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After spending most of his career in technology and international business management at
Sperry Univac and 3M (engineering degree from U of MN), Gary Forsberg began part-time studies
at Bethel Seminary in 2001 while also providing strategic guidance to small businesses and
non-profits on a pro-bono basis. While in seminary, Gary served as Director of Adult Ministries at
Peace Reformed Church in Eagan. He graduated from the seminary in 2006 (M.A. in Christian
Thought), at which point he and his wife Barbara started spending more time in northern
Minnesota, where he preached and taught at their local independent Lutheran church and a
neighboring church camp on an interim basis.

Gary and Barbara are the parents of two grown sons and now spend most of their time in the
Twin Cities, where they work with several charities. They look forward to exploring the possibility
of doing missions work in various parts of the world, including East Asia (where they lived for
four years while on assignment with 3M). Gary grew up on the south side of Minneapolis, and
came to know Jesus as Lord and Savior as a young teenager while attending Aldrich Presbyterian
Church!

Preparatory Remarks from Gary:

As we continue our journey toward Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday I would like us to use our time
together on April 3 to consider the topic of "Pleasing the Lord". From our Ephesians text we read how
the Apostle Paul describes the mixed metaphor of living in the "fruit of the light"; with the outcome of
this effort being the discovery of a "life pleasing to God". Beginning with our O.T. texts we encounter
two people who apparently led lives pleasing to God; first a fearful Samuel the prophet, and next an
unlikely future king, David the Shepherd. It is here that we first begin to realize the prophetic role David
will play in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The darkness he will face described in our Psalm will be
deep, but the fruit he will bear will somehow be eternal. Then in our Gospel reading we encounter the
blind beggar and the interaction that occurs between Jesus, the disciples, the Pharisees, and the
ordinary people of the surrounding area. It is in this encounter we discover the Messianic purpose of
Jesus' mission, that mission being "So that the blind will see and that those who see will become
blind". This leads us then to the consideration of our own individual lives, our lives together as
believers, and the lives of those around us in the context of a reality based upon a faith that tells us our
lives have meaning and purpose as we attempt to live them out in accordance with the light of the Holy
Spirit. By these teachings and examples I hope and pray we all might enrich our undertanding of what it
means to truly "Please the Lord".