Sunday Worship8, 9:30, & 11 am
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?
Choirs and music might be the last things you would associate with the concept of justice. You show up, you sing, you try to make pretty music, and you go home. It’s a good evening if that’s something you love to do. But it is so much more than that. At least the way we do it here at Lord of Life, an ensemble that makes music together is like a microcosm of God’s kingdom of justice and peace.
Whether we’re talking about choir, the praise band, youth band, children’s choir, hand bells, or the multitude of musicians who offer their talents on special occasions, each person has an important part to play. The whole group is made better because of the talents and commitment each individual brings to the table. The diversity of the gifts and backgrounds of our musicians adds a richness and spirit to our ensembles that wouldn’t be there if everybody had the same education and grew up in the same neighborhood. And truly anyone can have a role – if someone wants to sing but has never sung before, they lean on the other singers to learn to match pitch, to blend their vowels, and to sing at the right time. And we all lovingly help them along without judging them.
All of these thoughts about music as an example of justice and equality were swirling through my head when I was downtown for Cincinnati’s Oktoberfest last weekend.
From the time I had graduated college till the time I started seminary, if you had asked me if I was interested in going back to school, I would have just laughed at you. I’m not sure where and when the disconnect happened but there was a time somewhere in junior high school where I checked out. The model of lecture based classroom instruction just did not appeal to me any longer. I worked just hard enough to get good grades, calculating the exact grade I needed on a final exam to get an “A” in the class and then only studying hard enough to hit that mark on the test.
In high school I latched onto theater classes because it gave me a chance to learn through experience. I had never had a class before that allowed me to learn on my feet and truly experience education in an embodied way. I poured all of my time into the theatrical community and eventually decided that my calling was to be a professional actor. I was accepted into Wright State University’s prestigious acting program and attended there for a year. I realized during that year that while I really did enjoy acting, it was not my ultimate calling. I was more attracted to the experiential nature of theater than the actual process of memorizing scripts and constant auditioning.
Over time, I realized that ministry was my ultimate calling, but the idea of going to seminary was terrifying.
This past Sunday, over three dozen youth and adults from Lord of Life and our partner Latino congregation, Vida Eterna Iglesia Luterana (VEIL), participated in an exciting day of service called “Gods Work. Our Hands.” Presiding Bishop of the ELCA Elizabeth Eaton says, “This day is an opportunity to celebrate who we are as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America – one church, freed in Christ to serve and love our neighbor.”
At Lord of Life, we had three projects ready to go: Police and Fire visits, Union Elementary beautification, and interior painting at Haven House family shelter. Because of the unrelenting rain, we delayed the outdoor projects at Union Elementary. Keep your eyes open for a reschedule later this fall.
One group decorated cardboard boxes with colorful paper and then stuffed them full of dinner fixings, snacks, “Live Generously” T-shirts, and homemade cards, before wrapping them up and heading out to deliver the care packages to the West Chester Police Department and five of our West Chester Fire Stations. One of our people, upon greeting the fire personnel, said, “Thank you for all you do to protect and serve our community. We know that it means time away from your families.”
Our other group descended upon downtown Hamilton in order to serve at Haven House, a shelter for families that are experiencing homelessness. In just a few short hours, twenty-one of us were able to paint from floor to ceiling almost all of a five bedroom apartment that is used as gathering and play space for these families in transition. One worker mentioned, “Laughter, music, and stories were shared as we bonded through service with our larger community.”
While we didn’t get to meet the families that were currently staying at Haven House, we hope that this newly painted commons area will bring them joy and show them Christ's love. Jesse at Haven House said, “It looks great! We appreciate everything you all did.”
Other congregations in the area tied quilts, assembled care bags, served hot meals, worked in gardens, planted flowers, picked up litter, and a whole bunch of other fantastic and life-giving opportunities. If you missed it, don’t worry. There will be plenty of other opportunities for you to serve. Not only will we have other organized moments of serving together, but our hands, feet, hearts, and minds are part of God‘s redemptive work every day. It’s who we are created to be! It was great to be part of an event in unity with our fellow Lutherans as an extension of all the great things we’re always doing at Lord of Life.
Recently, our seminary intern, Corey Wagonfield, started an online class that is part of his continuing theological education. As a way of introducing our congregation to his classmates, he was asked to make a short video with a virtual tour of our space and ministries. Instead of just recording a walk around our building, he decided to get creative and blast through some of the ministries in which we share. Check out his video here.
{Facebook}https://www.facebook.com/LordofLifeWestChester/videos/305752000217407{/Facebook}
We are part of God’s work in this place. Our hands, words, actions, prayers, and lives all point to the One Jesus Christ who came to give us abundant life and teach us how to love and serve all people!
With gratitude,
Pastor Lowell