Sunday Worship8, 9:30, & 11 am
We are a calendar family. We relish the turn of the new year, when the world invites us to crack open a fresh calendar featuring the art, cartoons or phrases we have chosen to inspire us for the year. The pièce de résistance of our household collection is the 4-foot, black-and-white calendar that covers our kitchen wall. You cannot pass through the heart of our home without noticing its 4-inch numbers in Helvetica.
The first year we brought this calendar home, it initiated a heady discussion: which day is the first of the week, Sunday or Monday? This modern version of the calendar was designed by an Italian, in a region where the calendar week typically began with Monday and ended with Sunday. This was a big problem for my husband, who can only see each of his weeks beginning with Sunday. It bothered him so much that he cut the vertical strip of Sundays from the right of the calendar and hung them on their own separate hook to the left, putting Sunday in its proper place at the beginning of each week.
On what day do your weeks begin? The world often tells us, not only with its printed calendars, that we work to the weekend. We earn the time off after a full and busy week of goals and accomplishments. My well-intentioned spouse made a theological point with his scissors. When we start each week with Sunday, we work from the Sabbath. When we start our weeks with a focus on our relationship with God, a time set apart from the world, we begin our week refreshed and renewed, centered on God and focused on our callings in the world. We humans thrive on routine and patterns, the rhythm of life. A misplaced Sabbath day upsets that delicate balance.
This calls to mind the popular story of Peter in Matthew 14, when, at the urging of Jesus, he ventured out of his boat to walk on the water. When Peter loses focus on Jesus, he looks at the waves instead. Instantly he is overwhelmed with fear and feels the water rise against his ankles as he begins to sink.
In the Bible, Jesus gives us the example over and over again: he rests, retreats and recovers and then gets to work. As God’s people, we are called to do the same. We observe a Sabbath. We connect and reconnect with God and our loved ones. We work hard and we play hard. We experience grace when we lose focus on our Savior and start to sink into the crashing waves of life. Jesus reaches out to us, making it possible to do the impossible.
Let the pendulum of your life, week by week, day by day, and moment to moment, swing in response to God’s great love.
Written by Tera Michelson for The Values Project, a year-long initiative designed to equip families to raise children who thrive emotionally, socially, and spiritually. You can read other blogs at
http://blog.beamingbooks.com/finding-your-balance/#.W-173OhKgdV.
My polling place at Union Elementary in West Chester was buzzing on election day. There wasn’t a line out the door or around the building, but the turnout was strong. During my brief fifteen minutes on campus, I saw a steady stream of people flowing into the building and many voters paused to greet neighbors and connect with friends. I even bumped into someone from Lord of Life. There was an energy and enthusiasm around election day and making a difference.
Later that night, as polls closed in Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio, it was fun to watch the results be announced. A vote cast earlier in the day made an immediate impact! As I write, there are still some elections that are unresolved because the tallied votes are too close to call. Every vote matters.
We don’t always get instant results in the same way. If you were in worship, last Sunday, you may have seen the little skit about the autumn leaves raked up in our yards and then dumped on the community garden. Later this fall, those will be tilled into the soil and will provide essential nutrients for garden vegetables in the future. The future!
A big part of what happens at Lord of Life is future-focused. We gather for worship and hear the promises of Jesus that not only impact our current situation, but also create a trajectory for where we are headed in the months and years ahead. Sometimes, we don’t see any immediate results. Reconciliation takes time. Forgiveness is a process. Generosity takes a lifetime to cultivate. Loving your neighbor as yourself can be long and tedious work, especially if you don’t much care for your neighbor and have difficulty seeing the value and beauty in yourself.
Ministry outcomes can be slow, too. You might faithfully have your dollars pulled from your bank account or place them in the offering plate, but might not see any immediate return, since they help pay for the copier, snow removal, coffee supplies, insurance, youth retreats, as well as staffing and worship supplies. You might volunteer and serve at the Hands Against Hunger meal packing event, this weekend, but there is a good chance that you’ll never be in touch with the household where your bag of food lands and nourishes hungry tummies. You might sit on the floor and read a book to a child in the fellowship hall during a learning moment, but won’t see that seed of faith sprout in that young heart and mind for years. You might prepare food for a funeral luncheon without ever having an awareness of the solace it will provide for the tough days of grief ahead.
Beyond our view and understanding, God promises that growth is happening! The apostle Paul writes, “I pray that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love” (Ephesians 3:17). Our roots plunging deep and holding firm as God helps us grow in faith. Our trunk strengthening and pushing upward as God urges us forward in hope. Rooted and grounded in God, our lives branch out as the love of Christ grows through us and extends to the world. We are growing in God!
Thank you for being part of what God is doing in and through us! Plan now to be part of Consecration Sunday, this weekend, November 11. We’ll say “Thank You” to God for all that we have, elect some new leadership, and vote on our mission spending plan for 2019. Nominee and mission spending plan information is available in the gathering space and via the links in this post.
Growing with you,
Pastor Lowell
God’s creation has healing potential for our lives. I have heard countless stories from people at Lord of Life about how their “healing place” is a cabin on a lake, fishing in a stream, sitting on a beach, or biking through the woods. I have talked to people who have said that all their anxiety melts away when they are surrounded by nature and they feel spiritually closer to God when they are able to view a sunset, a rainbow, or a picturesque landscape. But is there any evidence to back up these claims?
In 2005, child advocacy expert Richard Louv published a book entitled, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder. It was the “first book to bring together cutting-edge research showing that direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development-physical, emotional, and spiritual. What's more, nature is a potent therapy for depression, obesity, and ADD” (book description). It started a movement throughout the US called “No Child Left Inside,” whereby organizations promoted increased outdoor activity for children throughout the country.
Research didn’t stop there. A PhD student at Luther Seminary embarked on a project in 2015 to obtain data that supported the long-held claim that Christian Summer Camp Programs had long term spiritual benefits. The Effective Camp Research Project is a multi-year study examining the impact of the Christian summer camp experience on campers, families, and church communities.
Here are a few of their findings:
- The Christian summer camp experience impacts campers in positive ways that extends to their families, churches and others.
- 90% of those attending a Christian summer camp like ours report that they grew in faith.
- 97% of those attending a Christian summer camp like ours report that they had fun!
- Kids report that by growing in faith at camp it helps them in their daily life back home.
- Camp doesn’t end when the week is over, research shows that it has lasting effects. Many campers read their Bible more, pray with their family more, and attend church more. (www.vibrantfaith.org/effectivecamp/)
One of the critiques of Louv’s book is that he missed one of the key reasons that children no longer play outside. He attributes it to the lure of electronics, but critics say it is because the children’s parents don’t spend time outside in play. During my time at Lutheran Outdoor Ministries in Ohio, I witnessed first hand how life-changing a week at camp can be for adults, families and youth. Yes… camp can be for adults and families too!
Our stewardship theme for 2019 at Lord of Life is “Growing,” and I encourage you to think about how you can grow in your appreciation of, and time spent in, God’s wonderful creation. This summer LOL will be offering a mission trip experience as well as encouraging families and youth to experience one of our Ohio Lutheran camps (www.lomocamps.org). Through a special partnership with LOMO (Lutheran Outdoor Ministries in Ohio), our congregation will be able to offer subsidized rates for people who want to experience camp this summer. More information about the mission trip and summer camp opportunities will be coming out later this year, but you can begin prayerfully considering now how you might want to plug into one of these opportunities to experience God’s creation in a new way.
Longing To Be In A Hammock Near The Lake,
Corey Wagonfield
Uh-Oh! The word “steward” is in the title of this blog. We are in the month of October, which means it’s stewardship time at church. This blog will probably consist of an anecdotal story that encourages me to give more money. Maybe I should stop reading now…
Often, when stewardship is brought up in a church setting there is a fear that what will proceed will be a plea for increased monetary giving. There is good reason for that fear to arise. First and foremost, the church as a whole has a history of using stewardship time to talk about budget deficits and increased proportional giving. Second, some of us, deep down, have a small ounce of shame that we don’t give more to God’s mission than we currently do. Rest assured, I will not ask you to give more money in the course of this blog post. Rather, I would like to share with you a little of what I learned in my intensive class on Missional Stewardship.
For the past week I have been attending my Fall Intensive class at Trinity Lutheran Seminary. It was led by the Rev. Dr. Mark Allan Powell and focused on missional stewardship. This was the first class about stewardship that has ever been taught at Trinity Lutheran Seminary during it’s 188 year history. Dr. Powell believes it may have been the first class that focused solely on stewardship that has ever been taught at any Lutheran seminary. It’s no wonder that our churches have done such a piecemeal job of trying to teach congregants about living a life of stewardship.
Our main text of study was the best-selling book, Giving to God, written by Mark Allan Powell. The book is an easy, yet phenomenal, read and I am willing to lend my copy to anyone who would like to read it. Of the many points about stewardship that Dr. Powell makes, I would like to focus on one: What does it mean to be a steward? “It is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.” - 1 Corinthians 4:2
To steward something is to be appointed to look after or manage another person’s property. God has called all of us to be stewards of God’s creation. Everything we have is a gift from God. Everything around us is a gift from God. Everyone around us is a gift from God. We are a gift from God to those around us. How we treat ourselves, others, and the entirety of the world around us matters to God. Are we being good stewards of our possessions, time, relationships, resources, and talents? We know we will never be perfect stewards, but there is always room for growth. As we enter into a season of growing at Lord of Life, I encourage you to join with me in evaluating one or two ways in which we can be better stewards of all that God has entrusted to us during this limited time we are on Earth.
Ever growing,
Pastor Corey
You can review Lord of Life's Proposed Mission Spending Plan for 2019 online.
Serving as council president of Lord of Life in the past year has been a very humbling experience and I love it. Thirteen years ago, my family was looking for a church that we can call home and we have been lucky to be part of an awesome congregation with incredible people who willingly give time, talent, and resources to serve our community. It has been a blessing for me to be part of the Council leadership and give back.
As president, I have had the opportunity to shape our strategy and action plan with help from council leadership and staff. The journey started two years ago with lots of prayers. Recognizing the need to plan and dream together, council, leadership, and members spent time exploring Lord of Life’s past, present, and future with Luke Bouman, a ministry consultant. At his urging, council made the shift to primarily focusing on our strategy for the future, knowing our ministry coordinators (MACs) and staff have the day-to-day operations well in hand. It is exciting to see our congregation grow but at the same time, we want to be prepared to support that growth and a big part of our action plan is focused just on that.
I am particularly excited about our Share the Light initiative and making that a reality with your help. It is just fascinating to see the mission we lead and a big shout out to MAC leaders, staff and volunteers who continue to share their talent and time. The Design and Guidance teams will begin meeting next week to kick off the next phase of the campaign.
I am excited for the year ahead and allowing God to work through all of us here at Lord of Life. I also want to invite you to prayerfully consider stepping into a Council or MAC position, or one of the other many leadership roles. Finally, thank you for your support and prayers.
Privileged to Serve,
Vasanthi Chalasani
Council President
Nominations for the upcoming council elections (vice president, treasurer, and three at-large positions) close on October 24. Please contact Kara Sagedal,
As a child, I was a church acolyte. One Sunday each month, I would put on an ill-fitting robe, light the candles, collect the offering, serve communion, and then extinguish the candles. For the rest of the worship time, I would work very, very hard not to fall asleep in front of the gathered assembly. In that congregation, the acolyte sat right up front, on the raised part of the worship space, next to the pastor. There was nowhere to hide. If you nodded off during the psalm, the sermon, or the Apostles’ Creed, everyone could see you snooze!
One of my dreams in junior high was to be “promoted” to the position of church usher. From my acolyte perch, I could see the whole gathering space through windows at the back of the sanctuary. I would watch the ushers pass out worship materials, close the doors a few minutes into the worship service, and then goof off for the next thirty minutes until it was time to collect the offering. A few minutes into the sermon, one of the ushers would always disappear and return with a plate full of donuts from the fellowship hall. “What? I want that gig,” I would mumble to myself in my sleepy stupor.
Sometimes a young, up and coming preacher comes out of the gate, potentially a little too hard, with a message that uses political material to underscore his/her main gospel point. The message resonates deeply with some, offends others, and a few weren’t really sure what the main point was supposed to be. Not that I am speaking from experience or anything….
In speaking with people over the last couples of days, I realized that when sensitive subjects are brought up, our internal defenses and biases are stirred up as well. I stand by my choice to tackle the subject of abuses of power, and hegemonic masculinity, viewed through the light of our gospel passage (Mark 9:38-50), but I also realize that my internal defenses and biases were also in embedded in my message. I spent hours upon hours trying to craft perfect phrasing in my sermon so that it would come off as non-partisan. I knew this sermon better than any I had ever preached before, but I kept my nose in my manuscript, rather than going off the cuff, because I wanted to make sure all of the words were just right. Despite all of that preparation and intentional wordsmithing, not everyone left hearing the same message on Sunday.
It pains me that my message may have wounded someone, but it also excites me to hear that the Holy Spirit moved within people to the point where couples who came away hearing different messages spent time vying to understand what the other heard. Would I do it all over again?