John Louk

How are we doing with our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ who transform the world? Each year, in assessing the state of Salem, we take a look at some benchmark statistics. 2017 has been another fruitful year! Our membership now includes 242 professing adults. We also have 45 baptized infants and children— so 287 total.  This past year we lost 17 members as 5 died, 3 transferred to other congregations, and 9 were withdrawn. We received 5 new members. That means we have now received 114 new members since arriving at our current location a little over seven years ago!  Additionally, we have about a hundred active non-members. That means we actually have closer to 400 people who are a part of Salem. As part of our mission to make disciples of Jesus who transform the world, we essentially carry out four actions: reaching out, connecting, forming, and sending. Reach . Our Outreach Team leads us to reach out to others with activities such as our Easter Egg Hung...

This is my tenth year at Salem. So much has been accomplished since the flood of 2008 changed Salem’s course. It's encouraging sometimes to step back and reminisce . Pastors have the privilege of requesting and planning a period of time for personal renewal and growth each year. Normally, that period is two weeks for each appointed year. Once every four years, however, the renewal is expanded to one full month. I previously received this renewal leave in 2008 before coming to Salem and then in 2013. I am overdue and proposed last fall that I take my renewal leave in early 2018. The  Leadership Board and, subsequently, the District Superintendent approved this. Therefore,  I am currently on leave from January 15 through February 13. I will return to work on February 14, Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.  During this time, I am writing about my own and Salem’s experience with the 2008 flood and rebuilding the church. In short, I'm writing about saying no. ...

I sat down a couple weeks ago with our district superintendent, Rev. Kiboko Kiboko, for my annual professional interview. We prayed together. We talked about Salem and my ministry and my family. He asked a wonderful question: “What’s going well?” I thought of so many things. Salem is a great congregation with wonderful people. We continue to reach out and receive many new people. Worship gatherings are passionate, lively, and engaging. We are tweaking our discipleship pathway and working on engaging people in discipleship and service. We created a MAP (ministry action plan) for the congregation. We have built a wonderful, new facility and are working on paying the debt (about $1 million). We're in the midst of our second capital campaign. Giving continues to increase and we are getting closer to paying 100% of our general church apportionments again, supporting the ministry and mission of The United Methodist Church around the world (we've been working on this since reco...

On a Thursday afternoon, Gary is trying to leave work. It’s been a busy week, but he wants to get out of there so he can make it on time to his small group. Honestly, to begin with, he wasn’t all that excited about being in a small group. His wife, Karen, kept asking him about participating in one together, and the preacher kept talking about how important it is for discipleship. So he finally agreed. But after they made the commitment to gather with a small group of people regularly, he soon discovered it was one of the highlights of his week.  In fact, it changed his life. In his small group, he began to talk about his spiritual life—the ups and downs, joys and struggles, questions and doubts. Others shared what was happening in their lives. They began to live out the practices of discipleship, especially praying for one another. He was stretched in his relationship with the Lord, but he felt such peace. He grew in all his other relationships, too. Not just with Karen, hi...

How are you blessing the earth? In worship this summer we have been reading the beginning of our story in Genesis. The covenant that God made with God’s people, beginning with Abraham and Sarah, is that because the Lord God blesses us we will be a blessing; all the families of the earth will be blessed by God’s people (Genesis 12:1-3). Through Jesus we have been grafted on to this story. This is our story. So we also are meant to be a blessing to all the people of the earth. That’s why in the United Methodist Church, our mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ who transform the world. We are to help care for and renew everything and everyone that God created. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, understood God’s grace as power — the power to live a transformed life, the power to transform the world. He never doubted that we are saved only by God’s grace through faith. But Wesley believed God calls us to participate, to be fruitful. That is, God saves us by...

Pentecost was the first Sunday in June, celebrating the gift of the Holy Spirit, poured out on the disciples of Jesus after his Ascension. It is one of the biggest celebrations in the life of the church. Some call it the birthday party for the church. We baptized children and adults and received new members. I am now taking time for vacation and a required “continuing formation” leave through the rest of the month. I would normally be attending Annual Conference, the yearly meeting of United Methodists in our conference, but our oldest daughter, Kaitlyn, is being married this same weekend. I told our bishop I would rather be at the wedding and she graciously confirmed she would make the same choice! Kaitlyn’s wedding is at Salem on Sunday afternoon, June 11. Those who are worshiping at the 11 AM service that day, will likely be encouraged—pleasantly, I hope!—to leave fairly quickly afterwards so the church can be cleaned and prepared as my family will arrive soon after to begin ta...

Salem is a vibrant, fruitful, and growing congregation. Our denomination, The United Methodist Church, however, is struggling. Therefore, our  Council of Bishops announced a special General Conference in February of 2019.  This special meeting of our denomination’s top lawmaking assembly will be limited to acting on a report by the Council of Bishops, based on the proposals from the Commission on the Way Forward. The 32-member commission, appointed by the bishops after last year’s General Conference and has been tasked with finding ways for our denomination to stay together despite deep differences around homosexuality. In the meantime,  the Judicial Council met in New Jersey and made some pertinent decisions.  The Judicial Council is The United Methodist Church’s top court. Denominationally, we are structured much like the United States government. We have an executive branch (the Council of Bishops), a legislative branch (General Conference), and a judicial br...