Developing good habits: As I write this, we’re two weeks into 2019. If you’re the sort of person who makes New Year’s resolutions, I hope you’re having success in making the changes you hoped to make. As everyone knows, old habits die hard, but with a bit of discipline and a lot of help from God, changes are possible. I’m a big proponent of spiritual discipline: daily Bible reading, a rich prayer life, regular worship attendance. If these things aren’t currently part of your life, it’s relatively simple to make the transition. Each month we print daily biblical readings – the daily lectionary – in TIPS, and following these guidelines is a great way to get into the Bible reading habit. Another way is my favorite – using a daily devotional guide. St. Timothy subscribes to a quarterly devotional guide called Christ in Our Home, which you can pick up, free of charge, in the narthex. What I’ve been using for years is Moravian Daily Texts, https://store.moravian.org/product/2019-moravian-daily-texts-paperbackedition/, published by the Moravian Church. It’s also available from Amazon in a Kindle edition. A great resource, which may be out of print currently, is a four volume colossus, For All the Saints, from the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau. This series is convenient, in that all biblical readings are printed in the body of the daily devotional. All three of these daily devotionals provide biblical readings as well as prayers and prayer themes. Each has its own unique features, and each is quite helpful and satisfying.

Groups change, as do individuals. After all, what are groups but collections of individuals? We’ve seen many changes over the years at St. Timothy: in facilities, in scheduling, and in programming. Since the first unit (Fellowship Hall and kitchen) was dedicated in 1960, St. Timothy has expanded twice; first with the church proper in 1966, and in 2005 with the Connection of Faith project. In that time our worship schedule went from two services per weekend to a single service, then back to two (Saturday and Sunday), and most recently to three per weekend. Finally, programming has changed over the years too. For many years St. Timothy hosted wonderful variety shows under the direction of the late, great Cliff Hesse and his cast of dozens. Nearly all the members of St. Timothy were involved with those grand productions.

In addition to these “really big shows,” the St. Timothy social calendar was filled with events: Oktoberfest; the WELCA Winter Showcase; the St. Patrick’s Day corned beef dinner; the Love Breakfast; and the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper. Some of these events continue, others have morphed into something different from the original, and others have simply faded from memory. This year the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper is being relegated to the pages of St. Timothy history. Thanks to the Andersen, Herasimtschuk, Sajban, Langschultz, and all the other church families who planned and staffed the event for so many years. Attendance at this once popular event has declined recently, and WELCA, the supper’s sponsor, elected not to schedule it in 2019.

What do you think? Even if there’s no Shrove Tuesday observance this year, I think we all need to think about whether or not we’d like to return to a celebration of this last day before Lent in the future. What would you like to see? What would you like to do? What appeals to young families? What appeals to singles? What appeals to couples? What appeals to senior! In my first parish, St. Paul’s, Vandergrift, PA, everyone brought their gooiest, most “sinful” desserts to share in preparation for the Lenten fast the following day. We also had a program, usually involving children, as well as adults. Please let me know what ideas you have. Either email me at r.mountenay@gmail.com, or talk to me in person. We want to hear from you how our congregation can better serve you and your families.

In Jesus’ name,

Pastor Robert M. Mountenay

PS: Did you know that our website is now interactive? Thanks to James Koppenal, we can now volunteer by going to https://www.sttimothynj.org/time-and-talent/. If you can’t use the direct link, just go to our website, https://www.sttimothynj.org/, click on “Faith and Action”, and follow the prompts. While we still have hard copy Time and Talent sheets available, we encourage you to go to check out our wonderful website and try out this new interactive feature. We hope to develop some other online surveys soon!