Sunday Evening Ministry 
By Blair Pogue

Given Lisa Wiens Heinsohn's recent departure, I wanted to update you on what is happening with the Sunday evening service and dinner. To make a long story short, after much prayer, many conversations, and a lot of deliberation, I have decided to oversee this service in partnership with Dan Anderson and Jeff Kidder, and with the help of teams composed of Sunday evening community members.

This model builds on a wonderful development this past year. Lisa Wiens Heinsohn and the Sunday Night Leadership Team set up teams to oversee different aspects of the service: set up, altar guild, healing prayer, and chalice bearing. There was also a team of "hosts" who offered hospitality to those coming for the dinner including welcoming everyone, making sure a prayer was said, and assisting the cooks in setting up the dinner service (it is challenging for the Sunday Night Service Director and clergy to get downstairs quickly since they are often greeting newcomers and reconnecting with members of the congregation).  And all of this is in addition to the musicians who play and sing for the service each week under the leadership of Jeff Kidder and Eric Selle.

This fall we are going to try a new model, and see how things go. I will be at the Sunday night service and dinner 3X a month, and Dan will be there once a month. We will continue to use gift-based teams for leading the service, healing prayer, reading the scriptures, chalice bearing, healing prayer, serving on the altar guild, hosting the dinner, and music.

We will add a Sunday Night Dinner Ministry Team  consisting of Elizabeth Lienesch, Claire Fromme, Susan Monkmeyer, and Terese Lewis (see Elizabeth's article below about the Sunday Night dinners and what they mean to her and others). The Sunday Night Dinner Team will line up cooks and groups of cooks to take responsibility for each meal.

This fall, just like this past June and July, I will be writing the Prayers of the People to keep them more varied and current, and will be using the same prayers at both services most Sundays. While the am preacher will usually preach in the pm, in the evening she/he will be experimenting with making her/his sermon more participatory including trying to reflect and address the "pockets of energy" that emerge during a period of communal reflection and dwelling in scripture (we normally focus on one scripture passage in the evening service).

In November the Vestry, Dan, Jeff, Eric, the Sunday Evening Leadership Team, and I will assess this new model including what is working well, and what needs to be improved -and how. The evening service is a wonderful space for discerning the future God is bringing forth for those of us following the Episcopal path to the Christian life. What treasures from our tradition is God encouraging us to carry forward into the future, and what might we need to leave behind? How do we share the Gospel and Episcopal worship with future generations in ways that are meaningful and life-giving to them?  Thank you for your prayers for and support of the Sunday evening service and dinner!

Sunday Night Dinner  
By Elizabeth Lienesch

 I've always been prone to the Sunday Night Blues. You know -- your weekend is over, your week looms, you feel a little glum, you're puzzled by where the heck your weekend went. I find that the Sunday evening service and dinner at St. Matthew's has been the best remedy for those blues. Having a meal to go to on Sunday nights, as well as a time of fellowship, a time to build community, and a meaningful way to close out my Sunday has been a blessing.

When you walk in to the dinner on Sunday nights, you hear conversation, laughter, chatter, maybe even  accordion music. There are people visiting with friends or with people they've never met before. At one table, a group dives into a deep discussion of the church's role in the world, while another group swaps the worst jokes they've ever heard. Kids chase each other, laugh, and play.

You smell something good coming--soup, or tacos, or delicious Indian food, or homemade brownies. Or something you can't identify but immediately want to try.
You see people of all ages. Some were at church this morning and now are back for the meal. Some have just come down from the 5:30 service ready to eat whatever they've been smelling during the service. Others are folks from the neighborhood who don't attend worship services at St. Matthew's but join in the fellowship of the meal.
Intentionally free of an agenda, the dinner is no fuss, low-key, and open to everyone.

Whether you're a regular or you've never been before, consider joining us at the dinner starting on September 11th. Please also consider signing up to cook a meal for the Sunday dinner crowd - we'll set you up with everything you need, whether it's a recipe or money for groceries. If you're willing to cook a meal at the drop-in dinner, please email me or call me at 919-636-0054. Hope to see many of you at the dinner this fall.

Generosity: Learning Resources 

To continue our year-round conversation on generosity at St. Matthew's we are doing our best to offer excellent information and learning opportunities surrounding money, finances and decision making.  As you all know, we are all lifelong learners at St. Matthew's and it's never too late to learn something new.

Parishioner Katie White recommends several financial websites that have been helpful in her life.  Although these resources are geared to millennials, they might resonate with you too...
  • The Billfold runs a fun series called "Doing Money" where they interview people who represent a specific demographic group talking about how they budget. Here is a link to the full library.  Included here is a post about a young couple and how they handle money. Also a good read is a post on charitable giving, and retirement planning, including the best time of year to contribute to your IRA.
      
  • Money Under 30 is another resource that has lots of advice and "how to" information - such as getting out of debt, buying car insurance and saving money.

The New York Times ran a recent article with a good idea.  If you are a parent, spend some time writing a letter (yes, a real live letter, not an email) to your children outlining your financial philosophy.  It helps to clarify what you value and then share those specific values with your family members.  Here is the link. According to the article, "a good letter should include at least one story about a large financial challenge and another about a big money triumph.  Then, include a list of crucial habits and tangible things they have helped the family achieve."

 

Last but not least, our St. Matthew's website captures parishioner reflections on generosity that were written and shared with the community over the last several years. They cover a wide range of topics and offer remarkable wisdom. 

-Janna Burger, far right                                                                                             

Bethel Church Connection Fair  
By Blair Pogue 
 
On  Tuesday, August 30, St. Matthew's will participate for the first time in Bethel University's Church Connections Fair. We will have a table staffed by Janna Burger, Steve Mullaney, and me. The fair is designed to help match students with churches. According to Janna, who has been coming to St. Matthew's for two years, many students will be interested in a liturgical church, as well as one that has strong social justice commitments, defined spiritual practices, a female pastor, and is a place where they can wrestle with important theological questions in a safe and shame-free environment.

Over the past ten years many different Bethel Students have blessed the St. Matthew's community, making important contributions to our life together. Janna volunteered her time last summer to help Terese get ready for Sunday School, as well as helping the Blue House and serving as a Eucharistic Visitor and  pastoral visitor. Jeff Lehn served on the Appreciative Inquiry Team that helped our congregation understand the gifts God has given us more deeply. We are also blessed to have Bethel faculty and administrators in our congregation, and they have contributed to everything from our Vestry (our church's top lay leadership body), Adult Faith Formation offerings, middle school Sunday School class, to our usher/hospitality ministry!

In addition to having information about St. Matthew's on our table at Bethel, we would love to give away a tasty snack, perhaps in some kind of attractive packaging. Would someone or a team of people in the congregation be willing to take that on? We would also love for some of our families to "adopt" Bethel students, meaning having them over for a meal and serving as a local base of friendship and support. Finally, it would be wonderful to offer rides to first year students without cars. If you are willing and able to participate in any of these opportunities, please let me know. Thank you! These young adults are not only part of today's church, they are the future of our church, and we need and enthusiastically welcome their gifts, ideas and leadership.
These books are flying off the shelves...  

After the recent shooting deaths and the widespread protests that followed, many began searching for resources to better understand our world. According to the folks at MPR, some are turning to the bookstore. (read more here). The books featured above are quickly disappearing off bookshelves in Twin Cities bookstores and libraries.These titles have also been recommended by St. Matthew's friends and parishioners during the last year:
  • A Good Time for the Truth  (recommended by NAZ President Sondra Samuels)
    "Sixteen of Minnesota's best writers provide a range of perspectives on what it is like to live as a person of color in Minnesota. They give readers a splendid gift: the gift of touching another human being's inner reality, behind masks and veils and politeness. They bring us generously into experiences that we must understand if we are to come together in real relationships."
  • Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates "In a series of essays, written as a letter to his son, Coates confronts the notion of race in America and how it has shaped American history, many times at the cost of black bodies and lives."
  • The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander (recommended by Susan Jones & Kevin Reitz) "The author argues vigorously and persuasively that we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial segregation has been replaced by mass incarceration as a system of social control."
As these titles are in high demand, it might be a good idea to lend extra copies of these (and others) to the St. Matthew's library - if you have finished reading your copies and want to pass them along to others...

Where in the world are you? And are you having any fun?   

St. Matthew's parishioners are moving about this summer, traveling far and wide.  We would love to feature a photo montage in the next Tidings (and short descriptions) capturing your adventures to share with the wider community.  Maybe it not too far away - a bike ride on the trails right here in the Twin Cities, relaxing up north, or venturing beyond our borders.  Send us the details at Tidings -- Submissions from ALL ages are welcome....
Calendar Highlights 

July 26: NAZ Skyline View event at the Walker Art Center, 6:00pm contact Cecelia
August 1-31: Project Home is Coming... Sign Up Online
August 21: Compline + Conversation at the Monkmeyer/Quednau home, 6:30pm
August 28: Loaves and Fishes at the Dorothy Day Center, St. Paul
August 30: Bethel Church Connection Fair



 
Please share your news and photos with us: [email protected] 

Visit our website for the prayer list, calendar and sermons