Friends,

It is one of those weeks where I have a lot of unrelated things I would like to share with you. Some of them are relevant to the ministry of the Church. Others are just my musings. So here we go:

Pumpkins

By the time you read this, the patch will be closed! Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for making this possible. Whether you were there unloading the truck a few weeks ago, or worked a shift in the patch, you help create fertile ground for community, memories and families to grow. This is the first year that we’ve taken this on where the primary beneficiary of the patch will be our Outreach Committee. The funds will be used to support people and ministries in our local community. Many of our immediate members and Church members are facing financial uncertainty with the government shutdown, and I am pleased that our Outreach Committee is working in partnership with me and some of our furloughed feds to provide relief as feds and members of our military will soon be missing paychecks.

Food From Furloughed Feds

For the past few weeks, I have been hosting Food for Furloughed Feds where I make chicken sandwiches for those who have been furloughed and try to provide a space to create support and fellowship. We will continue to do this, but from now on I would appreciate a heads up that you are coming so I can prepare accordingly. In addition to these lunches, the Furloughed Feds will be working with me and the Outreach Committee to provide groceries for anyone who has been affected by the shutdown. Anyone can sign up to receive a bag of groceries with enough food to make dinner for a family of four. The Feds and I will have these bags ready for pick up at St. Luke’s Tuesday November 4th between 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm.

When the first message went out and the sign-up was live, we received a wave of people requesting to help. This touched me deeply. Right now, we are not accepting food donations as we want the bags to be consistent, but if you’d like to contribute to our Outreach Committee you can follow this link and select “Community Outreach” on the dropdown menu. Thank you for showing your support in this endeavor!

Wednesday Noon Healing Service

We’ve been doing this for a long time, but I just thought I would encourage you to try it. Most Wednesdays we have a very small and intimate service in the narthex. We use the old poetic language in the Rite I of the Book of Common Prayer; we pray for healing for ourselves and others and celebrate Holy Eucharist. This feeds my soul, and I often find myself eager to get back to my work at the beginning of the service and centered at the end. Come join us this Wednesday.

Stewardship Season

I hope that you got our stewardship mailing at some point this week. We are facing an interesting year in the life of our community and in the life of the Church. Our average Sunday attendance for 2023 was around 183 people. As of this past Sunday our average for 2025 was 186, and we will likely increase that number considering attendance peaks in November and December. Considering we’ve been getting between 220 and 250 in September and October, I am cautiously optimistic we’ll increase our average to over 200 by the end of the year. We are objectively growing. We are required to track all sorts of data, and the one I care about the most by a significant margin is Sunday attendance. To me this is a sign that we are creating a community that people want to be a part of, and focusing on ministering to people should be our priority. The next metric I care about is the amount of people who make a financial pledge to the Church. To me, this is a sign that people care enough about this place to make some sort of concrete commitment. In my opinion too many Churches over emphasize the total income of the Church, but I get why. If we have more money, we can do more ministry and do it better, but I would much rather be people rich and money poor than the other way around. All these things matter, but I want you to know where my priorities are. First and foremost, show up and participate. If you consider this place to be your home, tell us that you plan on giving and let us know what you are planning (this is what pledging is). And lastly, consider giving more. This is a year where increasing our budget will make a tangible difference in our shared ministry.

You want Skynet?

I think the 19th century Luddite movement may have been onto something. They were a movement in Great Brittain made up of disgruntled textile workers that saw new forms of automation being a threat to their livelihood. They would organize and go bust up machines in textile mills. I am a complete layman when it comes to economics and all that stuff, but there seems to be a trend where new technological advancements appear great, because they can replace many workers that would need to be paid. This was true with textile mills, factories, agriculture, and it will likely be true for those affected by AI. Things like regulation, tariffs and other things can help protect industries for a time, but just as Reagan argued about protectionist tariffs, they weaken our industries by eliminating global competition. I neither like, nor do I disagree with this idea. It seems that whenever a new technology comes out that takes away jobs, it can be fought for a time, but ultimately the technology will win out. What happens to the scores of humans that were once considered essential to our shared survival? I cannot even find any good discourse on this, let alone answers. In defiance to this trend, I typically refuse to use the self-check-out at Safeway. A month ago, my son asked me while waiting to be cashed out why we weren’t scanning the items ourselves like everyone else. I said it’s because we want our capitalism to support people and not robots. The guy in front of me laughed and said, “good for you”. This will likely be the only impact of my protest. Despite my lack of efficacy, I will continue.

Blessings,

Nick