Pastor's Blog

Last week, I was ready for snow! I was ready for our three-year snow drought to end! I did everything I could to prepare for my winter weekend. I went to the store three times (I didn’t need to go that many times).

I was a hospice chaplain. My job was to be with dying people. That may give some of you the creeps but I gotta tell you it was an amazing job. Death is immutable. When we realize that we are going to die we notice, we really see life. 

We’ve had three deaths in the congregation during December, making for a busy Advent season with these additional funerals. Death never comes at a convenient time, but for these families, Christmas will forever be associated with a loved one’s death.

During the summer before my sophomore year of college, my grandma and I were sitting on their breezeway on a hot day, and she asked me a question that I could tell she had been silently mulling over in her mind before she asked. “What is the greatest gift you have been given?”

My wife found the pecan pie hidden in the veggie drawer of the fridge. I wasn’t hiding it. No, really. It just happened to find its way there.

November is almost over, and we find ourselves in the season of Advent, a rushed yet prolonged period of waiting for Christmas.

A lot has happened recently in regards to the direction of our former campuses at Concord and Southland. Let’s start with Concord.

Just short of a week after the election, I know emotions are still running high. I know some of you are enthusiastic about the results of the election, and I know that some of you are concerned about the results of the election.

I want you to grow in your faith. This is, literally, my job. To help you grow in a relationship with God and His people in such a way that you know God better.

Christ Lutheran has always been so responsive and generous in their donations and giving. When we asked for donations of food for Nourish Up (formerly Loaves and Fishes) there were over 300 bags of groceries, totally 2,888 pounds!

Family Ministry is grateful for such wonderful support in our volunteers and congregation. Truly, everyone’s involvement makes all of the difference in what we are able to do.

How much of what I do is not for me but for my children? I’m tempted to say the majority. We live in a place not because we like the house but the schools.

Periodically, we need a reminder for a renewal. We receive them in the mail for our lapse magazine subscription. We receive an email about a renewal for our gym membership.

Every Sunday we invite our little ones to go out with Ms. Kristen or Ms. Rachel to ChristKids. At the time of the offering, maybe you see them running back into worship with a handout or a craft in hand looking for their parents.

Peace to you from Camp Pendleton, California, the home of the 1st Division of the United States Marine Corps! Over the past two weeks, I’ve been adjusting to life on what we call the “Green Side” of the Navy, serving with Marines.