This Sunday we woke up early to head to Grace Lutheran Des Moines' 8:15 worship service. We got dressed and went to wake up our youngest, Sawyer (2). Upon waking him up we discovered a fever and severe cough. So out of the church clothes and off to the walk-in clinic. It turns out the strep he had developed a couple of weeks ago has not resolved itself and came back after he completed the first round of antibiotics. So we got some new antibiotics and returned home.
While it was sad to me to miss church, I was glad that I was able to go with my husband to take our sick child to the doctor on a Sunday morning. Something that previously I would have had to just leave up to him. Mom's feel good when they're caring for their kids, and usually guilty when someone else (even though they are wonderfully capable) are. I am learning to be grateful for this time off. So hopefully more updates on finding a church soon.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
The Larson's Find a Church
Hello!
I have recently begun my 'Mommy-sabbatical" from over ten years of professional ministry. Meaning, I have taken a leave from call to raise my kids for a few years. Due to this, my family has had to leave the congregation which I served for the past seven years. I began professional church work right after college and previously to this would just attend the congregation that my parents belonged to or campus ministries. My husband, Ryan, attended Faith Lutheran www.faithlc.org (the congregation we just left) since he was in 4th grade. Subsequently, neither of us have ever sought out a new congregation. I had my farewell from Faith on August 26th. Ryan and I are excited for the journey and believe God will lead us to our next church home. It's a little anxiety producing as we kind of feel like church orphans right now since it has been such a big part of our lives. We'll see where the Spirit leads us and thought you might want to come along with us.
My hopes for this blog are the following:
1. To see that churches, even though different can glorify God in so many ways. How fun it is to seek out what the Spirit is doing in different settings.
2. To see where God is calling our family next. Is it a place that most needs us or that we most need? What is important to our family as we journey through this? I hope that this will help us to discern what our family values in a congregation. There are a couple of things that I know for sure. Ryan and I want Sawyer to be able to receive communion. He's chosen to already do that and we won't take it away from him. Also that there needs to be a place for our kids to feel as an important part of the congregation.
3. Our family needs to honor our grief of leaving Faith. This will take time, yet we need to continue to worship with the people of God. Visiting other congregations will help us to honor our grief by not jumping in right away and continue to worship with a community.
Ok, here we go...
Sunday, September 5th (Labor Day weekend)
We went to St. Peter's Lutheran in Grimes, IA www.stpeterofgrimes.org. We attended their 10:30 worship service. Since it's country roads to get there, it took us only 10 minutes. The church building is beautiful and it seems it's their third building. I don't know the story here. We were greeted by the greeters and then passed through the fellowship hall into the commons. Their fellowship hall was filled with canned goods in different bins that represented Iowa sports teams, Iowa State, UNI, University of Iowa. Congregants placed their food donations into their team's bin to route them on. The congregation's commitment to outreach was apparent. Additionally, they had plans for their building expansion in the commons. This immediately attracted Ryan, an architect. They're adding classrooms, which tells us that their children/youth programs are growing.
Upon entering the sanctuary, we received our bulletins and announcement sheets and went to sit down. Ryan and I noticed immediately that they had a banner representing their Tanzanian partner congregation, something we both had been involved in previously. Additionally, I noticed they had a youth director (something I didn't know) according to their announcement bulletin. To start, Pastor Grant, welcomed prayer requests. As people raised their hand, it seemed he knew all their names (impressive). He wrote the requests down and included them in the prayers of the church later in the service. The service was easy to follow and they used the old 'green book' for their hymns. Pastor Mark did the sermon, it was about the 'God of second chances'. Really solid, easy to follow sermon, we left feeling good. For communion they served in tables, so that a group goes up receives then receives a group blessing before returning to their seats. A huge point for Ryan and I is that Sawyer (our two year old) can receive communion. He put his hands out to receive and neither pastor blinked an eye and were happy to give him the sacrament. Sawyer is used to intinction however and tried to place the wafer into his grape juice cup. The church did the entire liturgy, communion, and a baptism in 70 minutes, but it didn't feel that long. It flowed beautifully.
Following service we talked to the Pastors briefly. We found out that Pastor Mark is leaving the congregation. I think we'd like to attend again to hear Pastor Grant preach. I can see many exciting things happening to St. Peter. The growth of their congregation in an expanding community. It'll be cool to watch.
September 12 Grace Lutheran, Adel. (www.graceadel.com)
We arrived this Sunday a little bit late. The church is beautiful, light, and airy. The congregation has a forward thrust chancel making it U-shaped seating. Since we were late, we missed greeters. The bulletin was sitting on a table in the commons area. We stood in the back trying to see where to sit in the full sanctuary and a nice woman came out and welcomed us and showed us some seats. We headed in and found the liturgy for the day was 'Now the Feast', which we love. The entire worship was printed in the bulletin with exception to the lessons. This made it easy to follow along. They used the 'Red book' for their hymns. Sawyer went up for the children's sermon which was about Denmark since they were celebrating their Danish Heritage. Pastor Bernau's sermon was wonderfully delivered and included serious points and laughter. Sawyer got restless during worship so the nice people in front of us passed back a coloring kit from the church that we had missed on our way in.
When it came time for communion, they served it continuously with bread and small cups. Sawyer was served communion. Following the service the couple in front of us talked to us for a while and introduced us to their daughters. They invited us to stay for their Danish brunch which was being served that day. So we did. I was glad God had brought us to Grace on this particular Sunday because it was delicious! The people were inviting and Pastor Bernau sat down with us during brunch and he and Ryan talked about the architecture of the building. I was only able to see of their additional programming from their monthly flier that I picked up, but the Pastor and parishioners were willing to answer any of my questions. It seems to be a pretty young family congregations, yet with people of all ages. There were lots of kids, which of course we like a great deal since we have three.
September 16 - Ledges State Park
This Sunday we went camping up at Ledges state park so we had Family Church. Chase led us in opening prayer, then Sawyer led us in 'We are marching in the light of God' with actions. We read a couple of verses then talked as a family what we thought God was speaking to the people at the time and what God was speaking to us now. No communion at this worship service though. It was about 35 minutes.
Well, I'll keep posting as we figure out where to go on this journey. I have no idea where we will go this week, but I'll let you know when we do.
Peace in Christ, Angie
I have recently begun my 'Mommy-sabbatical" from over ten years of professional ministry. Meaning, I have taken a leave from call to raise my kids for a few years. Due to this, my family has had to leave the congregation which I served for the past seven years. I began professional church work right after college and previously to this would just attend the congregation that my parents belonged to or campus ministries. My husband, Ryan, attended Faith Lutheran www.faithlc.org (the congregation we just left) since he was in 4th grade. Subsequently, neither of us have ever sought out a new congregation. I had my farewell from Faith on August 26th. Ryan and I are excited for the journey and believe God will lead us to our next church home. It's a little anxiety producing as we kind of feel like church orphans right now since it has been such a big part of our lives. We'll see where the Spirit leads us and thought you might want to come along with us.
My hopes for this blog are the following:
1. To see that churches, even though different can glorify God in so many ways. How fun it is to seek out what the Spirit is doing in different settings.
2. To see where God is calling our family next. Is it a place that most needs us or that we most need? What is important to our family as we journey through this? I hope that this will help us to discern what our family values in a congregation. There are a couple of things that I know for sure. Ryan and I want Sawyer to be able to receive communion. He's chosen to already do that and we won't take it away from him. Also that there needs to be a place for our kids to feel as an important part of the congregation.
3. Our family needs to honor our grief of leaving Faith. This will take time, yet we need to continue to worship with the people of God. Visiting other congregations will help us to honor our grief by not jumping in right away and continue to worship with a community.
Ok, here we go...
Sunday, September 5th (Labor Day weekend)
We went to St. Peter's Lutheran in Grimes, IA www.stpeterofgrimes.org. We attended their 10:30 worship service. Since it's country roads to get there, it took us only 10 minutes. The church building is beautiful and it seems it's their third building. I don't know the story here. We were greeted by the greeters and then passed through the fellowship hall into the commons. Their fellowship hall was filled with canned goods in different bins that represented Iowa sports teams, Iowa State, UNI, University of Iowa. Congregants placed their food donations into their team's bin to route them on. The congregation's commitment to outreach was apparent. Additionally, they had plans for their building expansion in the commons. This immediately attracted Ryan, an architect. They're adding classrooms, which tells us that their children/youth programs are growing.
Upon entering the sanctuary, we received our bulletins and announcement sheets and went to sit down. Ryan and I noticed immediately that they had a banner representing their Tanzanian partner congregation, something we both had been involved in previously. Additionally, I noticed they had a youth director (something I didn't know) according to their announcement bulletin. To start, Pastor Grant, welcomed prayer requests. As people raised their hand, it seemed he knew all their names (impressive). He wrote the requests down and included them in the prayers of the church later in the service. The service was easy to follow and they used the old 'green book' for their hymns. Pastor Mark did the sermon, it was about the 'God of second chances'. Really solid, easy to follow sermon, we left feeling good. For communion they served in tables, so that a group goes up receives then receives a group blessing before returning to their seats. A huge point for Ryan and I is that Sawyer (our two year old) can receive communion. He put his hands out to receive and neither pastor blinked an eye and were happy to give him the sacrament. Sawyer is used to intinction however and tried to place the wafer into his grape juice cup. The church did the entire liturgy, communion, and a baptism in 70 minutes, but it didn't feel that long. It flowed beautifully.
Following service we talked to the Pastors briefly. We found out that Pastor Mark is leaving the congregation. I think we'd like to attend again to hear Pastor Grant preach. I can see many exciting things happening to St. Peter. The growth of their congregation in an expanding community. It'll be cool to watch.
September 12 Grace Lutheran, Adel. (www.graceadel.com)
We arrived this Sunday a little bit late. The church is beautiful, light, and airy. The congregation has a forward thrust chancel making it U-shaped seating. Since we were late, we missed greeters. The bulletin was sitting on a table in the commons area. We stood in the back trying to see where to sit in the full sanctuary and a nice woman came out and welcomed us and showed us some seats. We headed in and found the liturgy for the day was 'Now the Feast', which we love. The entire worship was printed in the bulletin with exception to the lessons. This made it easy to follow along. They used the 'Red book' for their hymns. Sawyer went up for the children's sermon which was about Denmark since they were celebrating their Danish Heritage. Pastor Bernau's sermon was wonderfully delivered and included serious points and laughter. Sawyer got restless during worship so the nice people in front of us passed back a coloring kit from the church that we had missed on our way in.
When it came time for communion, they served it continuously with bread and small cups. Sawyer was served communion. Following the service the couple in front of us talked to us for a while and introduced us to their daughters. They invited us to stay for their Danish brunch which was being served that day. So we did. I was glad God had brought us to Grace on this particular Sunday because it was delicious! The people were inviting and Pastor Bernau sat down with us during brunch and he and Ryan talked about the architecture of the building. I was only able to see of their additional programming from their monthly flier that I picked up, but the Pastor and parishioners were willing to answer any of my questions. It seems to be a pretty young family congregations, yet with people of all ages. There were lots of kids, which of course we like a great deal since we have three.
September 16 - Ledges State Park
This Sunday we went camping up at Ledges state park so we had Family Church. Chase led us in opening prayer, then Sawyer led us in 'We are marching in the light of God' with actions. We read a couple of verses then talked as a family what we thought God was speaking to the people at the time and what God was speaking to us now. No communion at this worship service though. It was about 35 minutes.
Well, I'll keep posting as we figure out where to go on this journey. I have no idea where we will go this week, but I'll let you know when we do.
Peace in Christ, Angie
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)