Our Pilgrimage to Houston by Pr. Ben Bergren Marianne Nadell, 8 high school youth and myself are back from the National Youth Gathering in Houston, Texas. We gathered with Lutherans (ELCA) from around the United States and explored the theme, “This Changes Everything.” Every day we looked at a different aspect of that theme as…
If you believe in God, then you know you were created for a purpose. If you don’t believe in God, then there is no purpose or meaning because it is by chance that we are even here at all. It is that simple. If you believe we are here by some random cosmic roll of…
On Monday, May 7th, a decision was made to separate children from their parents at our southern border if they attempt to cross our southern border illegally (which is a misdemeanor). There is an estimated 2000 children (updated number) being held in facilities along the US-Mexican border. Some would say that if someone breaks the…
Take a look at the table above (if you can read it). It shows the difference between being an inviting church, an inclusion church and a radical welcome church. These are just labels and have no official designation or meaning but their descriptions found just below in “The Message” line tells us a lot….
I ran across this phrase and it resonated with me. “It is always easier to fight for ones principles than to live up to them.” This appears to be true from what I can see. What do you think? There is a war of words going on in our country and compromise is nothing short…
Blaise Pascal was quite the human being. Born in 1623, Pascal’s mother died when he was 3, and his father moved the family from Clermont-Ferrand, France, to Paris, where he homeschooled Blaise and his sister. By age 10, Pascal was doing original experiments in mathematics and physical science. To help his father, who was a…
I am extremely grateful for all the kindness shown to me and my family last Sunday. If you were not at Bethel on May 6th, let me fill you in. It was my birthday and we had a party at church. Not only that but we also celebrated the 20thanniversary of my ordination. The…
Sometimes we keep the sin in our lives well protected, guarded, covered over with lies. Sometimes we are not free enough to own our sin, so we cannot be healed of it. An unacknowledged wound cannot be healed.—MACRINA WIEDERKEHR, Seasons of Your Heart Sin always wounds the sinner.—CARYLL HOUSELANDER, The Reed of God Is sin a big…
April 22ndwas Earth Day. I didn’t have the chance to talk about it on Sunday because we are right in the middle of a sermon series on our core values. (These sermons are available on this website.) Although Earth Day is not on the church calendar, it is an important day because it reminds us…
As most of you know, the evangelist and pastor Billy Graham died earlier this year. Some saw him as a saint and others saw him as a sinner. As a Lutheran, I see him as both saint and sinner. He was a child of God and he had the same struggles with sin and being…
