“How is it with your Soul?”

John Wesley, the 18th century pastor and theologian, used to tell his parishioners to ask each other the question, “How is it with your Soul?” That can seem a fairly probing question, but also a pretty profound one. Nobody has asked me that exact question lately. But being in a community of faith, we do ask each other that kind of question in various ways. We might ask, “What is God doing in your life lately?” “Where is God in all of this?” “What do you think God is calling you to do in this situation?” These kinds of things might come up as part of conversation between friends, at a Bible study, around a Wednesday night dinner, following worship, or in one of the many groups that are a part of the ministry of Our Savior.

It is important to be engaged in these kinds of conversations. Dr. Paul Hill and his colleagues through much study and research have identified these kinds of caring conversations to be one of the four keys to a vibrant faith. So we as your pastors and as your church, seek to provide as many opportunities as possible for you to find ways to be a part of these kind of conversations—the kind of conversations that aren’t just surface small talk, but get to the heart of what is going on in our lives and what God is doing with us.

Here are some of the many opportunities to find this kind of a setting and this kind of conversation here at Our Savior:

Sunday morning adult education: 9:45-10:45am, two classes are currently offered.

A Bible Study, “They Met Jesus,” and A Discussion Series,
“How Lutherans Interpret the Bible.”

ChristCare Groups: These are groups of up to 12 people who gather on a regular basis in homes or at the church and spend time together in Bible Study, Fellowship, and service.

Wednesday Morning Bible Study: 10:00-11:00am, currently studying Luke. Meets in Room 4, facilitated by Pastor Clark.

Wednesday God Pause Lectio Divina or Prayer and Meditation: Noon on Wednesdays, meeting in Room 4, alternates week to week with traditional methods of prayer and contemplation. Lectio Divina Bible Study alternating with guided Christian prayer and meditation.

WELCA circles: Ruth Circle second Friday of the month.

Men in Mission: 7:00pm on the first Wednesday of the month, room 4. Put yourself in places where God can strengthen you through the fellowship and conversation and learning together with those around you!

Grace and Peace, Pr. Shelly

Bless This House

We gather together each week for worship in God’s house. I always feel a sense of calm and peace just walking in the doors of the sanctuary and I would never want to miss out on coming to worship each weekend. In fact I feel fortunate that as a pastor I get to worship three times each weekend. And yet the experts say that the place where faith is really taught or rather caught, is in the home. For this reason we have for a year now included in the bulletin the “Taking Faith Home” inserts. Take these home! These inserts give a list of weekly scripture readings, a weekly prayer focus, and ideas for devotions and activities that can be done on your own, or as a family or couple. Use these ideas to take your faith home and let us know what results!

On another note of faith in the home, when families move to a new home they often ask us to come and lead a small House Blessing service. This is a really wonderful way to acknowledge the importance of this very thing—faith in our home. For the House Blessing service the individual, family or couple may invite friends or family or neighbors to gather in their home and then the group makes their way through the house. Someone carries a large candle and lights a smaller candle in each room as a reminder of Christ’s light shining in every part of our lives, every room of our house. As the group walks through each room, a prayer is offered asking God to bless the activity that takes place in that room. Moving to a new house or place of living often marks a transition in our lives and it is a wonderful thing to surround that transition with prayer. Also if our homes are the place our faith is taught and caught, if our homes are one of the primary places that our faith is lived out, then how wonderful to ask God’s presence to fill every corner of our lives and our homes.

May God visit with peace all that takes place in your home.
Pastor Shelly

Attention Grandparents!

On a regular basis we have members of the church call and ask to borrow cribs, high chairs, or pack-n-plays from the church nursery for visiting grandchildren. Other times grandparents or parents have called with items to donate to the church or to others who can use them. I have also seen in several of the stores in town that grandparents can rent such items for visiting grandchildren. It seems a waste to have to buy or rent what others have sitting in storage, and so we are starting a small "grandparents closet" to help out.

As you may know, we have long had a medical supply closet here at the church from which anyone can borrow medical equipment that might be needed for a temporary time, things such as walkers, canes, and wheelchairs. The "grandparents closet" will work along the same lines. We are limited on space (in fact someone is donating space in their home, because we have hardly a cupboard of unused storage space at the church), so the grandparent’s closet will include not anything and everything, but several basic items that grandparents often find themselves needing to borrow, rent, or buy when their grandchildren come to visit. Items such as pack-n-plays, booster seats, umbrella stroller, and bouncy seats or exersaucers. If you need to borrow any of these items contact the church office. If you would like to donate any of these items contact the church office. We are church family and this is one way we can help each other receive and welcome family. It is good to be church family!


Grateful to be part of the family of God with you,
Pastor Shelly

PENTECOST: Wind, Fire, and a New Deacon!

First of all, what is Pentecost? The actual word “pentecost” means 50th day. At the time of Jesus, Pentecost was a harvest festival that was celebrated fifty days after Passover. In Acts we learn that the disciples all gathered in Jerusalem in one place on the day of Pentecost. And ever since that Pentecost, Christians have celebrated Pentecost as the day when the church was born. Pentecost in the Christian church has since taken place on the 50th day of Easter. And on this 50th day we celebrate the Holy Spirit descending upon the disciples empowering them to speak the Gospel (in multiple languages), and through this event initiating the beginning of the church. Up until Pentecost the disciples mostly were afraid and uncertain, meeting behind locked doors. With Pentecost, the wind of the Spirit blew open those doors and began the spread of Good News of Jesus Christ throughout the world.

In worship on Pentecost Weekend, we celebrate in many ways. On the weekend of Pentecost everyone is invited to wear red to worship as a symbol of the fire of the Spirit and of the flames that descended upon the disciples. At the Sunday services the children will also help us visualize this wind and flame as they wave red and orange streamers. We hear the Pentecost story from Acts 2 read to us in multiple languages. (If you speak fluently in another language than English, let us know!) Hearing this Scripture read in multiple languages reminds us of that first Pentecost and also of the thousands of languages in which Christian faith is professed all throughout the world.

This year we also have an extra special and very fitting addition to Pentecost. Allan Klotsche will be onsecrated as a Deacon at the 8:30am service. Allan completed an intensive 2 year study program called Diakonia in May of 2009. Since then he has been fulfilling the additional Synodical requirements to become a Deacon. As a Deacon Allan will continue the social ministry work he has already been doing and you will see him “deacon-ing” in many other ways as well (come to the 8:30am service on May 23rd to learn more!).

May the Spirit descend upon you and refresh you
and lead you anew each day,

Pastor Shelly

Scholarship Time!

Something we look forward to each May is awarding scholarships that will send students from the congregation off to their studies, or assist them in continuing their studies. Each year when the scholarship award letter goes out to the recipients, it expresses to them that this is a gift from the congregation that seeks to support and encourage them in their studies, but most importantly that this gift is a reminder of the student’s church family and the base of love and support they have in their congregation (and ultimately in God!).

Where does the scholarship money come from? Well, you might be one of the donors to the church Scholarship Fund even if you didn’t know it. Each year a portion of the money that comes in for purchasing Christmas poinsettias or Easter lilies goes toward the scholarship fund. That means when you purchase an Easter lily your money goes not only towards a beautiful lily that will adorn the sanctuary on Easter morning in the name of the person you have dedicated it to, but it also helps provide scholarships to students of the congregation.

In addition to the Easter Lily and Poinsettia funds, members of the congregation can also give memorial or honorary gifts to the church directly to the scholarship fund. Just this past month a $10,000 gift was given as a bequest from the will of Howard Schaefer. We are thankful and honored that Howard remembered the congregation in his will in this way and for all of the ways Howard was a blessing to this congregation for 24 years. In addition to the Lily and poinsettia general scholarship fund, there are also two specific scholarships that are given each year, one in the name of the late Carole Dressler, a beloved teacher and Sunday School teacher here at OSLC. The other in the name of Layle Smith, which was set up by Layle’s sons as a gift to him. Layl and his wife Elizabeth help the committee each year in deciding who receives the scholarship in his name.

What a blessing it is to be able to support the youth and students of the congregation in this way. When you see the scholarship recipients standing before the congregation next month, lease pray for them and for the plans and purposes God has ahead for them. Together, as their church family, we send them out in the world supported and loved in God’s name!

God’s Work Our Hands,
Pastor Shelly

Backpack Buddies

At Dodgertown Elementary School here in Vero Beach there is a program called “Backpack Buddies.” The program started when it was discovered that many children were going home to empty refrigerators over the weekend and no groceries in the cupboards. In these difficult economic times, for many families after paying for rent and utilities and gas, there is often no money left for groceries. Thus the Backpack Buddies program came into being.

In this program, children who qualify for the program are given a backpack full of food when they leave school on Friday afternoon. They return Monday morning with an empty backpack that will then be filled again the following Friday. Before the economic downturn of the last two years about 40 children were a part of this program, the number is now up to 140.

This year the Sunday School children are giving their Sunday School offering toward this program. On Sundays, the children come with their quarters and dimes and dollar bills. Lou Smith collects and counts all that comes in, and then Louisa Zokvic takes the money to buy food for the Dodgertown backpack program. So far the Sunday School children have brought in $350.00 dollars and also donations of canned goods and non-perishables that have all amounted to over 400lbs. of food being given to fill backpacks at Dodgertown Elementary.

When Dr. Paul Hill was with us in February for the Vibrant Faith workshop he shared with us that one of the marks or “keys” that is found again and again in people of vibrant faith is service. (The other three “keys” are caring conversations, rituals, and devotions). Our youngest children from age 3 and up are living out this service in God’s name as they make it possible for other children to have a backpack filled with food each week.

Many little hands, God’s good work!
Pastor Shelly

God’s Work Our Hands; Behind the Scenes

There is a ministry here at the church that often goes unnoticed as the ministry this group carries out is never planned in advanced, not publicized, and takes place quietly behind the scenes. Yet it is one of the very important ministries of Our Savior Lutheran. The ministry that I am speaking of is the ministry of the Bereavement Team. The Bereavement Team provides a gathering place along with food and drink for those attending a memorial service here at the church. This time after a funeral service is such an important time of family and friends being able to gather together and not only share their sorrow with one another, but to have a place that they can sit together and share stories and thoughts of the one that they love.

The members of the Bereavement Team puts together whatever is needed to facilitate this gathering time—a lunch, a brunch, or coffee and cookies. They do this on short notice yet it never appears that way as they provide a variety of food, fixings, and often something homemade among the sweets. The women on the Bereavement Team never know how many people will come to be fed, but somehow they always find a way to have enough.

As I write this article the Bereavement Team has provided their ministry of food and hospitality for three funeral services in just a little over a week. I write this article to lift up their loving, quiet, behind-the-scenes ministry as an example of another way God’s Work Our Hands is lived out here at Our Savior. Thank you to Winnie Whitney and all of the members of the Bereavement Team for all of the ways you provide a ministry of love and care and food to people in a time of sorrow. You are all an example of the way Jesus calls us to “feed his sheep” as a way of caring for his people.

Grateful for all the loving hands here at Our Savior,
Pastor Shelly