Sunday Worship8, 9:30 & 11 am
God’s creation has healing potential for our lives. I have heard countless stories from people at Lord of Life about how their “healing place” is a cabin on a lake, fishing in a stream, sitting on a beach, or biking through the woods. I have talked to people who have said that all their anxiety melts away when they are surrounded by nature and they feel spiritually closer to God when they are able to view a sunset, a rainbow, or a picturesque landscape. But is there any evidence to back up these claims?
In 2005, child advocacy expert Richard Louv published a book entitled, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder. It was the “first book to bring together cutting-edge research showing that direct exposure to nature is essential for healthy childhood development-physical, emotional, and spiritual. What's more, nature is a potent therapy for depression, obesity, and ADD” (book description). It started a movement throughout the US called “No Child Left Inside,” whereby organizations promoted increased outdoor activity for children throughout the country.
Research didn’t stop there. A PhD student at Luther Seminary embarked on a project in 2015 to obtain data that supported the long-held claim that Christian Summer Camp Programs had long term spiritual benefits. The Effective Camp Research Project is a multi-year study examining the impact of the Christian summer camp experience on campers, families, and church communities.
Here are a few of their findings:
- The Christian summer camp experience impacts campers in positive ways that extends to their families, churches and others.
- 90% of those attending a Christian summer camp like ours report that they grew in faith.
- 97% of those attending a Christian summer camp like ours report that they had fun!
- Kids report that by growing in faith at camp it helps them in their daily life back home.
- Camp doesn’t end when the week is over, research shows that it has lasting effects. Many campers read their Bible more, pray with their family more, and attend church more. (www.vibrantfaith.org/effectivecamp/)
One of the critiques of Louv’s book is that he missed one of the key reasons that children no longer play outside. He attributes it to the lure of electronics, but critics say it is because the children’s parents don’t spend time outside in play. During my time at Lutheran Outdoor Ministries in Ohio, I witnessed first hand how life-changing a week at camp can be for adults, families and youth. Yes… camp can be for adults and families too!
Our stewardship theme for 2019 at Lord of Life is “Growing,” and I encourage you to think about how you can grow in your appreciation of, and time spent in, God’s wonderful creation. This summer LOL will be offering a mission trip experience as well as encouraging families and youth to experience one of our Ohio Lutheran camps (www.lomocamps.org). Through a special partnership with LOMO (Lutheran Outdoor Ministries in Ohio), our congregation will be able to offer subsidized rates for people who want to experience camp this summer. More information about the mission trip and summer camp opportunities will be coming out later this year, but you can begin prayerfully considering now how you might want to plug into one of these opportunities to experience God’s creation in a new way.
Longing To Be In A Hammock Near The Lake,
Corey Wagonfield
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.