was called “The Wild Frontier” and my dad told me
this was a quality guy I should check out. I was hooked from the
opening cowbell and I was especially hooked by a song called “Get
Together.” The chorus said, “Come on people now / Smile on your
brother / Everybody get together / Try to love one another right
now.” I listened to this song over and over. (I even managed to be
able to perfectly time how long to press the rewind button to get to
the right spot to restart the song.)
I soon found
out this was a song from the 60’s by The Youngbloods and the message
was just as relevant when it came out then as it was to my young
ears in the 80’s. This is still one of my favorite songs and I
would argue it is relevant still today.
“Wow Will,
that’s great. Thanks a lot for the music history. Why is this
important to us?”
In Mark 1 Jesus
calls his disciples by saying, “Come and follow me.” Our whole
lives as Christians are marked by this following. The good news for
us is we are not lone ranger types. We are called to follow in
community. We are called to lift one another up for the glory of
God. We are called to get together and try to love one another
right now!
Because this is
our call I’m announcing a theme for 2008/2009 at Sammamish Hills
Lutheran. Our theme will be, “The More We Get Together.” Hopefully
you are humming the children’s song already. (That is if you can
get The Youngbloods out of your head.) We are going to go out of
the safety zone of our church and into our community, our nation,
and our world to get together for the glory of God.
There is a
challenge in this as well. The challenge is to invite people to
church. Invite the people you haven’t seen in the pews for a
while. Invite the people you meet in your neighborhood. Invite
those people who are curious about your faith life. We are going to
be inviting people with the goal of reaching 250 people in worship
at each of the morning services and 70 people at the evening
service. I’m going to help you with ideas for how to graciously
invite folks. (Look in future newsletters for more information.)
In the year of
The More We Get Together we will be having a new picture directory
(so we’ll know each other’s names), we will be hearing from cluster
groups about how they are getting together, and I want to hear from
you! Do you have an idea for making this a great year of getting
together so that we can go out for mission? Tell me. I love to
hear your ideas.
So, come on
people now the more we get together the happier we’ll be.
In Christ’s
peace,
Will
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