10/17/10 - St. John's Lutheran Church

On the morning of the 17th we ran to Drake University to pick Chase up from Reggie's Sleepout event supporting Iowa Homeless Youth Center www.reggiessleepout.org. Chase raised funds to support the center by sleeping in a cardboard box that night. Then as mean parents we put him back in the car with the other kids and headed downtown to St. John's Lutheran.  I love that on the side of the building is written, "In the city for good".  It's a reminder of their purpose right as you come in.  www.stjohnsdsm.org. We were welcomed before we hit the entrance door and in the parking lot by others entering church.  That was a neat feeling. 

Ryan admired the architecture of this old building and commented on different features of it as we entered.  It turns out we sat right behind Denise Corron (who's married name escapes me right now).  So now, 2 seconds to a familiar face. If you've been reading this blog, that is a common theme. We really enjoyed worshipping in the full sanctuary with people of all ages.  The music and liturgy were familiar.  Pastor Rachel began with announcements and stories of people stopping her on the street before they ran the Des Moines Marathon asking for her prayers.  The theme for her sermon was 'Believe Out Loud' which is something I can see that St. John's takes seriously.  It's mission and advocacy in the world.  She challenged all in the congregation to committing to pray for St. John's daily as a part of their stewardship and their 'believing out loud.'  She asked members to place their name into a pitcher as they came up for communion if they were committed to doing this. The children's choir sung from the loft like little angels, I wished that I could see them from where I was sitting.  We went for communion and Sawyer had trouble with kneeling on the kneelers, which are clearly made for bigger people receiving communion. However, he was able to receive communion. 

As we were walking out of the church, Chase noticed someone else with a Reggie's Sleepout Tshirt and they commiserated in their exhaustion and mean parents :). We talked to Pastor Bob, who I had attended First Call Theological Education with.  Then we were able to see the Schrof family, who's son I had in confirmation, and George Noble, the surgeon who operated on Sawyer an hour after his birth.  It was amazing how quickly the connections were.  We went down for donut time (Sawyer's favorite time) and there were many gathered for fellowship.  We truly enjoyed this worship service and felt that community was an important part of St. John's.