I just dropped off my kids for their first day of school this morning. The first day of school is a significant rite of passage every year for many families – families with young students all the way up to those beginning graduate programs. There are new teachers to meet, new friends to make, new classrooms to navigate, new lockers to get situated in, and all sorts of new experiences in between. For kids like our daughter, Freja, this rite of passage is all the more pronounced since she is entering a new school for the first time as a kindergartner. She is growing quickly and her entry into a new school mark that she is growing up.
           
At the same time, new school milestones are so regular that they can seem almost routine and ordinary. While there are all sorts of “new” firsts for our young students, these are the same milestones that their parents went through, just the same as their grandparents did before them (albeit with some changes in technology along the way!). The practice of teaching the next generation knowledge and curiosity about the world is as ancient as the human race. We pass on what we know to the best of our ability and do our best to raise up the next generation of smart, capable adults who can keep things running for just a bit longer. Many thanks to all the teachers, educators, and administrators who make this happen!
           
Our lives of faith are much the same. Though some things have changed in the church over the last few decades and centuries, our practices are much the same as they were a few thousand years ago. While we read scriptures in modern English now, the texts that were once read in ancient Greek and Latin proclaim the same Gospel that we hear in our own tongue and in our own time. Our baptismal liturgies have changed some over the years, but the practice itself is older than even John the Baptist at the river Jordan. Our practices of communing around the table have changed a bit since that first Holy Supper between Jesus and his disciples in the upper room, but we still eat the bread and drink the wine much the same as those original twelve did before Judas betrayed Jesus to the authorities. There are lots of routines in our lives of faith that can seem almost ordinary at times.
           
Yet, much like a new student entering the classroom for the first time in months or even the first time ever, we all encounter the mystery and wonder of our faith anew in our own lifetimes. Generations have been baptized for centuries in more or less the same way, but there is something powerful and wonderful that happens with each new baptism that occurs in our own time. The bread and the wine are elements of renewal and rebirth that we experience every week around the table. The Good News of Jesus Christ can renew our hope in new and powerful ways, no matter how many times we have heard it preached over our lives. This month, we will start our programs of 3F (Faith, Family, and Friends) geared towards students in Kindergarten through 6th grade, 406 Church geared towards our high school students, and our Sunday morning Bible Study focusing on the book of Genesis. These programs all seek to teach the ancient faith that has been passed down with great regularity through the generations so that hearts and minds might receive it in ways that are new and exciting once again.
 
In Christ,
Pastor Seth

A lot has been happening in our church lately. After years of brainstorming, discussions, visioning, and voting, we finally have new structural supports in place so that we can open more space in the narthex. This will enable us to put in a decent ramp into the sanctuary (the one we have used for years is hazardously steep) and open more space for fellowship after worship. You have probably also noticed that we have moved our office spaces as part of this project. The Pastor’s Study is back in the original sacristy, and we have converted two of our hallway classrooms into the new church office space. We are still completing a few parts of this move, but we have come a long way in improving our building for its current use. We are looking forward to how improved accessibility and use of our space will benefit our community and ministry down the road. Many thanks to Gordon Granley who has gone above and beyond, putting in long hours to make this happen, as well as to others who have helped along the way!
             
There has been a lot happening in our nation as of late, too. As I write this, I am processing the news that a deranged gunman in small town like ours in Texas shot up an elementary school yesterday, leaving over 20 dead. Most of his victims were children. In the past few weeks, there has also been a mass shooting at a grocery store and a church. Murderous violence has claimed the lives of Americans of all ages and races recently; from children learning at school, grandparents shopping for food, to Christians praying in church. This morning my son, in a very matter of fact tone, said, “People love to kill other people in America these days.” The image of our nation that we have allowed to form in the minds of our youngsters is one of violence and rage, not peace and prosperity. Lest you think he has this image just because we watch the news in our house, I quickly explained that the incidents he was hearing about are the reason he had to go into lockdown on his very first day of public school as a kindergartener here in Ronan. It is difficult to be raising up the next generation to face unprecedented levels of violence and domestic terrorism.
           
In many ways, though, this is nothing new. Though we like to think of our world as modern and enlightened, the callousness people show toward one another and the evil we endure together is as ancient as our stories of creation. In fact, the older I get, the more I believe in sin – sin that is pervasive, long lasting, often difficult to acknowledge, but even harder to endure. Whether it be the sins of addiction that orphan children in their own homes, the sins of members of one race trying to terrorize those of another through violence, the sins of drunk drivers who claim innocent lives on highway 93, the sins of greed that displace locals, drive up prices, and collude against farmers and ranchers, or the sin of mass murder, the evils of the world swell up around us constantly and persistently, no matter how enlightened and exceptional we might envision our world to be.
           
​Still, I am drawn to recall the words of psalm 23 that my church had me memorize when I was roughly my son’s age – though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil (Psalm 23:4). Though our neighbors rage against us, God does not. God binds up the wounds of the brokenhearted, comforts those suffer evil, and guides those who journey beneath the shadow of death. It is for such times as these that we believe in a future that God provides – one which is infinitely better than the present we are providing for ourselves and for our children. It is for such times as this that we place our trust in Christ’s resurrection which confounds the deaths planned by spirits of malice or the cowardice of indifference. It is for such a time as this as we exhort one another to love our neighbors as ourselves and teach our children the way of peace, so that the way of the cross might lead us beyond such godless evils.
 
In Christ,
Pastor Seth

Upon writing this, I have recently returned from my first in-person Montana Synod event in at least two and a half years. My colleagues and I have met online for Zoom meetings and convocations, but we have not physically gathered together in years. While I am grateful that we have been spared driving thousands of miles of travel across Montana and Wyoming these past few years, I have to say that the collegiality and community that we experience when we meet in-person cannot be matched by get-togethers on computers. It felt good to be in the same space with my fellow pastors again.
           
There are many reasons that online connections feel different than being in the same physical space. For one thing, when we meet others online, we meet them two-dimensionally. This is all that our computers, tablets, and phones allow for. We only see one another on screens as having height and width, but never depth. I, for one, have felt that lack of depth with my colleagues, and I also felt the difference it made to finally meet in the same physical space again, almost immediately. Additionally, it takes a great amount of intentionality to meet online. Unlike running into someone at the grocery store, at a local high school game, or even at the office, planning to meet with others online takes a lot more effort than simply running into somebody around town. This usually has meant that our online conversations have been much more focused and serious than the small talk that we usually gab about when we meet in the same physical space. It can make a group’s conversation feel more two-dimensional, as well. When our gatherings are all planned, it can feel like we constantly need to stay on topic in how we speak with one another, never straying to talking about how we are doing or other chit-chat like that.
           
What I think was the biggest difference about finally being able to meet in-person once again was, in the end, all the small stuff. In conversation, it was priceless to share in small talk about where new pastors in the synod have come from and what old friends have been up to since we last met face to face. In relationship, we finally had another opportunity to go fishing, have our kids play together, and enjoy the pool in one another’s presence. It is the little things of our lives that really bring us close to each other, and the more little things we are able to commiserate with friends over, the closer we are able to be.
           
This experience has led me to realize that God knows us fully through the little things, too. We do not only come to know God through the largesse of the cosmos or the massive expanse of the history of the universe. We also know our Lord through the small moments of encountering God moving in our lives on a daily basis. Likewise, God does not solely know us by our careers, our school transcripts, our reputations, our legacies, or other achievements in the material world, but also by our deepest selves from the inside out. God knows us by our small passions and prayers, our unique interests, our fears, our small joys and pleasures, and everything in between. God knows us and loves us from the littlest parts of ourselves on up to the greatest bits of who we are. There is no part of us that is too small to save, and part of the grand wonder of Christ’s salvation is that the most miniscule, personal parts of ourselves are saved first so that big things may follow.
 
In Christ,
Pastor Seth

I am open to criticisms that I do not preach about Hell enough. Some preachers like to fill their congregations with fear about eternal damnation so that they might better provoke their people to lean into their hope of heaven and eternal reward. I am not one of those preachers, but it is nevertheless important that we understand our beliefs about Hell and why they are important. Hell is the Germanic term for “realm of the dead”, most often termed Hades in our Greek Christian sources. Hell or Hades features centrally in the story of our salvation, as we confess in the Apostles’ Creed that Jesus “descended to the dead” before rising again on Easter morning. Jesus did not make the journey to his resurrection without going to Hell first, so we should not try to sidestep it either.
           
I do not preach about Hell as much as some other pastors, though, because I believe that hellish experiences of pain, suffering, grief, and despair surround is in this world all on their own. There is little need for pastors to push more of these experiences on people through our preaching. Those in the pulpit do not need to lead parishioners into the realm of the dead since we mortals lose loved ones all the time. Preachers do not need to lead people to moments of anxiety, fear, or despair, since the world will bring us there anyway. Pastors do not need to shepherd people into the grip of the demonic in order for them to appreciate the hand of God in their life since evil will reach out to grab at us anyway. Whether we like it or not, sin, death, and the Devil are as much present and on the move in our contemporary world as in the ancient world that Jesus inhabited.
           
Yet, the good news that we celebrate again this Easter season is that the Son of God descended into Hell and was resurrected from it. He also knew what it was to lose. He also knew what it was to be tempted to be afraid, anxious, or despairing. He knew what it was to face down demons (literally). He experienced death like the rest of us will, one day or another. He took on these hellish experiences of pain, suffering, grief, despair, and death itself, so that he might save us from them all. He did all of this by dying, descending into Hell, and rising again on the third day – Easter Sunday.
           
With this profound truth in mind, we will shout again on Easter morning, “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!” He is risen from the worst, so that we may be resurrected with him to the best that is yet to come. 

The second to last weekend in February, I took some time with my family. A gift we received this Christmas was money to rent an Airbnb, so we decided to book a house in Kalispell and spend Saturday and Sunday skiing with our kids at Big Mountain. (Otto would correct me right now and insist that I was snowboarding, not skiing, but that is beside the point…)! Our family aspiration this winter has been to get our kids up the mountain and finally teach them the sport of downhill skiing that we are so fond of. It is important that you love where you live, and enjoying the outdoors goes a long way towards enjoying the wonders of Montana.
           
On Saturday, however, things did not turn out so wonderfully for me. As we were headed down one of the easy, green runs for beginners, I decided to have a little fun and go through a small patch of trees. I do this all the time, so I did not think to be extra worried or cautious. It turns out that I should have been a little more wary on this section than I realized. Towards the end of this particular patch of trees, the snow had melted off a fallen log right under the path I was planning to take – a danger that caught me by surprise. I tried to make an extra wide turn around the exposed hazard, but my efforts failed. The log grabbed the edge of my board and threw me to the ground, ribs first - hard, fast, and likely hitting the end of the log that had brought this all about. The fall was more painful than any I have experienced in years. I got up, continued on, and tried to make a few more runs. Yet, the pain in my rib cage was so acute and persistent that I knew I needed to check if I had broken anything and make sure that my lungs were okay.
           
Fortunately, when we headed to the urgent care clinic in Whitefish, we received the all-clear that my ribs and lungs were intact. I only need to rest for the contusion to heal itself over the next few weeks. Unfortunately, the pain from this fall is still surprisingly debilitating. This is another setback in a season of setbacks. Over the past month of life and ministry I have had to stay home for multiple close contacts with COVID-19, had to suspend ministry activities, lost my grandmother, and now had my weekend of family recuperation interrupted by a rib injury that has left me reeling in physical pain. It kind of feels like the hits just keep on coming. (Pun intended).
           
​Yet these worldly setbacks give me opportunities to practice what I preach and place my hope, trust, faith, and love in the capable hands of our Lord who transcends our physical limitations and setbacks. The life of the Christian is not defined by the material possessions, worldly comforts, or the eases that this life affords to some, but, instead, by the hope that transcends and overcomes all adversity that we face in our lives. Suffering does not mean that God is absent, but rather provides moments for us to realize God’s presence and comfort more wholly and completely. This month, we journey into the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday with the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” These words are ominous but true. Our mortal flesh often proves to be little more than dust on its way home. Nevertheless, we trust that God does miraculous things amid all the chaos we encounter in this world - even with simple piles of dirt.
 
In Christ,
Pastor Seth

At my alma mater, Valparaiso University, the campus chapel is kind of a big deal. It is so big, in fact, that it is the largest campus chapel in the United States, and second largest campus chapel in the world. At the time when construction began, 1959, many people accused the campus president, a Lutheran pastor, of using the chapel building project to pad his ego. He stated, though, that the large building would be a shining symbol of the faith of faculty and students at the time, and a giant symbol of shame to future generations if they ever strayed from it. I agree with him and like to think about our church buildings as monuments to the faith of our ancestors, beckoning us to keep placing our hope and trust in God, long into the future.
              
Worshipping within the walls of Valpo’s chapel as a student, I was often drawn to one of the building’s smallest symbols – a “Cross of Nails” made from the rubble of Coventry Cathedral in Coventry, England – a cathedral which was bombed by the German Luftwaffe in 1940. The cross is not very big –  maybe only six inches by eight inches or so. It is positively dwarfed by the bigness of the symbols all around it. The large ceilings, tall walls, and massive windows make the cross look tiny by comparison. The large altar with a towering cross at the front, make the small cross formed from war torn debris look insignificant in comparison. The stained-glass windows fill the chapel with color and magnificent imagery from the front, while the nail cross is about as gray and drab as you would expect. Even the organ at the back of the chapel, the largest in all northwest Indiana, dominates the space with massive sound whereas I doubt you would even hear the Cross of Nails from one end of the chapel to the other if it happened to fall off its stand. The tiny cross is made to seem even tinier by all the bigness that surrounds it.
              
Yet, that small cross, which is made to seem so much smaller by all the largesse which surrounds it, is a glorious symbol of the endurance of faith. The nails held the sanctuary together in England for centuries before it was destroyed. The nails formed sacred space for prayer and worship. They held the walls and structure together that secured the faithful within, guarding them as they sought out safety and spiritual rest from the outside world. The nails helped to surround the faithful for generations, before finally succumbing to violence from the sky in the last century. Still, despite the destruction these nails suffered at the hands of the Nazis, they endured and were redeemed in profound ways that the magnificence of Valpo’s campus chapel will never match. They kept their form to remind us that the broken, sinful forces of the world can only win out for a moment. The foundations of our faith will stand forever.
              
​No matter what devastations, disruptions, and death we encounter in this world, the cross of Christ stands above and beyond it all.  Even in the rubble of our lives, the love of God provides the greatest hope of all.
 
In Christ,
Pastor Seth

I have sort of a love/hate relationship with Western movies. Whether they feature Allan “Rocky” Lane, Amanda Blake, or the famous John Wayne, Westerns across the decades have featured themes that are quintessentially American. Many of these themes – from rugged individualism to simple portrayals of good triumphing over evil – are honest depictions of cultural values for a lot of Americans. For this reason, I appreciate the genre very much. On the other hand, I have rarely found life to be as simple as these quintessentially American cinematic portrayals plot out. The genre also gives false hope and misguided perceptions of who we are as a complex nation with a complex history which requires complex thinking and self-understanding if we are to continue to guide our Republic well into the future.
           
Still, there is one motif from the Western genre that I appreciate more than most – scenes which feature the main characters heading over the horizon to whatever lies ahead. These scenes portray the uniquely American optimism that the future brings resolution to our current woes. Hope, happiness, good times, opportunity, and all good things are usually portrayed as lying just over the next horizon, no matter how many bad guys the hero must shoot to make it there! Over the next hill, mesa, or mountain lies opportunity not yet realized, problems not yet solved, and love stories not yet told. Cheesy, I know, but I have to say that this spirit of unbounded optimism often keeps me going.
           
As we enter 2022, we cross yet another horizon. Some of do this as the literal cowboys we are – tending our ranches and trying to hone our skills at roping. Others cross this horizon as teachers who are still trying to catch our students up from the developmental disruptions of the past two years. Others in our community cross this horizon at the head of our businesses, navigating new levels of inflation that we have not seen in forty years, and supply disruptions that we have not experienced since the Second World War. Others cross yet another horizon as nurses and medical staff trying to tend to a population that is perpetually anxious and angry. Whatever high noon shoot outs and bar brawls that we have been through to get to this point, here we are crossing another horizon together.
           
​As we ride off towards our next sunset, may we be guided by the words of Psalm 90, “Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil…Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands!” (Psalm 90:15 and 17, NRSV).
 
In Christ,
Pastor Seth

We will be celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday again this month and I am thankful for it 😉. I assume that you are familiar with the history of the first Thanksgiving celebration amongst the Pilgrims after their harvest in what is today Massachusetts in 1621. What you may be less familiar with is how Thanksgiving became a national holiday. While the tradition of observing the Thanksgiving holiday continued regionally in New England since those first years of Pilgrim colonization, it did not become a national holiday until 1863 by a declaration of President Abraham Lincoln. That’s right, in the middle of the American Civil War, the bloodiest, most seditious conflict in our nation’s history, President Lincoln responded to the moment by calling upon all citizens of our great Union to stop and give thanks to God. Kind of audacious timing when you think about it.
           
Admittedly, his call to nationalize the Thanksgiving holiday was in part political. The first European colony to survive in what is today the United States was, of course, Jamestown – a colony that was not only part of a Confederate state but near the capitol of the Confederacy. There was a desire from Lincoln and those fighting against southern sedition to remember and celebrate the United States as having its founding in the North, not the South, even though the facts were otherwise.
           
Yet, reflecting this year on the origins of Thanksgiving as a national holiday, I am most struck by the fact that this call for the entire nation to observe a day of giving thanks to God for what we have been given came in the middle of one of the most thankless moments in our nation’s history. It was out of the horror and carnage of Americans killing Americans by the thousands, the trauma of our nation tearing at the seams, the economic hardship that occurs when a country is at war with itself, that President Lincoln called upon our citizens to stop and say, “Thank you Lord for all that we have received.” Kind of wild when you think about it.
           
I don’t know about you, but I feel like it takes a lot more work to give thanks to our Creator these days compared with other times of life. Anxieties, frustrations, anger, division, sadness, all seem to be collectively higher than they have ever been in my lifetime. As I write this, we have lost over 738,000 Americans to this new virus that popped up in Wuhan two years ago this month. Staggering. Tragic. The way forward seems long, and any path out of our collective funk seems uncertain. I do not know how we will move on from this and come together again – as a church or as a nation.
           
​However, this was the case in 1863, too. They had no idea how they were going to figure everything out and move forward, but they did know that they could give thanks to God in the moment anyway. They did not have much to speak of, and they bore great hardship all around them, much as we are enduring in our time. Still, all was not lost, and they thanked God for that fact. I pray the same may be true for us this month, too. Happy Thanksgiving.
 
In Christ,
Pastor Seth

               
The church roof has been redeemed and renewed! After nine months of insurance adjustors, tarps, planning, price increases, and work delays, the roof has been re-insulated and re-shingled. We should have a dry and well-insulated church building going forward. Praise God!
              
As we were analyzing our building for the roof project, the property committee began talking about part of the Accessibility Project that the church has been discussing over the past few years. The simplest and easiest part of the wider project is to move the pastor’s study to the original sacristy (what we now use as our “counting room”) and move the church office from its current location in the narthex to the last two classrooms in the hallway by opening-up the wall between the two and creating a larger conference room/church office there. This move will allow us to open-up more fellowship space in the narthex for coffee, cookies, and conversation after worship and, just as importantly, give us space to put in an adequate ramp for wheelchairs, walkers, etc. from the narthex level of the church into the sanctuary. The short ramp into the sanctuary that we currently use is dangerously steep, difficult to navigate, and severely troubling for those who have trouble getting up the final two stairs from the narthex into our sanctuary. Removing the wall and opening-up the space where our church office and Pastor’s study currently are will give us a substantial amount of new space for fellowship after worship on Sunday mornings and give us enough space to build a far better ramp along two walls of the narthex into the sanctuary.
              
Since this is a significant change to our church property, our congregation’s constitution requires a congregational vote to proceed. We are planning to have an in-person meeting, discussion, and vote on whether or not to proceed with moving the offices on Reformation Sunday, October 31st after worship. No other business will be discussed, and we are planning to have a potluck meal in the fellowship hall following the meeting – the first meal we have shared together since the pandemic began.
              
There are some questions that have come up already in discussions about this project that I will answer ahead of time. First, is this a new idea for the Accessibility Project than what we have already discussed up to this point? No. We had always planned to move our church offices in order to allow for an adequately accessible ramp into the sanctuary, we are simply proposing that Faith Lutheran move ahead with this part of the project sooner rather than later. Second, is this a vote to add on to the church? No. We are only moving the offices and opening-up the space that already exists in our narthex. Third, where will Sunday School classes meet? Unfortunately, we have struggled to attract students and families to attend Sunday School classes the same as when they were built (almost 50 years ago!), but we have found that the fellowship hall is great for Christian education classes using a one room school-house model of learning which is more appropriate to our current numbers. For instance, we are using the basement for our 3F – Faith, Family, and Fellowship classes on Tuesday evenings and have already found that the space suits our time well. Fourth, how much will this move cost? Since we are not building anything, only renovating existing space, we estimate that the costs for this move will be between $3,000 and $5,000, and we expect to do a lot of the work utilizing volunteer labor. Gratefully, we have already had members and friends donate generous amounts to our building fund and we have more than enough money on hand to cover this project so we will not need to raise any more funds for this part of the Accessibility Project. Lastly, will we need to replace the roof again if we decide to proceed with the rest of our Accessibility Addition at a later date? No. The roof portion we just replaced will stay the same if we vote to proceed with a building addition down the road.
              
You can find the floor plan for the proposed changes to the church on the back side of this page. If you have questions, comments, or concerns before the meeting, please reach out to Pastor Seth directly at (406) 546-7323 or Gordon Granley at (406) 261-5418. Additionally, we understand that some members may be interested in participating in the discussion and vote but do not yet feel comfortable attending in-person. We are planning to hold this meeting fully in-person and will not be hosting a hybrid online/in-person meeting like we did in January. In order to vote, members must attend in-person, but we will share written comments at the meeting from members who do not feel comfortable attending in-person so that their support or critiques of the proposed move will be included in the discussion. Those comments can be submitted directly to the church office at flc@ronan.net.
              
​I look forward to working with you all as we discern how to move forward with this stage of the project!
 
In Christ,
Pastor Seth

Several people have asked me how it feels to be back in action, and I am glad to say that it has been a fairly seamless transition to return to the office. When I began my sabbatical in May, I was concerned that I might be reluctant to resume my regular duties come August, but I am grateful to report that I feel very renewed and far more up for the job than I was just a few months ago. The way forward is bright, and I look forward to seeing where God will lead us.
           
​Faith Lutheran Church will be getting going with God’s work of ministry in some familiar and in some new ways this month. We will be resuming our Adult Sunday School at 9 am on Sunday, September 12th, in the choir loft for the first time in over a year. I always appreciate our conversations and I look forward to what topic or book of the Bible we decide to study this year. However, we are going to try something different and new with our younger students for the first time this fall. Our traditional practice of having Christian education classes for elementary students on Sunday mornings before church has simply not been working well for the past several years. So, instead of teaching Christian education to our youth on Sunday mornings, we are starting up a new program called 3F – Faith, Family, and Friendship - on Tuesday evenings every week. 3F will meet in the Fellowship Hall on Tuesdays from 5:30-7pm starting September 14th. We will begin by sharing a FREE MEAL (supported by our Faith Lutheran Church Women’s group), and then learn about stories from the Bible, do crafts and games, and end the evening with music. Parents and siblings are encouraged to attend with their students in grades Kindergarten through Sixth, and students are encouraged to invite their friends along as we learn about our Christian faith together.
           
We do plan to start the Mission Valley Children’s Choir back up again this year, but Cathy Gillhouse is going on an extended trip to Europe (lucky duck!) so we will wait until she gets back. High School students are invited to be part of our 406 Church once again this fall. We will meet upstairs from 7 – 8:15 pm on Wednesday evenings, beginning Wednesday, September 15th, and everyone is encouraged to invite their friends, even if they do not attend church on their own. Lastly, after fits, starts, and pandemic disruptions, there is a group trying to re-start a Cub Scout Pack in Ronan, chartered by Faith Lutheran Church. Both boys and girls in grades Kindergarten through Fifth are welcome to participate, and the group plans to start meeting Thursday evenings from 5:30 to 6:30pm here at Faith Lutheran beginning on Thursday, September 16th. If you would like more information you can call Kara Snyder at (406) 210-3462.

We look forward to all that God has in store for us this year as a community of faith!
 
In Christ,
Pastor Seth