October 25th @ 1 PM

Join us at Lutheran Church of the Master for a fun afternoon of thrills and chills! See how everyone decorates their cars and what goodies they had out from 1 PM - 3 PM on Saturday the 25th!

Pentecost Blessings, Dear Church!

The beginning of my time in professional ministry was marked by transition and the privilege of participating in some extraordinary celebrations. I began seminary in 2012 at LSTC in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. President Obama had just been reelected to his second term, and I quickly learned that you could get caught on the wrong side of road closures when he came home. 

Although a very different kind of presidency, LSTC had just hired a new president, and as a student, I had the opportunity to participate in his installation service. Not even a year later, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton was elected as the first female presiding Bishop of the ELCA. Again, as a Lutheran Seminary Student in Chicago, I also got to participate in her installation service. (It was really rather fun! That’s me below, twirling the long red banners throughout the service!) 

Twelve years later, Bishop Eaton’s tenure as our church’s Presiding Bishop comes to a close as she will be retiring. I remain grateful for her service and for the blessing of her ministry, not only for the church, but also for me personally. 

The churchwide body will gather this week in Arizona for the Triennial Churchwide Assembly. One of the primary business items at this assembly will be the election of a new Presiding Bishop. I look forward to following the proceedings and pray for whoever is called to this office. As Bishop Eaton’s time comes to a close, I wanted to share this heartfelt reflection entitled "Ordinary & Extraordinary" written by Bishop Eaton’s daughter. Enjoy, and I hope you all have a fabulous Friday! (Click the ‘Ordinary and Extraordinary’ button below!)

Peace & Blessings, Dear Church,

Pastor Dave

Pentecost Blessings, Dear Church!

I’m looking forward to this Sunday as we take some time to share more about our mission trip experiences with all of you! One of the ways we’ll share our experiences will be the devotion we ended up doing each evening of the trip. I’ve shared highs and lows with groups before and often used various names for the same thing, such as ‘roses and thorns’ or ‘whoops and poops.’ 

We shared highs and lows on the trip, but we took it further than just this simple dichotomy. Beyond high and low, we also shared a God moment and a Sunrise with everyone at the end of the day. A God moment is reasonably self-explanatory, but it’s an answer to the question, “Where did you experience God at work today?” A Sunrise, then, was something that we were looking forward to the next day. 

This turned out to be a way of doing devotions that really resonated with me. There’s a litany, a call and response, that we say each week in the Eucharistic liturgy that goes like this, “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.” “It is right to give our thanks and praise,” comes as the response. I then continue in the Proper Preface chanting, “It is indeed right, our duty and our delight, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks and praise to you, almighty and merciful God, through our Savior Jesus Christ...”

Despite it being our “right, duty, and delight” to give thanks and praise to God, I often feel like I’m not really sure what it means to praise God. I realized that I thought praise needed to be something formal, with the correct words that sounded ‘churchy,’ and if it wasn’t, then it couldn’t be praise. 

But as we shared with one another in devotion each evening of the trip, I realized that as we shared in the joys of the highs, empathized with one another in our lows, sat in awe at the work of the Spirit in the God moments, and the hope of sunrises with one another, praising God was exactly what we were doing. 

I’m also willing to bet that you have praised God this week without fully realizing it. In that moment of deep belly laughter, having a plate of food made for you, catching a glimpse of the sunset, or the weightless feeling of a burden being lifted. Praise seems to flow from the sorts of things we can’t earn or make. 

So, we hope to share some of the praise from our mission trip with you this Sunday, and I hope that you too join in with praise of your own. 

Peace & Blessings, Dear Church,

Pastor Dave