When I saw a certain cartoon in Leadership I wondered how old and wise a pastor had to be before they looked like that fella. Apparently the "wear and tear" of the years had taken their toll.

As we approach the fall schedule here at CLC, it is my hope that the gap between church activities and the spiritual progress we long to see will be smaller than ever before. Leadership contributor Roger Judd quoted a pastor who, looking at his church's multiple ministries and cluttered calendar, said, "Our philosophy of ministry is." I think spiritual maturity is what we're after, and that doesn't happen automatically, even those of us who are actively involved in multiple ministries within this congregation. What does it take?

We Americans love stories of "changed lives." Andrew Carnegie the pauper becomes Carnegie the industrialist and philanthropist. Michael Jordan, cut from his junior high basketball team, rose to become "his Airness." Bill Gates the computer nerd becomes Bill Gates, the world's wealthiest man.

Changed lives, every one of them. Impressive changes, too. But is that the kind of transformation we're called to seek within the Christian Church?

Everyonce in awhile it's important for us to look at our church's Mission Statement. It reads as follows: "The mission of CLC is to give glory to the Triune God and to present His loving message of grace to each other, the community and the world." What kind of transforming power does the "loving message of grace" carry? Looking at Scripture, I see little of the kinds of change found in the inspiring stories of Jordan and Gates. It isn't about self-improvement, it's about being made brand new, inside and out.

St. Peter put it this way: "Now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God--who chose you to be his children--is holy. For He himself has said, "You must be holy because I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16-17). How can we possibly be holy like God? Most of us find that to be an impossible prospect.

It helps to remember that holy here means "set apart," devoted to one purpose -- God's purposes in this world. In Romans 12, St. Paul explains how that happens: "Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Then he gets specific about elements of this transformed life: not thinking of yourself more highly than you ought, using gifts generously, resisting evil, loving good . . .

I hope you will avail yourselves of every opportunity to gather with your fellow believers around the transforming Word of God offered here in Bible Studies and worship. As we let the Word change us, inside and out, at some point we won't look like "the same old bunch" anymore!

Growing in Christ with You,

Pastor Nolting