A few weeks ago, the father of one of my best friends died unexpectedly. At 67, he had no pre-existing conditions, was physically active, and had been enjoying his first few years of retirement traveling around the world. My friend, Will, and his family were devastated. Will is an only child and his dad was the last member of his family. For many people, this would be a time they would be surrounded by a church community to help support them. But Will and his family left an emotionally abusive church years ago and chose not to put down roots anywhere else. Brian, four other friends, and I were the only people outside of Will’s wife and kids to attend his father’s service and burial.

I’m grateful each day for the many ways the Lutheran Church is different from some of the other Christian denominations. There are many churches that manipulate and take advantage of their members, that cover up terrible abuses, or that drive people away for questioning their authority. These are among the issues Martin Luther was trying to address when he sought to reform the Catholic church.

As a musician, I appreciate that one of the most visible (or audible) changes was in the practice of singing together as a congregation. Before the Reformation, most music was performed only by professionals and listened to by the congregation. Singing hymns brings everyone closer together as active worshippers instead of as spectators. It helps to seal us together as a worshipping body as we offer our praise, no matter our level of ability. It is an outward and visible sign of the inward sense of community we share. It is also a necessity, especially in difficult times like a funeral, to share this sense of community in singing our prayers and praises.

502 years later, the changes that grew out of Martin Luther’s theses continue to bring us together as a Christian community. They help us form bonds so that we are supported and can in turn help to support others. We are tied together in words and music, and also in grace and faith. This Sunday, as we hold our yearly celebration of the Reformation, come and sing with us!

In Community,

John Johns

Here we go! In the coming weeks, look around the parking lot at church. You’ll start to see the fruits of our Share the Light capital campaign starting to grow.  

Have you ever walked in our parking lot at night after it rains? If you’re lucky enough to be able to see where you’re going, you need to watch out for the puddles! Starting next week, we’ll be making improvements to help make a difference. We’ll be installing new light fixtures to brighten up the space, installing a new drainage system, and repaving the front apron (area by the road). We are not going to repave the entire lot at this point, because we would need to do it again after the heavy equipment from construction. We’ll wait and do the whole lot after completion of the multi-purpose community space.

Thank you for your patience. There’s been a tremendous amount of progress made over the past several months, but it’s hard to see, touch, and feel most of it. Hopefully, you’ve seen the conceptual drawings that have been displayed in our Gathering Space of the sanctuary renovations and new multi-purpose community space. In addition to taking feedback from the congregation and adjusting our plans, we’ve also received zoning approval from West Chester Township. We’re excited that it is time to make those plans a reality!

With the conceptual plans now completed for the addition and sanctuary, we are headed into the construction documents and administration phase. The purpose of this phase is to complete the formal drawings, which will be used to secure funding from the bank to bridge us, while we continue to collect campaign commitments, and then we’ll get estimates and bids. Our target is to finish this documentation and administration phase before Christmas and hoping we can break ground sometime in the March or April timeframe for the new space!

Thank you for your faithful prayers and financial support of the Share the Light campaign. We are excited about what God is doing both in us and through us, as we share the light and hope of Jesus Christ with the world.

Looking ahead,

Greg Hasselbeck, Share the Light Guidance Team

Share the Light is our 3 year (June 2018 – June 2021), $1.1 million-dollar capital campaign to expand and update our facility for mission and ministry.

The project specifics include the design and construction of multi-purpose community space (estimated $382,000), design and installation of a sprinkler system (estimated $85,000), a drainage system, grading, and curbing in the parking lot (estimated $227,000), and sanctuary renewal (estimated $100,300). A tithe, campaign fees, and architectural expenses will also be included in our project total of $1,100,000.

If you would like to make a pledge to the Share the Light campaign or make a one-time gift, please contact our Financial Manager, Donna Harvey (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

The word is out about Lord of Life. Not only are we known in our community for loving God and serving our neighbors, but we are also recognized as a place that allows student drivers to practice maneuverability. Have you seen the orange cones? They are a semi-permanent fixture in our back parking area as an act of hospitality for fifteen-somethings who are looking for some cones to run over as they learn the fine art of parallel parking.

I spent many evenings back there, this summer, while one of our kids was working his way through the final stages of driver’s education. Day after day, we’d cruise the streets of West Chester, Hamilton, and other adjacent communities, looking for every possible driving scenario and then end up weaving in and out of the carefully positioned sentries with hopes of moving toward perfection.

Some occasions were practically flawless, while others were filled with bumps and clunks or completely running over cones. When the latter happened, there was only one thing he could do—stop the car, put it in park, get out, reset the cones, and try it again. You know the drill.

If you’ve navigated the cones or parallel parked, you know that there is a point when it becomes impossible to steer your way out of a bad situation. You simply have to forfeit your position and move the vehicle back to the starting point, set the cones back in their location, and then begin anew.

I see parallels in our moments of confession and forgiveness. In this self-critiquing posture, we declare our failure and take a hard reset. We pause, admit to what doesn’t work, seek forgiveness, reset, and try it again. Rather than trying to maneuver our way out of situations with coercive speech and irrational behavior, we need to stop and return to the place of origin.

Earlier this week, I spent a few days at the Duke Divinity School for the Fall Convocation and Pastors’ School in Durham, NC. This annual event was a whirlwind forty-eight hours that included keynote speakers, worship moments, breakout sessions, and occasions for dwelling in the theme “Cultivating Thriving Communities.”

David Brooks (PBS News Hour & New York Times), Krista Tippett (On Being), Kate Bowler (Duke University & TED Talks), Rev. Ralph West (The Church Without Walls), and others challenged us to assess our individual and collective mistakes in ministry. In their own way, each critiqued the missteps that we’ve taken as the Christian Church in the last several decades and invited us to trust the Spirit of God as we rethink our strategies and align our wheels with where God is steering.

Unfortunately, we’re often reluctant to follow the lead of our Creator. We think that we know how to navigate life better on our own. Rev. West, during his opening sermon at Duke, said that when the prophet Micah asks, “What does the Lord require?”, we’re all too eager to answer with just about anything other than what God asks of us. God asks us to “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.”

What if, instead of excuses for our miscalculations and faulty vision, we embraced God’s course corrections and listened to the loving instructions for what’s next? Perhaps, we should trust that The Instructor has done this before and has something to teach us.

Looking ahead,

Pastor Lowell

Do your friends regale you with connection stories that go something like this?

“My daughter’s boyfriend’s sister’s friend met Brad Pitt.” Or, “My aunt’s brother-in-law’s cousin is a distant relative to Elvis.”

We all tell these connection stories. It is as if we are saying, “Do you know who I know?” In fact, we do not know the person at the center of the story at all. We are three steps away from knowing them. We like to tell these stories about our place of work, the clubs we belong to, and our neighborhoods, too.

But what about our church? Being a part of Lord of Life and its incredible Outreach Ministry opportunities can give you countless connections stories. You can simply tell the stories or choose to be an active participant in the story. I hope you choose the latter.

Take Family Promise for example. Family Promise was started in 1986 by a woman who learned that homelessness was affecting families in her own community. Thirty years later this national network has 203 affiliates in 43 states and has served 68,000 families engaging 160,000 volunteers.

Family Promise of Butler County began three years ago. Lord of Life was a part of this exciting program at its inception and continues to serve homeless families four weeks each year. In 2020, Lord of Life will host five weeks.

Family Promise staff helps homeless families search for a job or a better paying job, secure food stamps, daycare vouchers, and receive counseling at the day center all without the additional daily stress of having to find food and shelter for their young families.

In 2018, Lord of Life served 21 families, 61 individuals of which 62% were children. 38% of the children were under the age of 5. Because Family Promise is predicated on empowerment, not enabling, 75% of these families secured permanent or transitional housing. The average length of stay in the program was 57 days.

Every single day in Butler County, 2/3 of all families are one missed paycheck, one medical emergency, or one family crisis away from homelessness. Read that again… Butler County. Two thirds, 66%, two out of three! Consider this. The family car breaks down, there is no money to repair or replace it, getting to work becomes difficult, and the downward spiral into homelessness begins.

Lord of Life welcomed and hosted families just a few weeks ago. One morning, as I greeted them and helped them pack a lunch, a mom told me three times how happy she was to be sleeping in a bed, getting the best night’s sleep she has had in ages. You see, she and her teen daughter had been sleeping in a car. I cannot adequately describe the look on her face. I saw peace and relief. I saw hope and I saw a new beginning.

So, will you be telling folks about how your church supports Family Promise or will you be an active participant in the program? I hope you choose the latter.

Hoping to connect,
Lauri Vesper
Lauri is one of our Family Promise Coordinators.

Want to hear more? You can hear a Family Promise graduate tell their story at the annual Keeping the Promise fundraiser on October 17 at Wetherington Country Club. Details of the event are available on our website

To read Lauri’s previous blog, click here.

Thank you to the people of Lord of Life for allowing me to sneak away for a long weekend to spend some quality time with my dad. We traveled to Dallas this past weekend to see Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival, more on that in a moment. While we were there we got to experience the Museum of Biblical Art, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, and Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, all of which will be fueling many sermons and blog posts in the near future.

My dad grew up playing in bands at a very early age, playing in night clubs and bars before he was even legally allowed to consume a beverage there. He played with several “party” bands in the Cincinnati area, most notably with “Roundabout,” and even met my mom while playing in one of the clubs. Because he spent so much time playing music, he never had a lot of time to go to concerts to see the musicians who were so influential to him. 

It has always been on my dad’s bucket list to see Eric Clapton play live. Clapton “retired” from touring several years ago and it looked like my dad may never get to see one of his guitar heroes play in person. So when Clapton announced that he would once more be hosting the Crossroads Guitar Festival, in support of his Crossroads Centre for Addiction Treatment (https://crossroadsantigua.org/), we knew he had to get tickets. Along with seeing Clapton play two live sets over two nights, we got to see him play for the first time ever with Peter Frampton, collaborations with Buddy Guy and Johnny Lang, Tedeschi Trucks Band, John Mayer, Jeff Beck with Johnny Depp, many more bands, and all hilariously hosted by Bill Murray. It was a joy to see my dad geeking out over all of the amazing guitarists!

After the two-day concert ended, my dad said, “I think I have seen all of my bucket list musicians in one epic concert.” That got me thinking… What comes after your bucket list? What motivates you once all of those “pie in the sky” dreams are checked off and completed? After he is done basking in the glory of that concert, my guess, is that my dad will find some new things to add to his bucket list. The thing that brings me joy is knowing that God smiles when we get to live out those bucket-list moments and enjoy the life with which God has blessed us. 

Our God is a God who desires for us to be whole and happy. I think God beams with joy when we are swept up in these mountain top moments. So how are you planning to live life to the fullest? What would bring you joy right now? What do you want to add to your bucket list? A bucket list implies that at some point we will “kick the bucket” and cease to be on Earth. The good news is that God has defeated death, and the most epic guitar concert ever assembled, better than any bucket list item, will be waiting for us, with Jesus playing lead guitar! 

Rock On,

Pastor Corey

True confessions. I hate to admit this, but I used to be a badass substitute teacher and would have a look of disdain when students would ask me for paper and pencils. For the life of me, I could not understand why parents were so lazy that they could not even drive their kids to the store for basic school supplies. After all, I was the mom who drove to Walgreens at midnight for that darn poster board no one told me they needed until the last minute. Didn’t everyone do that?

One day while subbing in art class in Lakota, a student abruptly stood up and threw all of her textbooks at the table of four guys sitting next to her. I approached to ask if the boys had said something to upset her. Before I could even finish my question, she emptied the trash can and hurled it across the room aiming at those same young men and then emptied the recycling bin and launched it across the room, too. She fled and I called for help.

When I left that day, I stopped by to talk to the on-site sheriff and asked if she was going to be ok.  He told me that she had no home to call her own. She was bounced from one house to the next, living with different relatives and moving schools based on where the relatives lived.

I wondered how many other homeless kids had crossed my paths in my years of subbing. Was it the kids whom asked me for school supplies? Or the young man who carried a broken cell phone just to fit in? Or the kids wearing tennis shoes that were two sizes too small? I was a judgmental insensitive fool and I was incredibly sorry.

From that day on, I decided to carry my own stash of notebook paper and pencils and dole out these basic school supplies to anyone who asks. No judging.

Family Promise of Butler County recently released the Official Homeless Count Numbers for the 2018/2019 school year. As of May 2019, there were 182 homeless students in Lakota, 685 in Hamilton, 190 in Middletown, and 162 in Fairfield. For the previous year, the total for Butler County was 901. This past year it was 1,354, an increase of 453 children. If you include the number of homeless children under the age of 5 the number is much greater. 

So, yes, there are homeless kids in my/our school district. Our work with local schools, ministries with Family Promise, Stepping Forward, Reach Out Lakota, and engagement with local leaders are essential to our communities and these children.

To be continued…

Lauri Vesper

Lauri is one of our Family Promise co-ordinators.