Pastor's Blog

Recently, there was an article in the Charlotte Observer about a young man who had been abusing children over the course of five years through his volunteering with their soccer league. To make matters worse, the newspaper listed all the area churches where this abuser had volunteered at their children and youth programs.

It’s happening, folks. Yesterday marks the day I saw my first Christmas Tree being driven home. Strapped to the top of a Nissan Altima, you just know this car is pulling into a house fully decked out with 5-foot-tallcandy canes plunged throughout the yard, faux icicles dangling from the gutters, tinsel strewn around the banisters, and mistletoe over every doorway.

I am so excited for you to meet Kenny Champagne this Sunday, November 20, at all the services at Christ Providence. With over fourteen years of working with youth and their families, Kenny will be taking on the position of Director of Family Ministries for Christ Lutheran.

There are more churches in Charlotte than there are foster children in the system in Mecklenburg County. Come learn how we can make a difference and band together as THE CHURCH to make an immeasurable difference in the lives of vulnerable children.

Matt 16:24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

Cue the theme from Mission Impossible. A new AOL Instant Messenger window pops up on my desktop. It’s an upperclassman and new friend of mine asking if I, a freshman at Valparaiso University, am busy. It’s Wednesday, October 31, 2007, 11:00 PM (“Do you know where your children are?”).

Retirement. It’s a strange new world, most of us only experience once. We can’t practice it or experience it until it arrives (kind of like having a first baby). We wait…and wait…and wait and start preparing and then suddenly things start changing... really fast! Little things you may not think about until it hits you in the face; like removing all the ongoing staff meetings on your calendar that were there in perpetuity for 22 years, and you are deleting the entire series or figuring out how to word an email away message that says you’re never coming back! I guess Teams will disappear when my email is disconnected. It was my lifeline to my colleagues during Covid and working from home… I’ll miss it.

I am pleased to announce that we have extended an offer to fill the position of Director of Family Ministries with an excellent candidate, Kenny Champagne. He will start on November 20.

I find, when I’m talking to people about the Bible, that sometimes they have the opinion that the Bible is a book of rules. That God wants us to do XYZ and is looking to see if we follow.

He offered this advice, “Just look where doors and windows seem to be opening and walk through them.”

Were you in Church Sunday? I was in the house, as well as online, (as usual). The Spirit of the Lord was present. We had an amazing meal together thanks to Mike & Alicia, activities for the kids, and of course Worship. Over the last few months, nearly a year in fact, there have been a LOT of changes at Christ Lutheran, pastoral and staff. There have also been dramatic changes in the world we’re living in, amen?? But as Pastor Scott has been saying for a while now, it’s time to get back to our community in the house of the Lord. So, we kicked it off Sunday!

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

That’s what I think of on Labor Day. Potatoes.Some of you have heard this story.It was only about 3 acres. But, to us, it was a farm. Growing up in Ohio with Depression-era parents meant that you provided as much as you could for yourselves. We had an orchard with many varieties of fruit trees, animals of every kind, and a garden—a garden large enough to justify using our antique John Deere tractor to plow and disc it in preparation for summer crops. The garden produced crops large enough to also use the tractor for harvesting in the Fall.

Those who come from a more liturgical church background (Lutheran, Catholic, Episcopalian, etc.) may remember your confirmation. Mine was in 1976 at Our Savior’s Lutheran in Austin, Minnesota. I remember the years of going to church on Saturday mornings with Pastor Knutson, struggling with the memory work and reading my own copy of Luther’s Small Catechism.

Looking up in the sky, you can tell what kind of weather the day is going to bring, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes it changes without much warning.