Why do we worship so many times during Holy Week? What is the difference between all the services? Do I have to go to all of them? How is Holy Week different here than at my old church? If you’re new to all of these observances, or if you’ve experienced them differently in other denominations, you might have some of these questions or others as we head into the final three days before Easter.

I grew up Roman Catholic, served an Episcopal congregation for many years, and now consider myself a Lutheran, so I hope I can share a perspective of someone who has asked, researched, and had many questions answered about the way worship and theology differ among our various traditions.

Our Holy Week observes many of the same holy days that are observed in other Christian denominations - Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Lutherans all mark these days on their calendars, whether their individual congregations choose to worship on these days or not. 

On Maundy Thursday, we reenact the last supper - which we do every Sunday morning during the Eucharist - along with other final moments in Jesus’ ministry. He called us to one another, so like Jesus, we renew our baptismal vows, we receive and forgive each others’ sins, we give thanks and remembrance for our joys and our griefs, and we wash each others’ feet. We celebrate Maundy Thursday in a relatively quiet and reflective way, but it is a call to action. We are tasked, just like the disciples, to fulfill Jesus’ ministry after he leaves the world.

In the Roman Catholic church, where crucifixes (crosses with Jesus dead or dying on them) are prominent in every worship space, the whole church year seems to lead up to and serve as a reminder of Good Friday, when Jesus died. Our post-reformation theology teaches us that Jesus died to free us of our sin. Rather than believe that we are still sinners - that we are weighed down by our “original sin” and need to constantly repent for it - we believe that Jesus’ death saved us by grace and that by having faith in Jesus, we are free from sin. If you think of it this way, Good Friday, for protestant believers, is a celebration of Jesus’ life. We are grateful that he came into the world for us and died to release us from our guilt and shame, and while we mourn him, as we would at any funeral, we are also commemorating our privilege to live our lives without fear of damnation.

You don’t have to come to worship on these extra markers of the church calendar year. But like so many worship moments throughout the year, Sunday and otherwise, the extra words of encouragement and reminders of our faith that we receive on these holy days each year can be a benefit in our lives.

I hope to see you soon,

John Johns, Music Director

I consider myself a lifelong learner. I enjoy reading books that challenge and stretch me, introducing me to a variety of voices and perspectives. I seek out TV and film that opens my eyes to new worlds and forces me to wrestle with compassion, forgiveness, and redemption in new ways. I listen to a wide spectrum of music that leads me into new sounds and guides me deeper into the exhilarating intersections of an ever-increasing global playlist.

I see this in my life of Christian faith, too, which is central to my whole being. I continue to learn and grow in faith, hope, and love. I am not the same person I was on my Confirmation day in 9th grade, my senior year of college, or even who I was when I preached my first sermon at Lord of Life in 2014. Stimuli from every direction of my life, as well as life lived among others, has led me to new territory and challenged me with notions about God, Church, humanity, and more.

One of the ways that has come about in recent years is in my work with seminary interns. Being a teaching parish and internship supervisor is good for me. In the almost twenty years since my own internship, there have been massive shifts in ministry. Interns help me catch up on current ministry models, explore new curriculum, become familiar with innovative voices, and help me rediscover how I’m called to pastoral leadership and why I thrive in collaborative ministry settings. If you’ve been around Lord of Life any length of time, you’ll remember the impact that pastors Lucas McSurley, Corey Wagonfield, and Alec Brohnson made as they shared their passions and gifts with us over the last handful of years.

Lord of Life as a teaching parish is good for seminary interns, too. We have so much to offer including vibrant traditional and contemporary worship, a spectrum of ages who are active and involved in learning and serving moments, and an amazing campus that includes an outdoor worship space and community garden. Our congregation is welcoming, affirming, and inclusive of all people – which sadly isn’t an experience for all interns. You are a generous people, joyously pouring out your time, finances, and talents to help propel God’s work in and through us. We host the Vida Eterna Iglesia Lutherana (VEIL) Latino congregation, Family Promise ministry with those who are unhoused, and share our space with a dozen outside groups. Interns are blessed when they experience the full breadth of ministry here, not as a spectator, but as an essential player on the ministry team.

Being a teaching parish is also good for us as a congregation. As we help form future leaders, we are reminded that church is a place to try new things, a safe place to fail, and a place to celebrate a variety of gifts and talents. A community of faith is a place to practice loving and caring for one another, stretching our minds, listening with expectation, and growing our hearts. Welcoming seminary students for short-term missions helps us practice saying “Hello” and “Goodbye.” As we serve and learn together, we are reminded that we’re all on a journey and have something to both offer and learn.

One of the central passages in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), the Shema, is centerpiece of morning and evening Jewish prayer:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9.

These verses are loaded with action verbs: Hear. Love. Keep. Recite. Talk. Bind. Fix. Write. Don’t miss how it is a blend of both receiving and giving. Isn’t that how Christian faith functions? Isn’t that what we are called to be? 

Living and learning in hope,

Pastor Lowell

Please see page 3 of the latest issue of our Lifeline Newsletter for more information about our 2023-2024 seminary intern, Laura Applegate.

As long as I can remember, I have been a helper. In school, I helped the teacher pass out papers. In sixth grade, I was a Bus Patrol who helped the bus driver keep active school children behaving well and staying safe. In college, I helped form an Al-anon support group and the Feminist Caucus. These and other experiences led me to become a Head Resident in one of the residence halls the year after I graduated at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. It would be easy to assume that I have a natural ability to see a need and fill it. Actually, it is so much more than that.

To whom much is given, much is expected is a value that solidified during my college years. Service is gratitude in action. I have been so blessed throughout my life and I want to pay it forward as much as I can and when I can. This is one of the reasons that I agreed to be the Ministry Area Coordinator (MAC) for the CARE Team at Lord of Life.

What is the CARE Team? First of all, what does CARE stand for? Until recently, the acronym did not have any meaning! It now stands for Care And Recovery for Everyone (CARE)!
The CARE Team is responsible for a variety of ministry efforts to care for our members and those in the community:

Helping Hands Ministry is a list of volunteers who are willing to provide a meal, a specific food dish for a church event, or to drive someone to an appointment. Usually, a CARE team member will send out a Sign-Up Genius or email to share current CARE requests. Helping Hands members may or may not be able to help on each request and that is okay.

Recovery Groups are included under the CARE team and currently include AA, Al-Anon, and the Big Book support groups. If you are interested in starting a new support group, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Stephen Ministry is a one-to-one Christian-centered care ministry for adults who are going through a difficult time such as grief, divorce, job loss, or other major life transitions. A Stephen Minister meets once a week for one hour to listen to and support the person having a difficult time. No one need suffer alone. Stephen Ministers are here to walk with you through the valleys in life.

Funeral Lunch Team is a group of folks who assist the grieving family by supplying a luncheon after the funeral at our church. This is a sacred time that provides grieving family and friends an opportunity to tell stories and comfort each other in a safe space. The Helping Hands Ministry is asked to supply side dishes and desserts for the luncheon.

CARE bags for folks in need contain non-perishable foods and toiletry items. The CARE bags are used by the LOL staff when folks in need are asking for help. Cara and Pastor Lowell passed out three bags this week!

Mini CARE bags are being assembled currently for members to take with them in their cars and to hand out to folks in need. A smaller amount of perishable foods and toiletry items are in a gallon-sized bag and can easily be handed out a car window.

Are you ready to jump in and be part of the Care team? Please contact Ava at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to join us in ministry.

Yours in Christ,

Ava Fiebig

Happy Anniversary! Did you forget our special day? That’s ok, I’m not mad at you, I kind of blocked it out, too. Honestly, after the first twelve months, I wished we could stop talking about it and just accept that COVID was part of our existence. If I never hear the phrase “new normal” again, it will be too soon.

This week marks three years since we shut everything down and distanced ourselves so we could protect ourselves and each other from a seriously inconvenient and often deadly virus. But we’ve had plenty of time to bemoan all the things we didn’t like about our time in quarantine. We know what worked and what didn’t. COVID is still with us, but we’ve built up some immunity and most of us can fight it off when we need to.

I want to take this special anniversary day to celebrate some of the positive things that have changed in the time since COVID, both here at church and for me personally.

Here at Lord of Life, the week of lockdown kickstarted a new phase of digital ministry for us. As soon as we knew we couldn’t worship in person, we figured out how to stream worship, first using the cameras on our phones, then pulling together videos from volunteers, and finally setting up a permanent video system in the church. Since then, a third of our attendance is online and a third of our new members find us and worship with us virtually before they come and meet us in person. 

Getting us out of the building for a few months also gave us a chance to finish the sanctuary renovation without disruption to in-person worship. I’m sure we would have figured things out if COVID hadn’t been a factor, but the extra breathing room allowed us to take our time and fine-tune some details that might have been rushed if we were trying to get back in the room faster.

We learned that we excel at outreach. No matter how little we saw each other in person, our outreach ministries never skipped a beat. From collecting masks and supplies for first responders and essential workers, and a special collection for Native American reservations, to continuing our regular collections for Feed the Need, Giving Tree, Reach Out Lakota, Thanksgiving meal boxes for SELF, and several other ministries.

I learned some things about myself, too. If you would have asked me three years ago, getting to work from home was the best thing ever. My introverted self is perfectly happy to plug away at a computer without any outside stimulus for hours at a time. But eventually I, too, missed getting to see everyone and I have a new appreciation for getting to spend time together when we can chat outside of worship.

And finally - after three years - I think I’m ready to move away from the piano bench to pass the peace again. I’ve been content with showing a peace sign from my swiveling chair, but I’m ready for handshakes and hugs. I never thought I’d say that! If you’re not there yet, that’s ok. Some people weren’t comfortable with it before. I’ll try to pick up on your social cues if you’d rather share a head nod or a fist bump.

Looking forward to passing the peace,

John Johns

I want to go to the beach. This time of year always gives me the itch for spring break travel, but we’re staying put this year. Our three kids have three different breaks, then you add in the season of Lent, church construction, and everything else to the mix – nope. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not thinking about splashing in the saltwater and napping on the sand.

Perhaps my favorite part of going to the beach is building a sand castle. One of the highlights of crafting this temporary creation is always some kind of a tunnel under the structure – down where the sand is cold and damp. I remember many years of digging from opposite sides with a sibling, friend, or more recently one of my kids, burrowing our way towards one another with anticipation of making a connection for a secret subterranean passageway or a moat extension under the fortress entrance bridge.

That’s been happening at our church, recently. Footers and foundations were poured in the new expansion area and now the Trade 31 crew needs to feed plumbing and electrical materials underground from connection points to their destination. The only way to do that is to dig under the concrete structures. It was fun to see construction workers standing torso deep in a trench with shovels digging tunnels toward one another like children at the seashore.

I’ve seen it elsewhere in our church community, too. In Bible studies, chatting between worship services, conversations in the parking lot, and alongside one another as we serve in various capacities, you intentionally engage people with differing views about political and social issues, worship preferences, and theologies in an attempt to grow in your knowledge and understanding. 

Isn’t that what we’re called to do? To meet in the middle or at least move toward one another in love, making an effort to connect and understand each other? In a delightful way, these moments also move us closer to Christ.

For our Lenten journey at Lord of Life this year, we’re hearing stories and encountering followers of Jesus who were asking honest questions in search of a deeper faith. In the stories of Nicodemus (John 3:1-17), the Samaritan woman (John 4:5-42), the blind man and the disciples (John 9:1-41), and Lazarus’ family (John 11:1-45), we see people asking questions as they yearn for deeper understanding. In their stories, we witness people feverishly digging as they seek to meet Jesus.

Thankfully, even when these characters are confused or don’t understand, Jesus continues to teach them with care. When they lash out in anger and confusion, Jesus reminds them of God’s loving embrace. Jesus never stops pursuing them in love. 

So it is with us. Sometimes our tunneling isn’t in search of connection, but is digging in for the long fight, building bigger walls, and fortressing ourselves as self-preservation. We try to excavate our own lives as a way of self-discovery, but end up isolated and unapproachable.

If you’ve ever built a sandcastle anywhere near the water, you know that your dusty citadel doesn’t last long. The tide comes rolling in and washes away your granular creation. 

So it is with our fortressed hearts and minds. The renewing waters of baptism and wind of the Spirit pursue us relentlessly, dismantling all that separates us from God and each other. Jesus never ceases in creating a path to find us and invite us to begin anew. 

Digging with hope,

Pastor Lowell

If you know me well, you might be surprised to see me writing a blog about tennis. I call most activities involving bats or racquets and any amount of sweating “sportsball” and usually tune out or poke some sort of fun on the rare occasion people think to talk about sportsball around me.

I’ve never watched a tennis match. I’m so woefully unaware that I have to guess any time the New York Times Crossword Puzzle asks questions related to tennis (or any other sport.) But when I was growing up, John McEnroe’s name was famous enough to break through my ignorance of all things sporty. So when I was listening to NPR last month and Terry Gross was interviewing him on Fresh Air, I knew enough to follow along with the conversation.

What struck me about the interview was how little there was about the actual game of tennis and how the focus remained on McEnroe’s personal experience being managed and coached. He was managed and coached by his father, and traveled from match to match only with him and maybe one or two other people at most. He still prefers to operate with a small circle like this. He compared this to modern athletes, who often travel with entire entourages including coaches, managers, personal assistants, media managers, psychologists, physical therapists, nutritionists, and other professionals who make it possible to survive the increased pressure of working in the modern era. The world has changed so much that performance on the court isn’t enough for someone to succeed. Almost every aspect of an athlete’s life has to be carefully shaped, or at least give that appearance, for them to be successful.

As I listened, it occurred to me that this truth didn’t apply just to athletes. The prevalence of social media and our constant availability by phone, text, and email increase the pressure on all of us to be “on” all the time. And as expectations of us change, our personal needs change, too. This includes our need to find ways to care for ourselves mentally, physically, and spiritually. For most of us, we have to do it without an entire staff of people surrounding us.

As a church, we, as staff, spend a great deal of time considering people’s spiritual needs. We look at what is happening in the lives of people in our congregation, and then in the greater community and ask ourselves what we can do to help. It isn’t always easy. Sometimes it means changing the way we worship or something in our building. We love our traditions and it is difficult to let go of things that have worked for us for many years or that we feel comfortable or that we remember with fondness.

As individual Christians, maybe we can consider this: what can we do to decrease the burden on each other? What can we do to lower the expectation of constant availability? What can we do to assist each other on our collective spiritual journeys? We might not all have a team of professionals, but we have all been called to surround each other with Jesus’ love.

Yours in Christ, 

John Johns

Music Director