Bah humbug! It’s not even the end of November and I am officially ready for Christmas to be behind us. That’s probably not something you want your pastoral intern saying just days before Advent, the season of waiting and preparation for Christmas, is set to begin. For the past weekend I spent most of my waking hours at Kings Island’s Winterfest as the Polar Party DJ. I stand in the same place, in the cold, played the same eighty Christmas songs over and over for five hours each night. Did I forget to mention that I played those same eighty songs for twenty nights last Christmas as well?

Don’t get me wrong, Kings Island is a great part-time employer and they do everything they can to make sure people have a magical Yuletide experience. Millions of programmed Christmas lights, holiday themed shows, Christmas music playing throughout the park, and they even convert their giant fountain into a skating rink. Everyone who passes through the gate should immediately be enveloped by the spirit of Christmas; many people are, but the societal pressures and expectations around Christmas can also bring about the worst in people.

I’ve seen people yell at young adult food service workers because the lines for food were too long on opening night. I’ve seen adults push kids (other than their own) in a game of red light / green light so that their kid could win. I’ve seen adults shout angrily because their kids won a free candy cane instead of a free mini polar bear. I’ve seen parents pull their kids away from having fun on the dance floor because they wanted to make sure they “got their money's worth.” On a nightly basis, in a place that is supposed to be fun and magical, I’ve had a front row seat to so much anger and frustration. No wonder I am becoming jaded about commercialized Christmas.

Despite all of the tense emotions and overstimulating lights all around me, there is one thing I look forward to each night. There are twelve hula hoops that sit at the front of my DJ booth and from the beginning of the night, all the way to the end, they are constantly in use. Kids and adults stop, grab a hoop, and proceed to have fun with a round piece of plastic. It’s the simplest thing in the amusement park, but it brings generations together and smiles abound. How is it that something so simple can be so profound amidst all the greatest entertainment technology known to humankind?

I think that deep down we long to live simple lives of happiness, joy, and love. As we enter this season of preparation and waiting, known as Advent, let us slow down and appreciate the simple pleasures that God has blessed us with each day; the embrace of a loved one, the smile of a child, the beauty of a snowflake, the ultimate gift of grace given freely to us by Christ.

As we journey into this season together, my prayer for all of us is that we keep the love of God in the forefront of our minds and in our actions. And while you are at it, after buying your kids a hula hoop for Christmas, make a point to thank a stressed out retail worker this season!

Happy Advent,

Pastor Corey Wagonfield

My in-laws, Dennis and Wendy, live in Port St. Joe, Florida, directly in the path Hurricane Michael took as it made land-fall. It wreaked havoc on Florida's panhandle and continued scarring the landscape as it moved north onto the mainland. They followed evacuation orders and got out of the way - luckily, they had a friend they could stay with a couple hours away. They weren't allowed to drive back to their county for almost two weeks, and for that entire time, they didn't know if they had anything to go back to.

What a relief it was when they finally got back to Port St. Joe to find that their home was still there. It seemed inconsequential that a tree had fallen onto their house and had taken part of the roof with it. Others nearby had lost everything they had.

More than two weeks after the hurricane I drove south to help fix Dennis and Wendy's roof and I started seeing signs of destruction in Georgia almost 200 miles north of where Michael came ashore. Roads were still impassable because of fallen trees. Roofs were covered in blue tarps. As I got closer to the ocean, I saw debris piled up 6 feet high on both sides of the road. It included parts of homes, appliances, battered boats, and even cars. It is hard to relate just how devastating these disasters are - the news captures it from certain angles but can't portray just how far the devastation reaches. Florida might be known for vacation properties and "second homes," but for many locals, a loss like this can leave them homeless.

We assume help is coming. FEMA was present, but could only attend to people's immediate needs of water and food. At the time I was there, 50,000 people had applied for emergency housing FEMA had only been able to provide shelter for 100 of them. We think insurance money will make it possible for people to rebuild their lives. But there are major parts of the damage insurance doesn't cover. For those who have the means to repair their homes, there are only so many contractors available and tens of thousands of structures to repair. We still see the effects of this from previous hurricanes, wildfires, and floods - people are still trying to put their lives back together months years after a natural disaster.

So ... giving thanks? That seems like a tough ask this Thanksgiving. But there is a good reason to be grateful. In the midst of all this disaster, people are coming together to help each other rebuild. Every morning, Doyle comes to help at Dennis and Wendy's house - he spends several hours moving debris, helping to fix things, or just driving to the store to get something they need. Doyle's house wasn't affected by the hurricane, so he is grateful to have been out of harm's way and wants to help in any way he can. Other people have brought food, clothes, and other items to make them more comfortable while stores are still restocking and nearby towns begin to come back to life after being shuttered for weeks. There are thousands of these kind, generous people doing what they can to attend to people's needs.

One of my favorite quotes is by Gandalf in The Hobbit: "I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay… small acts of kindness and love." This is what I'm grateful for this Thanksgiving. That people are inspired to give from what they have to make a difference in the lives of others.

Happy Thanksgiving!

John

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.