“Jesus calls every church and every church leader for a purpose, and He equips us with everything we need to accomplish that purpose. You and your church don’t need one more member, one more dollar, or one more square foot of facility. You don’t even need a facility, if your church doesn’t have one.” What we need instead is a boldness to do what God calls us to do. To paraphrase the apostle Paul, God doesn’t call the equipped, he equips the called. May we, as Christians, respond to His call, remembering that every church, small and large, is part of His Church.

I’ve been challenged in my study of Jonah to ask myself, “Is my private faith of any public good?” Keller references how our modern, pluralist culture shames and punishes those who don’t conform to the popular norms and that “for all our talk of tolerance, we demand that others adopt our characteristics and beliefs.” He invites Christians to live out in a way that is truly counter-cultural, one that embraces and loves people, even people who don’t believe what we believe.

Ever feel like you don’t know what to say next to someone when trying to share Jesus with them? You are not alone, I have many, many times.

We’re all still waiting. Waiting for someone to come. But what if they don’t? As I look across north Oakland County, and the eleven churches we have gathered in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, I see a parallel to the island survivors. We are waiting for someone to come and rescue us. The next young family that walks through the door will be the first family that opens the floodgates that will rescue our parish, lest we perish. While they may come, they may also never return, and we’re left scratching our heads why. 

There is tremendous potential in our area for sharing the Gospel and following Jesus together. There are many questions as it pertains to Holy Cross, Living Word, and the other LCMS congregations in our area working together. We want to ask as many of those questions as possible, knowing that we may not have every answer. We invite you to ask questions that are on your mind too, so we can start working together on answers and our future.

This day— this moment of humming wires and climbing weeds, the smell of someone grilling in the distance, the laughter of children as they splash through a sprinkler, the gentle clink of ice in cool drink—this day is a gift. Rejoice in it all. Even the parts that make your eyes water.

Starting in June, our schedule is changing. Check out times and places on our blog.

It’s easy to become cynical as you go through life and begin to feel like in some ways maybe nothing matters. To think maybe we should just spin the wheel, take the safest bet, and resign ourselves to the idea its all flashing lights and cheap prizes.  But that’s not it. 

For the last year, we've been reading the Bible together with the reading plan "Crafted By Truth" in the YouVersion Bible App. As we wrap up the first year, we want to invite you to join us as we begin again!

We have so much. Maybe we are sometimes left poorer for it. It begins to own us. But spring reminds us it’s never too late to start fresh, dig deep, and bloom where we are planted. You already have what you need, no matter what the commercials and billboards and pop up ads and tell you. You are enough just as you are. And as for the rest of it, well, it’s time to clean house.