Youth Pool Party
All Youth Groups, 6th-12th grade, are invited to a free swimming party at Hinkley Pool on Sunday, August 7th, from 7:30-9:30 p.m., sponsored by Park Ridge Parish Youth. We invite all youth leaders to come as well!
All Hands on Deck
I hope to name an Implementation Team for our Strategic Plan by the end of this week or the beginning of next. They will plan, with the staff, for a public and joyful launch of the Strategic Plan and all its recommendations this fall. When the plan has been launched, we will live into it, with the help of the Implementation Team. When we have evaluated the first hundred days of the launch, we will evaluate and begin to think and pray about the formation of a Call Committee for the next Lead Pastor of St. Luke’s. We need all of you to make our bold recommendations for mission a reality. It’s “all hands-on deck” time. I truly believe that the Holy Spirit is leading us into the next season of God’s mission among us in church and community.
Next Big Thing
We have sent out invitations to the Implementation Team, who will guide and coordinate the implementation of our Strategic Plan coming out of the Vision Process and unanimously adopted by the Church Council. This team will plan to roll out the entire plan and recommendations with a big launch this fall. The theme will center in what we heard from you in the Listening Season: Reconnecting in Christ. We have already shared a couple of Recommendations. . .
Opportunity for Renewal
My deepest prayerful hope for us as we live into this plan for mission and ministry is that we would have a revival of our faith and a re-focus on Christ as the cornerstone of our church. As we reconnect may we also reshape our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Augusta Victoria Hospital
President Joe Biden visited the Lutheran World Federation (LWF)-operated Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH) in Jerusalem July 15 as part of a two-day presidential visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Biden’s stop at the hospital is the first visit by a sitting U.S. president to the eastern part of the city.
Welcome Michael Busbey
Please come to greet Pastor Michael Busbey and his wife Hellen Rios Carrillo on Sunday August 28. Michael is now the ELCA Regional Representative for Central America and Mexico.
Lutheran Summer Music
I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth, it’s just that I’m 110% consumed with music and worship here at LSM. What a fabulous experience this is! Many thanks to St. Luke’s for supporting my time here with the students. The church is in good hands musically for the coming years – these students are amazing!
Park Ridge Chorale
The Park Ridge Chorale is back and ready to entertain you with an evening of songs from the Roaring Twenties on Saturday, July 23 at 7:00 p.m.
Fill the Backpacks
School is just around the corner! It is time to assemble backpacks for students in foster care served by Lutheran Social Services of Illinois!
The Holy Spirit Digs In
In the place of intimations of divinity and immortality, this apprentice priest experienced the all-too-human emotions of vanity, vulnerability, and insecurity. Yet we have a parable here about the Call process and the ministry to which all of us have been called by our baptism. Ever since the Word became flesh, it is in the very vanity, vulnerability, and insecurity of human life that Call processes and ministry take place. The stuff of our humanity is where the Holy Spirit digs in, with wisdom and direction.