During the month of May, we are revisiting our congregation’s mission statement in our preaching.

A mission statement is nothing more than a summary of what we believe and our stated goals.

Most churches have a mission statement. Fewer churches know what their mission statement says.

That is not the case at Community Lutheran Church. We know that…

We can be REAL PEOPLE because we serve an INCLUSIVE GOD who give RADICAL GRACE so that we can be on a path of INSPIRED GROWTH.

God isn’t looking for perfection, Jesus craves our honesty. Being real means we can be honest about our struggles; we don’t have to hide our mistakes.

The reason we don’t have to conceal our weaknesses is that Jesus welcomes all who seek him. God is inclusive not exclusive. He doesn’t hold our troubles against us. That applies to everyone!

God is so good to us that we want to shower those who trust in Jesus with radical grace. Jesus wants you to know and feel his love, compassion and forgiveness so that you have strength for daily living!

But Jesus doesn’t want to leave you as you are. No, God wants to grow your faith! Jesus wants to put you on a path of inspired growth so that you will continue to move towards Jesus and away from the harmful things of this life.

You might be wondering how do I grow closer to Jesus? If it is true that God wants to put us on a path of inspired growth, what does that path look like? A few years ago our church family defined the things that will help you grow in faith!

The path of inspired growth at Community Lutheran Church looks like this…

• Welcoming others as you were once welcomed by Jesus
• Worshipping regularly and not just on Christmas and Easter
• Learning by reading the Bible, reading a devotional or being a part of a Bible Study or small group
• Serving others the way Jesus served us. By pouring ourselves out for others, we are filled!
• Be Generous in your giving, your serving and your time!

We want to help you live in the grace of Jesus and help you grow in faith at Community Lutheran Church!

God bless,
Pastor Ben

On Palm Sunday (the day Jesus came to Jerusalem for the week of Passover) I preached on the word Christ.

If you were with us, I said that we might have lost the plotline because this word remained untranslated in our English language Bibles. Why would translators translate every other word and not “Christ”?

The word translates to “anointed one.” But anointed for what? All four gospel writers (and portions of Old Testament prophecy) all agree that Jesus is anointed to be a king.

But not just a king but the King of kings. Jesus descended from the ancestry of King David but more than that, Jesus is God. He was eternally destined to be our King.

All of this comes into focus for us after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

If Jesus was only human, any thoughts of being a king would have ended when he died.

That was not the end of the story! Jesus rose from the dead on Easter morning and showed the world that he is stronger than death and his Kingship and Kingdom are eternal!

At the very end of the gospel of Matthew, Jesus appears to his disciples and some couldn’t believe their eyes! They thought Jesus was dead and gone and yet they were looking right at him!

Matthew writes, When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.

Any reasonable person would wonder what they were truly seeing! A hallucination? A ghost? The risen King?

Yet Jesus didn’t shoo anyone away. Grace ruled the day and it is the primary rule in His Kingdom.

Instead, Jesus gathered them around and said this…

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

All authority… not some… not a little bit… but all authority has been given to Jesus. Only a King has ultimate authority and Jesus rightfully claims it.

Jesus instructs us to go teach others about him and his grace. Go and make other students (disciples). Go and be a teacher. Go and show others how God loves them.  And if they believe it, have them baptized into God’s family.

Are you under the authority of this great King?

Do you have students (disciples) that you teach about Jesus (even if informally)?

Are you showing others the love Jesus showed the disciples when “some doubted”?

This is the life Jesus set out for us.

If that sounds too hard, let me boil it down for you.

Are you loving others the way Jesus loves you? Are you loving others in such a way that they stop and notice you are not like everyone else?

If you are ever asked why you are so kind, grace filled and loving… your answer is this, “My King told me to love.”

God bless,
Pr. Ben

Last week, I attended my last church council meeting for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. My term is coming to an end in July.

Community Lutheran Church is a part of the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and I am honored to serve on the church council for the national church body.

In addition to the preparation for electing a new presiding bishop and secretary at the churchwide assembly in July, we covered a lot of action items while I was in Chicago.

Here are few highlights of the work we accomplished:

• Received the final report and recommendations of the Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church (CRLC) Recommended that the 2025 Churchwide Assembly:

• Adopt the proposed social statement, Faith and Civic Life: Seeking the Well-being of All

• Adopt proposed editorial changes to the social statement, Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust, in response to the memorial, “Reconsideration of Social Statement on Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust”

• Receive the 2024 Lutheran-Orthodox “Common Statement on the Filioque”

• Adopt additional bylaw amendments to the Constitutions, Bylaws, and Continuing Resolutions of the ELCA to allow for exchangeability of deacons with certain full communion partners and to establish additional standards for rostered ministers

• Adopt the “Rules of Organization and Procedure” for the 2025 Churchwide Assembly

• Approve churchwide organization budget proposals for 2026–2028

• Approved addition of a definition of “hate group” to Definitions and Guidelines for Discipline

• AND A LOT MORE!

I also sit on the Service and Justice subcommittee which supports the Service and Justice Unit (department) of the ELCA.

(The picture below is of the Service and Justice Committee and two staff members.)

I heard firsthand about the damage from the abrupt grant cuts from USAID that essentially closed earlier this year. This immediate lack of funding (versus tapered off) has caused much hardship and pain among the most vulnerable around the world. The ELCA does not have the resources to fill the gap left behind.

We also received an update from continuing war in the Holy Land and how it is seriously affecting the Christian community. Please keep them in your prayers.

Our church body, the ELCA does good work and seeks to be a thriving church while living into the teachings of Jesus just as we do at Community Lutheran Church. I give thanks for our church family and the ELCA.

God bless you,
Pastor Ben