I am not the most musically knowledgeable person. If you ask me what type of music I like I will shamefully say that I like what is on the radio. I don’t deep dive into genres and uncover the rising artists. However, there is one artist that I will go to bat for and passionately defend as I am a genuine fan - Katy Perry.

If you take a deep dive into Katy Perry’s music you’ll notice that she makes a lot of Bible references. Before Katy Perry was a pop star, she was Katheryn Hudson - a teenage gospel singer raised by two Pentecostal pastors. When her early career as a gospel singer was not a success, she brought herself into secular music and rebranded herself as Katy Perry - taking on her mother’s maiden name.

Though she is a secular artist, she wears her faith upbringing on her sleeve, literally, as she has “Jesus” tattooed on her wrist. But also, it is in her music. In her song Wide Awake she sings of being born again. In Who am I Living For? Perry plays with Christian themes of being chosen, called, sacrifice, Heaven, Hell, and name drops Esther, while repeatedly asking, “Who am I living for?” In By the Grace of God, she sings about finding strength during divorce, thanks to God’s grace, “By the grace of God- there was no other way- I picked myself back up- I knew I had to stay-.” In Rise she quotes Jesus in Matthew 8:26, “O ye of so little faith, don’t doubt it, don’t doubt it,” and in the same song, she uses death and resurrection imagery, singing, “When you think the final nail is in, think again. Don't be surprised, I will still rise.”

Katy Perry is not unique though. Although she incorporates Christianity into her music more so than the average artist, the media industry loves to play with Christian imagery - largely because it is what we know as a heavily Christian society. Ask almost anyone, “who is Jesus?” and you will get an answer. And because of Christianity’s universalism, Biblical imagery and concepts tug at people’s hearts and minds. Coupling that with why many of us listen to music, we come to know that people, religious and irreligious, universally find inspiration and discernment through thinly veiled religious ideas.

Music grabs us and helps us discern our reality. When we are sad we listen to the blues. When we need some motivational energy at the gym we play upbeat music. When our heads are stuck in cloud nine we play Ed Sheeran or Michael Bublé. When songs break records and generate millions in revenue, people communally discern their reality through shared music, even if they simply listen alone on their way to work.

The line between secular and religious is thin, as we are religious people in a secular world, and secular people in a religious world. When Praying, a secular song by Kesha peaked at #7 on the Billboard chart, the world was pulled into Kesha’s words “I hope you’re somewhere prayin, I hope your soul is changin’, I hope you find your peace, fallin’ on your knees, prayin.”

What songs have helped you discern the world? In the high and low moments of life, what artists were able to tug on your heartstrings? Has secular music brought you into a deeper relationship with God?

Your sibling in Christ,

Pastor Alec Brock, Seminary Intern (he/him/his)

“We see you. We hear you. You matter.”

Throughout April and May, fifteen of us took a deeper dive into racial discussions. A larger group of us had already been watching films and documentaries, reading books, and gathering twice a month for discussions over the last year, but as we moved toward May 25, the one year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, we yearned for more.

“Our Next Faithful Move” was a perfect fit. Our hosts, Joe Davis and David Scherer, invited us into their story as residents of Minneapolis and lovingly challenged us to wrestle with our own histories and explore the tensions of our time, even as they equipped us with a variety of skills for moving forward.

After each person shared a personal story, our group paused and responded in unison, “We see you. We hear you. You matter.” Before we launched into our own thoughts, opinions, or counter arguments, we gave honor to each speaker’s vulnerability and their reflection. Knowing each others’ stories deepens our understanding of each other, allowing us to connect in meaningful ways and challenges us to grow. It is a privilege to know people in this way.

“We see you. We hear you. You matter.”

Far too often, when someone else is speaking, I spend my mental energy formulating my next verbal move. Rather than seeing and hearing them, I’m busy crafting my own agenda. This simple mantra is a reminder to honor the person before me and to take in what they are saying as we share space together.

Jesus was a master at making space for people. He saw the frustrated Zacchaeus in the tree (Luke 19:1-10) and the isolated Samaritan woman at the well in the heat of the day (John 4), then made time for them. He listened to the Syrophoenician woman (Mark 7:24-30) and the anxious thief on the cross (Luke 23:39-43). Over and over throughout the gospel accounts, Jesus declared in word and deed, “I see you. I hear you. You matter.”

During this Pride Month, you may wonder why people are posting rainbow flags, marching in Pride parades, and sharing words like ally, full-inclusion, and LGBTQIA+. These are all ways of saying “We see you. We hear you. You matter.” We stand up and speak out as signs of support and encouragement. For too long, these children of God – our family members, friends, co-workers, and strangers – have been relegated to live out of sight and in silence.

Even more, this is part of our Christian witness. The Spirit of God fills us with love and grace, giving us the capacity to know each others’ stories and find our collective selves in God’s story. Each time we worship, eat, protest, vote, listen, pray, and celebrate no-matter-what love, we proclaim to the world, “God sees you. God hears you. You matter.”

I love to tell the Story,

Pastor Lowell

School’s out for summer! Temperatures are rising, there are more days of sunshine than rain, and gardens are coming to life with flowers, birds, and the increasing sound of cicadas. For many of us, it’s the best time to take a break from our busy schedules and refresh ourselves by taking time away from work or school. With COVID restrictions lifting, we might be able to use that time to take a vacation and adventure. 

The Church year uses the summer to refresh, too. Most major feasts and celebrations take place between October and May, and once they are over, we have several months in which we hear stories about the growth of Christ’s ministry and the building of the original discipleship. Our paraments on the front of the altar and lectern will change to green to symbolize this growing period. 

At Lord of Life this summer, we’re using this time of growth to introduce some new hymns from our new hymnal supplement, All Creation Sings, at 8 am worship. The current hymnal, Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW) was published in 2006 and ends at hymn 893. All Creation Sings (ACS) is meant to add to, not replace, the ELW, and begins at hymn 901. It refreshes our selection of music by adding texts by current authors to old tunes as well as entirely new songs. We’ve been singing Liturgy music (Gloria; Alleluia; Holy, Holy, Holy; etc) from ACS since December. 

We’re excited to showcase the rest of the new hymnal supplement and we hope our new hymns add to your own time of refreshment and growth.

Yours in song,

John Johns

Even before the pandemic, May was usually filled with many shifts. As the school year wraps up for students, teachers, and families, daily rhythms of classroom and homework move to lazy mornings and relaxed schedules. Weather shifts from cool, spring showers to steamy days and humid nights. Work schedules have the occasion to shift from long days and weeks to make way for summer vacations and allow for holiday weekends and evenings with friends and family.

Our Lord of Life community shifts with the church year and the seasons, too. How fitting that we begin our summer this Sunday with the celebration of Pentecost, honoring the Holy Spirit, that leads us into new and exciting ways to live, share, and celebrate.

This year, there are additional shifts happening, too. In the last few days, we heard about a major shift in COVID protocols, which modifies many of the restrictions of the last fourteen months. As we review the changing protocols, we are thrilled to announce some big news about our lives together.

First, beginning Memorial Weekend, we’ll shift to our new summer schedule of 8 am and 10 am worship. Allowing an extra half-hour between the services allows us to return the 8 am worship service indoors, in person, surrounded by the ongoing sanctuary renewal projects. Please bring your own chair for comfortable seating. Metal folding chairs will also be available.

Our 10 am worship service will be outside, weather permitting, with the option of in-person, inside when the weather is bad. We invite you to bring your own chair or blanket for comfortable seating. Metal folding chairs will also be available.

Both worship moments will continue to be streamed online, so you can watch from your home, the campground, or wherever else you might be when summer Sundays roll around. You can also watch them later. All of our worship services are archived on our YouTube channel and our website.

There will also be a shift in our food truck events. These have been a huge success over the last six months, pumping revenue into local, independent restaurants and bringing our community together during a time of isolation.

This summer, food trucks are shifting to the first and third Wednesdays and we are adding a free concert series with artists from around the region. Please see the announcement on our social media, website, and weekend bulletins. These will not only be great opportunities to listen to a variety of great music, but also a time to reconnect with friends and meet new neighbors. We’ve shifted our traditional Vacation Bible School (VBS) to a series of activities to coincide with the concerts.

Even though the mask mandate is lifting for vaccinated individuals, we encourage you to continue wearing a mask while moving about in the indoor and outdoor spaces. It isn’t required, but our ministry staff will mask up, even though we are vaccinated, knowing that it will bring comfort to some of our little ones and the vulnerable around us who aren’t yet vaccinated.

Thank you again for your patience, flexibility, and encouragement over the last year. Your faithfulness to what God is doing through our congregation has been a source of comfort, hope, and stability. “We love because God first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

Even as the Holy Spirit guides us to shift in new directions, Jesus is the rock we can stand on.

I pray that you are well and staying healthy.

See you soon,

Pastor Lowell

What would we do if we didn’t have volunteers? When I look at all the people who attend Lord of Life, I see many who take time out of their everyday life to freely offer their time, talents, funds, and expertise to tackle a task. They don’t do this for pay, nor do they do it for the fame and glory. They volunteer because they are following the call of Christ to serve one another. What a special way to show the love of God.

Volunteering can look like being part of a mission team, leading our youth and children’s programs, going on mission trips, sponsoring a Bible study, serving communion, being part of the praise team, praying for others, helping with Stepping Forward, providing food during a food drive, giving backpacks to children who are in need, being on the board for the Preschool, greeting people at the door, and my favorite: volunteering for Family Promise.

Did you know it takes approximately 50 people volunteering each week that Lord of Life hosts Family Promise guests at the church? It requires people to set up the family rooms, 2 volunteers each night to spend the night, around 4 people to prepare and serve a meal along with being with the families during the evening, then taking everything down and washing the laundry at the end of the week. If 50 individuals volunteer, then you only serve time for the week.

I’d like to share a couple of stories as to how our volunteers affect the lives of those we serve at Family Promise. One of our single moms was asked by a volunteer if there were no barriers what did she dream of doing with her life. This mom had never had someone ask her what her dreams were. Her answer was to own her own daycare. This volunteer then sat with her while they put this dream on paper and set up a path to make it happen. I am so excited to say this mom followed through on the dream and now runs her own in-home daycare. She is very successful, all because a volunteer asked what her dreams were. One of the congregations took the families to Light Up Middletown to see the Christmas Lights. Several of the children had never seen a Christmas display before. We had a kindergartner who was failing because he couldn’t read. For 2 months straight, we had a volunteer tutor at each congregation who worked with this child and he graduated from kindergarten at an age appropriate, reading level. This is a super small sampling of what our volunteers have achieved.

While Family Promise is obviously my favorite way to volunteer, I would encourage everyone reading this to prayerfully consider where your gifts and talents lie and then volunteer. Volunteers do make a difference!

Linda Smith, Executive Director, Family Promise of Butler County and Lord of Life member

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Family Promise of Butler County addresses the needs of families struggling with homelessness by providing shelter, meals, and support services. You can learn more about this crucial ministry, as well as serve and support them, here: http://www.familypromisebutlercounty.com/

Many thanks to all who made our host week with Family Promise happen, this week. Each greeting, meal, and prayer was a service of love.

As individuals, we may be aware of parts of ourselves that are a contributing factor in how we mingle around a room, or how we are received in daily interactions. For me, when I began my journey into the candidacy process, that is, the process to become a pastor, I became aware of my age. Not all at once, rather, it was gradual. I met my seminary cohort and I realized I was the youngest person in the Master of Divinity program. While most of my classmates were in the process of leaving a career behind to head back to the classroom, I felt as if I was starting from scratch. Another time of being made aware of my age, I wore a collar out in public, and someone who was old enough to be my grandfather said, “Hello father.” My eyes widened as I took control of my reaction. Then I smiled, greeted, “Hey son” as I inwardly found humor in the dialogue.

But chip by chip, self-awareness of my age, and all that it may bring, started to weigh on me. I thought, “I’m going to be like a Catholic priest in marriage counseling”- someone with no marriage and no kids, trying to have wisdom, or at least relatability, for the married with kids. I dwelled in the reality that I will have to contextualize the gospel to generations cultivated by shared experiences that have had no role in shaping me. I pondered the reality that I have little past career experience that has strengthened and refined skills for a clergy career that is oftentimes taxing and of many hats. On top of all of that, there is the simple reality that I am at an age that can easily be dismissed or looked down on as naive, or as lacking the necessary maturity. I can go on.

But I have to remind myself that those perceived deficits are only half of the equation. While I do believe it is important for me to be aware of how my age may impact how I’m received, or how it may come with hurdling blocks, I must also be aware of the gifts it brings. Does my age come with new eyes? Does placing my generation in positions of leadership help the church bring the gospel to my generation, which is disproportionately churchless? Just as people who have come before me have molded the church, and continue to magnificently shape the church, is now my time? I like to think yes. And my value as a young adult does not simply apply to me. Rather, just as I have value for the life of the church, so do the youth at Lord of Life.

In the coming Sundays, we are celebrating youth in the church. Little ones will be taking communion for the first time. We’ll celebrate our high school seniors, as they will soon graduate and move onto the next chapter in their lives. Confirmands will affirm their baptismal vows, and become voting members in the parish. Each of these is a reminder that youth are not the church of tomorrow, rather they are the church now. From adorable little ones to young adults, the Holy Spirit is cultivating their gifts for the life of the church, and what a blessing it is for us to be witnesses. And for me, what a good reminder!

Your sibling in Christ,

Pastor Alec (he/him/his)