A thriving church is one so convinced of the resurrection that we’re free to give our lives in service to others. Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton shares how the ELCA continues to thrive in country churches, cityscapes and places with no walls in this message for 2020 Synod Assemblies. This video was recorded prior to the COVID-19 outbreak and restrictions.

For many years, every time our family went anywhere in the car, one of the kiddos would ask, “Are we there, yet?” It didn’t matter if we were just zipping to the grocery store or making the 14-hour pilgrimage from Wichita to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving Weekend, they needed to know if we had arrived, and if not, how long would it be until we did?

We’re all asking the same questions as the stay-at-home order extends into May. “Are we there, yet? Is Ohio lifting the shelter-in-place order? When we will be able to gather again as a church community in our worship space?” After weeks of isolation, we are all eager to be together in person again.

As I mentioned in our latest Lifeline newsletter, ministry leaders from around the Southern Ohio Synod met remotely with Bishop Suzanne Dillahunt and her staff last week to hear about strategies and best practices for the weeks and months ahead. It was time well spent and we had loads of questions about what worship, pastoral care, Vacation Bible School, and the many other learning and serving moments that are at the center of our lives together in ministry will look like on the other side of COVID-19.

When we asked if we can resume worship, our Bishop said, “Not yet. Hold tight. We’ve seen how faith communities not following restrictions have had disastrous occurrences. Ohio is still on stay-at-home order, so we will use this time to make plans for when we’ll be back together.”

While we wait, we are diligently planning. Our goal is to develop a strategy that will protect each other when we can gather again. We are fortunate that one of our members, Liz Zimmerly, MSN, RN-BC, works in the field of health and safety, and has volunteered to share her expertise. During these weeks, she is meeting with staff, church council, and Ministry Area Coordinators (MACs), creating goals in phases.

As we create safe re-opening schedules and mitigation strategies, we are considering the vulnerable among us. Our plans must be local and contextual. When we have a plan, we’ll organize implementation and communicate it with all of you.

During this time, we also have a team who is reaching out to work with anyone who is currently unable to access worship online. Is this you? If so, please be in touch with Cara (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), so we can get you connected.

Next week, we’ll be releasing a “Frequently Asked Questions” (FAQs) page on our website, which will address many of the questions we’re all asking, including:

• Worship re-entry practices
• Holy Communion
• Baptisms, Weddings & Funerals
• Greeters & Ushers
• Sunday School, Preschool & Nursery
• VBS (Vacation Bible School)
• Outside Group Usage
• Office Hours & Pastoral Care

When will we open our building and grounds for worship, outreach, and fellowship? As soon as possible. When we do open, we will be confident that we are doing everything possible to keep everyone healthy.

Bishop Dillahunt, in closing, said, “Even though we are stepping into the unknown, we can do this! It is important for us to be innovators during this season and focus on our mission.” She read, Isaiah 43:18-19 and declared, “God is doing new things in us and through us!”

If you have specific questions or concerns, or want to be part of the planning team, contact the church office.

Thank you for your patience and support as we move forward together as a community. God continues to use us to live, share, and celebrate with all.

In faith and hope,

Pastor Lowell

I know I’m not the only person who has done it. Mine might not be the worst I’ve seen. It’s definitely not the best. Once it hit 75 degrees outside I really needed to get some of the extra hair off my head and I pulled out the clippers and … well … since my goal was to cool off a bit as it got warmer, I’ll consider it a success. If I weren’t being physically distant from people and wanted to look good in public, that might be another story. This is the nature of the CoronaCut (n. - short for “coronavirus haircut.” A haircut done at home by someone in your household or yourself because barbers, salons, etc. are closed during the stay at home order).

This is one of just a few adjustments many of us are making. This one happened to have a comical outcome (some people might consider it tragic, but I really don’t care much about my hair.) It is of the same order as CoronaGut (the widening of my waistline because of excessive snacking at home) and CoronaTime (the nebulousness caused by the lack of regular daily routine, and the reason this blog is coming out on Friday instead of Thursday).

Other adjustments have really altered the way we work and live. The one that has made the biggest impact on my day to day life is how we put together worship each week. I’ve spent my whole career talking about how important it is to sing together during worship. Not just for the choir or the band to sing together, but for the whole congregation. There is a visceral feeling we get from singing with a group of people, and it is difficult to replace virtually. 

As part of our liturgy, the music is meant to be one of the things that brings our hearts and minds together in worship, using our full bodies and breath to sing the same words from our cores. And not everybody is as comfortable breaking into song in the middle of their living room as I am. For the last few weeks, instead of trying to exactly replace the singing, I’ve been trying to use special offerings along with hymns and songs we know really well to bring us together. I know it isn’t the same as feeling the rumble in your chest when you are singing along with people next to you and you have great leadership from the singers at the front of the room. But I know our hearts and minds are together because we’ve made such a great effort to put our worship together and you all have taken the time to worship with us from home. It is so nice when it is all finished to go through and look at the live comments to see how everyone has interacted with each other while worship is streaming.

We’ll keep making adjustments. Each week I learn some new bit of technology trying to figure out what is going to work best for our worship and workflow. Sometimes it is great. Sometimes I learn that a half second transition in a video ends up taking an extra hour and a half for the computer to process. *cough* Easter Sunday *cough*.  Some folks have stepped forward to share their musical gifts, which makes it easier for me to spend time on other parts of worship. I love that innovation is coming out of a difficult situation and that we have opportunities to grow together and as individuals. 

But I can’t wait to be together again. I miss everyone and I miss singing together and even though I’m an introvert who is happy to be home most of the time, I miss getting to chat with you before and after worship. And also, I miss having a professional cut my hair. Hopefully someone can fix it before we see each other in person again.

Disheveledly yours,

John Johns

I don’t know about you, but I am kind of tired of talking about the coronavirus. I’m tired of hearing about it on the news. I am tired of seeing so many posts about it on Facebook. I am tired of all the pain and grief that it is causing. Not that I want to put my head in the sand, or ignore the reality going on around us, but I want to take a little break and talk about something different. 

Every night at dinner our family shares our “highs and lows” from the day. Sometimes by the end of our day all we can end up thinking about is how long we spent cooped up in our house and how many arguments we had over chores and screen time. It can sometimes feel like there weren’t any “highs” during our day because of the overwhelming feeling of confinement that pervades our day. If all we focused on was the doom and gloom, there would be no way that we would all make it through the sheltering in place order without mentally breaking down. 

As a way to change our viewpoints, since Easter, my family has been trying to find ways to look for little bits of gratitude throughout the day. Our kids have been filling out “The 3 Minute Gratitude Journal for Kids” each evening. It asks them to list three things they are thankful for, the person that brought them joy that day, their overall feeling for the day, and the best part of their day. It has been interesting to watch them fill it out because they will start out with a “blah” feeling for the day, but after listing all of the best parts of their day, they will go back and change their feeling for the day to something upbeat. There are plenty of options online for journals that encourage gratitude, happiness, mindfulness, and so much more, that I encourage you to explore.

Searching for moments of gratitude is not a new concept. Usually, every November you will see people on social media participating in the #ThankfulnessChallenge, where you post something you are thankful for each day of the month. But in a time when so much negativity is pressing down on us, I think it is vital for us to look for at least one thing that brought us joy, or that we are thankful for, from that particular day. You can find the way that works best for you: maybe it's a journal, maybe you put slips of paper in a jar, maybe you post online. If you choose to join me in this daily practice, let us also lift these moments of gratitude to God in prayer. We trust that our God is God of love and is working to make moments of creation, restoration, peace, love, acceptance, healing, and awe happen in our lives. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God!

Psalm 23:1-3 - (The Message Bible)

Come, let’s shout praises to God,

    raise the roof for the Rock who saved us!

Let’s march into his presence singing praises,

    lifting the rafters with our hymns!

And why? Because God is the best!

Thankful for each and every one of you,

Pastor Corey

In all my years of ministry, I’ve never experienced a Holy Week and Easter like these past few weeks. I would imagine it was a first for you, too.

There were no waving palms as we walked into the sanctuary together, because we weren’t there. There was no foot washing, no stripping of the altar on Maundy Thursday. We couldn’t hear the collective sorrow in the worship space as we sang “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” together and then left in silence. There were no glowing faces as we huddled around the firepit at the opening words of the Easter Vigil. There were no flowing streamers above our heads as we sang, “Jesus Christ is Risen, Today. Alleluia!” on Easter morning.

But that doesn’t mean that those holy moments and the promises of an empty tomb on Easter didn’t arrive right on time! From your couches and chairs. We declared, “Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!” In front of our screens, we shared a meal together and heard the ancient bidding prayers. In the silence of our homes and hearts, we remember that Jesus said, “It is finished,” and gave up his spirit.

Thank you for your incomparable flexibility during these days of quarantine. Almost at a moment’s notice, you embraced our new patterns of being connected as we “live, share, and celebrate” the love of Christ in our midst.

Without any warning, we shifted into “nimble mode.” Nimble is defined as “quick and light in movement or action; agile; (of the mind) quick to comprehend.”

Church congregations of our size (220+ households) are not usually described as nimble, but in this season, our ability to move quickly to a virtual worship and learning environment has helped us maintain the warm hospitality that is a signature of Lord of Life.

As you know, none of this just happened naturally. We owe deep gratitude to so many who made this new way of being happen, including:

John Johns who not only is coordinating and arranging musicians from the piano bench of his home, but he has also ramped up his tech and production skills to rival a Sports Center remote production crew.

Cara Hasselbeck who continues to keep us on track with ministry schedules and deadlines, while also breathing life to a Lifeline Newsletter from a distance and plowing through our ministry software upgrade from her home.

Pastor Corey Wagonfield has been a flurry of organizing and coordinating behind the scenes, while also providing exceptional pastoral care and leadership in worship, learning, and moments. All of this while wrapping up his seminary career and preparing for a first call.

Donna Harvey and Tyler Keith continue to work tirelessly to keep us fiscally responsible, not only receiving your generous offerings, but also paying our bills and making sure that our ministry partners receive our support.

And a word of appreciation to the multitude of musicians, readers, Sunday morning teachers and Bible study leaders, letter writers, phone callers, Stephen Ministers, preschool teachers, lawn mowers, and so many others who continue to serve and offer words of encouragement and assurance in this uncertain season. Thank you!

Thank you to each of you for your kindness to one another and for your acts of service that build an atmosphere of hope in a time of anxiety. Thank you for your financial support that sustains our ministries and for your countless prayers which tether us in faith.

We don’t know when we’ll step back into our building for worship. We don’t know when we’ll share bread and wine in front of the altar. We don't know when we’ll tell stories, while sipping coffee or tea. We don’t know when our children will race down the halls to get to a learning moment and hear about Jesus.

But, what we do know is that we are the Body of Christ, bound together by the Spirit of God, and called to love and serve – wherever and however that may be!

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

Pastor Lowell

Each of us comes at life with our own perspective and sees things differently. 

A nurse. A teacher. A Stephen Minister. 

Call it a distinct view or an alternate vantage point, this is one of the great joys of doing life together! Our collective story is enhanced by what others bring to it. 

As one of the leaders of this congregation, sometimes I wonder if I get a first-hand view of ministry that some of you miss out on. Whew! Let me share. What a couple of days we’ve had! 

Each day brings new declarations and restrictions as the pandemic moves deeper into our neighborhoods and lives, but that can’t stop the ways that God is using us to plant seeds of faith, hope, and love. Here are a few of the beautiful moments I’ve experienced this week. (I invite you to share any that you’ve seen or been part of on our social media sites).

Some of the Lord of Life nurses have a group chat to encourage and support one another. One of them recently found out that she was being moved into training to care for COVID-19 patients. “I am afraid,” she wrote. Instantly, the nurse texts exploded with prayers, strategies for health, emojis, and words of encouragement. It was beautiful to watch their love and concern embrace their sister.

One of the Lord of Life Preschool teachers, after hearing that class – and her pay – would be ending March 31, wrote to the board president, “[I’ll] be able to continue to post videos and I will do so as I am able. I will complete my end of year videos for all 4 classes and have their end of the year books available for pickup when circumstances allow. [I will also] make a "graduation" video for the kids sometime on or before original last day of school… I appreciate all that you do!”

One of our Stephen Ministers had an idea: For those who are able to do so, what if we used a portion of the upcoming stimulus check to buy groceries for a local food bank? “I think the food banks are going to be hit really hard for weeks or months to come and I feel this is a way to help.” 

Pastor Bob Browning, serving St. Matthew’s Lutheran in Darrtown, called to say that he is very appreciative of our online worship services. He is going to encourage St. Matthew's to log into our feed each week, rather than trying to do one of his own. (I should also mention that Pastor Lucas McSurley, our former intern, has shared our Sunday morning livestream link with his congregation, Messiah Lutheran in Akron, so he can dedicate his energies to pastoral care and other ministries.)

You might feel like ministry is on hold or suspended, since we’re not in the building, or that somehow God’s mission has been derailed, this spring. Nothing could be further from the truth. God’s Spirit is continuing to lead us into living out our mission to live, share, and celebrate God’s love with all people. Who could’ve imagined the generosity that would come from these days of isolation?

As we enter this Holy Week and journey with Jesus through the gates of Jerusalem to the upper room and then follow him to the hill where he will lay down his life for us, hear the Truth of God’s love, once again: “The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”

During this unprecedented era in our lifetimes, there will be grim moments. But Jesus Christ goes with us. He is our light, our hope, our peace.

Thanks be to God!

Pastor Lowell

image from Dave Walker, cartoonchurch.com