I was four or five years old when my parents woke me up from a nap to tell me they had a surprise for me. I remember wiping the sleep from my eyes and watching the door open to see that my grandpa had visited from Florida, and he had brought me a puppy. His name was Max. Max was my own to love and take care of. He was one of the first gifts I remember receiving; truly one of my first vivid memories. 

There are a lot of cliches about a boy and his dog - I was probably an unwitting poster child. But more than that, Max was a connection to my grandpa, whom I only saw once every year or two because of the geographical distance between us. Max died just a few years before my grandpa did, and I remember feeling like a little bit of my grandpa was slipping away.

A few weeks ago, we were getting ready to host families for Family Promise and Lauri Vesper, one of our Family Promise coordinators, called me with a very specific need for an incoming family. The father died recently, and the now-widowed mother of two found herself unable to afford their home on her own. The children stayed with various friends while the mom slept in her car with their dog.

Family Promise was going to be their pathway to living together as a family again, but there was a catch: since families are moving from church to church each week, there is no way to accommodate a dog. Lauri asked if I might be able to foster the dog for a while until the family got through the program.

As Lauri recounted their story to me, my heart was already in my throat before she dropped one final detail: the dog had been a gift from the kids’ dad before he died.

So of course I wanted to do anything I could, which at a minimum meant fostering the dog until the family was in a home that allowed pets. In addition, if the dog had any medical needs or just needed updated shots, I would have been happy to accommodate that.

In the end, Family Promise was able to use a grant to bring this family back together in a house and they were able to keep their dog with them. Their situation worked out, but I know there are so many other unique stories with needs to satisfy before they can begin to get the help they need.

I continue to be grateful for the opportunity to serve in a place where we aren’t afraid to seek out ways to give people a leg up into a better life and meet both their physical and human needs.

Yours in Christ,

John

Dave Mackey and I talk about music often. If you don’t know him, Dave is a drummer at Lord of Life who is also a voracious consumer of music. We regularly chat about new releases, old favorites, and share memories as we mourn the recent loss of a legend. You can find us musing on social media, in texts, after worship moments, and – pre-COVID – in our living rooms and area concert venues.

Since there aren’t any live shows to attend right now, we’ve been exchanging some of our favorite jazz albums over the last few months. Each Sunday, we swap a handful of vinyl beauties and gush about the new discoveries.

A week or so before Ash Wednesday, Dave invited me to his car after online worship. Before opening the trunk, he said “I want this to be your Lenten discipline, this year. Drink deep from the well of jazz.” With that, he popped the back of his car and revealed a plastic crate filled with more than sixty 12” vintage platters of goodness, including names like Miles, Jaco, Coltrane, Cobham, Shorter, Hutcherson, Hancock, Adderley, Lateef, Fitzgerald, and more. Woah! I was thrilled to jump into this Lenten discipline! It was just what I needed.

Growing up, my family observed the forty days of Lent and attended midweek worship, but I don’t remember it as a season of sacrifice and giving up stuff. We still snacked on chocolate and drank caffeine. I also don’t recall being encouraged to add some kind of discipline, kindness, or service to my daily rhythm for those weeks leading up to Holy Week.

For some reason, when we hear the Lenten admonition to “return to the Lord your God, for God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” from Joel 2:13, we often associate it with solemnity and sacrifice. We assume that reorienting ourselves to God will be a joyless burden. I get it. There is a long and rich tradition in the church of using this season leading up to Easter for fasting and repentance. But there’s more.

Over the last eight months, a small group at Lord of Life has been intentionally talking about race. Little by little, we’ve been excavating our biases and assumptions, even as we confront the lasting trauma, inequities, and despair of racism. We’ve delved into slavery, reparations, incarceration, redlining, voter suppression, and many other components which continue to fuel systemic racism. Returning to these subjects over and over remind us that we have much work to do. But there’s hope. Courageous and innovative leaders are leading us into new territory of repentance, reconciliation, and renewal.

As we wrap up this February, when many have added some reading or listening of Black History to their daily rhythms, let it not end here. There are plenty of opportunities at Lord of Life and beyond to learn and grow. Like a good jazz record leads us to new ways of thinking and listening, may the Spirit of God continue to stretch us into fresh perspectives and daring conversations.

Still learning to love God and my neighbor,

Pastor Lowell

Traditions and rituals are such a blessing to have in the church. Typically, in the life of the church, we mark traditions with “holy days” - Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, etc. Growing up, I only observed two holy days within the life of the church - Christmas and Easter. However, when I joined the Episcopal campus ministry during my undergrad, I quickly fell in love with the plethora of holy days that there were to observe.

These days were not simply reasons to throw a party but served as a means to contemplate life and faith as a collective Christian community. And as holy days are wrapped with traditions and rituals, they gain not only importance for the life of the church, but importance in our own personal lives. I had a run-in with the personal importance of tradition as the snow thickened outside my living room window and “Fat Tuesday” was approaching.

Every year, for Fat Tuesday I buy a king cake and invite friends over for drinks, light conversation, and most importantly - cake. Fat Tuesday serves as an opportunity to indulge for the next day, Ash Wednesday, will mark the beginning of a fasting season. While we are reminded of our mortality on Wednesday, the day prior, Fat Tuesday, serves as a day of indulging in the blessings of life.

However, Fat Tuesday is different this year. For churches that usually observe Fat Tuesday, there won’t be pancake suppers in the fellowship hall. There will likely be a lot fewer gatherings of people to indulge in life the day before Lent. For me, my friends are in Louisville, KY and I am in West Chester, OH.

Earlier today, I braved the snow and drove across West Chester to buy a king cake. In the process, I got my car stuck in the snow as my apartment’s parking lot is not fully plowed. Someone had to push me out. Observing Fat Tuesday will be in isolation, in comparison to my usual church pancake supper and the hosting of friends. But I am keeping the tradition as much as I can because it is a dear one to have.

As we begin Lent, our means of observing the season - Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, and all of Holy Week leading up to Easter - will be different. Instead of a procession of people at in-person worship coming to the chancel to receive ashes, the imposition of ashes will be carried out via drive-thru, and others imposing their own ashes at home. That is merely one example. It may feel incomplete as it is a deviation from the norm, and may feel less communal. Yet, there is so much value in continuing these traditions as they are a means to communally discern our world, and carry personal value for ourselves.

I will be cutting my king cake tonight, and I look forward to beginning this odd Lenten journey with you, as we begin this season of rituals and traditions in new innovative ways. Though we are apart in the physical sense, with Christ among us we are innovating tradition together.

Your Sibling in Christ,

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

Watch our 2020 Ministry Review Video

Each year we produce a review of our ministries as a form of Annual Report to capture a snapshot of the amazing things we’ve accomplished as a congregation. For the last few years, it has been an infographic.

Ministry changed so much for us in 2020 we decided we should highlight it the same way we experienced most of it – through video.

We started 2020 strong, inviting guest Calla Gilson to talk about her ministry in Israel and the Holy Land, and Christian band Echelon to give a concert in January. Musicians of all ages started the year in person, singing and playing until we went virtual in March.

We found creative ways to focus on our priorities as we worked from home or with limited interaction.

We kept Christian Education going for all ages by focusing most of our efforts on Zoom calls. Adult learning, new member classes, Sunday School, First Communion, and our new “Let’s Talk About Race” discussions have all used the Zoom platform to keep meeting regularly. We sent materials home for Vacation Bible School and volunteers spent hours filming a virtual program so children could participate in their own time at home throughout the summer.

Lord of Life Christian Preschool followed the school district’s lead and went fully virtual in the spring and then came back in person with appropriate precautions in the fall. Their 2020 enrollment is 84.

We provided 3 scholarships totaling $4,500 as we honored 19 2020 graduates.

Our volunteers and staff found new ways to support our various outreach programs so could fulfill our call to help our neighbors. In 2020 we participated in the summer backpack program, we collected toys and games to distribute at summer lunch, we helped landscape at Union Elementary during God’s Work. Our Hands. Sunday; We grew 1,348 pounds of produce in our community garden, we safely hosted families experiencing homelessness through the Family Promise program, we helped assemble 168,246 meals at Hands Against Hunger; we collected 700 items and $500 gas money for the Navajo Nation so they would have personal protective equipment during the pandemic, our quilters made 66 quilts for Family Promise and Haven House, we continued to provide meals at Stepping Forward, we loaded two vans full of mittens and scarves we collected on the Giving Tree, we collected 1,648 pounds of food for Feed Our Neighbors in Need, VBS collected 1,310 items for the food pantry, we collected sheets for hospital gowns and did a fabric drive for breastfeeding covers, and we got our 3D printers going to make over 400 mask straps to give away to folks who had to wear masks full time for work.

We also continued to share our physical and virtual space with other ministries like AA, Al-Anon, scout troop 947, scout pack 919, and VEIL Latino ministry.

Getting out of the building gave us an opportunity to get a few major projects done that would have been difficult when we were at full capacity.

Read more …

“Facts are the cornerstones of reality. At least, they used to be."

“In today's ultra-polarised environment, however – marked by deep political divisions, heightened social tensions, and a deluge of misinformation and fake news – facts are rather less certain in people's minds than they once were.”

This quote from Peter Dockrill, in the Australian online science journal Science Alert (www.sciencealert.com, Feb 1, 2021), confirmed what many of us have suspected and witnessed: facts don't hold the weight and certitude they once did.

Dockrill argues, “If you really want to stand a chance of changing somebody's mind on a serious topic, there's something else you should be telling them: Your own personal experiences.”

This has always been the strategy of the Christian faith – testimony. From the beginning, those who encountered the living God shared their own experiences, declaring what they knew to be true. Over and over, first-person accounts of redemption, forgiveness, reconciliation, healing, and even resurrection moved skeptics and naysayers to belief. Those who saw, heard, and tasted the goodness of God could speak with assurance after experiencing the presence of the living God.

Personal experiences are what constitute much of our Holy Scripture. The Bible is a journal filled with people sharing their God encounters.

The leper couldn’t keep their mouth shut after Jesus’ cleansing touch (Mark 1:39-45), but recounted their story while highlighting their renewed flesh.

Zacchaeus was so overwhelmed by Jesus’ presence and forgiveness that he made amends with all he had scammed (Luke 19:1-10).

A Samaritan woman went to the well to draw a bucket of water, but also found her heart filled with living water when she encountered Jesus (John 4:1-42). John tells us, “Many Samaritans from that city believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony.”

After experiencing a “great light from heaven” which called him by name, the prolific persecutor of Christians, Saul/Paul, became one of the greatest missionaries and disciples of Jesus, telling stories of hope and freedom grounded in Christ. (Acts 22 and beyond).

What’s your story? How have you encountered God? When have you been overwhelmed by the presence of the Creator in creation? When has Jesus walked with you or a loved one? Have you heard the still small voice of the Holy Spirit? How do you share these stories with your family, friends, and strangers?

Sharing our encounters with the living God is so central to what we do at Lord of Life that we’ve included it in our mission statement – “live, share, and celebrate!” Yes, sharing includes offering our time to serving God and neighbor. And yes, sharing involves being generous with our finances, but it also demands that we tell the stories of faith. We not only share the biblical stories and those who have gone before us, but also share what we have seen with our eyes and hearts.

I love to tell the Story,

Pastor Lowell

The month of January can be tough in the best of times. The holidays are over and the decorations are put away. While it is sometimes a relief to clean up and return to uncluttered spaces, I never enjoy the seemingly endless cloudy winter days. Even without an actual diagnosis of Seasonal Affective Disorder, the gray days can bring most folks down. Of course, these are not the best of times. We’re all living in the unprecedented times of a global pandemic, and many of the usual remedies to the January blahs are not available to us.

Some days, I try to find comfort in routine. I enjoy making myself a latte every morning. While  I savor the delicate, warm, foamy goodness, I read the New York Times daily news brief. Lately, I’ve found myself skimming the top stories, since they don’t change much from day to day: the virus and its fallout dominate the headlines and our lives. Many of the stories under the banner of ‘Other News’ would warrant top billing at any other time: tornadoes, international scandals, and violence.

But this week, an unusually click-bait style headline caught my attention, as intended. “The last known female Swinhoe’s softshell turtle died in 2019 - or so scientists thought.” I took the bait, and I was delighted and captivated. Just in case you missed the story, I’ll give you a quick recap. Scientists in Vietnam who have been studying this endangered species for decades were devastated when the last known female Swinhoe’s softshell turtle died last year, leaving one male in captivity, and one turtle of unverified species and gender in the wild. Using environmental DNA technology, they’ve determined the turtle is a female Swinhoe’s softshell turtle! Their exhaustive study and field surveys have turned up a few more turtles in the wild that are likely to be Swinhoe’s as well. 

The presence or absence of this species of turtle is not likely to change my life or anybody else’s in any measurable way. They aren’t the source of a life-saving medicine or the missing link to evolutionary theory. Yet, the existence of a couple of turtles has given scientists tremendous hope that they can save a species. I am gratified that there are people who will dedicate their lives to understanding and caring for our planet. Isn’t that what we need? A little bit of hope.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

Where are you finding hope this January? What is a remedy that helps sustain you during these days of isolation? As you continue to search for a midwinter boost, the Spirit of God is close at hand, ready to surprise you with joy and good news. Please take care: if you find the blahs won’t go away and are affecting your everyday life, reach out for help. The weather forecast predicts some sunny days this week. Even if you don’t see the sun this week, I pray you find something that sparks joy for you.

Your sister in Christ,

Cara Hasselbeck