St. Peter's Lutheran Church
In the village of Brodhagen
Pastor Rev. Steve Johnston
6671A Perth Line 44, R.R.1, Bornholm, On N0K 1A0
Ph:519-345-2535

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Pastor's Message - March/April

Dear friends in Christ

Last week, as I greeted some parishioners in church before service, I received a tap on the shoulder. It was another parishioner, no less, and she had something to show me.  Well this is something I had already known about.  In fact I had given this to her some time ago and since then I had forgotten about it. Since then the St. Peter’s outreach committee has been on its training for “Mission for Others” which is a program to help us focus on our part of God's grand mission of love for the world. Since then St. Peter’s has formed its 150th anniversary committee – and a mighty fine job they have done so far and they are still busy planning.  Since then St. Peter’s has started the anniversary year’s service project with the Olive Branch to build an irrigation system to help feed a group of people in Tanzania.  Since then, in fact, a lot has happened in our church community.

But now, as this kind parishioner was trying to show me, I have become part of this community’s history in the same way that all the other pastors of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church have become part of its history.  So there I am, part of the fabric of St. Peter’s.  Before me is Pastor Christina, Pastor Martin, Pastor Annette, Pastor Bob, Pastor Art and the list goes back and back.  What is this object she was trying to show me?  It was a photograph of me on the back wall  with all the others pastors. 

But this story is not about me.  I’m not the first pastor at St. Peter’s and I will not be the last either. Next time you are in church take a look at the back wall (a good looking bunch don’t ya think ). These photographs are like punctuation marks of the last 150 years. Between each of these pictorial punctuation marks are the wonder-filled details of the full story of our congregation, stories of conflict and love, of sadness and joy, stories full of treasured moments and stories of faith.

But that is not the story that I am trying to tell.  The real story is the picture rails. My photograph is the last one on the second rail and it has taken 150 years to fill those two rails.  If it has taken 150 years to fill first two picture rails, then the third picture rail represents the next 75 years.  That will be around 2083.  Between now and then, this year’s confirmation class will have graduated high school, become productive members of society, maybe have married, hopefully have served on church council two or three times, and might even have become great grandparents.  That empty third picture rail represents the promise of an active congregation’s future, a future as part of God’s mission to a world in need.   

May the Holy Spirit guide us and help us flesh out that rail with stories filled with the hope, joy and love we experience in our risen Lord – Jesus Christ.

With joyous Easter blessings,
Pastor Steve