You’ve heard the phrase that faith is often, “caught, not taught.” When faith is seen in action, when families pray and worship together, when church, Sunday School and Vacation Bible School attendance is a priority, when families talk about their faith and how it is evident in their daily lives, faith among our younger people is more likely to be caught. Our theme this year emphasizes the importance of sharing our faith intergenerationally, from Psalm 79:13, “To all generations, we will tell of your praise!” In fact, Jesus’ final words to the disciples (Matthew 28, Acts 1) were that they were to “be His witnesses … to the ends of the earth.” We are to continue this calling to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

This intergenerational focus was one of many aspects that the Worship Committee used in evaluating and setting Bethel’s worship times for the fall and going forward. They looked at not only attendance, but who was attending. Are we attracting families and children? Does it seem like faith is being “caught” by worshipping together on Sunday morning? With this in mind, the decision recommended to the council was to continue with our current worship schedule of a 9:00 am contemporary service at our Highlands location and a 10:30 traditional service at our downtown site. At the August 19^th council meeting, the council affirmed this decision, voting to move forward with this recommendation. We sincerely hope you will join us at one of these two services to worship our Lord as a family of faith and we encourage you to invite your friends and family members to join us as well! If that is not possible, we will continue to offer two online services, live streamed at the same time as worship, but available for watching at your convenience any time during the week, from our website, Facebook page, or YouTube channel. However, because of the impact that is created when we worship in-person together, we hope that doing so will be your top priority when possible.

Besides worship, there are other ways that we can share our faith in powerful ways from generation to generation. Our middle school team is always looking for adult leaders to meet in small groups with our youth to discuss weekly topics. Our Sunday school is always looking for people to teach or help in various ways. On Saturday, October 19^th, Bethel will hold its annual Scandinavian Food Fest. In the last few years, it has been encouraging to see more young people helping their parents and grandparents with this outreach event, bringing people into our church from other cities, and learning about our community at Bethel. In addition, weddings, funerals, anniversaries, graduations, and parties are all great opportunities to share the importance of faith with family and friends.

Speaking of parties…We hope you will join us on Sunday, September 8^th for one unified service, as we look forward in faith. It will be an installation of Pastor Ladd as the lead pastor but will also affirm the rest of the staff in their ministry roles and celebrate all that has been, and all that is yet to come for Bethel. Please mark this on your calendar and be part of this celebration in our church family, catching that spirit of faith, and passing on this important milestone, “from generation to generation, so that all might come to praise our Lord together!”

Pastor Kris and Pastor Ladd