All are welcome
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Sunday June 30, 2019
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Pastor Adam and Family at His Ordination
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Sunday May 12 -- On this day...
We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3.
It was a Sunday of acknowledgment.
We honored our mothers and all caregivers on their special day.
The Sunday School sang for the congregation and in recognition of our seniors. As they sang the chorus of their song …
He’s still working on me to make me what I ought to be.
It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars,
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.
How loving and patient He must be. He’s still working on me.
…in our hearts each of us said “On me too, little ones. On me too.”
We celebrated our seniors, with high-fives from the Sunday School kids and with prayers for their future, presenting quilts from the Women of the ELCA. We hope that every time they wrap themselves in these coverlets, they’re enveloped in the love and support of NBC.
Our seniors are: Olivia Corcoran, Xavier Cornejo, Zoe Kraemer, David Miller, Abbie Omernick, Sydney Sampson-Webb, Erica Simmons, and Joshua White.
Seniors who applied for scholarships were presented with their certificates: Olivia Corcoran, Xavier Cornejo, Zoe Kraemer and Abbie Omernick.
It was a particularly fine day at North Beaver Creek Lutheran Church.
It was a Sunday of acknowledgment.
We honored our mothers and all caregivers on their special day.
The Sunday School sang for the congregation and in recognition of our seniors. As they sang the chorus of their song …
He’s still working on me to make me what I ought to be.
It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars,
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.
How loving and patient He must be. He’s still working on me.
…in our hearts each of us said “On me too, little ones. On me too.”
We celebrated our seniors, with high-fives from the Sunday School kids and with prayers for their future, presenting quilts from the Women of the ELCA. We hope that every time they wrap themselves in these coverlets, they’re enveloped in the love and support of NBC.
Our seniors are: Olivia Corcoran, Xavier Cornejo, Zoe Kraemer, David Miller, Abbie Omernick, Sydney Sampson-Webb, Erica Simmons, and Joshua White.
Seniors who applied for scholarships were presented with their certificates: Olivia Corcoran, Xavier Cornejo, Zoe Kraemer and Abbie Omernick.
It was a particularly fine day at North Beaver Creek Lutheran Church.
Sunday April 28 -- Blessings and Celebrations
It was a day of blessings. We asked God's blessing on farmers and gardeners, construction workers, firemen and police and all who are involved in providing our food and ensuring our safety.
The women's choir sang and a pastoral candidate preached with his family in attendance. Then the congregation gathered for an ice cream social, with proceeds going to ELCA World Hunger.
A special thanks to Pastor John Ashland for his inspiring Coulee Version of "Earth and all Stars." There were indeed loud singing Lutherans.
The women's choir sang and a pastoral candidate preached with his family in attendance. Then the congregation gathered for an ice cream social, with proceeds going to ELCA World Hunger.
A special thanks to Pastor John Ashland for his inspiring Coulee Version of "Earth and all Stars." There were indeed loud singing Lutherans.
And thank you to Megan Hovre for the pictures of this special occasion.
First Communion...
2nd graders getting ready for their 1st communion. They painted their communion glasses and made bread with Pastor Kathy. They all had a lot of fun.
Thank you to Crystal Sweno for helping Pastor and shepherding the children back and forth.
Thank you to Crystal Sweno for helping Pastor and shepherding the children back and forth.
Questions in Life, April 26, 2019
By Bishop Elizabeth Eaton
The good people at Lenoir-Rhyne University’s Living Well Center for Vocation and Purpose invited me to address the school on the topic “Lives Worth Living.” Yikes! This is one of The Questions in life—right up there with “What is the meaning of life?” and “What is true, beautiful and good?” and “Where do socks go after you put them in the dryer?”
For me, this turned out to be a good, if slightly disturbing, time of reflection. Our lives can be consumed with busyness—all the stuff that we do or need to get done to make it through the day, week, year, life. A lot of this is necessary, some not so much. Even those called to public ministry get swept up in the endless round of meetings, reports and events. And some in this world don’t have the luxury of carving out time for contemplation as they struggle to keep their families fed, clothed and safe from harm.
As I write this it is Lent, a time of reflection and examination. I do have the privilege of time and, with the added incentive of a deadline, here are some thoughts.
We are inundated with messages of salvation, or at least better lives, through things. Ads for products as diverse as cars, toothpaste, brokerage firms, weed killers and more are carefully crafted to cast an aspirational vision of the good life. Sometimes this vision of the good life is presented in such a beguiling way that one forgets what product is being advertised. It’s possible to get lost if you go down this road. There will always be a new thing, the promise of a more beautiful you. It’s there—just beyond reach. Jesus warns us about this in the parable of the rich man, who believed he had attained the good life. “And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ ” (Luke 12:19-20). So, what’s the point? If materialism doesn’t bring meaning, why not just give up?
In Ecclesiastes we hear: “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun”
Ecclesiastes 1:9). Nihilism, oddly enough, can provide a frame for meaning. “Who cares?” can quickly become “Don’t care.” Protected from disappointment by withdrawing from this world of care is as tempting as a frenzied life in pursuit of self-made happiness.
I believe there is another way, a different way, of shaping our lives. The cruciform life is the life worth living. The cruciform life delivers us from our constant striving to make our lives have meaning through our own efforts. It saves us from the exhausting pursuit of self-justification and worth, from the loss of our true selves in all of our posturing.
Jesus, crucified and risen for the sake of the world, breaks through all of that. He breaks down all pretense on our part and all claims of salvation that the world offers. God comes to us, cherishes us, bids us to come to God’s life and peace. Augustine, an early Christian theologian, knew this when he wrote: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you.”
The cruciform life also breaks through nihilism. Free from the necessity of saving ourselves, and from the numbness of the pointlessness of all that, the cross breaks us open to others, to the world. The rush of feeling back into a self that has cut itself off from circulation is painful. But it is also a sign of life. We can feel, we can touch and be touched by others. The cross sets us free to serve the neighbor. Here is the life worth living that God gives us.
For me, this turned out to be a good, if slightly disturbing, time of reflection. Our lives can be consumed with busyness—all the stuff that we do or need to get done to make it through the day, week, year, life. A lot of this is necessary, some not so much. Even those called to public ministry get swept up in the endless round of meetings, reports and events. And some in this world don’t have the luxury of carving out time for contemplation as they struggle to keep their families fed, clothed and safe from harm.
As I write this it is Lent, a time of reflection and examination. I do have the privilege of time and, with the added incentive of a deadline, here are some thoughts.
We are inundated with messages of salvation, or at least better lives, through things. Ads for products as diverse as cars, toothpaste, brokerage firms, weed killers and more are carefully crafted to cast an aspirational vision of the good life. Sometimes this vision of the good life is presented in such a beguiling way that one forgets what product is being advertised. It’s possible to get lost if you go down this road. There will always be a new thing, the promise of a more beautiful you. It’s there—just beyond reach. Jesus warns us about this in the parable of the rich man, who believed he had attained the good life. “And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ ” (Luke 12:19-20). So, what’s the point? If materialism doesn’t bring meaning, why not just give up?
In Ecclesiastes we hear: “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun”
Ecclesiastes 1:9). Nihilism, oddly enough, can provide a frame for meaning. “Who cares?” can quickly become “Don’t care.” Protected from disappointment by withdrawing from this world of care is as tempting as a frenzied life in pursuit of self-made happiness.
I believe there is another way, a different way, of shaping our lives. The cruciform life is the life worth living. The cruciform life delivers us from our constant striving to make our lives have meaning through our own efforts. It saves us from the exhausting pursuit of self-justification and worth, from the loss of our true selves in all of our posturing.
Jesus, crucified and risen for the sake of the world, breaks through all of that. He breaks down all pretense on our part and all claims of salvation that the world offers. God comes to us, cherishes us, bids us to come to God’s life and peace. Augustine, an early Christian theologian, knew this when he wrote: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you.”
The cruciform life also breaks through nihilism. Free from the necessity of saving ourselves, and from the numbness of the pointlessness of all that, the cross breaks us open to others, to the world. The rush of feeling back into a self that has cut itself off from circulation is painful. But it is also a sign of life. We can feel, we can touch and be touched by others. The cross sets us free to serve the neighbor. Here is the life worth living that God gives us.
Reflections
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Walk, Love, Do
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NBC at Work and Play
