I am not sure if you have ever tried to read the book of Psalms straight through, but if you do you will notice a couple of things. First, there is wonderful language that lifts up high and profound praise for our Lord while also touching on the deepest longings of our hearts, including our deepest despairs. For instance, Psalm 18:2 lifts up praise to the Lord saying, “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge…” The Lord is lauded as one who provides defense and, better yet, refuge for us weary sinners. Psalm 13, on the other hand, begins with a cry of the despairing Psalmist saying, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1). This psalm speaks of despair that is raw, human and real. The psalmist comes before God with his deepest pains and longings and invites us to join him.
                Another thing, though, that you will quickly notice if you read all 150 Psalms straight through is that many of them are loaded with military references about enemies and foes coming to take the land. There are verses like Psalm 27:3 which say, “Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war rise up against me, yet I will be confident.” Great paranoia is found in Psalm 31:13 when the psalmist writes, “For I hear the whispering of many- terror all around!- as they scheme together against me, and plot to take my life.” Other psalms get down and dirty and call for the Lord to literally fight on our behalf. “Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me! Take hold of shield and buckler, and rise up and help me! Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers” (Psalm 35:1-3). Here the psalmist calls for God to go to war on his behalf, literally taking up arms against the enemy.
                Reading psalm verses like these makes me scratch my head a little bit when thinking about how they relate to life in our world. I have never been to war and war has never come to me. The same is not true for all of us. Still, I think even those who have been to war will agree with me that they are glad that our country is not a combat zone. So how do these psalms relate to our lives when we have not had to worry about enemy armies storming through our cities? How do these prayers relate to us today?
                I think these psalm verses still have meaning today because there are forces that greatly affect our lives but are out of our control. Like an army of Babylonians or Assyrians, sometimes things just happen which threaten our well-being, our future, and, definitely, any sense of peace we have. Be it a cancer diagnosis, ebbs and flows of hay, cattle or milk prices, uncertainty about positions in the school system, struggles in our relationships which get away from us, or anything else, there are still forces and events in our lives which can feel like an enemy horde amassed at the city gates. These are times when there is probably nothing you can do to figure things out, work your way out of it, or anything like that; just have faith for better days to come.
                But in these moments when the only certainty that remains is our faith in the unseen God, we are reassured by these words from another psalm: “Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge” (Psalm 46:10-11).
 
In Christ,
Pastor Seth

            I have always liked May. Maybe it is because our school year usually finished up in May and I could not wait for summer vacation to begin. Maybe it is because the weather begins to warm up and turn into the warmer summer months. Maybe I like May so much because it is the month when I was born. Probably, though, it is the month in which I prepare myself to get out in nature and have some fun on God’s turf.
            This time of year helps us gear up for the work of warmer months, plan for summer vacation, and get ready for all sorts of summer fun. I hope to get some good fishing in the next couple of months and if anyone wants to hike the Missions with me I am always looking for company.
            I hope this summer, as I hope every summer, that you might use the opportunity that nicer weather provides to encounter God in His creation. There is a beautiful world around us, especially here in western Montana, and it all has its source in our God who loves us. Every rock, mountain flower, tamarack tree, and mountain stream flows from God’s abundance. I am sure that most of you live daily recognizing that God is the source of all life, but it is powerful to take a walk through the woods and be immersed in the creative work of the divine. Whatever your plans may be for the summer months, I hope they include regularly seeking God in the wonderful world that God has made.

​            My journey to be your pastor was long and unexpected, but one I am glad to have followed. Little did I know that when I discerned my call to go to seminary as a sixteen-year-old high school kid in Iowa, that I would one day be called to serve in Ronan, Montana. Makes you trust the scriptures when the prophet says, “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). The Lord saw what I could not see and for that I am grateful.
            But my journey to the ministry did not start then. It began a few months into my life when I was baptized with my family at my side, promising to raise me in the faith. My call was strengthened through the years as they brought me to Sunday worship, and Sunday school. Then, I was able to take a giant leap down the road of my faith walk during my first week of Bible camp at camp EWALU, a Lutheran Bible camp in eastern Iowa. At camp I learned to believe and trust God on my own terms, growing in faith in a way that made sense to me – out in the woods with the friends I had made there. At camp, I learned to encounter God as I hiked through the trees, cooked by the fire, studied the Bible on the prairie, and caught crawdads in the river. There, I learned to love the Lord in new and creative ways in a place where it felt only natural to praise God for the wonder of creation.
            When I think about my days at camp, I am filled with fond memories of my faith development and I am also filled with gratitude to my home congregation. You see, a generous donor had left a considerable amount of money that got our church started with their endowment fund. That money was used to help young church goers like me go to camp, high school graduates go to college, and even helped pay for some of my seminary expenses down the road, a road which started with that first week at camp. My family was not poor, but neither were we rich. The full cost of camp for three boys was pretty steep and I am not sure it was one we could have handled on our own. The money that donors had left in the interest bearing fund did more than pay for me to go to camp, it ended up raising a pastor who would one day go on to serve Faith Lutheran Church in Ronan, Montana.
            At our annual meeting, the congregation voted to approve a continuing resolution establishing the Mission of Faith Endowment Fund. This fund will belong to the church and be used to support the future ministry of our congregation. Though we are starting small, we are beginning a journey which could turn into something much bigger one day. Who knows where our giving will lead, but I can say that those who gave to support me on my faith journey have led me pretty far.
In Christ,
Pastor Seth

Sometimes it is hard to tell if the work we do in ministry pays off. Church work is different than other kinds of work because it is rarely finished. While the work of preparing for Sunday worship is finished when the service is over, many aspects of the ministry go on without a definite beginning or end. Most jobs have a start and end date and one can gage whether your work was successful or not if you got paid or if somebody tried to stiff you. Even if things don’t turn out as planned during a workday or week, it is pretty easy to tell when most work days are over, weekends begin and, hopefully, when jobs are finished. The work of the ministry is distinctly different because it involves more than just getting stuff done. While it is important to keep to various schedules (imagine if I told you all to come back on Monday morning because I was not quite ready for service by Sunday!), the real work of the ministry goes beyond the tasks that we complete and the deadlines that we meet.
So we work diligently, hoping and praying that God will use our efforts for more than we can accomplish on our own. As a church, we are workers in the mission field that God has made, carrying out the work that God has called us to – confidently and courageously sharing the Gospel with those around us and working to serve the poor and outcast in our communities. Yet, when have we done enough? How do we know that our efforts will be received by God with those sweet words from scripture, “Well done my good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:21)?
The truth is that the work of the ministry is never completed in this life, but there are little encouragements that we receive along the way. For instance, at Faith Lutheran Church we have welcomed many middle school and high school students from outside of our congregation into our confirmation group and worked hard to make sure that they feel included. Though not every student’s parents and family members have gotten involved in other aspects of our congregational life as we might hope for, the work we do is worth it when students in our group express, for the first time, that they did not realize how much God loves them. The work we do at Shepherd’s Table has been full of headaches this fall as regulations on how we serve those in need have become tighter and churches have pulled out their support of this ministry, as a result. Yet, our efforts to fulfill our Gospel command to serve those in need are rewarded when we hear laughter erupting from the conversations of those sharing the meals we offer. Aging can be a difficult process and working to support older members of our families and communities can be trying. Yet, when we pray and share our faith across generations, we are reassured that the ministry of the church reaches beyond our lifetimes and redeems us through time itself.
The work of God does not end at five o’clock but carries on throughout our lives. This can be a tiresome prospect for those of us who are active in carrying out the tasks of ministry, but it should also be reassuring that the work of God does not stop when we do and that God accomplishes more through our feeble efforts than we can ever know.
 
In Christ,
Pastor Seth

​FAITH NOTES – DECEMBER
            The season of Advent is upon us! As if you didn’t know already…
            It seems that Christmas comes at us in full force every year, at least in the stores where we shop, the radio that we listen to, the TV we watch, the online ads, etc. Yet, behind the lights, black Friday deals, and the joy of the season, remains the anticipation of a world waiting for a savior. We are a people and a planet that is not complete but longs to be in relationship with God and one another. We, along with the rest of the universe, have been formed and created by God but, we are also imperfect people who constantly sin against each other and our Creator. So we need salvation. We need to be redeemed and brought back into good relationship with our Creator again and again, day after day.
            This Christmas, as with every Christmas, we do not celebrate our perfection, but, instead, rejoice in the salvation that God gives to the world. We know that life is not all lollipops and gum drops all the time, but sharing those with friends and family once a year reminds us of the better things that God has in store. So, whether you experience the joy of the Christmas season through lollipops and gumdrops, candy canes and cookies, or junk food and egg nog, remember the behind it all there is a savior who loves you - one who came to bring you back to the God who formed you.

​In Christ,
Pastor Seth

​FAITH NOTES – November
            The air is getting colder, the sky a little more dreary, and the leaves are falling. Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching with all of its wonder. My mouth waters as I think about all the turkey, mashed potatoes… and more mashed potatoes I plan to eat this year.
            Most important in this season of Thanksgiving is the practice of intentional gratitude. That is, choosing to be thankful. Thanksgiving is a scheduled holiday that comes around at a set time regardless of family circumstances or any other variables that may get in the way of us being thankful on that Thursday. Thanksgiving happens when it happens, whether we feel gratitude in our hearts or not, and often times the only way to be thankful on Thanksgiving is to choose to be grateful.
            Perhaps this sounds a little weird, since it can be argued that we should always be grateful for something, at the very least that we are alive each day to consider whether we are grateful for something or not. Yet, while I agree that we should be grateful for things in our lives and even life itself, it is all too easy to get caught up focusing on things in life for which we are spiteful. It is easy when waking up early to grumble about how tired we are, or mad at the world when we struggle to pay our bills, or even frustrated when somebody cuts us off on the highway. For some people, resentment about how awful life can be defines their daily outlook. On the other hand, for most of us if not all of us, I believe that there are times when a positive, grateful outlook can change our experience of life for the better. The practice of choosing to be grateful, recognizing what really is good in our lives, can change our focus so that we see more than what we resent in the world – we see the gifts that God has prepared for us.
            For my part, I would like to begin. I want to share a few things that I appreciate about Faith Lutheran Church from my first year and a half of being your pastor:
 

• Faith Lutheran Church is a resourceful congregation with many members who know how to get things done and don’t shy away from helping out when asked.
• The people of Faith know how to pass the peace and pray for each other. Lutherans across this country are known for our cultural shyness and tendency to keep to ourselves, but we buck this trend at Faith when we generously share the peace of our Lord with each other after having prayed for those in need.
• Our congregation can adapt to change with grace. You guys called me, a seminary graduate with little experience leading a church, quite a bit younger than most of you who has lived most of his life far from Montana. In your decision to call me, you all chose to accept and adapt to change, a decision for which I will always be grateful. Furthermore, I have thrown some new things at you! You have been gracious in taking the time and putting forth the energy to adapt to new things, and have been honest with me about things you have not liked.
• You have welcomed my wife and child into your community. As a husband and a father, this is the best thing I can hope for when moving somewhere new. I will always be grateful to you all for that.

 
I have many more things for which I am grateful, but I have already run out of space. I plan to take the time to intentionally show gratitude throughout this Thanksgiving season, and invite you to do the same with your family, friends and neighbors.
In Christ,
Pastor Seth

I had the pleasure and joy of attending Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp's fundraising dinner and auction last Friday night. They served a wonderful meal and the night was a joy filled time when we were able to connect with friends from across the state and support camping ministry in western Montana. One of the featured stories of the evening was from a mother and her children who have been supported by the camp and donors over the last four years after having fled a cult in another part of Montana. This cult group drew her in as a tight knit community of faith several years ago but, over time, forced her into greater and greater isolation. Women in this group were expected to be mothers, so much so that she had nine children with members of the group. As one might expect, the life, manipulation and control that she suffered in the group took its toll, so much so that she said one morning, when she was pregnant with her ninth child by the group, she looked in the mirror and realized that there was no life left in her eyes. That was the day that she decided she must leave for her sake and the sake of her children. She told her kids that they were going on  a picnic one day, packed them up and left everything behind to flee to the sanctuary of friends and family in Kalispell.
         Part of the sinful nature of cults is that they bind member's minds so that they cannot really leave, even when they are no longer in the group. It takes a large degree of help, therapy and re-orientation in one's understanding of the world in order for a person to truly escape the manipulation of a cult community. She received that in the Kalispell area, but her children needed help to be free, too. She shared that Flathead Lutheran Bible Camp helped to provide freedom through the Gospel of Jesus Christ for her children. There her children were able to hear words of forgiveness and grace through the Bible instead of the fear and manipulation that they had endured the rest of their lives. At camp, her kids were able to make friendships with people on their own terms and live into the social freedom of just being themselves - a right never given to them before. All of this was made possible through the camperships (scholarships to camp) provided by donors who support the camp. The power of the Gospel at work through the institutional church.
         I share this as a reflection on how the church is actively at work in the world. Many people in our country today question the efficacy of supporting churches and other institutional ministries that seem more concerned with self-interest and survival than actual mission and outreach. They think that financial support is better given directly to causes than institutions and organizations like the church because institutions care more about their own survival and serving the world. Sometimes, this is clearly the case. I can think of dozens of churches that have a clear vision of how important it is to put all their money into making an altar look nice, while turning away those begging for help in the streets. Yet, skeptics of this sort fail to see the importance of supporting ministries in our midst that can respond to needs as they arise. I must admit that I have dabbled in this sort of skepticism myself from time to time, but my experience of being a pastor thus far has informed me of how wrong I have been on the issue. Our church has been able to support and minister to all sorts of needs in our community precisely because we have a door for people to come to. We have helped people with meals, trips to the doctor, and insured that children and families are fed. We have supported partners in global mission abroad and worked to make sure people stay warm through the winter here at home. We have raised money to help people who suffer from malaria abroad and minister to patients at St. Luke here in Ronan. All of these things are marks of the Gospel alive and active through the institutional church here in the Mission Valley. By supporting the church, we do more than just provide for our continued survival - we also continually respond to the call of God by making a way for the hungry to be fed, the sick to be visited, the cold to be warmed, the isolated to find fellowship, and those who feel forsaken to find the love of God. The mission of God is truly present in our church - an institution worth supporting long into the future.

            I hope this church newsletter finds you well! This month, I want to focus on the mission of our church space. We have been working on a few items of upkeep around the church, and are almost done with the few changes that we have planned to make. Thinking about changes to church buildings can bring up some questions. I have heard things through the years along the lines of, “Why spend money on a building when you can invest in mission work?” Or, “Why change things that were perfectly fine before?”
            But I want to ask you all a different question: Have you thought about our church building as a place of God’s mission work? Maybe you have, maybe you haven’t. For a long time I took for granted that churches just exist in America and there was not much that is very special about this fact. I am seeing now more than ever, though, that I was wrong. Our church building, the property that Faith Lutheran Church owns, is a place for God’s mission on earth. It is space in which the mission of God is found. Weekly we preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ here. Weekly we pray for each other here. Weekly we come here to lay our sins before God and receive Christ’s forgiveness. So, when we work to keep up our building we are furthering the mission of God in our world by keeping up a place in which the mission of God is active. Put differently, work to keep up a place of worship is mission work. When we preserve and provide a place of worship, we are missionaries to the wider world in which we live.
            Unfortunately, some see church buildings as a barrier – walls to keep members in and non-members out. I am not sure of all the places from which this perception has its source, but I have encountered it first hand from many people, including people here in the Mission Valley. One thing that helps us overcome this sense of our church walls being barriers between those inside and those outside of the church is the work we do to make our church building a place of welcome rather than a place of exclusion. When we carry out this work, we counter the perception that the church building is a barrier by turning our building into a place that welcomes people to encounter the Gospel, instead of being a club for members only.
            If we view our church building as God’s house, then we can think about welcoming guests to it like we would into our own houses. I have been to most of your homes and know that the people of Faith Lutheran take pride in having well-kept houses (at least when the pastor is coming over). You understand that it is good to clean house when you invite a guest to visit, and do a good job of taking care of things, too. Over the past couple of months we have been doing the same in God’s house at Faith Lutheran Church. We have started cleaning out closets that have been neglected for a while. Thanks to Dorre Webster, Maxine Hanson, and Chris Noel, we now have newly painted Sunday School rooms and a newly painted nursery. We also have opened up more space in the Narthex to welcome guests as they come in, and fellowship with them after service around coffee and treats (many thanks to Lute Thingelstad, and Gordon, Gary, and Adam Granley for their help with that project). We also have a brand new baptismal font by which we welcome the faithful into the kingdom of God for all eternity, thanks to the help of Dana Thingelstad in memory of his parents. All of these things support and help further the mission of God by helping guests who worship among us get a firm sense that our church is a place which we value and consider important enough to work to take care of.
            Lastly, I will say that ours is an inherited space in which the kingdom of God dwells. None of us are left who built the original sanctuary and fellowship space over seventy years ago, so the space in which we worship is one that we have been given. Being an inherited space, it is important for us to recognize and wrestle with how best to steward the history of our building while allowing present and future generations to leave their marks, as well. I have seen it all too often, especially in Lutheran churches, that some people only desire to keep things as they once were and try to force future generations of Christian church goers to become curators of a mission space that once was. Perhaps without even intending to, they turn their congregations into de facto museums because they do not permit any changes to be made and are surprised when their children do not desire to come to church anymore to curate the museum-like structures that were once thriving worshipping communities. It is important to honor the past and worship with the saints who have gone before us as we worship the living God in the present. Yet, the mission of God in our current time and place should always allow for present and future generations to engage our worship spaces in new and creative ways. For instance, I am equally excited to think about the church our charter members envisioned out of nothing as I am to think about how the entry to our choir loft is being re-purposed as a space for the increasing number of youth in our church to call their own. In the dynamic history of our church, we are called to perpetually steward our places of worship in ways that preserve the memories of the faithful who have gone before us while welcoming future generations to add their own memories to the same space. I am grateful that we are doing this here at Faith Lutheran Church!
 
In Christ,
Pastor Seth

As I write this, I am thinking about Pioneer Days happening this week. I had the pleasure of being around for last year’s parade, rodeo and a few other events, and I am very excited for our local festival to come around again this summer!

The festival brings to mind and memory activity that I have long been fascinated with – pioneering. It is a stretch for me to think about trying to establish myself where nothing I rely on exists. Sure, I am used to moving and starting over in new places with new people, but everywhere I have moved there has always been an apartment or house already for me to move into. Not so for the pioneers in our country. They picked up the few things they had, and built a new life for themselves in places where their way of life did not exist before. The churches, schools, homes, public buildings, etc. that were part of life from where they came were not present like they were used to on the American frontier before they arrived. Part of their pioneering activity was emulating their idea of home on this western landscape.

            There is something timeless and virtuous about being able to start over. Though the pioneers’ ambitions may have been misplaced from time to time, their ability to focus on visions of the future instead of what they lacked in the present is something that should be remembered and valued. I have met people who have a lot of money and assets, but are still poor because they cannot value what they have. They always look at what others have and think to themselves, “I am so poor because I am not as rich as my neighbor.” While this may be true in some or a lot of cases, I find that people who live their lives focused only on what their neighbors have will never be content with what they, themselves have. Even if they have more than their neighbors, understanding one’s own wealth by contrasting it with that of our neighbors will never leave one feeling complete. If we instead focus on what we have according to our own needs, then we can be content or discontent with our own well-being. Better yet, if we focus on how we can give out of our own possession to continually serve our neighbors well-being, we will be richer still.

            The pioneers did this. They focused on the little they had and saw that they could build a better future for their children. They had a vision of what was not yet, and they lived into it, working hard for others. They did not lament their own poverty, but worked to improve their lot in life, as well as create a better life for their neighbors and future generations. They saw what they did not have and dealt with it by working to give others more. This is something that we should remember, and continually try to do in our own lives.

In Christ,

Pastor Seth

It’s official! Jen and I have been in Ronan for one whole year! It is hard to believe that twelve months have passed, but I am told that time flies when you’re having fun.

On this occasion, I thought it would be fitting to reflect on all that we have done in our ministry together this past year. Thinking back over our months together, I am proud to remember that we started a church website – www.flcronan.org. Our website has been well received and we have begun reaching out to many more people than before through online mediums like sermon recordings and Facebook. This seems to have only added to the ministry of our weekly worship and community gatherings.

But, we did not stop there. We started Confirmation again, and our group grew from four up to ten students. We also supported younger members of our community through outreach activities like our trip to the National Bison Range, bowling, the Christmas program, and the high school ski retreat up at Flathead Bible Camp. To support our new energy in this ministry, we have raised a lot of money to help send our kids to camp over the summer and support other ministry retreats. Finally, I have been representing us in deepening our commitment to the Boys and Girls Club by teaching music and mentoring youth every week.

That is not all, though! We have continued many of the traditions that we love in worship and explored ways to expand our worship styles. We got the guitar service going again on a monthly basis, tested out what worship is like with a new pastor, and even used a new liturgy throughout the season of Lent. Ours is a community that knows how to worship together, and it has been exciting to see our congregation trying out a few new things, while reviving things we used to do like the Passover Meal on Maundy Thursday. We have also been bringing church to those who cannot make it on Sundays. We have been helping lead worship at St. Luke Extended Care and Mountain View Care Center, and been intentional about making sure that others are cared for by the church who cannot make it to worship.

Alas, we are not done yet! While we have thought about how to worship in new ways, we have also begun thinking intentionally about how to better welcome members to be part of our faith community. We had coffee mugs and pens made up to give to guests who join us on Sunday. We printed invitation cards to personally welcome people to our Easter worship who do not regularly attend. The church council had a retreat early in the spring and we identified specific goals that we can aspire to this year. It is my hope and prayer that we can accomplish ALL of these goals in the coming year. It is important for us all to think about how to proclaim the Gospel to others in new and continuous ways, and working towards these goals will help us do that.

Other ways we have ministered this year include: the Martin Luther and his Legacy course, the three week course on spiritual practices, the congregational trip to the Hiawatha Trail, continued support for the Bread Basket, Shepherd’s Table, the Boys and Girls Club, and Safe Harbor, pastoral participation in the chaplaincy of St. Luke Hospital, and continued Sunday School offerings for all ages.

Most importantly, we have continued to pray for one another regularly and often. The prayer ministry that we provide for each other is crucial to how we support others as a community of faith and is one of the greatest spiritual gifts that we offer our neighbors, friends and family.

We have done all of these things and more this past year! Our first year of ministry together has been an active one for sure, and I want to thank everybody for your support through it all. The ministry that we have done this year has been bolstered by your willingness to explore being church together in new ways. While we have only just begun, it has been a great beginning. God bless.

In Christ,
Pastor Seth