April Breakfast Recap

Fellow ministers of the SoTac, Here is a brief recap of our last breakfast. Thanks to John Kim for hosting at Green Pastures, the Korean pasteries were excellent (sorry Rich for taking the last of the kind, but I hear the vegetable one and bean paste ones were still pretty tasty). Check-in. I'll leave our 5 minute updates to to confidence of the present group, but simply say thanks for sharing and allowing us to pray for one another. Question. We all read the Tacoma Weekly article "The middle years" and then Ken Schmidtke (YFC) brought us the question, "What do South Tacoma churches have to do with South Tacoma schools?" After a good discussion we were left to consider if there is some way we might be more specific in sharing God's shalom in and through the schools. Prayer. Good time of prayer. Next meeting: Next breakfast is on Wednesday, May 11th at Evangelical Reformed Church, just off 74th Street. If no one comes up with a question, Rich promises to sit and read from Calvin's Institutes in French for the full 30 minutes.

February 2011 Breakfast

Fellow Pastors in South Tacoma,

Thanks again for a great time together. Big thanks to Ken Schmidtke for hosting and giving us a lesson in fasting. Who needed the donuts anyway?

1. How's it going? It was good to hear where each of us are in ministry and personally. I really appreciated this time and you're openness. Thanks, it is encouraging.

2. A question. This morning we bounced around the question, "How do you approach leadership development in your congregations?" I won't attempt to summarize our discussion and simply say it was helpful to process some things and hear a bit about how others approach things.

3. South Tacoma. For the 2nd year in a row South Tacoma was the site of the 1st homicide which happened to be another domestic violence case. Georgia Gunzer was killed by her boyfriend just off 51st and Tyler on Januray 25th. This is a sad reminder of the great need in our community. On the positive side, we now have a grocery store in the Grocery Outlet. A great place with great deals and to run into (not over) neighbors.

4. Prayer.

5. What next? Join us on Wednesday, March 9th (Ash Wednesday) at Manitou Park Presbyterian (6613 S. Cheyenne St., next to Manitou Park, just past Manitou Elementary) at 8:30am. Our question will be on small groups, "How do you approach small groups in your congregation?"

Peace, Ken

December Breakfast Recap

As my grandpappy used to say, "Ain't nothin' like some biscuits and gravy in the morning to get the motor running." My grandfather didn't actually used to say that but I'm sure someone's grandfather has at some point. If not, perhaps Bill will start saying it as he's recently entered the world of grandpappyhood. All that to say a big thanks to Jeff for once again dishing up the goods this morning and your prayers were answered regarding the onions as there wasn't too much and the gravy was just right. Thanks.

This morning at Celebration Christian Fellowship we tried out our new format. I'm interested to hear how you all thought things went. It went as follows:

1. How are things? Everyone got 5 minutes to give an update on how life in their church and personal life was going. I really enjoyed the chance to hear from each of you and also appreciated the vulnerability. Such sharing goes a long way in developing trust.

2. Sharing questions. This Bill (Centerpointe) led a discussion on the question, "How do you sustain personal spiritual depth as a pastor?" He framed the question around a frequently recurring phrase in Hebrews, "don't let your hearts be hardened." The question was simply, 'how do we keep our hearts soft?" Again, thanks for honesty and vulnerablity in sharing. Good stuff.

3. Prayer.

4. South Tacoma stuff?
We failed to get to this section, but will try harder next time. However, I will rementiond Ken's (YFC) invitation for leaders to help out with campus life at Gray Middle School on Tuesday afternoons starting in February.

5. What next?
Our next gathering will be on Wednesday, January 12th at 8:30 at the Youth For Christ offices which is located at the corner of Center and M. (1216 Center Street, the corner of center and M Streets). Our question will be regarding leadership in the congregation. How can we be better leaders and how can we develop leaders. Yes, books have been written on those questions, but with the brilliant minds that will be present, we'll be able to answer it in 20 minutes or less. (A hint: the answer is Jesus). Reformed Rich volunteered Baptist Bill to lead this discussion again. Thanks Bill for accepting the nomination.

Blessings to all and have a great Advent, Christmas, New Year's and Epiphany.

Manitou Ken

PS. if you have further thoughts or comments, feel free to reply all to the e-mail or check out the blog at sotacministers.blogspot.com

South Tacoma Ministers November 2010

Fellow ministers,

It was good to gather again this month and welcome to our newest pastor Randy Haas. Randy it is great to have some hope back at Hope and we look forward to sharing the joy of ministering in South Tacoma with you. Here is a little recap from the meeting this morning.

1. Joy McDonald and Phoenix Housing. Joy shared the need and opportunity for more churches to get involved with providing shelter for just one week a year. If you are interested and learning more about this opportunity you can contact Joy at 471-5340 or go to the website at www.ccsww.org.

2. Format. I appreciate the discussion we had regarding the groups focus and structure. Ecumenical groups are such a mixed bag that it really is important to determine the 'what we'r there for' (as Bill said) to answer the 'why would should invite people' (as Jeff asked). From those questions I heard us focus in on two things; developing trust and working together. I'm gald to hear these things because I think they reflect our focus statement which is as follows:

"As ministers in South Tacoma, we desire to develop trust between one another so that when God presents us with an opportunity or challenge that is uniquely suited for us to collectively engage that we would be united enough to faithfully do so."

I bolded the three words that seem the most pertinant and as such want to offer the following potential future format for our meetings:

8:30-9:00 5 minute updates
What is God doing in your life/congregation?
How can we pray for you?

9:00-9:30 Sharing questions
Here we will talk about one issue or common struggle such as, personal pastoral devotions, how have you dealt with suicide in your congregation, building campaign land-mines, etc.

9:30-9:45 South Tacoma Stuff
Are there things going on in South Tacoma that we should know about? Are there things we might be uniquely equipped to engage?

9:45-10:00 Pray

How does this look?

3. Next Meeting
Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, December 8th at 8:30 at Celebration Christian Fellowship which is located at the corner of 4602 S. 56th St. You won't want to miss this is Jeff is a great cook, biscuits and gravy perhaps? Our 'sharing question' will be "How do you sustain personal spiritual depth as a pastor?" and Bill is going to lead the discussion.

See you there. Ken

November Breakfast

Biscuits and Gravy good enough to make you slap your granny. Jeffe, my arteries may not like it, but my stomach thanks you. Good stuff.

Thanks to Jim and Jeff at Celebration Christian Fellowship for hosting us this morning. Did I mention that we had biscuits and gravy? Did I mention they were good? Oh yes, and we also had a really good conversation. Our conversations, as in the past few gatherings, have focused in two areas; Community opportunites and Church/Personal happenings. Here is a brief recap.

Community Opportunities:
1. CCF has started a new 1st Friday outreach event called "Encounter." In the words of Jim, if you want to chase after God then you'll appreciate this gathering. Its at CCF every first friday starting at 7:00

2. Puget Sound Christian Center has collection plates (donations not included) for anyone who wants them.

3. Ken Schmidtke of Youth For Christ joined us this morning and gave us an update on the Campus Life at Gray Middle School. Their first club had over 30 kids and their second club starts today at 2:45.

Church/Personal Happenings.

The stated vision of the South Tacoma Pastors is "As ministers in South Tacoma, we desire to develop trust between one another so that when God presents us with an opportunity or challenge that is uniquely suited for us to collectively engage that we would be united enough to faithfully do so." To that end, building trust, we've decided that at each of the next several breakfasts one of us will share our 'call story.' This will be followed by a time of questions and dialogue. Big thanks to Jim for sharing his this morning. It was really helpful to hear more about how God worked in his life to bring him to this place at this time. Join us next time to hear Rich Hamlin share his story.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, January 13th at 8:30 at Manitou Park Presbyterian.

September Breakfast Recap

Another great time of donuts and discussion. Big thanks to Rich for hosting our South Tacoma Ministers breakfast this month at his church (Evangelical Reformed) and providing the donuts (from a donut place around 84th and South Tacoma Way, good stuff).

Our discussion this morning landed in two areas; the role of personal devotion in our lives and ministry and a discussion on the Luis Palau's 'Season of Service' in Portland. While limited in time, I was encouraged by how deep we were able to get in both of these discussions.

In regards to personal devotion, we shared some of our personal history with them, what role they played currently played in our lives, and where we might like them to be. One of the tensions that was named by more than a couple of folks was the tension betweend doing devotions because you were supposed to versus doing them because they were satisfying a hunger to be with God. We agreed that there is an art to finding the sweet spot of devotions. Another tension raised was the question of how to find space in the midst of raising kids. I felt a great amount of empathy from the folks whose kids are older than mine. I also invited the group to check in with me next month to see how I've navigated the desire to spend more solitude time with God. (I think I can expect at least Jeff to hold me accountable).

Our other discussion centered around an article in the Oregonian newspaper (http://www.oregonlive.com/hovde/index.ssf/2009/09/christian_volunteers_good_work.html) about the effects of Luis Palau's coordination of a Portland wide church effort to simply serve the city. THey called it a 'season of service.' We all agreed that there were a lot of appealing and impressive things about this joint effort; its collaborative nature, the fact that it met physical needs and the fact that they started by simply asking and listening to what the leaders of the community expressed as their needs. However, we also raised the question of whether this group went to far in divorceing the verbal message from the physical acts. This generated some good discussion that I think might be good to pick up on in the future. One side of the continuum says that we should 'preach the gospel and use acts of compassion as necessary.' On the other side sits the belief that we should 'do the the gospel and use words as necessary.' We all sit somewhere in the middle on this continuum, some closer to the first and others closer to the second. It was good to be able to talk about this even though we differ.

In conclusion to this second conversation, we agreed to think and pray about the question, "Is God leading us to ask the leaders of South Tacoma (civic, educational, business, etc.) what big or small things might they need help with?" I look forward to continuing that conversation. In addition, Rich handed out an article called "The Problem is the Problem" which might also help with some of our discussion.

At the end of our time, it was good to have more than a couple of minutes to simply pray for each other, our congregations and our community.

Our next meeting is set for Wednesday, October 14th at 8:30 at John's church Green Pastures on 66th and Clement.

See you then, Ken

August Breakfast Recap

Thanks for the gathering this morning. With all of the needs and events going on in my congregation, it is good to step out of if for a while and sit with other folks who share some of the same hopes and burdens.

Thanks again to Danny and Grace Place for hosting our breakfast this morning. It really is fun to watch the place physically change so dramatically each time we visit. I feel like the change isn’t just physical, but sounds like it is also reflective of the spiritual change going on in many folks lives because of the congregation.

Our question for the morning was for folks to share a highlight of the summer and a hope for the fall. It was nice to hear what is going on in the various congregations and to hear the ways we both overlap (lower participation in the summer) and ways we are diverse. Jim and Jeff, I look forward to hearing about how the boot camp goes. Rich and I were talking afterwards how it would have been nice to have some more time to process some of that bold ministry. I think one of the benefits to an ecumenical group is the chance to share our diverse approaches. We each take different approaches to being the church, but it doesn’t mean we can’t learn, encourage and challenge one another. I look forward to more of this in the future.

Jeff, our prayers went and continue to go out to your father in law. As Jim mentioned in his prayer, we pray that in some way, God will use even this struggle for his glory. Certainly we hope that way includes a full recovery for your wife’s dad.

As the meeting started to finish, I shared a bit about an opportunity coming up where our church relationships might be able to help. As some of you may know, South Tacoma has been slated as the next community to receive a farmer’s market. Several folks have lobbied for this to come to our community as we are currently a place that has a shortage of gathering places where folks from the community naturally encounter one another and celebrate our shared space. A farmer’s market would be a great summer event for South Tacoma. However, there are struggles ahead. In order for this to happen, there needs to be enough community support for the vendors to sign on with South Tacoma. After serving churches in South Tacoma, you probably know that our community doesn’t have a reputation like the North End or downtown. We are going to have to work hard to get shoppers and appeal to the shoppers in the community. To that end, I would love to invite your church to send a representative to the next South Tacoma Farmer’s Market meeting which will be held on Monday, August 31st at 6:00 at South Park Community Center. If you have someone who can make it, just shoot me an e-mail with their name so that I’ll know to look for them.

At this point, I have ways that I think the faith community of South Tacoma can help facilitate the birth and life of a farmer’s market.
1. Provide people who will visit and shop at the market which we hope to open the first Sunday of July 2010. Laura the coordinator said that a market needs at least 200 people spending $25 each to make the market work. I think that comes to about $5000 a Sunday. A tall order until you realize that there are 22,000 people just in South Tacoma.

2. Provide a way for the ethnic diversity of South Tacoma to shine and be an asset. South Tacoma is one of the most diverse communities in Tacoma (60% white, 20%African American, 10% Asian-American, 5% Latino, 5% Native and Pacific Islander, these are rough stats from the 2000 census, I’d be willing to bet that our Latino population is much larger). Despite the fact that our community is diverse, many of our neighborhood meetings are not. I think the Farmer’s Market would be a great place to invite our Korean, Phillipino, African-American, Latino, etc. congregations to get their people involved.

3. Offer a space for our church folk to participate in the basic life of the community in a way that reveals God’s love. Sometimes the best form of evangelism is simply being a good neighbor. I think I remember Jesus saying something about that. For better or worse, many members of the community have negative views of churches. If many of us were to simply go to the farmer’s market, be kind and purchase goods, then who knows how God might use that.
These are just some thoughts.

Our next meeting is scheduled for 8:30 Wednesday, September 2, 2009 at Evangelical Reformed Church where Rich is the pastor.

Til then, Shaloma in South Tacoma,
Ken