FROM THE PASTOR'S PEN... November 2009

Even though I use the term "Divine Luck" often as one of my favorite oxymoron's, I do so only for a laugh, because I definitely do not believe it is possible. The only thing possible in life is Divine Providence since our Lord is sovereign over every detail of time and creation. It is a very Biblically based truth that nothing happens by chance. So instead of saying that I feel lucky, I will say that I feel overwhelmingly blessed to be St. Paul's Interim Pastor for a second time in my life. After being gone for the past couple of years, I can say with honesty, that behind your backs I have told many people that St. Paul's Lutheran Church was my very favorite Church to serve as a Pastor in my entire career. I don't have the superior Pastoral care gifts that many experienced for 27 years under Pastor Roger, nor am I gifted with the superior teaching and preaching skills you have been blessed with the past couple of years under Pastor Corky. However, I do share the same passion of a theologically Reformed perspective regarding life and the interpretation of God's Word.

As I have been kidded almost every day of my life for being the God Father of Soul, since my name is James Brown, all the previous pastors at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, even before Pastor Roger, have shared a passion for Jesus Christ as the only means of our life, salvation, and eternal sustenance as boldly declared by our common undisputed God Father of The 16th Century Reformation, Dr. Martin Luther. And as most of us will receive this newsletter just after Reformation Sunday, I can boldly declare that I've never met anyone more passionate than I am at wanting to uphold that same Reformed Tradition as Martin Luther within all of life, much less within the lives of people I believe God has called me to serve as Pastor (without trying to stuff my perspective down anyone's throat of course, mind you...as the English might say). I believe that the good Dr. Luther would even approve of my Pastoral service to St. Paul's Lutheran Church, even if I do not have superior giftedness in any area, because of my passion, like Luther's to point myself as well as all of us to our Lord rather than any Pastor as the one and only true God Father of Our Souls.

Luther's great Battle cries of the Reformation, mostly based on what we call the Sola's of the Protestant Reformation, are a compilation of the passion he even dared to die for, to always point away from himself and his obvious mensaesque (I just made up this previous word) genius of correct biblical interpretation, that it is by faith alone in Christ Jesus alone, thereby ending up with God alone receiving all the glory alone for our very lives. I hope to merely be faithful in leading all of us down this same path of Luther's while I'm at St. Paul's with you (we might try to mix in a bit of Luther's emphasis on the Priesthood of All Believers while we're at it).

What I may be exceptionally gifted at, is knowing how to begin and grow small adult growth groups within churches who truly desire to grow spiritually both qualitatively as well as quantitatively. I believe that I may be your Pastor at St. Paul's at this exact appointed time not by luck but by Divine providence to set up what I know about adult small groups. They are not an end in themselves. They are merely a tool a church could use as a means to an end of loving our Lord and loving each other more intimately which could set St. Paul's in a new direction of growth. Other means could be just as effective, but I feel this is what I am primarily led to do while I'm here this time. I hope that every single member would join me in a passionate inquiry into this possible direction.

Soli Deo Gloria               
Pastor Bucky        

Biblical References:

Hebrews 7:27-28
Ephesians 4:11-12
1 Peter 2: 5 & 9
Ephesians 2:8-9