At A Glance

Pastor’s Annual Report, A.D. 2016 C

Here in the office of St Peter’s, we’ve started using at-a-glance wall calendars, which sum up an entire year’s activities on one oversized poster. It can be exciting to look all the way ahead at the entirety of 2016. One feels as though one has a better handle on preparing for the entire year. On the other hand, it can be rather humbling to fold up the entirety of 2015 on a single sheet of paper to toss into the rubbish bin.

By the numbers, 2015 was a very good year. We welcomed new members into our community. We married new couples and baptized new babies. We were blessed to have few funerals to mourn. Our Confirmation class is at a record high, and our Youth Group has grown both in numbers and in scope, expanding to include synod youth events and high ropes courses at a local Lutheran camp. Attendance continues to grow at our vespers and Holy Week worship.

In less tangible ways, 2015 was even better. We seem at last to have hit on a schedule for Adult Education that fits nicely into most folks’ schedules. We’ve deepened our fellowship and outreach through Pub Theology, and by hosting both the Scout troops in the basement and community activities in our fellowship hall. Our choir has brought us wonderful new music, memorial donations have given greater depth to our liturgical worship, our acolytes and ushers and Communion assistants continue to serve our congregation faithfully, and our church council has piloted us tirelessly through projects, activities, and budget planning. And Vacation Bible School was just a ton of fun this summer. (This year was Mt Everest. Next year, Norway, I’m hoping?)

For me personally this has been a year of growth and learning as well. By selling off our windfall Harley Davidson from the Ronald MacDonald House Ride charity auction, my wife and I were able to travel the North Sea, from Norway to Iceland to Orkney. The Stout family name hails from the Orkney Islands; it was awe inspiring to stand in the Cathedral of St Magnus in Kirkwall, and to know that our children are descended from the very saints whose bones are entombed in those red rock pillars. To know our place in history is to know our place in the greater story of God and His people.

I also officially signed the Rule of the Society of the Holy Trinity, an interdenominational Order of Lutheran clergy who promise to uphold and support one another in the fulfilment of our ordination vows. The pastors, priests, and bishops of the STS (as it is known by its Latin abbreviation) have dramatically deepened my worship, my education, and my prayer life, as well as buoyed my spirits in an environment of professional camaraderie. Their visitations, retreats, and Rule have enriched my vocation and my life immensely.

All that said—this isn’t a committee report. One cannot summarize a year of life in Christ’s Church by listing activities and crunching numbers. This is an epistle about our life together as the Body of Christ. St Peter’s is a healthy and successful community because Christ is real, and is alive among us. He has given to us His own Holy Spirit in our Baptism; He meets us in the holy Eucharist upon the altar; every Sunday He calls us in, with all our brokenness and sin, heals and forgives and feeds us, then sends us out again to be His Body for a world in need. We must continue to remember always that the traditional word for the Divine Liturgy is “the Mass,” and Mass means “sending out.”

We see the face of our Lord in every member of St Peter’s who has so faithfully born the Cross this year, toiling hard to serve the real needs of this congregation and this town. You’ve all put your blood, sweat, and tears into this church, and your pastor is once again humbled by your example. All the while, you the people of St Peter’s have borne all trials with humility, forgiveness, and good humor. We are truly sainted sinners. Ultimately Christ’s yoke is easy, and His burden light, not because we lack struggles, but because Christ Himself struggles alongside us, around us, for us and within us. So long as we hold to Him and to His sure promise, we shall fear no evil and rejoice in every day that is given unto us to live.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.