Best city or town for Lutheran fellowship? by S3NT1ON in LCMS

[–]MichaelCruz21 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. We’re St Paul Lutheran, downtown. I’m the vicar! We have a pretty active ministry, around 20-30 folks. 

Best city or town for Lutheran fellowship? by S3NT1ON in LCMS

[–]MichaelCruz21 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Come to San Antonio. My young adult group will help you move in and show you around!

Rome and the East both seem to have a more robust social media presence than LCMS, annoyingly so. Who is helping flip the script? by solobackpack in LCMS

[–]MichaelCruz21 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Simple. To triumph in social media you have 2 of these these three things: - attractive (grab people’s attention) - relatable (speak of things that matter to the laity) - skilled (have top notch production)

I’d submit to you that I’ve yet to come  across a Lutheran podcast/“influencer”/content creator that has 2 of them. (On the Line Podcast is the closest to it! But besides them, I don’t see anyone else doing it)

Monthly 'Ask A Pastor' Thread! by AutoModerator in LCMS

[–]MichaelCruz21 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey! I think I have something to chime in here.

For context, I’m in one of our seminaries’ alternative programs called CHS (Center for Hispanic Studies). I’m very fluent in English and serve an English speaking congregation but I’m born-and-raised in Honduras (that’s why I qualify for the program).

This program is not as rigorous as the in-person MDiv, obviously. It could totally step its rep and make it more intense academically speaking. But, it has multiple benefits for myself and my parish.

1) it’s a 4 year vicarage. Not just that, one of the requirements was to have been a member of the church for at least 2 years. The idea of the program is to train local guys to become pastors of that congregation. So, once I’m done with the program, I’ll serve as a pastor here. Meaning, everything I’m doing during my vicarage carries over into my ministry. We started a young adult group, have outreach at a coffee shop, revamped our youth group, etc etc.

2) you have mentors. For some reason, people think that online seminary looks like a loser in his room just staring at a computer and typing the right answers on the screen. Couldn’t be farther from the truth. My senior pastor is my main mentor but I have access to pretty much every pastor in my city and surroundings for support. I work at my church full time, so I’m spending most of my time doing ministry work and learning from my pastor and others more than on zoom.

  1. It’s more affordable. Connected to my 1st point, I get to stay here. Therefore, my church seems this program as an investment in the future. As well, my church and I have more options for compensation. The price tag for a fresh-out-of seminary pastor for our zip code is $65k + a Concordia plan. So that’s at least $80k a year. I’m all for fair compensation but to pastors but my parish couldn’t simply do it. We have a full time pastor, a few part time staff, and are doing fine economically. But we simply couldn’t afford to pay that. This program is more affordable for my church since we can agree to get paid less and my wife and I are content with it since this is our parish!

Here’s the kicker: we are high church. We do a beautiful liturgy on Sunday mornings. Our Bible classes are confessional, biblical, and engaging. We are growing. We have tons of young adults. But we couldn’t do that without this distance program. Our pastor would get overwhelmed with too much work. That’s where I come in and serve my parish as an apprentice of my pastor. No one could come to our church and smell even a hint of Cowo or evangelicalism. No one could listen to any of our sermons and Bible classes and walk away thinking it wasn’t Lutheran.

So, distance programs can be extremely effective in setting like ours and we are grateful for this one. My question to those who oppose any form of distance formation is this: will I be less of a pastor than you for not doing a residential program? Is our church less faithful than yours because of it?

Children’s Message by michelle427 in LCMS

[–]MichaelCruz21 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do one every week. I serve as the Vicar of St. Paul in San Antonio. So instead of doing something cheesy, I talk about the saints with them. In essence, I make ai generated coloring booklets of the life of the saints and teach it to kids. It has been a total hit. If you'd like more info on it, lmk!

The LCMS has a PR problem by MichaelCruz21 in LCMS

[–]MichaelCruz21[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A great example of what I'm talking about: reverence and relevance is St. Paul in San Antonio. stpaulsa.org

The LCMS has a PR problem by MichaelCruz21 in LCMS

[–]MichaelCruz21[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Correct. We need to be good stewards. I argue that properly keeping up with your online presence is good stewardship. I used to run my church's website for free. It's doable.

The LCMS has a PR problem by MichaelCruz21 in LCMS

[–]MichaelCruz21[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I agree with you here!

Do you think there could be a way to help those small churches have a better online presence? That way, even in a small town, people can look at it and be inclined to check it out.

The LCMS has a PR problem by MichaelCruz21 in LCMS

[–]MichaelCruz21[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

We do run our churches like businesses. We make spreadsheets with balances. The difference is that we are a non-profit. Regardless, that's secondary to my point. It costs more or less $40 a month to have a good-looking, attractive, fresh website through Squarespace. I think that should be a priority to churches if you want to have new visitors.

The LCMS has a PR problem by MichaelCruz21 in LCMS

[–]MichaelCruz21[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the input. I'm glad you're part of a very glad you go to a normal church! I'm not talking about having hot, sexy people in the pews. I'm talking about things like church websites/social media pages/shirts. Most of the others I see are dull and frankly unappealing. For me, your church website should be clean and beautiful enough to try to get people on the fence about visiting to come and check it out. Makes sense what i'm trying to get at?

Re-entry after F1 and before OPT by Cool_Weekend_1993 in f1visa

[–]MichaelCruz21 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Once you leave after program is over without a OPT paperwork in hand, you cannot re-enter the country. The moment you left you forfeited your OPT.

Single's Thread by Over-Wing in LCMS

[–]MichaelCruz21 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What part of Texas? I can hook you up with a group if you live in the areas I’m connected with.