From the Book Study Team:

OK, folks. It’s time for the big book study you have heard so much about. Study session # 1 is at 10:00 AM on Jan. 6. Susanne will recap the first 3 chapters of Christianity After Religion, The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening by Diane Butler Bass.

We hope for lively discussion and will continue with the book discussion at the Sunday 10:00 adult study time through Feb 17. "Come and see". You don’t have to have read the book. You can even come and never say a word, just appreciate the conversation.

For more details, check Jay's e-mail of November. 30 or Jay's blog, jmorgan40.wordpress.com

Celebrate the Season with us!

Dec. 23rd - 11:30am - "The Promise of Christmas" and Sunday Service

Dec. 24th - 5pm - Family Candlelight Service

Dec. 24th - 10:30pm - Christmas Eve Vigil

Dec. 25th - 8am - Christmas Morning Prayer

Dec. 30th - 11:30am - Lessons and Carols with Holy Communion

MSLC Alternative Gift Fair - Dec 15th!

Morning Star Lutheran is helping to sponsor the annual Alternative Gift Fair on December 15th, 2012 10am – 4pm, this year at a new location - Frank Wagner Learning Center on Main Street.

The Alternative Gift Fair is a celebration of giving. The event gives participants an opportunity to support life-changing projects and programs locally and globally. Gifts can be given in honor of friends and loved ones that will change lives for generations. There will also be opportunities to purchase beautifully handcrafted artisan items from around the world. Homemade soup & pie will be available to nourish the hungry shoppers. Live holiday music will be filling the church for all to enjoy.

Some of the vendors will be: Austin’s Angels animal food bank, Take the Next Step, Knitting for Peace, Brown Bag Brigade, Housing Hope, MSLC Quilters and 13 other organizations.
 

Christianity After Religion

MSLC/UMC "Fall Cleanup/Project" day - this Saturday 8am

It's that time again - time to clean up/repair and otherwise "make the church buildings" ready for the fall and winter. The UMC men have invited us to join them for breakfast at 8am and then projects start at 9am.

Bret has been in contact with the UMC leads and has worked to prioritize the downstairs ramp as well as some other items that we have all been noticing need attention - come spend an hour or four to support MSLC and Bret and Jeff's (and Susanne too - I believe) work on the Joint Facilities team by lending a hand.

Rally Sunday, Sept 9th @ 10 am!!!!

You read that right...All of our Sunday morning classes are now BEFORE worship!

Individual classes are offered for children ages 5-18, and the adult classes will remain the same. Now your entire family can enjoy worship together at 11:30am. The nursery will still be open for those that would like to use it, but babies are always welcome in the sanctuary.

The New Orleans Youth Gathering participants will be leading the worship on the 9th and plan to share their experience through video, music, and word.

Be sure you stay AFTER worship on the 9th for a Southern Style Potluck! Bring your favorite potluck dish to share. We've heard there may even be beignets!

Some thoughts from Pastor Cara…

Months ago, several folks lingered after worship for a discussion titled “Read the Bible Like a Lutheran.” It was supposed to be about 20 minutes; a few pointers and time for a couple questions. Ha! I should have known better – scripture is a BIG subject, no matter how it is approached.

In my reading and study recently, I came across a passage that reminded me of that after-worship conversation. From the unmatched (for theological sass) Episcopal scholar and priest Robert Farrar Capon:

“Accepting the Bible as inspired is a bit like receiving an entire collection of one’s grandfather’s writings. Suppose, for example, that on opening such a treasure, I found it to contain everything my grandfather ever wrote: letters, poems, recipes, essays, short stories, diaries, family histories. And suppose further that I was fully convinced not only that they were authentically his but that he had sent them for the express purpose of providing me with everything he wanted me to know both about himself and about our relationship. Far from putting an end to my study of his words, those convictions would be the very thing that started me wrestling with them in earnest.

“And not just to be able to spout his words or confirm what I already thought. Indeed, I would be well advised to approach them with as open a mind as possible, always ready to sit loose to what I had decided about him and simply to listen to him. It should only be after long study and repeated readings that I would dare to conclude what any particular passage meant, let alone what the entire thrust of his writing was. With such a wildly various collection, there would always be a temptation to let my own sense of what he was up to get in the way of what he himself really had in mind.

“I might, for example, decide that, while his brief aphorisms lay close to the heart of the man, his longer stories had little to teach me about him. That would be a mistake; all that this conclusion would actually show was that I had a liking for agreeable bits of information served up on small plates, but that I balked at the labor of trying to take his meaning when he expressed himself by putting on a feast of strange fictions. Or I might decide that only his serious metaphysical writings, and not his strictures on the proper way to make gravy, truly revealed the man. In the case of this particular grandfather, that would be an even bigger mistake: if ever there was a place where he disclosed himself as the lover of creation he really was, it was in the kitchen. Without a willingness to wade through his recipes, a reader would miss a good half of his charm. So too with Scripture.”

So what about you? What delights you about reading the Bible? And what confounds?

Peace,

PC

Lent - the penitential preparation of the believer

All Are Welcome!

The church season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, 40 days before Easter Sunday.

Come prepare for the Resurrection of Our Lord with Morning Star Lutheran!

Ash Wednesday service is February 22 at 7:00 pm.

Sunday services are always at 11:30 am.

Wednesday evenings during Lent – Feb 29, March 7, 14, 21, and 28 – Enjoy community and a soup dinner at 6:00 pm and a brief service at 7:00 pm.

Christmas Eve Family Candlelight Service - 5:00pm

Combined Worship Morning Star and United Methodist -Christmas Morning @ 9:30 am

Lessons and Carols -Sunday January 1 @ 11:30 am

Morning Star Alternative Gift Fair

Morning Star Lutheran is holding their 4th annual Alternative Gift Fair on December 10th, 2011 10am – 4pm. The Alternative Gift Fair is a celebration of giving. The event gives participants an opportunity to support life-changing projects and programs locally and globally. Gifts can be given in honor of friends and loved ones that will change lives for generations. There will also be opportunities to purchase beautifully handcrafted artisan items from around the world. Homemade soup & pie will be available to nourish the hungry shoppers. Live holiday music will be filling the church for all to enjoy.
 

Check out our Facebook Event