I had the privilege of attending the ELCA Extravaganza (the E for short) in New Orleans this past weekend. The Extravaganza is the ELCA Youth Ministry Network’s annual conference, drawing over 1,000 leaders (paid staff positions and volunteers) in children, youth, and family ministry, along with the teachers, resource providers, and leaders from the ELCA, all for four days of renewal, education, and networking.

We have a tendency at churches to say the youth are our future. This gathering emphasized that our youth are present now, in a complicated world and need us to meet them where they are. Who has God created them to be right now, in this moment?
How can we root our youth in a lifelong and transformative faith in Jesus Christ? We all have a part to play through this life-giving community. One session I attended about research in youth ministry showed the three things that impact the faith of our youth significantly:

1. ) Congregations, though imperfect, make possible an encounter with God - teaching the language of faith.
2. ) Relationships are the single greatest factor in a lifelong faith. It takes an average of 5 adults to create this impact.
3. ) Each person is made in God’s image with gifts to share with the community. They are enough and beloved by God.

Adults tend to “read” young people as uninterested, busy, and preoccupied. It’s actually the opposite. They want to be included, belong, feel listened to, and engage with purpose in their activities. I know I sometimes wonder as I’m teaching Junior High on Sunday mornings if they are really interested in being there or if it’s just the donuts they came for. Then they will surprise me with an answer about helping others, empathize with another student, or jump in with enthusiasm to act out a play about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. We have so much to learn from them.

We are blessed with adults in this congregation who invest in relationships with our youth, showing up as one of the five adults needed in their lives. They chaperone youth retreats and sleep on plywood bunk beds on their weekend off work. They are creating a community with a group of youth through serving in the choir and band or at the media desk. Just last night, a parent of high schoolers taught our young Exploring Communion class in an amazing bread-baking night. They serve alongside them, converse with them, and build relationships, welcoming them unconditionally into God's loving community. Our youth need your heart and gifts. How can you engage with our youth?

Join me in praying:
O God, we want to raise children
Who know they are loved
By their creator
With a love so big
It would take a lifetime
To swim in the ocean of Your grace –
And even then It wouldn’t be enough

May we honor the humanity
Of our children.
May we remember You are always in pursuit.
May we point our children to You
In times of great rejoicing and deep sorrow.
For as long as we have the gift
Of guiding them on this earth
May they see You in every star
And every cloud.
May they feel You in the breeze
And in the dirt under their feet.

Thank you, Lord
For You are never far from our children
Or from us. Amen

Prayer from To Light Their Way by Kayla Craig

Serving, giving thanks, and loving along with you,

Angie Seiller, Director of Faith Formation

Few things bring me as much joy as collaboration. Planning out our day while on vacation in New Orleans with my family last year was filled with so much joy and opportunity. Creating music with life-long friends? Always a blast. Refinishing our basement? Never could have done it by myself.

So of course, one of my greatest joys in ministry happens when I’m “sharing moments working jointly on an activity, especially to produce or create something” (Oxford English Dictionary). The last several weeks have been stuffed with many such collaborative moments. Each one offered something more than if any of them were done in isolation.

Last weekend, a dozen of us from Lord of Life joined a handful of other church youth groups at HopeWood Pines Camp for a Junior High Mix Retreat. The jumbled schedule of games, learning, study, worship, and recreation provided opportunities for new relationships centered in vibrant community.

Each month, our Church Council – our leadership team – meets to celebrate, wrestle, and dream. Our last meeting included time for reflection about our strength areas, as well as those places where we need to grow. Both lists were a beautiful image of what God is doing through us collectively, even as we know that there is still so much more to which we are called. We are living, sharing, and celebrating the love of Jesus with all people, but we’ve still got work to do!

A team from Lord of Life joined many others on a recent Saturday morning to pack, seal, and box high-protein meals for Hands Against Hunger. In a few hours, they assembled 105,408 meals for orphans and vulnerable children around the world! As they explain, “The ingredients in these high protein meals serve a very important purpose in helping children recover from malnutrition and saving them from a painful and prolonged death by starvation.”

This week, the Affirm Congregations of Butler County partnered with Hamilton Pride for an evening of sharing and discussion at the intersection of religion, faith, and LGBTQIA+ people and communities. Centered around the premise that each of us are beloved children of God, the gathering created a space for extraordinary stories of sorrow and pain, and conversations of resilience and hope. Grounded in the promises of God, may we continue to listen and learn how to love and care for one another unconditionally.

Each Tuesday morning, our staff huddles for prayer, reflection, calendar conversations, planning, and laughter. This dream team of Cara, John, Angie, Laura, Lisa, and Paula love Jesus and work hard to create experiences that nurture faith and care for our congregation. What a gift to be part of such a faithful and creative bunch. 

The Bible is a collaborative document, drawing together thousands of stories from hundreds of Spirit-led voices, all with the common thread of forgiveness, reconciliation, and hope. Jesus pulled together a group of disciples from a variety of locations and lives. God continues to draw us together for worship, learning, and taking action in love.

These examples only begin to scratch the surface of the many ways that God uses your gifts and passions, finances and talents, ideas, and prayers to make a lasting impact on the world. Even as you continue to do amazing things in your own life, I am also excited to see how you connect to the ministries of Lord of Life and find places for renewal and growth. One of the beautiful things that happens through this Spirit-filled collaboration is that not only will you be changed, but you may also transform the lives of others!

Better and stronger together,

Pastor Lowell

I love that after the celebrations of Christmas in December, we have space in January for reflection and renewal. Many of us are evaluating aspects of our lives and working on creating new habits. It is also the month for retreats. I am participating in five retreats over the course of five weeks and I’m looking forward to these moments to stop and rest. In Mark 6:30-32, Jesus encourages the disciples to go somewhere deserted and rest from all they have been doing. It is an intentional period of Sabbath apart from their daily grind. We put so much on our bodies with our days starting before the sun rises and ending long after the moon has risen. We need to take intentional time away and recover. We need to retreat, to leave our surroundings, and go somewhere deserted. This season can be such a great time to find that deserted place when things are slowing down in this winter period.

It can be kind of hard to stop and rest even when we take time to attend a retreat. I have been working with some great women in planning our women’s retreat “Renew” for February. Our theme is renewing connections with ourselves, God, and each other. There are so many activities that correspond with this theme and I wanted to try to provide as many options as possible in the schedule. And that is when Angie gently reminded me that this is a retreat. Retreats are created for rest, just like Jesus had his disciples do. Doing all the activities does not equal rest.

And so I’m taking that to heart not just for the women’s retreat but for the other retreats I am attending or chaperoning. There needs to be a balance between activities and rest. In that passage, Jesus didn’t send his disciples to go to a deserted place so they could maintain the same grind they were on. He sent them to a deserted place away from everything so that they could rest and recharge. We need that downtime in our lives so that we can come back ready to engage with our world and take back up our responsibilities.

Sometimes we hear that we are like a water pitcher. We can only pour out so much until we run dry. Once we are empty, we need something external in a big way to fill us up again. Instead, we should be more like a reservoir. A reservoir is designed to maintain a certain amount of water in it so that it doesn’t run dry. Why don’t we treat ourselves like a reservoir and protect our water from drying up? Why don’t we take time to rest and recharge from our daily grind or be intentional in choosing activities, saying no to those activities that aren’t replenishing our reservoirs?

The unfortunate truth is that life does not always afford us the opportunity to say no or to run away to a deserted place away from our responsibilities. And yet we find small pockets of grace throughout our days where the Spirit renews us. God greets us in the smile of a loved one and in that bite of a perfectly made sandwich and when our favorite song plays on the radio. Even if you’re not participating in a defined retreat, God is with you. God is with you no matter where you are – in the hustle and bustle and in your rest.

May you find time this season to recuperate. May God bless you in your endeavors to do nothing. May you find spaces in your life to go off to a deserted place away from everything, even if it is the bathroom by yourself. May the Spirit renew you in small and big ways that sustain you each and every day.

Peace be with you,

Laura

For as long as my kids have been alive, they’ve known and loved Uncle Todd, Uncle Lloyd, and Sims, members of the Echelon band. Yes, I’ve played music with these three for thirty years, but that isn’t why my kids treat them like family. Instead, the steady flow of humor, care, attentiveness, and love from these bandmates to my children have forged a lasting relationship and been a reminder of their enduring connection. They are central people in the lives of my kids – us, too – who love and encourage us in powerful ways.

I’m grateful to see these meaningful connections in your life, too. lt has been a delight to hear stories about holiday adventures and see images on social media of your many families, some of whom are blood relatives, along with others who are members of your extended chosen family of friends. I can only imagine the laughter and love shared through your time of togetherness.

It could be easy for us to center our Christmas and Epiphany celebrations only around Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus, but the Bible stories we hear and share this time of year won’t permit us to do so. Instead, we are nudged to embrace a broader circle of relationships as we hear about angels from the realms of glory filling the night sky with their radiance and songs, sleepy shepherds scrounging their belongings together in the middle of the night to head across town to see this new little precious One, and sky watchers coming from a faraway land when they recognize a shift in the heavens. All sorts of characters from beyond the family bloodline and Bethlehem region become players in God’s story of grace.

In this ever-unfolding story, we also hear about aunts and uncles, cousins and church leaders, community types and strangers in the land, as well as others who seek and welcome Jesus. As he grew, friends and even enemies became like family. During the final moments of his earthly life, Jesus even presided over an adoption ceremony between his mother and one of his disciples (John 19:25b-27).

I’m grateful that the rhythm of prayer in our weekly worship continually connects us to specific people and places beyond our congregation, as we lift up our joys and concerns. I’m grateful that the words of the Apostles’ Creed remind us that we believe in and are part of something bigger than ourselves, the “holy catholic [universal] Church.” I’m grateful that we leave our space fueled for God’s mission to live, share, and celebrate with all people.

One of the most poignant images of this past Advent and Christmas was Kelly Latimore’s “Christ in the Rubble.” "This new icon,” Latimore explains, “illustrates the prophetic message that if Jesus was born today, he would be born ‘under the rubble.’

“Our hope is that this icon, ‘Christ in the Rubble’ will create more dialogue among Christians in the United States during this holy season about the ways our beliefs and actions - or lack thereof - contribute to the violence we're currently witnessing in Gaza. How can we shape a culture of Christianity where love truly has no boundaries? How do we create a world where our poor, homeless, refugee, Palestinian Savior - born to a teenage mother and later condemned to death - would be cherished had he been born today?” (www.kellylatimoreicons.com)

I haven’t been able to shake this image from my mind. We cannot look away from the terror, dread, and trauma. We also cannot look away from the Hope that God brings to the world again and again with the promise of redemption and grace for all.

Let there be Peace on Earth and let it begin with me,

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.

God's peace,

The Lord of Life Staff

This Advent season at Lord of Life we have acknowledged our weariness, found joy in connection, and allowed ourselves to be amazed. This next week would be the time to sing stories of hope as we prepare to make room for Christ on Christmas Eve. The calendar this year is a bit wonky and like other churches, we will be celebrating Christmas Eve this Sunday while the Fourth Sunday of Advent takes a backseat. I’m not sure if the Fourth Sunday of Advent is my favorite, but it’s at least in the top four. How fitting for me that the calendar has us cutting the preparation short and jumping straight into action.

And yet this is one year where I wish we could savor Advent a bit longer – to hold onto the momentum of the preparation. I’m not sure why, but I just am not quite ready yet for Christmas. I don’t mean the to-do’s of the holiday which of course linger… It seems I am still working to be prepared emotionally and spiritually for Christmas morning and the arrival of Christ. I don’t want this to be another year where I am lost in the shuffle and forget to experience the amazing joy of the holiday – the promise that Christ is here with us for us. I really need this week to remember to hope in Christ’s coming, to hear the stories of hope, and to sing the songs of my childhood.

It will take some intentionality, but I am going to take some time each morning with our Advent booklet, savoring the poems and songs, and artwork in there as well as the Bible stories while I prepare myself a bit more before we jump into the action of Christmas. As I acknowledge the weariness I am feeling, the Spirit of God helps me make room for the joy of Christ. There is joy in knowing that Jesus is working in us and through us. There is joy in knowing that the world won’t be like this forever. There won’t always be war and hate and violence and need that bear down on us.

In Luke 1, we learn of Mary and her pregnancy. She was scared and went to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was also pregnant. Their greeting is so spectacular: Elizabeth’s baby jumps for joy and Elizabeth exuberantly blesses Mary. Mary responds with such a beautiful song praising God in hope for what can be. In Eugene Peterson’s translation The Message, Mary begins, “I am bursting with God-news; I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.” Mary sees what is possible and has hope. This is the hope that sustains us throughout the weariness. This is the hope that keeps us whether we are in the valley or up on the mountain.

May we all have the hope of Mary and be filled to bursting. May we dance the song of our Savior God. Rest easy, dear ones, knowing that we are held in the bosom of a loving God whose “mercy flows in wave after wave on those who are in awe before him.”

Merry Christmas!

Pastor Laura Applegate, Seminary Intern