A Place for Our Family

The Niebuhr familyDuring the Stewardship season, Westminster has a tradition of inviting members to speak from the pulpit during a worship service. In this Moment for Stewardship, folks have spoken of how their faith has been impacted by Westminster and its programs and the importance of keeping those programs healthy, vibrant and successful.

On Sunday, November 6, Leigh and Jess Niebhur, together with their daughters Mae and Elle, all talked about their search for just the right church for their family and the blessings that they count since becoming part of the Westminster community. Click on the link below to listen to their story!

Moment for Stewardship

The Blessing of Retreat

By Dan Commerford, Director of Middle and High School Ministries

“Now during those days, he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God.” Luke 6:12 [NRSV]

This verse is one of a few examples in the Gospel of Luke where Jesus decided to get away for a period of time to focus on his relationship with God. Often, when we talk about Jesus, we talk about his teachings, his death, and his resurrection. But hidden in the grand account of Jesus’ story are these little moments where Jesus got away from everyone, even his closest companions, to spend time with God. It seems that Jesus saw the need to retreat in order to gain guidance, energy, and purpose for his ministry.

This October, I spent two weekends taking the middle school and high school students on their respective Fall Retreats. Both retreats went up to Presbyterian Clearwater Forest in Crooked Lake, MN, and both retreats gave the students (and the leaders) an opportunity to play games, spend time with one another in fellowship and discussion, and have meaningful worship as a group. I was surprised to see that even with a schedule full of rigorous activity and the inherent lack of sleep that accompanies a youth retreat, I found myself returning to the Twin Cities more energized and invigorated than when I left.

When I was in high school, I asked one of my youth group leaders why I was having a hard time hearing from God when I prayed. He asked me to take a few seconds, listen to what was around me, and tell him what I was hearing. After I told him about hearing cars, wind, and leaves, he told me to listen more. As I focused, I realized that there was a pair of birds that were singing to each other in a nearby tree. I only heard it when I was able to get past the clutter of everything else around me. To me, that is why a retreat is a blessing. It gives me an opportunity to get away from the busyness of my normal routine and listen to what is often drowned out. Retreats are a blessing because it is a time when I can focus on my relationship with God as well as God’s people.

The Blessings of Prayer

By Marge Carter, Coordinator, Prayer Partner Ministry

One of the deepest blessings I have experienced is the power of prayer. 

Believing that God calls us to pray and that God listens to our prayers led me to join Westminster’s Prayer Partner Ministry. Currently, 22 participants commit to praying in response to confidential email requests, allowing a somewhat continuous circle of prayer. 

To me, prayer is powerful because it reaffirms our faith in God, enfolds us in God’s spirit, changes our perspective on things (as we focus on Christ’s love), and leads us out of ourselves and into the concerns of others. 

A Personal Story of Prayer

Five years ago, our granddaughter Ella was born with one healthy kidney and one undeveloped kidney. At the age of six weeks she had surgery to remove the nonfunctioning kidney. 

My husband Bill and I were in Boston for her birth and returned home for a time before her surgery. I promptly emailed Westminster, requesting prayer. A day or so later, someone came to our home to deliver a prayer shawl from the Prayer Shawl Ministry, a very moving experience. 

In Boston again, Bill and I wrapped ourselves and baby Ella in the prayer shawl on the morning of surgery and prayed. The surgery went well and we felt uplifted by love and prayers!

As it turned out, Ella also was born with low muscle tone, which meant years of hard work (and much more praying) for her to develop many skills, even eating and walking.  Today Ella is a bright, talkative child, who has learned to swim and who loves to dance.  I call her a philosopher, since she exhibits such insight and compassion. 

Recently, after the death of a classmate’s grandmother, she began asking questions of her father: “How do we get to heaven? Is there gravity in heaven?  And will we still have a brain, so that we can recognize the people we met and remember all the good times we had?” Good questions! This child who struggled so hard can view her life with such joy and thanksgiving for the people she has met and all the good times she has had.

Thanks be to God for the blessings of prayer.

To learn more about Westminster’s Prayer Partner Ministry, contact Steve Robertson, Associate Pastor for Pastoral Care

Children of the Church

by Tom Northenscold, Elder and Church School Teacher

The youth of Westminster are a blessing to us all. They bring an energy and vitality to our lives that makes our days brighter and gives us hope for the future. They also bring a unique perspective to the blessings we all enjoy through Westminster Presbyterian.

To bring that perspective to Counting Our Blessings, we asked the seventh and eigth graders to roam the church making photographs of people, places and things that remind them of the many blessings that are bestowed on us and that we bestow on others. This slideshow is a compilation of those images.

It won't be too many years until these youth are leading us in service on Youth Sunday, telling us of their plans for the future–and we will pay rapt attention. The work we all do in nurturing these children of the church in their faith blesses us all in abundance. The children that grow up within Westminster Presbyterian feel it. They know this to be a place where they can be themselves and are safe. We should all take pride in the amazing things these youth go on to do. The youth of Westminster are truly a blessing. Let's always remember to celebrate that.

It’s One Blessing After Another

by Mary Alette Davis, Director of Children's Ministries

I have received a great blessing knowing the children, youth and families at Westminster. After my first month here I identified an entire family not just by individual name, but also personality! Each member was unique and so created a unique family to me. On those first Wednesday nights over a decade ago, as parents were ushering their children in and out of choirs, activities, or home to bed, I had this deep feeling of the blessing I was receiving in this work at Westminster. My thought was, “What an honor – this gift, a blessing entrusted to me, to be a part of the lives of families on their life journeys of faith.” 

I am a fellow companion, a guide, a seeker and a servant. My experience as a parent and Christian and my observations of families at Westminster informs this sense that parents are blessings to their children.

Faithful parenting is not always easy...

• From encouraging their freedom to explore this great world to creating boundaries that will protect them until they are ready;
• From getting them to try new activities to requiring them to give them up;
• From getting to church to finding regular ways to practice faith outside of church.

Yet parents at Westminster volunteer regularly with faithful zest: as teachers, and as servants on councils, committees, mission trips, retreats and FEAST… all while getting children to lessons and practices, making sure homework is done, fulfilling their own jobs and responsibilities outside the home, and nurturing their child’s growing capacity to love others as themselves.

Dr. David Walsh

But it doesn’t end there either of course! While we seek ways to transmit blessings to our children, we come up with questions and doubts. Ever changing cultural norms and technology make us wonder if we are really up to this task. Each family has its own questions, setbacks and challenges. But we are blessed with experts who are on this journey with us! On Sunday, October 9 at 9:15am, Dr. David Walsh, world renowned psychologist and writer on family, faith, culture and technology is speaking to our concerns as 21^st century parents. Read more about him here. His expertise comes from research on the brain and development, years of counseling families and parents – and finding humor in it all, maybe because he’s a dad too. May this provide another path into the fullness of God’s grace for our families, rippling more blessings into the future, beyond and above our calculations.