Join us for part 4 of 6 as we take a look at the cultural challenges Paul faced within the church and society in Corinth. We hear Paul’s corrective messages on the values and behaviors of a Christian Community. And we hear Paul’s famous message on the way of Faith, Hope, and Love. We hope that you can join us. Please select here for the complete study playlist.
Tag: ELCA
OSLC Blast for April 20, 2020
OSLC Email Blast for April 20, 2020
Tuesday, April 21, 7:00pm —– Women’s Evening virtual Bible Study. If you are interested in attending, please contact Bonita B or Dorothy O by e-mail, and they will send you the link to join in the Zoom meeting.
Wednesday, April 22, 1:00pm —– BIBLE STUDY!!
Sunday, April 26 —– LIVE Zoom Worship Service at 9:30.
Message from Pastor Marty
Hey All,
I hope you are well as we head into this week! The weather is shifting to being more sunny, and no matter what happens in our society, Spring is underway! May the light of Christ shine in our hearts, and may the light outside brighten our moods.
Yesterday we had our first ever online worship service with communion! About 40 of us gathered over zoom for a liturgy of Word and Sacrament. It was a rich experience and many people have mentioned to me about how powerful it was for them to receive the body of Christ in their home. Adaptation is part of this time, and I want to thank everybody for your efforts and grace in this first experience. I will be posting the service to our youtube page later today (Here is the link for the previous digital worship service) so folks can participate whenever and wherever they can. I believe that the words spoken and the faith in our hearts makes this a very real means of grace. I hope you feel included and share in the serving (even to your self) done in the refrain of The Body of Christ broken/shed FOR YOU. God wants us to hear the FOR YOU through this meal. May your heart be emboldened as we hear and receive these powerful words.
I think we will continue to do a live worship for a while, with Communion. Next Sunday we will figure out how to do the audio a bit better, and Caleb will lead us in some music too! We thank God for being with all of our members who have been enduring this coronavirus over the past weeks. It sounds like all are on the mend and doing much better, and I haven’t heard of any new cases in our community.
If you didn’t participate last week because you didn’t have communion elements ready, please know that you can make this communion happen with the simplest of elements. If you have wine that is best, but juice will suffice. Virtually any bread or starch will do, as we realize we are making ceremonial sacrifices of our normal behavior to adapt to this time. We will reflect and grow from our conversations about this experience too. Please don’t hesitate to write me a note if you have strong feelings about how this is affecting you. I expect it will.
We are also very excited that Violet is joining our staff this week! As she gets started, we are going to take this first week to help her begin in some foundational ways. In the next couple of weeks we will be introducing her to the congregation and building a new infrastructure for communications within our congregation. This is an interesting time to begin with us, but our communication is so essential right now, that I can’t wait to have a new partner in ministry who will help us specifically with this during this time. Thanks to all of you for your patience and support during this massive transition in our front office. Now we are laying a new foundation for how we will be in the new reality. Please pray for Violet and all of us during this time as we get this new role going in a positive way!
See you all on Wednesday this week for Bible study at 1:00pm. Also see you Sunday at 9:30 for worship, and 10:30 for Coffee Hour!
Peace be with you all and have a great week!
Pastor Marty
This ‘n’ That
Care of Creation. I used to think that if we threw enough good science at the environmental problems, we could solve them. I was wrong. The main threats to the environment are not biodiversity loss, pollution, and climate change, as I once thought. They are selfishness and greed and pride. And for that we need a spiritual and cultural transformation. (James ‘Gus’ Speth, Yale.edu) Action: Ponder how the Covid19 pandemic has heightened your awareness as to what kind of world you want post-crisis. Share your thoughts with someone now.
Readings for Sunday, April 26 – 3rd Sunday of Easter
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
I Peter 1:17-23
Luke 24:13-35
Mission Statement
Our Savior’s Lutheran Church connects people to God and Each Other. We embody this mission through Word and Sacrament Worship, Music, Faith Formation, Service, and Authentic Community.
OSLC Blast & Council Update
Hello Everyone.
With Pastor Marty taking the week to recharge after an intense Holy Week, I am reaching out with some updates for the congregation from church council. Before I start on the update, I did want to celebrate our coming together as a community during this difficult time. Shelter in Place is not easy, and I know I have struggled during it. I miss the ability to give someone a hug, to give a high five, or to just smile while making actual eye contact with someone I care about. Zoom is a fantastic tool, but I am feeling the lack of actual physical presence sharply. Pastor described it during a council meeting as this unique thing where while your mind thinks you are being social, your spirit knows there is something missing.
As we are all stuck home, I hope that the activities at Our Savior’s have helped every one of you as much as they have helped me. This is a loving community where you can see God’s work actively happening. In my case, I even snuck into a choir zoom session alongside Emilee. For those of you who have sat near me during a service, do not worry. I didn’t sing!
Council Update
I also wanted to provide an update regarding Council’s efforts over the past month or so. We have been meeting weekly, and we have much work to share. To that end, we put together the following YouTube video. You can think of this as the equivalent to an update after a Sunday service. Watch below!
In this video, I discuss:
- Closing the church building and forwarding the mail,
- Our on-going transition to an outside vendor to support our finances including the short-term plan for check donations,
- Our new hire of a Communications Administrator, Violet Breeden.
Much love from me, and Council, to everyone in this community. We are connecting to God, and each other, in a powerful way right now.
Peace, Dan Baack
Message from Pastor Marty
Hey All,
Happy Easter! Christ our Lord is Risen. He is Risen indeed—Alleluia! I hope everyone had the chance to hear the Easter Gospel of the Good News of Jesus in our lives as a Resurrected Lord! Peace to you as we engage this message in new ways in this strange time.
A Word about Next Sunday’s Worship Service. We are going LIVE!! We will try a new style of worship next Sunday as we gather together on a Zoom channel. I wanted to wait to try this until after Easter, so let’s give it a try! Please look for the link for worship later in the week with a copy of the bulletin. Also, get some bread and wine ready for next Sunday as we will be doing some digital Communion. I will bless you all with words, and we will be fed by the Christ who meets us behind locked doors and in small communities dispersed.
Finally, thanks to everybody for your flexibility during these times. Many of you have stepped up to provide digital material to help me put these services together. Let’s keep it up, especially as we move forward in some new ways after Easter!
Christ our Lord is Risen! He is Risen Indeed—Alleluia!!
Peace, Pastor Marty
This ‘n’ That
Thank you to everyone who participated in the Bread for the World letter-writing campaign on Maundy Thursday afternoon via Zoom. We collectively wrote 33 letters to our congressional representatives asking them to support Senate Bill 1918 which would provide federal funding for lunches to be served at schools all summer since so many families have lost income in the pandemic. OSL participation will be reported to BFW. You can still write a letter. The information is posted on the OSL web site. Thanks again for your engagement in this mission of our congregation.
Care of Creation – How does the COVID-19 virus relate to the climate crisis? Scientists have speculated that climate change is melting permafrost soils that have been frozen for thousands of years. As the soils melt they are releasing ancient viruses and bacteria that, having lain dormant, are springing back to life. Not that COVID-19 came from there, but it is creating the kind of scenario that scientists have been considering possible. COVID-19 is helping us prepare for what could lie ahead. Action: April 1 was officially national Census Day! Be sure to fill out your Census!
Save those toiletries, because Helping Hands will be back collecting items for the disadvantaged when we are up and running again.
Readings for Sunday, April 19 – 2nd Sunday of Easter
Acts 2:14a, 22-32
Psalm 16
I Peter 1:3-9
John 20:19-31
OSLC Blast for Monday, April 6, 2020
Holy Week Happenings
Thurs, April 9 —– Maundy Thursday
4:00pm Bread for the World letter-writing (info below—more details to come)
7:00pm Worship
Fri, April 10 —– Good Friday
Worship
Sun, April 12 —– Easter !!!
Christ has arisen, alleluia!
A Message from Pastor Marty
Hey All,
Blessed Holy Week to you! As spring brings our time for Easter upon us, we are all welcome to be part of this wonderful season of Good News. I know that we are deep in the heart of the Shelter in Place order, and that trouble surrounds us every turn it seems, but isn’t that why Easter is so great? God comes into our experience to be with us in our trouble, pain, fear, and dis-ease. Christ’s ministry is a gift of example and support for us as we live fully human lives while being children of the most high God.
So, this week we will have our Maundy Thursday Service at 7:00pm. We will also gather at 4:00pm on Thursday via Zoom to participate in a letter writing campaign for Bread For the World to support their efforts in advocacy for food and nutrition programs.
On Good Friday there will be a digital worship as well, and that will come online in the evening, probably around 6:00pm.
Easter morning will be a digital worship in the early morning with a gathering to follow on Zoom at 10:30. Please join us in your Easter best to see shining faces and share in some stories together. Yesterday we had about 35 folks join us online together.
Thanks be to all of you for your prayers and support to me and each other during these times. We are all going through this together, and alone, and this is part of what is hard. There won’t be a unifying worship to be part of this week, we will each have to prepare our hearts and homes for an Easter service.
On Thursday, we are going to work through a service of remembrance, and a stripping of the altar. I will have to be creative in doing this. On Good Friday maybe you could light 7 candles with me to help put them out, together, in our own space. And on Easter, can we gather with each other to livestream the worship together? Gather with family members from a distance? Be creative in new ways of being together? This is our current challenge, opportunity, and situation.
I asked Grace to send me a few words about how she is making this transition. She offered these words:
“As the church year calendar moves along from Lent towards Easter, we are contemplating a new way to celebrate Easter 2020. Our usual preparations include changing the paraments or hangings in the sanctuary, as well the pastor’s vestments, to a new color: from Lent’s penitential purple to celebratory white. White reminds us first of the newborn Christ, and our joy in Him (Christmas), and then again in the great joy of the resurrection at Easter. We don’t always think of white as celebratory, but we do use it often for graduations, confirmations, and of course, weddings. All joyous occasions!
“The task of putting up a new color is something I look forward to as it means a new season, but there is also peaceful satisfaction in the mundane process of taking down one color, pressing and hanging the new color, an essential part of the preparation of our worship space. This year I will create my own worship space by moving my laptop from my office to the dining room table, where I can set up candles, some flowers and my hymnal, and celebrate Easter remotely with Pr. Marty, Caleb and all of you in the Our Savior’s family. Happy Easter!”
However you make arrangements for this worship-filled week, I want you to feel free to do it your way, and be ready to share photos of your experience. This is one for the record books! Have a great week!
Peace, Pastor Marty
This ‘n’ That
- Bread for the World. Maundy Thursday letter writing at 4pm via Zoom: Bread for the World makes an annual request to congregations to write Congress to lift up either specific legislation or an issue in relationship to hunger issues, either domestic or international. OSLC has participated in this practice for many years. Now is a good time for us to join together and participate in this request again this year in lieu of foot washing during this Holy Week. Please watch for an email inviting you to join the Zoom gathering.
- Care of Creation. April 22, 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Since 1970, Earth Day has increased awareness of the planet we live on, pollution, climate change, endangered species, and many other environmental issues. The current pandemic has slowed human activity to the point that pollution is clearing in many places around the globe. It is a kind of resurrection to celebrate on Easter! Action: Visit www.thealliancecenter.org/earthweek for daily virtual activities in which you can participate hosted by people in our community. (from the AllianceCenter.org)
- Save those toiletries, because Helping Hands will be back collecting items for the disadvantaged when we’re up and running again.
Readings for Sunday, April 12 – Easter Sunday
Acts 10:34-43 OR Jeremiah 31:1-6
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Colossians 3:1-4 OR Acts 10:34-43
Matthew 28:1-10 OR John 20:1-18
Mission Statement
Our Savior’s Lutheran Church connects people to God and Each Other. We embody this mission through Word and Sacrament Worship, Music, Faith Formation, Service, and Authentic Community.
An Important Message from Pastor Marty
Hey All,
I want to let you know that we have a few folks who are exhibiting symptoms of Covid-19 in our congregation who could use your prayers.
Please keep Gerry and Irene in your prayers as they have been dealing with these symptoms for about a week and feel like they are getting through this time and are hopefully “on the mend.”
Caleb Collins has been exhibiting a fever and chest tightness for a few days too, so please keep him in your prayers as well. He is feeling okay, but is very appreciative of all of our prayers and support.
Also, we pray for Delmar as he recovers from whatever foul bug he has been enduring as well. I hope I’ve not missed anyone, and I know our prayers are going up for these folks from our congregation.
I know there are others who are on our prayer chain, (and not on the prayer chain) who we need to raise up in prayers. Please spend some of your day in prayer as a practice and as a blessing for each other. Prayer matters, and prayer works. Let us be in a season of prayer!
Keep well. Stay home. Be disciplined about staying inside and keeping social distancing guidelines as we all work to slow the spread of this virus.
And again, please don’t come into the church building during this time for any reason as we go through this shelter in place order.
Also,
Please take time and read this letter from Bishop Jim. We will be talking about this tomorrow at 1:00 at our bible study as well.
Reflections and Recommendations on Holy Communion during COVID-19 Pandemic
Peace,
Pastor Marty
