Pastor’s Report 2020
This fourth year of being the pastor of Lund Mission Covenant Church has proven to be a challenging year for ministry, but God has remained faithful throughout. Working with this past year’s leadership team has been a privilege as we have placed ourselves and the church in God’s hands.
From January through March of this year we continued to work to identify essential ministry teams. In addition to the Building, Grounds, and Maintenance Ministry Team and the Children and Youth Ministry Team, we discerned the need for a Missions Ministry Team and began to outline and create such a team to help ensure that LMCC continues to be active in the care and support of efforts to introduce people to Jesus Christ locally and around the world.
Also from January through March of 2020, the Leadership Team worked on answering a series of essential questions that would help people to better understand who we are and how we go about being a church. We call these LMCC Essential Questions, and once we approved the questions and the answers, I took a series of 12-15 weeks to share these questions and their answers with the congregation shortly after the beginning of the service. The three essential questions are as follows: What does LMCC believe? How does LMCC make decisions? How does LMCC develop disciples? (these questions are posted as a page on our website)
It was just as I finished sharing the answers to the last essential question (Present, Transform, Discern, Serve, and Witness) when our church life was altered by the Coronavirus Covid-19 Global Pandemic. Based on the information provided by the state of Wisconsin, the Pepin County Health Department, our ECC and Northwest conference leadership, and our insurance provider, on March 17, 2020 the congregation was informed that the Leadership Team decided that we would be suspending in-person church services.
On Sunday March 22, I posted to our website (www.lundcov.com) our first attempt at providing weekly worship through a recorded video service. Through these video services, plus text messages and phone calls, I attempted to stay connected with the congregation. In-person worship resumed on Sunday, July 12 after the Leadership Team decided to move forward with providing modified worship services that met the recommended safety guidelines that had been issued by the sources mentioned above. As of the writing of this report, our church is continuing to offer modified worship services each Sunday morning at 9:30am and I continue to post a video recording of each service to our website (also to our church Facebook page). The current guidelines for our modified worship services are as follows…
1. Due to social distancing requirements, we are limited in how many can attend per service. Call (715) 448-3890 (church) before Friday evening and follow instructions on the answering machine to reserve seating.
2. Main service 9:30 am (filled first) / Overflow Service 11 am.
3. Bring a face covering/mask with you (required indoors) (service length approx. 40 minutes).
4. Expect to observe social distancing (Parties sitting 6 feet apart).
5. Do not expect congregational singing at this time.
6. Video content will continue to be posted on our website.
As of this report, we have not needed to offer an overflow service. Tithes and offerings are being given in-person at the modified worship service or mailed in to the attention of the church treasurer.
Other than modified Sunday morning worship, all other in-person LMCC ministries have been suspended until further notice. This has been true of all in-person ECC Denominational meetings, Northwest Conference meetings, Lake Pepin District meetings, and Lake Beauty Summer Camps in 2020. This was also true of the 2020 Laura Days Worship service and the regular monthly worship services that I would usually facilitate at the Plum City Care Center.
Our church collaborated with Sabylund Lutheran (Stockholm), Immanuel Lutheran (Pepin), and the Pepin Methodist church to facilitate an interactive online virtual Vacation Bible School for families that wanted to participate. I worked with Pastor Paul Oppedahl from Sabylund Lutheran to create online video services for Holy Week (Maundy Thursday and Good Friday). I also worked with Sabylund Lutheran and Calvary Covenant Church (Pastor Mark Corrona) to create an online video service for Thanksgiving Eve. A Christmas Eve service video was created as well.
Despite the challenges of the virus, we were able to complete another journey through the Church Calendar Year. In 2020, our message texts came from the Epistle readings of Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary. These readings were rich in theology and challenging for us as growing Christians and those who make up the Body of Christ. I am continually amazed at how the Holy Spirit and God’s Holy Word is faithful to provide us with encouragement, direction, and challenge from week to week.
During this time of pandemic, I have tried to make it clear that there is no obligation for anyone to attend our in-person church services who would feel at risk, particularly those who have been assisting during worship.
There are four areas I have brought to the Leadership Team for consideration during this time of pandemic. The first is how to ensure the physical safety of our congregation, the second is how to maintain the Christian witness that the decisions we make have in our community, the third is how to keep connection among our congregation, and the fourth is how to continue to make progress despite the restrictions we find ourselves under. My thinking has been that if we can engage these areas faithfully, then we can make decisions that will honor God and be good for Christ’s Church.
At the time of this report, multiple vaccines are slowly being released to the public. Although I have no definite answer for when things will feel “normal” again, I have hope that in the coming months we will be able to resume worship and ministry unfettered. I also anticipate a renewed appreciation for the many things that we may have taken for granted in the past. As we have experienced a year marked by sickness and death (381,000 have died in the U.S. at this point), we have also experienced the faithfulness of God and God’s people to this church, and it is that ongoing faithfulness that makes me look to 2021 in anticipation of God’s good things to come.
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:1-2
In Christ,
Pastor Darren Catron
This fourth year of being the pastor of Lund Mission Covenant Church has proven to be a challenging year for ministry, but God has remained faithful throughout. Working with this past year’s leadership team has been a privilege as we have placed ourselves and the church in God’s hands.
From January through March of this year we continued to work to identify essential ministry teams. In addition to the Building, Grounds, and Maintenance Ministry Team and the Children and Youth Ministry Team, we discerned the need for a Missions Ministry Team and began to outline and create such a team to help ensure that LMCC continues to be active in the care and support of efforts to introduce people to Jesus Christ locally and around the world.
Also from January through March of 2020, the Leadership Team worked on answering a series of essential questions that would help people to better understand who we are and how we go about being a church. We call these LMCC Essential Questions, and once we approved the questions and the answers, I took a series of 12-15 weeks to share these questions and their answers with the congregation shortly after the beginning of the service. The three essential questions are as follows: What does LMCC believe? How does LMCC make decisions? How does LMCC develop disciples? (these questions are posted as a page on our website)
It was just as I finished sharing the answers to the last essential question (Present, Transform, Discern, Serve, and Witness) when our church life was altered by the Coronavirus Covid-19 Global Pandemic. Based on the information provided by the state of Wisconsin, the Pepin County Health Department, our ECC and Northwest conference leadership, and our insurance provider, on March 17, 2020 the congregation was informed that the Leadership Team decided that we would be suspending in-person church services.
On Sunday March 22, I posted to our website (www.lundcov.com) our first attempt at providing weekly worship through a recorded video service. Through these video services, plus text messages and phone calls, I attempted to stay connected with the congregation. In-person worship resumed on Sunday, July 12 after the Leadership Team decided to move forward with providing modified worship services that met the recommended safety guidelines that had been issued by the sources mentioned above. As of the writing of this report, our church is continuing to offer modified worship services each Sunday morning at 9:30am and I continue to post a video recording of each service to our website (also to our church Facebook page). The current guidelines for our modified worship services are as follows…
1. Due to social distancing requirements, we are limited in how many can attend per service. Call (715) 448-3890 (church) before Friday evening and follow instructions on the answering machine to reserve seating.
2. Main service 9:30 am (filled first) / Overflow Service 11 am.
3. Bring a face covering/mask with you (required indoors) (service length approx. 40 minutes).
4. Expect to observe social distancing (Parties sitting 6 feet apart).
5. Do not expect congregational singing at this time.
6. Video content will continue to be posted on our website.
As of this report, we have not needed to offer an overflow service. Tithes and offerings are being given in-person at the modified worship service or mailed in to the attention of the church treasurer.
Other than modified Sunday morning worship, all other in-person LMCC ministries have been suspended until further notice. This has been true of all in-person ECC Denominational meetings, Northwest Conference meetings, Lake Pepin District meetings, and Lake Beauty Summer Camps in 2020. This was also true of the 2020 Laura Days Worship service and the regular monthly worship services that I would usually facilitate at the Plum City Care Center.
Our church collaborated with Sabylund Lutheran (Stockholm), Immanuel Lutheran (Pepin), and the Pepin Methodist church to facilitate an interactive online virtual Vacation Bible School for families that wanted to participate. I worked with Pastor Paul Oppedahl from Sabylund Lutheran to create online video services for Holy Week (Maundy Thursday and Good Friday). I also worked with Sabylund Lutheran and Calvary Covenant Church (Pastor Mark Corrona) to create an online video service for Thanksgiving Eve. A Christmas Eve service video was created as well.
Despite the challenges of the virus, we were able to complete another journey through the Church Calendar Year. In 2020, our message texts came from the Epistle readings of Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary. These readings were rich in theology and challenging for us as growing Christians and those who make up the Body of Christ. I am continually amazed at how the Holy Spirit and God’s Holy Word is faithful to provide us with encouragement, direction, and challenge from week to week.
During this time of pandemic, I have tried to make it clear that there is no obligation for anyone to attend our in-person church services who would feel at risk, particularly those who have been assisting during worship.
There are four areas I have brought to the Leadership Team for consideration during this time of pandemic. The first is how to ensure the physical safety of our congregation, the second is how to maintain the Christian witness that the decisions we make have in our community, the third is how to keep connection among our congregation, and the fourth is how to continue to make progress despite the restrictions we find ourselves under. My thinking has been that if we can engage these areas faithfully, then we can make decisions that will honor God and be good for Christ’s Church.
At the time of this report, multiple vaccines are slowly being released to the public. Although I have no definite answer for when things will feel “normal” again, I have hope that in the coming months we will be able to resume worship and ministry unfettered. I also anticipate a renewed appreciation for the many things that we may have taken for granted in the past. As we have experienced a year marked by sickness and death (381,000 have died in the U.S. at this point), we have also experienced the faithfulness of God and God’s people to this church, and it is that ongoing faithfulness that makes me look to 2021 in anticipation of God’s good things to come.
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:1-2
In Christ,
Pastor Darren Catron