Finding Faith ... in being a faith community that stays in motion

By Pastor Devlyn Brooks

Dear Faith Family …

I can't quite believe it, but we are now focused on our springtime season of our programming year.

We have zipped through the return to church in the fall, through the Advent season, through Lent, and we now are celebrating an early Easter. It seems as if the year has passed in a blink!

As we begin to prepare for our post-Easter season, I want to encourage you to continue to stay engaged with us here at the church as there still is a lot going on all the way through to our summer months.

Please keep an eye on the calendars in the upcoming newsletters, as Lisa does a masterful job of capturing all that we have going on here at church. And despite the fact that we are now past the Easter season, there are still many blessed events to participate in here at Faith Lutheran! 

Let's not lose our steam!

Let's dig in ...

Rural Revival program

First off, I want to thank everyone for your participation in the Rural Revival initiative that we wrapped up after five months with a congregational meeting on Sunday, March 17.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to show up and participate during the several input sessions we held over the past several months. Thank you to those who took the time to meet individually with Pastor Melissa Pickering, who oversaw the revival process for us. And thank you to anyone who may have shared your thoughts with our church council member or myself all along the way.

We now have Pastor Melissa's report, and the council and I will be discussing it at the April council meeting.

But this is also a time for our congregational members to share their thoughts on the report. What parts did you find illuminating? What parts did you find inspiring? After digesting the report, where do you think we should go from here?

Please take the time to think through these important questions and give your feedback to the council and myself!

We have some momentum now in regard to what we want our future to look like. Let's not lose that energy of forward motion! ... Remember that Isaac Newton's First Law of Motion states that an object (i.e. a church) that is in motion (i.e. is energized) tends to stay in motion (i.e. vibrant)!

Let's keep this forward movement going!

Blessed with two baptisms!

That's right! ... Not one, but TWO ... baptisms in the works!

What a wonderful reason to celebrate, Faith Family! We will be hosting two upcoming baptisms this spring!

The first baptism will be little Liam Bryan, who was born to Alisha Retzlaff and Kyle Andres on Feb. 23. Liam will be baptized on Sunday, April 7. Please plan to attend and pledge your support to helping Liam live out his faith life!

Liam will be joining big brother, Brayden, who was my very first baptism here at Faith Lutheran some six years ago already!

The second baptism will be little Eddie born to Luke Nord and Savanna Hill. We do not yet have a date set for Eddie's baptism, but we are shooting for a Sunday yet this spring. Please plan to attend and pledge your support to helping Eddie live out his faith life too!

And can you believe, Eddie will be joining big brother Behr, who I baptized in January 2023! What a fun development to have two baptisms in a row!

A cross installation party! 

Please keep Sunday, May 5, on your calendar as we will be blessing and celebrating the installation of a large exterior cross on the east side of the church that will be able to be seen from Highway 75. At night the cross will be lit and will shine Christ's light for all who pass to see!

The cross installation celebration is the culmination of a long-term project led by our church council, and will be a permanent memorial to Pastor Ted Peterson and his family for their years of service to Faith Lutheran Church. Thank you to Pastor Peterson's family for making this possible!

Pastor Peterson's wife Mildred, and daughters Karen and Dawn Marie and husband Mark Oberly plan to be in attendance to witness the blessing of the cross.

Faith Lutheran Council members are reaching out to members from throughout the years who may have been confirmed or married by Pastor Peterson to inform them of this big day. Please reach out to others in your confirmation classes who might be able to attend the celebration!

Thank you!

Sweet, sweet summertime! 

Finally, we will be returning to our summer schedule of meeting for worship on Wednesday nights during the months of June, July and August.

Our first summer Wednesday service will be on June 5 at 6:45 p.m.

We will be planning three outdoor services this summer again as well, one each in June, July and August. Stay tuned for more details!

Also, remember that we share a family style meal before our Wednesday night summer services starting at 6 p.m. It's always great to be able to break bread midweek with our Faith Family!

See you this summer!

Blessings to you this April., Faith Family! ... See you in church!