We have always been and will always be responsible and accountable to our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the boss around here. But as a young congregation, we weren't expected to do all that much; worship, teach, some outreach sprinkled in for good measure. Those days have long passed. Now that we're eighteen, there's no excuse for being anything other than a grown-up church, with all the attendant responsibilites. What that may mean in most folks minds is that we become more set in our ways, predictable and safe. The unsteady, uncertain years behind us, we can settle in our work. We can offer a variety of programs, count on certain things happening every year and not feel a need to hold a congregational meeting every time we run out of copy paper. There's a stability about things that is to be cherished. But maturity can't equal
complacency. There is no room, no time and no place for being boring. There is no reason for being any less excited about what God is doing and can do through us right now than in those first wonder years.

So how do we faithfully navigate these years, grown up yet still fresh? The secret is to be the mature bunch we are, yet never stop thinking new. Notice I didn't say think young; the young think unnaturally colored candy is a major food group and that Britney Spears is talented.* To think new is to think more along the lines of our Savior, who forever says new things; that the hopeless sinner is forgiven, that those crippled by fear and loneliness can be healed, that those who were once on the outside have been brought inside by his mercy. To think new is to believe and act on this truth; that God's business through us is to transform lives, changing the hopeless into the hopeful and the sorrowing
into the joyful. To think new is to take risks and not fear failure, only faithlesness. To think new is to believe that the best years for Lutheran Church of the Resurrection are not behind us, but still just ahead.

And they are. And each one of us helps shape that future. So, let's think new
together and see where God will lead.

In prayer for you all,

Pastor Bouzard

* Okay, my apologies to any LCR Britney Spears fans. She can sing and dance well enough. What I find most interesting about her, but could in no way see how to work in the article above, is that the letters of her name can be rearranged to spell "Presbyterians." Weird, isn't it?

Come back again next month for a more fully developed newsletter page!.