SPECIAL SUNDAY CELEBRATION

The words above are how we highlighted St. Luke's May 1 worship service and Harvest luncheon to our invited guests. Truly, that was the case!

Despite the veritable chill in the air from the storms all around, nothing could dampen the enthusiasm that filled St. Luke's parish family and the warmth of God's loving Spirit that was completely present. Our parish family welcomed 17 visitors at the 10:00am worship service; 15 of those neighbors stayed for a beautifully prepared lunch.

So how does one adequately describe the Harvest experience and its culmination on May 1?

Multiple parishioners' comments such as these provide an example:
"Our worship and music were so beautiful on Sunday that they were my moments closest to Christ last week."
"Our guests were delightful and so appreciative; and they stayed and talked for a long time after lunch!"
"We have experienced a 'culture change' in our parish; we have embraced an outward focus for our prayers and actions."
"I am so proud of how we all came together for this activity - how much love and commitment was shown."

Thinking back on this four month initiative, two selections from scripture are the most salient in my mind about the Harvest. One is captured in 1 Corinthians 1, verses 10-18, and specifically verses 17 & 18. We are commissioned and called to preach the gospel - not with wisdom and eloquence, relying on our own talents, but with complete focus on the power of the love of the cross of Christ. To do this, we must think and act from our hearts, not our heads.

The other is from Matthew 11: 28-30, specifically verse 30. "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." There was a lot of work in Harvest. What blessings for us all to experience the joy and lightness of every plan, preparation, meeting, call, prayer, note, list, agreement, discussion, step, hour and minute of Harvest, with Almighty God on the other side of the yoke!

From the Harvest Leader team, THANK YOU for all your support. Isn't it exciting to anticipate how God will continue to work through all the efforts of each of us for His purpose?!

Anne Lucas
Harvest Coordinator

PRAISE HIM

As Lent is coming to a close, so has one big part of our parish family's Harvest outreach, the "invitational calling." The planning and coordinating and calling and praying and addressing and mailing that many have been so diligent and faithful to offer as part of their Lenten commitment to honor our Lord will soon bloom, like Easter, in anticipation and celebration as we call our neighbors to confirm their acceptance to join us for worship and Sunday lunch on May 1!

Our "Harvest Sunday" (or "Special Sunday Celebration," as we have called it to our neighbors) includes a luncheon that is being hosted for those families who have accepted our invitation to worship with us that day and who would like to stay for lunch.Each guest table will have volunteer parish members who will be hosts - to welcome our neighbors on behalf of the larger parish family. For those of you who have volunteered to help in this capacity, you will be contacted very soon with specific details about the luncheon and your role.

For the whole parish, please hold the date of June 5th to attend a presentation about our Harvest results. You will see some amazing numbers about how many calls were made and prayer requests accepted; you will hear some inspirational testimonials about how the Holy Spirit has worked in and through our parish family. We will discuss our plans for intentional follow-up actions and next steps as part of the Harvest program (we're not through just yet - like Easter, this is the gift that keeps giving!); and we will share a few nibbles and beverages in celebration of our first evangelism outreach! We will meet in Harman Hall following the 10am service. Please join us!

This next week, please continue to hold our neighbors in your prayers: that as we call them to confirm, and as they prepare to come to St. Luke's, the Holy Spirit will draw them to Christ. And please pray specifically that all who have indicated their interest or desire to visit will not forget, not procrastinate, or let fear or hesitancy stop them from coming.

Thank you! Wishing you all the joyous blessings of Easter,

Anne Lucas
Harvest Coordinator

Let Us Pray

As our St. Luke’s family continues to evangelize in the Harvest outreach…

• Pray together and believe together that through this outreach, many lives will be touched with the truth of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit.
• Pray for Fr. Robert, the Harvest outreach leadership team and volunteers, our church staff, and our parish family as we work to make this one of the most impactful outreaches in the history of St. Luke’s church.
• Pray for our community & for our neighborhood. Pray people will be open to the truth of the Gospel and to the work of the church. Pray they will hear and respond to the Good News of God’s love.
• Pray for all individuals and teams planning and doing the work of this outreach – that everything will be done with a “spirit of excellence”.   Saving souls is in the balance!
• Pray that the work which needs to be done will be completed and on time.
• Pray for all of the volunteers – that they continue their parts in this outreach with diligence, and realize that as they do their parts, it will result in ministering to people who are hurting, souls being saved, and the church being blessed and built up.
• Pray the homes that are being reached will be receptive to the call and invitation to visit.
• Pray specifically that every phone call will be led by God’s Spirit and that callers will be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading.
• Pray that as guests prepare to come to St. Luke’s, the Holy Spirit will begin to draw them to Christ (and He will.)
• Pray specifically that all who indicate their interest or desire to visit St. Luke's will not forget, not procrastinate, or let fear or lies of the enemy stop them from coming.
• Pray that the touch of God will reside on every piece of mail and every contact.
• Pray that the mailings that go out will not be discarded or set aside, but are read and will have impact.
• Pray that all the details of the Harvest Sunday will come together without any unnecessary difficulties.
• Pray that a spirit of unity will prevail and a rising tide of spiritual renewal will be demonstrated as the parish family steps out in faith.
• Pray asking for Christ’s vision of what His will and desire is for the long-term relationship with our guests.
• Pray that we develop a heart for the lost and hurting and will accept anyone who comes through the door as a result of an invitation.
• Pray that as relationships are developed, people will feel “at home” and will become involved and a regular member of the parish family.
• Pray that people will demonstrate God’s tenacious love to reach out & develop friendships and relationships.
• Pray that we will respond to God’s leading to meet needs, reach out in friendship, and demonstrate the heart of the Father.

LET US PRAY...

ThanksLIVING

God is making Himself a living reality in this world through the ministry of St. Luke’s.

Through our worship He makes His presence known in word and sacrament. That presence takes the shape of a spiritual community that welcomes individuals and families into its loving fellowship of prayer, study, praise and discipleship.

These paraphrased words from our website fit perfectly for what is happening night after night through the Harvest outreach efforts of our parish family. Each evening the calling and praying teams usually have the same people as team members. Beautifully varied gifts and talents shine through each individual as they ‘try on’ and find his/her own role in reaching out to the un-churched. A passion for outreach is growing in our St. Luke’s family. We are passionate about supporting each other and passionate about practicing discipleship and prayer. Communicating our Harvest numbers: at the end of 13 days, our teams have logged 106 hours of calling. We have shared conversations with 854 people and have accepted and prayed for 292 prayer requests. Of these numbers, 33% of our live conversations and 18% of shared prayer requests have been from un-churched families. We ARE making inroads as disciples. There is a palpable, positive energy of the Holy Spirit working in us and in those we contact. Week 3 of Harvest is already underway with similar, positive results. Let us please give God thanks and praise for His having brought St. Luke’s to this particular opportunity, as it is enriching our community and blessing us and those we touch. Anne Lucas, Harvest Coordinator

Report from the Field: An Energizing First Week of Calling

Daily we track things such as: completed calls, when we connect and speak to an actual person; how many of the people we speak to already go to church or not; would they like to visit; and would they like us to pray for them. 

For the two-hour commitment each night, these are the results so far (averaged numbers):

·         220 calls made nightly by the 4-5 callers who are calling

·         70 completed calls per night

·         20 prayer requests received per night

·         4 to 9 prayer team volunteers each night, praying in the church  

Keep an eye on your email for the full update from Anne. In the meantime, a glimpse into the first night...

 

All the first night volunteers. After this, they warmed up their dialing fingers and did some practice prayers.

Callers hard at work. Someone get those boys some file folders.

 Working hard, having fun... what's the difference?

 My favorite part of this is the Cookie Monster hat that matches Charlie's shirt (and smile!).

 Prayer request delivery.

 Prayer requests go to one of these people, the Sunday night prayer team.

Go Team!

Stay tuned for more excitement from the Harvest. Until then, this is your Field Reporter, signing off.

Fantastic Harvest Start!

It is with such pleasure that I write this Harvest update. St. Luke’s parish family can be so proud of itself! The diligence, enthusiasm and dedication to task that is being demonstrated by each person as they embrace their role in this Harvest outreach is a pure delight to witness and be included. As of this writing, we have had three most excellent evenings of Harvest calling and praying. Daily we track things such as completed calls – when we connect and speak to an actual person; how many of the people we speak to already go to church or not; would they like to visit; and would they like us to pray for them. For the two hour commitment each night, these are the results so far (averaged numbers): · 220 calls made nightly by the 4-5 callers who are calling 70 completed calls per night 20 prayer requests received per night 4 to 9 prayer team volunteers each night, praying in the church And like these numbers, which are true to the statistics provided by Harvest, about 60% of the people we speak to say they already go to church – which is good news for the Kingdom! The really exciting piece is: whether or not our neighbors already go to church, they are requesting our prayers and we are in dialogue with them about shared daily activities. One woman’s son is taking organ lessons, so she was very interested in our beautiful Aeolian Skinner organ; her interest was piqued by our music program. We made sure that she was invited to the next Michaelsen Arts Series concert on Sunday evening April 3. Another person knew the parishioner who called her! They had a good chat about Harvest and what St. Luke’s is doing. Another caller discovered that a family’s son went to a local school and knew one of our parishioners - his teacher! These things are such positive examples of bridge building out from our hearts to the near-by community. From the conversations I have had with those working each evening and many in the parish, there seems to be large agreement that Harvest is providing us the framework by which we are taking action to answer many of our own fervent prayers about how to share the Good News of the saving power and love of Jesus Christ and to build up His Kingdom, and St. Luke’s. I invite you to speak with any of the Harvest call and prayer team volunteers - they will tell you, it is a very moving, humbling and thrilling experience to be involved! Everything our parish has done together to this point is making this such a positive experience. Thank you all for your contributions to this fantastic start! Please keep Harvest at the top of your prayer list! God Bless! Anne Lucas/ Harvest Coordinator

Prayer is Powerful - our Harvest Prayer

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we pray that You will bless our efforts to reach out to our neighbors in this Harvest experience, that many lives will be touched with the truth of Your Gospel and the power of Your Holy Spirit. We pray for our leaders that all our efforts will be centered on You, Lord, as we strive to make Your truth known to the people we contact. Open the hearts of those we will call, that they will hear and respond to Your love for them. Open our hearts that we may welcome our neighbors in Your name. May all that we do be led by Your Holy Spirit, and may You draw us and our neighbors closer to You, that Your church and Your kingdom may be built up to the glory of Your name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I Spy with My Little Eye

I Spy with My Little Eye.........something that begins with ........."D"!

I really loved that game when I was younger - in fact, still do - especially on those really LONG car trips, when the CDs have been played through (twice!) and the books on tape fail to hold the attention!
It's funny that when you look for something, you see a lot! In this case, LOTS OF DOTS!!
As we move ever closer to our Harvest start date, the leader team wanted to find an easy, simple way that all parishioners could be reminded to pray daily for St. Luke's and its outreach. DOTS became the answer! Small, unobtrusive little stickers, but something different, that we can put on our watches, phones, computers (refrigerators!) - anywhere we look many times during our daily activities! And when we spy these dots, we can offer up a prayer for our evangelism outreach and our neighbors we will be calling.
The beauty of the dots is that they will remind us to pray, but they might also prompt someone to ask why we are wearing them - giving us the opportunity to talk about St. Luke's - a little "mini-evangelism" if you will! So pull out and shine up that elevator speech about why you love St. Luke's and get ready to practise! DOT UP! and try the new Harvest prayer!

Catch the Spirit

On March 20 and March 22, 55+ callers and pray-ers attended the Harvest outreach training sessions that explained the caller and prayer center teams roles. As of this writing, Praise God, the caller and pray team calendars are filling up! Lots of intercessors are needed for this outreach, so if you feel this is something you can do from your home, please contact Deacon Rosemary or yours truly. Several people have said how exciting it is to finally be in the week when the invitational calling and praying starts. One person wrote me this week after the training; they said: "I just got home from training and I felt compelled to drop you a note. I feel so excited about the upcoming weeks and the opportunity to make calls and follow up with individuals and families. It is difficult to express in words the overwhelming sense that the Holy Spirit is moving through the parish. My husband said to me driving home that he would like us to pray the Harvest prayer together every night. That really shook me, since we are usually not on the same wave length when it comes to prayer! My prayers are with you and the team leaders!" You can imagine my encouragement for having received this email note. I shared it with the Harvest team leaders!

IT'S TIME. LET'S DO THIS THING!

WE HAVE A COMMON PURPOSE OF PRAYING AND MINISTERING TO OUR NEIGHBORS AND FOR REACHING THE UN-CHURCHED.

LET US CARRY THIS OUT WHOLEHEARTEDLY!

Don't Forget! Harvest Team Training March 20

Call Center Managers, Prayer Center Managers & Teams

Please join the Team Training THIS Sunday, March 20 from 3-5pm in Harman Hall! Come learn the details about your role in the Harvest - soup to nuts!

Only 11 more days until we start our evangelism outreach! If you haven't yet volunteered for a role, you are welcome to come Sunday to learn more.

Please continue to pray for our Harvest and for those to whom we will be reaching out in our Saviour's name, to share His Love.

See YOU there!

HARVEST OUTREACH POSTAGE COLLECTION – UNROLLED!

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” – that’s the inscription on the James Farley Post Office in NYC, referring to the courier service of the ancient Persian Empire! I wonder if they used stamps back then? Some clever person please let me know!

We are very happy to share with you that only a short time after Postage Sunday March 6, there is no lack of stamps for our Harvest evangelism mission! In its traditionally charitable and generous nature, St. Luke’s parish family is responding to the need for stamps and postage monies in a very positive way. With the donations being received, each hand written and hand addressed piece of mail sent to our neighbors as part of the outreach will be stamped, not metered!

THANK YOU for responding and contributing to the Harvest in this way – to make a gentle, gracious impression on those receiving St. Luke’s correspondence.

Anne Lucas - Harvest Coordinator
John Moore - Harvest Mail Coordinator

St. Luke's "Great Commission" Harvest Leader Team Training

Sundays are usually known for being the Clergy's "Big Day", but this past Sunday afternoon, the St. Luke's Harvest Leadership Team, as well as the Call Center and Prayer Center Managers, all attended their first training session for our evangelism outreach! The leader team has adopted it's new (internal) name of "St. Luke's Great Commission", because we feel we have been "Called By Name" to our roles & responsibilities! Very cool!

The team demonstrated great enthusiasm and dedication to anticipated tasks by spending the afternoon to learn more about the details of the outreach and each of their individual roles! The Harvest program representative provided us a detailed view to how all the pieces fit together between leaders and their teams; there are many moving parts to this outreach.

It is very exciting to think that at the end of this month we will start invitational calling to our neighbors! Please keep those whom we will be contacting in your daily prayers. Our prayers are to reach them when their hearts are open to receive our invitation to come experience the love and spirituality of the St. Luke's family; but most importantly, that many lives will be touched with the truth of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit through our efforts.

God's peace.......Anne Lucas

Roles and Responsibilities Presentation

Ready to see who's running the show? Curious about what they do? Click here to see Anne Lucas' presentation on Harvest roles and responsibilities from Sunday, February 13.

Find contact information for the team on the second page.

Sharing Precious Treasure - Letter from Fr. Robert

As you have hopefully heard by now, St. Luke's is striving mightily to fulfill God's vision for our parish as we have discerned it through our Visioning Process. In the weeks ahead, we will be focusing on a particular area that has especially broad-based support among our parishioners: the need to evangelize. Indeed the sacramental relationship that we have with God in Jesus Christ at St. Luke's is a precious treasure. This treasure is one that we cannot expect to keep to ourselves. The fact of it's having been bestowed on us means that God has found us worthy and able to share it - to be ambassadors of His Good News. St. Luke's is responding to this call to evangelize in an extraordinary way with our Harvest Outreach. Each and every one of us has the opportunity to share our gifts for ministry by sharing this spiritual treasure with our un-churched neighbors.

St. Paul writes: "For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake." ... "But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us." (2Cor. 4:5&7)

Please remember as you prayerfully consider how you will participate in the Harvest Outreach, that you will actually be allowing the power of God to flow through you, so that through you He will be accomplishing His will for St. Luke's and the un-churched souls with whom we will be connecting. It is that power of God which will overcome any obstacle to your participating in the way that He wants you to. How will you bear the treasure that has been entrusted to us to our neighborhood and the other communities whose lives are touched by St. Luke's? As I said last Sunday, each of us have gifts for ministry; we all have a role to play in Harvest.

This Sunday at 11:30, Anne Lucas, our Harvest Outreach coordinator, and I will be presenting to our congregation an overview of the Harvest process. This presentation will include detailed specific ways in which each of us can participate along with an introduction of the leaders who are organizing the various areas of responsibility. It is of utmost importance that we gather as a church family for this presentation. This is not a "project" that any group or groups within the parish are doing. We must do this together as one family. We all have the exciting opportunity to be willing servants and better evangelists. I look forward to seeing you there.

Meanwhile, let us continue to pray for the Spirit's guidance and grace.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

The Rev'd Robert M. Odom
Rector
St. Luke's Episcopal Church

YOUR PERSONAL INVITATION - to learn more about HARVEST OUTREACH at St. Luke's!

So, this is the first time I have really "blogged"!...pls forgive any 'blog faux pas' which could occur!
Please join me in the Adult Education time this Sunday, February 13, in Harman Hall following the 10am service, for a deep-dive presentation on the Harvest Outreach roles and activities. Speak with the Harvest team leaders and find out how you can become involved in support of this important evangelistic program at St. Luke's! We look forward to seeing you there!

What's Harvest Unlimited?

The Un-churched are waiting for a personal invitation that will change their current and eternal destiny. “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”(Lk. 10:2)   St. Luke’s is preparing to embark on a very important evangelism program that will change the lives of those who participate as well as the lives of our neighbors: Harvest Unlimited.  

St. Luke's is partnering with Harvest Unlimited to reach our un-churched neighbors in the nearby community.  Church members call neighbors to ask how they might be able to pray for their families and to invite them to attend church on a designated “Harvest Sunday.” 

One of the most important aspects of a Harvest outreach is uniting our parish in prayer for personal needs shared by our neighbors during the calling period.  Our St. Luke’s family will commit to pray daily and follow-up, expecting answers to prayer, with hundreds of prayer requests received. 

Praying for specific people, needs, and families radically changes a church and energizes a focus for outreach beyond its four walls.

You are invited to read the presentation linked in the post below about Harvest outreach from the Annual Parish Meeting.

- Anne Lucas/Harvest Unlimited Coordinator

Note from the Publications Coordinator:

I'll be posting all kinds of news, pictures, and other exciting things here to keep you informed on Harvest's progress, so be sure to bookmark this page and check back often! 

- Katie Frink

The Overview

Anne Lucas gave a fantastic presentation last Sunday at the Annual Parish Meeting on this new project we've embarked upon at St. Luke's. If you missed it, or you just want to relive the moment, click here to see her PowerPoint.

Harvest Unlimited - Loving the Lost

St. Luke’s parish is a loving, spiritual community that nurtures individuals and families in the Sacramental life of Jesus Christ. Our parish identity over many years is one of a warm and welcoming, prayerful, committed family.  Sadly, not all people enjoy this kind of community.

Current statistics show that 80% of growth registered by churches is either biological (families growing up in a parish) or transfer growth (people moving from church to church within a denomination).  This, coupled with other factors such as the rising popularity of virtual community, results in the current decline in committed church-goers.

Additionally only 2% of committed church-going Christians invite an UN-churched person to church during the course of a year.  And even less than 2% will actively engage in personal evangelism.  These facts are a painful reality and work against our Great Commission to “Go and Make Disciples” (Matthew 28:19).

 

Let’s use these statistics as motivation for St. Luke’s to take action now to share the Good News, reach out and LOVE THE LOST, to bring as many unchurched people as we can into His marvelous light and the community of St. Luke’s.

Our parish family reviewed its gifts, programs and approach to community outreach as part of the Evangelism 101 workshop that we hosted in August 2010.  All agreed that St. Luke’s is poised for growth through the work that has been done and continues to be done through the Visioning process – with one missing element: personal evangelism, which works best one on one.

In considering how to reach outside ourselves to the unchurched in our community, the Vestry and Fr. Robert reviewed a program recommended by our Bishop and tested by parishes across the nation called HARVEST UNLIMITED.

The Harvest Unlimited program provides a method, using personal conversation and prayer, to engage the neighborhoods around us - to connect with the lost, and love them.

Even though people may not go to church, the majority of them believe that Christianity is relevant and they seek others who express God’s love. Eight out of ten of the unchurched are open or positive to attending church if only someone would personally invite them! This is great news for us as we move to personally invite our neighbors to St. Luke’s.

What perfect timing LENT provides for this opportunity.  As a parish family, we can corporately and intentionally observe the discipline of participating in the Harvest through the variety of service opportunities it offers. The 40 days of Lent covers the timing of Harvest.

I have been asked to coordinate the Harvest initiative for St. Luke’s parish. I invite you to please attend the Annual Parish meeting on Sunday January 23, to learn more about how St. Luke’s intends to LOVE THE LOST.  The Harvest leadership team will be introduced at that time and you will hear more about how the program works and what to expect from it. 

Please keep this meaningful and exciting initiative for our parish family in your prayers; and mark down MAY 1, 2011 – Harvest Sunday, on your calendars, now!   

May God bless St. Luke’s parish as we intentionally strive to adopt the Father’s heart toward the lost and hurting.

- Anne Lucas/Coordinator for the Harvest

The Harvest is plentiful, but the worker’s are few.  Ask the Lord therefore, to send out workers into His fields.   Luke 10:2.