Gratitude and Hospitality

A Church article with View Comments posted 27 June 2010.
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God is not in the business of getting along with “pretty good people,” God wants to save sinners. This kind of thinking turns the world upside down. Jesus’ encounter with Simon the Pharisee and the “sinner” woman shows us that God’s love flows freely for those who know they need Jesus the most.

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A Star is Born: MovingToDubuque.com

A Church article with View Comments posted 25 April 2009.
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Well, I just put up my first Joomla! website in a long time. I had tried it back when it was “Mambo,” and it wasn’t ready, but that was several years ago. Anyway, the Lord of Life website task force realized a month or two ago that Dubuque has a large number of people getting ready to move to the area as part of IBM’s relocation from Rochester, MN. We wanted to provide a way to help those people get moved and situated smoothly. Since Minnesota is so very Lutheran, we also wanted to let them know that the Lutheran churches in the area are available and friendly and such. Thus, MovingToDubuque.com.

The site has very little on it so far, just a list of Lutheran churches and a welcome message, but we envision listing key businesses, schools, etc. It’s not a replacement for the Dubuque Chamber of Commerce website, but it can be a user-friendly supplement. We also want to draw upon seminarians’ (and others’) tips for packing and unpacking, as we’ve gotten to be pretty much pros at the moving thing by now.

While tomorrow is Internet Evangelism Day, this site isn’t about evangelism. We’re not trying to convert people or persuade them to be Lutherans (or Christians, for that matter). Instead, this site is a vehicle for hospitality. We hope it gets used and re-used in the coming days.

Hospitality

A Church article with View Comments posted 28 February 2009.
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Occasion: Lectionary 14, Year C
Text: Luke 10.1-12, 16-20 (a slight modification to the lectionary)

This sermon was prepared for an assignment for my Preaching class at Wartburg Theological Seminary and was delivered on 25 February 2009.

Several years ago when I was in college, I had the opportunity to go on a spring break mission trip out to a little outdoor ministry site called Lutheran Valley Retreat outside Colorado Springs, Colorado. However, driving from Missouri, one must make the dreaded trip through that one location that strikes dread into the hearts of all drivers: Kansas. Imagine this scene: we have five full size adults, myself included, crammed into a Geo Prism. We have a trunk full of luggage, the lead driver in our caravan has a lead foot (and by that I mean we’re going at least 90 miles per hour), and unbeknownst to us all, the Prism has a slow oil leak. So here we are, humming along (huminahuminahumina) and suddenly, BANG! The engine threw a rod, and we’re stuck on the side of the road. To make things worse, I was driving, and it was not my car.

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