For pastors, it's a busy time of year

The busy Christmas holiday brings increased stress for many, and those leading congregations of their own are rising to the challenge to rediscover the many meanings of the season.“I’d like to think the stress of the season makes for better sermons,” said the Rev. Peter Faugstad, who pastors Lutheran churches in New Hampton, Jerico and Saude. “The coming of the Christ to save us gives comfort to the weak, the weary, and the sinful, which is exactly what the pastor is. My failure to get everything done that I think I should get done this time of year is a reminder that I need Christmas as much as everyone else. I need ‘a Savior, who is Christ the Lord’ (Luke 2:11).”Perhaps the hardest hitting stress is grief, which brings with it the challenge to see the world differently.— For more on this story, see the Dec. 21 New Hampton Tribune.