Is “Lutheran spirituality” an oxymoron? When we consider Martin Luther and the early reformers, we think of great theologians, prolific writers and musicians. We are well aware of Luther’s earthy language and direct communication. But spirituality? Luther as mystic? Not so much. And yet, Luther was a deeply spiritual person who also cared for the spiritual well-being of his parishioners.

Luther was a monk before he was a college professor and reformer. By his own account he out-monked everyone in his monastery. He took his vows seriously. He longed for God. He wrestled with God. He argued with God. Well before he came to an understanding of grace, Luther nevertheless knew that his life was found in God. He was spiritual and religious.

“Spirituality” covers a lot of things. Church historian and writer Martin Marty once said: “‘Spirituality’ is the code word used to convey everything from profound quests to warm tingles between the toes.”

As a parish pastor I often heard people declare that they were spiritual and not religious. I was suspicious that this was an excuse for not coming to church, but I now think there is more to it than that. We are created to search for meaning. Mary Jane Haemig, a professor at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., wrote: “Today people hear many words but long for authentic words and authentic relationships. They ask whether they can trust what they hear and whether they can trust that anyone will hear what they say. This longing for authentic communication is part of the longing for relationship. The church can help people identify that this longing includes a longing for God.”

[The cover story of the most recent issue of Living Lutheran magazine] is about prayer. Even in an increasingly secular society, prayer in some form is practiced by most Americans. What happens when we pray? Why do we pray? How should we pray? Is prayer just a lot of words spoken into emptiness? Is prayer efficacious?

Luther wasn’t too worried about these questions. He was more concerned that people actually did pray, that they were in communication with God who hears prayer, commands us to pray and gives us the words we need through the Spirit. He could be pretty blunt: “You must learn to call. Do not sit by yourself or lie on a couch, hanging and shaking your head. Do not destroy yourself with your own thoughts by worrying. Do not strive and struggle to free yourself, and do not brood on your wretchedness, suffering and misery. Say to yourself: ‘Come on, you lazy bum; down on your knees, and lift your eyes and hands toward heaven!’”

For Luther, God was real, and this real God wants real people to be in real communication with God. We are not to fret about elegant phrases or creative and original prayers. We shouldn’t worry about folding hands or raising hands or standing or kneeling. It’s not about technique. Prayer is about relationship with God. God has created us for God’s self and we are not whole apart from this relationship.

And it is here that this Lutheran began to understand and resist and, finally, imperfectly come to know and trust God more deeply. There is a little stubbornness in me. I like to be in charge. I want to set the terms of engagement. I will decide when God can come in. But here is the truth: God is already and always present.

Luther wrote: “The entire divine nature is wholly and entirely in all creatures, more deeply, more inwardly, more present than the creature is to itself.” That kind of makes resistance pointless.

Prayer is an invitation into divine love. Prayer is God seeking us. In God’s seeking, in God’s speaking and listening we find ourselves.

A monthly message from the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, published in the March 2019 issue of Living Lutheran (LivingLutheran.org). Photo: Kerry Erington

This weekend marks twenty-five years of playing music with my bandmates in the Echelon band. Before I went to seminary, I was a musician and, even now, I still have occasion a few times each year to connect with these long-time friends to play for conventions and retreats.

This anniversary might not sound like a big deal to you, but a quarter of a century is a long time to stick it out with the same group of singers, songwriters, and instrumentalists. Musicians are notoriously temperamental, opinionated, creative types who fuss when they don’t get their own way. Life on the road and “artistic differences” often force individuals to go their own way. Somehow, the four of us have been able to remain grounded and creative together.

The Beatles, arguably one of the greatest bands of all time, only could endure each other for eight years. Nirvana, in their short seven years together, experienced some personnel changes. Rock super group, Blind Faith, made up of all-star musicians Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Ginger Baker, and Ric Grech, survived only one year, before egos tore it apart. Life in community is hard.

The name Echelon comes from the V formation which geese utilize when they migrate. As they fly, the flock drafts behind the front bird who creates an updraft for the other birds. When the lead bird gets tired, it rotates back in the flock and another takes the lead. Using this rotational model, these geese can fly seventy times further than if it were a single bird attempting to make the journey solo. It helps that the geese in the back offer their honks of encouragement as they soar. If a bird becomes sick or injured, a bird or two drops out of the formation and accompanies that bird, until it is well enough to travel again or dies.

What a metaphor for the community of Christ! Working together, we can accomplish so much more than if we try to do it all alone. We take turns leading and guiding. We pause to help those who are hurting and accompany others in moments of illness and death. Do the noises we make offer criticism or encouragement?

As Christians, we give thanks that Jesus took the wind on our behalf in his suffering and death, which now opens up the opportunities for forgiveness, reconciliation, and new life. We cling to the promises of God as the Spirit invites us to follow, wherever our journey leads.

This week, as we gather for our Ash Wednesday liturgy, some of the first words that we’ll hear will be the refrain of God’s loving migration promise from Joel 2:13:

“Return to the Lord, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”

Return. Come back. Fly home. Follow me. God doesn’t send us off on a journey all alone, but leads us to a place of hope and renewal. Let’s stick together!

Looking forward,

Pastor Lowell

It’s hard to believe that I am seven months into my internship here at Lord of Life. A third of my time with you has come and gone in what seems like the blink of an eye. I could write a sentimental blog that recaps all of the emotional rollercoasters from the past few seasons, but instead, I want to continue to face forward and look to the future of ministry at Lord of Life. There is nothing wrong with embracing the past and remembering it, but having a vision for the future is what propels us forward into the work God is calling us to do.

I like to think of visioning as “picturing an end result and then figuring out how to get there.” Over the last year, Lord of Life entered a visioning process, entitled “Share the Light,” and asked ourselves: Where do we see God leading our congregation in the next three years? Through that process we realized that our space, and lack thereof, was a real hindrance to our growth. We envisioned a pathway to update our building to fire code in order to build an expanded, multi-purpose community space off of our current welcome area. Without the visioning process, we may have just continued with the status quo, and continued to wring our hands at the lack of meeting space needed each week.

This past Saturday, during our Urban Immersion trip to Hamilton, we met with Pastor Shaq of Truth and Life Community Church, and she shared with us about how she recently led a visioning board seminar where people came to vision where they want to be in mind, body, in spirit over the next year. They assembled words, pictures, and Scripture on their boards to serve as a visual reminder and roadmap of the path they need to take in order to reach their goal.

As part of my internship project here at Lord of Life, I want to help develop a scalable visioning process that can be used by each of our Ministry Areas. Imagine if we had a two-year roadmap of where we wanted to be in the areas of Care, Fellowship, Adult Learning, Youth, Worship, Evangelism, Property, Outreach, and Stewardship; what is God calling us toward in each of these areas? To take on all of these at the same time would be foolishness, so I starting with Stewardship, and if it goes well, the same process can be used by the other Ministry Areas. I cannot, nor do I want to, do this all on my own. I want this process to be empowering to members of this congregation as they assume roles of leadership and service. If you are interested in serving as part of this new Stewardship Visioning Team, please contact me: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Maybe God isn’t calling you to serve on this new visioning team, but take some time in silence and prayer, and ask God, “where are you calling me to use my gifts, talents, and passions? How do you want me to grow God? Give me a vision of how I can serve you!”

God Bless,

Corey

By Danielle Beneteau and Tera Michelson

Last month, you sent us to the ELCA Youth Ministry Network Extravaganza. Held each year, the event’s goals are to renew, educate, and connect the leaders of children, youth, and family ministries at ELCA congregations around the country. The four-day conference crammed every waking minute with learning, collaboration and worship. The theme of this year’s Extravaganza was Disrupt, centered around the life and ministry of Moses.

We met God there in the 600 eager faces of youth leaders of all ages from all places, in the sharing of ideas and frustrations, successes and failures. It renewed us with possibilities and hope, educated us with wise words from youth ministry experts and connected us with other people like us—people that love Jesus and kids and are called by God to serve children, youth, and families. The 2019 Extravaganza did not disappoint. God showed up in big ways!

We share here our Top Three Takeaways, so you can feel like you were there with us.

1. Youth and their families are busy.

You already knew this one, didn’t you? Calendars and inboxes are full, gas tanks and refrigerators are empty. Our on-the-go families require youth ministry to be relevant and accessible. Today’s effective faith formation might not look like what you expect. You may see more hands-on activities, small group projects, online connections and at-home experiences. Each LOL family is different, and we must embrace and applaud how that shapes our church and informs how we lead God’s work in the world.

2. Youth Ministry takes a village.

Youth Ministry is all about relationships. It is at its finest when every church member takes on the challenge to engage its young people. All adults have what it takes to be youth leaders. Our youth are asking us to be the three A’s: authentic, available, and affirming. It’s the little things that make a big impact:

• greet youth by name and with joy
• carve out time to talk with youth in the pews or halls
• share your stories
• ask them questions
• encourage their gifts, skills, and personalities
• invite youth to participate in your favorite ministry area
• pray for our students by name

3. Disruptions can be good for us.

Our lives are full of disruptions. We tend to think of them as negative, chaos-causing disturbances that interrupt, confuse, and play havoc with our lives. Disruptions command our attention. We disrupted our regularly-scheduled January to attend this conference. (Just ask our families—it certainly was a disruption to be missing two active moms!) This event challenged us to view disruptions as times when God breaks through our norm and connects with us in a new way. The challenges of Youth Ministry are disruptive opportunities that lead us to evaluate, refocus, and adjust. Even in the chaos, sometimes especially in the chaos, God shows up.

Thank you for disrupting our lives with this event and the privilege of serving alongside LOL’s youth and families on a journey of faith.

Feeling called to Youth Ministry? Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to get involved, or come join us at the monthly Youth Ministry Meeting: third Wednesday of the month at 7:30 pm in the Pastor's office.

I love to travel. In any given year, I pick a couple destinations to visit for a day or even several days. Sometimes my trips are work-related. I go to a couple conferences each year to keep myself sharp and to see what is happening in worship and music outside Lord of Life. Most of the time, I’m excited to be at a conference or on vacation and it’s “Go! Go! Go!” from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed. I’m exhausted by the end of the day and while I enjoy my experiences and cherish the memories, I can’t say that I’m relaxed when I return.

Last weekend I went to the Calvin Symposium on Worship and Music in Grand Rapids. Several denominations and nationalities are represented, which leads to a lot of diversity and exciting ideas for worship. It is so easy to move quickly from day to day and week to week, falling into the same patterns and not trying anything new. The conference helps us see beyond our everyday worship. Each of the three days consisted of three different worship times (morning, afternoon, and night,) a plenary, and 3 smaller sessions/classes.

One of the first sessions I attended was by Dr. Ruth Haley Barton, who wrote the book, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership. At first I assumed this would be a session targeting leaders who had experienced some sort of difficult times in their congregation. But after a five-page spiritual assessment, I realized that I was in my own spiritual rut and that I really needed to take some time to reflect for myself.

Dr. Barton went on to talk about quiet moments in worship when we could be present, hands open, listening for what God has to say to us; and also about longer periods of meditation - times when we can be silent for 15 minutes, an hour, maybe even several hours - to clear our minds and let go of all the things that keep us from the connection we so crave with our Creator. She reinforced the idea that for us to be good spiritual leaders, we need to allow this time to transform us. In her words, "The spiritual practices are means of grace that open us to God’s transforming work in those places where we are not like Christ so we can be Christ in the world."

After two more days at Calvin, keeping this spiritual reflection time at the front of my mind through the rest of my weekend, I came home feeling refreshed and renewed. What a difference from past trips! I've tried, with varying levels of success, to continue mindful reflection during quiet moments over the subsequent two weeks. I find myself making better decisions not only for worship moments at Lord of Life, but in my personal life, too. 

I encourage everyone to make this a habit - it isn't just for the church leaders who stand up in front each week to preach or sing. It is for all of us who leave church Sunday morning, hopefully taking with us some scrap of spiritual nourishment so that we can go out into the world and be the church.

As part of my ongoing classwork for Trinity Lutheran Seminary, I occasionally have to attend week-long intensive courses, which seek to cram a whole semester worth of knowledge into a single week. The last week of January, I traveled to United Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia to learn about the “Neglected Apostles: Peter, James, and Jude.” I won’t bore you with the key points from my twelve page final exegetical paper, because the real learning that took place for me happened through reflecting upon my overall experience.

I spent a lot of time inside the buildings at United Lutheran Seminary, partly because the classes were long and partly because my winter coat didn’t hold up to the Philly wind chill. While traveling the halls and grounds, I noticed that there were a lot of remembrances posted; there were giant statues of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (seen side), plaques of donations from donors, and even sweatshirts for sale memorializing 250 year old Lutherans. This was a place that celebrated its history and was quite proud of it. It was hard to go anywhere without seeing a remembrance, or memorial, to someone who was important in the life of the seminary.

Tradition plays a big part in the Lutheran Church, especially in how it shapes our theology (thinking about God) and liturgy (worship service). The legacy of the Lutheran forefathers is fading quickly into the past, not because we don’t memorialize them, but because their influence is no longer felt on an individual and emotional level. Despite his massive statue and his collection of written works on display in the seminary library, I doubt many (if any) of you reading this can tell me about Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. I would bet though, that you can tell me about Jesus Christ and the impact God plays in your life daily. We don’t need thirty foot statues of Jesus to remind us that God is still present with us. We feel the effects of a relationship with God when we hear the Word of God and partake in God’s holy meal, communion. Christ touches our soul on a deep and profound level.

Our congregation, and community, has experienced a lot of pain and loss in the past year. If this trip has taught me anything, it is that those people will be remembered and memorialized in our heart forever for the way that they touched our lives. No statue, memorial plaque, painting, or sizeable donation in their name will hold the same lasting and transformative power as keeping their love and influence in our hearts. Because of the way these people have influenced me, I pass it along to someone else I know, which continues their legacy and mission.

In the same way, because of the love that Christ first shared with us, we don’t show our appreciation by buying another Jesus painting and hanging it on our wall, we go forth into the world to share that love with others. Let the past continuing influence you, for there is good there, but always keep our eyes fixed forward on the cross of Christ and our call to serve and be with others.

God Bless,

Pastor Corey Wagonfield, Seminary Intern