FROM THE PASTOR

Have the Conversation

The punchline of the story about my paternal grandmother I told a few weeks ago was “If I die, how will I get in touch with you?” The point is – why wait? There’s no better time than the present for a conversation. Especially a conversation with those you love.

At the Adult Forums in October and November, we initiated conversation about several topics important to older adults and those who love them: housing options, estate planning and financial legacy, health care decisions, and funeral planning. I appreciate the response to these conversations and the level of participation in our discussion.

For our fourth conversation topic, we created an in-house tool for funeral planning. I am grateful to my colleagues Sylvia Xing and Anne Krentz Organ for their collaboration and to all the people who reviewed the document and offered suggestions. We anticipate the funeral planning workbook will be available shortly, after a few technical hitches are resolved. When completed you will be able to go to a link on the St. Luke’s website to either download the workbook and complete it as a hard copy, or better, complete it as an electronic document. Your workbook will be saved in the Church Office until it is needed.

We hope you will use the workbook to start a conversation with those to whom you are closest about what matters most to you and what you wish to confess about your life and faith. Consider the completed document a gift to those you love and a way to help ease the stress at what will be a challenging time for them.

Please watch for an announcement when the funeral planning workbook is available and know the staff is available to answer questions and assist you in completing the document.

Thank you for continuing the conversation.

Pastor John Schumacher, BCC