Youth Sunday and Special Offering

I grew up in a church smaller than Resurrection. Our high school youth group (called “Luther League”) had 6-10 active youth. We had game nights and occasional Bible studies. We went on camping trips and hikes.  But our biggest events was when we went to the special youth gatherings in Seattle where several hundred high school youth would sing, shout and experience God’s love and grace together. At these gathering, I felt connected to something bigger, deeper, and wider than my small Luther League. Jesus came alive for me at these mass gatherings. The seeds for my calling as your pastor were sown at these events. 

This summer the youth of Resurrection will have the opportunity to experience God’s love in such a setting.  Every three years our national church body organizes a national youth gathering where over 35,000 high school youth and adults come together to worship and serve, play and converse. This year’s ELCA Youth Gathering is in Detroit starting July 15. During the day we will participate in various service opportunities; in the evening we will gather at Ford Field for special speakers and music. You can read more about the ELCA Youth Gathering here.  I plan to attend with Hannah Koehler (Director of Family-based Youth Ministry), John Moore, Leslee Donovan and our ten youth. 

On Sunday, March 1^st, the Resurrection’s youth will be a vital part of our worship as they speak to why they feel called to attend the National Youth Gathering. They will share how they hope this will impact their walk with Jesus. They will be asking for your prayers and encouragement as they prepare for the event. They will also be asking that each member of Resurrection contribute to a special offering that will help pay for the trip.

The registration cost for the Gathering is significantly more than the youth’s annual mission trip. Your generosity will help to make this event happen for our youth. As a congregation we make a covenant with each baptism that we will help our children and youth grew in faith in Christ. Their trip is an outreach of our entire congregation as we seek to call our youth to the Vibrant Life of Faith in Christ. It is your opportunity to plant and water God’s seeds of faith in their lives. Who knows?  Someday, one of them may be your pastor! 

 O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. Psalm 71:17

Pastor John Keller 

Connecting With God on Your Walk Through Lent

Lent is a season in the church year, traditionally set aside by Christians as a time for reflection, repentance, and renewal. The forty days of Lent echo the forty days the Israelites spent wandering in the wilderness and the forty days Jesus endured in the wilderness after his baptism. The forty days exclude Sundays, since every Sunday is a celebration of Jesus’ resurrection.  With Ash Wednesday on February 18, Lent begins. People with a background of observing Lent have often devoted added attention to spiritual practices of prayer, giving, and fasting. Each of these can be considered a spiritual discipline. What is a spiritual discipline? Ash Wednesday’s message The Way is Made By Walking will include a response to that question.

Author James Bryan Smith describes spiritual disciplines as soul-training exercises, wise practices that train and transform our hearts. These practices can range from familiar ones such as worship, service, or Scripture meditation, to silence or solitude, frugality, sacrifice, or even celebration. Some are activities of engagement, or things you do. Others are activities of abstinence, refraining from or going without something. Spiritual disciplines are practices, not resolutions. All are habits undertaken to turn our attention more fully to God. We embrace spiritual practices because we love God and want to lean into Him and know Him better. Spiritual disciplines can help us slow down, reflect on our relationship with Jesus, and create space that helps us more fully experience the kingdom of God. Spiritual disciplines foster the vibrant life we have in Christ. They are attempts to practice ways that Jesus lived, revealing vital steps in any Christian walk. As Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”  Jan Johnson has written much about spiritual disciplines and she reminds readers, “It’s about relationship—interacting with God, abiding in Christ, and living according to the Spirit.” 

Ideas will be provided on Ash Wednesday that may inspire a new Lenten practice for you. Many of the suggestions will be for a spiritual practice you can try on your own; for example, you may read Jesus’s prayers in the Gospels throughout Lent, and try praying as he did. A few group opportunities, such as a weekly time of centering prayer and lectio divina, are also planned. You may be part of a group focusing on gratitude, thanking God privately, but meeting with others to write cards and prayers of thanksgiving. Begin praying now for God to reveal to you an area of need or a spiritual discipline to try during Lent. Author Jan Johnson suggests, “Ask God to show you what discipline would best help you connect with Him.” Begin Lent with worship at 7pm on Ash Wednesday.

Written by: Sarah Storvick