I went to the Piano Guys concert last night at the Taft Theater downtown. It is a beautiful space, and considering its age, they do a nice job making the room accessible for people with disabilities. There are nooks carved out of the permanent seating where people in wheelchairs can find a place, there aren’t any stairs between the doors and the main floor to break up the path, and there are ushers to help guide folks who need assistance through these paths to their seats. This is a great example of how hospitality, accessibility and diversity come together.

I go to concerts at Music Hall pretty often, too. Recent renovations have made that space accessible, as well. More importantly, the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras have made an effort to program music by a diverse range of artists, breaking away from the Euro-centric sets we’re used to and choosing selections by African American composers and composers from around the world. Just as importantly, they invite guest musicians who will speak to all the varied interests in Cincinnati’s metro area. It is part of their mission to share music without barriers.

These are really important steps to diversity and hospitality, but I would say that both accessibility for disabilities and demographic diversity are fairly obvious things. What do they mean for us up here in Butler County, though? Lord of Life is already built without any steps or difficult thresholds. That is low-hanging fruit. We live in a county that is 82% white, so we can’t expect that we will attract a racially diverse congregation. Could we do some more things to be more accessible? Yes. Are there other ways we can continue to think of racial diversity outside of our lives here in West Chester? For sure.

There is a broader way to think of diversity and hospitality, too, though. And once we start thinking that way, it opens up the path to make things accessible to everyone. In our reading from the book of Romans this week, Paul talks about the diversity of how people worship God. Some people fast in God’s name and some people feast in God’s name. To continue in that line of thought, some people might kneel while other people stand. Some people sing while others choose to pray quietly. Some people worship God through an entirely different faith, and that is good, too.

Even among those of us who worship here at Lord of Life, we all bring different gifts, and we are all at different places on our faith journey. We invite people of all ages and skill levels to participate fully in each part of our worship and all of our other activities, too. Believe it or not, that isn’t true in all churches.

This week, we’ll unveil four new art panels in the sanctuary. They focus on the theme of “rising” and volunteers from eight years old to many decades older worked on them throughout the past week. You’ll see hands uplifting, a sun ascending, colors emanating, and a city shining - all rising so they can be part of lifting up the world.

I can think of so many more ways to broaden my view of diversity: I can think of people with mental illness with compassion; I can consider that people of other socio-economic classes may have difficult circumstances and not poor choices; I can be patient with someone with a  personality I find difficult.

How can you broaden your view of diversity? What do you think that means for Lord of Life and your day to day life?

Yours in Christ,

John

Did you know that one of the top five world religions actually began with cannibals? These early followers also engaged in incest, promiscuity, and necromancy. Because of these crimes, the government outlawed their “love feasts,” driving them to meet in catacombs, the perfect backdrop for their death-obsessed worship. Who would choose a religion with a reputation like that? How could anyone devote themselves to following a religion that started that way? What does that even say about them as humans? We probably shouldn’t let our kids be around those weirdos. Except you are right this moment innocently reading the words of their propaganda! You might even consider yourself one… You know, one of those Christians! THE HORROR!!!

If you have studied early Christian history, you might be aware of these misconceptions the Romans used against the Christians to justify persecuting them. Christians also stayed away from community events because the events often centered on the worship of other gods, making it difficult for non-Christians to get to know them and learn the truth about their beliefs and practices. Of course, the Romans believed the Christians were cannibals when they talked about eating flesh and drinking blood, people didn’t hang around them long enough to understand the deeper meaning. Test yourself and see if you would saddle up for a conversation with someone you think is a cannibal. Personally, I might take a step away or more probably a few steps. I prefer to keep my skin intact and safe from bite marks.

This might be hyperbole but I am hoping it reveals to you the danger of prejudice and misinformation. False information and misconceptions breed misunderstanding and fear. Naturally, we avoid the things we fear, using division to protect us from that which scares us. Division creates otherness which in turn leads to hate. Social and political tension is mounting in our country, leading to divisions in families and between friends. It can make us question with whom we can trust our whole selves. We might internally ask, “Are you like me? Can I trust you with who I am? Am I safe to be vulnerable with you?”

We can become so focused on the otherness, but God calls us to confront these fears. We dispel these fears and honor our neighbors through learning about their faith, their community, their lives. This illuminates our minds to other ways of being and calls us to discover our commonalities. By embracing those things we hold in common, we learn to love our neighbor as Christ called us to do. Each step we take in love towards our fellow humans deepens our faith and brings us closer to God.

This year, we are looking to visit other faith traditions with the goal of eradicating the “otherness” we might feel through knowledge and experience. We begin this Saturday, September 9th by visiting the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati. We will come together at Lord of Life at 11:30 am with bagged lunches in hand to talk and learn. Then we will carpool to the center for their program from 1 – 3 pm. Please reach out to Pastor Laura if you are able to attend either part of the day or for more information. This event will hopefully mark the start of an excellent year in discovering and restoring our communal ties.

We invite you to join us. To ask questions. To be vulnerable. To make a friend. To erase the walls. To mend the divides. To vanquish fear with love. To come close and see the face of God in your neighbor.

With peace,

Laura and the Honoring Our Neighbor’s Faith Committee

Our youngest son plays percussion with the Lakota East High School Marching Band. I was standing in the end zone at a recent football game, helping move marching band gear after the pregame set of the National Anthem and fight song, when the opposing team entered the field. Just moments prior, the stadium had been filled with cheers of celebration and good vibes for our football team on their home opener of the season, but when the opponents entered the field, there was a massive crescendo of “Boooooooo!” It was deafening. The disdain was overwhelming and made me sad. These kids, from another town with different colored uniforms, are still kids –the same as our high school athletes.

Humans are passionate creatures. We rally with enthusiasm for our teams, causes, beliefs, and the people we love, while also vehemently pushing back against opponents and enemies real or imagined. All too often, we expend more energy focusing on who or what we are against, than who or what we are for.

I’m weary of all the hating and animosity. I’m tired of how we are constantly trying to dominate others. So much around us says that winning is all that matters. We’re told that we have to be the best and crush the competition. Friday night lights are a mirror of our culture and communities – cheering with joy and affirmation for some and spewing hate for the other. We don’t have to play along.

The Apostle Paul challenges us with a different way of thinking when he writes, “do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12).” We don’t have to join the throngs of “Boooooooo!” for anyone who isn’t on “our team.” We don’t have to conform. 

Imagine what would happen if we harnessed all this negative energy in a different and better way. How might it transform our families, communities, congregations, and world if we channeled our rage and spite and hatred into encouragement, joy, and hope? Think about what a difference our Christian witness could make – would make – if we weren’t obsessed with all the things that we’re against?

Songwriter Scott Stivers writes: There’s more to loving good than hating evil. 

There’s more to doing right than avoiding what is wrong.
More to being steadfast than just standing still.
More to having faith than being strong.

It’s so easy to unite ourselves against a common foe.
We try to keep the peace by making war.
And we see with crystal clarity what we must fight against
We’ve lost sight of what we’re fighting for.

I want to be – and I want our church community to be – focused on the things that we’re for, rather than spending our lives on what we’re against. I want to live fueled by what God is “for” and how the Spirit of God is at work affirming and building up, creating and redeeming. 

I want to leverage my passion to cheer for others and celebrate what they have to offer. I want to work for freedom and help set the captives free. I want to move through each day inviting, welcoming, and including.

I want to spend my life empowering and encouraging others. I pray that my heart and mind will continue to grow as I listen to and learn from those beyond my experiences, neighborhood, and “team.”

Galatians 5:22-23 summarizes it well, saying, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” The same sentiment is nestled in the Lord of Life mission statement, too. Living, sharing, and celebrating are powerful words filled with positive, collaborative momentum. Let this mission drive our actions.

Cheering for you,

Pastor Lowell

I was excited to feel how easily the wheels glided as I pulled one of our new carts of Fellowship Hall chairs down the hall to provide additional seats in the Sanctuary. With three baptisms this past Sunday, we knew our attendance would be boosted by extended members of two families. Our number ended up exceeding our previous baptism by 30 people - well beyond the number of family members present. There is a momentum here that goes well beyond this Sunday.

As I looked out over the full room, I found several faces I didn’t recognize or only recognized vaguely. Maybe they were visiting for the first time, or maybe they had only come a few times and I hadn’t gotten to know their faces yet. Maybe they’ve been with us online for a long time and this is the first time they’ve been in our building. Sometimes Pastor Lowell gets to know people who have found us through social media and I don’t meet them until they are in the building for the first time.

Besides making sure they all had comfy chairs (I’m really glad no one has to sit on the folding metal ones anymore), as the music director one of the only other things I can do from my place at the piano is make the music as spiritually fulfilling as possible. I felt good about all of our music selections, and at the end of the Baptism liturgy, we sang “Light of the World” as Lowell introduced our new brother and sisters to the congregation. As Cara wrote in a previous blog, it is a song that reminds us that we’re called to “shine where we are” as we go out into the world each week. Since I knew some of our guests were from the Roman Catholic tradition, as our communion assistants helped welcome everyone to the table for Eucharist, I chose two songs I knew any Catholic would recognize, One Bread, One Body, and Come to the Water, with an additional refrain of “I will run to you.”

As I look into 170 faces on a joyful Sunday morning, I know I’m looking into the face of Jesus. They are here shining their light not just from where they are physically, but also from wherever they are on their spiritual or emotional journey. I want to run to them in greeting, to meet them in their joy, in their grief, in their questioning.

As we live into our call to shine our light in the world, we all have different ways we can run to meet people on the path. We do it when we greet people at church, help them find a seat, pass the peace, bring the scripture and prayers to life by reading them aloud, assist with communion, lead or participate in a Bible study or small group, volunteer during one of our outreach opportunities, or provide a quiet presence that someone else finds to be a safe space.

This weekend at least nine new families will participate in our Discover LOL class to learn a little bit more about the light they’ve seen us shine in the world. In the coming weeks, we’ll have photos and bios of the people who have decided to call Lord of Life their church home, and I hope you’ll run to them in welcome. Soon, our new building will begin to shine a new light in the community, and I expect we’ll see more new faces who are drawn to us either out of curiosity or in need of their own place to call home. I hope you’ll run to meet them, too.

Running to meet you,

John Johns, Music DIrector

I always laughed at the brilliant back-to-school commercials that Staples produced many years ago. With the Christmas song, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” playing in the background, the adults skipped happily down the aisle picking up school supplies while the kids were sad and moping. It seemed to sum up some of the end-of-the-summer feelings in a lighthearted way.

The truth is that going back to school comes with a myriad of emotions. Even if you don’t have kids that are heading off to school, you remember the feelings that you had as a school-age child or the feelings of your own children’s past experiences. Some years there was excitement and joy, others dread and fear. It can be a roller coaster ride for each unique person who is going off to school and for the adult who is sending them.

One of my favorite stories as a preschool director was “The Kissing Hand” by Audrey Penn. It was about Chester the raccoon who did not want to leave his mom to go to school. His mom kisses him on the hand and explains that the kiss will be with him throughout the day. Whenever he is sad or worried, he just needs to rub his hand to remind him of his mom’s love. As Chester is almost ready to go, he returns the message of comfort to his mom by kissing her on the hand.

Isn’t that what we all long for? Reminders that we are loved to bring us comfort? Jesus tells us, “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20). At our baptism the image of the cross is placed on our forehead and we are told, “Child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.” The Spirit of God goes with us as we head out to work or school as our constant source of comfort and love. Still, it is a beautiful thing when God uses people to remind us.

I was talking to a parent on Sunday when her child began tugging on her leg and pointing with excitement saying, “That’s my teacher!” Later, I told “the teacher” that she generated happiness just by being there that morning. She was surprised. She was his group leader that walked him from station to station at Vacation Bible School this summer. She didn’t feel like she did much besides being there to guide the children. But she was there, laughing, singing, modeling kindness, and being the light of Jesus.

That’s how God’s love works through our fears, anxieties, happiness, and joys. It can start small like the cross on a child's forehead at baptism, with a parent’s kiss on the hand, or a smile and kindness to a child in your group.

How can we find reminders each day for ourselves and others that the Holy Spirit always dwells in our hearts and minds? How is God using you to emanate and imitate that love? Especially as this new school year begins, look for how God is guiding, comforting, and leading you and then share that with others.

In God’s love,
Angie Seiller
Director of Faith Formation

I’ve been a bit distracted at work—more than usual. Over the last two weeks, all day long I’ve been mesmerized by the activity of the stone masons right outside my office window who spend the day stacking and securing rock to the soaring vertical face of our new space. 

This team of skilled artisans, working in a coordinated flow, saw and chisel the appropriate stones for the pattern while on the ground, then load a pallet with rock before hoisting it to the scaffold level where they are working with the large yellow lift. It is almost hypnotic to watch their flow.

The crew has a clear goal of what they are doing and plans for how to get there. A host of people are using a variety of materials and are working together to build our future.

Sometimes, we don’t have such clarity as a church. Why are we here? What are we doing? How do we accomplish whatever it is we’re supposed to be doing? We remember that Jesus told us to “love God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind and love our neighbors as ourselves” (Luke 10:27), but what does that look like here and now? We can recite our mission statement, which springs from “because God first loved us [we can] live, share, and celebrate with all people God’s love in Jesus Christ,” but what is the point?

Lord of Life received this generous and stunning review on Google this week that reminded me of our mission:

“[Lord of Life] church has done a lot for the recovery community. It's evident that they have kindness in their hearts and they have kept (possibly) the most valuable aspect in life – helping thy neighbor. It's a form of help that is not conditional. It's provided at ALL times... not ONLY when it's convenient for one’s schedule. 

“So many people nowadays have lost this. How much better would the world be if we all contributed to "unity?" Or better yet, if we all exhibited self-sacrifice and unselfish constructive action to better help others. In my opinion, this is God at work…God bless.”

One of our mission priorities is to share our space with our neighbors. As part of that emphasis, we host three weekly recovery meetings where people find encouragement and skills to battle addiction and co-dependency through in-person and online groups. What a profound way to connect our lives of faith with the complex challenges beyond our campus. Of course we want to encourage those seeking restoration and wholeness.

As our new space takes shape, you may have noticed that the building literally is pointing to the risen Jesus Christ as well as away from our existing building and out into the community. This isn’t by accident but is an architectural choice to visually remind us that our mission—God’s mission—doesn’t reside on our property, but propels us upward and outward.

English novelist Mary Ann Evans, known by her pen name George Eliot, asked, “What do we live for if not to make the world less difficult for each other?” Indeed. That is how Jesus lived. As followers of Jesus, that is where Christ leads us, too.

Where is God pointing you this week? Who is on your heart and mind? How can you make life less difficult for them? Take a moment today to reach out with a text, email, or phone call. Your voice might be just the boost they need. Your kind words of encouragement and connection could lead them to a place of hope. 

Trying to point to Jesus,

Pastor Lowell