Deb Visits 50 Churches in 52 Weeks: #37 Granddaughters, Mummies, and a Little Lutheranism

This Christmon inspired work was on the wall behind the choir at Living Savior Lutheran.
It depicts the Trinity and the Church Year.

WHERE I WENT AND WHY
Having plans and having granddaughters are 2 things that rarely mix! Granddaughters have a way of changing your plans and making your life an endless surprise of seeing regular events through new eyes. My daughter is in nursing school and she moonlights at Children's Theater on weekends. She needed babysitting on Sunday after church and to make the times work, I accompanied her to Living Saving Lutheran Church. And besides, a little Lutheranism during Lent might be nice.

WHAT TO KNOW IF YOU WANT TO GO
Living Savior is at 6817 Carmel Road just South of Highway 51. Dress was church casual. Parking was tight, both in number of places and the number of times I had to back up and wiggle to get my daughter's small SUV out of the parking place! They have 8:30 and 10:30 services on Sunday and their services are live-streamed.

REFLECTIONS ON WORSHIP

MOOD

My granddaughter Ella
coloring during announcements

The mood was very child friendly. Emily and the girls were sitting on the front row! (she let them choose!) and there was a "pray-ground" off to the side of the choir for younger children to play along with a nursery and quiet bags for the children. Abbie left after Communion to go to the children's choir practice. In her bio, it is noted that along with her Divinity degree, Pastor Angela has a degree in Child Development from UNCG. It shows in delightful ways. (Bias alert! My Masters in Child and Family Development is also from UNCG!)

MUSIC

The music director used a baby grand piano, organ, robed choir and hand bells. The prelude, "It is Well" was beautiful though it had more of a performance vs. worship quality to it for me. The anthem during the offertory was sung antiphonally and was beautiful, as was the handbell selection during Communion, a reprise of "It is Well with my Soul".

The "pray-ground" near the choir

MESSAGE

The Seminarian intern got some good experience talking with young children with his message about the raising of Lazarus and bringing the bones to life in Ezekiel. At the end my oldest granddaughter, 7, stood up and summed up his stories, "That was creepy," she said, and sat down. Resurrection is a hard concept for elementary aged children, and many adults. Pastor Angela addressed that in her sermon.

Rev. Angela King Powell began her sermon on John 11:1-45 with a dramatic reading among Jesus, Mary and Martha. At the end Lazarus came in wrapped mummy-like in grave clothes. Now Abbie was clearly convinced!

In her remarks she told us that this miracle is only recounted in John and is seen as a "foretaste" of Christ's resurrection to come. Resurrection carries both promises and challenges for us. Promises of a new life with Christ but challenging to believe, and to accept God's grace as we live out our lives here on earth. She ended with a story of a boy trying a rope swing out over a river for the first time. It took several times watching his friends, a mistrial, and much encouragement for him to finally swing out and let go of the rope. Maybe when it is our turn to die, we can also "let go into God", for we have seen our friends go before us, and our faith community is there to help us and show us the way to forgiveness. Letting go of the rope, and stepping into God's good care takes faith in God's greatest mystery of all time.

OUTREACH AND OBSERVATIONS

The morning announcements were extensive. The congregation has been collecting

food for their "Smithfield families" (outreach to Smithfield school). After worship they were packing the food and will deliver it this week.
They are making several other outreach activities to the surrounding community. Tuesday is a coffee giveaway to neighbors driving by on their way to work. They are planning music, crafts, and games for the neighborhood during a Summer Countdown in June, and were recruiting volunteers and money.
The bulletin highlighted a prayer shawl ministry, quilt workshop, and college ministry.
It felt good to be back in a Lutheran church and to sing the Kyrie and participate in the Communion liturgy.
The entire service including the hymns, liturgy and prayers were printed in a bulletin booklet, 10 pages plus the announcement insert. With the projector capability they used during the announcements, it seems it would have been more earth-friendly to minimize the paper, and use the projector and hymnbooks. I go back and forth on this, and I see churches struggling with it too. It is definitely visitor and user friendly to have everything printed out. And change can be hard. But a judicious use of a projector can save paper and become an effective worship tool. I think a happy compromise must be in there somewhere.
Their website was terrific and and had a tab called Vibrant Faith at Home which had activities for families to incorporate faith activities into their family routines, another example of child and family development at work!