Christ’s Love, Our Calling
4 Week Emphasis Love Takes Time
Dates to be preached: October 31, November 7, 14, and 21, 2010
Option C – Four Week Emphasis
Overview
October 1, 2010
 Congregation newsletter article
 While you can do the four-week Bible study beginning on October 31 to correspond with
worship services, consider starting three weeks early, on October 10, to fit in the entire sevenweek Bible study. If you go this route you will want to prepare copies now.
 Make copies of the Love Takes Time booklet to hand out at the Bible study or at the first service.
Or mail it with pastoral letter #1 to ensure it gets into every home.
 Choose which commitment form, if any, your parish would like to mail out with pastoral letter
#2 leading up to week #4.
October 18, 2010


Pastoral letter #1 mailed first class to members’ homes
Bulletin blurb A in parish news/announcements
October 24, 2010
 Place bulletin blurb B in the parish news/announcements
 If you are doing the four-week Bible study prepare copies
Week #1 - October 31, 2010


Worship and Bible study focus: “Amazed at Christ's Love (1 John 3)”
Place bulletin blurb C in the parish news/announcements
Week #2 - November 7, 2010



Worship and Bible study focus: “Seeking Time with the Body of Christ (Acts 2)”
Place bulletin blurb D in the parish news/announcements
Mail pastoral letter #2 and commitment form first class to members’ homes (For the time
commitment form you will need to provide a copy for each adult in the household.)
Week #3 - November 14, 2010


Worship and Bible study focus: “Seeking Time for My Neighbors (Colossians 4)”
Place bulletin blurb E in the parish news/announcements
Week #4 (November 21, 2010)

Committed to Christ (Luke 7)
Promotional Materials
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself. ” Jesus (Mt 22:37-39)
Christ’s Love, Our Calling
4 Week Emphasis Love Takes Time
CONGREGATION NEWSLETTER ARTICLE
Christ’s Love, Our Calling Comes to [Congregation Name]
Our new synod theme, “Christ’s Love, Our Calling,” was launched at the 2009 synod convention. Now it
is heading to the highways and byways of our synod through a special four-year stewardship emphasis.
The word “stewardship” usually brings to mind encouragement to be more intentional with how we use
our worldly wealth. However, there are other important aspects of stewardship as well. This year our
primary focus will be on our time. Love Takes Time!
The Christ’s Love, Our Calling theme intentionally begins with time. Consider the following:
1) If we spend no time with God’s Word, then time is being spent actively starving our faith to death
(Romans 10:17)!
2) If we spend no time at church in worship, why would we spend our money for its support?
3) If we spend no time with our family, will money ever fill that void in our children’s hearts?
4) If we spend no time with our neighbors, will we readily spend money to support missions to reach
those same neighbors?
Love Takes Time will look at the various relationships in our lives and then encourage us to carefully
steward our time in those relationships. Here at [Congregation Name] we will dedicate four weeks to
this important emphasis. Upcoming topics include: [list some, but not all]. The first Sunday of this year’s
stewardship emphasis is October 31. Members who regularly attend Bible study will be happy to know
that a companion Bible study will be presented during our Love Takes Time emphasis. We’ll see you in
church on October 31. Until then, know for certain that Jesus knows all about time: “But when the time
had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we
might receive the full rights of sons” (Galatians 4:4-5). He entered into time―human history―to save us
forever. That’s love! That’s our calling!
PASTORAL LETTERS
Pastoral Letter #1 - Announcing the Emphasis
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself. ” Jesus (Mt 22:37-39)
Christ’s Love, Our Calling
4 Week Emphasis Love Takes Time
[On congregational letterhead]
[Date]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
This letter is being sent to your homes to highlight a significant worship emphasis in a couple of weeks.
We will join together with hundreds of churches across our land to celebrate an amazing truth which our
synod has incorporated as its theme: Christ’s Love, Our Calling.
Christ’s love has called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. Christ’s love has called us from the
bonds of unbelief into the family of believers. Christ’s love has called us out of an unbelieving world to
be ambassadors of truth to the world. Christ’s love is our calling. Christ’s love is the key to living. Christ’s
love is our only hope of heaven.
We are planning to thoroughly consider what Christ’s love means for our calling through a four-year
stewardship emphasis. Each year of the program focuses on a different area of our life that God has
given us to manage for his benefit and the benefit of our family, our Church family, and our neighbors.
The focus of this year’s emphasis is time—Love Takes Time. We will see that our time is an amazing
blessing from God. How will we use our time? Will we whittle it away or will we dedicate our days,
hours, moments, and seconds to the Savior’s glory? How we spend our time says a lot about our
priorities.
Enclosed with this letter, you will find the small publication Love Takes Time. I entrust it to you for
prayerful consideration during our Love Takes Time emphasis. It will reinforce at home the key biblical
truths we will consider at church. [Strike this paragraph if the booklet will instead be handed out at
church.]
Preparations for the Love Takes Time emphasis are almost complete. I’m looking forward to sharing
God’s Word with you on this critical issue. We’ll see you in worship! Until then, rest in peace knowing for
certain that your times are in your heavenly Father’s hands.
Serving you in Christ,
[Pastor Name]
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself. ” Jesus (Mt 22:37-39)
Christ’s Love, Our Calling
4 Week Emphasis Love Takes Time
Pastoral Letter #2 - Concluding Emphasis and Encouraging Commitment
[On congregational letterhead]
[Date]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
We are quickly approaching the “grand finale” of our Love Takes Time emphasis. We have preached God’s
Word. We have taught God’s Word. Now, as a congregation of Christians, we can be confident. Why? The
Lord promises us that “faith comes from hearing the message . . .” (Romans 10:17). We can be confident that
the faith of our [Congregation Name] family has grown. Jesus makes us this promise: “I am the vine; you are
the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing”
(John 15:5). We are connected to Christ! We are fruitful through Christ.
You now hold an opportunity in your hands to exercise your faith and bear fruits for Christ. What sort of
fruits? The careful use of the time God has given you. God gives every man, woman, and child 24 hours a day,
seven days a week. We sometimes feel like we need 25 hours in a day, but that isn’t going to happen. It’s
probably better that way. Instead, we should make the most of the time we do have by making God’s
priorities our priorities.
In worship and Bible study, we have seen how God has blessed us with the gift of time for very specific
purposes. He knows that it takes time to study his Word, to worship him, to raise a family, to put in an honest
day’s work for an honest day’s wage, and to witness to neighbors. In all these things, Love Takes Time!
Our ministry at [Congregation Name] has been richly blessed, in spite of a difficult few years in our nation.
We are, by God’s grace, [list several points of blessing over the past year]. With thanks for his blessings in the
year past and with faith counting on his blessings in the year ahead, I encourage you to complete the
commitment form(s) in this mailing.
Some are anxious about filling out a commitment form. Be assured, they are not written in blood! Rather,
they are an opportunity for you to concretely plan how you would like―under the Lord’s blessing―to put the
Lord’s Word to work in your life. May the Lord bless the plans and intentions of your heart! Please bring your
commitment form with you to church on November 21 (Commitment Sunday), where you can place it in the
[offering basket, labeled box, etc.]. These commitment forms are important. They are important because
they can help us put God’s Word into practice.
Christ’s love is our calling. After hearing God’s Word on the matter, we know that Love Takes Time. God’s gift
of time is one of his chief blessings to us. May we use it well until we enter eternity with him. Until then, let
the encouragement of the hymn fill your hearts:
I spent long years for thee, in weariness and woe, that an eternity of joy thou mightest know.
I spent long years for thee; Come, spend thy years for me. (CW 454 v.3)
Blessings in Christ!
[Pastor Name]
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself. ” Jesus (Mt 22:37-39)
Christ’s Love, Our Calling
4 Week Emphasis Love Takes Time
BULLETIN BLURBS
Bulletin Blurb A
Love Takes Time
In two weeks, our congregation will begin a four-week stewardship emphasis. We will join with
hundreds of congregations across our synod to celebrate the first part of the four-year stewardship
emphasis Christ’s Love, Our Calling. This year will focus on what the Bible teaches us about our
stewardship of time. We will see that Love Takes Time. Each of us is blessed with 24 hours in a day and
seven days in a week. How are those hours and days being spent? Our eternal Lord is interested in how
we live in time! May the Lord richly bless the time we spend focusing on Christ’s love.
Bulletin Blurb B
Love Takes Time
Everyone is someone’s child. Even our Lord Jesus had an earthly mother. Whose child are we? At one
time in life, each one of us was a child of wrath, a slave to sin. Our inheritance was hell. Our Father in
heaven changed all that when he adopted us as his children through faith in his Son. Be Amazed at
Christ’s Love ―He Calls Me His Child! “How great is the love that Father has lavished on us, that we
should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1)
Bulletin Blurb C
Love Takes Time
Are you a list person? What is on the top of the list when it comes to priorities? Where do the
sacraments rate in relation to sports? Where does work rate in relation to God’s Word? Next week’s
Christ’s Love, Our Calling theme calls us to carve out precious time with the Body of Christ, his Church.
The ancient Church had it right: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). May the Lord bless the members of our
congregation as, together, we make first things first!
Bulletin Blurb D
Love Takes Time
The entire Christian life walks this tight rope: we are IN the world, but we are not OF the world. We are
surrounded by people, people who seek to influence us. Taste, try, buy! In turn, Christians seek to
influence the world around them. The Lord has us in the world so that we might spread the gospel to
the world. Love takes time with our neighbors. And who is our neighbor? Certainly Mr. Jones who lives
across the back fence. But we dare not forget Mr. Somebody who lives half-way around the world. Next
week St. Paul will encourage us to “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every
opportunity” (Col 4:5). We have more than the sports page to share with Mr. Jones. We have the Savior.
Let’s begin with the Joneses and also dedicate ourselves to reaching the Somebodys!
Bulletin Blurb E
Love Takes Time
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself. ” Jesus (Mt 22:37-39)
Christ’s Love, Our Calling
4 Week Emphasis Love Takes Time
Christ’s love truly is our calling. That love changes everything about us. Before we only lived for
ourselves. Now our desire is to live for Christ. Jesus forgave a sinful woman’s many sins (Luke 7:36-50).
What was her response? She went shopping for perfume. She brought a jar of perfume and poured it on
Jesus’ feet while she wet them with her tears! She was committed to the One who was committed to
going to the cross for her. May our days be spent in joyful service for Jesus. Next week we will hear
Jesus’ comforting Word: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (Luke 7:50).
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself. ” Jesus (Mt 22:37-39)