In this Week's Update:

The Bible in Twelve Words

Upcoming Worship

Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities

Upcoming Growth Groups, Classes & Sign-ups

Daily Devotional

A Note from Pastor Bill

Dear St. Luke's Saints,

The word for this coming Sunday is "Deportation." Things have changed in our national consciousness since I first chose this word 25 years ago to describe the time of the Hebrew exile. Today, ardent border-closers upset about the increasing numbers of undocumented people arriving in the U.S. (at least up until the recession) in violation of immigration laws are often heard to advocate for deportation. By that they mean sending people back to the country of their legal citizenship. In the case of our "Bible in 12 Words" series, deportation is just the opposite: sending people out of the country of their citizenship.

Historians tell us that it was Tiglath-Pileser III, King of Assyria in the 8th century BCE, who first utilized forced deportation to maintain control of his expansive kingdom. As the Assyrian Empire expanded by conquering neighboring countries, rebellions were avoided through the resettlement of the conquered. He used this tactic with the Jews of the Northern Kingdom, Israel in 721 BCE. After his empire fell to the Babylonians in the 6th century BCE, the new world conquerors did the same thing to the southern kingdom, Judah. The people from the northern tribes never returned in any great numbers, but there was a remnant of people from the south who finally went back home.

At first the exiles from Jerusalem forced to live in Babylon thought all was lost. However, just like during the time of the wilderness experience under Moses, they "found" some very important things. These foreign soil discoveries were not in the land, but inside of them. We will be learning about them this weekend.

You can get a head start on the theme by reading Jeremiah 29:1-14 and then thinking about times in your own life when you have felt like you were in a strange new place with nothing for which to give thanks. How was God with you to shape or re-shape you nonetheless?

Theologian Stanley Hauerwas and now United Methodist Bishop Will Willimon wrote a book two decades ago entitled, Resident Aliens, in which they described committed followers of Christ as those who are in the world but not of it. That's how it came to be for at least some of the exiles in Babylon way back when. They started to figure out that being intimate with a holy God was not a matter of location, but vocation. That is, they learned something about what it meant to be "called" to be a holy people no matter where they were.

I'll be looking for you holy St. Luke's "saints" on Sunday!

Bill
Follow @wmsbarnes

We are Taking Jesus on the Road for Halloween
And we need your help!

The St. Luke's "Trunk or Treat" event will be held at Rock Orlando Church on Monday, October 31. The event is just for children from the Parramore neighborhood district. These children will arrive by bus for a fun-filled, safe "Trunk or Treat" event held from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Volunteers are needed to make this night memorable:

• Lots of donated candy.
• 25-30 decorated cars and hosts to hand out candy.
• 10-15 people to cook and serve drinks, snacks and hot dogs.
• 20-30 people to host games and bounce houses

This is a great opportunity to dress up in costume, create fun memories and give Halloween to children who may not have a safe place to go. Please sign up to take part in serving the children of Parramore. This special event is not open to the public and is a great way for St. Luke's to reach out to our partnering community. To sign up to take part, please email Jenn Stiles Williams at jstileswilliams@st.lukes.org or sign up in the Welcome Hall in Bldg. C.

Last year, the St. Luke's Church Council began a process to discern what God's plan was for the future of our church. As a congregation we felt we were receiving a call of the Spirit to reassess our priorities and begin an intentional process to determine how we could discover God's destiny for St. Luke's over the next five years.

We began with a strategic visioning process asking the congregation for input regarding specific focus where our church can create significant community change.

Through the thoughts shared by our congregation, six "world changing" ideas were born and became a resulting Vision. This Vision Statement will serve as the basis for a multi-year Strategic Plan Overview for St. Luke's.

Feedback from the congregation is a key part of the next step in this Vision Process. We invite you to read the Vision Statement Summary. After reading the Summary, please discuss this new direction for St. Luke's with your fellow members of the congregation. Pray about it and then share your thoughts with us by answering four questions, which you can view and fill out on our website.

We Have Lost Track of the Following St. Luke's Members

Did you know that once you become a member of St. Luke's, The United Methodist Church requires that we maintain your name on our roll as a member until a new church requests a transfer of your membership or you request that your membership be withdrawn? Until one of those options is chosen, we must continue to be in contact with you through the regular mailings of the church. If after 2 years we have not heard from you we may assume that you wish to have your name(s) removed.

As you can imagine with a church membership roll with upwards of 5000 people, it's difficult to keep these records up to date. And we rely on you to keep us informed of any changes in your personal information. (Including changes not only in your contact information but any changes in your family dynamics too.) Regrettably, our church office does not always receive information regarding relocations or transfers to other churches.

Since most of our communication is now done online, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of "lost members". We want to take this opportunity to recognize these church families/individuals and know that they are important to us. If you can provide a current address and/or phone number for any of these folks, please call Linda Shankle, Membership Secretary, in the church office at 407-876-4991 ext. 222.

Thank you for keeping us informed of your contact information.