Sunday Worship8 and 10 am
At the beginning of 2019, I made a New Year’s resolution to lose some weight. At the start of 2020, I weighed more than I did at any point within the last year. There were times in the past year when I had lost upwards of 25 pounds, but at some point, I packed them all back on, and then some. My New Year’s resolution was a complete failure. Why did this happen? Well, duh, it was because I ate more calories than I burned, but seriously, why was I not successful at achieving my resolution? I am nothing if not an achiever. I make daily to-do lists, weekly to-do lists, grocery shopping lists, and believe it or not, I have even made lists of which to-do list to tackle first. I should have easily been able to figure out a way to organize and achieve my way to dropping those last 30, *ahem*, 60 pounds.
Don’t think that I didn’t try. I read up on several different diets. I found out that I could eat a diet of just meat and cheese and lose weight (huzzah!). I researched all of the correct supplements I should take if I started a keto diet. I ordered keto-friendly cookbooks. I signed up for a year-long membership to Planet Fitness. I bought a new pair of “running” sneakers (ha!) for when I started to go to Planet Fitness. Over the course of 2019, I had come up with the best possible health and fitness plan that would appeal to me. And yet, I still failed. Why?
I am reminded of a quote from Jesus: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). Jesus is quite literally talking about monetary treasures, but I think it can apply metaphorically to other aspects of our lives as well. I was trying to convince my mind and heart of how great losing weight could be. I figured if I could psych myself up enough about how great dieting and exercising could be, that I would be motivated to do it. I was working Jesus’ quote backward; if I could put my heart in the right place, the treasures would come. But often it does not work that way. What I needed to do was, quite literally, take the first step. I needed to just start exercising and eating better, and over time, I would have found out what I liked and needed to be successful.
Where are the places in your life where you know you need to get moving, but you keep delaying yourself worrying about the details and motivation? Rather than resolving to do something by the end of the year, just start doing it. Figure it out as you go and try to enjoy the journey, even when you take a step back. All of this can apply to our lives of faith as well, it doesn’t all have to be about our bodies. Are you thinking of wanting to deepen your faith this year? Just stop by a Bible study and check it out. Lord of Life currently has seven of them for you to check out.
It might seem a little awkward at first if you aren’t a “Bible study type of person,” but give it some time and you may see your heart begin to follow and your faith begin to grow. If it ultimately isn’t for you, don’t give up, check out another way to plug into the community at Lord of Life.
Resolving to shorten my blog posts,
Pastor Corey
Little kids want to be big. They play dress up and put on Grandpa’s shoes. Young ones attempt to ride a bigger bike. They pretend to be teachers, firefighters, doctors, and Olympians. Children stretch and stand on tiptoes, hoping to extend their reach.
This time of year, I’m always reminded – my kids are bigger. As we gather with family for holiday celebrations, many of them comment on how tall they’ve become or ask about college plans. As they try on winter clothes from last year, they don’t fit! They’ve grown. I should have noticed from the marks on our wall.
In our home, we make pencil marks on the wall separating the living room and dining room. It’s a homemade growth chart, one of the many ways to measure how we grow. Every couple of months, our kids stand tall and we mark their height.
Even big kids, like us, want to grow. We want to be smarter, stronger, and more disciplined. We strive to be more emotionally and financially stable. But it isn’t so easy to track our progress. There must be more than our bank accounts and degrees to help us calculate our maturation.
It becomes even more difficult for church congregations. All too often, we tend to chart our progress by looking at membership and budgets. It is important to have an eye on these gauges, but what if we measured our growth beyond viewing the numbers? What if we looked past attendance and the annual budget as signals of health? What if we recognized the Church as the living organism that it is, rather than only brick and mortar?
Frank Viola is quick to point out, “In the minds of the early Christians, the people – not the architecture – constituted a sacred space…nowhere in the New Testament do we find the terms church (ekklesia), temple, or house of God used to refer to a building. To the ears of a first-century Christian, calling an ekklesia (church) a building would have been like calling your wife a condominium or your mother a skyscraper… ekklesia always refers to an assembly of people, not a place.”
So when we talk about growth in the Church, we are speaking of so much more than bodies in the pews or dollars in the plate. We’re talking about the people of God. We are pointing toward the ways that the Holy Spirit helps us expand our knowledge and interaction with all of God’s creatures and creation.
As you look to the New Year, how would you like to grow and what does it look like? Maybe you hope to spend more time grounded in the pages of the Bible or wish that you could greet a little one by name. Make it happen! How often do you see someone leaving church alone, while you head to lunch with friends? Invite them to join you. What about filling an empty notebook with names of loved ones as you pray for them or serving in a new capacity once a month?
Ephesians 2 says, “You are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God…In [Christ] the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling-place for God.”
How would you like to grow spiritually and how will you chart your growth? How can we encourage and support each other as we reach for a new height? When we grow in God, we grow together in Christ.
Growing with you,
Pastor Lowell
We are so grateful for the many ways you have served and participated in life and ministry at Lord of Life throughout the past year. We thank God for each of you and the numerous ways that you generously share your lives for God’s mission here, in our community, and throughout the world. Thank you also for your Christmas gifts.
As we jump into a new year of growing in faith, we pray that the Spirit of God will continue to bring us health, joy, and peace as we remain rooted in the promises of Jesus.
The Lord of Life Staff
(l to r) Pastor Lowell Michelson, Paula Drake, Pastor Corey Wagonfield, Cara Hasselbeck, John Johns, Donna Harvey, Ava Fiebig, Pastora Carmen Colon-Brown
Did you ever encourage your child to invite the whole class to their birthday party, and then worry about what to do if they all responded that they would attend? That’s how I felt after my husband Greg and I agreed to host a small group for Lord of Life’s book study of The Tech-Wise Family. When Pastor Corey asked us to host, we felt it was a great project, and so we said yes. But then the what-ifs started filling my head: What if too many people signed up? What if nobody did? What if I read the book and didn’t understand it? What if I didn’t like it? What if I had to pray out loud in front of everyone? What if I served snacks that nobody liked?
Pastor Corey was able to relieve some of my anxiety. Group size at any one location would be capped at around a dozen people. There was a terrific study guide that would help us all to walk through the discussion points each week -- with all the prayers included. I started to read the book, and it wasn’t hard to understand. I didn’t agree with everything the author proposed, but he did raise some interesting points. So, stocked with sweet and savory snacks, we welcomed eight people into our home.
What a great group we ended up with! I knew some of the folks and some faces were new. We represented many generations: from folks who grew up and raised their family before modern technology existed, to parents of teens, to parents with little ones. We had some great discussions, sharing our thoughts on the author’s ideas, and sharing our own hopes and fears for how technology would shape our lives and the lives of our children. How fascinating that a group of people gathered together at random could connect the way we did. How ironic that the little ones entertained themselves with our old-school Mattel electronic football game while we talked about technology.
As the weeks went on, we had one person drop out, and a few others miss a meeting or two, but overall the group held together and completed the study. I asked them for their thoughts on the experience, and overall, the response was positive.
“I enjoyed the conversation; great to hear other people's perspectives. The book challenged all of us.”
“A comfortable way to meet and connect with Lord of Life members that I didn’t know well. Great topic to learn from each other while having faith-based discussions.”
“We enjoyed getting to know some new people. See you around church!”
I hope you had the opportunity to participate in the book study. If you have finished the book, consider passing along the book and study guide to someone who might enjoy it. If you are interested in participating in or leading a small group study during Lent, please contact Pastor Corey (
Hopefully Tech-Wiser,
Cara Hasselbeck
image by Corey Holms on Flickr
Has anyone ever told you to “turn your problems over to God”? What exactly do they mean by that? I think when most people offer up that piece of advice, they are encouraging you to not worry or be anxious about something. I don’t know about you, but “turning it over to God,” doesn’t immediately bring me peace and calm when the storms of anxiousness are stirring. I’ve prayed for thousands of things in my lifetime that it seems like God did not answer, so why would I turn over more problems to God that I could just try to solve myself?
You might be thinking to yourself, “wow, this is a pretty cynical blog post coming from our intern pastor, what is going on”? This past week I submitted the final batch of paperwork needed to be eligible for the ELCA Assignment Process in February. What is the assignment process? Well, it is very much like the NFL draft. Some people, in high places, don’t like that analogy, but it is the best analogy that can be made, so I am going to roll with it. All of the graduating Lutheran seminarians across the United States fill out a slew of paperwork that is sent to all of the bishops of the 65 synods across the US. Those bishops get together over a couple of days in February and are given a “selection order” based on the needs of their synods and regions, the more pastors they need, the more selections they receive. Bishops begin selecting graduating seniors for their region of the country and then the applicant receives a phone call, letting them know what area of the country they will be serving. The whole process is done in conjunction with a lot of prayer, discernment, and the power of the Holy Spirit, which makes it a little different than the NFL draft.
So, by mid-February I will know the region of the country in which I will receive my first pastoral call and then in early March I should find out in which of the 65 synods I will be serving. At that point, I can begin the call process with congregations in that synod that are looking for a first call pastor. If I’m lucky, I will be able to be ordained and installed in a congregation in early summer. Some graduates, like our previous intern, Lucas, found the process can take a lot longer than that.
So why do I mention all of this? Because, I am a planner by nature, and all of this uncertainty is causing a lot of anxiety in my life and the life of my family. I could try to “work the system,” by wheeling and dealing with synodical bishops to get things to go my way, but the risk involved with that kind of politic-ing would only add more stress. In this instance, and maybe for the first time in my life, I found peace in the phrase “turn it over to God,” which is derived from Philippians 4:6-7: “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
By releasing the stress of the unknown in my life, I have been able to enjoy this process more and have more free time to enjoy my last five months with you all at Lord of Life. There are days where I still wonder where my first call will be, but I trust that God will provide in due time. What are the things that you are tired of trying to control? What is bringing you stress and anxiety in this Advent season? Are you willing to try to “give it over to God?”
One of my campus pastors will be buried this Saturday. Pastor Larry Houff, who served as campus pastor at Wittenberg University 1981-1997, died the Saturday before Thanksgiving following a long illness.
Campus ministry has to be one of the most grueling forms of ministry. Students can easily become distracted by the scholastic and social aspects of campus life, campus pastors must also be fundraisers, since college students aren’t big donors, not to mention that the entire “congregation” turns over every 4 years!
Even more than other ministries, work with college students has to be focused and direct. There is only limited time to intersect and interact with one another, so campus pastors strive to make every moment count. They are always inviting students to worship and activities, praying for students and their families, and seeking ways to support and encourage adolescents as they explore who they are becoming.
I can’t begin to name all the ways that Larry loved me deeper into Christian faith, but as I process my grief, here are a couple of instances that rise to the top:
- Larry welcomed me with open arms when I arrived on campus and immediately invited me into ministry leadership through choirs and percussion for a variety of worship moments.
- Larry and his wife Gundula regularly welcomed students into their home for meals, study groups, Epiphany celebrations, and more, helping to create a place of retreat and a home away from home.
- Larry led a trip to Israel, Egypt, and Jordan my junior year which opened the pages of Scripture and global faith to me. (See the photo of him preaching at sunrise on Mt. Sinai.) He provided pastoral care the night that I learned of my grandfather’s death while we were in Tiberius. His consolation and hope, there on the shores of Galilee, will forever shape the way I hope to be present in moments of death and dying.
- Larry welcomed and discipled my wife Tera into the Christian faith and was part of the splashing waters at her baptism service our senior year.
- Larry played the organ for and participated in our wedding celebration at Weaver Chapel.
- Larry baptized our now 18-year-old daughter Eden while we were in Ohio for her first Christmas.
Larry continued to invite me into holy moments, pray for me, my family, and my ministry endeavors, and encourage me long after I left the acreage in Springfield.
Make no mistake. Larry’s love and care for me, as well as other students, faculty, staff, prospective students, and former students, wasn’t grounded in his mood or because it was his job. Larry’s life had been altered by the love and forgiveness of Jesus and he couldn’t help but reach out to both friend and stranger with words of invitation, prayer, challenge, and encouragement.
1 Thessalonians says, “Encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing… Rejoice always, pray without ceasing” (5:11, 16-17).
As we wait for Jesus to come to us on Christmas, we are surrounded by friends and strangers. Who needs to hear about God’s story of love and redemption this season? Who needs a word of encouragement or hope? Who can you hold in prayer through the joys and sorrows of these days? Invite someone into the gift of Jesus, our peace. God is using you to change lives.
Living, sharing, and celebrating with you,
Pastor Lowell
It’s that season…
A season of thanksgiving
A season of Advent
A season of waiting and anticipation
A season of giving
A season of buying
A season of decorating
A season of parties
A season of family and friends
A season of Christmas
A season of over-spending
A season of cold and snow
A season of busyness
So. Many. Seasons.
Which of these seasons are you wrapped up in right now? Are there more that didn’t even make the list? Which ones do you wish you could give up this year?
This is the season where I put on my alter-ego of #DJFrosteeFreeze and spend my evenings spinning upbeat Christmas songs at Kings Island’s Winterfest. During my five-hour evening shift, I stand in one spot and I see so many of these seasons playing out right before my eyes. I see how the stresses of life build to a point where people can’t enjoy the magical experiences all around them.
In three nights of work so far, I have seen the following:
- Parents yelling at seventeen-year-old employees because kids are cheating in the “everyone wins” games.
- Parents yelling at each other because one parent wants to let the kids keep hula-hooping and the other parent doesn’t want the kids to miss the upcoming show.
- Adults pounding on the doors of the restaurant because they aren’t open within the first five minutes of the park opening.
- Adults beating someone else’s small children in a relay race so that they could get a tiny plush polar bear for themselves.
That is just the start. I am sure I will see so much more!
This season of “joy” can quickly overpower us with stress and turn it into something dark and mean. Remember that each person you come across this season, especially retail workers, are beloved children of God and might just be at the end of their rope as well. Take a deep breath, relax, flash some a smile, pay someone a compliment, and pray that God’s love can be shown to all people through our words and actions this season.
Pastor Corey
P.S. Come visit me at the Coca-Cola Party Zone.