Friends of Immanuel, 

With our current summer worship series, A Summer of Hope, that truly is my prayer – that what we hear from God in His Word, from my sermons, from the music, and from our gathering together week-in and week-out, is that we are filled with the hope that we know in Jesus. As St. Paul closed his letter to the Romans (Romans 15:13), “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” 

With yesterday’s message, “He’ll Take Anyone!,” there was so much more that I could have shared regarding why that is such a hope-filled truth. We don’t have to achieve some sort of standard before our Lord will love us or welcome us into His family. We don’t have to clean up our act before He’ll accept us as His children – that’s HIS job! He’s here to clean us up, forgive us, and help us over and over again. While we strive in every way to be Christlike in our thoughts, words, and deeds, perfection is not something we can attain on this side of eternity. We are perfect only through faith in Jesus as He clothes us with His perfect righteousness. It’s not three-strikes-and-you’re-out – our Lord’s forgiveness is a gift that is always there for us and, no matter how many times we fall or fail, He’s here to pick us up, forgive us, and put us back on His path. 

Take in these passages that I hope will affirm and encourage you in who you are as a precious, beloved, child of God: 

Ephesians 2:8-10 – 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. 

Isaiah 43:1-3 – 1 But now, this is what the Lord says—he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. 3 For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” 

John 3:16-17 – 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 

1 John 3:1 – 1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!  

And there are so many more places in Scripture that speak this truth loud and clear! Here is the What Now? from yesterday for your encouragement as well: 

What Now? 

God chooses YOU! Take to heart the hope this brings to you as you bask in that reality and promise. Look for an opportunity to speak the hope-filled truth into someone else’s life that God chooses them! 

Serving together in Christ alone! 

Pastor Glen 

Friends of Immanuel,

The time has come! Over the next week and a half we will have two of our major summer ministry events happening – the Sweetheart City Car Show and Family Festival and Vacation Bible School! You can see more of the details of these two significant outreach efforts in the articles below.

With this Saturday’s car show (June 13^th, 9:00am-2:00pm) I want to thank Randi Rost and Ed Bublitz for their leadership of this amazing team of people (more like an army of people!) to make this event happen. And my thanks to everyone who will be hands-on with help given on Saturday as well as many of you who have been donating items, praying over this event, and supporting it in so many pre-event ways! The partnerships and support given by local businesses, particularly to make the Car Care portion of the car show possible, is amazing. What I have heard over and over again from people in the community as well as those I’ve talked with at previous car shows, is that the Car Care we offer (helping single moms and widows with a basic inspection of their cars and reduced cost in making repairs) is what makes Immanuel’s car show one of the best in northern Colorado!

Over these next couple days, pray that God will use this event, the conversations that will take place, and the open doors of Immanuel, to draw people to Him. Be praying also for sunshine and good weather on Saturday.

Vacation Bible School will have a training and decorating day THIS Monday, June 15^th, with VBS itself happening Tuesday, June 16^th through Friday, June 19^th from 9:00am-12:00pm. I want to thank Emma who has once again done an amazing job in organizing this multi-faceted, multi-day outreach ministry event that involves hundreds of children, youth, and adults. As with the car show, there are still opportunities to help and support this ministry – just contact Emma. Thanks to all of you who have purchased some of the many items on the VBS tree to support this ministry, to all of you who will be hands-on and feet-on-the-ground to make VBS a reality, and for all who have been and are continuing to pray for this ministry.

Be praying for many hearts – of children, youth, volunteers, workers, and families of the children attending – to be opened and touched by the amazing, life-giving message of Jesus and His love for us.

Be watching for some follow-up, additional thank yous, and pictures and videos of the car show and VBS over the next couple of weeks. I look forward to seeing many of you Saturday, then on Sunday (of course!), and next week!

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,

Today I’m speaking as part of that “great cloud of witnesses” that the writer to the Hebrews speaks of in Hebrews 12:1-3, and I want to cheer you on and encourage you “so that you will not grow weary and lose heart!” We are running this race of faith and life together, specifically as brothers and sisters in Christ here at Immanuel.

Commitment Sunday was just a week ago, which is hard to believe, and I’m thankful for that powerful time of worship together as well as the fun and delicious fellowship we enjoyed afterward. I’m also thankful for all of you who offered your commitments to the Lord that morning. There have been a number of you who have brought in your commitments through the week as well as yesterday in worship, which is awesome! Thank you for your prayerful, faith-filled, and sacrificial financial commitments, your commitments to the spiritual disciplines of prayer, worship, and being in God’s Word, and your commitments to continue learning and growing together.

So far, we have 91 commitments in hand for our Run with Perseverance ministry campaign. By comparison, with our last campaign that launched in December 2019, we had a total of 173 commitments made over the course of the entire campaign. I share this because these commitments are not just numbers – they are YOU! These commitments represent households of people who call Immanuel “home” – households that include singles, couples, or entire families. I’m here to cheer you on and say, “Way to go!” and “Thank you!” for taking the step you have with prayerfully making these commitments

If you have not yet offered your commitments to the Lord, you’re not too late. We are waiting to announce the total amount of all the commitments until the end of this month in order to give everyone the opportunity to be part of this ministry campaign together! We will have some fun “trackers” that will be in the atrium starting at the end of the month or early July to track our progress together.

As part of this great cloud of witnesses, I’m encouraging you today to prayerfully consider joining with all of us here at Immanuel, if you have not already, in committing and recommitting yourselves to our Lord and the mission He’s given us to serve together in the many and various opportunities we have here at Immanuel, sharing the love and the hope we have in Jesus.

To make your commitments, there are three options:

1. You can go online to Immanuel’s website (https://immanuelloveland.org/runwithperseverance/), click “Online Commitment Card,” fill out the online card, and submit it.
2. You can stop in the church office anytime during business hours and pick up a paper copy of the commitment card. Once you have it filled out, tear off the white copy, place it in an envelope, and return it to Immanuel, either during the week or on Sunday morning when you can place it in the offering basket.
3. You can print off a copy of the commitment card below, fill it out, and bring it back to Immanuel in a sealed envelope.

However you choose to do it, I pray that you do! As I’ve said previously, these commitments are not just about the money. More than anything, making these commitments is about being part of this community of faith and serving our Lord together. There’s real joy in knowing we are part of something much bigger than ourselves – and what better to be part of than the Body of Christ?!

Serving together in Christ alone!

Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,
This Sunday we are beginning our new summer worship series, A Summer of Hope. The readings for this summer are amazing! The richness and depth of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans are coupled with Matthew’s Gospel—long recognized as a discipleship manual for followers of Jesus. Sprinkle in some well-known Old Testament accounts and we have ourselves A Summer of Hope! Through these readings, hope comes to us in both expected as well as surprising and unexpected ways. I pray that as we travel through these summer months together, you are filled with this profound gift of hope our Lord offers us!

I also want to remind everyone that an important component of our ministry campaign, Run with Perseverance, is that we are here at Immanuel together – running together, serving together, worshiping together, giving together, playing and praying and doing ministry together. In light of our campaign theme verse from Hebrews 12:1-3, we are “surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,” a cloud of witnesses that includes each one of us as we surround each other, cheer each other on, and encourage each other in this race of life and faith so that “will not grow weary and lose heart.”

My prayer is that we are all committed to the Lord’s ministry here at Immanuel that He has entrusted to us and that we all make those commitments, from the financial (even if it’s an extra $10/month over these next three years) to the spiritual disciplines of prayer, worship, and being in God’s Word, to continuing to learn and grow together with upcoming opportunities.

So if you haven’t filled out a Commitment Card yet, I would strongly urge you to do so as we run this race together. You can fill out a commitment card online at https://immanuelloveland.org/runwithperseverance/ or you can stop in at the church and pick up a paper copy anytime the office is open. We will be announcing the total commitments later in June once everyone has had a chance to make their commitment.

Thank you for being part of this awesome ministry of Immanuel!

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel, 

I want to give a huge thank you to everyone who made yesterday’s Commitment Sunday the awesome celebration that it was. The worship, the music, the stories, the brunch, the fellowship, the conversations – all of it! Thank you for being here and for being part of the Lord’s amazing ministry at Immanuel. Stepping through the morning, I had a real sense of God’s presence – we were truly living out our name: Immanuel, “God With Us”!  

Thank you to those who were able to help with set-up of the gym, making some delicious breakfast casseroles, serving the brunch, and the clean-up. Many hands make light work and thank you for your servant hearts to serve in these ways. 

For those who were not able to be here, be sure and check out the live stream which can be found on Immanuel’s sermon page. If you haven’t filled out a Commitment Card yet, you can fill one out online at https://immanuelloveland.org/runwithperseverance/ or you can stop in at the church and pick up a paper copy anytime the office is open. I’m praying and encouraging everyone who calls Immanuel “home” to be part of offering our commitments to the Lord as together we Run with Perseverance! We will be announcing the total commitments later in June once everyone has had a chance to make their commitment. 

One other thank you I want to give is to our Ministry Campaign Leadership Team. This was an amazing team of people who helped make this entire campaign the success it is in every regard. The team includes Campaign Director: Becky York; Campaign Coordinator: Annette Bures; Communications Director: Justin Logston; Communications Team: Julie Geary, Kurt Holdorf, Josh Hubble; Prayer Coordinators: Paul and Gail Hein; Hospitality Coordinator: Kathy Schlecht; Hospitality Team: Donna Aigner, Tam Small; Connection Coordinators: Paul and Donna Gorky; Children’s and Youth Leader: Emma Hubble; Financial Coordinator: Dave Ritter; Fulfillment Coordinators: Jerry Austin and Bill Busacker. Thank you for a job well done! 

To let you know, Kathy and I are out of the office for a few days, catching our breath before we jump back into our exciting line-up of summer ministry events. We’ll be back on Thursday and we look forward to seeing you again on Sunday in worship as we’re back to our Summer Worship Schedule (8:00am and 9:30am). 

Serving together in Christ alone! 

Pastor Glen 

Friends of Immanuel, 

I hope you’re ready for a very fun and inspiring Sunday morning of worship! This Sunday, May 31^st, we’ll gather all together in one worship service beginning at 9:00am, to worship our Triune God. There will be handbells, instrumentalists, inspiring videos, stories shared, and an opportunity to commit ourselves to our Lord in a variety of ways.

It is Commitment Sunday, a culmination and celebration of our ministry campaign, Run with Perseverance. If you have not yet, I would encourage you to pray about the ways you would be willing to commit yourself to the Lord for the next three years. There is the opportunity to make a financial commitment over-and-above your regular giving to help us reach our 3-year goal of $950,000. With that financial goal, we are committing $600,000 of that toward ongoing ministry expenses ($200,000 each year), and $350,000 that would be placed in a reserve account to pay for expenses incurred with our aging facilities. Immanuel’s leaders have already made commitments that put us halfway to that goal! Praise God! And as everyone joins together, I believe we can reach that goal and continue to strengthen our ministry of both our church and school and all the great Kingdom-building outreach and ministry we do.

Just as important as our financial commitments is the opportunity we have to commit and re-commit ourselves to some basic spiritual disciplines that will help us individually and collectively to keep growing stronger in our faith and following Jesus. My prayer is that everyone connected to Immanuel is willing to make these important and prayer-filled commitments as we continue faithfully to carry out the mission our Lord has given us as His children. Those spiritual disciplines include:

• Praying regularly
• Reading God’s Word each day
• Worshiping together each week
• Growing as good stewards of all God has entrusted to us, taking advantage of adult education classes and seminars coming this fall
• Being part of Bible studies, small groups, and other learning and study opportunities

You can see all the specific opportunities on the commitment card below. If you can’t be here on Sunday, I encourage you to bring your commitments to the church office or to worship over the next couple of weeks. We will be announcing the total commitments later in June.

Commitment cards will be handed out on Sunday in worship. You can also fill one out online at https://immanuelloveland.org/runwithperseverance/. These commitments will be seen by only three people who serve on the campaign Finance and Fulfillment Team and will be held in strict confidence.

If you have any questions about the campaign, about making a commitment, or about Commitment Sunday, don’t hesitate to reach out to me or to our Ministry Campaign Director Becky York (bly80516@gmail.com).

All of us share the same mission and purpose, and this campaign, as we’ve aptly named it, is intended to encourage us to Run with Perseverance – to keep doing what our Lord has called us to do, which is to share the powerful, life-changing message of Jesus, His death and resurrection, and the life and hope He brings to us. Thank you for being part of the amazing work the Lord is doing here in this place through each and every one of us!

Serving together in Christ alone! 

Pastor Glen 

Friends of Immanuel, I hope you had a relaxing Memorial Day and an opportunity to do some remembering, giving thanks for, and enjoying the freedoms we have in this amazing country of ours! 

I want to remind you about this coming Sunday – we have ONE worship service that begins at 9:00am, followed by a Fellowship Celebration Brunch and an opportunity to eat together and celebrate our ministry together. 

We could still use a hand with Sunday’s brunch, specifically with set-up on Saturday afternoon, more egg casseroles, help with serving the meal, and with take-down Sunday after the brunch. If you can lend a hand with this fun event, you can use this QR code or this link https://signup.com/go/eBjZvfU. 

It’s also Commitment Sunday as we come to this pinnacle moment in our Run with Perseverance Ministry Campaign. I hope and pray that everyone will come and be part of this important Sunday in this season of Immanuel’s ministry. I also hope that the idea of making a commitment doesn’t scare you away. As I often say about the offerings we give in worship each Sunday, the same applies to this campaign and what we are doing together – this isn’t about guilt, it’s not about arm-twisting, it’s not begging for money. This is an opportunity for us to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in our shared love for our Savior and His ministry here at Immanuel.  

The financial commitments we have the opportunity to make are intended to be three-year commitments over-and-above our regular offerings. As I’ve stated before, it’s not about the amount that we commit, but that we are all in this together! Immanuel’s leaders have set an inspiring example, bringing us already to the halfway point of our goal of $950,000 over the next three years! 

 The other commitments, as you can see in the commitment card below, include worship, reading Scripture, prayer, and other learning and growing opportunities. On Sunday during the worship service, we will all have opportunity to bring our commitments forward to offer them to the Lord. 

We share the same mission and purpose and this campaign, as we’ve aptly named it, is intended to encourage us to Run with Perseverance – to keep doing what our Lord has called us to do, which is to share the powerful, life-changing message of Jesus, His death and resurrection, and the life and hope He brings to us. 

Pray about what the Lord would have you do when it comes to the three-year commitments and then join together on Sunday at 9:00am! If you can’t be here on Sunday, I encourage you to bring your commitments to the church office or to worship over the next couple of Sundays. We will be announcing the total commitments later in June. 

Commitment cards will be handed out on Sunday in worship. They are also available if you want to stop by Immanuel and pick one up ahead of Sunday. Or you can also fill one out online at https://immanuelloveland.org/runwithperseverance/. These commitments will be seen by only three people who serve on the campaign Fulfillment Team and will be held in strict confidence. 

 If you have any questions about the campaign, about making a commitment, or about Commitment Sunday, don’t hesitate to reach out to me or to our Ministry Campaign Director Becky York (bly80516@gmail.com).  

Thank you for being part of what the Lord is doing here at Immanuel through every single one of us as we carry out His mission and His vision of sharing the Good News of Jesus and His love! 

Serving together in Christ alone! 

Pastor Glen 

Friends of Immanuel,

I have some amazing news to share with you about our ministry campaign, Run with Perseverance. On Friday, May 8^th, a group of people, including many of your elected leaders, gathered together for a Lead Gifts Commitment Event here at Immanuel. Pastor Kris Kunkel, our Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF) campaign consultant, advised us as part of the normal ministry campaign process to have such an event for our leadership. The purpose of this event was to invite the leadership of Immanuel to prayerfully consider and offer their three-year commitments ahead of Commitment Sunday (May 31^st), in order to encourage and inspire everyone in the congregation to participate in the campaign and, by their “lead gifts,” to give us a solid start toward our ministry campaign goals.

Our leaders have done just that! From our leaders we have received 41 commitments totaling $465,434, which is 49% of our three-year goal of $950,000. Wow! What this reflects is an average of just over $11,000 per family unit that was committed over the next three years, or about $3800 per year over-and-above our regular offerings.

As our leaders have brought us halfway to our goal, wouldn’t it be great to achieve or even surpass that $950,000 goal?! I believe that, together, by God’s grace and with His help, we can do it. As I expressed in last Sunday’s sermon, Immanuel is our ministry together – we are all part of it, we are all needed! While your financial gifts are very important, having you involved in our shared ministry here at Immanuel is more important. I’m including an image of the Commitment Card so you can see what it looks like. You’ll notice that in addition to the financial commitment, there are also other areas of our life together that I encourage you to prayerfully consider making commitments toward – spiritual disciplines and opportunities to grow and learn together over the next three years.

These will be available for you to pick up, if you choose to, this coming Sunday. You are also welcome to come to Immanuel and pick up a Commitment Card to fill out anytime. You can print a copy of it (below) or you can use the QR code on the Card and make your commitments electronically. Please know that there are only three people on the Campaign Fulfillment Team who will see the financial commitments – and that does not include me. We will hold your financial commitments confidential. The ways in which you express interest in connecting with others through the non-financial commitments will be shared with the Board of Elders so they can be an encouragement to all of us as we strive toward keeping those various commitments in our journey together.

You are encouraged to bring your commitment card with you to Commitment Sunday, which is Sunday, May 31^st when we will have ONE worship service together starting at 9:00am. We will also have commitment cards available that day. During the service, individuals, couples, and families will have the opportunity to bring forward commitments and offer them to the Lord.

Just to be clear, as I’ve mentioned the campaign goal of $950,000 over three years, here is what we are seeking to accomplish. Of that total, the goal is that $600,000—or $200,000 each year—will help cover regular monthly expenses. As I’ve shared in other articles and in the campaign booklet, these funds will help extend the runway for our school ministry to regain stable footing, while also allowing us to continue exploring ways to address our current mortgage debt. If we reach our goal of $950,000, the remaining $350,000 will be placed in reserve to help cover various capital expenditures that arise with our 18-year-old facility.

If you have any questions about the campaign, about making a commitment, or about Commitment Sunday, don’t hesitate to reach out to me or to our Ministry Campaign Director Becky York (bly80516@gmail.com).

Thank you for being part of what the Lord is doing here at Immanuel through every single one of us. We are carrying out His mission and His vision of sharing the Good News of Jesus and His love!

Serving together in Christ alone!

Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

I appreciate all of you who engaged with me in my informal survey on worship at the start of my sermon yesterday – I intended to have a little fun with this and it was interesting for me to see what preferences many of you have regarding worship here at Immanuel. I’m following up on that in today’s lead article because I was rather limited in how much I could say about it. While my main focus was bent toward selfishness and self-centeredness that can come out when emotional issues like this arise, I want to be clear about a few additional matters.

First, the fact that we have different likes and dislikes around worship, or a myriad of other topics, is not sinful! In fact, as I highlighted in the reading from 1 Corinthians 12, it’s a fact that God created us all to be unique, having different gifts, talents, and abilities, as well as personalities, attitudes, likes, and dislikes. As Paul reiterated, we were all created by the same God who, through the same Holy Spirit, gave us the many and various gifts we have – and this is good and a wonderful blessing! We are all different parts of the Body of Christ – different in what we do, in how we look, in our functions, but we are all together and all needed as the Body of Christ.

To the point I raised yesterday regarding worship, and specifically music, some theologians and authors have spoken about the fact that we all have our “heart language.” This can relate to actual languages or emotions or cognition or even our culture. But is it the recognition that there are different things that resonate with us – in other words, they speak straight to our hearts in a way that other similar things do not. For example, regarding music in worship, some people’s heart language is classical music and so hymns and cantatas, etc., are extremely moving. For others, their heart language is more toward a contemporary style of music with instrumentation that includes guitars and drums, and when they hear this, it speaks strongly to them. There are many other directions I could go, just with music, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll leave it at those two examples. From yesterday, I want simply to affirm each of you and where your musical preferences may lie when it comes to your heart language, and to say how thankful I am that we are in a ministry where we can offer various styles of music to speak into the hearts of many different people.

The point I made yesterday is this: the differences we have are by no means differences that have to divide us. Rather, my hope and prayer is that we can acknowledge we are all different and, out of our love for each other, out of our love for the Lord, and out of our love for the His ministry here at Immanuel, we can recognize the beautiful mosaic that our different likes and preferences create within the Body of Christ. That when we are together, we move from that “me” space where we demand that the world revolve around my wants and desires, and we allow ourselves to be absorbed into the “we” space of worship and ministry together.

In this “we” space of ministry as the Body of Christ, we don’t merely “put up with” things that we don’t like or prefer, but we can be thankful that we can focus on what truly makes us one – Jesus! In yesterday’s Gospel reading from John 17, which is often referred to as Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer, He prays for us, that we can be unified and experience with each other (and with Him) the same oneness and unity that Jesus and His Father experience.

What I want to come through loud and clear is how thankful I am for all of you who call Immanuel “home.” The amount of grace that is extended regularly – to me, as well as what I see toward so many others – is more than heartwarming. It is Jesus at work, physically, tangibly, and right here in our midst.

Serving together in Christ alone!

Pastor Glen